September 08, 2013

Just a Little Update

This morning the pastor said that it is so easy to fall away from church. First you miss a Sunday, and the next Sunday you think to yourself that you don't really feel like going this day either, even though you feel a bit guilty. The next Sunday it's easier not to go, and on until the day comes that you think to yourself that you can worship right there on the patio with your cup of coffee.

I think the same is true of blogging. Not that blogging is the same as church attendance, but the falling away is the same. One day I'm too busy, but I think about it during the day, composing a post in my mind but forgetting most of it by the time I sit down in front of the computer at the end of my day. As the days go by, I think less and less about posting, except to think to myself that when I get such and such done, I'll write a post summarizing the whole ordeal. And then that never happens either.

I often wonder if that is what happened to some of the blogs I used to read regularly. One is a real puzzle to me. It was written by a pair of sisters and they had a lot of neat craft ideas, recipes, and a weekly linky party. The last post, written about a year ago, was a linky party with no mention of it being their last post, or taking a break, or anything. Just no more posts.

I've been thinking all week how handy this blog has been when I want to know something that happened since I've been writing it. This week when the plumber was here, I really wished I had been blogging and photographing when we built the garage. It would have saved a lot of time. Tomorrow I'll try to post what I learned from the plumber so you might save some money should you ever be in the same circumstance.

The situation with the house has gotten to me. I feel frustrated and stymied and spend a lot of time spinning my wheels and a lot of time just plain depressed about it. Here's where we stand. The master bedroom is empty. The bed is in the middle of the family room, the dresser is in the dining room, and the clothes are scattered in every non-empty room. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night without a pillow because there is no headboard to hold it in, plus the fact that NO ONE is invited into our house because THERE'S A BED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM! No matter what the bedroom looks like when we are done, I'll appreciate just having a bedroom.

The wood flooring is still in a state of being partially removed and the glue remains stuck to the floor where the wood has been taken up. I found a replacement wood floor that I like, and in reading the installation instructions I found that calcium chloride tests need to be done to satisfy the warranty requirements. I called all three flooring contractors who had given me bids and all of them blew it off, saying they always used a moisture meter. So I bought the tests and ground off the glue and paint splatters from the slab which spread a layer of dust throughout the house.

According to the installation instructions, the calcium chloride tests couldn't be over 3 pounds per 1000 square feet, and all of these were over that. I talked to the manufacturer and was told to check the foundation for plumbing leaks (which is why the plumber was here) and if one was found and then fixed, do the tests again.

The plumber found no leaks in the foundation, but he did find that there was a leak somewhere between the house and the water faucet forty feet away. Luckily, our drought conditions made one green spot in the yard a likely possibility, and sure enough there was a break in the pipe under the faucet. So Hubby spent his Saturday busting out concrete and replacing that pipe and faucet.

Meanwhile, the flooring manufacturer said there is a moisture resistant adhesive they make that can be used on slabs that are under 4 pounds per thousand square feet. So we're good to go there.

What we still need to do, and the main source of my frustration, is that we have to seal the slab we will carpet and we haven't got a plan for sealing it. And after I made such a huge dusty mess just grinding off the glue in three square feet, I am afraid the people who remove the remaining 370 square feet are going to make a mess that will take me weeks to clean up.

But trying to remain positive and going forward, I have made a list of every little thing that needs to be done to the house, and tomorrow I am getting the first drywall bid. I was beginning to despair of any of them even calling back. Maybe another will call back tomorrow so I can have at least two bids.

I've been listing stuff on craig's list and have given away a lot of materials that were laying around here, and even got the fence removed from around the garden by someone who wanted the t-posts and fencing wire. Now if I could just sell the good stuff.

I'm sure my mood will improve when we begin to make some progress on the house, and when the temperature begins to drop. The older I get, the less I can tolerate day after day of temperatures near 100. We're supposed to drop into the mid 90's by Thursday and I hope it continues to drop every day until the days are pleasant again. Friday morning, the tv weatherman said we would all be happy to hear that the high was not going to be 100, only 99. Well, I don't know about him, but I'm just as hot at 99 as I am at 100. I won't really be happy until the temperatures are below 90, and then I'll probably talk about how much I love fall and living here. It's like the pain of childbirth they say everyone forgets soon after the birth, except I start dreading the heat again by mid May.

So there you are. If you've managed to read through all this, you are caught up on my life, and maybe, just maybe, I'll remember to post again tomorrow.

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7 comments:

  1. Sounds like a housing nightmare. Thanks for sharing all about it.

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  2. How awful to be dealing with such turmoil - when the house is in chaos, it makes your whole life chaotic. Right now all of these details are depressing, but keep your eye on the goal and it will be manageable.

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  3. My first thought was - gosh, I don't envy you - remodeling and home projects are so trying. THEN - I remembered we are wanting to update (redo) two of our bathrooms. Suddenly, I panicked. If I didn't want updated bathrooms so much, I would just forget the whole thing!

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  4. oh my Marti, it does sound incredibly frustrating. i am sorry that it's going so painfully slow and hope that very soon you will be feeling like you are moving forward again.
    as for the heat, i totally agree. when the temps get up that high everything is harder to deal with.

    you are in my thoughts. take good care of yourself.

    :-)
    libbyQ

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  5. Glad you are back to writing again. We just had two miserable days of horrendous heat in the mid 90's again but a storm rolled through here today and now we are supposed to have cooler Fall weather. Finally.

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  6. So sorry about all the difficulties. NOT fun!!! I sure hope your weather has cooled down a bit and things get moving with your house. So frustrating!!! We redid our kitchen two years ago. My husband volunteered us to do the demolition. It was HORRIBLE. He said for me to kick him if he EVER gets an idea like that again!!! The builder had us take everything out including all the drywall on the walls and ceiling. Of course it was around 90-95 daily so all that heat came into the house.

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  7. Hope you've got a few plans in place and at least know when you where things are going with all the flooring. Hope your temps finally dropped. Ours did last week, but we are back to low to mid 90s again this week.

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