Defeated

We are defeated.  Everything that we have tried to do in the last couple of days has ended in disappointment and sometimes defeat. Rick is so discouraged right now that he would just as soon pack his bags and head back to Wisconsin.  This is partially due to overwork and burn-out, and partially due to one thing going wrong after another.

We started yesterday morning by getting ready to add an electrical outlet in the wall for the microwave that we want to install above the stove. Rick called the kitchen cabinet contractor and got the general measurement for where the outlet should be; he made the mistake of saying that this should be a fairly easy application since he could see the wall that we had to use from a ladder in the garage. (Hint to homeowners: NEVER say aloud that anything you are attempting to do will be easy.  Doing so awakens all of the remodeling gremlins waiting to pounce.)

When he climbed the ladder, he found about nine wires already snaking down that wall; apparently, if a Mack truck comes through the front kitchen wall and wipes out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, we will not have power in any of the rest of the house!  At any rate, he also found an unused access hole that he thought he could use for the new wire, so we really did think this would be an easy job.

He cut a very tidy square hole in the wall where he thought the plug should go.  OK, first problem: the hole revealed a stud wall and when Rick tried to flash a light down the access hole in the attic, I could not see the light in the new hole that he cut in the wall. Conclusion: the access hole in the attic lead to a space on the other side of the stud wall.  (Expletive deleted!)

He came back into the kitchen and cut another tidy hole in the wall on the opposite side of the stud in the wall.  Back in the garage, the flashlight again failed to reveal any light down into the kitchen.

"Forget it," Rick said.  "I'm just going to shove the wire down the wall.  You should be able to see it."  I dutifully stood by the new hole waiting for the wire to appear-- which it did, but it came out in the original hole that we had cut!

"I can see it," I yelled, "but you will not believe where it came out."  Rick reappeared in the kitchen, and a few more expletives filled the air.  He cut the first hole so perfectly that the electrical box fit right in with no plastering required.  However, now we had a second hole that had to be filled, mudded, sanded, and painted.  ARGHHH!

Since he is so sick of plastering that the sight of the bucket of mud makes him almost physically ill, the prospect of mudding another  patch was not appealing.  He filled the hole and mudded it so we could sand and add a second coat of mud today.

On to the next project.  Rick decided to replace the wobbly ceiling fan in our bedroom.  My ever-researching husband had narrowed the search down to one fan that got rave reviews. We purchased it and spent two and one-half hours getting it all installed.  He went back to the garage, flipped the breaker back on, and we had lights...no cameras... but also no action!  The fan motor was dead, so he took it down, rechecked all of the wire connections, and tried it again.  Lights told us that we had power to the fixture, but the fan blades still stood as still as a soldier guarding Buckingham Palace. More expletives.

Rick took the fan down, and we hauled it back to the store.  He was so angry that he let me do the talking at the returns desk. They apologized, told us that the fan had a very good reputation, and gave us a new one to take home.  By that time, it was too late (and Rick was still too upset), so wire nuts hung from the ceiling and a small fan sitting on the dresser tried to keep the air circulating in the bedroom overnight.

We went to bed last night feeling totally defeated.  No matter what we tried to do recently, there is always some problem with our first attempts.  Generally we can get things worked out, but not without additional hassles. Rick is ready to quit and to give it all up for this trip.  I have not worked as hard, and I am much more optimistic than he, so I still have some hope.

This morning we got up late, and rather than jump right back into tasks, we eased into the morning with some much-needed paperwork.  Rick filled in the forms to get rebates for the windows from the power company, and I called about our still-missing cushion on the bench in the bedroom.  The results?  We should get about $230 in rebates from the power company, and the bench cushion is supposed to be in the store tomorrow.

After the slow start, we decided to go to Lowe's to pick up our blinds for the master bedroom and bath. The blinds are great.  The first one went into the bathroom with no problems.  The end wall in the bedroom also was great.  Then we put in the two end panels on the bank of three windows in the front. When we went to fit in the middle section, it was about 1/4 inch too long.  We tried every which way to make them fit, but no luck.  All solutions that we tried came up with more problems.  Gladys is too fat to fit into the girdle of these blinds.

Two new and one very old set of curtains, nailed to the wall.

We left the two side panels up, and the middle one will have to go back to the store tomorrow.  More expletives. Tonight we have beautiful blinds in all the windows but the middle one. Now Rick was really ready to go home.

After that, I was ready to quit for the day, but he decided to put up the new fan in the bedroom.  I came out here to start this blog because I could not stand any more disappointment if this one failed.  Thankfully, this one worked just fine, and we now have a beautiful new clean, white, energy-efficient, quiet ceiling fan.

A new ceiling fan.  Yeah!

After dinner, we both needed to get out of here for a while.  We have had thunderstorms for the last two days, but the sun finally came out after dinner for a little while.  We went to Micky D's for an ice cream cone, and then down to the Marina.

Rather than go out on the pier, I told Rick that I wanted to walk down a street neither of us had been on before.  The street is Victoria Street, and it runs along the shoreline of Dunedin.  I originally wanted to walk down just as far as the first house, which is a turquoise-painted two-story Victorian house that used to be the clubhouse for the Marina. It is up for sale, and I wanted to take a closer look.  But then we saw that the street actually curved around and went further.  We discovered a whole neighborhood that is definitely a hidden historical district of Dunedin. The houses are all mammoth Southern plantation-style homes among native trees, private docks, and lots of old South charm.  Steve and Chris, if you have not walked down this street, this is a must-see... but don't do it right after a rain since the street goes into gravel with dips.  Also, don't go at low tide like we did since the neighborhood was rather fishy/ musty smelling.

We walked the whole street all the way from the Marina practically to Weaver Park.  I will definitely walk this again as it was quiet and very relaxing.  We needed that after the last two days.  We returned to the pier to watch the sunset. A pelican tried to butt into our discussion at one point, but other than that, we had a good end to the day.

We definitely have reached the point where we need to slow down, to take a few hours each day off from constant tasks, and perhaps to find some fun in Florida before we return to work in Wisconsin.