Nasty Nicole

 As predicted, yesterday we spent the day indoors as Hurricane/ Tropical Storm Nicole made her way across the state.  By the time she reached us, the winds had died down considerably to about 35 - 40 mph, and by the end of the day we received between 2 - 3 inches of rain.

Folks on the east coast of Florida did not get by quite as well as we.  Four people lost their lives to the storm, and parts of the coastal beaches were washed away, taking homes and properties with the waves.  The devastation is far worse than many expected.  I could not imagine leaving my beach house, some of which were perched up on high ground about 75 feet from the shoreline, to return to find that those homes are totally destroyed.  Parts of the coast have been declared uninhabitable, and there is talk that those folks may never be able to live on their land -- that is, what is left of it -- again.

The worst that we received was one blown off fence-post cap, which I was able to retrieve and Rick reinstated today, a leaking front door that needs a new seal underneath, and a back yard full of debris.  

Small branches and hundreds of leaves and sticks
litter the back yard after the storm.

Since we have trees on both ends of the yard,
the debris covered the entire area.

We started today with lingering rain, but by noon we were able to get outside to rake the branches, leaves, and sticks that littered the yard.  The debris came both from our live oak tree and the neighbor's camphor tree.

Piles of debris await bagging.

I really DID rake, too!  I am always taking
the pictures instead of being IN the pictures.

After a couple of hours of work, we once again have a clean yard and three very full bags of debris to haul to the curb for pick-up on Monday.

Three full bags will have to wait until Monday 
to be picked up by the city workers.

Nicole was the latest hurricane (November 10) to make landfall in Florida in the past 38 years.  I hope that we can bid goodbye to the storm season for good now and enjoy a peaceful winter.

Whirlwind Week One

 We returned to Gladys one week ago, and we both are exhausted.  Although we could blame age, the truth is that it has been a whirlwind week thus far.

Our flight down was what every traveler wishes to have: on time, good weather, smooth ride, and uneventful.  Our car ride home also was easy and uneventful, so we had no problems there.

The blessing of being gone for six months is that we come back to a clean refrigerator and a defrosted freezer.  The curse is that we have an EMPTY refrigerator and freezer, along with a bare pantry, so our fist task was grocery shopping.  Holy Smokes!  Groceries are VERY expensive here!  Milk is almost twice as expensive as in Wisconsin, eggs in one store topped $5.00 a dozen, and more and more we are finding that our favorite brands of food are being replaced by "store brand" merchandise only.  We search three different stores just to find certain brands that we wanted and trust.

Our first mechanical challenge was when we discovered, on the day we came down, that our car started fine but has no working air conditioning.  Florida currently has above average temperatures for this time of year, and the mechanics told us that the compressor is shot on our five-year-old Honda CRV.  Repairs will cost us over $2,000!  How is that for a "welcome home" greeting?

A beautiful day on Fred Howard Beach!

We made a quick visit to the beach and met a nice couple who asked us if we could take their picture.  They reciprocated by taking a picture of us.  Alas, since I broke my toe a couple of weeks ago, walking on the soft sand was not something that I could do for very long.  We were happy, though, to listen to the waves and see the beach for a bit.

Rick works on prying the damaged fence
panel from the posts.

Obviously, a branch fell on top of the fence.

The repaired top board makes the fence
uniform once again.

Our yard looks in good shape and suffered only slight damage from Hurricane Ian.  On our second day here, we noticed that the top of our fence had a big hole in it where a branch must have hit it.  We cannot complain too much considering our neighbor's roof is covered in tarps in two places.  We had one remaining top panel stored in the garage rafters, so after a bit of tug-of-war with the fence posts, Rick was able to remove the old board and replace it with the new one.  Once again, our fence is whole.

Even though our lawn service crew does a great job of keeping the yard trimmed and the grass cut, we always need to make further cuts.  We spent an entire morning just trimming the neighbor's overhanging branches back from the fence, trimming the back garden bushes from touching the fence, and trying to tame the overhanging branches of the Areca palm in the corner from overhanging our neighbor's yard.  To that end, I was trimming fronds off the palm.  I had just removed some lower fronds, and as I bent to cut back another frond close to the base, BAM!  I leaned into the remaining stem of a previously trimmed frond, smashing it into my upper lip.  Two small cuts and a fat lip later, I looked like a losing prize fight.  Areca palm = 1, Sherry = 0.

We did have one win this week, though.  Yesterday Rick and I went to the grocery store early.  Only one woman was at the counter, so since there were no long lines, I went to the main counter and spent the $6.00 in my wallet to buy three Powerball numbers.  The Jackpot was worth $2.04 billion, so why not?  Today when the numbers were published, we learned that we had three of the five winning numbers on one of our tickets, so we will win $7.00 -- a whole $1.00 profit on my investment! 

As I write this, Tropical Storm Nicole is brewing in the Atlantic Ocean.  She is expected to make landfall tomorrow as a Category 1 hurricane, but by the time she moves across the state to our area, she once again will be a tropical storm.  We are expecting about 2 inches of rain -- which we really could use -- and winds of 40 - 60 miles per hour.  As storms go, once again we will be lucky to avoid storm surges and any major damage. 

The gardenia flowers smell wonderful!

Our little gardenia tree in the back corner did welcome me back with a single, fragrant flower.  I would have white flowers rather than white snow drifts at any time throughout the coming winter.

A Roof Over Our Heads

 Two years ago, Rick and I put a new, translucent roof on our screened-in patio ("porch") at the back of our Wisconsin house.  What a mistake!  While we wanted the light to come off the porch into our kitchen and dining room, what we did not realize was that the roof let in 97% of the UV rays that compose that light.  The porch not only got unbearably hot, but also it resulted in an unhealthy environment (think "greenhouse") and rewarded us with a horrible glare.  Who wants to have lunch when we needed sunglasses to see what was on our plates?  We could not read out there since the glare was so bad, and we really did not want to get more sunburned just by sitting under that roof. Additionally, the nine panel roof leaked no matter how much caulk Rick used to try to stop it from dripping water onto the patio during storms.

Thus, we decided to order a new roof for the porch.  We had had an insulated roof installed on our lanai in Florida, so we worked very hard to see if we could order the same roofing materials for this porch in Wisconsin.  While that Florida manufacturer refused to deliver materials to Wisconsin, we did find a company in Detroit, MI, that would ship us materials for a 3" insulated  roof.

The roofing materials arrived last week, and we safely got them into our garage.  Then a horrific storm hit Green Bay with 97 mph winds, and we lost power for three days.  That did not stop us, though, from working on the roof.  (Thank God for fully-charged batteries on drills!)  Lindsay rescued the food from our refrigerator and freezers, and she provided us with free showers and laundry facilities while we recharged medical devices, iPhones, Apple watches, and computers at her house. Thank you, Lindsay!

Clear skies greeted us as we removed
the old roof, leaving the superstructure 
on which to lay the new roofing materials.

We spent the first day unscrewing the old roof.  We both were armed with drills as we took apart the 9 panels that made up the old roofing system.  We hauled all of the old materials into the garage for future disposal.

Rick had to cut back the gutter system
to leave room for the overhang of the new roof.

Since the new roof has a 6" overhang on each side, Rick had to cut back the gutters on both sides of the porch and recap them so we would have room for the new structure.  Keep in mind that we were without power, so all cutting had to be with hand saws. We also spent part of that day just unpacking the new roofing materials. 

We sanded and repainted the top of the beams.

Day Two saw us sanding the superstructure and repainting it before we attempted to install the new roof. We have sturdy beams connected to the house with cross beams for added support.  While we really did not need the cross-beams, we decided to leave them in as added insurance against heavy snow loads.   Our first task after that was to install the new C-channel on the house to accept the panels for the roof.  

This view shows the three inches of insulation
in each panel of the roof.

Day Three was a 10-hour work day. We used drywall carriers to pick up each of the 4 x 12 foot insulated panels and carry them into the back yard.  Thankfully, the panels were only about 25 pounds each, but they were very awkward to handle. Then we unwrapped each panel, slid it onto the roof on the cardboard that protected it in shipment, and screwed each one into place.  As we added each panel, we watched the porch become more shaded and cooler.  

Three panels in place with two more to go.

The view from the inside of the porch with the panels
adding welcome shade.

Day Four was another long work day as we installed the side fascia and the front gutter/fascia combination. The weather did not cooperate as temperatures climbed into the 90s with horrible humidity.  We were both exhausted by the end of the day. 

Once the panels were in place, we had to go onto
the roof to caulk the seams and to tape them.  Unlike
the old roof, this roof fully supports a person's weight,
so we could walk on it with no trouble.

 We did not care for the design of the side fascia because it included a 2" high lip on the top.  While that probably was supposed to help channel the water to the front gutter and prevent rain from going over the sides, the only thing we could envision was the amount of leaves and tree debris that would accumulate on the roof.  Competitors of this company also warned that the 2" lip could result in up to 2" of water standing on the roof during heavy rains, thus creating a situation where the roof might leak into the porch.  My concern was that standing water in late fall or early spring could result in 2" of ice forming on the roof.  To avoid having to climb onto the roof a few times a year to clean off the roof, Rick took his Festool saw and cut off the 2" lip on the side fascia.  The fascia still looks fine, and we will not have to worry about debris or water retention in the future. And if a little water DOES run off the sides of the roof during a rainstorm, who cares?  It is a porch, not the main portion of the house. By the end of the day, we had the fascias cut and installed, and we also hung the front gutter/fascia.  We knew the downspout for the gutter would have to wait for today.

Our new roof should give us lots of relaxing time on the back patio.

Under a heat warning once again, we vowed to be finished with the roof by 10:00 am.  That did not happen.  Rick had to run out to get some specialized gutter caulk, and the less-than-standard gutter/downspout system fought us all the way.  However, by 1:00 pm, we officially declared the new roof complete!

Success!

Rick has declared that he is getting too old to do projects like this ever again.  I agree that this is the last major project that we will do this summer. This project was a lot of little, putzy steps that we had to complete before installing the major components.  The weather went from a couple of 50 degree mornings to the last two days of heat indexes of over 100 degrees. 

So was this worth all of the pain, blood, expense, and exhaustion? Yes, I think it was.  We now have a shaded porch that should not leak in the rain.  It will protect us from harmful UV rays while providing us with an open-air environment where we can dine, relax, and enjoy shaded conversations with friends.  An added bonus, of course, is that once again we have increased the property value of the house.  We plan to enjoy outdoor dining the rest of the summer and a shaded environment in which to relax.

Flawless Impeccable Perfection

For the last two weeks, we have been busy settling in to our "summer home" here in Wisconsin.  Through lots of effort and money, our pantry is well-stocked, the refrigerator and freezer are full, the lawn is cut, the back patio room is washed, and we are ready for the summer.

Of course, we never can sit still, so while we are waiting for our new porch roof to arrive, I noticed that our main bathroom really was outdated.  The shower is fine since we never use the tub or shower in that room, so the tile job looks brand new.  The vanity is large and the granite top also is in good shape, although some would say that the colors are no longer in style since they are shades of brown rather than grey.  Too bad.  I am not about to change the granite any time soon.  However, the one thing that IS outdated that I COULD change was the rust colored paint on the wall.  The paint has served us well, but it certainly was time to go.

We went to our favorite paint store in town, bringing home three samples.  None of them worked for that room with the ivory toilet and sink, but one of those three colors (Cameo White) did work for the master bathroom since that room has white facilities. (We had no intention of painting either bathroom, but both could use a new look.) 

A second trip to the store allowed us to bring home the correct, creamy white called Flawless Impeccable Perfection. Too bad my painting skills don't match the name of the paint!  At any rate, we started the job yesterday, doing the final coat today.  Since I was the photographer, most of the photos are of Rick working.  I DID help, although he is very picky, so he did the majority of the work.  The transformation is as follows:

The creamy white cut in at the ceiling
showed promise of what the room would
look like in the end.

It really was time for the 1990s paint 
to become history.

The paint actually covered the rust-colored
paint better than we had thought it would.

Painting around a toilet is always fun!

The first coat is finished! We like how
it accents the cream-colored grout on the
tiled walls.

Once this second coat dries, we will
rehang the mirror and picture and
reinstall the shelf. 

Now that the first bathroom is almost finished, we will take a break for a while since the roof for the porch should be here (we hope!) shortly.  The other bathroom always can wait for another rainy day.

Winter/ Spring 2022

 We are in our last week of our winter season here in Florida, so I will use this blog to do a quick update of this Winter/ Spring 2022 season.

We were in Wisconsin long enough to enjoy the fall colors, but we did not leave in time to miss the snow!

Our front tree is gorgeous in fall.

The very next day, it was not so colorful!

Once we arrived in Florida, we faced the task of cleaning up.  Our earlier blog showed the labor of cleaning up the lanai, the fence, the landscape, and the Florida Room roof. All of that was done in November and December.

Of course, exercise is one of the main reasons we come to Florida for the winter.  We walk at least twice a day, generally in sunny, wonderful weather, on the beaches, in our neighborhood, and in nearby Hammock Park.

In January, Stephanie came to visit for a few days.  We really enjoyed being able to have family visit this year.  We still are very cautious about Covid, so only family has been inside our house in over two years.  While we were down here, with both got our fourth Covid vaccine (second booster!).

Stephanie and Rick relax in Hammock Park.

In February, our nephew Jon and his wife welcomed Jasper Jon to the family, so we made a short trip to St. Petersburg to see him and to visit with my sister and brother-in-law who were down here to help out for a few weeks.

February also saw us rip out poorly performing bushes in the garden in front of the kitchen, so we replaced them with Gold Mound Duranta bushes which, we hope, will do much better. February also was the month that we started to purge this house of extra paperwork (thank God for shredders) and things like old paint.  I am amazed at what we have accumulated in 12 years!

New Gold Mound Duranta bushes replaced older vegetation.

We started a new habit this year of eating lunch each day on the lanai.  I wanted a tablecloth for our small patio table, but I could not find one in the right size, so I went to the fabric store and made two different ones that fit well.

Lunch, anyone?

March brought about the delivery of two new Stressless chairs to replace our old Ikea chairs (which have served us well for many years.)  We donated those chairs to Habitat for Humanity Restore since they still were in good shape.  

Stressless chairs are a great place to read or watch TV.

March also was the month of more remodeling. We took off the heavy, heavy front door to replace the deteriorating threshold before the hurricane season comes to Florida this year.  Better safe than sorry! 

By March 10, we had new soffits and facia board going up before we replaced all of the gutters on Gladys.  With the Florida rains, gutters are a must. 

New aluminum fascia and soffits replace
the 1960 wooden soffits.

Rick also took our old trusty wheelbarrow, which has served us well for many years, and turned in from a slightly rusty blue to a wonderful new green and yellow to match the house. 

A new coat of paint gives new life to the old wheelbarrow.

To finish our month of reconstruction, Rick broke off half of a crown, so we had to find a dentist who would see him on an emergency basis.  See, Gladys isn't the only one who needs repair once in a while.

Of course, all winter long I have been working on crafts.  Stephanie gave me a challenging hibiscus flower to cross-stitch.  I MIGHT get it finished sometime next year! 

I added a couple of appliquéd bees to a purchased apron and embroidered a flower as a birthday gift for a neighbor (whose initials are B.B.) who watches our house for us in the summertime.  I also took WAY too long to weave two blue scarves on the loom.  Poor Rick was not able to create anything since I took all season to do those two simple scarves.

Owen talked me in to the hobby of painting rocks.  We spent less than $3.00 to buy a whole bag of flat rocks at a local rock and pond dealer, and I have been having fun painting rocks that we hide for people to find when they walk through Hammock Park.  

This was the first M&M one I painted,
so I kept this one as a paperweight.

My other labor of love this winter was editing my cousin Dann's second non-fiction book on WWII.  He lives in California, so we have done all of the work via computers and DropBox. I have enjoyed the work, and I know more about WWII now than I ever thought possible.  The second book will be published sometime this month. 

Remodeling, home maintenance, new furnishings, crafts, reading books on our Kindles, exercise, editing books, and enjoying the great Florida weather all have been a part of our winter this year with Gladys.

Up on the Rooftop...

 For the last few days, Rick and I have tried to get back into our routine of completing one chore around the house in the morning (when our energy is up and the temperatures are down), and then relaxing and taking a long walk in the afternoons.

On Monday of this week, we started that routine by starting to wash our very long fence. We started with the south side gate and fence. He scrubbed the inside of the fence while I tried to get the dirt off the top of the fence and the fence posts.  About mid-way through that day, though, Rick got side-tracked into using a black streak remover to scrub down the very dirty eavestroughs.  He also found one gutter that has started to leak and damage the fascia board behind it, but that is a chore for another day...

The left side of the gutter is washed while
the right side is filled with dirt and streaks.

On Tuesday we moved our efforts to the back (east) fence.  We made that job a bit trickier since we put the garden in front of the whole fence last year, so we had to work around brick edgers, stones, and plants.  The neighbor's tree is pushing up one section of the fence, and someday we will have to do something about that problem, but that, too, is a chore for another day...

Although the plants have grown up since this photo,
the fence line remains just as long!

Yesterday Rick washed the inside of the north fence.  While he was doing that, I went into our neighbor's yard to cut back the vegetation that technically is on our property.  Vegetation should never touch a fence or a house as it tends to damage both surfaces, so while Rick washed one side, I dug out Mother-in-Law's Tongues, ferns, vines, small trees, and other vegetation that got in our way.  Our neighbors are gone for the month, so they were not around to watch us; however, we have done this in the past, and they never have cared.  I filled almost two full bags of yard debris from the fence line, and after he was finished with the inside of the fence, we also scrubbed the outside of the fence on the north side.

Yes, we still have to wash the outside of the fence on the east and the south sides.  The east side will be done on a ladder, over the fence, with a long-handled brush.  The south side will wait until our neighbors can keep their very large, very protective dog in the house while we are in their yard. I am not one for upsetting dogs or losing limbs just to wash a fence.

While Rick was on the ladder scrubbing the eavestroughs on Tuesday, he noticed that the white rubber/ vinyl blend roof that we had installed in December 2019 was almost black with dirt and mold, so today he climbed up on the roof to see if we could restore it to its original condition.  I stationed myself on the ladder to watch him and to call 911 should he slip or do something else equally stupid.  All went well. After a morning of Rick's hard scrubbing, the dirt is gone and the roof once again retains its rain-shedding qualities.  He spent a little time on our lanai roof with the scrub brush, too, so the roof-scrubbing chores are finished for another couple of years.

While on the ladder, Rick tried to clean
off a bit of the roof (as seen in the corner).
That told him that most of the dirt COULD
be scrubbed from the Florida Room roof.

Water, car wash soap, a good soft brush,
and lots of labor did the trick to clean the roof.

Add a little water from the hose after scrubbing,
and the soap and dirt wash away.

Progress as Rick nears the end of the job.

Our "to do" list seems endless, but that is all part of the joys of homeownership.  We will do a little bit each day to keep Gladys looking her best. 

Time to Trim

 After a tense, long, long, long, long day of travel, we arrived safely back in Florida for the winter.  Let it be known that snow, delayed flights, missed flights, early departures of connecting flights, bad and expensive airport food, and airline agents who do not know how to or who just do not care to do their jobs correctly all make for less than enjoyable travel. 

But we are here.  We spent the first full day spending more money than one could even imagine on restocking the pantry, the refrigerator, and the freezer.  Although Covid cases are far less here right now than in Wisconsin, we have more elderly people down here, so we tend to see more masks being worn in grocery stores.  That is the good thing.  The outrageous price of groceries in Florida is the bad thing.  However, one must eat, and it is only money, so life goes on.  We both are just thankful that we HAVE the money to buy what we need.

The hibiscus try to reach over the fence while the Duranta gold
mound bushes add greenery.  One of the purple cordyline is on the far right.

On the third day here, we started to tackle the very overgrown landscape. Rick had always claimed that if everyone left Florida, it would return to the wild within 12 months.  I believe that is true.  Our back garden that we planted just last year was both a great success and an utter failure.  The two podocarpus -- one on each end of the garden -- both died.  We have one tiny, scraggly stalk of the podocarpus left next to our live oak tree (more shade there), but the other is totally gone. 

The five hibiscus that we planted all went crazy.  They were two feet high when we left and were towering over our 6 foot fence when we returned.  Sadly, they became tall and  "woody," so I hope that by trimming them down, they will fill in with leaves and flowers lower to the ground. 

The nine Duranta gold mound bushes, which I had little hope for, were the clear winners in the garden.  They both spread out and grew taller.  Thankfully, they also trimmed back nicely, so I am pleased with how they look. 

The more neatly trimmed garden needs some replanting and a lot
of water to keep it looking good.  I think I will move the two
remaining cordyline to a more shady location.

The last plant, the spiky cordyline, were on almost equal par with the podocarpus.  Of the five that we planted last year, the two that received the most shade were healthy and grew while the other three that got more sun burned out to dead stalks.  Lesson learned.  The cordyline need shade. 

This is one of four piles of clippings I need to move to the curb.

As usual, the Areca palm tree in the corner garden tried to dominate the entire area.  It grew both tall and wide, so that always becomes a major trimming area for us.  Afterward, we have a two foot high by four foot long bundle of branches to haul to the curb.  We have an additional two bags of clippings from what Rick cut down of the neighbor's trees that grew over our fence line.

The Areca palm, now neatly trimmed, fills the corner garden.

The nice thing about this city is that homeowners can put landscape bags of clippings or branches out each week with the garbage.  Our garbage pick-up is on Monday, so the clippings all will hit the curb today.

Of course, that is only the BACK yard.  I still need to do some trimming of the crotons in the back and all of the trees and shrubs in the front yard.  The good news is that we are having an unusually warm December here, so working in the yard is sweaty but fun.  I'll take this weather over snow any day of the week.

Finished at Last!

 The installation of the new carpet in the basement on Tuesday went off without a hitch.  We are so happy to finally have the basement complete.  The installers came at 7:30 a.m. and were out the door before 2:30 p.m.  That gave us some time to start moving items back into place.

A new, thick pad makes the stairs safe and soft.

The same color carpet starts at the stairs
and goes down the hall, into the bedroom,
and into the exercise room directly ahead.

I started with the closets since we had closet items piled on everything in the storage room.  We finished the closets, and then Rick hassled with the closet doors.  Of course, with a thicker pad and carpeting, he had to make adjustments to all three sets of doors to get them to open and close properly.

A left turn at the bottom of the stairs leads to the bedroom.

We spent part of Tuesday afternoon setting up the exercise room with the TV and the three big pieces of exercise equipment: the treadmill, the rowing machine, and the bike.

The exercise room never looked so good!

The equipment fits well, and we can turn off the
front row of lights if we want to watch TV.

The couch adds another type of seating for TV viewing
downstairs.

On Wednesday morning, we finished the "moving back" process.  The extra furniture that we can't quite part with yet now fills the spare bedroom.  The couch is back in the exercise room, and we even had time to hang pictures on the wall.

Closet doors and a Renoir on the wall make the bedroom complete.

The weaving above the couch is a coverlet pattern that Rick wove years ago.  The other art prints on the walls were something we bought at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. probably 20 years ago.  I found the prints when I was cleaning out the closet and decided that we might as well enjoy Monet's art. We have one Renoir, but the rest are all by Monet.

I will let the pictures tell the real story of the outcome of our basement remodel.

The spare bedroom holds everything but a bed!

Artwork adds the finishing touch to the basement.