We often joke that for my 26th birthday, Rick bought me a toilet. That is true. We had just moved into our first house, were short on money, and needed to replace the "necessities" of life. Today was Rick's 59th birthday, so for his birthday he got a present and so did I.
His "gift" was a new garage door and opener. Hooray! We can finally touch a button and actually have not only a garage door that opens, but also one that seals out the fruit rats. The workmen came at a little after 9:00 this morning and finished at about 1:00 p.m. We now have a new hurricane-proof garage door (you should see the steel behind this sucker!) and a new opener with two remotes and a key-less, coded touch pad. It works better than our garage door in Wisconsin (and for the price, it should!).
My "gift" on his birthday was the delivery of our new oven. It is similar to my stove at home, and for the first-ever edible that I made, I baked Rick a key-lime pie (his favorite) for his birthday. Lacking birthday candles, I lit a regular candle, sang off-key, and he celebrated another year.
The rains have finally come to Florida, and we learned yesterday that we have yet another challenge (and expense) to face. The storms in Florida are usually brief, filled with thunder and lightening, and characterized by downpours. During one deluge yesterday, Gladys peed! We were just moving back into the house yesterday, having spent four days in a motel while the floors were refinished. As we were moving items in, the rains started. Rick was working in one of the bedrooms and as I rounded the corner from the kitchen, I saw a two-foot puddle of water inside the Florida room by the back door. Gladys wet herself then, and to a lesser degree later in another storm. (This is sort of like an old lady who slightly pees her pants when she sneezes or laughs too hard!) The problem is the configuration of the house roof meeting the Florida room roof and the waterfall that results during a storm. We had been warned by the floor people not to let water "set" on the newly polished floors, and then Gladys goes and leaks all over.
Our resolution will be two-fold. First, we have to replace the back doors in this house, which we knew. We can get a new back door and install it ourselves for a couple of hundred dollars. We would rather not spend the money, but we knew we might have to do so before we left for the winter. The greater "fix" is to have rain gutters installed. We got a bid today from a company, and like everything else, this will set us back another $1000. Replacing the door will not permanently solve the problem, so we have no choice. We want to get this house secure before we leave in August, so this is just one more unexpected step we have to take.
To celebrate Rick's birthday (now that we can finally get in and out of the garage with the bikes) we decided this evening to take our first bike ride since we have been here. Another "surprise": the one thing that did not make the trip well was our bicycle pump. When Rick went to fill the tires, the pump did not work. We will have to try to take it apart tomorrow to see if we can fix it or look for an inexpensive pump for now. One of the main reasons we came to Dunedin was to use the bike trail, so this minor set-back will not stop us from our goal.
On a positive note, Rick put together the first of the three cherry tables that he made for the house, and it is beautiful. I am took tired and the time is too late tonight to post pictures of our bright new floors and the table, but I will try to do that tomorrow.
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