Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Progress

Today hubby tackled replacing 3 of the windowsills at mom's house that for some reason got warped (swelled) at the center.  He did a wonderful job and they look great!  He even painted them (him and paint do NOT agree). I am so very proud of him.  That was one of the things we were going to have that handyman do but after the back porch job which was marginal at best (not to mention he brought his 4-5 year old son to the job), we were not having him back. So anyway that is one thing off the list.

I lined up the plumber we've used in the past at our house to replace the toilet and faucet in the master bathroom next week. Hubby and I are going to pick them up this weekend.

We haven't heard back from the A/C guy yet, hopefully soon as to that time frame/cost. Think hubby is calling him back today. I really don't want to do anymore deep cleaning until the A/C is working! :-(   Luckily pushing the listing to mid June instead is a help.

There is rain in the forecast for this afternoon, but I ran the sprinklers out front anyway as they keep predicting rain and it hasn't happened, right here anyway.  This was the reason that our metal roof didn't get installed, because there was potential rain in the forecast all week.  Looking ahead to next week it is also in the forecast then except for after Wednesday. The roof will take 3-4 days to install.  Who knows when we'll get our new roof!

I will be happy when all these HOUSE projects are done! :)

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Window Treatments

We finally got the last touches to mom's addition today. They are her window treatments.  These are the same Plantation Blinds that we have in the rest of the first floor. They are made of wood and pretty durable.  Mom likes them and they are easy to open and close.  :0)


We also had the A/C Heating guy at her house today as I tried turning on the A/C on Saturday as I was thinking about doing some more cleaning and it just did not get below 80 degrees.

The tech we called out is the same one whom mom and dad used for years.  He remembered them and spoke very highly about dad. 

But he also said that he had conveyed to them for at least the last few years that the system was on its last legs, but dad insisted he just add more Freon or whatever he needed to do to make it work.  Dad was a bit of a MacGyver guy.  If he could rig something up or get someone else to and it worked, he saved money.

We are going to have him just replace the Central heating/AC system.  Mom is okay with it too.  I want everything to be in good working order so that she doesn't get low balled on the price.

The COMING SOON sign lasted all of a few hours this morning.  Hubby was over there cleaning out most of the garage and he said 3 different cars came by and wanted to look in the house.   He shooed them away but then took the sign down too and put it in the garage. He has things he needs to do and we are not showing the house to anyone before it is ready anyway. Not to mention they HAVE to go through the real estate agent.   So we are going to wait until we aren't running over there every day to have that sign go back up.  The good thing is there is already interest so that is nice.

Also need the entire sprinkler system checked as I think there are at least 2 broken sprinklers.  This is a busy time of year for all this sort of stuff.  The place we want to use cannot come out until the 2nd week in June so we're just going to move the listing date.  Trying to push everything that just won't be ready in time is not worth it, and really adds to the stress for both of us. 

Monday, May 29, 2017

Memorial Day 2017

I did take a few moments today to thank my Dad for serving in WW II. He passed away nearly 2 years ago now but I do miss him and since today is the day to remember those who served, I posted his Navy picture on my Facebook profile in tribute to him.

While many folks are having hot dogs and hamburgers, visiting with family & friends or just relaxing watching movies all day, I am doing none of those things.  I wasn't going to do anything today involving labor except maybe the typical things like dishes and laundry.  But after I was up and drinking my coffee (I did take the day off from exercise today), I started thinking about all the unfinished things at mom's house.  I started writing a list of all the things that still need to be done, most of which is cleaning.  And the list keeps growing.

The real estate agent is coming in a little while to get things going as far as figuring out a listing price and putting a sign out COMING SOON, which is the trend around here anyway these days.  Folks put up a COMING SOON sign as early as 4 weeks, sometimes more before listing a house which to me is too long.  But anyway we are not letting her show it until we are done, period!  My hope is to get someone else to finish up the things we need to get done that hubby or I can't do by the end of this week. I plan to spend most of the next weekend doing all the things on this new list. Then list it by the beginning of next week.  We'll see how that goes though.  We've come to realize (regretfully) that around here when we have to rely on others, things tend to not happen when we'd like them to.

So instead of relaxing this morning, hubby and I went and picked up some black mulch to at least put around the big tree in front of mom's house.  There is still more to be placed around the shrubs that are against the house but I want to get a few flowers too and was determined not to make a gardening project out of it today!  The mulch around the tree is good enough for me for anyone who may drive by because if I know this real estate agent, she'll having a COMING SOON sign posted in the front yard before nightfall.

Then hubby came back from taking some paint over there that he had to get more of at Home Depot this morning taking him over an hour (my guess would be because everyone who was good ((knows their stuff)) that works there had off today).  Anyway the paint can he used to bring as a sample was not closed well by the gal and it spilled inside his truck on the carpet.  When he got back I went out with a bucket and cleaned the rest of it up. He had gotten it on his fairly new jeans, etc., and was pretty frustrated by the time he came in the door. So I got it so that you can't even tell that paint spilled in his truck. But I came in all sweaty again.  MORE labor I hadn't intended to do. Too bad this isn't 'Labor Day' as that is more the theme to my day. 

Well off to grab some lunch and TRY to relax while I wait for the real estate agent to get here.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Dragon fruit and more

I had the dragon fruit today.  The outside was nicer than the inside.  Well I did put the other half in the fridge so maybe it will have some taste after it is cold.  It really tasted like bland kiwi with seeds.  I don't know I thought it would have a lot more flavor that it did. It was easy to prepare (the fruit was ripe enough that I could peel off the skin and cut it up to eat.  It was interesting, and different, but probably won't have it again any time soon.




On another note, the carpet finally was installed in my mom's house today. The tile was too but it still has to be grouted. That is going to be done tomorrow am too.  The back porch has been re done The wood was replaced and he used the existing screening.  I will likely paint a second coat on it.  But it looks a lot better than it did.  I forgot to take any 'Before' pictures this time but here are some 'After'.  The carpet is a nice neutral speckled color (stain hider).









Thursday, May 25, 2017

Thursday Eve'

The current drama/saga we are now facing is getting mom's house ready to sell. Hubby is manning a garage sale tomorrow and Saturday I plan to help too. We are having the back porch re-screened as a lot of the wood has rotted due to being 10 years old and likely not properly treated for the area.  My dad closed in the back porch I would say within the first year of living here so although he did his best, it has seen better days.  The handyman we hired for it is doing a fantastic job.

We also are getting new carpeting in the living room/dining room and tile in the Foyer.  All the carpet is sun faded in a lot of places and some of the tiles in the foyer are loose or cracked.  The place that supposedly can 'color' carpeting never got back to hubby. No surprise there.  But the new carpet installation was supposed to be done yesterday, then today and still hasn't happened.  I wish folks in this area weren't such bull shitters but they are!  Plain and simple!  The guy whom hubby has dealt with before for several laminate floors he ordered (but installed himself) was to get back to him.  It is nearly 7PM and you guessed it, didnt' get back to him! 

The handyman is going to replace one toilet and faucet set that are really rough and fix a few other things once the back porch is complete.  Needless to say, the house won't be ready to list before Memorial Day.  It is still fine as I'd rather have it be really nice and move in ready instead of rushing to list it.  Now it will probably be the first or maybe 2nd week in June - I'm shooting for June 5th.  I still have lots to clean in there but I did use the magic erase sponge things for most of the marks on the walls and they did a great job of making them nearly invisible.  We are not having the house painted as I really don't think the walls are bad, especially now that I used the 'magic' on them. 
I have to spread some black mulch and maybe a few hardy flowers in front too.

Since it is the holiday weekend, there is plenty of time for me to clean. So we are not having someone do it.  I need to make sure it is done the way I'd do it for myself. I'll just do some Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Yippee for a 3 day weekend!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Yes I'm alive!

Okay so it has been over a week since I blogged.  Sorry.  I've been trying to get into a routine with mom living here and things have settled fairly nicely now at this point.  She is getting used to being here now at this point and has grown very comfortable with her room.  She eats breakfast and lunch at her little kitchenette table. Everything she needs is right there in her small refrigerator and cupboards.  I'm glad she can maintain some independence while under our 'roof'.  It is best so that she keeps her mind active.

I got mom some large print crossword puzzle books shortly after she moved in and she enjoys doing them.  She also gets large print books brought to her by someone at the local library every 2 weeks. The lady comes to the house and mom takes new ones and gives her back the ones she has read.  I think that is a really nice community service!

The sod in the front yard is taking hold nicely and is starting to grow and spread a little. 

I am going to ask the roofing company when they plan to put the metal roof on the rest of our house as it has been a month now since we heard from them last . I didn't mind at the time because we wanted the addition done but now that is done so, I'm ready to get a new roof over the rest of the house so that it looks as nice as mom's addition.

As you know (if you've read my blog much), I eat a lot of fruit in the morning. Hubby is the one that usually is the grocery shopper and today he picked up an exotic fruit for me to try.  It is called Dragon fruit!  Pretty cool huh?!   I'm going to give it a few more days to ripen before eating it.  It will be interesting.  I'll blog my opinion of it when I try it.

That's it for now.  I plan to start blogging routinely again. :)



Thursday, May 11, 2017

Pretty

Yesterday I had some stir fried vegetables with dinner.   Here is a photo of the bottom of the Bok choy that I cut off.  Doesn't it look like a carefully made flower? :-)  


Pictures of Room, etc.

I never really posted photos of the finished room with mom's stuff in it.  I think it turned out nice, despite the months it took to complete, the frustrations, set backs, etc.  Tika was practically in every photo.  She always does that. 

Anyway, Saturday was a bit challenging for mom and us.  She got moved okay but was disoriented for a while.  She kept coming out of her bedroom to "go to her bedroom".  I guess it is just trying to get used to a new place to live when you're 90 years old.  LOL.  She is fine now and has not made that mistake in a few days.  After being here going on 6 days I think she is getting more used to living here and getting her normal routines, down. 

She is comfortable eating breakfast and lunch in her kitchenette and is fine with it, once she realized that we don't sit down at the table per se for breakfast and lunch.  

The best part about her being here other than not having to worry about her safety being alone, is that we don't have to rush through dinner and run over there every night anymore.





Monday, May 8, 2017

Getting things together

For my siblings, If you see anything you want please refer to the photo # and EMAIL me what you'd like.  Thanks!

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Friday, May 5, 2017

Addition Day 50

Another day practically wasted until the end.  The plumber didn't come until 4:00PM!! But only the one guy came, not the guy that I yelled at.  The tankless heater is now working fine and the ground (without huge rocks) is back spread over the lawn.  The doors the contractor was going to paint this morning but he was thinking he'd paint them here, NOT.  The garage is full of sawdust from Steve cutting trim pieces and he was not going to be painting in the addition.

Anyway hubby has pretty much washed his hands of the job so I told the guy to bring the doors back (he was going to take them home to paint in his garage). Because they were not going to be dry enough for him to just bring back over and be here in time for the plumber who was then supposed to come around noon (first it was morning).  I told him to just hang the doors and I would paint them which I just got done an hour ago.  Hubby went to bed early.

Here's a few of the finished pictures.  Ignore the cardboard as I had it on the floor to paint the doors.
Moving day is Tomorrow!!




Thursday, May 4, 2017

Addition Day 49

Well the inspector came yesterday and as this project has seemed to go, the hot/cold water unit in the attic was not putting out any hot water.  I only checked to see if the water was working, not that it was hot. I assumed that the contractor or plumber checking that.  Of course not.  So he couldn't pass the inspection yesterday due to that and a few other minor things.  Steve took care of the caulking on the shower head and control himself but the water not heating was very frustrating.

While I somewhat admire the persistence of our contractor, I think he really is lacking in knowledge about a lot of these things that cause long delays and issues.  He was running around trying to get a fuse for the unit thinking that may be it.  He ended up going all the way down to Austin. That still didn't do it.  He spent hours yesterday trying this and that. 

Today I had planned to take 1/2 day off so that I could run a few errands with hubby such as getting my mom a small refrigerator for her kitchenette, etc.  I was also going to help with the clean up of all the dust from the addition.

Well that didn't happen the way we planned.  Nothing ever does with this project.  The contractor came at 9AM to work on the hot water problem again.  He tried a different unit, etc.  After 2 hours, he finally got it. Something in some sensor part was not working or hooked up right or something.  But I was relieved when it was working.

The inspector came back and cleared everything.  So the contractor still had to install the inside part of the heating/ac unit.  A picture is below.  This thing that he made sound so simple which I realize is said about A LOT of things, wase not so simple.  He worked on this thing until 5:15PM!  He also had to cut a hole in the nice painted finish wall (see the darker square below the unit to the right). So now that has to be textured/painted too.  No surprise. When he was done I just asked him to leave and I cleaned up.  We had to get dinner, etc., and he never seems to respect that we really don't want anyone here after 5PM.  So something I thought would take an hour, two at the most took 5-6 hours. Unreal!!!


Okay so 5:45PM we decide to just grab fast food to take to moms because we did not have time to make anything.  Our front yard is still a mess and hasn't been touched since Saturday.  We were told by our contractor that the plumbing company was coming back tomorrow morning to finish it up. We made it VERY CLEAR we didn't want them just dumping on the newly installed pipes all those large rocks (some of which had to be broken up in order to lay the pipes).   Well we see the plumbers truck pull up at nearly 6 PM, the one guy got on the Cat back hoe and was going to just start picking up buckets of rocks and dirt back on top of the new piping.  Hubby has just had it with this project so I ran outside yelling that they were not to come until tomorrow morning.  I basically sent them off all pissy but we are not allowing them to just dump crap on top of the pipes. They don't care what happens to the pipes if they get damaged by the rocks. This isn't their house.  I was so mad!!  First of all coming at nearly 6PM. Seriously!?!!  Then they were just going to dump like I said. 

Then I called the contractor and laid into him.  Luckily did not give hubby the phone as he was just screaming obscenities.  The contractor told me they were not suppose to come until tomorrow morning, which is not what the plumber told me before he said "I don't get paid enough to get yelled at". We told the contractor (who agreed this afternoon) that we wanted the large stones not to get buried so that the pipes could avoid chance of puncture or breakage.  He is supposed to come tomorrow morning again.   He could have had one of his workers pulling aside all the large rocks today in prep for the plumbers but nope. 

I just pray that all this will be over tomorrow and the way we want it. The only thing we need indoors are the 3 doors that were screwed up the first time which he is also to bring tomorrow.  At this point we will move mom in whether the doors are in or not as there is a door to her bedroom and that is all that she needs until the doors are installed. 

I can't wait until Sunday. Moving her in on Saturday...She will finally be here!

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures. .Still need closet and bathroom doors and the inside portion of the heating/AC unit.  But other than that and the final inspections it is done! :)





Monday, May 1, 2017

Addition Day 48

Hubby's beautiful flooring job on the addition!  Here's some photos.  It is laminate flooring which is what he used to install.   Nice huh?!

The city inspector is coming out hopefully tomorrow.  The plan is to move mom in this weekend.  Finally!  Can't wait!  Will take more panned out pictures when fully done.  There are 3 doors that have to be hung yet and the indoor piece to the heating/AC unit.