Adding on to our house

Remember when I said we were going to sell our house? Never mind all that. Building and addition, that is the cool thing to do.

We have already drawn up our plans and got a building permit. Now to just start the work. We'll be taking our existing car port and patio which are a attached to our house, digging a crawlspace and building a master bed and bathroom. This will basically make our house 150% the size it is now, which will be awesome. Lucy is already really excited to move into our room. We asked "Lucy, do you want a bigger room?" and she excitedly nodded her head "YEAH!"

Planning on starting tearing tearing out all the concrete and building a new foundation starting sometime in the middle of the month. Luckily I know a really awesome contractor.

Comments

Why I'm running for the parks board

Two months ago now I declared my candidacy for election to Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District Board of Directors Position Number Five. A mouth full of a title. I really enjoy our local parks and have no major qualms with the parks district or the current board. They have done a fine job maintaining and improving existing parks and programs. So there's question you are probably asking and I am required to ask myself. Why am I running? Democracy requires contest What is the point of an election with only one candidate? Without contested races there is almost no need for real public discourse unless some controversy springs up. This is all too common for local elections in Wasco County. Uncontested races are akin to a business handing a job to the first and only applicant. This wouldn't work in the private sector and it shouldn't work for public offices. Surely the citi...

Book Review: Tribes

Tribes by Seth Godin is a quick read on leadership. I read this book because it was listed on "Books every leader needs to read" or some such similarly named list. There are some good bits to glean out of this short book. I'll try to condense them here: Managers are not by nature leaders. Managers allocate resources to accomplish a defined outcome. Leaders change things by setting a vision and building a tribe around that vision. Tribes are everywhere big and small. Mega-tribes, sub-tribes, etc. Leadership is inherent risky. But far less risky than our minds tend to think. This is evidenced by the many failures of several highly successful leaders. (Think Elon Musk and the Tesla Truck presentation ). Find people who are doing exceptionally better than average and amplify their influence on everyone else. Leadership is about challenging the status quo. It is s...

Book Review: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

I recently (actually weeks or months ago now) finished reading "Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now" by Jaron Lanier. This short book covers what is quite possibly one of the biggest issues of the current era, the toxic influence of "social media" on individuals and culture at large. The book raises issues about more than purely "social media" sites like Facebook and Twitter, attacking the business model that many web services are operated on. I can't bring myself to fully agree with every point raised by Lanier. Ten chapters present ten different arguments for why you should opt out of most of interactions happening on the internet today. However, I believe they can be summarized in two key points. Social media is bad for your health. Your emotional, social, psychological and spiritual well being are degraded by the use of social media. These sites tend to reduce our ability to have empathy, increase irritabili...

Mr. Polehn writes

Search This Blog