Struts and Stains

I have to admit that we have not gotten as far as we had hoped to get this weekend as far as painting the fascias are concerned.  Neither of us are really thrilled about the whole job, so we both are too ready to accept the fact that it is too warm or too sunny or too something so we do not do the work.  Rick has the peak on the north side primed, but we have not gotten too far beyond that point.  The other disappointing news is that rain is predicted for all of this next week, so we will have to see what the weather dictates in this second-to-the-last week that we are down here.

We started today by getting ready for church, and then dropping the Toyota off at Mike's house (next door neighbor to Steve and Chris) so he could replace all of the struts on the car. He is a certified mechanic, and we trusted that he could do an excellent job for far less money than we would have to pay at a dealership.  The parts alone cost us more money than we probably should have stuck into a car with 172,000 miles on it, but everything else works well, so we are hoping to get a few more years out of it before we have to replace it.  We cannot afford a new car right now anyway.

Then we were off to church.  We have met some nice people there, including a couple named Nancy and Don who come from Wisconsin.  After the service, there was a potluck luncheon, and since they were grilling burgers and hot dogs, Rick agreed to attend.  We signed up to bring chips.  Rick had the great idea of going to Sam's Club and buying one of those huge packs of individually wrapped bags of chips like one would pack into a lunch bag.  That way we could offer a variety of different chips, and no one (including me) would have to eat chips from a bag that several hands had already delved into. I reasoned, also, that whatever bags of chips were left from the 30 pack we took, we could bring home and eat in the next two weeks.  The chips bags were a great hit.  While some of the other large bags of chips were left over and half-eaten, every single one of our multipack of bags was gone.  I guess other people liked the variety and sanitary idea also.

We did not get home until after 1:00 p.m.  By that time, the sun was on the south side of the house and it truly was too hot out to paint.  That's all right because I had two bathrooms and two other sinks in the house that desperately needed cleaning.

Rob prepares the floor between the two rooms to place the
poultice.

The thick poultice is smoothed over the stain.  Then Rob
covered it with plastic to let it cure over two days.

I mentioned earlier that we had Finish Line Flooring personnel come over to try to remove the stain between the living room and the Florida room.  Today at 3:30, we were able to remove the poultice to see the results.  We are both happy and disappointed.  Although the stains did not totally come out, they do seem to be less noticeable; however, when we removed the poultice, we saw that some of it had seeped into the crevice between the two rooms, resulting in a totally NEW stain.  Of course, that stain just has to be in a very noticeable place (why couldn't it be in the area behind the couch?), so now we will have to wait for Rob to come back to see if he can get the new stain out when he comes to polish the floor.  The stain in the kitchen that we tried to remove did not come out at all, so like a prize-fighter's scars, that stain will just be part of Gladys' history.

While the stain is not gone, once the floor is buffed, we think
that it will be lighter.

Sadly, while the stain at the bottom of this picture is lighter,
a new stain by the crevice between the room appeared.

Late in the afternoon, we went back to pick up the Toyota.  Mike did an excellent job, and we are happy with the way that it handles.  While we were there, we also checked on Steve and Chris' house.  The inside is fine.  The gardens in the front gardens are growing well, but alas, so also are the clovers and weeds in the front gardens.  The pineapple in the back yard is toast, and some of the flowers on the north side of the garage did not survive the dry weather we are having, but other bushes and flowers in the back are doing well.  Naturally, the cactus garden is thriving.

We went for a walk tonight in an old section of Dunedin with some beautiful 1920s-1950s homes.  Dunedin has a lot of character, so we are happy that we can live here and take advantage of the great weather, the friendly people, and the wonderful water views.  We will hate to leave in a couple of weeks, but we also are looking forward to getting back to family, friends, and summer in Wisconsin.