Finishing Tasks

We are quickly working through our list of last-minute jobs that we want to complete before we head for home.  We worked all of yesterday morning and part of this morning to finish the caulking of the soffit vents.  They may not yet look pretty, but for now they will do because they will seal out the roaming fruit rats.  We think that we have at least solved our critter problems... no more rats and no more termites (as of Wednesday when they come out to treat for subterranean termites, too).

Rick cut branches away from the rooftop yesterday, too.  I swear that if all the people left Florida for a year, this whole state would quickly revert back to the jungle.  If you have even seen pictures of ancient Mayan ruins with trees growing through temple roofs, you know what I mean.  We trimmed one bush just before we tented the house, and it grew back two feet!  I could not believe it when I trimmed them again.  I am scared to death that if we are gone for 8 months, we will not be able to find the house when we return.

We did some touch-up paint of the house where some paint had started to peel away from the stucco (due to poor prep); however, we were disappointed to see that the touch-up was not an exact match.  It is slightly darker than the faded paint on the house, but again for now it will do.  We eventually want to paint the whole house, but we may not be able to do for a few more years when we can finally be down here in the cooler fall and winter months.

We have a couple more small indoor jobs to complete, and then we will tackle the job of packing.  Since we worked hard this morning, we took showers before lunch and then treated ourselves to an afternoon out.  Rick wanted to go to a winery in St. Petersburg and the drive up the beaches on the way home.  The Florida Orange Groves Winery is a quirky little place that has perfected fruit wines to the point of winning national and international awards.  We bought four bottles of wine: a blueberry, a raspberry, and two bottles of Hurricane 5 (a delicious blend of five different fruits).  We'll drink them this winter with fond memories of the day.

A day at the beach.

People can rent beach umbrellas and chairs, but we could not find an attendant to find out the price.

A Florida beach on a Tuesday afternoon.

On the way home, we found two wonderful public beaches: Maderia Beach and Pinellas County Beach just south of Clearwater Beach.  The first beach was white sand and great Gulf breezes.  The second beach was mostly crushed shells, but it is closer to our house and much bigger.  The attached pictures are of that beach.  We will definitely make time next summer to visit more than once.

A friend of mine bought a house in Clearwater (just south of here, sort of like how Ashwaubenon is to Green Bay) in 2006.  I looked up her property, and although it is a beautiful house in a great neighborhood, I was sad to see that she paid over $200,000 for the house, and it is now valued at $110,000.  Property continues to lose value here in Florida, but in the long haul I feel that our children will be able to make a nice profit someday if they choose to sell Gladys.