OnePhatMan

I’m still alive.

It’s been over six months since I updated here, and a lot has happened in that period. Last time I updated this site, we’d just bought the old farm house in Smallville and were getting started on renovating it.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

I’ll get to everything that’s happened in a bit (with lots of pictures), but since this is a weight-oriented site, let’s talk about that first:

Once again, I’ve gained some weight back. It was of my own doing, a combination of tiredness (”hey, we’ve been working on house renovations all day, let’s just stop at McD’s on the way home”) and self-medication with food for severe back pain brought about by a broken office chair.

Originally, I thought the pain was from all the work I was doing on the Smallville house, and even went to physical therapy for a few weeks. Ultimately, though, it dawned on me that I’d switched chairs at work (because my old chair, a remnant from my superfat days, had finally given up the ghost) at just about the same time we started working at the other house. I switched to a new chair a couple of weeks ago and the pain went away almost overnight.

Constant back pain sucked, and there was a point where my inner drama queen had decided I was destined for a life of suffering. I can’t express how much nicer it is to have the pain gone. As with the shoulder, though, the pain led me directly to the Oreos. We all have our vices.

Through it all, I never stopped working out six days a week.

I haven’t weighed recently, but I can tell that I haven’t gained more than 10 or 15 pounds. Whatever the number is, it wasn’t enough to push me to a bigger size in clothes, just a slight tightening around the waist of my pants. Life got back to normal this past weekend because we finally got moved into the new house. No more juggling living between two houses, driving back and forth, and all the things that come with a major life shift. My weight should drop right back down to its normal number with a little concerted effort. You all know the drill.

Best of all, yesterday I started lifting weights again for the first time in many many months. Today I have that pleasant ache in my upper body that comes from well-worked muscles. I stopped lifting weights in the middle of last year when I injured my back moving a toilet. Then, the whole back-pain-from-the-chair thing got started and I was scared to try anything that might cause my back to hurt more. But now, thank God, everything’s normal again, just in time for me to turn forty in a few weeks and have my midlife crisis.

Anyway, that’s how things are on the weight front. Now, how about some pictures from our new digs? We’re pretty pleased with the way things have turned out, and I can wax poetic about how awesome it is to be in the country where there’s a little space.

Original house walkthrough pictures are here

---

There are about 50 billion pictures below. Forgive me for so many; I’m proud of what we accomplished. We did the vast majority of the work ourselves except for roofing, tiles, and floors.

Front room, sitting area, before and after renovations

 

Same area, post move-in

 

Front room, TV area, post move-in

 

Downstairs hall, before and after updates

 

Downstairs hall, post move-in

 

Master bedroom

 

…and after the move

 

Downstairs bath

 

My favorite room, because of all the dark wood.
This is before and after updates.

 

After move. We think it looks even better with the furniture and rug.

 

Computer room / office

 

Post move (this is the other end of the room).
Still looking kind of cluttery.

 

The kitchen. Believe it or not, those are different colors on the wall.

 

Post move. Ignore the ghostly wife.

 

Laundry room

 

…which now looks tiny because there’s so much stuff in it.

 

The stairs. My pride and joy, because I sanded and stained all that myself.
I’m VERY happy with them, especially since I was a total noob.

 

Upstairs bedroom #1

 

…with furniture

 

The spud’s room

 

Cluttered

 

Upstairs bath

 

Upstairs bedroom number three

 

…and with some furniture

---

The plants you see in the bedroom a couple of pictures up were for this:

The garden…

 

…which has already delivered up some bounty

---

I’ve learned a lot about basic construction during the Smallville transition. Matter of fact, I learned a lot about, well, a lot of things: tractors, gardening, tools, plumbing, and wiring, to name a few.

Here are a couple of things I built.

A stoop so we can get in and out of the office easily.

 

A woodshed for all the wood I got while cutting down trees

---

But that’s not all I built. Behold…

Home sweet home for my girls, all built by me, Mr. Clumsy

 

We got a dozen day-old chicks back in March, to raise them for eggs.

 

Chickens are about the funniest animals ever. We spend a lot of time
just watching their silly antics.

 

Alas, this girl appears that she’s going to be a boy.
His name is Frick, short for Fricassee, and he’s far and away my favorite,
because he’s so pet-like. He loves to be held, and to ride around on my arm
like a little hawk.
I hope we never have to eat him.

---

So there you have it, six months of activity compressed into a few paragraphs and some pictures. Seems almost amazing I managed to gain any weight while doing all that, doesn’t it?

What about you. How’ve you been for the last half year?