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Mrs. Groovy here. No, I’m not asking for your vote again for the Rockstar Rumble. But I do want to thank all of you who supported Mr. Groovy’s post. Although he hasn’t moved on to the next round, I can guarantee you haven’t seen or heard the last of Egotrage!
This week, however, I have some other news to share. Mr. Groovy was interviewed by Mr. CTF on the podcast Countdown to FI. For those of you who are not familiar with Countdown to FI, it’s a new personal finance podcast hosted by the husband and wife team of Mr. and Mrs. CTF. And Mr. Groovy and I love their work. In fact, Countdown to FI is one of our go-to podcasts right up there with Stacking Benjamins and Choose FI.
Here’s the link to Mr. Groovy’s interview. Also, are links to interviews with Ed Mills, J and Gwen, and Kevin, the Financial Panther. Enjoy!
Mr. Groovy
Ed Mills
J and Gwen
The Financial Panther
Slow week on the Groovy Ranch front. Michael, our designer, should have the latest iteration of our floor plan tonight. Since the last iteration was 90% of the way there, this new one should be very close to final. Once we have the final floor plan and elevations, we’ll give you a peek.
Getting Groovy House Ready for Sale
Groovy House is almost ready for sale. We knocked off two of our last three to-do items. Here’s a quick review.
Goodbye Cat Doors
Bill, the handyman Mrs. Groovy found, came as scheduled last Wednesday. He showed up with all the right tools and skills, and a great attitude. He even helped with an electrical issue. Our hipster electrician was scheduled to come over that afternoon to investigate the circuit breaker for our garage that tripped and couldn’t be reset. Bill checked all the GFCIs connected to that circuit breaker and discovered two that were tripped. Once they were reset, the circuit breaker could be reset. Problem solved. Bill saved us at least $90 (what our hipster electrician charges just for showing up). But more importantly, he did a wonderful job replacing the three interior doors. I finished painting those doors yesterday and they look great. You’d never know that three Groovy Cats once roamed freely all over Groovy House. [Mrs. Groovy here. The last physical reminder of our fur babies is gone. This week I found some funny photos of Groovy Cats 1 and 2 taken when I first adopted them in NY. Their hi-jinx made me smile but saddened me, too. I suppose it’s par for the course that when you move, you uncover lots of stuff, and that brings up lots of feelings.]
Goodbye Stuff that We Don’t Want/Need and Other People Could Use
Mrs. Groovy and I have moved about as far away from the consumerist mindset as one can move without being pegged a minimalist. But even with our well-grounded attitudes toward stuff, we still had an ungodly amount of stuff we didn’t want or need. Here’s a partial list of our last de-stuffication effort. The Habitat for Humanity has graciously accepted everything we threw its way.
- One storm door
- One interior door with a pet door
- A dozen coffee cups
- A dozen plates
- One Dwight Schrute coffee mug
- One Kevin Malone coffee mug
- A couple of vases
- Numerous chotskies
- Numerous place mats and table linens
One More Thing to Do
My one remaining chore is to paint the front of the house and the back of the garage (thank you gaggle of geese for deciding to use our garage as ground zero for your shit attack). Unfortunately, it’s a little too cold to risk exterior painting right now. From what I’m reading, exterior paint needs a full 24 hours to cure, and if the temperature dips below 50 degrees during that curing time, the paint will not properly bind. Hello cracking and peeling. We got our fingers crossed that the weather will start cooperating next week.
Fight-O-Meter
Again, no fights this week. The last vestiges of my manhood live to fight another week.
Final Thoughts
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. If you have any exterior painting tips, feel free to send them my way. As I’m wont to say in my Talking Trash videos, “I’m going deep” on the painting front, and I’m going to need all the help I can get. Cheers.
De-stuffication is a great word!
Would the verb form be de-stuffify or de-stufficate?
Awesome that Habitat for Humanity will be able to add some Groovy touches to their projects with your donations.
Good luck with the painting!
Staying fight free…. you’re a gentleman and a scholar. Kudos.
And good luck with the paint. I just caulked a shingle back on my roof and it said the same thing but not to go below freezing. It’s gonna be close.
Haha! Thank you, sir. I was a gentleman and scholar for the past week anyway. And I hear ya about the freezing temperatures. We want to hand off a nice product. We don’t want the new homeowners to deal with peeling and bubbling paint a year from now. So we’re going to wait another week or two and let the daily lows get above 50 degrees. It sucks, but it’s the right thing to do. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Cheers.
I’ve observed several grieving pet owners who are greatly saddened by the departure after a decade plus of companionship. They go for a (too long) long time between the departed pooch/puss and its replacement, b/c nothing can replace the dearly departed.
For this reason, I recommend owning pets in pairs. Get a kitten to be designated “junior” and a mature tabby to be designated “senior”. In the fullness of time tabby will shuffle off this mortal coil. At this point, “junior” gets promoted to “senior” and you seek a replacement kitten to fill the now vacant “junior” role.
We had a senior and junior cat. Then we added Groovy Cat 3. Junior died first, then senior, then GC3 this past July. My gal-pal blogging friends can attest to the bad shape I was in after the last death. I can’t go through another pet loss. Plus, we plan on doing some extended travel and I’ve always worried about leaving them, even when in the hands of a good pet sitter for a short while.
Very reasonable strategy, my friend. But I’m afraid our pet-owning days are over. Mrs. G just takes the passing of pets too hard. We are open to pet sitting and foster care. This way we can get our pet fix without having to endure the painful withdrawals.
You gave away Dwight Shrute?????
His head was just too oddly shaped to drink from!
I know. I felt a twinge of sadness too. But it was real creepy opening the cabinet and seeing Dwight’s face staring out you.
Yay, no fights. Sorry egotrage isn’t still in the race. It is a real winner in my book. I look forward to seeing the house plans!
Thanks, Amy. I really appreciate your kind words. Hail egotrage!
Painting the exterior. Is that a DIY project? Sounds like a lot of work. We need to pain the exterior of our duplex at some point.
I’m thinking about installing a cat door at our duplex. That way the cat can go do her business in the basement. This can wait until we move in…
The dirty little secret of owning rental properties (including duplexes) is “capital expenses.” If you have an old paint-job, roof, etc. you NEED a sinking fund in place to cover its eventual replacement.
Agreed. What’s more harmful to one’s wallet, home maintenance or boat maintenance. For the longest time I thought it was the boat’s. But when a house ages, those maintenance costs grow substantially.
Hey, Joe. Painting the front shouldn’t be too bad. We have a Charleston style double front porch. So the only ladder work will be the posts and trim on the second story. Not fun, but not horrendous either. Well, that’s what I think now. Wish me luck, my friend.
Good job on getting the fixes made. I keep thinking that we need to figure out what to do with the dogs when we sell. One barks maniacally whenever someone gets home, so yeah, that would be a turnoff. Plus the fact of 2 greyhounds and a beagle sized dog being in the house will probably impact the sale as well.
Good luck with your painting. It’s been nice here already with tons of plants making pollen snow and blooming already. Our worry with outdoor painting would be “how much pollen will get stuck in the paint” instead of temperature issues, lol.
Mr. SSC recently posted…The Freedom to Make Fully Funded Lifestyle “Choices”
I wouldn’t think you could hide the fact that you have dogs — but wouldn’t you remove them from the house (along with yourselves) when someone comes for a showing?
Good catch, Mr. SSC. I forgot all about the pollen. Our pollen season is pretty robust too. Aaagggrrrhhh! Another wrinkle to contend with.
Love your fight-o-meter! I should get one too, but probably not in public 🙂
I love it! Every couple should get a Fight-O-Meter. I don’t know, maybe it’s just coincidence, but since we introduced the Fight-O-Meter, Mrs. G and I are fighting less. Thanks for stopping by, BusyMom. You made my day.
Can’t wait to see your final floor plan! And way to go with the decluttering 🙂 That’s my jam! I’ve got a pile going and I told our girls that when warm weather comes they can have a yard sale and keep any money they make! I was hoping that deal would create more incentive for them to purge, haha. It worked for our oldest, not so much the twins! Good luck with the painting!! Hope you get good weather soon!
Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, advises everyone to ask everything, “does this spark joy?” and if the answer is “no” thank it and send it on its way. It helped my wife and me a couple years back.
Happily, I still spark joy in Mrs.
“If it doesn’t spark joy, get rid of it.”
Words to live by, my friend. Thanks for sharing Marie Kondo’s book. I wasn’t familiar with it.
Thanks, Jaime. But be forewarned: Groovy Ranch is going to be a simple farmhouse. Our goal is to blend into the community, not dominate it. We want people to drive by and say, “Oh, look at that cute, little home.” And you are so right about the joys of decluttering. Why is it that human beings are so enamored with stuff, but the accumulation of stuff beyond a certain point causes stress? Well, we definitely crossed that certain point. Getting rid of so much stuff has made Mrs. G and I decidedly more happy. Decluttering is the new psycho-therapy. Thanks for stopping by, Jaime. Always a pleasure hearing from you.
Sounds like things are rolling along. Glad to hear it. A Dwight Schrute coffee mug? My son and daughter of in the midst of watching the office on Netflix. Needless to say, they are big fans of Dwight. COme to think of it, who isn’t?
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I think we got the Dwight and Kevin coffee mugs from a Christmas grab bag. And when we first got them, we thought they were so cool. But for some reason we never ended up using them. The thought of slurping coffee or tea out of the tops of their heads was just too unnerving. I guess Mrs. G and I have some deep-rooted psychological issues.
Glad there were no fights this week! I can’t handle taking sides anymore! I feel bad. lol! Awe no going deep? But I thought that was so funny!
You’re so sweet, Tonya. You can’t take Mrs. Groovy’s side. You’ll still be one of my favorite bloggers/vloggers.
Whee no more cat doors! But can you make your cats as cute as this -> https://www.instagram.com/dog1501/
Imagine all the pageviews! Plus adorbs!
More pics!
Haha! Those are some awesome pictures, Olivia. And one mighty cute cat. Thanks for sharing.
Great list of decluttered stuff. Moving is great for that! I’ve been clearing things out of my house recently too.
And hmm, exterior painting. I haven’t done that for 15ish years, so I’m no help. If I remember right most of the work is done when you prep for painting (cleaning away any chipping paint and fixing any damaged siding). The house we bought was freshly painted, so it looked great when we bought it. Of course they used the cheapest paint, so 4.5 years later we are adding repainting the house to our giant list of home projects.
Mrs. Kiwi recently posted…Shopping Ban and Minimalish Decluttering Update
Thanks, Mrs. Kiwi. I’m very good when it comes to home maintenance, but I blew it when it came to the exterior. If only started painting a side or two a couple of years ago, we wouldn’t be having our current problem. Oh, well. I’ll do better on the next home. Cheers.
That’s a nice purge list. Feels good to get rid of stuff that has accumulated in the house. Always easier said than done. Tom
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Absolutely. Some of the stuff we denoted hadn’t even been used. So hopefully someone will put that stuff to good use. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
Sorry to see you were defeated in the Rumble. Losing the tournament is the worst day in any PF bloggers year. I loved your post. Go get them next year.
Oh and congrats on another week with no fights. Very impressive!
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Thanks, Jason. I appreciate that. Mrs. G and I are shocked our article made it to the Sweet 16. So many great bloggers out there. We didn’t mind losing to Military Dollar at all. As I told Mrs. G, you don’t eff with the military. Cheers, my friend.