Home Again

The great thing about owning two homes that we have remodeled to our tastes is that no matter which direction we travel, we eventually are home again.

Our trip down to Gladys this year in the new car was blissfully uneventful.  We flew to Gladys in October to pick up the old Honda and drove it home for our trade in on the new car.  Why purchase new?  Well, when we bought the last Honda CRV, we did so in a hurry because Lindsay needed our old Toyota. The Honda did not have many of the features that we wanted, but it was acceptable at the time.  The following year (2015) Honda came out with a Touring model that had all of the features we really desired.  As I age, pulling down the hatchback in the back is becoming more difficult.  I never totally will regain the strength I once had.  The Touring model has a power left gate in back. It also has a great navigation system for my lousy sense of direction, and it is loaded with a gazillion new safety features.  For a mid-priced SUV, the 2017 Honda CRV- Touring is rated one of the most safe and most reliable models on the market.

Rick wanted an all-wheel-drive vehicle (in case we want to bring it back to Wisconsin someday), so we purchased the new car in Green Bay.  I won't go into the hassle that we encountered trying to get it licensed in Florida; let's just say that too many hours from too many people were spent trying to get everything legally in place. Thank God for a wonderful woman at the Florida DMV named Ashley! At this point, the car is ours, it is licensed, and we are safely in Florida.

We left Wisconsin on Friday at 4:00 a.m. and drove as far as Tennessee the first day.  A violent line of thunderstorms was making its way eastward through the Plains, so we wanted to try to beat the majority of the bad weather.  Saturday morning at 4:00 o'clock found us driving in pitch dark with dense fog through Nashville and the mountains of Tennessee.  Not my favorite way to travel!  We had fog all the way from Nashville to Atlanta, Georgia.  Then the sun finally came out and the day cleared.  We never really saw any of the rain that was still chasing us eastward. Rick wanted to save money by not stopping at our hotel in northern Florida, so from somewhere he found the energy to drive all the way to Gladys.

When we arrived at Gladys on Saturday, she was so excited to see us that she peed herself!  Sigh.  Yes, we discovered on the "first flush" of the season that the toilet in the main bathroom was leaking. Off to Home Depot we went to get a new wax ring.  Just what Rick wanted to do with his injured hand: pull up a toilet!  However, between the two of us, we were able to get the toilet out and to reseat it onto a new wax ring.  Rick was concerned that when we put it back down, he did not feel it "squish" down on the ring; however, it securely bolted down and has not leaked since that repair.

We did discover that cock roaches like to live in the drainage sewer system, so as soon as we get the whole house power-washed, the bug spray is coming out!

Hurricane Irma did not do hardly any damage to our house.  We know that is mostly because we have spent the last six years adding hurricane resistant doors, windows, garage doors, and roofing materials. We noticed that the westerly wind (which was reported at 100 mph) tried to force its way through the front doors, but they held.  Rick was able to reseat the doors in the frame, and we found no indication of water infiltration.  A quick walk-around showed no other damage to our house.

The back of the house now is clean, and the windows once again
let in the Florida sunshine.  Our bottle brush tree survives (although
not well) and the bushes next to the house need some attention.

The house is filthy due to all of the debris that was flying through the air, so today Rick power-washed the back and north side of the house, including the soffits.  Then we cleaned the windows and screens, and he took the leaves out of the gutters. The rain gutters actually changed color as he washed them!

I discovered a small hole in one of the fence
panels on the north side of our property.  We'll
try to replace that panel if we can get it out.

Only when I was washing the screens (which I had propped against our fence) did I notice our first indication of storm damage.  What I thought was a small leaf plastered onto the fence turned out to be a hole that obviously was made by a flying projectile -- either a stick or a stone.  The hole is less than the size of a quarter, but it is something that we will have to address.  We'll have to see if we can bend the fence posts enough to get the broken panel out and then slip a new panel into the same place.  Thankfully, Rick said that he found a panel stored in the garage, so that task awaits us another day.

We'll try to finish washing the south and west (front) sides of the house tomorrow.  The task goes fairly quickly with house wash and the power washer.  We have lots of windows in the front, but they all can be reached from the ground or from a small ladder, so by tomorrow we should have the house, soffits, windows, and screens completed.  This job is taking a toll on Rick's left hand -- on which he had surgery this summer for ruptured ligaments-- and on his left arm.  Perhaps I can get him to let me use the power washer for a while tomorrow...

Washing the fence will wait for another day.  We are back into our old routine of working in the cooler temperatures of the morning, and then realizing (or feeling) our age and resting in the afternoon.

A little bit at a time.  We are so thankful that Gladys came through the hurricane intact and that the small tasks which face us are totally within our realm of possibilities to complete.