Surprises

I entitled this blog "Surprises" because we have had a couple of them in the last two days; one was great and the other one turned out not bad in the end.

We ordered out a metal address plaque from Michael Healy studios, and after five weeks we still have not seen it.  The mailman brought a package to the door on Saturday, so we both thought our plaque had finally arrived.  However, when Rick picked it up, he thought, "If this is supposed to be a metal plaque, they forgot to put it in the box." He thought that because the box had no weight to it at all, like it was full of air only.  As it was, the box was not from Michael Healy but rather from Amazon.

Pete enjoys his perch in our palm tree.

Inside the box was surprise #1: a parrot for our palm tree, sent to us from Stephanie.  I had mentioned that I needed a stuffed parrot to sit in the tree both for a pop of color in that corner and for a bit of whimsy in the otherwise quite formal room.  Stephanie said that she did a LOT of research before finding the perfect parrot.  He has bright colors, is the perfect size, and actually came with wires on his feet to easily attach him to the tree.  Since he is very lightweight, he does not cause the branch to sag at all.  Lindsay named him "Pete," so Pete now has a place of honor in our house.  (After all, it has been a while since Gladys had a pet, and this one we don't have to feed, listen to, or keep in a cage.)

Our rain ended yesterday, so today we were able to get outside early.  The only problem with this morning was the cold (Rick had a tee shirt, long-sleeved shirt, and sweatshirt on to keep warm) and the wind.  At one point, the wind picked up the paint tray liner from the metal paint pan and dumped paint all over the grass.  He was able to paint the prime coat on the fascia and soffits of the bedroom front portion of the house without blowing off the ladder, however, so that was a success.

Surprise #2 thankfully was "dead."

After that, Rick moved the dirt away from the kitchen portion of the house.  That's where surprise #2 came in.  He called me out to see a potential "problem."  As the pictures show, the problem was an electrical wire which was buried under a plumbing pipe that we did not know existed right next to the driveway. Our priority was, of course, to see how far the wire extended from the house and if it was live.  Careful excavation showed that the wire was cut about a foot from the house, and further careful exploration showed that the wire was dead.  We were cautious, however, because this appeared to be the other end of a supposedly dead wire we found in the kitchen wall last year.  That "dead" wire gave Rick a shock that knocked him half-way across the room!

The only thing we can figure out is that the wire at one time was hooked to an outdoor light post that was a popular feature of 1960's landscapes.  The pipe that traveled illegally over the wire was a later transition from a galvanized steel pipe to a copper pipe.  Apparently when the plumbing was updated, it traveled from the middle of the kitchen wall over to the driveway and then back out to the city hook-up in the front yard.  The "jog" that we currently have may have been done to accommodate the palm tree that is in front of the kitchen windows.

Since the pipes are intact and the wire is dead, we will just cut the wire closer to the house and rebury the pipe when we get done painting. Surprise # 2, thankfully, turned out not to be a problem at all.  Whew!

The kitchen area now has a sealer coat to make the house
waterproof in this area. 

Rick did the work of two today while I took care of simpler chores inside.  While I baked homemade peanut butter cookies and completed the laundry, he put the colored sealer on the walls of the kitchen front.  Gladys definitely needs two coats of paint in that area, but having a somewhat uniform color is starting to bring the whole "look" together.  Our goal is to get two coats of finish paint on the bedroom soffits and fascia so we can add the shutters to Gladys.  That will make a huge difference even if we do not get any landscaping in this year.

Pieces of the north gate come down.

Our last task of the day was to remove the north gate.  That little bit of beat-up fence was the last remaining part of the fence that surrounded Gladys when we bought her.  We have kept it up to hide the garbage cans and to somewhat close off the back yard, but we needed to take it down before we can start work on north side of the house.  Since building refuse pick-up is with our Monday garbage only, we wanted to get the cut-up fence and gate out to the curb so it will be gone by tomorrow afternoon.

Rick said he was disappointed that he did not get a first finish coat on the fascia and soffits, but I was amazed that he completed all that he did. He always underestimates the time that tasks will take.  I think his accomplishments today were great; I get tired just writing about them! Our surprises turned out to be positive, so all-in-all,  today turned out to be a good day.

The north side actually looks better without the
ratty old fence and gate.  The new fence (next year)
will be located in front of the heat pump to hide all of the
HVAC from the street.

Moving Forward

We have not made as much progress on our painting this week as we had hoped, partly due once again to uncooperative weather, and partly due to other activities that we had to complete.  On top of that, Rick still is not feeling well, so lack of good health and energy also play a part.

My wonderful grandson Owen...

and the pretty flowers he sent me.

I start with a picture of my flowers sent for my birthday from my grandson.  Actually, his diaper would have to have pretty deep pockets to really afford the bouquet, but it is the thought that counts.  Even after all of this time, the flowers remain beautiful; I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

This past week we have been out doing some shopping.  That included stopping at a consignment shop where my neighbor lady, Pat, works.  The shop is called Knot on Main Street, and it is one of those antique/ consignment/ everything else shop that takes forever to shop in because it is so loaded with things to see.  Yes, most of it is junk, but that's part of the fun.

Blue, orange, and green vases add much-needed
color to the overall white decor of the Florida room.

The key is to try to find the hidden treasures amidst all of the clutter.  After much looking, I found the perfect little accents of color for our Florida room table.  The set actually contains four vases, but the last one was a pale purple/pink, and it just did not fit the decor of the rest of the room.  I'll find a place for that one elsewhere.  Meanwhile, I am on the hunt for some small silk blooms to further brighten this grouping of vases.

Clean interior walls and shelves along
with newly added casing and plenty of
storage space complete the bathroom
closet.

Since rain greeted us earlier in the week, we spent a couple of days finishing the inside of the house.  Rick added casing to closets and doors, and I was finally able to line our newly painted shelves and put things away in the bathroom closet.  We are finding that with a little discipline and lots of organization, we have plenty of room to store all that we have accumulated so far in Gladys.

We had planned on painting the soffits yesterday, but the day once again dawned with an "iffy" forecast.  The 10% chance of rain turned into a morning shower, so instead of trying to paint, Rick just figured he would join the moisture by power washing the kitchen part of the front of the house.  As the pictures show, once again Gladys was being stubborn.  The paint on the wall on the front that was in the shade peeled off like skin from a ripe banana, but the lower part of the wall that is exposed to the sun held on to the paint with a death-grip.  We will have to do our best just to make it all blend in at the end.

Gladys only gave up half of her paint on the kitchen
portion of the house. 

The shaded area on the porch with our doorbell
equally was not cooperative.

If we can believe him, the weatherman predicts rain this evening and tomorrow, but sunshine should return to the area on Sunday and hang around for most of the week.  If that is the case, then maybe we can make up for lost time and really transform Gladys into something that finally has a uniform color and some curb appeal.

Scrubbing, Smoothing, and Enjoying the Parks

Once again, we were blessed with a beautiful day outside. After all, isn't that why we live in Florida? I have to admit that Dunedin thought about a small shower this morning, but that thought blew over with the clouds in less than 10 minutes.

We started the day in the front yard by tackling the soffits on the bedroom area of the house. Soffit work consists of five steps: washing everything, scraping off rough surfaces and loose paint, patching rough areas with spackling, sanding and smoothing the repaired surfaces, and applying the primer and two coats of paint. Whew!  I get tired just listing all of that.  Oh, and of course, the job is made even more "fun" by being all overhead.

Rick accomplished the first three of those steps this morning.  Neither of us can believe how much dirt accumulates on the soffits and the aluminum air vents that allow fresh air to enter our rafter space.  I know that Florida is a limestone peninsula loosely covered with dry dirt and sand.  Things get gritty and dirty all of the time; that is just a part of living in Florida.  Yet we were astounded to see that the air vents, when wiped down with warm water, actually changed color from tan to bright white.  Steve and Chris told us that they wash down their soffits each year when they come down, and I can see that will will have to do the same once we get the house repainted.  I guess if we want the sunshine, we have to deal with the dirt.

While Rick worked on the bedroom area, I took a step stool and started to wash the soffits by the front door and kitchen/garage part of the house.  I got the door area done and have the kitchen/garage area yet to finish.  I feel badly that I cannot do more, yet I know that if my doctors knew I was doing even that much, they would probably have a fit and pitch me out of their offices.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another good day, so while Rick works on the sanding/ priming part on the bedroom area, I can hopefully wash the rest of the kitchen/ garage area.  The work is not difficult; in fact, moving the ladder and climbing up and down is more work than the actual scrubbing. Each day we do just a little more to keep going and to keep on target.

Just before noon we received a call from Mike, the mechanic who was installing a new oil pan in our 1999 Toyota Camry, to pick up the completed car.  After 175,000 and about 60 oil changes, the Camry's oil pan plug was stripped.  When we picked up the new oil pan at a Toyota dealer last week, its size and shape reminded me of a certain implement that I usually see in a hospital.  As we walked out, I said, "OK.  So we just bought a $200 bedpan."

Rick replied, "Basically, yes."

In Mike's skilled hands, however, the "bedpan" was positioned correctly and now will complete the job for which it was made.  Mike gave us a great deal on labor costs, so when we deliver the Toyota later this spring to our daughter, it will be mechanically sound.  We had to take the truck back down Highway 19 to Mike's garage, and that was the worst part of this whole transaction.  Highway 19 is a major highway in Pinellas County, and according to one area man, it has been under construction for the last 15 years. I believe him!  The lanes are narrow to begin with, and when the truck travels through the construction zone, it literally fills a lane from edge to edge.  Rick was great and drove the truck both ways while I drove the Camry home.  Even driving the Camry on 19 is no picnic.  It sits low to the road and is not visible to some drivers.  Our safety is one of the reasons we are taking the car back to Wisconsin and getting a higher, more visible SUV when we return to Florida in the fall.

After we got home with the car, we decided to relax a little this afternoon.  Steve and Chris had told us about an area park called John Chestnut, Sr. Park in Palm Harbor.  The park was a delightful mix of trees, wetlands, shoreline, and wildlife.  The park included a lookout tower that had great views of Lake Tarpon.  We sat in a swing near the shoreline for a while and let the beautiful breezes lull us into a state of relaxation. Then we climbed the tower to enjoy the views. Our thanks to Steve and Chris for recommending Chestnut Park.  We definitely will visit it again.

Rick enjoys the views from the Chestnut Park
Observation Tower.

The views are quite nice without Rick
in the way, also!

Once we were finished exploring Chestnut Park, we decided to venture down the road a bit more to Philippe Park. Located in Safety Harbor, Philippe Park is a bit smaller and less developed, but it has great historical significance.  The park is named after Odet Philippe who in 1842 owned 160 acres of land in Safety Harbor, including the land that the park now occupies.  Odet's grave is located somewhere in the park and his significance to the area is detailed on a marker.  His epitaph reads:

Odet Philippe (1787 - 1869)

Odet Philippe
Born Lyon, France, 1787
Died at this Site 1869As the first European
 settler in Pinellas County, 
he established St. Helena 
Plantation, now Philippe Park
. Philippe was the first 
to cultivate grapefruit 
in Florida and introduced
 cigar-making to Tampa. 
His descendants populated 
this frontier. He was
 said to be a doctor
 and of noble birth.

The descendants mentioned included the McMullen and the Booth clans, both prominent frontier families in the area. The fact that Odet brought the citrus industry and cigars to the area's economy made his status and his ancestor's wealth secure. Some of the plantation's grapefruit trees still grow in the park.  But that is not the most significant part of the park.

A path leading up Tocobaga Mound.

Philippe Park also marks the cite of the Tocobaga Mound. The Tocobaga were a Native American tribe that settled in the region from 900 to the late 1500s.  The Tocobaga build their villages around a central meeting area, and that area included a mound made of layers of earth, shells, and stones.  On the top of the mound were spaces for the chief's home and for a village temple. The mound at Philippe Park is thought to be the central mound that marked the capital of the Tocobaga nation. Unfortunately, when the Spanish came to Florida seeking gold, they brought with them diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunities.  By 1600, the Tocobaga nation had vanished.  The mound is a testament to their identity and prowess and a lasting reminder of a culture lost to the area.

We were happy to find two jewels of parks that we will frequent often.  Philippe Park is 6.9 miles from Gladys, straight down Highway 580 (Main Street) to Philippe Parkway.  Chestnut Park is just a little north of Philippe.

Hopefully, we can learn to work in the morning and then relax a bit in the afternoon.  Actually, the weather may guide us into that.  Working previous summers, we learned that the heat forces us to quit by 10:00 a.m. and to not resume outdoor work until after 4:00 p.m.  That gives us plenty of "shade time" in between to sit in the park and to read a good book. 
 

Sinuses, Sills, and Swells

I spent Wednesday, my birthday, by refusing to work.  Everyone needs a day off, so I used that birthday as an excuse to be a bum for a day.  Mind you, I still completed two loads of laundry and other little chores around the house, but I did not touch a ladder, paintbrush, or shovel for the entire day.  What bliss!

Rick was still not feeling well, so he eventually went to quick care and was diagnosed with a sinus infection.  Go figure.  We have been so careful to avoid anyone who is coughing or sneezing, and he is overprotective of me to keep things germ free, yet he gets downed by germs anyway.  When we were in Sarasota at The Ringling, the weather was horrible, he got chilled, and there was a man in our tour group who was coughing.  Perhaps his lowered resistance to germs and the man who was not smart enough to keep his germs at home were enough to make Rick susceptible.  At any rate, he is on medication and sleeping in the guest room until he feels better and stops coughing himself awake.

Because he is not feeling well, progress has slowed a bit on the house.  He was able to get the soffits painted on the south side, and he has the first coat of paint on stucco around the windows and on the windowsills on the south.  The front bedroom part still need soffit work and a second coat of paint on the window surround.  We also need to scrape, sand, and paint the windowsill.

As with all old houses, the windowsills tell the story of the house.  On top of the original white primer, we have found coats of light brown, pink, blue, turquoise, and now white. I am not sure what color the house was when the trim was brown or pink, but I suspect that at one time Gladys was white with blue and then white with turquoise trim.  When the house was spray-painted tan before we bought it, the sills were changed to white, and we will keep them white to go with our new yellow paint. I guess Gladys really has had a colorful past!

Yesterday I painted the first coat on the last of the casing to go around the doors for the inside of the house. We have rain predicted for Monday and Tuesday of next week, so if we get stuck inside the house, we want to have the casing ready to cut and to install.  Once we get the casing inside the bathroom closet, I can finally unload the bathtub by putting all of the closet items back where they belong.  I have to admit that as we have been working on these closets, we have reorganized and sometimes discarded some of the items we have had.  Gladys has taught us that simplicity is the key to living in a small house.  We both hate clutter, so having only what we need and having a place to store what we have has helped us maintain a neat, orderly, and inviting environment.  Doing so also lets me keep my sanity because I know where everything is and can find it when Rick needs something. (Yes, I am an organizational maniac and a neat-freak.)

While I painted the casing, Rick worked on painting the windows and sills on the south side of the house.

Then it happened again: the HVAC system went down.  $@%$!  We thought we had the problem solved after Rick rewired the connection from the heat pump to the electrical box because everything had been working well.  Wrong.  Once the shut-down started, the system would run for 10 seconds and then shut down.  Then it would run for 10 seconds and shut down again.  We called Palm Harbor Heating to tell them that their $400 in "fixes" that we have tried in the past still was not working.  We were told that they would have to call us back. They never did.

Frustrated with their lack of response, we called Burgess Heating and Air Conditioning.  We had a certified technician out right away, and he said that we needed a new motor and control board.  That is what Rick had been telling Palm Harbor all along; apparently Palm Harbor did not want to go through the effort of changing out the parts.  The man from Burgess pointed out other things that were done incorrectly on our unit, and right now a second technician from Burgess is back at our house today installing surge protectors for the system and putting in the new motor and control board.  We will pay less for all of that than we did for the of Palm Harbor's "guesses" as to what might solve our problems.  We will never use Palm Harbor again. We wasted $400 on service calls and a new thermostat that was totally unnecessary.  We just pray that with this repair, we no longer will have to worry about our HVAC while we are gone this summer.  We have discussed leaving a key with the neighbors, however, so they can check on the house for us a few times.  An extra set of eyes and ears is always a good thing, and we have gotten to know the neighbors enough so that we can trust them.

The mounds of dirt in front of the house are now gone, and the
edging and stone will soon follow.

After the technician left yesterday, Rick and I worked on the dirt mounds that we had removed from around the foundation of the house.  We want to surround the house with twelve inches of stone held in place by stone edging.  We ran string lines again, removed excess dirt while still maintaining a grade away from the house, and redistributed the excess dirt into some low areas in the front yard.  Frankly, the front yard resembles a wavy ocean.  The yard has mounds and swells with low levels in between.  What we really need is heavy machinery to completely regrade the whole yard, but with our budget, that definitely is NOT going to happen.  We will have to do what we can with our shovels, rakes, and wheelbarrow.  We hope the results will be a pleasing to look at yard with no water sitting next to the house or forming pools for the wood storks.  Thankfully, the large indentations that we have in the yard are all from trees that have been removed either by us or by others rather than from suspected sinkholes!

We have to take the Toyota in for repairs once the Burgess man leaves; daily maintenance on cars and the inside of the house never end.  After that, perhaps we can get back to digging around in the dirt a bit.  We would like to get the paver base down and the stone edging in place on the south side of the house.  Then we can lay landscape fabric and buy some stone to go on top.  I am anxious to see how it all will look when we are finished with it.

I have to have patience... one project at a time. My goal right now is to get the house completely sealed and painted before we leave in May.  That sounds like an achievable goal and it will be as long as these other interrupting projects or problems do not keep showing up.  I must remember that each step we take is one step closer to meeting our goals and visions for Gladys.

Little Tasks

Yesterday was a wild and stormy day with high winds, thunder, lightening, and lots of rain.  It was the perfect opportunity to take the day off, and that is exactly what we did. Ah, springtime in Florida!  We were invited over to Steve and Chris' house for dinner (thank you!), and when we returned home, we found a package on our front porch.  It was a birthday gift for me from Lindsay and Chris: four wonderful votive cups etched with palm trees.  They match the glassware that my friend Bonnie bought us last year, so I am thrilled to have them.  The pictures I took are not great, but I attach them for you to see my lovely gift.

My birthday gift from Lindsay.  (Gladys loves it, too!)

With the stormy season arriving, we love to have a good
supply of candles available.  We lose power often in the springtime.

Yesterday's strong storms left everything soggy and muddy outside this morning, so our attention turned to the inside.  Rick is coming down with a horrible cold, so he is pretty wiped out today.  Of course, being awakened by thunderstorms and torrential rains at 4:33 this morning did not help either of us.  For whatever reason, the lightening set off a mini power surge that affected the microwave and my cell phone.  All of the other electronics (including Rick's cell phone) were fine, but my cell "blipped" like a message was coming in and turned on twice between 4:33 and 4:40.  The microwave also was telling me to reset the clock when I arose this morning.  Strange...

We started the day in "good" clothes as we ventured south to a Toyota dealer to buy a new oil pan for the car.  The dealer here in town ruined the old one by over-tightening the plug, so now we need to replace the whole pan.  Be certain that we will hire someone else to do the work and never set foot in that particular Toyota dealer again.

After that, we drove even further south to Carroll's Building Materials in St. Petersburg.  They sell stone, pavers, sand, and gravel.  We picked up a bag of white river rock stone to see how we would like it as a filler stone next to the house.  We also learned that while one small bag cost us $4.10 with tax, we can get a half a yard of it dumped into the back of our truck for only $60.00.  If we decide to go with that, we will definitely buy it in bulk and save a fortune.  They also sell a paver base that will work well with the edge stones that we want to put down around the house.

Once home, I took care of washing the windows on the south side so we could put the screens back on the windows. Even the screens fought me.  The first two popped in fine, but the larger screen for the guest bedroom was awkward.  As I turned it, the sharp corner of the frame caught me a scraped a line all through the palm of my right hand.  Of course, I immediately began to bleed all over everything. Did you ever try to put Band-Aids across the palm of your hand?  I have three creatively placed bandages that miraculously are holding a layer of Neosporin in place.

I had hesitated even to install the screens since we have one more coat of paint to put on the soffits, but I wanted to apply some Kilz paint in the main bathroom closet over some mildew that came through our new paint.  The Kilz will take care of the mildew, but it is an oil-based paint that really smells awful.  Hence, we needed the screen back on the bathroom so we could open it and air the place out.

After lunch, we ventured out once more for a quick trip to the bank and a stop at Home Depot to look at some while marble chips that they have on sale for $2.50 a bag.  We looked at it and decided against it because one reviewer online said the chips are coated in a white "dust" that soon washes away leaving the stone either grey or black.  Since those two colors are not part of our palette for Gladys, we ruled that stone out.  We also were not particularly happy with the sharp shards of some of the pieces.  While the other river rock had some dark brown, tan, and even a few grey stones in the mix, the mix was all rounded stones.  We liked that much better.

Decisions, decisions.  They are hard to make because most cost us lots of money, and we must live with whatever we choose for a long time.  That reminds me that have taken some "close up" pictures of our new rug to show you some of the detail. It really is a pretty rug, so that is one decision about which we are pleased.

The corner of the rug in front of the TV.

Palm fronds are a part of the design that
really attracted us to this rug.

One other observation: within the last two days, someone has gone onto the roof of the house behind us and removed all of the leaves that have been sitting on it for the last three years.  They also removed all of the branches that fell on it this past summer.  Now at least the roof can dry out and will not further deteriorate.  Maybe my complaints to the men who were at the property the other day actually is bringing about some results.  Sadly, the roll of insulation still remains in the back yard; for now, I am just happy not to have to look at the rotting leaves anymore.

Large rust and tan blooms pull our color scheme
out and add visual interest to the room.

I just noticed another sign of spring: I can hear the annoying song of the ice cream truck that routinely drives through the neighborhood each spring, summer, and fall.  The seasons are changing, and I think that everyone is glad to leave winter behind.

Past and Present

A couple of days ago, we saw two men in the back yard of the house behind us.  That home's owner died two years ago, and the house has been caught up in his estate ever since that time.  The estate must have a contract with a landscaping firm because (thankfully) we see someone in the spring and summer come to mow the lawn.  However, that is all they do.  The shrubs and trees are overgrown, leaves cover the roof, a fallen branch lies in pieces both in the side yard and on the roof, and a roll of attic insulation has been rotting in the back year for the past two years. The house screams neglect and abandonment.

When I saw the men, I went outside and asked them what was happening to the house.  One man said, "I don't know.  We were given permission to go in and to remove some trash.  That is all we were authorized to do, and there is a lot of trash inside."  I mentioned that the insulation was attracting rodents, but he said he did not know if they were authorized to remove that.  Apparently not; this is days later and the insulation still remains in its same location.

What a shame.  At one time, I am sure that the house was quite a dazzler.  The yard is canopied with shade trees, the property contains what was once a well-built, large shed, and the house has a Florida room out the back that must have brought in beautiful breezes.

The back yard also contains one remaining clothes line pole. That reminded me further of what life was like in the late 50s and early 60s when clothes driers were unheard of or a luxury rather than a requirement.  This was quite the neighborhood when these houses were all built between 1956 and 1965.  Even Gladys, when we bought her, showed those 1960 modern features.  First, most of the homes have terrazzo floors which kept (and still keep) the houses cool in the summertime.  Gladys also had a huge whole-house fan which would have drawn in cool air though the louvered windows.  Remember that there was no central air conditioning in 1960 when this house was built.  The wall air conditioner that we removed from the dining room wall was definitely not a part of the original design since it partially blocked the door that led from the kitchen to the garage. The laundry also was placed in the garage since that was a household chore rather than being a part of family living. As mentioned, clothes lines at one time probably crossed part of Gladys' back yard.

Heating coils were in the ceiling at the time, and large soffits outside blocked both the sun and the rain so windows could be left open a bit when the humid summer storms came through.  When we bought Gladys, she had a ceiling fan in the kitchen area.  I doubt that it was original to the house, but I am sure that ceiling fans became very popular as soon as they hit the market.  All of the houses in the neighborhood are designed, as are most in the South, with cross-ventilation in mind.  When we open the front bedroom and kitchen windows along with the guest bedroom and Florida room windows, we have breezes that blow freely through the house.  While keeping cool was not always possible in 1960, the houses did everything that they could to offer what comfort the owners could find.  Gladys continues to give us the cool terrazzo floors and the beautiful breezes on wonderful 77 degree days like today.  The old girl still functions well for her age.

I just wish that someone would purchase and restore the house behind us. Not only would that be good for property values, but also it would give that house a new lease on life.  I fear if it sits vacant for too many more years, the mold and mildew will take over and make it uninhabitable.  I hope it has a brighter future than that in the coming year.

We did what we could today to make Gladys even better.  We were outside by 8:00 a.m with paint brushes in hand.  Rick started at the top, cutting in the paint along the soffit line while I trimmed around the large window.  Then I was on my knees in the dirt adding the first coat of paint to the below-grade section of the house.  Good paint down there will help seal out the moisture, so I applied it thickly.  Within an hour, we had the first coat of paint on the front of the house.

While that first coat dried, we treated ourselves to the Saturday morning Green Market downtown.  Dunedin actually has a Friday market and a Saturday market, so we have no excuse not to get locally grown fruits and vegetables if we so desire.  Today, we just got two delicious fresh bagels that formed the core of our lunch.

The front bedroom section of Gladys with two finish
coat of paint.  Imagine how beautiful she will be with
green shutters and plants someday!

After lunch, we were back in paint clothes adding a second finish coat on the front bedroom section of the house.  What a difference that makes to the appearance of the house!  My friend Rose said that someday we would be able to put Gladys in a "prom dress" after we did all of the necessary structural and internal work.  This bright yellow "dress" is certainly making her look more glamourous.  No more chipped paint along the ground, and no more faded tan paint over everything.  Storms are predicted for tomorrow night and Monday, so we hope tomorrow to tackle the south side soffits and to get that side completed before the rain arrives.

While Rick works on the soffits (because he still does not trust me on the ladders), I will see what I can do about moving some of the dirt around.  We bought a big, bright blue wheelbarrow this evening, so that will make the moving-dirt task easier.  Funny.  The wheelbarrow makes me think of the 1960s again.  I am sure that one resided in Gladys' garage at that time, too.  Some things are just too functional to outgrow.

How far have we come?  I'll add just a portion of our "before" and "after" pictures.  We have much to do yet, but seeing each transition is a part of the fun of restoring Gladys to her former glory.

The living room and leaking front window when we bought Gladys, and...

the living room now.

The original master bedroom with floor to ceiling bookshelves
and rotting carpet from a leaking toilet, and...

the master bedroom now with polished terrazzo floors and new
closets, window blinds, and paint.

Small Successes

Every once in a while, everyone needs to have a day where little successes build into a feeling of relief and accomplishment.  This was one of those days, and I am very grateful for it.

First of all, let me go on record as saying that Daylight Savings Time has me totally messed up.  I know that a human's sleep cycles are determined by light and darkness (regardless of what know-it-all-teenagers say), and I had no problem getting up at 7:00 a.m. EST as the light began to slip into our bedroom under the shades.  With Daylight Savings Time, though, that same light does not appear until almost 7:30, so recently our days have gotten off to a delayed start.  Since we are working outside, that is probably good because the dew in the morning would prevent us from doing too much painting too early anyway.  How is that for rationalization?

This morning started with inside paint again.  Rick put a final coat of paint on the shutters while I used the last of a gallon of paint cutting in selected places on the bathroom closet.  Rick then opened the new gallon and rolled a second coat on the walls and on the shelves.  Those were two tasks completed.  Now all we have to do for those two jobs is to literally sit around and watch the paint dry.

I changed the linens and towels today, so a load of laundry was next on the agenda.  Walking through the kitchen to the laundry room, I also remembered that I wanted to set the oven to clean itself.  I don't remember how it got that dirty, but I do know that the time had come to let the oven do its thing.  Self-cleaning ovens leave a terrible smell in the house when they first start, so we were glad that the day warmed enough for us to open the windows and air the place out.  By noon, the laundry was washed, dried, folded, and put away, and the oven was sparkling clean.  Two more tasks completed.

As the sun rose, Rick went outside and used elastomeric caulk to tackle the cracks and holes in the front of the house.  Thankfully, the cracks were all small (although plentiful) and the holes were easy to reach.  We are not terribly worried about the cracks.  This is a block house, and after 54 years, things start to shift and to settle. Gladys is fighting gravity, just like the rest of us over-50 crowd.  We are happy that we were able to patch her up so she can fight the elements for another 50 years.

While the caulk dried, Rick used Steve's transit to try to figure out elevations for our someday-paver-sidewalk and stone edging around the house.  Then he ran some line at the proper elevations, and he dug out around the front of the house.  When we purchased Gladys three years ago, she came with a bricked-in  rose garden next to the front door and a railroad-tie front garden that had nothing but weeds growing in it.  Stephanie and I dug out the bricks and transplanted the roses to the back yard two years ago when we put in the new, double front doors.  Earlier than that, I had removed the rotting railroad ties (and the black snakes they harbored) and let the earth just slope away from the front of the house.  That slope, now, was what Rick started to remove.

Dirt piles in front of the house away from the foundation.
Tomorrow, I will move it to fill in some indentations in the
front lawn.

Once the ground was moved away from the house, a little scraping and brushing had the front ready for the masonry sealer.  We are keeping an eye on the weather which promises rain on Sunday evening and all day Monday.  We wanted to get the sealer on the front today so that we could paint the first coat of yellow finish coat tomorrow morning.  The "dry time" is four hours, so if possible we would like to get a second coat on either tomorrow afternoon or Sunday.  If all goes well, once the front is painted, we can concentrate on the fascia and soffits on the south side and front (west) part of the house.

Gladys has the front bedroom wing sealed with tinted masonry sealer.  Each
task finished is a step closer to completing the entire job.

Our pest control contractor came today to give the house an inside and outside spray against spring bugs.  He also told me that when we go to Wisconsin in May and leave the house idle, we must put bleach in all of the toilets and make sure the lids are closed.  When I asked why, he told me that when the plumbing systems are not "active," rats will find their way into the houses via unused systems. He seemed sincere, although I have my doubts that rats would travel via a plumbing system.  Aren't those systems closed systems to outside critters? At any rate, I suppose what he said will not hurt anything if I follow his advice.  He also said to put closed drains or rubber plugs in all sinks and to seal any other places where bugs and rats can find their way into a home.  Ah, the wonders of living in wildlife-rich Florida!

While the great accomplishment today was sealing the front bedroom wing of the house, the other tasks completed also rewarded us with a feeling of satisfaction.  As with all remodeling, one step leads to others.  We know that by removing the slope of dirt from the front of the house, we now must purchase longer downspout extensions to move the water more into the yard.  We need to do the same for the gutters in the back of the house, so I foresee another trip tonight to Lowe's.

Since we worked hard, I am sure that as we pass McDonald's on the way home from Lowe's, I can convince my darling husband to stop for an ice cream cone.  Sometimes, when everything goes right, we deserve a treat.

"Cold" Weather Projects

I had to put "cold" in quotation marks in the title of this blog or my family and friends in Wisconsin would never let me back in the state.  We are having a "cold" spell here in Florida which means the temperatures are down into the 50s and 60s.  That is a balmy heat wave to the upper 1/3 of America right now since most folks have been dealing with record-setting below zero temperatures for much of the winter.  Believe me, I appreciate the weather that we have had in Florida this winter, even if that means cooler (notice I did not say "colder") than normal temperatures.

However, because the weatherman has predicted temperatures in the 40s for this evening and tomorrow morning, we did not attempt to do any outside painting.  Not to fear: Gladys has plenty of other tasks for us to complete on the inside.

For example, today was a perfect day to paint the last non-repainted closet-- the one in the main bathroom. I started the day by packing everything from that closet into temporary storage.  As you can see by the photograph, that means everything went into tubs in the tub!

In small houses, one finds storage where one can. 

This closet was, in some ways, the easiest closet to paint because shelf brackets were only on the side walls, and the closet actually was large enough to get a step stool inside. Being able to roll paint on the back wall and to actually reach the ceiling made completing the job much easier.

While I was cutting in the edges of the closet, Rick was in the Florida Room (read: temporary painting room) putting green paint on the shutters.  We cannot wait until we get the front of the house completed so we can add the shutters.  Doing so will be our first step toward giving Gladys a little "jewelry" for curb appeal.  Flowers will follow in due order...

Green shutters soon will become some jewelry to make Gladys beautiful.

Yesterday was a bit of a frustrating day outside.  Sometime Gladys just does not want to cooperate.  Old folks can be stubborn, and Gladys must have decided that she was done with us trying to make her naked.  Modesty prevails.  While the paint started to come off very well two days ago, by the end of hours of work, we could not get the paint off the lower edge and certain spots on the wall.  Yesterday, Rick tried once again to get the paint off but to no avail.

Stubborn Gladys refuses to be "naked" in the front.

After looking at the stubborn spots, Rick thinks that perhaps the original paint and primer peeled off.  The "replacement" primer may be what we are having trouble taking off, and since that primer was better than the layers that DID come off, perhaps the tan paint that we cannot budge is meant to stay on.  If primer and paint does not move after being blasted twice with a pressure washer, we feel that it is meant to remain on the wall.  We'll do our best to blend it in, and in the end, since most is on the bottom of the wall, I can always plant flowers to camouflage any unsightly areas.

Tomorrow we will add second coats of paint both to the bathroom closet and to the shutters. If the weather warms enough, we may try to look at the fascia and soffits on the front of the house.  Each day we move one step closer to getting Gladys to look the way we want her to be.  That vision will probably not be complete for years to come yet, but eventually the house will be painted and the flowers will be in bloom.

Lessons Learned

I have not written in the blog for a few days because we have been busy over the weekend painting the south side of the house.  That may have been a colossal mistake.  It certainly was two lessons learned.

When we removed the paint from the house, we went down to the grey plaster in some parts but left the white prime coat if the upper tan coat easily peeled off.  Rick also tried a new type of "paint on" patching material which was a gritty, thick, plaster-like paint that was supposed to seal cracks and fill holes.  The directions said to "feather it out" so that it would blend in with the rest of the wall.  Yeah, right.

We had quite a few cracks and holes on the south side, so we used quite a bit of the patching material.  I should have remembered that paint hides nothing.  When we were finished with the feathered patching, we could still see what was or was not patched.  Feathering out the patching compound also was not as easy as it sounded.  The compound dried to a rubbery texture that is not about to move any time soon.  Sadly, even after a couple of coats in some places, the compound sunk in to deeper holes and still left an indentation.

We put on a tinted masonry sealer and were not too upset to note that the white primed areas appeared lighter than the grey plaster.  The patched areas also clearly showed through.  No problem.  This was just a seal coat with a light tint.  We both really believed that the actual paint would blend the areas of the wall into a uniform color.  That was our first mistake.

On Saturday we added the first coat of paint.  By that evening, the paint had dried.  We came back from our evening walk, looked at the house from the street, and both said, "That looks like $&!%!"  We could see every patch, every white area, and every dark area.  OK.  This is only the first coat.  A second coat is needed to blend it all together.  We had found that to be true using certain colors of paint in the interior of the house, so we figured that the same might hold true for the outside.  What fools we were!

Rough and patched areas still leave shadows on the wall.

On Sunday, we added the second coat of paint and waited for it to dry.  It seemed to be much better, so we went to bed that evening relieved that the paint was going to work out.  Then Monday dawned bright and clear.

Oh, oh.  The bright sunlight cast shadows on the wall, showing every dent and every patch.  Although the light/dark background was not so evident, the patching and uneven surfaces clearly were visible in the southern sunlight.  Once again, we both felt that the wall looked like $&!%.  Steve came over on Monday evening to look at the wall, and he agreed that we would have to do something about it.  Our option at this point are to try to remove all of the paint again, but the new sealer and paint probably won't come off very easily.  Our other option is to see if we can get someone in to do a skim coat or a sand coat of plaster to even out the surface.  In the end, that may be the best looking and easiest way to solve the problem.  Since we just sealed and painted it, though, we may not be able to add a masonry coat of plaster for 6 months.  The south side of the house will be the same color as the rest, so the uneven surface may have to wait until we return in the fall.

From the street, the south side (right) of the house does not look so bad, but
up close, the rough areas show through.  Maybe some creative, large bushes
and eventually a fence on that side will help.

The lessons learned are two-fold.  First, we need to take every bit of tan paint and white primer off of the rest of the house.  It has to be back to the base material.  Secondly, we need to find a different patching compound that will not show up in neon saying, "I'm a crack that they patched."  We might try a patching caulk.  Jim, our neighbor, just finished painting a house for a client, so we might ask him what he used.  Anything has to be better than the patching paint that we tried on the south side of the house.

At this point, Rick is outside blasting the paint off the front section of the house outside the master bedroom.  Every bit of the paint is coming off.  We discovered painted-over screw holes that tell us that at one time, Gladys did have shutters.  We cannot wait until the front is painted so that we can add them to her again.  Shutters on a house are like earrings on a woman.  They are just that added little detail to finish the look and to show the world that you notice and you care.

Rick uses the pressure washer to blast the paint and primer off
the house, taking it back to the grey plaster.  Tarps catch the large
flakes of paint that peel off the house.  Someday, Gladys will be
all one color and pretty again.

I am waiting for the pest control agent to show up to give Gladys her semi-annual bug spray.  Pest control in Florida is not an option.  Either you use it, or your house is crawling with ants, cock roaches (euphemistically called "Palmetto bugs" here in Florida), termites, spiders (some dangerous), and other creepy-crawly things that you do not want to encounter on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  I have to admit that we have a good service.  We have never had live bugs in the house.  When we come back after being gone for 6 months, we may find a few dead roaches in the garage, but our pest control has been very good.  Getting someone who will treat the house even when we are gone was a lesson we learned early-on, and we have benefitted from that lesson ever since.

We will have owned Gladys three years this coming June 6.  What a transformation we have made in her!  The inside is pretty much what we wanted her to be.  Let's hope that we can get the outside and eventually the yard to match our vision also.