Florida Colors!

I am happy to be home again where everything in the house (except for Rick and me) is dead.  Those of you who have been following this blog will know exactly why I am saying that.  No rats, no cockroaches, no termites... nothing!  (Imagine me smiling.) Maybe I am just getting macabre here in Florida.  When I am really angry lately, I find myself killing off the vegetation in the back yard, but I guess that is a healthy outlet since the flora in our yard really needs attention.

Dining Room and Baker's Rack

The paint swatch and former air conditioner hole will be painted.

Note the wine classes hanging from the top!

We have worked the last two days on getting things settled.  On Friday we picked up our new, crazy dining room set and "baker's rack."  This also is called a "pie rack" because traditionally pies were cooled on wire racks like this.  However, if you look closely you will see that the chef must have a drinking problem because this rack holds six bottles of wine and we have 14 wine glasses hung from the top!

Rick working on north wall.

It IS a bit bright!

Rick working hard not to be blinded by the color!

South wall finished. 

North wall with black refrigerator.

South wall and east wall -- with stove.  I can cook again!

Rick also spent the last two days painting the kitchen ceiling and kitchen walls.  We decided on a lime-sherbet green, and as we finished, it seemed overwhelming.  I assured Rick that once we had white cupboards in it (about three years from now) and white appliances (the black refrigerator will be replaced someday), the green walls would become "background" and would be just fine.  I am enclosing lots of pictures to show you the progress and final -- although temporary -- results so far.  We still have to move the 2 x 4 temporary counter top holder and make-shift sink arrangement into the kitchen.  I cannot wait to be able to stand up and do the dishes! 

The counter top will be our project tomorrow after we finish taking down our dilapidated fence.  We started taking it down last week because we had to get it away from the house so the pest control people could tent the house.  The fence is a hazard.  Boards are missing, staples are rusty and sticking out every which way, and the posts are rotten on the bottom.  Our neighbors, who have two small children, are delighted that we are disposing of the fence.  We cut each section into four pieces and stack them on the curb. We knew it was really bad because the "magic curb" didn't even work on this junk!  Last week we got rid of the first four panels, and this week we hope to get rid of at least three more.  Then next week, we can do the final two sections.  If the neighbors will let us put some of the fence into  their garbage, we might be able to get it all out this week.  Public works are great here in Dunedin, but people have to guess at how much "extra" garbage they can put out to get taken with normal pick-up.  If homeowners put out too much, then the city will come and get it with a "claw" truck and add a charge to the homeowner's garbage collection bill.

Slowly Gladys is starting to turn into a very nice old house.  She has fought us numerous times, but she finally has settled down and seems to now cooperate as we are trying to doll her up into a wonderful home once again.  My friend Rose reminded me that we were trying to dress Gladys for the prom, but first we had to be sure that she was wearing clean underwear.  We think that the underwear (electricity, plumbing, HVAC, termite control, pest control) is now new and neat, so now we can start to add the more colorful, clean, outer layers.

The Tent is Down!

Drywall between living and Florida room.

The weekend saw Rick putting up drywall between the living room and the Florida room to try to marry the two spaces together.  At first I thought that we would frame the walls with wood like the wide doorways in the old house I grew up in, but Rick suggested just putting drywall in to de-emphasize the walls, and I think that was a great decision.

We have tried to take the last two days to get a little relaxation after a very rocky start.  We knew that the Bay Area Termite and Pest Control people were supposed to be at our house by noon on Tuesday, so I packed up a few things on Monday and Rick assured me that we would have all of Tuesday morning to finish packing what we wanted to get out of the house before they tented it for termites.

Tenting starts as we finish packing inside!

The tents go up.

We got up at 7:00 so we would have plenty of time to strip the bed, do the laundry, finish packing the food, and then we got the phone call: the Pest Control guys were 10 minutes away, and the clock was only reading 8:30 a.m.!  We did a very quick scramble to finish packing the food and getting the final items into our suitcases.  We were still scrambling to get everything into the truck as the guys were already on the roof putting tarps over the house.  I left laundry in the clothes hamper, dishes in tubs that we intended to remove from the house (but didn't), and everything in an unsettled state.   By the time we drove off, our house was completely tented, and we were on our way to two days of "relaxation."

One of the things we had planned on doing was to visit a little shop here in Dunedin that allows people to paint their own pottery.  Because I, butter-fingers that I am, dropped and broke our camper's napkin holder, I chose to paint a new napkin holder. I talked Rick into painting a flower vase for me since I do not have a vase here in Florida.  I will post pictures of the finished results when we pick up the pieces next Tuesday after they are fired.  Although the pottery and studio fees were pricey, I could not believe how good it felt to do something creative beyond the realm of remodeling.

After lunch, we toured some of the quaint little shops of the city.  One of the shops that we visited was an upscale consignment shop.  I love to look at all of the unique merchandise in these shops, and this shop was outstanding.  The woman who worked with us told us that many people buy condos in Florida, fill them with furniture, and then decide that Florida is not for them.  They need to sell the furniture, so much of it ends up in consignment shops.

Dining room table and chairs with "crap" on it.

While we were in there, we found a glass-topped dining room table and four chairs that I really liked.  Rick was not sold on it at first, and even less enthusiastic after finding three scratched on the table top.  We left the shop and visited two other furniture stores looking at glass-topped tables. Nothing we saw thrilled us, and the prices on some were too high. Additionally, none of the sets we looked at had chairs that were as comfortable as the chairs in the consignment shop.  Then we found that Kane's, one of the furniture stores, sold new glass table tops for a reasonable price.  We went back to the consignment shop and did a little price haggling.  The owner was willing to come down on the price of the already-reduced set.

Back of the dining room chair.

The funky table, which has wrought-iron legs and a tin insert under the table to match the tin chair backs, comes with four chairs.  The upholstery on the chairs is a tan suede-like fabric that looks brand new.

Baker's rack with some of the "crap" removed.

Standing next to the table was a matching baker's rack.  Rick was totally turned off to the rack although we would have room for it in Gladys.  What was hard to see was that the rack had a matching tin medallion and room for six bottles of wine and hanging wine glasses.  There was so much "crap" (Rick's word) on the rack that no one could really see what it looked like.  I started to remove some of the items on the rack, and the clean, more simplified rack emerged.  Although it does not have great deal of practical value, Rick reasoned that this was a unique set and that we would never be able to find a matching piece to go with the table.  The price was right, so we bought it also.  In all, we probably saved 40 - 50% of the cost of the set if it were new.  The colors will coordinate well with the tans of the terrazzo, and we are excited to finally have a dining room table!

The only rat left in Gladys.

Before we left the house earlier this week, we received a "house warming" gift from Steve and Chris.  Rick called them tonight and told Steve that we had a problem:  all of the rats were dead due to the poison gas they pumped into the house except one.  When Steve asked how that could be, Rick told him the rat appeared to be stuffed!  The joke turned out to be on them, too.

Gulf waters between Dunedin and Clearwater Beach.

The one good thing about being in a hotel is that this one is in Dunedin, and it is right on the Gulf.  I have added one final picture: the view that we have from the window of our third-floor hotel room.  We get to return to Gladys tomorrow afternoon, and I must admit that it will feel good to be home again.

Observations on Dunedin

We had a fairly relaxed day today (for once) while still accomplishing a major feat: we finished sanding the kitchen ceiling by finally figuring out how to attach the orbital sander to our shop vac.  Hooray!  The ceiling is now ready for primer and paint, and then we can get around to painting the walls.

Why is painting a kitchen so important?  Well, we have worked for four weeks solid, had numerous set-backs, enjoyed a few triumphs, and spent all of our budget.  Yet save for the fact that the living room no longer has bordello-purple curtains and a pool table in the center, we feel we have very little to actually show for all of our time and money. Psychologically, we need to see a change in this place that is not buried behind a wall somewhere as are the new electricity and HVAC.  Yes, the floors make me smile every day, but we need something more. 

Both Rick and I want to see a lime-sherbet color on the kitchen walls as we visualize white cupboards and stone counter-tops (someday).  Right now, I will settle for  actually having our make-shift counter-top with a kitchen sink in it in the kitchen so I can stop doing the dishes in the bathtub. Maybe by next week at this time, we will be able to see those results.

When one works hard, even small things become major events.  We discovered a new, faster way to get to Home Depot without going on Main Street or Hwy. 19.  Now we can get to our destination with far fewer stop lights and less traffic. Celebration!

Rick and I play a game each time we venture out in the truck.  We play "Count the Cops" because each time we drive around Dunedin, we always see at least one or two police officers.  Our record is eight officers in a 20 minute ride to Clearwater's Home Depot.  Steve told us that he rarely sees police cars, and we have yet to go out and not see generally at least two or three.  Maybe they patrol more in the summertime.  Maybe Steve told them we would be in town. Who knows?

Speaking of the truck, we both are really sick of it.  Yes, it has been a lifesaver each time we go to Home Depot or Lowes -- which is a daily occurrence -- but it also is a pain in the butt to park.  People are very friendly and generous in this city, so we have never had any real hassles or confrontations, and I guess parking at the very edges or back rows of parking lots is good for us because we walk a long way, but I really miss buzzing around in my little SUV.  The truck also does not get the greatest gas mileage, but at least it is reliable.

We are getting used to the culture change.  While having rats in the attic or termites eating someone's house in Wisconsin would declare to the world that the person lived in the slums or was lazy and neglected his home, when people hear about those things here in Dunedin, they say, "So?  What did you expect?  This is Florida!" Million-dollar mansions on the coast have rats, and every other house in Dunedin seems to be battling termites.

The neighbors are some of the most friendly people we have ever met.  They wave when we walk by, talk to us without waiting for an invitation, and genuinely are nice people.  I think I know the names of more of my neighbors here in Dunedin than I do after living in our house in Green Bay for the last 20 years. 

The wildlife, both good and bad, is incredible in this state.  We have seen such a variety of birds (thanks, Steph, for the book on Florida birds!), and we enjoy the new sights each day.  Christmas hint to our daughters:  we need a book on Florida flowers and trees so I know what is wonderful, what is weed, and what is poisonous in our overgrown jungle of a back yard.

I just asked Rick for his impressions of Dunedin, and he replied, "I have not had time to get to know Dunedin."  He is right.  We both hope that on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, as we are out of the house while it is being tented for termite elimination, we will get to explore the city in more detail.

Timing is Everything

On Wednesday evening, Rick and I watched a Through the Wormhole television program that focused on our "sixth sense."  The show very convincingly showed experiments that seemed to confirm that people have an intuition or a sixth sense that allows us to anticipate certain things.  Data from an ongoing experiment with people across the globe showed, for example, that people's anxiety levels escalated dramatically SIX HOURS before the first airplane struck the Twin Towers on 9-11.  And we all know that feeling of being watched before we discover that someone is staring at us, or of being "spooked" when we are in danger.

I do not know if watching the program influenced me or not, but I awoke Thursday morning, and my first thought was, "Something terrible is going to happen today."  It was just a feeling of dread, not based on any facts or interaction with anyone.  I will spare everyone the details, but we actually had four irritating, rotten, unanticipated things happen to us that day, and by the end of the day Rick was ready to put Gladys on the market and to drive back to Wisconsin. We eventually were able to work things out, but it took us the whole day to do so.  We did nothing but solve problems and thus did not make much progress on the house.

Dunedin is permit happy. You have to have a permit to do almost everything on your house short of painting and washing the floors.  Most people just make sure that if they do home improvements, they do it under the radar.  If people hire work done, however, then the contractor must apply for a permit that the homeowner pays for.  These permits are not cheap.  They usually range from $75 - over $200.

Today was a better day even though we woke up to torrential rains.  We were anticipating the gutter inspector coming yesterday, but she never showed up.  We anticipated the HVAC inspector to come today, and he showed up on time.  He did NOT pass the HVAC permit because Arthur Air messed up how they put the breakers in our electrical panel, so now he will have to come back on Monday.  Instead of putting the 25 amp breaker in for the air handler, the technician took out our 30 amp water heater breaker and put in the 25 amp breaker in its place.  So the water heater had our 25 amp breaker, and the air handler had the water heater's 30 amp breaker.  The inspector let us know that Arthur Air was not a good company.  He never said anything, but his facial expressions and his body language said it all.

When he learned that they did not pull a permit for the work until after it was done, he told us that the company will have to pay four times the normal permit fee.  He also almost giggled when he found the electrical screw up.  He told us that we could call them, or he would do it.  We told him that we have gone five rounds with Arthur Air already, and that Arthur Air did not like to even take our phone calls.  He said, "Oh, they'll take MY call, I assure you.  I'll give them a call."  He must have called because Arthur Air sent technicians out this afternoon to correct the error.

The rains continued to pour down, and the inspector noticed that we still had the permit on the window to be signed off for the gutters.  He called the gutter inspector, and she happened to be in the neighborhood, so she was at our house within 10 minutes.  She had to use mirrors to check to see if the gutters were installed correctly, and she certainly did not need a hose to see if the water was flowing correctly!  She got drenched, but at the end of the day, we now have a sign-off on the gutter permit. 

Timing is everything because our newly-installed gutters kept Gladys from wetting herself again.  Dunedin actually got 5.6 inches of rain today, but the back door and garage door did not leak one drop, and the front doorway was not hidden behind a waterfall. Yeah! City streets flooded, our backyard flooded in two low places, but Gladys stayed water-tight.

After dinner this evening, we took a short drive to Steve and Chris' house just to make sure that it weathered the storms well.  It did.  The mulch out front was a bit up on the front porch where it must have floated over the edge, but we saw no standing water and no damage to any of the landscape in the back.  Ironically, on the way to their house we saw a bunch of wildlife splashing in one of the roadside ditches.  We both did a double-take because one of the birds was a roseate spoonbill, a strange-looking bird with pink feathers on its wings and a long beak that ends in a spoon shape.  It is never seen this far north.  But there he was, having the time of his life in a ditch on Virginia Street.  See, Steve and Chris.  You miss all of the summertime fun!

When we weren't interacting with inspectors today, Rick changed out the rest of the switches and receptacles in the house.  We now have electrical fixtures that should not burn down the house, and the rains have subsided enough that we probably will not float away tonight.  Florida just continues to baffle and amaze us each day.

Termites and Gutters

Rick started working yesterday on some rotten soffit and fascia boards in preparation for Designer Gutters to come today to put up much-needed rain gutters on this house.  When he opened the first "bad" spot, we were greeted by a million little ants that seemed to be dragging larvae around some very chewed up wood.  The damage to the wooden roof rafters was extensive, going back at least a foot on one of them.  We could see where someone had tried to cobble together a 2 x 4 scabbed on to the rafter to support the roof. Gladys keeps coming up with all of these lovely surprises!

At the same time he was working on the roof, Conrad from Bay Area Pest Control came to help us try to locate a very dead and very stinky rat.  I asked him to look at the roof rafter, and I watched a pained look come across his face as his shoulders slumped.  "I am afraid," he said, "that you have a very lively colony of dry-wood termites, and where there is one colony, there are others."  Great!  Undesirable Florida wildlife: cockroaches -- check; rats -- check; snakes -- check; termites -- check.  The only thing we have not come across yet is an angry armadillo or a fat alligator in the back yard!

Conrad told us that the best thing to do was to get the entire house "tented" and fumigated.  He assured us that the fumigation would take care of not only every termite, but also of every other bug or rat that happened to be alive within the walls of Gladys.  Strangely, we had gotten a bid earlier in the day from Conrad's company for prevention of subterranean termites.  They wanted $899 for that, and now Conrad was telling us that  the tenting would cost us another $1000.  Gladys is a tough old broad, but having all of these treatments to keep her going really is starting to wear on both our budget and our psyche.  We would have to pack up -- once again -- and leave the house for three days.  That would be find and dandy if we had others in town who could put us up, but right now our only option is a hotel. 

We feel we have no choice.  The termites are here, even though our house inspector in March told us that the house was termite free, and we cannot let them just consume Gladys from the inside out.  We have to take action.  We told Conrad that if we had to do the tent, then we could not afford to do the subterranean termite treatment two.  (Wouldn't you know that even the $#%@ termites come in two species!)  He went back to the company, talked to the boss, and came back with a deal to have both treatments done at a reduced rate since the subterranean drilling had already been done once in the past for Gladys.  Conrad said he could see where someone had drilled the treatment holes in the front porch and back cement slab, so someone tried to protect the house sometime in its history.

So, next week we will be out of the house from Tuesday through Thursday, living once again at a hotel in Dunedin.  We will try to use the time as relaxation time to catch up on a little reading and to try to explore this wonderful, quirky city.  By the way, Conrad never did find the smelly rat carcass.  The bad part about having 10.5 inches of new insulation is that when something dies, it is not easy to find.  The good news is that Mother Nature takes care of such things in a matter of days in this heat, so whatever dies in the attic soon becomes mummified.

Now on to good news.  The soffits are fixed, the rotting fascia boards are replaced by sound boards, the roof rafters are repaired, and Gladys now has gutters!  I almost want it to rain just so we can see how the gutters handle the downpours that we get here in Florida.  We won't have a waterfall at our front or back doors, and we may save the back door from totally rotting away before next year.  This house should have had gutters 51 years ago when it was built.  The contractors do not mess around down here.  While 4" gutters are standard in Wisconsin, here we have 5" gutters (and we would have had 6" gutters if we had had a tile roof).  We have guards to redirect the waterfalls away from the corners, so bring the rains on.  We want to see what this thousand dollars really bought us.

The other good news was that I really gave the polished floors a badly-needed scrubbing today, and they came out shining like a mirror on a sunny day.  They were easy to clean, and they look great.  I am happy with the results.

Arrangement A

We are trying to figure out living room furniture arrangements.  Attached are two pictures.  Which do you like best?  Please e-mail me at saa1376@new.rr.com to cast your vote for arrangement A or B.  Oh, don't mind the yellow square on the wall.  We are trying paint colors, and that is the yellow that the room ultimately will become once we have the free time to stop repairing and to start painting.

Arrangement B

Bombs Bursting in Air

We had a wonderful picnic tonight on the waterfront where we had a chance to enjoy the weather and the views while we finally started to relax.  We actually took time to watch Giant Egrets hunt for fish on the shore and to read some of the magazines that have been collecting dust on our tables.

Tonight, we just stood in our driveway and watched the fireworks going off in the night sky in all directions.  We could see Clearwater's higher fireworks to the south, the neighbors across the way where numerous households seemed to be trying to outdo one another as they set off fireworks over the lake, and others to our north, east, and west. The bombs are bursting in the air in all directions, and if we had not started to get eaten alive by mosquitoes, we probably still would be out enjoying the show. Either fireworks are inexpensive and not as regulated as they are in Wisconsin, or people spent a heck of a lot of money on lots of illegal fire power. Something tells me this is not going to be a peaceful night!

Happy 4th of July!

We are both trying to take some much needed time off today, although Rick already has been making noise about sanding the kitchen ceiling later.  Rick now is on the couch making a snoring noise... and that is OK, too.

Our proposed color palette for the house.

We continue to make progress and decisions on the house.  I mentioned in the last post that we had bought paint samples of the colors that we picked out to coordinate with the floors.  After painting 2' x 2' samples on the walls, we have decided to reject them all.  They are gorgeous, they all coordinate beautifully with the floors, but they all say, "Autumn in Wisconsin" rather than "Sunshine and Florida."  I decided to look at some tropical art for inspiration, and we are now back to traditional coastal teals, green, yellow, and blue.  The picture on the right shows (left to right) the dark teal from the master bath, the lighter teal for the master bedroom, the "serenity" blue for the Florida room, "lemonade" yellow for the living room, dining room, and hall, and "tropical paradise" green for the kitchen. The colors are a little brighter than the picture shows. With white cabinets and woodwork, we think those colors will all be bright and "cool" for this house.  We will accent with pillows, flowers, and vases while adding the tropical orange for spice to the whole scheme.  Lindsay convinced us to go with either lavender or a coral color for the guest bedroom.  I think that a choice of bed linens will ultimately determine that decision.

Patio as viewed from the house.

Patio from the back yard.

I also mentioned last time that after digging up the landscape timbers in the front yard, I found a tiny little snake.  Duh!  Think further, Sherry.  If you find a baby, mama has to be around somewhere...  Yesterday I was excavating more of our backyard patio.  I discovered lots of buried 2 foot square patio blocks under about an inch of dirt and grass, so what started as an approximately 6 x 8 foot patio actually ended up being a 12 x 12 foot patio nestled under the shade of our overgrown vegetation.  The pictures shows that someday this will be a great place to relax.  Side note-- I also found a circular something buried that turned out to be the flowerpot that is now sitting in the middle of the concrete table.

As I removed the dirt from the patio blocks, I put it in a five gallon Home Depot pail and carried it to the front yard to dump into the indentation left by the recently-removed landscape timbers.  I dumped the first pail and smoothed the soil to transition from the raised flowerbed into the front lawn.  No problem.  I did that with the second pailful also.  As I approached where I would dump the third pailful, I saw the black dirt start to slither-- just like the big black snake that it was!  Hellooooo, mama!  The snake was probably two feet long (I did not stick around long enough to measure it), and it was on the move.

I moved, too, right into the house.  I did not scream; I just said, "Rick, there is a big black snake out in the front yard, so I came into the house."  Rick, who has a true phobia of snakes, did not venture outdoors to investigate.

Apparently the snake hangs around the neighborhood which is a good thing since black snakes eat fruit rats. Our neighbor Jim told us today that yesterday morning he had found the snake sunning itself on his front porch.  When he opened the door, it did not move.  He finally had to throw a shoe at it to get it to leave its warm, sunny rest area. Black snakes do not like or bother humans, so they actually are good to have around.  They just give me the willies and they freak Rick out.  Ah, the wonderful wildlife of Florida!

We also thought that with all of our attic work, we had driven out the rats, but as I mentioned last time, we saw that at least one had gnawed his way into the attic through the roof vent.  We set traps last night, and we know that at least one is up there, but we have yet to nab him.  I still think that I should have had my friend Rose's husband, Jack, teach me how to shoot an elephant gun.  I may not be an accurate shot, but an elephant gun ought to do the trick! (And I would add more ventilation to the attic in the process...)

Our path from the back door of the garage to the back yard.

While further exploring our back yard, I discovered that the four patio block stepping stones that take one into the back yard also had some hidden friends.  I now found three more stones in that path, and one more stone in the path that leads around to the side of the house.  Gladys continues to reveal her secret past.

With luck, we will be able to pack a little picnic and enjoy some time in a park later today.  Happy July 4 to you all!

Keeping Cool in Dunedin

In talking with Lindsay today, we learned that the temperatures and humidity in Green Bay, Wisconsin, were far greater than what we were experiencing here in Dunedin.  We actually have not found the temperatures to be that hard to deal with. Yes, it does get hot and muggy here, especially after a good rain storm.  We have learned that early morning (7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.) is the best time to do attic or outdoor work.  If we miss that window of cooler weather, than after 7:00 p.m. is the next best time to be outdoors.  We had rain on and off all day today, so most of your time was inside.

Unfortunately, we broke the above-mentioned time rule by being outside in late morning prying up the rotting landscape timbers surrounding the long-dead flower garden at the front of the house.  Steve, the Pest Control man, finally made an appearance today to discuss termite treatments.  When he saw the rotting timbers, he suggested that we might want to get them away from the house as they were prime abodes for a variety of unsavory creatures including black snakes.  Right.  Snakes.  That was the start and end of that decision.  As soon as Steve left, I started to pry up the landscape timbers.

Naturally, under the very first one that I moved, I found a teeny-tiny (probably 3 inches long and about as thick as a strand of spaghetti) black snake.  He quickly slithered away, and that was fine with me.  Rick came out to help, and with a lot of sweat equity and a good ol' Sawsall, we were able to disrupt the humble abodes of slugs, roaches, and a gazillion geckos.  The timbers now rest at the side of the house and they will get dragged to the curb for pick-up on Tuesday since Monday is a holiday.

The other reason for the title of this blog has to do with insulation.  Gladys got a new hat today!  We had 10 1/2 inches of R-30 insulation blown into the attic this afternoon, so that really should help to keep things both cool in the summer and snug in the winter.  The insulation man said that the product should pay for itself in about 2 years, so we are happy for that.  Of course, what really would help keep the cool (and warm) in this house would be all new windows, but our budget is about $15,000 shy of that goal right now.  Maybe we can tackle part of that problem next year.

We went back to the paint store this afternoon to pick up more paint samples.  Lord, we are such creatures of habit!  We ended up choosing almost the same color palette that we have in Green Bay -- yellows, sienna, tans, and browns.  All of those colors are reflected in the terrazzo floors, but when we got the samples home, we just laughed at ourselves.  We will have to see if I can put a tropical flair to all of this through accent pieces... someday.  Lindsay has convinced us, though, that the guest bedroom should be lavender, and we have some blue-green shades picked out to match the coverlet in our bedroom. The master bath will be a darker shade of the blue-green in the bedroom, and the other bathroom will end up being any color as long as it is not pink!  At this point, however, none of the walls are ready for painting.  The former owner had pictures hanging everywhere, so we have curtain-rod holes, nail holes, strange dents and bumps, and even screw holes to smooth in or out.  Most of the walls will have to remain as they are until next year.

We talked to Stephanie yesterday and are excited that she may be able to fly down for a short visit within a few weeks. We promise not to make her work if she promises not to help us paint.  (For those of you who do not know, our Stephanie is a brilliant, wonderful young woman who is the world's sloppiest painter.  Ask her to calculate something, and she will give you the answer in minutes.  Ask her to paint a wall, and all mayhem ensues.)  

Maybe by the time she comes we will have a kitchen sink and a fairly manageable kitchen again.  This "camping" mode does get to be a bit old.  I can survive without a dishwasher just fine, but being able to stand up rather than to lean over a bathtub as I wash dishes in a dishpan certainly would be a luxury again. In typical Florida fashion, the shipping company sent a man today to pick up the cracked kitchen sink that we refused to accept yesterday.  He was 70 years old, a heart patient, and came to pick up a 150 pound sink all by himself.  Thankfully, Rick and I were able to help.

I worked for a while on the Cengage work this afternoon, and Rick was busy with sanding plaster in the kitchen among other things.  A short walk this evening was interrupted by thunder and the realization that something (a rat?) had eaten out the end cap on one of our top roof vents.  Rick went on the roof to seal that up again just as the sun set and the thunder rolled in.

We ARE making progress, and we are both thankful that our weary bodies at the end of the day are evidence that each day Gladys gets better.