Friday, July 5, 2013

All I wanted was to have the bath tub faucet tightened.


The faucet needs replaced, but is attached to the surround, so we needed to pull that to replace the faucet.  That alone was irritating enough.  (We're in repairs.  Forgive the notion of us needing to keep it real and while it is functional in there.  It isn't pretty.)
200 MPH tape (AKA duct tape) rides again!
 "Hey Honey, can you replace the fan with one that isn't quite so loud?"  We knew that we were developing some mold on the wall and ceiling above the shower and figured that the 12 year old fan had seen better days.
 Then we ran into the other side of this.  I will not repeat here what came out of Hubs' mouth.
 Up close and personal.  No fear.  We about had a heart attack.
 Hubs cut out the offending wood.  Yes, that would be the other side of the surround.
The sunlight was shining through the plastic bag that is hanging above the temporarily placed surround.  Keep in mind, we do not have a window in there.  I mean, I wanted a window, but didn't mean this way.  I pitched the idea.  Hubs turned it down.  He may have asked if I was crazy.
 The first layer of board.
The second layer of board, exterior and now waterproofed with a full tube of caulk.  I would be disappointed if Hubs didn't use a full tube of caulk.  He loves caulk.
He asked if I would cut the circle out in the soffit for the new vent cover.  He is going to attach the fan tomorrow, so for right now, it isn't flush to the soffit but it will be soon.  The wood will be painted back to the original gray and all will be well.

Thank God I have a handy husband!

Now onward to the inside!  No more lavender walls.  We'll be going with a nice sea glass greenish blue.  Yes, there will be photos of that later.

Have a home improvement-free night!

Monday, July 1, 2013

Rambling things clogging my brain.

The Firefighters-  Oh how my heart breaks for that town.  Seriously, I couldn't imagine their last moments.

The man in our church that is now homeless-  There is a gentleman that you can pray for.  His name is John.  I don't know what the circumstances are, but as of today, John is homeless.  It breaks my heart.  He is going to be going to stay at the homeless shelter that Hubs and I used to volunteer.  Yesterday, we had the quarterly attendance awards/prayer shawl and baby blanket passing.  Rev. K called John up and had him choose a blanket.  She said that she knew that his belongings had to be light and that he would be residing at the homeless shelter for a while.  The practical previous homeless shelter volunteer in me knows that the way that this situation is being handled is in the way that you would handle an addict.  John has been in our Sunday School class these past few weeks and he sits there rather expressionless.  I know that the shelter he is going to has a dry-out program and job/life skills training.  We talked about John at the dinner table last night.  How my heart breaks, but I know that walking up and handing him money may very well not be the best solution for him.  If there was a specific need, Rev. K is pretty vocal and would have let that be known.  I feel that our best help to John is to pray for him.

The Paula Deen situation confuses me.  I admit, we aren't big cable people.  As such, we don't have the Food Network or whatever she happened to have been on.  I know that I read a delightful article about her in the Guideposts magazine several years ago.  I'm not saying that what she said was delightful.  She wouldn't say that what she said was delightful.  I read something somewhere that someone stated, "Everyone has said that word."  I haven't.  Maybe it is because I'm north of the Mason-Dixon Line or because where I live is by and large suburban America.  I do, however, think that this thing has gone way too far.  I knew that when she bailed on Today last Wednesday, she sealed her own coffin shut.  However, Smithfield won't be associated with her.  Target dumped her as well as Walmart, JCPenney, Sears, Kmart and the 5 book deal she had.  I'm sure that there are more that I've forgotten.

Do you mean to tell me that all of these corporations have a spotless record and live sinless corporate lives?  I think not.  I'm sure that you could search each one of the companies and find where there have been bad employee practices, sweatshops that have been employed to make their products, 15 years for one particular company on that list to unionize because conditions for their employees were so poor.

Lance Armstrong finally lost his endorsements when they confirmed his doping allegations.  Paula Deen says one bad word (albeit offensive) and her empire falls apart.  Even Martha Stewart wasn't lashed that poorly.

The Hamster escaped!  K was cleaning his cage, didn't have the lid to the ball down tight enough and when she was cleaning and I was sitting on the couch while talking to a friend, a cageless H was staring back at me.  I hung up on my friend and went running.  I trapped him under the microwave cart, Hubs was at one side with the Swiffer, I was on the other with a yard stick and K was in the middle with a hamster donut.  We did get him and sealed him back up in his ball.  Whew.

I'm a hang nail ripper.  It's true.  It is at this time that I admit to y'all that about a month ago, I pulled a hang nail on my big toe.  Yes, the big toe.  I was in the bath and I pulled it.  Oh, it pulled off along with about 1/2" of interior nail and have been in pain ever since.  Since I took K to the podiatrist for kiddo plantar warts last week and he was do delightful, I decided to let him dig away at my foot, cause me excruciating pain and sign an official document that I will never pull a hang nail ever again.  I decided that the hideousness I know that will occur can simply be covered by a variety of character Band aids.  Oh, and it is the foot that I broke almost two years ago.  This problem started not long after release from the boot.  I had decided to be a bit over zealous and give myself a really GOOD pedicure.  (There are reasons why people go to professionals.)  I lopped the nail the wrong way then and it hurt worse than the actual broken foot.  I had to have an in-office procedure done on my left foot when I was about 13. Then, we were poor and I was wearing ill-fitting shoes.  This was my own stupidity.  Don't you hate it when you have to admit that?

I can go without a coat in 40 F in the winter, but not in 68 F in the summer.  I was having a text discussion with Rachael about that today.  The 68 F was damp.  The 40 F is dry.  It just seems weird.

My daughter has an obsession with her Webkinz.  Hubs bought her a new one today.  I'm thankful that not only was it incredibly cheap, but our museum pass gave us an additional 10% off.  A tiger and a carrier for $4.50.  Not too bad!

The air conditioning has been off and it has been delightful!  Sleeping with the windows open has been a whole lot better than locked-in and canned up air.

The crock-pot has been my friend.  Turkey meatloaf last night and turkey tacos tonight.  Hooray for the crock-pot!

My child continues to read after lights out and is reading a book every day or two.  That's not a bad thing at all.  Just difficult to get a tired kiddo up and out of bed in the morning.

Tired.  Must go flip some laundry into the dryer.  All this afternoon mountain region-like rain is pits for the laundry line outside.  At least I have been able to give the new line a test and the replacement to the replacement line holds without sagging to the ground.

Night!