I'll be quiet about firearms now. I've said my piece. It is a subject near and dear to my heart. I'll entertain DMs from anyone who has questions, comments, or wants to chat.
On the house front: Our construction loan is ending soon and since we are not done. The bank wants me to resubmit the budget and our latest financials. The financials are good -- no debt carried month to month except the construction loan. No CC debt carried and no installment loans. (I do have a small amount of 0% Apple products stuff being carried but it is not a balance but rather they bill the next installment each month onto the Apple Card -- all small amounts and most ending this year).
Budget wise, luckily we've bought already or prepaid a lot, but a lot of stuff is a lot more expensive, and is causing me concern. Also, trying to get updated numbers from some of the contractors is hard. They are slow to reply. That and the high interest rates now since we also have to pre-qualify for the long term mortgage.
So prayers and good thoughts would be appreciated, that we'll be able to work it out and continue.
I am going to work this afternoon and evening on the last few bits of strapping seams and corners and preparing the doors for the concrete pour. Which is on hold until either the bank approves it as an exception under the current loan or we can get the extension squared away. I may dip into some reserve funds to pay for the concrete myself as I can't lose the time.
Going forward I have a team to help me with the parts we've been doing or plan on doing ourselves and also may contract out some to my niece's husband, who has a small construction business, on a more formal basis (things I was not planning on doing myself). I can save budget wise there as he is less expensive than some of the others for things like painting and stuff. Have a meeting with him, hopefullytomorrow on the phone, to go over stuff like that where he can help out with him and his small crew. He is already helping (and getting paid by me outside the loan) for helping me do some of the parts I have been doing myself and he said he would help me with those parts going forward.
Train wise: I have a few pre-orders of a Japanese special livery train: Nankai railway Rapi:t "Sumikko Gurashi" (not from this vendor but here is the real one and the model (on the left):
https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10829840/30/1
Supposed to come out end of May. I have it on reservation.
Also in June/July time frame a bunch of KATO Rhätische Bahn [RhB] (Swiss narrow gauge private railway) stuff is being released, some container wagons and containers and a special livery locomotive).
I am looking forward to these. All are ordered from the same dealer who is holding it all and shipping at once. I already paid and he is holding some in-stock KATO RhB stuff as well so this summer I should have an early Christmas.