A Sinking Feeling

For those of you who are familiar with this blog, you know that two years ago when Rick and I purchased Gladys, one of the first things we did (within the first week) was to gut the entire kitchen.  Cabinets, dishwasher, sink, old plumbing, ceiling fan, and countertops were all gone. Rick built me a "temporary" kitchen that consisted of a new plastic kitchen sink supported by a 2 x 4 understructure.  We added a Home Depot cheap countertop, and we used an old countertop that was left with the house as a shelf underneath.  That "temporary" kitchen lasted two years until we were able to afford the new kitchen that we had installed this past summer (2012).

Why do I mention that? Rick offered to put in my new laundry room utility sink with a temporary 2 x 4 understructure until we could get the new tile floor and the new base cabinet in to support the sink.  I now know what "temporary" means in remodeling vernacular, but having the sink in place to wash out paint brushes, to soak soiled clothing in, and to wash dirty gardening hands won over my objections to anything else labeled "temporary."  Rick took the aforementioned left-over countertop, cut a hole in it for the utility sink, and constructed a 2 x 4 frame for the sink.  The framing actually took a little more planning than we thought since we had to take into account a very tight space, somewhat unknown plumbing configurations, and strategically planned bracing to make it both hold a heavy sink and stand up at the same time.

The pictures show that we eventually had success with the sink.  We did not caulk it in place, but since the sink is 14" deep, we have no fear that it will flood over the sides.  Even if it does, the water will simply seep onto an old countertop that we will throw away after we are finished with it, onto a solid concrete floor below.

The new utility sink on a "temporary" frame
still gives me enough room to store
laundry baskets underneath.

Our intention, of course, was to wait until next year to put in the tile and to order out the cabinets.  However, like most plans, this one, too, has slightly changed.  We went to ProSource today to get an estimate on how much the 12 x 12 tile, the 3 x 12 bullnose tile (to use as baseboard in the room), the thin-set, and the grout would cost. WE earlier had selected a tile that we liked at the Daltile showroom.  Because they are a big distributor of Daltile, ProSource was able to get a good deal on the tile, so the bullnose will actually cost more than the whole cost of the 12 x 12 tile.  All in all, the eventual price was fairly inexpensive and within our remodeling budget... if we do the work ourselves. If we have it installed, we can triple the price of the job, so we will try to do this task ourselves.  If we take our time and prep the floor ahead of time, I think that this task, too, will turn out OK in the end. The new tile will be ready for pick-up later in this week.

The cabinets are still out of range of our budget for this year, so I know that they will have to wait until next fall at the earliest.  What that means is that after we put down the new floor, we will reinstall the "temporary" sink.  That's all right.  I know that temporary works, and after 53 years of existence with no sink at all, I also am sure that Gladys, too, is willing to wait.

Now I Remember...

When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to play a game on long car rides (in those days "long" was from Oshkosh to Pickett), by seeing how many cars we could spot with licenses from states other than Wisconsin.  Generally, on a good ride, we might spot one or two.  I was reminded of that game today as Rick and I drove down Main Street in Dunedin.  In a few short blocks, I saw cars from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, and the ever-present Ontario, Canada.  I really wonder, if a true census were taken, how many winter residents of Dunedin really are native-born Floridians.  Not more than 50%, I would guess.

Of course, all of us people from the North have come here for the same reason: to escape the cold and the snow.  Today, in Wisconsin, we know that schools were closed state-wide as anywhere from 4 - 12" of snow fell from the sky.  In Green Bay, schools were closed in anticipation of 8" or more.  Would I have wanted to awake to that today?  No, not really.  Today dawned clear and sunny in Dunedin with the promise of 80 degree temperatures.  By this afternoon, the temp was 83, Rick and I changed into shorts, and we sat in the backyard enjoying the sunshine and the wonderful warm breeze. We were able to take a wonderful walk this evening after dinner as has become our habit. A picture-perfect day.  Now I remember why we bought Gladys and are working so hard to make her a strong, beautiful, welcoming home for the winter.

In an effort to improve Gladys, Rick transferred the dead blot and door handles from the old louvered kitchen door to the new door in the laundry room.  We added insulation around the door, so we know that the new door will be 10 times more energy efficient than the old door. Then he tackled the job of removing the old kitchen door, which was surprisingly heavy, and removing the framing around the door.  We thought that removing the old framing would be a difficult chore, but in reality, it came out in large pieces.

The results are evident in the attached pictures.

The view from the laundry room back into
the kitchen.  The pocket door slides into
this opening.

The old door is gone, and the original block wall
is exposed in the opening. We'll add drywall
to finish this space that leads into the
laundry room.

In the evening, we will still be able to close
off the kitchen from the laundry with the
pocket door.

We know that by enclosing the laundry facilities, we have greatly increased the value of the house.  More importantly, we have provided a climate-controlled, clean, inviting place to complete a necessary chore.  Each day, Gladys feels more like home, and that feeling also reminds me why we came to Florida.

Stress and Sponges

I am always amazed when something that seemed to be a disaster really turns out to be a blessing in disguise.  I talked in my last post about the fact that the door we ordered for the garage-to-house was ordered in the wrong size.  When we went to see the 32" door (which was supposed to be a 36" door), we discovered that the door had unusually thick framing.  When Sonya ordered the door, she asked us if it was OK to order a 20 minute burn-resistant pine frame.  We said that would be fine, and we thought no more of it.  Normal framing for a door is 2 inches wider than the finished door, and Rick expected that the pine frame would be a treated frame in the normal size. Because this door has a 20 minute burn time, this door came in not with fire-resistant components mixed with the frame but with a wider pine frame itself, making it 3"more than the finished door.  Had we actually gotten the 36 inch door that we wanted, we would have found ourselves with a fire-resistant door and fire-resistant frame that would not have fit into the rough opening we had built into the wall!

The company was not willing to just order us the right size door as a replacement; they did say that they could order us a new 36" door for full price and would try to sell our already purchased door for us for full price if they could find a customer who needed it. Since we did not really have another $300+ just waiting to be used, we decided to accept the smaller door and to add more wood to the rough opening so that it would fit.  We brought the door home and calculated that we would have to add a 2x4 (plus a bit more to one side) to each side of the frame to have the door fit.  The good thing about the additional wood is that now we had plenty of room to use full 4 inch screws when attaching the door to the wall.  (Think "hurricane-resistant"folks.) No problem.

Then I asked the key question: would this door fit height-wise since the height of the door really did not change?  Big problem.  The frame on top also was oversized, so the only way that we could fit the door into the rough opening was to remove an inch of wood from the top double frame of the rough opening.  Bring out the saws-all. The oversized wood in the door frame will compensate and still give the door all of the support it needs, so structurally there is no problem, especially since the wall we were installing the door into is NOT a load-bearing wall.

Long story short: after lots of anger, frustration, stress, and grief, we were able to install a still perfectly-good-sized 32 inch fire-resistant door that now has enough structure and screws holding it in place to be hurricane-resistant, too. After installing the door yesterday morning, we had to get out of the house for a while.

The new door plumb and straight.

We drove about 10 miles north to Tarpon Springs.  In 1905, a Greek immigrant settled in Tarpon Springs and started the sponge industry in Florida.  Today, Tarpon Springs remains a very Greek community that still is known for its sponges.  In fact, 90% of the sponges sold in America today come from Tarpon Springs.

Going there was an education.  We learned that there are many kinds of sponges, and they all have their purpose.  Yellow sponges are more coarse, and they make great scrubbing sponges.  Wool sponges are of higher quality, so they are many times used for bathing.  (For those of you using a loofah in your shower, please understand that you are NOT using a sponge.  Tarpon Springs sell loofahs, but the salespeople are clear that loofahs are a different animal (literally) that is not a sponge.) The softest sponge is a silk sponge, and those are used for the face and for gentle bathing.  Sponges range anywhere from $2.99 for a small yellow sponge to $16.99 for larger, softer, better sponges.

I actually bought two sponges: a wool sponge for the shower and a yellow sponge for my cleaning closet. Why use a sponge? Because while plastic or synthetic "sponges" are great for short-term cleaning, after a few uses, they begin to grow mold and to harbor bacteria. True sponges will not allow mold to grow, and they will not harbor any bacteria.  If they are squeezed rather than wrung out, they are supposed to last up to five years.  Does that mean that if I don't clean too often, I can get 10 years out of the yellow sponge?  What?  No?  OK, that probably wouldn't be a good idea.

My yellow sponge, waiting for its debut cleaning spree.

Today we worked this afternoon to get the disaster-formerly-known-as-our-garage straightened out and to get the primed door sealed with a first coat of paint.  While Rick painted, I picked up, rearranged, threw out, and otherwise tried to find the floor and space that I remembered seeing in the garage. Both of our efforts were successful by dinner time.

A new coat of paint for our new door.

Our disastrous wrongly-sized door turned out to be a blessing in disguised because it certainly is easier to add wood than to cut it away, and the result is still a properly-sized garage-to-house door.  We now have a beefy door that is secure, insulated, and hurricane resistant.

Each task completed is a further step into making Gladys the winter home we want to be able to come to and to enjoy for many years to come.

Monday, Monday...

The time is 8:50 a.m., and already this is proving to be a Monday.  We waited until today to call the Millwork company to see if the garage-to-house door was ready, and Rick noticed that Sonya had ordered the wrong size door.  We wanted a 36" door, and the order is for a 2/8 which is a 32" door.  Darn! We have the walls complete and the opening ready; I am not willing to reframe the opening for a smaller door. Rick is really upset about the whole thing, and he should not be.  This all was just an oversight on everyone's part. We'll get it worked out, but this is another disappointing delay.

We were hoping to get the door in today because the weather has turned cold and the only thing holding the heat in the laundry room is a heavy plastic drape that we stapled into the opening.

This past weekend we went to a huge art fair in downtown Dunedin.  (Didn't I tell you that Dunedin ALWAYS has something going on?)  This fair was great; we saw many artists that we had never seen before, and I could have spent hundreds of dollars on paintings and objects for the house.  I had to keep reminding myself that we did not have the budget to waste on wants when we had a number of needs to take care of first.  I did buy two small things: a set of notecards with fun, tropical colors, and a much needed key holder that we hung on the wall.

We originally thought that the key holder would hang in our bedroom, but when we got it home, we found that it looked better on the yellow hallway wall, so it is hanging right outside our bedroom door.  We had gotten into a habit of just throwing our keys on the dresser in the bedroom, so this location still will work well for us. The board is a wipe-off ceramic with the painted palm tree and sun on it.  I added the message today just to remind us that although we had freezing temperatures last night, we could have it much worse-- like having snow instead of just a few frosty blades of grass in the yard.

A reminder that Green Bay is supposed to have
another foot of snow this coming Thursday.
We could have it much worse!

Strangely enough, when I brought the garbage can back behind the fence after our pick-up today, I crunched on frozen grass, noting that a sole little weed that looked like a daisy was blooming in the midst of the frozen terrain. It won't survive long because our lawn service will come today to mow, but at least it showed its stamina for a little while.

Chris' sister Caroline came for a visit, so they stopped over yesterday.  Chris had made the cheeseburger soup that I made a few weeks ago, so she brought us over a big bowlful.  It was delicious and gave us a hot, quick dinner last night.  This cold weather makes me want to whip up either some beef stew in the crock-pot or some chicken soup.  Since beef is terribly expensive down here, I think a big pot of chicken soup will be my ultimate goal.

The laundry room has gone from being just a plastered together conglomeration into what looks like a real room.  I always am amazed at what a little paint can do! When we reach the paint-point on a project, I know that the work is almost complete because the paint is one of the last things done to a room.  The laundry room is a little different, though, because we still have to add tile to the floor.  We also have to remove the frame and the old kitchen door and refinish the final wall behind the door.  We cannot do that, though, until the old door is gone.

Rick applies the first coat of paint to the ceiling of the
laundry room.

Then comes the blue paint for the walls.

The paint is the same paint we used in the kitchen, but
the kitchen looks more greenish.  The difference is
the lighting of the two rooms.

While we wait for the other door before we can finish this
wall, I decided to add a little palm tree with the left-over
paint in my bucket.

This room had been a major undertaking.  I knew that moving the water heater would be a challenge, but I have to give Rick credit because he made it look relatively easy, even if it was not.  The room was more work than I ever imagined it would be, and truthfully, we also have to add the sink, countertop, and perhaps upper cabinets yet to the room.  We are to the point, though, where once again the cabinets might have to wait until a future budget.  We have always worked from the premise of save for what you want, and then do the project when you have the money to do so.  We have just about depleted the funds again, so some things will have to wait.

I guess Gladys has patiently waited all of these years for upgrades.  We have changed her underwear, massaged her old joints, bought her lots of pretty new dresses, and even added a little make-up to her.  In the future, we hope to add even more.  Steve and Chris are to the point where their inside work is done, and they have the luxury of working on their yard.  Hopefully someday we'll be able to buy flowers for Gladys too.

Rainy Day Deals and Relaxation

Today is one of those cool, rainy days that begs you to find an overstuffed chair, some fuzzy slippers, and a really good book.  The rain started yesterday with some pretty impressive downpours, and today has followed with drizzle interrupted by intermittently more intense attempts at true showers.  No one around here is complaining as the water tables are low and most lawns are showing brown areas of drought. While we are surrounded by water, the good folks of Dunedin still rely on groundwater and wells for their usable water supply.

While today is a lazy day, I do have to take a moment to add a picture of a more energetic time.  Rick took a few shots of the Mardi Gras parade on his phone.  While most were dark and difficult to see (since it's hard to take a clear shot in a jostling crowd), these pirate ships that filled the street show the exuberance of the evening.

One of two pirate ships coming down the
street during Mardi Gras.

The back of a pirate ship. Note the skull
between the two upper lights.

Rick has been working non-stop on the laundry room, so he is dead tired.  I have been trying to help while also keeping up the daily chores of keeping the house clean, so my energy is lagging today also.  Maybe God sent this day as a reminder that it is OK to not work so hard.

Rick still started the day by putting on the final coat of paint on the pocket door and then going out to put another coat of drywall mud on the laundry room walls.  I'm amazed at how much wall surface -- and corners and seams -- a small room really has.  Rick said he hopes that this is the final coat of mud, and that all that follows is the sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding, primer, and then paint.  Finishing the walls certainly will be a relief.

We also tried to work on reupholstering my chair today, but we discovered that even with the electric staple gun, the wood used on the chair bottom was way too hard for the staples to adequately hold the fabric. I started to research upholstery shops in Dunedin while Rick worked on the laundry room.  What did one do before the Internet?  I found two shops online for Dunedin, and both are in this neighborhood.  The closer shop of the two specialized in reupholstering cars, RVs, and boats with the idea of furniture as an afterthought in their advertisements.  I did not get a warm, fuzzy feeling about them.

The second shop was a shop that only advertised refinishing and reupholstering furniture.  I thought, "What do I have to lose?" I took the seat and material, drove a few blocks, and turned into the small strip mall where the shop was supposed to be located.  Disappointment filled me as I noted that none of the shops bore the name of the reupholstery shop I sought.  I decided that the best way to point my car in the correct direction was to drive toward the rear of the strip mall to turn around.  As I did so, I found a small building nestled behind the strip mall bearing the name of the shop I was seeking.

The upholstery "shop" truly lived up to that name.  I walked through the open door into a workshop filled with finished and half-finished pieces of old furniture.  That large room had two doors on one wall through which sounds of someone working were clearly apparent.  I yelled, "Hello" as I went through one of the doors.  Both doors took me into another workshop, this one holding two large work tables, bolts of cloth, hand-tools all over, a large compressor on the floor, and an elderly man with a chisel and wooden mallet sitting at a workbench removing the covering on an ornate chair. The room screamed "tradesman" in the best of the tradition.  No fancy office or counter, no gleaming cash register, no snobbish attendant trying to look too busy to take an order... just a hard-working craftsman doing what he loved to do.  The room rather reminded me of scenes from Santa's workshop where tools of the trade were scattered about, and I half-expected to see elves lurking in the corners, waiting for the human to leave so they could get back to work.

Jim, the craftsman, asked me what I needed.  I admitted that I did not have the right tools to complete the job.  He looked at the chair seat and told me that he could cover it for me.  When I asked how much, he crocked his head a little while he calculated time and labor, and said, "Eight bucks." He then told me I could have the seat back by this afternoon.  Since my pessimistic husband had me ready to hear that a craftsman would charge me anywhere from $50 - $100 to recover the seat, I was shockingly surprised at both the rate and the time.  I agreed, signed my name and phone number into his school-ready notebook, and left.

My desk chair before...

Since today is Valentine's Day and since I had a pie crust left over from a previous meal of quiche, I decided to research pie crust recipes so I could make Rick a two-crust cherry pie.  I found a promising recipe (by that I mean one that required only ingredients that I had in the pantry or refrigerator!), and I set to work.  By early afternoon, the pie was in the oven.  I have not tasted it yet, but the attached picture shows that it at least LOOKS like a good pie.  (Steve and Chris, if you want to come over for a little Valentine's dessert, this is your invitation.)

My deep-dish, cherry Valentine's pie

Of course, as I was waiting to get the pie out of the oven, my phone rang.  Jim was calling to tell me that he had the chair seat ready.  I have to say that I am very pleased with the results.  I actually tipped him for his work by giving him $10.00 and telling him to keep the change.  If I had had to order out a pneumatic stapler that I would probably never use again, I would have had to pay over $100.  I figured that even at $10.00, this job was the deal of the century.

... and after the reupholstery.  

While there was nothing wrong with the original fabric of the chair, it did not match my tropical coastal theme in Gladys.  Rick is diplomatically not saying anything about the new fabric, so I know that he does not really care for it too much.  Too bad.  I think that it is a fun print with wild, tropical colors that includes the blue of the Florida room.  Somehow, I think that Gladys approves.  It's a girl thing, gentlemen, so just go with it.

Mardi Gras Fun

Dunedin is known for its many festivals throughout the year, and one of the biggest is the Mardi Gras festival and parade that is held every Fat Tuesday.  The festival is a good excuse for restaurants to set up tents to sell their specialties (or at least to sell what they think milling crowds of hungry people will want to buy), for craftspeople to sell their wares, for wanna-be musicians to attract attention, and for people in general just to get out, let loose, and have a good time.

The Mardi Gras celebration this year was the 22nd annual event; advertisements for the festivities said that for the past 10 years, the festival has drawn crowds of up to 30,000 people.  For a city that only boasts a population of 37,000, that is a pretty good draw!

Steve and Chris have attended the festival twice, so they clued us in to the best place to park and the best place to set up chairs to see the event.  While the parking meant that we had to walk several blocks to get to downtown, the weather was great and the exercise was welcome.  On the way, we got to see some of the "old town" homes of Dunedin.  We also started to see masked party goers, people in costumes -- everything to feathered bikinis to pirate costumes-- and merchants marketing their goods in any way they could.  Our first sets of Mardi Gras beads were given to us by a restaurant worker, and, of course, they had an advertisement attached.

We went downtown about 5:00 p.m. so we had a chance to walk around, to get dinner (a hot dog with strawberry shortcake for dessert), and to walk around for a bit.  A magician was working the corner by the bike trail and Main Street for tips, and the musicians were just warming up for jam sessions that could be heard for blocks.  Gold, green, and purple masks, beads, feathers, and costumes could be seen in all directions.

Rick after Mardi Gras.  Beads, anyone?
(Note: the large white square beads he
wears say, "Southern Comfort.")

By 6:30, we were sitting next to the fenced off street on part of the parade route.  While the parade did not start until 7:30, we wanted to be able to experience it all.  The parade itself was a hodge-podge of business people who used cars, wagons, or golf carts -- lots of golf carts!-- to advertise their businesses while they threw Mardi Gras beads to the crowds.  Music was everywhere although only two floats in the parade actually played their own version of music.  No formal bands were a part of the parade, and those "floats" that were not business vendors belonged to church or civic groups.

We were home by 9:30 p.m., and the attached pictures show our "haul" of party beads.  Overall, the parade was fun even if Rick did not get to hear any bagpipes.  (We saw people in kilts, but no bagpipes for this festival.) The evening was relaxing, and it was great to get out for a while.

We had fun, and the beads show that
we had a good time at the parade.

In the last three days, our other ventures have included putting together the two shelving units to hold our crafts.  I wanted something that would fit under the windows and not obscure the view to outside. These shelves work perfectly; they can show off the moulds for the baskets and still give us plenty of light in the room.

The two new shelving units in the Florida Room hold
basket and weaving supplies.

The painting of the door for the laundry room had to move inside because the garage is full of plaster dust, and the trees outside are dropping leaves and other gunk that I really did not want to see embedded in the paint.  Rick did a great job of painting the door; now all we need it the other door in place so we can rip out the old kitchen door, rebuild the wall, and then hang this new pocket door.  That, too, will come in time.

Rick put the first coat of paint on the back side of the door
today.  Because of the structure of the door, it all must be
painted with a brush.

We went to the fabric store yesterday, and I found a brightly-colored new fabric for my desk chair.  It originally was a special order fabric, and I almost put it back on the shelf because it was marked $59.99 a yard!  However, I was brave enough to ask if it was on sale, and I was able to get a piece of the chair for $20.00.  That much, I could afford.  I am in the middle of trying to take off the old plaid fabric which actually could be a mistake.  The staples holding it on were pneumatically put in, so I am killing my hand trying to pry them out.  The woman at the fabric store told me to take off the old fabric.  I hope that was not a mistake.  I am afraid I might not be able to pull the new fabric tight enough to hold the foam underneath in place.  I hope to have the chair finished by tomorrow... for better or worse.

Rick is becoming impatient with the laundry room, so today he sanded the outside of the room, applied a primer, and a few hours later applied the first coat of paint.  THEN he said that he did a crappy job of sanding, and the wall does not look right.  I should have been out there helping him, but I was trying to get some baking and some cleaning done inside the house.  I cannot be in two places at once, and Mr. Impatience is not willing to wait.

I'll finish the chair today so I can help with the sanding tomorrow.  We have a cold front coming through this afternoon that is supposed to significantly drop the temperatures; for you Wisconsin folks reading this, that means we will go down into the 50s or 60s.  However, the wind is really blowing, and  the front promises to bring a bit of much-needed rain to the area.

I am glad that the rain held off for the parade last night.  Now if it wants to rain, so be it.  Everything is very dry, so Gladys' grass could use a good drink of water.

Progress and Poverty

I have not posted for the last three days, but that does not mean that we have been doing nothing.  On the contrary, we have been very busy, but not all of that business had to do with Gladys.

On Friday, we did spend the time working again on Gladys.  Rick finished all of the drywall in the laundry room and put the first coat of mud on the screws and joints of the new room.  Steve and Chris came over to see our progress, and Steve noted that we have done every phase of homebuilding on this single room: we have done plumbing, electricity, heating and air-conditioning, framing, insulating, drywalling, and we still have to do the painting, hang the doors, and tile the floor.  Whew!  A whole house project in miniature. The attached pictures show our progress in the room.

Taped and mudded drywall await sanding, more mud, and the
fireproof door.

Walls, ceilings, and lights all make this feel like a room.

This wall will enclose the pocket door and
give us access to the kitchen.

We also took some time to install the filtered water system and the ice-cube line to the water under the sink.  Dunedin's water is well water, so as I mentioned before, even the locals don't trust the water. The filtered water is wonderful to have; we will always have a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator.  The picture shows Rick under the sink trying to hook up the water line from the filtered water tap into the refrigerator so we can have safe, usable ice cubes.  The last refrigerator had a water line that came from the hot water heater... go figure... and since we have replaced that water heater, we needed to do something different.  Having filtered water for the ice cubes just makes sense.

The water line to the refrigerator is the LAST thing that will
fit under this kitchen sink!

Man does not live by work alone.  Sometimes we also have to play. Yesterday we took some time to travel to Tampa to go to a shop called Knit and Knibble.  It is a yarn shop that teaches knitting, crochet, and weaving.  I told Rick that I really wanted to get back into my hobby of weaving, but I could not do so without a warping board.  A warping board is a device that is used to measure out the yarn that a weaver puts on the loom. This shop was the only one in the area that had the small Schacht warping board I needed, so we traveled to Tampa to buy the board.

What a wonderful shop!  I easily could have spent a small fortune on all of the delicious yarns that they had, including hand-dyed merino wool that was heavenly, but I refrained myself before I depleted my checking account.  I have yarn awaiting me in a big basket in my Florida room, and I have not yet woven anything on the table loom I brought down, so I want to get a feel of how to use this small loom before I start working with yarn that costs $27.50/ skein!  For those of you related to me, you may anticipate hand-woven gifts in the future if this loom works out.

After the yarn store, we ate a packed lunch in the car in a parking lot at a mall (read that we are cheap and that I hate mall food), and then went into the largest mall in Tampa.  I desperately needed shoes, so I bought two new pairs of shoes for "good". Now I will not have to walk around in my work shoes, with the stitching coming out, all the time.

It was getting late, and we both were tired, so we decided not to go to Ikea while we were there.  THAT was a mistake.

This morning we started to look at the furniture arrangement in the Florida room.  I still needed a chair, and we decided to take the boxes that contained Rick's Nantucket basket materials down out of the guest room closet.  Rick weaves Nantucket baskets, and that is one hobby that he wanted to resume in his "free time" (ha!) down here in Florida.  We pulled down three tubs full of moulds, stands, and weaving materials, concluding that we really needed some low cabinets to hold all of the supplies.

Rick started investigating what was available and found what he wanted at -- you guessed it -- Ikea! Back we went to Tampa today, this time with the sole intent of going to Ikea.  We spent three hours in the store and came away not only with two white cabinets to hold the weaving supplies, but also a white chair to go along with my white desk.

The chair has a black and white Glen plaid print on the upholstered chair, but this Florida room desperately needs color, so I am going to try to find a colorful tropical print to recover the seat for a fun, Florida flair.

The white chair needs some tropical "updating" with
a new upholstered seat.

We tried to buy a white mirror that would replace the 1960's medicine cabinets and update the main bathroom, but when we went to the shelf, that space was empty.  I asked a clerk about the mirror, and he informed me that they were getting a new shipment of the mirrors in tonight, and I could come back and get it tomorrow.  A trip to Tampa three days in a row?  I don't think so...  If the mirror is there the next time I venture back to Tampa, I might pick it up, but I am not going to make a special trip just for that.  The price of gasoline has to be a factor in these trips.

Although Rick is actually impressed with the engineering of the Ikea furniture, he is a bit frustrated that everything one buys from Ikea comes in flat boxes and needs full assembly.  However, he is tenacious, so as I type this, I see a cabinet emerging before my eyes.  I'll publish full pictures of the results in a future blog.

While we have made great advances in our living arrangements in the past three days, my bank account has definitely gone backwards.  Each purchase we make is calculated, and some of our wants have been shifted until next month, the month after that, or even next year. Stay tuned to see what we accomplish next.

Fun in the Sun

The title of this post has to do with the big red beach umbrella that Rick ordered.  He used his Christmas and birthday money from the girls to get his dream umbrella with a sand stake and a carrying case.  As you can see by the pictures, the biggest problem now is to learn how to put the darn thing up!

Rick gets his Christmas present via a delivery service.

"OK, I think I remember how to do this."  (Didn't anyone tell him
that it's bad luck to open an umbrella in the house?)

Rick vs. the Umbrella.  I think that the umbrella has this
battle covered!

It's a draw.  The umbrella is up, but it's not fully open yet.

Yesterday we went to Tampa Bay Millwork to order out the pocket door which will close off the kitchen from the new laundry room.  We have been debating whether to choose a solid door to match the garage-to-house door or to go with a much more expensive full-pane glass door with a rainwater look.  I did not want to go with clear glass, but having a patterned glass pane that would still let light flow through was very appealing.  After much debate, we decided to go with the rainwater glass door.  Then Sonya, the decorator, mentioned that the glass door was thicker than a normal door, and Rick said, "We can't use it, then, because we would have to purchase modified hardware for the pocket door."  I wish that we had known about the door width from the start; we could have saved a lot of time and indecision had we known.

We ordered out the two panel wainscot door to match the garage-to-house door.  While the garage-to-house door is fire-proof, this pocket door will just be a solid core door.  That will be enough to keep noise confined to the laundry room, and I rather like the idea that if the laundry room contains baskets of dirty laundry, I can close off the room completely from any guests. An added bonus is that even as a solid core door, the door we ordered is about 1/3 the price of the glass-paned door.

While we were at the Millwork store, my cell phone rang.  That made me a little uncomfortable since most people have Rick's cell number.  My phone generally only rings because someone in the family has either really good or really bad news.  This time, however, the phone call simply offered another opportunity and another decision.  The call was from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, my former employer. Lori from the General Studies office asked me if I wanted to teach one, and possibly two, classes online for the College.  The call was about Oral Interpersonal Communication, a class that I have taught often.  In fact, I wrote the online version of the class.  The College had a late start class that a teacher originally had chosen, but at the last minute the teacher backed out of the deal.  That left them with a class that starts Monday but that had no teacher.  Lori also said I might be able to pick up a second class that has already started.  That class was taught by a former colleague of mine who, due to personal reasons, might not be able to complete the class.

Rick and I discussed the offer.  I was thinking that the money would be good, but I knew that Rick was totally against me teaching since doing so would take up quite a bit of my time.  The reason I decided not to accept the offer had nothing to do with the time commitment and everything to do with Wisconsin state taxes.  As of 2013, Rick and I are residents of Florida, and as such neither of us are making any income in Wisconsin.  If I chose to teach, then I would have to pay Wisconsin income taxes again this year.  We want 2012 to be the last year either of us made an income in Wisconsin.  Florida does not have income tax, so we do not want to go backward by having to deal with income from a state that taxes that money.

We have to be very cautious with our money, but we are doing OK right now.  The whole idea is to simplify our lives, to work hard to make Gladys a comfortable home, and to find time to enjoy our retirement.  Of course, part of that enjoyment will be going to the beach, listening to the waves wash ashore, and to relax under our big red beach umbrella.

Tuesday's Toils

We took yesterday "off" from remodeling, but that does not mean that we leisurely sat around and did nothing.  We actually accomplished quite a bit.

We called Wisconsin in the morning and solved our snow removal problem... we hope! We told one company, who wanted $60 each time to snow-blow and shovel our driveway and sidewalk, that their services were no longer needed.  They plowed our driveway a couple of times, missed the sidewalk, and heaped the snow in a five-foot mound in the middle of the front yard.  While people who live around Lambeau Field do that when they want to park cars on their yards for after-snow home games, we do not live close enough to the stadium to be a part of the plow-the-yard crowd. By plowing, they ran over my flower garden, left snow in front of the garage door, and never cleared the sidewalk or the porch.  The whole reason for snow removal is so that the house looks lived-in, and the job they were doing was not giving anyone that impression.  When Rick talked to the owner, he said, "Oh, you really need our snowblower service rather than the snow plow service."  That's where the $60 charge would come in.

We contacted another service that my friend Bonnie uses.  They agreed to come to our house, use a snowblower to remove the snow and shovels to clean up the walk and the porch, and they will charge only $25 - $30 each time.  Since we were paying $40 for the snow plowing, this new service will save us money, and we know that the property will be cleared the way we want it to be cleared.

We completed both grocery shopping and supply shopping yesterday so we would be ready to work again today on the laundry room.

My new desk has a great drawer for the computer.

In the afternoon, we contacted Hudson's to see if my desk had arrived.  We learned that it had, so Rick's brother Steve joined us as we picked it up.  (Thank you, Steve!) It had a couple of small scratches, but for the most part it is in good shape.  After Steve helped us get it home, we went out and ordered glass for the top.  Since the desk is painted, without glass I am afraid it would easily scratch.  The desk is 57 inches long, so we will be able to use it not only as a desk, but also as a craft table and a sewing table.  The middle "drawer" folds down to become a computer desk, and the handy side drawers are already filled with office supplies.

The final task that Rick did yesterday was to check on changing insurance for our car and possibly for our house.  Insurance is a nightmare in Florida.  Citizen's is a state-supported insurance company that most people must use for their homes.  The major insurance companies in the US will not insure property in Florida due to the risk of severe weather.  Car insurance is three and one half times more expensive than it is in Wisconsin because this is a no-fault state.  We currently have Citizen's for the house and All State for the car, but we have begun to explore other options.  Additionally, since we now have Florida as our primary residence, we lost our million-dollar umbrella against lawsuits.  Citizen's used to offer $300,000, but they are cutting back coverage while raising rates, so we now have only $100,000 coverage with an option to buy a "bridge" policy to bring it up to $300,000.  We are not comfortable with this system, so we are starting to look at our options.  Knowledge is power, so it never hurts to find out the facts.

Another panel on the north wall of the laundry room.  Slowly,
but surely, the construction is beginning to look like a room.

Although it looks simple, framing for the
pocket door took a lot of planning.

Today we accomplished four major steps in the laundry room.  The most difficult was in framing the pocket door frame which will separate the kitchen from the laundry room.  Rick spent a long time designing the wall in CAD, and then he build the frame while I cut insulation for the opposite side of the room.  We have limited room, so we just put up furring strips and I cut out 3/4 " insulation board to go between those strips.  We still have some framing to do around the back door (east wall) before we can add the drywall, but we hope to have it completed by the end of the week.

Once the pocket door frame was up, we were able to add the last panel of drywall to the ceiling, and another full sheet of drywall on the garage-facing (north) wall.  Tomorrow will be a drywall day; we should be able to get the rest of the north wall covered, and then we can insulate and cover the south wall behind the washing machine. If we have time, perhaps we can get the moulding cut for around the back door on the east wall so we can complete that wall, too.

We have used a ton of screws to put up the drywall, so I know that the taping of joints and mudding of all the joins and the screws will take us some time.  However, I also have faith that eventually we will reach the point where we can add the garage-to-house door, paint the walls, and even put down some tile to complete the structure of the room.  We still have to purchase the utility sink, the faucet, and the cabinetry if we can find the funds to do that all this year.

Like all other phrases of remodeling, the projects always take more money than anticipated, whether that is 2 x 4s for framing, insulation, additional tools, or more screws.  Gladys will be beautiful when we get her finished, but she certainly has expensive needs and tastes.


 

Weekend Progress and Peace

We made more progress this weekend, only because my OCD husband does not know when to quit.  We are alike in the fact that we both seek closure when we start a project, but enough is enough, even.  I know that he totally burned himself out this past summer working 12 hour days on the house, so I have been a witch about trying to get him to stop at a certain point each day. If you don't believe me, I will show you my broomstick.  It is quite worn down.

The ceiling and garage walls in the laundry room are now fully insulated, and we have drywall on 2/3 of the ceiling and 1/3 of the inner wall in the laundry room.  We cannot finish the ceiling because we have to build the wall for the pocket door first. We also have some insulation left over, so we are thinking of insulating the 2 x 6 wall behind the washer and dryer.  Does that wall need it?  No, but we might as well use it, and it may actually deaden some of the sound of the washer and dryer from the adjacent dining room.

R-30 insulation in the ceiling will keep in the warm (and later,
cool) air coming down from the new register in the laundry room.

The fully-insulated wall between the laundry and
garage gets some drywall.

The pictures show our progress thus far.  I finally made Rick quit yesterday (Saturday), and he agreed to go check out another nearby park.  This park/beach is called Fred Howard Park, and it is just north of Dunedin in the little Greek village of Tarpon Springs.  The park had a lot of great hiking/ biking trails, and as one winds through the wooded area, the street eventually goes onto a causeway. The causeway ends on a peninsula that is surrounded on two sides by a beach.  We pitched our chairs, pulled out our Kindles, wrapped up in our Columbia fleece jackets (there was a wicked off-shore breeze blowing), and enjoyed a couple of hours of peace and quiet reading our Kindles.  In fact, it was so quiet that I heard someone in a closely neighboring chair softly snoring for a while.

The causeway at Fred Howard Park leading from the wooded
park area to the peninsula beach.

A view of the beach, reaching out into the Gulf of Mexico.

We are glad that we have a pass to the parks.  Our beach umbrella is on order, the sand stake to hold in down in high winds arrived yesterday, so all we need now is the warmer weather to really enjoy the beaches.  The umbrella and stake were purchased with gift money from the girls, so thanks, Stephanie and Lindsay.  We'll try to stay out of the sun and still enjoy our time in Florida.

We agreed to take tomorrow off from Gladys remodeling.  I have to take time to actually USE the laundry facilities in the house, we have grocery shopping to do, and we need to take care of snow removal woes in Wisconsin, and to seek new car insurance here in Florida.

My new desk is supposed to arrive at the store tomorrow, but I'm not depriving myself of oxygen waiting for that to happen! It was supposed to arrive last week, but the saleswoman called and said it would be delivered this week. Since we did not hear from her at all this weekend, I have my doubts that said desk will be available this week.  If that is the case, that will be yet another problem to be handled. The store was great at charging the desk to our charge account, and if the desk is not here tomorrow, I may ask them to refund my money.  We'll see how quickly they can add the money back to my card.  Wanna bet that won't happen immediately?

We actually completed our budget work this morning, so we know how much remodeling money we DON'T have.  Now the task will be to see how far we can stretch that money, and how much more we want to get completed this year on dear old Gladys.

A Room with a View of the Future

The dictionary defines the word room as "a part or division of a building enclosed by walls, floor, and ceiling," and for the first time this week, we actually can say that we have a true laundry room -- complete with walls and a floor.  The ceiling has yet to be completed or hung.

The problem with a ceiling, of course, is that one must complete all of the other stuff that needs to hang down or through the ceiling before the actual structure can be completed.  Rick spent most of yesterday and part of this morning just hooking up all of the lights, power supply boxes, junction boxes, switches, and conduit that entail the embodiment of an electrical system. We now have two lights in the garage turned on by a switch IN the garage, two lights in the laundry room activated by a switch in the kitchen,  a security light in the back yard activated by a switch near the back door, and a garage door that actually works from the switch next to the new door that leads from the garage to the laundry room.  Whew!  Rick spent more time up in the rafters than a bunch of bats in a church belfry.

When we look upward, we can now see almost 100 feet of new wire rather than hundreds of feet of wire that has been roasted in the summer heat, gnawed by fruit rats, and cracked by just plain old age. Fifty-three years may be middle age for people, but it is old age for wires.   Rick said we are giving Gladys some fancy new underwear to keep her tight and spiffy under the new walls and ceilings.  And once we put in the new insulation tomorrow, we'll keep Gladys snug in the winter and free from hot flashes in the summertime.  (I have to admit that I wish a little added insulation could do that for me!)

Today turned into a two-Bandaid day.  The first incident occurred when Rick stepped down from a ladder, right onto a blue plastic electrical box that he had left on the floor.  The nail from the box when straight through the thick sole of his shoe into the bottom of his foot.  Naturally, as I helped him wash off his foot and apply Neosporan and Bandaid #1, I questioned the timing of his last tetanus injection.  The good news is that he had a tetanus booster just last year (one of the perks of being a Technical Education teacher).  The foot will be very sore for a few days, and as with all penetrating wounds, we'll have to watch it carefully for signs of infection.

After all of the electrical work was complete, we were able to start on the "enclosed" part of the definition above.  While I vacuumed the house this morning since my living room seems to collect sand like a well-groomed beach, Rick ran to Home Depot for fire-resistant drywall.  Code here in Dunedin is 1/2 " drywall between the garage and main structure, but that seems very flimsy to us.  In Wisconsin, code demands 5/8" fire-resistant drywall, so that is what he brought home.  Man, that stuff is heavy!

This is where Bandaid #2 comes in.  We were working with the drywall when suddenly Rick's hand was dripping blood.  He is not sure how he cut it, but I suspect a carpenter's apron pocket full of drywall screws would have trace evidence of the crime.  This cut was across the back of his hand, and it bled like a severed artery.  Once again, soap and water, Neosporan, and a large Bandaid interrupted our work.

The laundry area before any drywall. The old garage
light visible in this picture also is now history.

Drywall panel 1 is complete, as is Bandaid 1 on the
bottom of Rick's foot. Note the new garage light, too!

Panel 2 is up and the hole for the light switch is actually
in the correct place.  Rick has to cut out the door opening yet.

The corner is complete, and Rick either is
thinking about his electrical work or catching
a quick nap. Nope, no snoring, so he must be
thinking about what to do next.

The completed outer walls of the laundry room look great!

However, as the pictures show, I now have what can properly be termed a laundry room, at least as it is viewed from the garage.  The little details are what thrills me, like having the wire for the garage door opener inside the wall instead of snaking down the outside of the wall where we can snag things on it.  That's the fancy lace extra on Gladys' underwear... not necessary, not really functional, but nice to have all the same.

The inside of the laundry room still needs work, but we made
great progress today.

Rick still is not sure that we have enough lights in the laundry room.  I think what we have is bright enough to see the smallest of stains, and I really do not intend on washing clothing late at night anyway,  but he is talking yet of adding one more.  We'll see.

We did discover that the tile which we originally picked out for the room looks great from the kitchen under the new lights.  At least that is one decision that we both feel very comfortable with yet.

Tomorrow we will add the insulation to the walls.  We need to add the afore-mentioned light if Rick really wants to go through the hassle of yet another installation, then concentrate on running a heating/ air conditioning line in from the air handler.  Only then will we be able to add the insulation to the rafters and finally the ceiling drywall which will make the laundry area truly a laundry room.