Struts and Stains

I have to admit that we have not gotten as far as we had hoped to get this weekend as far as painting the fascias are concerned.  Neither of us are really thrilled about the whole job, so we both are too ready to accept the fact that it is too warm or too sunny or too something so we do not do the work.  Rick has the peak on the north side primed, but we have not gotten too far beyond that point.  The other disappointing news is that rain is predicted for all of this next week, so we will have to see what the weather dictates in this second-to-the-last week that we are down here.

We started today by getting ready for church, and then dropping the Toyota off at Mike's house (next door neighbor to Steve and Chris) so he could replace all of the struts on the car. He is a certified mechanic, and we trusted that he could do an excellent job for far less money than we would have to pay at a dealership.  The parts alone cost us more money than we probably should have stuck into a car with 172,000 miles on it, but everything else works well, so we are hoping to get a few more years out of it before we have to replace it.  We cannot afford a new car right now anyway.

Then we were off to church.  We have met some nice people there, including a couple named Nancy and Don who come from Wisconsin.  After the service, there was a potluck luncheon, and since they were grilling burgers and hot dogs, Rick agreed to attend.  We signed up to bring chips.  Rick had the great idea of going to Sam's Club and buying one of those huge packs of individually wrapped bags of chips like one would pack into a lunch bag.  That way we could offer a variety of different chips, and no one (including me) would have to eat chips from a bag that several hands had already delved into. I reasoned, also, that whatever bags of chips were left from the 30 pack we took, we could bring home and eat in the next two weeks.  The chips bags were a great hit.  While some of the other large bags of chips were left over and half-eaten, every single one of our multipack of bags was gone.  I guess other people liked the variety and sanitary idea also.

We did not get home until after 1:00 p.m.  By that time, the sun was on the south side of the house and it truly was too hot out to paint.  That's all right because I had two bathrooms and two other sinks in the house that desperately needed cleaning.

Rob prepares the floor between the two rooms to place the
poultice.

The thick poultice is smoothed over the stain.  Then Rob
covered it with plastic to let it cure over two days.

I mentioned earlier that we had Finish Line Flooring personnel come over to try to remove the stain between the living room and the Florida room.  Today at 3:30, we were able to remove the poultice to see the results.  We are both happy and disappointed.  Although the stains did not totally come out, they do seem to be less noticeable; however, when we removed the poultice, we saw that some of it had seeped into the crevice between the two rooms, resulting in a totally NEW stain.  Of course, that stain just has to be in a very noticeable place (why couldn't it be in the area behind the couch?), so now we will have to wait for Rob to come back to see if he can get the new stain out when he comes to polish the floor.  The stain in the kitchen that we tried to remove did not come out at all, so like a prize-fighter's scars, that stain will just be part of Gladys' history.

While the stain is not gone, once the floor is buffed, we think
that it will be lighter.

Sadly, while the stain at the bottom of this picture is lighter,
a new stain by the crevice between the room appeared.

Late in the afternoon, we went back to pick up the Toyota.  Mike did an excellent job, and we are happy with the way that it handles.  While we were there, we also checked on Steve and Chris' house.  The inside is fine.  The gardens in the front gardens are growing well, but alas, so also are the clovers and weeds in the front gardens.  The pineapple in the back yard is toast, and some of the flowers on the north side of the garage did not survive the dry weather we are having, but other bushes and flowers in the back are doing well.  Naturally, the cactus garden is thriving.

We went for a walk tonight in an old section of Dunedin with some beautiful 1920s-1950s homes.  Dunedin has a lot of character, so we are happy that we can live here and take advantage of the great weather, the friendly people, and the wonderful water views.  We will hate to leave in a couple of weeks, but we also are looking forward to getting back to family, friends, and summer in Wisconsin.

Candles, Chips, and Stubborn Stains

Our goal this week is to try to get the fascia boards on the house scrubbed, patched, and painted before we go home in two weeks. To that end, we decided to get up and get outside as soon as possible since the weather now reaches into the 80s by noon each day.  As we did in the summer when we were here, we know that our work time is before 11:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. to avoid the heat.

We bought the necessary supplies for the job on Tuesday so that we could get an early start on Wednesday.  I jumped into the shower first, and as I was drying off, Rick was getting ready to go in.  I reached for my glasses on the dresser, and as I brought my hand back, I knocked a small cup with a candle in it onto the floor.  While I love my terrazzo floors, the ARE cement, and cement and fragile glass do not go well together. The cup seemed to explode as it hit the floor, sending shards of glass in all directions. Since I was wearing no shoes and only a towel and since Rick was similarly undressed, we had quite a predicament.  I carefully tiptoed to the closet for a pair of clogs; thankfully, I did not cut my feet in doing so. We both must have been a sight wearing shoes and little else as we swept and then vacuumed up the remains of the glass cup.  What I bummer!  The cup was really pretty, so I hated to waste the glassware as well as the candle.

Thursday was spent washing down most of the rain gutters and the fascia around the house.  Although this house is only 1400 square feet, the footprint leaves a lot of gutters and fascia to cover!  We worked until noon, getting most of the washing done, and some of the scraping done.  We wanted to start on the south side of the house since the intense sun made that fascia peel more than the fascia on the rest of the house.  The pictures show the results after that first day.

The south fascia on the Florida Room.

The fascia on the south side of the house really got a beating
from the sun.

Today we got up early again to beat the heat. I still had a small section on the west (front) of the house to wash, and while I did that, Rick started patching the fascia on the south side. I remember as a child watching my father scrape and then paint the wooden siding on our house.  Some of the siding was original to the house, having been there since 1870.  Needless to say, the house had a lot of chipping and repainting.  After all of those years, the siding was uneven and pretty rough-looking.  I did not want the fascia to look the same on this house.  Yes, sanding to blend in the edges helps, but we did not want the chipped off paint to show.  The salvation: a product called MH Ready Patch. People use it like  a speckling compound on a wall.  The result is to blend everything together so the fascia will be smooth and ready to paint.

After MH Ready Patch, the fascia needs just a little sanding to
be smooth, and then it is ready for primer and paint.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to Tarpon Springs to pick up a few more sponges to take back to Wisconsin, and then we went to Fred Howard Beach for the afternoon. Our umbrella worked exceptionally well again, keeping us in the shade while the sun burned around us.  Since we went on a Thursday afternoon, the beach was not crowded at all, and most of the people were parents with small children, college-age or older people who either had the day off or were working a late shift, and lots of retired folks like us.  We sat back, read our Kindles, and enjoyed being able to do that, worry-free, for the afternoon.

This afternoon Rob came from Finish Line Floors to try to get the stain out of our floor.  He ground down the floor, and he added a thick poultice that looks like cement.  We have to let that sit for 48 hours, and then he will be back to take it up and to add a finish coat on the floor.  Hopefully the poultice will draw out the stain and my floor will look beautiful again. We won't know until late on Sunday, so stay tuned...

The stain on the floor left from the glue used to attach the
large glass doors that used to separate the living
room from the Florida room.

Each job that we tackle and finish brings Gladys one step closer to being the home that we want.  Eventually, maybe we will be able to sit on our little shady patio and enjoy the wonderful spring weather in Florida.

Someday, we will rebuild our little patio area and
enjoy a shady spot in the afternoon.

Timing is Everything

This past weekend has proven once again the truth in the old adage, "Timing is everything."

After dinner on Friday, Rick and I decided to get out of the house for a while and to go down to the Marina. The Marina was crowded, but we were able to find a parking space in the lot, so that allowed us to try something new: a walk along Edgewater Drive.

A bench in Edgewater Linear Park.

Edgewater Drive is, as its name implies, a street in Dunedin that runs along the coast of St. Joseph Sound.  On one side of the street is the Sound while on the other side of the street are grand old houses with magnificent porches giving spectacular views of spacious, expensive yards and the aqua expanse of the Sound.  Near the Marina and downtown, Edgewater Drive just has a public sidewalk with houses on the landward side and high-rise condominiums directly on the Sound; however, once one passes the condos, the street curves more toward the Sound, and the high-rise buildings give way to the high-tax district. Now the before-mentioned mansions are on the landward side, and the sidewalk begins to gracefully snake into a path on land called Edgewater Linear Park.  Rick and I took a long walk through this Park, stopping to sit on a bench, to relax a bit, and to watch the sunset.  We throughly enjoyed our time even though the wind was doing its best to blow Rick's baseball cap into the Sound.  Timing is everything since we were able to watch a beautiful sunset before we walked back to the car.

Sunset over the Sound.

Saturday entailed some shopping, cleaning, and hanging the picture frame that I noted in the last blog.  We are happy with the frame, but anxious to have pictures of our new grandchild included in it when we come down in the fall.  For anyone interested in the frame, I found this one three or four years ago through RedEnvelope.com.  I recently looked at their site, and they still offer "gallery" wall hangings like this, although not exactly this same one.  They actually have one slightly smaller than this one which also is great.

On Sunday, after church, we did our necessary shopping for the week.  Since we only have three weeks left here, we are now in our "eat the 'fridge out" mode"-- that is, trying to put meals together so that we can use what we have in the refrigerator and freezer without having to throw out too much food at the end. Meals can get a little strange, but we usually do not waste too much by the time the weeks wind down.

Our big red umbrella is easy to spot on
the beach.

The weather on Sunday was beautiful with highs in the low 80's and a slight breeze.  That's perfect weather for the beach, so after downloading some new books on our Kindles, we packed up the beach bag and headed for Sand Key Beach.  Timing is everything, and our timing going to the beach was awful.  Apparently, we were not the only people who thought a trip to the beach was a good idea, and traffic was backed up almost all the way across the causeway.  On top of that, a red truck almost ran into us trying to get into our lane (don't they teach Florida drivers that the little stick thingy to the right of the steering wheel is a turn signal????), so the trip there was rather tense.

After we arrived, though, Rick got his blood pressure back under control, and we set up our big red umbrella at the beach.  The girls bought Rick the umbrella for Christmas, but because of poor timing or high winds, this is the first time that we have been able to use it.  It worked wonderfully!  We would have been miserable, singed crispy critters had we not had the shade of the umbrella.

A "pirate ship" offers families tours. The crew
are all dressed as pirates, and children have a
blast.  The beachwear on the beach is not always
so beautiful to look at, though.

We both got into our books and were enjoying the afternoon.  I must say that the sights at the beach are something else! Most of the kids are cute, most of the teens are skinny and look good in their suits, and most of the above 45 group need to rethink their choice of beachwear! Some of the off-shore sights are rather fun, though, as the above picture shows.

Both Rick and I were engrossed in our books when suddenly I noticed a rapid, drastic cool-down. I looked up to see a rather ominous cloud bearing down on the beach.  "Ah, Rick," I said.  "I think it might be time to pack up and go."

He looked up quizzically, and I pointed to the sky.  "Yeah, you're right," he said.  We packed up quickly, and we could see rain off in the distance starting to fall from the clouds.  We stowed everything in the car, made a quick stop at the restrooms, and we were on our way.  Timing is everything.  By the time we reached the entrance to Sand Key Park, rain was starting to sprinkle on the windshield.  By the time we were a block away, the rain was falling so hard the wipers could hardly keep up with the waterfall coming from the sky.  We are glad that we were able to get the umbrella packed into the trunk before it got wet.  That would have been a very big umbrella to try to open and to dry in the house!

This morning after ordering parts out to fix the struts on our Toyota, we came home and decided to take a walk.  We usually do not walk in the morning, but more rain originally was predicted for this afternoon.  We have been watching a house on a corner in our neighborhood that has been vacant ever since we bought Gladys. This past year, a tarp appeared on the roof, so we knew that there were major problems with the house.  Rumor had it that a sink-hole was involved, but we never found evidence of that; however, this house was definitely a foreclosure and it definitely needs lots of work.  Timing is everything.  On our walk today, we heard hammering in the distance and soon stood before the house (which was recently sold for $50,000) to watch a crew of five men just finish sweeping off the roof. The shingles (or tiles?) were gone, and two of the men were replacing boards (not plywood) on the roof deck.  The numerous nails, we are sure, was to meet hurricane ratings to give the owner a break on his insurance in the future.  We peeked in the back yard to see that the pool had been uncovered, so this will be fun to watch the progress on this house.  I know if he could have, Rick would have stayed and watched them work all day.

This afternoon Rick mixed up a batch of cement and patched the surface hole in the back where the old dryer vent had gone through.  He also did a couple of other patch jobs so that when we come back in the fall, we don't have to waste any time doing those patches.  We can just get to the prep work and then paint the house.

Like all old ladies, Gladys needs a little patching
before she puts on her make-up of new paint next year.

Ricks final task of the day was to start to look at booking tickets for us to fly back to Wisconsin for Christmas.  Once again, timing is everything.  If we try to fly too close to Christmas, both flights and rental cars are astronomically high priced.  If we leave too soon after Christmas, high prices again are a problem.  We have to fly early enough to beat the Holiday rush, and we have to stay long enough to allow all of the people who HAVE to fly back to school or jobs to be on their way.  Thankfully, retirement gives us the luxury of having options on when we fly.  We'll choose times to fly that will work to our advantage, knowing that timing is everything.

Lazy Days

After  the last three months of remodeling, we are now winding down what we are doing for Gladys.  Not having a major task each day is a little unsettling, rather like the feeling of packing for a trip and knowing you are forgetting something important.  We feel guilty to finally have some free time with nothing that we have to finish.

Today started dark and cloudy after some rain last night. We took a short trip this morning to Tampa to return a weaving shuttle that we purchased earlier.  We thought about going to the Container Store, but I honestly could not think of a thing that we needed for Gladys, so we came home by lunch time.

After lunch, we took out the gallery picture frame that I used to have hanging in my office.  We have a blank wall right next to the front door that we wanted to fill, and this picture gallery was a great fit.  We chose what pictures we wanted to add to the variety of frames, and then took the flash drive to Sam's Club to have the pictures developed.  Our pictures range from a picture of Gladys hanging next to a snowy shot of our Green Bay backyard.  Then we have a picture of the Botanical Gardens, a shot of the crested crane from Animal Kingdom, three small shots of Chihuly's works, a view of Fred Howard Beach in Tarpon Springs, a sunset going down over St. Joseph's Sound at the Marina, and four shots of family members.  These pictures represent some of what we have enjoyed this winter, and I am sure that we will change them as we continue to experience what Florida has to offer. We can't wait until we can have pictures of our grandchild in some of those frames, but that will have to wait until this summer when the little one is finally born.

The blank wall with two of three hooks
inserted for the picture frame gallery.

A short shopping trip to Kohl's (I didn't trip this time!) to get Rick some new shorts resulted in him not being happy with anything and with me getting a new pair of shorts and two pair of capris. We had a 20% off coupon, and I have to say that the marketing worked on me this time.  I am having a hard time deciding what to leave here and what to take back to Wisconsin.  We need late fall, early spring, and summer clothes here, and early spring, summer, and late fall clothes in Wisconsin.  Sigh.  I have too many clothes here, so some of those will have to travel with us to Wisconsin and stay there when we return in the fall.

Our living room wall with the completed photo gallery. 

We leave for Wisconsin in three weeks.  Lindsay and Chris will be happy to have us home so we can look after our own house, and Lindsay seems to miss our truck more than she misses us!  Ah, well, at least we have something of value... Actually, we miss her too, and I will be happy to see my mother again who will be celebrating her 90th birthday on May 28.

In the next few weeks, I hope to finish some needlework that I am doing, and I hope that Rick can finally get back into his Nantucket Baskets so he does not drive me nuts. We continue to bike or to walk each day, and those are activities that we want to continue when we return to our northern home.

Thank God It's Just Dirt

My agenda for today was to throw in a load of laundry and to pay attention to my much-neglected floors.  While we love Gladys' terrazzo floors, we find that having all hard surfaces in the house also allows us to notice all of the sand, dirt, and other debris that migrates indoors each day.  I will freely admit that with the amount of sand here in Florida, I would never have wall-to-wall carpeting.  What must accumulate in those carpets in a year is disgusting!

Our terrazzo has lots of grey, white, salmon, rust, and brown marble chips in it, so actually seeing the sand is sometimes difficult.  A walk across sandy floors with bare feet, however, is very revealing!  We also have learned that the sand and dust that accumulates on the furniture and floors requires a good dust-mopping or vacuuming at least every other day.  Since I have not truly scrubbed most of the floors (with the exception of the bathrooms and guest bedroom) in the last couple of weeks, today was my chosen day to tackle that task.

I am so thankful that my talented husband installed a central vacuum system for us last year.  The central vac has 10 times the suction power of a canister vacuum, so we know that when we vacuum the floors, we are getting everything off of them. (The exception to that last statement is plaster dust.  Anyone who has ever remodeled knows that plaster or drywall dust is insidious-- getting into every crack and cranny, and actually embedding itself into fibers and skin. Thankfully, we have not done any drywall or major demolition lately.)

Since the completion of the laundry room this year, Gladys' square footage has risen to approximately 1400.  That's a lot of floor to vacuum and to wet mop!  As I started the task of vacuuming this morning, though, I thought of the news events that I had witnessed earlier on TV, and I have to thank God that the only thing I have to worry about is dirt.

I do not have to worry about my children.  They are grown, educated, gainfully employed, and safe.  I do not have the burden of that poor family in Boston who mourns the loss of a daughter younger than my two daughters.  I do not have the responsibility of trying to explain to a six year old who loved to Irish dance why some madman set off a bomb that destroyed her dreams of dancing or even normally walking again.  That same little girl also will have to face the even great trauma of losing her beloved eight-year-old brother forever.

I am not one of those families whose homes were blown apart last night by a massive explosion from a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.  Who am I to grumble about a little dirt on my floors when those unfortunate families may no longer have floors to mop. And in that tiny town, those who only lost furnishings and floors may be the lucky ones because they are not mourning the loss of a husband or wife, mother or father, brother or sister, child or grandchild.

My house still stands, my belongings are secure, and my family is safe.  I have no major trauma in my life.  All I have to worry about is a little dirt.  Thank God.

Gift, Gaffs, and Giraffes

This week started with a delivery of a package from Bonnie as a thank you gift for hosting her visit.  I told her that a gift was not necessary since her gift of friendship to us was more than enough.  We were astounded to find inside the package two sets of glasses delicately etched with palm trees (which is our "theme" for Gladys' decor). We want to thank Bonnie very much and to let her know that we will think of her each time that we use them.

One of the palm tree glasses that now is home on
my dining room wine rack shelf.

Of course, much of our late-day Monday was taken up with watching news coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing.  Again, the predominate question is, "Why?"  What purpose was served through the murder and maiming of innocent victims? What motivation prompted such senseless, violet acts? We may never know, but I suspect at this point that this act was not political in nature.  It was, sadly, probably the manifestation of a mental illness that no one noticed or gave enough attention to.  The police do not have an answer yet; hopefully, when they do we will begin to recognize those suffering from mental illness and to do something to protect us all.

Early Tuesday morning we packed our bags and drove east to Disney World.  We have season passes, so we wanted to visit Disney Hollywood Studio and Disney Animal Kingdom.   We arrived early to Hollywood Studios but still had to take a long walk from the parking lot before we got into the park. While the weather was great and the park was not really terribly crowded, on the whole we were disappointed with the park.  For example, we went to one attraction called the Great Movie Ride which was supposed to highlight the "best" movies made. Many of the movies were from the 1920's and 1930's, and a few of them were far from well-known.  While the movie was a great way to get into air conditioning and to get off our feet, the attraction itself was sadly outdated.

Actors from the stage production of "Beauty and the Beast" share
a quiet moment in this Disney musical production.

Other attractions were educational or fun to watch.  Disney does a great job with stage shows, musicals, and stunt shows. No surprisingly, the combination of film and live action made some of the most interesting attractions. Strangely enough, the most fun that we had was at Toy Story Mania which is an arcade-type shot 'em up game that people play against one another.  Rick's score was five times higher than mine, so he had fun gloating at me about that for a while. As usual, we old folks avoided things like upside-down roller coasters and falling 13 stories in an elevator in the Tower of Terror.  Those attractions are best left to the young who have strong backs and hearty stomachs.

A German soldier tries to capture Indian Jones while his female
accomplice urges him to climb onto the wing of a moving plane
in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show.

We left the park in mid-afternoon to check into our hotel room 11 miles away in Davenport. Because we were there on a Tuesday night, we got our room at the Holiday Inn Express for $62.72 and we had a king bed, a couch, a microwave and refrigerator, a desk, a large chair, and a full bathroom.  This was the kind of room that would have cost us almost $300 a night if we had stayed at a Disney Resort, so driving 11 short miles saved us over $200.

We had a large dinner (is there any other kind?) at Cracker Barrel and then returned to the park for Fantasmic, their evening laser/film/live action show.  The show was really spectacular, but I am sure the volume of the sound effects and music damaged the hearing of some of the younger children there, and some of the images of Mickey Mouse' "nightmare" probably gave those same little ones a true nightmare later that evening. Sadly, none of my pictures turned out from the performance.

Our escape from the parking lot after the show was surprisingly easy, and we were able to return to our hotel in good time.  The hotel was very quiet, so the adequate bed gave us a fairly restful night.

Breakfast this morning at the hotel got us off to an early start.  Record high temperatures (high 80s - low 90s) were predicted for today, but a good breeze, lots of sunscreen (thanks, Stephanie, for the Vanicreme 60 SPF), and a well-designed Animal Kingdom park with lots of shaded waiting areas made today very pleasant.  Rick and I both agree that the Animal Kingdom, so far, has been our favorite park.

Some of the birds in the park, like this plumed crane, were
magnificent.  We really enjoyed the wildlife that could be
seen at every turn.

Although the crowds were greater than yesterday, we still were able to get into most attractions without long waits.  That being said, we both have suffered from Vertigo, so we tend to avoid those rides that are roller-coster in nature or those that promise to get a rider very, very wet.

The giraffe was a little shy, trying to blend into
his hiding place among the trees.

These two hippos knew how to keep their cool.

The Tree of Life in the center of the park has intricate carvings of
dozens of animals.

A mama monkey cradles her baby as she hangs from her jungle home.

While Hollywood Studio is supposed to be all about entertainment, we found the shows at Animal Kingdom even better.  Their stage production of Finding Nemo was imaginative and cute, the show with live birds was educational, and the stage production of the Lion King was spectacular.  Disney does know how to put on a good show.  The costumes, actions, vocals, and stage sets are all first rate, and Disney has made a science of moving people in and out of places, so nothing became tedious or bogged down today.

Our trip to Disney for the last two days was our "vacation" for this winter.  We have had the pleasure of enjoying the snowless/ iceless winter here in Florida, and we look forward to seeing some other parts of this colorful state when we return here in the fall.  We bought Gladys as a refuge from the cold, and we intend to use her as a home base for many years to come as we continue to learn how to finally relax and enjoy our retirement.

Inspector Gadget

After spending the last two days getting ready for the inspector to come for a 4-point inspection of Gladys, I was a little taken aback when a older, balding man climbed out of his car this morning.  I don't know what I was expecting, but he was not it.

However, he introduced himself and turned out to be more technically advanced than I thought.  Looks, indeed, can be deceiving!  The first thing he did was take digital pictures of the air conditioner at the side of the house. He informed us that he always documents everything through digital pictures so no one can question what he has seen.

He took pictures of the roof, the nails holding the roof on (as seen in the garage), the windows and doors, the plumbing under the sinks, the water heater, and the electrical box.  Ironically, he did not look at the GFI outlets that we installed, and he said that smoke alarms "were no longer a part of the form."  Although I am not sorry that we added GFI and smoke alarms, basically what we did for the last two days had absolutely zero impact on the inspection today.

He climbed up to look at the roof, and he said that we should be able to get nine more years out of the roof.  I do not know that I really believe that, but I guess Gladys' hat is not as ragged as I thought. He did say that if we ever open up the soffits, we should add hurricane strapping to the roof rafters to get more of an insurance break and to better keep Gladys from losing her hat in a bad storm.

The inspector used the Citizen's Insurance 4-point inspection form, but he was far from a fan of Citizen's Insurance.  We did, however, learn the following from him:

1. If anyone wants to change insurance policies or get new insurance on a home in Pinellas County, no sinkhole insurance will be offered.  A person can get a sinkhole inspection, but virtually no home in Pinellas County will pass the inspection, even if no evidence of sinkhole activity is found.

2. If a homeowner has sinkhole insurance through Citizen's Insurance, the company will fight any claims and the homeowner will be lucky to get 50% of the claim actually covered. For the couple of hundred dollars a year one pays for such coverage, one might be wiser to put that into a bank and draw interest on a sinkhole contingency fund.

3. Citizen's Insurance will probably stop offering sinkhole protection soon, and, in fact, they can pull that option at any time.

4. The inspector said he did not know of any homes in our neighborhood that had sinkhole problems.  Actually, that is not true since a couple of homes bordering Lake Sperry, the lake across the street from us, have had sinkhole claims.  That being said, trying to find out if a home is sinkhole prone is useless unless a person is willing to dish out $10,000 for a conclusive test.  Even then, such a test will only predict a percentage probability, not a certainty. Sinkhole insurance is like flood insurance; it's there, and chances are you will never need it.  If you do, its; great to have, but don't count on it in a real disaster.

5. A homeowner should look for other insurance other than Citizen's since any catastrophe will cause global rate hikes and if the claims are numerous enough, the company will not have the capital to cover the claims anyway.

The inspector was pleased with what he saw.  He gave Gladys an A+ rating for having everything in place, so I guess all of our efforts these past three years have resulted in a home that is strong, tight, and able to withstand most of what nature can throw at her.

New Needs for Gladys

Although we have not taken on any major projects in the last three days, we have made significant progress and discoveries as we continue to work on Gladys.

Our goal now that the laundry room is complete is to take a little time for us.  We did that this past week while Bonnie was here, and we continued that on Wednesday when we finally dusted off our bikes, pumped up all six tires, and took a little ride.  Something there is, however, that does not want us to ride those bikes on a consistent basis.  Yesterday the weather was so warm (89 degrees in the middle of the day) that we substituted a gentle walk on the Pinellas Trail instead of a more vigorous bike ride.  Today we awoke to 35 mph wind gusts and rain.

The good thing about the rain, in addition to the fact that Dunedin needs it, is that it forced us to stay indoors and to finish our list of "must do" projects before tomorrow.  More on that in a minute...

(Note to my siter-in-law Chris: it is supposed to rain all week, so your flowers are all growing very well.  Your neighbor must be watering those in front, but even those in the back are growing like weeds and look quite beautiful.  You may find you have a whole yard of survivors that are established by the time you return.)

On Thursday we had a worker from the flooring company that refinished all of our terrazzo floors come back to the house to see if he could get out the stain across the Florida room floor using a new poultice that the owner concocted.  We asked for Rob, but we were told that Bill was in the area, and that he would be coming to the house.  Although Bill was nice, he was far from encouraging about the stain.  He acted like he really did not want to be bothered with the job, and he was quite blunt that he did not think the process would work.  He said he would try the poultice on a test spot.  He went to his truck and brought in a five gallon bucket. He said he had a little of the poultice left over from the job he just finished, so he put that on one small part of the stain.

Rick and I have no doubt that it will not work.  Anyone who has ever worked with tile and Thinset knows that if the Thinset sits for too long, it loses its effectiveness.  Any tile put down with old, half-dried out Thinset probably will not adhere to the floor. What Bill put on our floor was scraped from the bottom of the bucket, and most of it was stiff and already dried out. Like Thinset, this poultice should be moist and fresh since the drying process is what draws the oils out of the stain and floor.  Since this poultice was already half dried, we know that it will not work.  We are thoroughly disgusted with the company for whom Bill works, and his actions will cause his company to completely lose out on probably a $200 attempt on trying to rid the floor of the stain.  We will look further, next year, for a different company to take care of our floors from this point forward.

One of the other things we did in the past couple of days is to talk with our insurance agent.  We took out supplemental liability insurance since our homeowner's insurance dropped everyone's liability from $300,000 to $100,000.  Since Gladys is now our primary home, if someone were injured on our property and sued us, we would risk losing our Wisconsin home if anyone injured sued us and won the claim.

While we were in his office, we also set into motion what we needed to do to change insurance agents.  Right now we have auto insurance with an Allstate agent here in Dunedin, but our Citizen's homeowner's insurance with an agent in Tarpon Springs.  To put it politely, we do not like that agent for various reasons, so we want to change to the Allstate agent (who also handles Citizen's Insurance) here in town.  Unfortunately, Citizen's Insurance is less than helpful (or logical, for that matter), so we have to drop our policy with the Tarpon agent and take out a whole new policy with the agent here in Dunedin.  How backward, in this day of computers, is that?

At any rate, if we want the new insurance, we need to have a new 4-point inspection of Gladys.  In truth, while this will cost us $95, it is something that we would like to have. I have long believed that knowledge is power, and the more that we learn about Gladys, the more we will be able to make her safe and secure.  We knew that some minor things would have to be updated before the inspector comes tomorrow, so we spent the last two days doing some of those small jobs.

One of those jobs was the electricity. We knew that one outlet in the master bathroom, which we never use, still needed to be updated to a ground fault interrupter (GFI) circuit because the outlet is within three feet of the sink. We also needed to put a GFI outlet for the washer in the laundry room and another outlet in the countertop in the kitchen.  While we were at it, we also replaced another outlet in the kitchen with a 20 amp outlet so everything is now GFI protected, 20 amp, and up to code.

Before the rains set in this morning, Rick also climbed up on Gladys' roof to add some roof caulk around the sleeve that rests on the bottom of her electrical mast.  A stroll around the roof revealed a few other places where the caulk certainly did no harm and it revealed a further truth: Gladys needs a new hat!  We know that the roof was replaced in 2002, so we had hoped that we could get at least 15 - 20 years out of it; however, that is not meant to be. The shingles have not weathered well, and we know that Gladys' hat is both ragged and threadbare in places. Rick patched where he could, but we can no longer ignore the fact that we need to replace the roof within the next year or two... at the most.

A final job today was to put smoke alarms in Gladys just to wake the old girl and us up in case she has a serious hot flash.  By code, we need a smoke alarm in both bedrooms and in the hallway outside the bedrooms.  For anyone who knows Gladys, that code is rather ridiculous since it puts three smoke alarms within 10 feet of one another while leaving the whole north part of the house with nothing. We did add an alarm in each of the bedrooms and put the third one in the hallway but positioned a bit more toward the living room and thus, the north part of the house.

We'll be interested to see what the inspector looks for and what else, if anything, we should do to make Gladys the best that we, and our budget, can afford to give her.  A part of the insurance also is to pay for a sinkhole assessment since we want to have sinkhole insurance.  We are hoping that the sinkhole inspection tells us that Gladys is situated on sound ground. If not, at least we will have the knowledge to know about a potential problem, and that knowledge will give us the power to make decisions to keep Gladys sound and secure.

Monday Fun

We started Monday with a trip down to St. Petersburg which is at the south end of Pinellas County.  We wanted to visit the Dale Chihuly Collection of art glass, and we were not disappointed with what we saw.

Dale Chihuly's early works were interesting and beautiful, but rather conventional.  Below is a view of one of his early (think 1950's) vases.

An early work by Chihuly.

He certainly has expanded his scope of works since that time, getting into organic designs and outrageous colors.  Some of his work is exhibited in nature, and many people know him for his very large "chandeliers" which do not contain one light bulb!  The lights actually are focused on the art which gives them their spectacular appearance. (The Weidner Center in Green Bay has one that cost a cool quarter of a million dollars.)

This chandelier is approximately 10 feet long.

Another chandelier made of "leftover"
colored pieces used in other chandeliers.

The art in the Chihuly Collection is all displayed on black plexiglass, and the results are stunning.  We could not get the true glory of the chandeliers, but I did capture some of the glimmer in a reflection from the bottom of the red work.

Reflected off of black plexiglass, the red
chandelier looks like an exploding star.

We watched a movie on Chihuly's work before we went into the exhibit, and that helped us understand how his work has evolved.  At age 71, he no longer blows the glass himself.  Instead, he makes the "sketches" of what he wants designed, and then he directs master glass blowers from all over the world to bring his visions into existence.

This work takes up a whole room and towers over people's heads.

A close-up of part of the work above.

HIs work is incredible.

He works with every color in the rainbow, and his works are worth seeing if you are ever in St. Petersburg or in Seattle, Washington.

This studio work is for sale-- prices range
from $5,000 - $10,000 for one piece.

No one said he was normal...

I would love this "sketch" for a glass
piece, but I don't have $2525 to spend on it!

After the Collection, we walked across the street into a waterfront park.  We sat on a park bench in the shade and ate our packed picnic lunch.  While we were eating, a tour group went past us and told us that a manatee was near the seawall a short walk away.  After lunch, we strolled down to watch the giant, gentle manatee play in the water for a while.

This manatee was probably 6 - 8 feet long and
probably weighed 300 - 400 pounds.

From that point we went to the Florida Orange Grove Winery.  Wine from oranges?  Yes, and from bananas, mangos, blueberries, strawberries, limes, and several other fruits.  Rick and I like their "Hurricane 5" wine which is a mixture of five different fruits.  They make both sweet and dry wines as well as smoothie mixes.  The winery just took out a patent on wine sippy-packs so that people can take (smuggle?) a single serving packet of wine into places where bottles are restricted (like movies or beaches).  Although Rick and Bonnie both tried some wines, we did not buy anything to carry home with us.  Rick and I will probably return in the fall to buy a few bottles for next winter.

We ended the day by driving down to Fort DeSoto Beach.  The beach was wonderful, but we were too late to stay too long, so we just quickly toured an old Fort on the beach, and then we headed for home.

The day was full of delightful discoveries and outstanding treats, both from artists and from nature.  It was a full day, but I hope that Bonnie enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Bonnie left this morning (Tuesday).  After we took her to the airport, we ate a quick lunch at Steak 'N Shake and then travelled to Knit and Knibble, a yarn/weaving shop where we bought some shuttles that will work with our table loom.  From there, we traveled to the Container Store to get a belt hanger for Rick and a magnetic towel rack for the laundry room.

We had a good time with Bonnie.  She is a wonderful house guest and a great friend. I hope that she found Gladys inviting, and that she will remember her time here with fond memories.

Sunburn, Sunshine, and Stunning Flowers

Our day at the beach on Saturday resulted in a pretty good sunburn for both Rick and me by Sunday morning.  Bonnie, who had no base tan to start with, was fine because she was smart enough to slather herself in sunscreen.

Sunday morning was a day to catch up in the morning on laundry and to relax a little. Rick sealed the porch grout to keep it weather tight, and then he took some time to actually wash the car and the truck,  Because of a water restriction, people on our side of the street are only supposed to wash cars on either Wednesday or Sunday.  

In the afternoon, we took a drive to the Botanical Gardens.  The great thing about the gardens is that each week a person can visit the gardens and find new plants and flowers in bloom.  The weather had turned very warm, so finding shade was a welcome relief after our sunny Saturday.

The roses were just coming into bloom.

Florida has some beautiful, unusual flowers.

Flowers come in all sizes and shapes!

Bonnie treated us to a dinner at Rick's favorite restaurant in Dunedin: Al Fresco's.  After dinner,  we walked two blocks down to the Marina again to stroll along the shoreline.  The day was fun and relaxing; Bonnie's visit gave us a chance to revisit one of our favorite places in Pinellas County.

Since I want to add lots of pictures to the next blog, I will end this one here so this blog downloads in a reasonable time.

Friends and Art Fairs

My friend Bonnie's journey to Florida took a little longer than she had anticipated because the weather in Florida caused her plane to be delayed coming into Milwaukee.  She took off 2 hours and 40 minutes after the original departure time, but she made it here to Florida safely by 10:25 p.m., so we were home well before midnight.

Friday was a day for us to all get reacquainted and for Rick and I to show her why we love to live in Dunedin.  In the morning light, we showed Bonnie what we have done with Gladys.  The "morning light" was not great since it stormed most of the early morning, but as most old ladies know, being seen in a soft light is not necessarily a bad thing!  Bonnie seemed to approve of what she saw, so we are glad that she likes our snug little home.

After the weather cleared, we went downtown to look over Dunedin.  Since Bonnie and I always celebrate our birthdays (March 19 and March 21) with dinner together on March 20, we had a delayed birthday celebration by going to Eli's.  The smell of barbecued chicken and beef met us a block away from the smoke-shack; sometimes I find it hard to order when my mouth is watering that much!  Bonnie chose the pulled pork, Rick chose the roast beef, and I selected the white chicken.  When we got home, both Bonnie and Rick had sandwiches heaped up with meat.  I opened my carton and found a huge chicken breast and wing slapped between two pieces of bread. I had enough food for two people! Eli's mild barbecue sauce was just the right touch for a delicious meal.

Bonnie and I went back downtown after lunch for a day of shopping.  Bonnie bought two candles that she needed for a very unique candle holder she owns, and I had a great time re-exploring the quaint shops of the downtown area.

One of the places that we visited was the Art Studios of Dunedin.  One of the artist there told us that on Saturday Tarpon Springs was hosting the largest art fair held in the area.  Since we wanted to go to Tarpon Springs anyway, we decided to make a trip there for the day.

On Friday evening we returned to the downtown Dunedin after dinner for a walk on the pier at the Marina and for an ice cream treat at Strachen's Ice Cream shop. After the ice cream and walk, we returned to Gladys to relax and to read.  Rick worked on the computer, calculating taxes. Some people just do not know how to relax.

Today started out windy but bright.  We packed a picnic lunch for the day with delicious sandwiches from Publix Grocery Store, and then we were off to Tarpon Springs.  We arrived early which was a good choice since the Art Festival was reported to attract 20,000 people.  The Art Festival was held in a park around a series of lagoons, so the setting was almost as interesting as the art itself.  Rick and I tried very hard to find some art at a reasonable price that we could hang in the kitchen, living room, or dining room.  He seriously considered two pieces but ended up not buying anything.  Bonnie tried very hard to buy some jewelry, but she also walked away empty handed.

Bonnie poses by one of the lagoons in the
park where the Art Fair was held.

At noon we left the Art Fair and went to Fred Howard Park which is a fabulous wooded park and beach.  The beach is located by going over a causeway to an island which, obviously, has a beach on all sides.  We spent a relaxing afternoon lounging in lawn chairs, walking the beach, and reading books.

Bonnie relaxes on the beach.

Today was, on the whole, a very fun, relaxing day.  We are glad that we have the time and the sunny weather to show Bonnie why we love to live in Florida in the winter, and why we have worked so hard to make Gladys a comfortable home.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

OK, OK, so what we did today did not really include a yellow brick road, but at least our friends and guests now have a place to walk when they try to approach the front door to Gladys.

Once again, the weather cooperated with sunshine and warm weather, so our first task of the day was to mix up a batch of Latte grout to finish the porch.  While the grout was setting up, Rick removed the 2 x 4 support pieces we had to use to keep the bullnose in place.  When we tried to put the bullnose on yesterday, the weight of the tiles caused them to slip.  Some women need a support bra, but Gladys needed support 2 x 4s to help her hold up the new tile.

The bullnose tile, complete with a little support, adorns the front
of the newly tiled porch.

Once the grout was ready to go, Rick spent the next hour massaging it into the joints on the porch.  The picture shows the resulting work.  While the porch still looks a little funny in the front because the bullnose only covers half of the old red tile, the whole thing will come together just fine next fall when we add the paver sidewalk.  Until then, the neighbors will just have to put up with a work in progress.

The newly-grouted tiles look great from the
vantage point of the front door.  For once, Gladys has a
full porch that spans across the double doors.

Rain is predicted for this evening and tomorrow, so later this afternoon we covered the porch with plastic both to protect the grout from washing away in a downpour and to help it dry more slowly which will strengthen it in the long run.  Our next task, then, was to get some more 16" stepping stones to complete the temporary sidewalk.

Earlier in the day, we had returned to a paver-stone warehouse because the first pavers we picked out were not the right color for the new tiles.  We found a deeper brown paver that we both think will look good, and we chose a pattern that we like.  The base, sand, and new pavers eventually will be high enough to cover the rest of the red tile still exposed on the front of the porch, but those pavers will probably have to wait until next year unless a money tree sprouts in our back yard.   Therefore, at this point we have no other option than to choose some stepping stones that eventually will forms a walkway in the side or back yard.

We picked up seven more stepping stones and put them in place just before sunset this evening. (Thank heavens it stays light until about 7:15 p.m.!) I have no idea what they will look like after our rains this evening.  Some may be buried, some may rise from the mud like a Phoenix.  The results of our quickly set stones will be interesting to see.

"Follow the yellow brick..." Oh, yeah, that's
right.  These are just dull, gray stones, but at
least they will keep shoes out of the mud.

Eventually we would like to take the final zag out of
our zig-zag sidewalk to the house.

The last task I completed today was to add pink flamingos to the bottom of our pink bathtub.  When we first bought Gladys, we complained to Lindsay that the pink bathtub really was dangerous and slippery inside.  As a gift, she found and sent us some bathtub flamingos that adhere to the bottom of the tub to give a person a safer footing.  We only used the bathtub for a few showers before we changed over to the master bath shower, so I never put the flamingos in the tub.  Today, however, since we are expecting a guest, I wanted to make the accommodations safe.  Let it never be said that Gladys is dull!  She now has pink flamingos in the bathtub to match the pink flamingo shower curtain I bought as a joke two years ago.  (Every girl likes a touch of pink...)

Pink, non-slip flamingos are the ONLY new thing in the
pink bathroom!

We are both looking forward to welcoming our guest tomorrow, and we are also looking forward to taking a little time off to enjoy our time here in Florida. We think that everything is ready, and we hope that Bonnie really is comfortable as she gets to know Gladys.

Back-Door Friends

My grandmother always used to say that there are two kinds of friends: front-door friends and back- door friends.  Front-door friends are those acquaintances who you know and like, but they never come unannounced and you must have the house clean before you let them in. Back-door friends, however, are like relatives.  You are comfortable if they come through the back door and find dirty dishes sitting in the sink.  You can tell them anything, and they forgive your flaws because they love you.  We are having a guest later in the week, and I am so glad that I can consider my guest and friend, Bonnie, a back-door friend.  For what we did today, she will need to be open-minded and forgiving!

The day dawned sunny and bright, so we went outside to consider our options with the front sidewalk. Steve had offered to go with Rick to drop off the broken up concrete at the concrete recycling center, and I was glad to let him do so.  When they returned, Steve picked up the sledgehammer and helped Rick break up the rest of the sidewalk.  Somehow, they managed to get the rest of it in the back of the truck, so that, too, immediately went to the recycling center.

Steve (left) and Rick load the last of the big pieces of the old
sidewalk onto the end of the truck.

Stepping stones and lots of dirt now indicate where the
sidewalk used to be.

While they were gone, I picked up the little chunks of concrete and then tried to dig a hole 7" deep to see how difficult it would be to excavate the sidewalk area for a base of gravel in preparation for pavers.  The soil is dry and loose, so taking out the dirt will not be that difficult when we get to that point.  We have to do something before we leave because what we have right now will be a muddy swamp with the summer rains.  The removal of the remaining sidewalk took the rest of the morning.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Steve, for all of your help.  We could not have completed all that we did today had you not done the muscle work of breaking up the rest of the sidewalk this morning.

At lunch, we discussed getting a truckload of ground concrete and concrete dust that we could use as a base.  The materials are very inexpensive, but the labor will be intense.

"You know," I said to my darling husband, "We really can't do anything until we tile the porch." This was said simply as a matter of fact. The next thing I know, we are looking online to see what grit of sandpaper we would need to rough up the existing tile on the porch so the Thin-set will stick. Although web sites suggested 80, we were soon on our way to Lowe's to buy some 60 grit paper for the orbital sander.  When we came home, he immediately started to roughen up the front porch.

Okay, now I ask you: how would you interpret those actions?  I took them to mean that he wanted to prep and then tile the porch this afternoon.  So I started to stage all of the materials, tools, and saws that we would need to get the job done.  HE says that he was just sanding the porch, and the next thing he knew his slave-driver wife was setting up all of the equipment and pushing him to tile the porch!

The top of the porch, complete with spacers, now holds
sandy-colored tile.

At any rate, we were soon mixing Thin-set and laying the first row of tile. We chose to put the full tiles at the front of the porch rather than trying to split the remaining distance on the porch between the front and back.  Doing so would have left a small strip at the front of the porch, and I was afraid that a thin strip in front would crack since that is where people usually step first when stepping on a porch.  Additionally, by putting on the tile, we unify the old porch and the concrete slab we poured to span the full width of the new double doors.

Tomorrow we'll cover the front with bullnose tile,
covering the red tile as we update Gladys' look.

The results are now a wonderful porch dressed in a sandy-hued tile that fits the Florida look. We ran out of mixed Thin-set and time before we could get the bullnose front and side on, so the rest of the 1960's red tile will be covered tomorrow.  Grout will come later tomorrow afternoon, and then we will be ready to make some decisions on the sidewalk.

For now, we will have to enter the house either through the garage or through the laundry room or Florida room, both of which are accessible through doors in the back of the house.  Were we crazy to do this with a guest coming?  Perhaps, but I think that Bonnie is a good enough friend that she will not minding coming into Gladys through the back door.