I'm A Voracious Reader : 2025 Year End Wrap Up

January ~ Sold the family farm. Paid off all marital debt plus some $$ to wasband - equivalent to half the house so I would have the house to myself.
February ~ Work starts on Phase I of renovations.
March ~ I turn 57. We went to the beach. Jess & Ellie move out. Phase I still ongoing.
April ~ Phase I still ongoing.
May ~ Phase I still ongoing.
June ~ Trip turns 26. We went to the beach. Phase I nearing completion.
July ~ George turns 40. 7 yr anniversary of dad's death. 2 yr anniversary of mom's death. Phase I is complete.
August ~ Mostly moving things around and packing things up for Phase II.
September ~ Anna turns 28. Phase II commences.
October ~ Kyle turns 25. One year of separation from wasband complete.
November ~ Phase II complete. We went to the beach. 1st Thanksgiving in new kitchen.
December ~ Busy busy busy. 1st Christmas in new livingroom.

I'm aiming for the same things as last year.

More reading, less tv
Go back to the beginning and revamp old blog posts - 1 per day
Exercise
Continue with the No Cooking M-W-F-S
Tidy up outside
Sort through everything as we unpack from renovations. Keep, donate, recycle or dump as much as needed

On the Home Front: I really need to stay up-to-date with this kind of post. What the hell went on this year? Basically what I jotted above in the Flip Back category.

However, the year in a nutshell:

In January my brothers and I officially sold the family farm my parents bought in 1968. The year I was born. Yet another goodbye that was so hard to do. On the upside, my inheritance gave me a freedom I absolutely needed. It paid for my divorce from the lying cheating bastard. I am husband and debt free. I also had some trees removed in prep for Phase I as well as had a 2nd storage pod delivered (the first mostly holding Jess and Ellie's stuff and some things from the family farm).

February - July: Phase I of my home renovations started. I had the front porch and back deck demo'd, added two additions (a livingroom and extension of Anna's room), new deck, new front porch, and decided to go ahead and reroof the original house so 1. everything would match and 2. because the original shingles were turning 25. I also replaced the skylights since the new ones I had installed in 2021 didn't have flashing kits and weren't tinted (due to supply chain issues). It looks fantastic! During the digging of footers, the corner of Anna's new addition hit a septic line (not filed correctly by the county in 2000), so we had to get the county engineer to approve repair & moving it, which they did. The diggers also hit the well electric line, but that was also not their fault. We had tried to find it and couldn't. Anyway, it had to be rewired, but was mostly an easy fix. Just inconvenient for a short while. So, just a few snags and some extreme nervousness over making holes in perfectly good exterior walls. We had an unusually dry Spring so that helped quite a lot. In May Anna lost her job. They moved from Mebane to a town 1.5 hrs away and even though Anna was going to make the commute they decided to just lay her off. But then blocked her unemployment. Fucking assholes. Despite applying for many positions, she only got a few interviews and no offers.

August: We spent this month prepping for Phase II.

September - early November: Phase II begins. Removing the fireplace, tearing out the whole kitchen and breakfast bar, scraping the popcorn ceiling, and enlarging the hall closet. We lived for 6 weeks in the new livingroom, using the laundry room for washing dishes. When the kitchen was functional they did the laundry room and that took nearly as long as everything else. In October Anna was hired at the same place Kyle works. Yay! Good pay and benefits and no weekends (usually).

November & December: We celebrated out first Thanksgiving in the new kitchen. And our first Christmas in the livingroom. I'm not happy about the tree placement in there so I think next year I'll put it back out by the front windows. I'll just have to move Artemis's crate which is easy enough to do. Right before Christmas Trip moved out of their room into his own room. Kyle gets their room because it's the only room in the house that's been almost entirely pet-free. Although, when George (and Timothy when he was over) had it from 2000 - 2004 he had a chinchilla named Zip for awhile. Trip is now in the small bedroom that has undergone the most transformations of the whole house. It originally was Anna & April's room then we moved George's stuff in when he went into the Marine Corps. Then it became mostly storage and April moved in for a bit. April moved out and Jess moved in. Jess moved out and it became a mancave. Then April, Josh, Kyleigh, and Boone moved in. They moved out and it held exercise equipment. We eventually got rid of that and it was basically just storage and where the cats would eat and lay in the only really sunny window during the day. And when Jess and Ellie moved in, we cleared enough space for their clothes. They slept in Anna's bunkbed. But it's all Trip's now.

We still have tons to unpack, sort, and put away (mostly in the new craft area), but it's slowly becoming more manageable. We'll get there eventually. I'm so tired. The front porch is only partially stained. When the weather is warm enough, we'll need to finish that.

There. That's about it. I think. Happy New Year! I hope 2026 is better than the previous years.

Touching Nature: The weather has been weird. Weirder than usual. No major hurricanes. And nothing super cold yet. That's usually reserved for January/February.

Book News: Read more than I thought thanks to audiobooks.

Don't Touch That Dial!: Just been mindlessly rewatching old favorites and falling asleep in my chair.

At the Flicks: Nothing.

Cyberspace Playground: Pokemon on my phone, Wordle, and Finch. I have a Steam account now (AVoraciousReader), but I haven't quite gotten my computer area set up with the gaming computer my eldest spawn (George) built me last year. I just got a monitor and headset and ran the new ethernet cords. So I should be up and running in January. I just need a chair.

Randomness: Every. Fucking. Year.

Carol's Nuggets of Wisdom: Buy a Magic 8Ball. I use it when I have a hard time making decisions or I have to ask the tough questions. Wise? Possibly not. Fun. Absolutely.

That's it for me. AVR News Update signing off. May all your books enthrall you.