Half way over

It is hard to believe this year is half way over already!
Time flies.

Yesterday and today I took off from work to take a little break from all the stuff I've been going through while continuing to trudge on with my work days.  We were going to go antiquing and get lunch out somewhere nice and check out a few other places I wanted to go to that I have not gotten to see yet. 

BUT instead, I was barely up and drinking my coffee (as I had given myself the day off from exercising too), and the phone rang.  It was my real estate agent for moms house.  The buyers had gotten an inspection and there were several items on it. The windows all had broken seals (so that some were not totally clear in the center) which often happens with 20 year old windows.  I knew when I was going around cleaning each and every one that this was occurring in some but to me it was not a huge deal. The buyer wanted to drop the price some to cover resealing the windows.  If that wasn't enough a new roof was being requested as the roof was at the end of its life.

Here is where I was very disappointed with the realtor.  She started trying to contact roofers to get estimates and said we may even be able to get insurance involved as there looks like some previous damage from a hail storm.  I could tell my day was not going to go as planned and I was really mad.

I also had to try to get a Trust savings account for my mom so I went to a credit union as I heard they are always so friendly and down home and I figured they'd never go fully automated.  After wasting over an hour there it turns out they have specific bylaws and since my mom was not a member (and is in a nursing home so couldn't exactly run over there and open one), they couldn't help me.  I ended up going back to our bank and just taking care of things there.  All in all it took me 2 hours.

When I got home, I told my hubby we should at least go out to lunch. After we got back I decided we were not going to do a thing about that roof. The buyer could get their own new roof after closing and if they didn't want the house, we'd take the house off the market, get the roof repaired and relist it at a higher price!  I told the realtor this was our counter (and was not happy that she didn't even tell ME about this option in the morning instead of scrambling to find roofers, etc., as if we HAD to replace the roof).  She presented my counter and it was accepted.  So I am so glad I thought of doing what we did.  I did accept the drop for the windows but that was it.  So we'll see if everything goes smoothly from now on.  I sure hope so! Shame on her and her 40 years experience for NOT telling me I could always opt out of even getting a new roof this morning!

Today the youngest came to visit for the weekend and to also get something fixed on her car that was a defect.  We visited my mom who is doing so-so.  She is lucid and eating some pureed food, but cannot move her legs or stand,etc.  So she is bedridden.  One day at a time.

Then we had lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant and came back and got caught up with things.  Today has been much nicer than yesterday, thankfully!!

And I still have the weekend to look forward to.  Yippee!!!

Times are a changing...

Hubby went to our bank yesterday to try to deposit a minor check into my moms trust account.  Well not sure about your bank but ours has changed.  Everything is automated now.  We have to use an ATM machine in order to deposit anything.  No more taking a paper check in front of a teller.  And each account needs its own ATM or debit card.  Well I never got one of those for that account so I'm looking around for a new bank to go to.  I get that we have to keep up with the times, but seriously? That means doing away with the personal one on one service?  That is nuts and I think our bank will lose a lot of customers because of it, at least a lot of baby boomers and there's lots of us out there!

We also were considering getting a new shed and we were looking around Tuff Shed's website to price out a simple shed that we were thinking about getting.  I saved the quote and it was also sent to my email.  Yesterday I got a call from one of their reps who asked me if I had any questions.  I did.  I asked him if they can break down and haul away the old one for a price?  Oh no..they don't do that. He could give me a name of someone who could though.  Hmm... Okay so what is involved as in how long does it take to get a new one?  Well first you need a permit?.. What?  A permit to replace a shed? Something that is not going to have electricity or anything?  Just a glorified box to hold stuff?  Yes.  "Click"...that was me hanging up the phone. 

More pics

Yesterday I was looking at the back porch and didn't like the fact that there were still some 'rust' spots on the concrete.  So I suggested hubby and I go to Home Depot to see about getting some of that outdoor carpet to put down over part of the porch.  We saw the green that I figured we'd be getting but then also saw some teal colored carpet!  We were looking for 14 feet long, but turns out it was and end of the roll piece and only about 7 feet long.  So I suggested to hubby we just cut it in half long way. So that each piece would be 7 ft by 3 feet and put them next to each other.  The guy there told us he'd just say it was 3 feet - so the cost $7.19 ! :)  What a deal for the covering that was just enough to really make it look nice!

I also had gotten some new area rugs a few months ago to go down at the bottom of each step and remembered to get them out and put them down too.

Power Wash

We had the porches, balconies,driveway and siding power washed on Friday.
Here are a few before/after pictures.  Really noticeable difference, especially the driveway!

BEFORE

AFTER

 

 

 

BEFORE...duh

BEFORE

 

AFTER

AFTER

  And I bought new cushions and some table covers for the back patio tables too. Look very nice.

 
This morning I cleaned up the front door area too. The power washing was good but left all the doors dirty.  Replaced the silk flowers on either side of the door and put a nice new welcome mat (of birds) on the front steps. 

Sometimes..

Sometimes things happen and it gets you thinking about stuff.  My mom is in a rehab facility as her recovery from hip surgery did not go as planned.  She has not been able to swallow since her operation. She cannot drink nor eat any solid food.  She actually has been able to swallow a tiny bit of vanilla ice cream, because that is her favorite dessert, but that has been it.

So it is still unknown how she will be.  She has had a long life at age 90 and she has said she is ready to see the Lord.  It is up to him now.

But all this happening so suddenly, even though I knew something may happen some day, has got me thinking about my own life. I've always thought I would work until I'm 70-ish so that I'd get the maximum social security benefit.  But then after this I decided to look it up and I can actually get full social security at age 66 1/2.  I didn't know that before.  I am now thinking maybe I should do that instead.  Who knows how long anyone has on this Earth right? As long as I can afford it, it is something to strongly consider. I know I would do something when I retire, but it would be more on the fun side, like helping out with dogs more.  Whether it be transport help, or fostering or something like that. I do love animals especially dogs and I would get to devote more time to doing that.

We also never know how long we or our spouses are going to live if we're married.  I'd hate to wait until I am 70-ish and lose my spouse when I'm 68 or 69.  We may want to take some road trips, like seeing my oldest out in PA or seeing some things out west that I've never seen.

Just something to think about that usually is tucked back in my mind for thinking about. .'later'.

Kiwano

So hubby bought me a new exotic fruit to try. It is supposed to be from the Kiwi family?  I don't know for sure. Anyway, I cut it open and it is supposed to look like that inside.  However I was not interested in eating a bunch of seeds and there wasn't a whole lot else to it. I tried to eat the slime, sorry but that is what it was like, but it tasted a little like sour cucumber.  So wipe that one off the list of haven't ever tried and won't try it again.  :)

 This picture below was hubby having fun with my glasses,  2 dog treats, and a makeup brush.

Mom continues to improve every day however she still cannot swallow.  Until she can swallow, she cannot drink anything even water by mouth, nor eat anything.  We're all hoping she can maybe swallow by tomorrow.  I'm not sure how long they continue to let it go as the only nutrients she is getting is via IV.  She does not want artificial means to help her such as a feeding tube so she's not out of the woods yet.  But she has been out of bed, even walked a few steps and sat up in a chair as well.
She's a tough cookie. :)

Raining

I just looked out and it is raining, thankfully. It has been really hot and humid here as of late plus some of the new sod in front was not looking that great, so the rain will help.

I haven't seen my mom yet today but I went over to the hospital yesterday for 7 hours and sat with her.  She was sleeping for the most part. I'm sure she exhausted herself on Saturday trying to get herself out of bed when she shouldn't be.  She was really stubborn about it too.

Anyway my brother flew in from NY last evening and he is sitting with her now. The thing is that he said the therapist wants him to do some leg exercises with my mom.  I'm sure he will oblige and do so but this brings back thoughts of when I took hubby to the (same) hospital in October and I had to scrub him down with these wipes and I had to be the one to get the wheel chair to wheel him into the hospital.

Don't these health care workers make enough money to do their jobs?  The bills that were submitted to my insurance company just for his back surgery were over $100,000 - for ONE night!  So there they are having some ungodly billing and still making the patient's family do some work! 

The only reason I didn't use a different hospital with mom is because this one is close by - less than 10 minutes away.  The next closest is closer to 30 minutes depending on traffic.  Besides it isn't like I live in a little hick town so the hospital is tiny or archaic.  They are even building on a helicopter pad and another easier entry way from the Interstate.  So why they are lacking in good service and care is beyond me!!  I remember the days when someone came OUT with a wheel chair and that hospital staff was to do everything.  What if she did not have children seeing her?  They would have to do it all by themselves right?  Or would she just be ignored?  Who knows!!

My mom is 90 years old too, I get it that she is elderly and let's face it elderly do not always get top priority. But my husband is not 90 and he was not given great care either. Hopefully it isn't that all hospitals are like that nowadays and it is just this one that is so lacking.

As soon as life settles in..

something happens.  First of all mom's house is now listed.

That is a good thing. 

Unfortunately Thursday night my mom fell.  We don't know if her hip broke first and then she fell or not as the doctor said it may have happened that way as opposed to her falling and then breaking her hip. Because it happened in her bedroom, I didn't see her fall. All I know is when I went in, her left leg was underneath her and twisted in a weird way.

After lifting her to the chair and letting her try to relax a little bit, she wanted to try to get up and could not move her left side without hurting herself.  It became clear that we had to call an ambulance.  Then we were at the hospital until nearly midnight to find out she fractured her hip (at the ball, which broke off). 

They scheduled surgery for yesterday and although it went well, today she has slipped (although hopefully temporarily) into dementia.  She didn't know she was in a hospital and she wanted to keep trying to get up.  There are more complications but bottom line, she is not doing well.

My sister and I were both at the hospital at times. She hopefully is finally sleeping and we'll see what tomorrow holds. She is 90 1/2 years old so she is really elderly to take on this sort of injury.

Back to Life

The last few days have been getting back to normal days.  No more sore arms from cleaning or squeezing out a dirty sponge.  :0)

I had to work late the last few nights too but that is fine.  I'd rather work late at my desk than work late scrubbing. 

Yesterday morning when I got up hubby told me that he got up at 2:30AM because he was hot and the temp was 84 degrees even though he turned the A/C on before bed. Well guess what? He turned the heat on instead of the A/C so of course the A/C never did kick on. And we had everything closed up too.  I got a kick out of it!  Last night I turned the A/C on, for real.  LOL.

The listing for mom's house is not live on the Internet yet.  They had to take pictures first which they did on Monday.  I was hoping the listing might be up by now but it is not.

Hubby went over today there to meet the sprinkler company as there were several sprinkler heads that needed to be fixed. The next door neighbor told him that a few people actually knocked on HIS door asking about mom's house, like how many bedrooms, etc.  I continue to be amazed how bold folks can be! They can just call the real estate lady.  Her phone # is right on the sign!  Even if they are just curious, the real estate agent is still obligated to give them information.  When the listing is live I will share it on here. 

Off to go relax for the rest of the evening.

Sunday is the day of rest right?

Not today :-)  
We were up and out the door by 7AM to finish cleaning up my mom's house.  I wanted to do the rest of the windows while it was still cool and the sun wasn't blaring.  And luckily there was a large cloud that blocked the sun for quite some time when I was on that side of the house.  I kept thanking God for that.  LOL.  

I went around and cleaned all the screens and windows inside and out.  Unfortunately a lot of the windows I guess are not sealed that well any more and more than a few had some marks or spots inside the window itself that I could not get to.  I was so hoping they'd look all clean and clear.
But at least they are a lot cleaner than they were.

A little more spot painting, and then the bathrooms and kitchen. By the time we got to the kitchen floor we just swept it. I was really tired of cleaning and my arms, wrists and fingers were getting sore from overuse. We finished a little after noon.

Overall I think we did an excellent job! 
The Coming Soon sign is back up and it will be officially listed within a few days.

I will post the progress of the sale.

My sister brought mom lunch today with her hubby so, my hubby and I went out to eat Mexican for lunch.  I really enjoyed my frozen margarita and it was well deserved I think!

Tired but happy!

Started out early this morning working on mom's house cleaning it up. It is fantastic having air conditioning in there finally!!  The central air got replaced yesterday. The same company also was willing to install the replacement microwave for us which was a blessing.  We were scrambling to try to get someone to put the microwave in. So glad they could do it.  It is not just a small microwave oven. It got installed above the stove with brackets and a vent, etc. Way more involved than what I thought.  The old microwave although hardly used, had a broken handle so we had picked up a new one to replace it.

I had a hair appointment at 10AM but up until then was mainly working on touching up nail holes and marks on the walls with a paint that was an excellent match to the paint on the walls. The walls look pretty dang good!  

Then I got a hair cut which was a nice relaxing break from the cleaning. Then I went home from there to get breakfast and check in on mom.  All was well and I got a little food in me, fueled up for Round Two. :0)

Then I went over (hubby was there each time with me too) and cleaned up the windows in one bedroom and the baseboards throughout the rest of the house.  We also got the large kitchen light fixture clean (had not had the plastic covering removed in years and there was dust/bugs in there). Now it is all clean.

We left by mid afternoon and then I had laundry to do. I was tired but feeling pretty satisfied with what we got done today.  Hubby also polished up the kitchen cabinets.

Tomorrow is the rest of the windows, kitchen floor and stove and the two bathrooms.  I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  :-)

Out with the old..

No.. I didn't kick mom out the door.  LOL.

We decided that the spare refrigerator that we've had for 12 years and the previous owners had before then for I don't know how long, maybe 20 years might be getting too old.  The doors had been starting to loosen up some and we have been having to make sure we close both together again as we are done using it.

So naturally we were getting a little concerned that it would die on us any day while it was full of food. So today we put it to rest and got a new one.

Here's the Old

and the New

The bad and the good...

We all have to take the bad with the good right?  The good is the roof is basically done.  There is a little bit of debris/materials to the side that still has to be picked up. Hopefully someone from there will be coming back to pick it up.  The bad is the trash that the workers spread all over the place when they work.  I don't really understand the mentality behind throwing water bottles, etc., wherever they happen to land.  It isn't just this crew either, it has been any construction crew that have been here.  This first picture is how part of the front yard looked early today while they were working.  Some of this is obviously materials, but what a mess. :)

Here are the after pictures, although the sun is setting at the rear so there is a little bit of glare.
It looks great!  I am also thrilled they did it in 3 days and not 4.  They were here around 12 hours each day and I'm not sure where or when they went potty but oh well, none of my business.

Roof update

I snapped a picture of part of the old roof this morning when I got back from my walk. This shows a pretty good example of the rust on it.  The house was built in 1982, so that makes the roof 35 years old.  Some folks say metal roofs last a lifetime and maybe this one would (with needed repairs), but it would likely turn out to be the kind of roof you see while driving along the highway when you spot an old barn with a completely rust colored roof in the distance! :-)

Hubby got a few pictures of the house with the old metal roof off.  This shows the wood that was underneath it, and if you were able to get above the house and look down, you'd see the old gray loose insulation that is on the attic floor and the huge heating/AC unit.

Updated pics mom's house

I meant to post these yesterday but it was a long work day so will be posting a few posts today. I'm at lunch right now.  ;-)

Hubby fixed the trim around the garage by replacing the surrounding trim which he painted ahead of time (smart man)!

The Caring place also came and took her couch!  Yippee!! That is finally gone.  We couldn't even give it away. Folks kept asking, even lined up a few who just never firmed up a date or time.  Oh well. It is gone and someone can pay $50 at the Caring place for it, or whatever they put on it.

The plumber was out yesterday too and replaced mom's toilet (didn't realize we picked up the fancy one with the button push for flushing but hopefully it won't bother anyone looking at the house). I think it is cool, but there may be old fuddy duddy's who don't like it.  Guess they can replace it or find another house. The faucets were replaced too. The old ones were actually disintegrating they were that worn out. The sink is not the greatest but hey we aren't going to do a full house reno. just to sell it.

Long day

The roofing crew didn't leave until after 8PM.  I was impressed, but the pounding and noise was really getting to hubby. 

Here are some before pictures and 2 that I took after they finally left this evening. The before pictures were taken this morning when there was still dew on the roof so it didn't look as bad as it normally does. LOL.

Here are the progress so far pictures..They are putting decking down and then that protective layer. The roof we have now is just attached to the attic rafters for lack of a better word.  You can just see the underside of the roof when looking up the attic. That has always been a bit scary to me so glad we are getting the decking put down before this new roof.

Bowling Alley?

It is 10:30AM. .the roofers are here working away and it sounds like a bowling alley right above me. They have to pull off all the old metal first and it is loud!!

Trying to concentrate on work. This is going to be a fun day!

Good news also. The plumber is over at mom's replacing her toilet and faucet, hopefully without a hitch! :)

Sunday turkey day

The smell of a turkey breast in the crock pot is wafting into the living room.  Yum!  I worked up a pretty good appetite today too.

First it was exercise day, then I got my work done this morning.  After that I changed into painting clothes and over to mom's to paint the back porch.  The 'handyman' who did the job NEVER painted the bottom row of wood.  Why I have no clue.  Another reason I will hesitate to ever contact a handyman again.  If you look at this picture closely, it shows the unpainted bottom row of wood.

I painted that bottom (twice) and the entire rest of the inside of the porch.  There were areas with tiny nail holes, and some streaks where you could see the bare wood underneath, so it really needed a 2nd coat.  Hubby put dap in a lot of spots/gaps too a few days ago.   So I can finally say now that it looks pretty nice.   After painting we picked up lunch from Wendy's. I was in the mood for their taco salad. 
Then home, shower to get the paint off and then to Home Depot.  We got a toilet, faucet set and a rug for the back porch (which we'll wait on placing there until the house is officially listed).  The store parking lot had a lot of cars and hubby was thinking it would be a nightmare but we got in and out of there pretty nicely and didn't have to wait in line at all.

Now it is just relax time and wait for the turkey to finish cooking.  I LOVE crock pots!

Folks front yard

I forgot to take pictures before we started the landscaping on the front yard.  So I found a photo online but it is from 2011 so just picture 6 more years of growth on those bushes.  Here is the one Before photo from 2011, the bushes that hubby chopped down (a few weeks old so browned up), and final pictures. We just got back from finishing and I think it looks pretty good!  I think I failed to mention that I also trimmed the bushes last Saturday while the garage sale was going on. They were a lot higher than what they are now.

I planted yellow Lantana in the bare spot between the shrubs and put a pot of flowers that are red with yellow in the center (to match the Lantana) in the pot that is on the front porch. The deer tend to not eat Lantana, but not sure about the other flowers.  It would have to be a pretty bold deer to go right up to the front door.  We'll see. With some watering hopefully they'll last until the house sells.   :-)

Now it is back to my regular work with a break this afternoon to pick up a new toilet and faucets for the Master bath, oh what fun.  LOL.    

Friday night

Pizza, done.
Beer, done.
Relaxing... never done...

We are watching America's Got Talent as we only saw a little bit of it the other evening.  Tonight is our 'card' free' night meaning it is the one night out of the week that we don't play cards with mom.  Sorry but we need a break every once in a while.  Got to admit that in itself is something I look forward to on Fridays.

I am going to try to stay awake to watch some of Jimmy Fallon tonight. I didn't catch any all week. Getting to be an old far aren't I?  I've just been pretty tired between working, taking care of mom and either doing something at her house or thinking about what is all still to be done over there. That is tiring in itself.   :-)

Tomorrow early we are going to get some mulch and flowers and I'm going to spread them around the front of her house.  That is probably all I'll do tomorrow, especially with the chance of rain.  Then I have some work to do.  Hopefully if Sunday isn't raining I will get the back porch painted.  That would be two things to cross off that list.

The A/C is to be replaced sometime mid week.  These A/C guys are like our car repair guys. They are very laid back and just tell you about what something is going to cost until it is done.  That's fine by me. I trust these guys as they've serviced mom & dad's A/C for years.  They deserve the business in my opinion.

Well off to go relax with hubby.