Defeated

We are defeated.  Everything that we have tried to do in the last couple of days has ended in disappointment and sometimes defeat. Rick is so discouraged right now that he would just as soon pack his bags and head back to Wisconsin.  This is partially due to overwork and burn-out, and partially due to one thing going wrong after another.

We started yesterday morning by getting ready to add an electrical outlet in the wall for the microwave that we want to install above the stove. Rick called the kitchen cabinet contractor and got the general measurement for where the outlet should be; he made the mistake of saying that this should be a fairly easy application since he could see the wall that we had to use from a ladder in the garage. (Hint to homeowners: NEVER say aloud that anything you are attempting to do will be easy.  Doing so awakens all of the remodeling gremlins waiting to pounce.)

When he climbed the ladder, he found about nine wires already snaking down that wall; apparently, if a Mack truck comes through the front kitchen wall and wipes out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, we will not have power in any of the rest of the house!  At any rate, he also found an unused access hole that he thought he could use for the new wire, so we really did think this would be an easy job.

He cut a very tidy square hole in the wall where he thought the plug should go.  OK, first problem: the hole revealed a stud wall and when Rick tried to flash a light down the access hole in the attic, I could not see the light in the new hole that he cut in the wall. Conclusion: the access hole in the attic lead to a space on the other side of the stud wall.  (Expletive deleted!)

He came back into the kitchen and cut another tidy hole in the wall on the opposite side of the stud in the wall.  Back in the garage, the flashlight again failed to reveal any light down into the kitchen.

"Forget it," Rick said.  "I'm just going to shove the wire down the wall.  You should be able to see it."  I dutifully stood by the new hole waiting for the wire to appear-- which it did, but it came out in the original hole that we had cut!

"I can see it," I yelled, "but you will not believe where it came out."  Rick reappeared in the kitchen, and a few more expletives filled the air.  He cut the first hole so perfectly that the electrical box fit right in with no plastering required.  However, now we had a second hole that had to be filled, mudded, sanded, and painted.  ARGHHH!

Since he is so sick of plastering that the sight of the bucket of mud makes him almost physically ill, the prospect of mudding another  patch was not appealing.  He filled the hole and mudded it so we could sand and add a second coat of mud today.

On to the next project.  Rick decided to replace the wobbly ceiling fan in our bedroom.  My ever-researching husband had narrowed the search down to one fan that got rave reviews. We purchased it and spent two and one-half hours getting it all installed.  He went back to the garage, flipped the breaker back on, and we had lights...no cameras... but also no action!  The fan motor was dead, so he took it down, rechecked all of the wire connections, and tried it again.  Lights told us that we had power to the fixture, but the fan blades still stood as still as a soldier guarding Buckingham Palace. More expletives.

Rick took the fan down, and we hauled it back to the store.  He was so angry that he let me do the talking at the returns desk. They apologized, told us that the fan had a very good reputation, and gave us a new one to take home.  By that time, it was too late (and Rick was still too upset), so wire nuts hung from the ceiling and a small fan sitting on the dresser tried to keep the air circulating in the bedroom overnight.

We went to bed last night feeling totally defeated.  No matter what we tried to do recently, there is always some problem with our first attempts.  Generally we can get things worked out, but not without additional hassles. Rick is ready to quit and to give it all up for this trip.  I have not worked as hard, and I am much more optimistic than he, so I still have some hope.

This morning we got up late, and rather than jump right back into tasks, we eased into the morning with some much-needed paperwork.  Rick filled in the forms to get rebates for the windows from the power company, and I called about our still-missing cushion on the bench in the bedroom.  The results?  We should get about $230 in rebates from the power company, and the bench cushion is supposed to be in the store tomorrow.

After the slow start, we decided to go to Lowe's to pick up our blinds for the master bedroom and bath. The blinds are great.  The first one went into the bathroom with no problems.  The end wall in the bedroom also was great.  Then we put in the two end panels on the bank of three windows in the front. When we went to fit in the middle section, it was about 1/4 inch too long.  We tried every which way to make them fit, but no luck.  All solutions that we tried came up with more problems.  Gladys is too fat to fit into the girdle of these blinds.

Two new and one very old set of curtains, nailed to the wall.

We left the two side panels up, and the middle one will have to go back to the store tomorrow.  More expletives. Tonight we have beautiful blinds in all the windows but the middle one. Now Rick was really ready to go home.

After that, I was ready to quit for the day, but he decided to put up the new fan in the bedroom.  I came out here to start this blog because I could not stand any more disappointment if this one failed.  Thankfully, this one worked just fine, and we now have a beautiful new clean, white, energy-efficient, quiet ceiling fan.

A new ceiling fan.  Yeah!

After dinner, we both needed to get out of here for a while.  We have had thunderstorms for the last two days, but the sun finally came out after dinner for a little while.  We went to Micky D's for an ice cream cone, and then down to the Marina.

Rather than go out on the pier, I told Rick that I wanted to walk down a street neither of us had been on before.  The street is Victoria Street, and it runs along the shoreline of Dunedin.  I originally wanted to walk down just as far as the first house, which is a turquoise-painted two-story Victorian house that used to be the clubhouse for the Marina. It is up for sale, and I wanted to take a closer look.  But then we saw that the street actually curved around and went further.  We discovered a whole neighborhood that is definitely a hidden historical district of Dunedin. The houses are all mammoth Southern plantation-style homes among native trees, private docks, and lots of old South charm.  Steve and Chris, if you have not walked down this street, this is a must-see... but don't do it right after a rain since the street goes into gravel with dips.  Also, don't go at low tide like we did since the neighborhood was rather fishy/ musty smelling.

We walked the whole street all the way from the Marina practically to Weaver Park.  I will definitely walk this again as it was quiet and very relaxing.  We needed that after the last two days.  We returned to the pier to watch the sunset. A pelican tried to butt into our discussion at one point, but other than that, we had a good end to the day.

We definitely have reached the point where we need to slow down, to take a few hours each day off from constant tasks, and perhaps to find some fun in Florida before we return to work in Wisconsin.

And the work goes on...

I know that I have not written for a few days, but that is not because we have not been busy.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  Each day Rick works on the ceiling and the walls in the kitchen first thing in the morning.  The overhead work is very hard on him both because his shoulder has not been "right" since his surgery a couple of years ago, and because his heart does not seem to be pumping the blood up into his arms when he works overhead for very long.  He gets very tired and very winded quickly.

Relocation of an outlet: it looks easy, but it took both
time and planning to make it safe and legal.

Of course, that does not mean he will stop.  In the last two days, he also has been working to change the electricity around in the kitchen.  When we paid a fortune for the electricians to come in last year, they installed a refrigerator outlet from the garage into the end wall of the kitchen and an oven outlet next to the door where the refrigerator used to reside.  Both outlets, we have learned, were wrong.  The refrigerator outlet was too far to the left and would be located under one of my new kitchen cabinets-- not the most ideal place to plug in a 'fridge!  The oven outlet also was about two inches too far to the left, also placing it under one of the proposed new cabinets.  Rick has spent lots of time and muscle breaking through concrete walls and moving both outlets.  He also had to move an upper outlet because it, too, was too low.  Originally, that outlet was in the "eat-in" part of the old kitchen, so its height on the wall was not an issue.  However, since that area now will hold a bank of pots and pans drawers, the outlet had to be relocated.  The picture shows that it only needed to be changed a few inches, but that still was a tiresome task to be completed.

I am so glad that Rick knows how to do all of this.  I would have to hire an electrician to come in, and at this point, the budget will not support that kind of spending.  We still have to tackle the front wall of the kitchen.  We have brought the wire down into the room, but yet another outlet needs to be raised to right below the windows. That could lead to some interesting structural problems tomorrow.  I also would like a second outlet put in to be in the corner that has never held cabinets before.  This transformation will be very interesting, to say the least.

The soon to be blue kitchen.  To cover the green will
definitely take too coats of paint!

In order to see some completed results, Rick took the new paint and put it on a couple of the kitchen walls.  The picture shows the new blue ("Innocence") and the old green which we thought we would like but have decided against.  Obviously, we have a bit more to complete.

While he has been working in the kitchen, I have been trying to paint the totally unfinished (as in "never painted or varnished") bedroom closet doors.  The upper cabinet doors are in pretty rough shape, but for now they will suffice.  Perhaps in January we can get a bit more serious about changing them to something else.

Oh, I almost forgot to add pictures of the bedroom transformation.  I had mentioned earlier that we bought really fun, funky pineapple-topped furniture for the bedroom.  Although it is really cheap, I smile when I go into the room, and it does afford us more room and storage.  The old bedroom furniture is now in the guest bedroom.  We still are waiting for the new white 2" blinds for both the bedroom and the master bath.  That will help to totally change the look of the room.  Note the "before" and "after" pictures.

The "before" view with the old tables and dressers removed.

And "after" with the pineapple bedroom furniture. We
are waiting for a dark teal cushion yet for the bench and
new white blinds for the windows.

The dresser for the new bedroom, complete with pineapples
at the top of the mirror!

Each day we see new changes in Gladys, and they all are for the good.  We picked up some paint samples today for the house and new doors, but we have not found the right combination yet.  We liked one bright yellow for the house, but neighbors all voted for a more darker yellow hue.  The green we chose for the door is not going to work out, so we are back to square one on that decision.

We also looked at Best Buy for a new dishwasher and an over-the-oven microwave.  The microwaves all get terrible reviews, and Best Buy was outrageous on their prices.  We probably will get both appliances at a big-box store like Lowe's.   Did you get stock in Lowe's yet, like I told you to buy earlier?  You are missing humongous profits because what Rick and I have spent there this summer has certainly raised their stock value!

Out, Damned Soffit! Out, I Say!

Today was a three-sweat-band day.  For those of you who do not hang around Rick often, let me tell you that the man has the world's best cooling system. The minute that he starts to really work, his "air conditioner" kicks in as his pores open and sweat pours out. He seriously sweat out three heavy-duty, tennis-approved, Nike sweatbands today.

We started to prep the kitchen today for new cabinets by tearing out the useless, 1960's soffits. While I generally am not opposed to soffits, the original kitchen floor plan for this house had a wall oven where I want my modern-day pantry installed.  The wall ovens called for a much broader and deeper cabinet than the pantry, so the soffit on the right side of the end wall was oversized for my current kitchen plans.  The kitchen contractor, Michael, also suggested that we remove the soffits so I could have taller cabinets for even more storage space.

For those of you familiar with the Bard, you get the joke of the title of this blog.  For those of you who think I just choose weird titles, check out Act V of Macbeth for a little context. Believe me, about mid-day today, I wanted to scream those lines as we ran into a small electrical problem...

We started early by going into the garage to scoop out the blown-in insulation that filled the open cavities of the soffits.  While we got most of it out, we did have to contend with fluffy white insulation occasionally floating down every now and then through the open soffit areas.

Last view of the soffits in the kitchen.

Our not-so-efficient plastic draped area. The front
of the soffits are torn out.

Rick did most of the hard tear-down work since we had limited room to work, and I have learned long ago to always stay clear of swinging hammers, prying crowbars, and crumbling plaster.  Yesterday my house was pristine clean as I did not want the inspector to find tell-tale plaster dust anywhere.  Today, even though Rick tried to tape off the work area, plaster dust coats every surface. The joys of home remodeling!

He tackled the front of the soffits first and found few surprises in the typically framed soffits.  A few old nails and wire mesh on which the plaster was put gave us a little resistance, but for the most part, the structures were coming down nicely.

Beware of killer black wires that try to crawl out of the wall.

At the very middle of the end wall, we found an electrical box that we knew was in the soffit. I think at one time a 1960's owner probably had a now-vintage clock plugged in up there.  The wires were dead long ago, so that was easy to remove.  A second wire ran from the area over to the left-hand side wall.  When Rick opened that up, he found the remains of that black wire and also a white wire.  We knew that the white wire is hooked up to either the overhead lights or the outlets near the counter top, so we left those in place.  The black wire, Rick said, was the remains of the other one and was dead.  He took a wire cutters to snip it off, and POP! Thankfully, Rick was holding an insulated wire cutter and did not get blown off the ladder, because the wire very clearly sent him a message that it was far from dead, although it was not above trying to put Rick into that state of being.

He turned off all the circuits, did his magical electrical thing, and was able to cut the now definitely expired wire out of the way. He ran to the store to get other boxes because in removing the soffits we had to reroute a couple of wires that were, alas, too short.  By noon, the score card read Rick 1, Electricity 0.

Well, almost zero. As is typical in Florida in the summer, the afternoon brought another very loud thunderstorm complete with lots of God's original electricity and torrential rains. Thankfully, we did not lose power, although that is always a possibility.

The afternoon found all of the soffits out, and the drywall ceiling was ready to replace.  We had to cover more territory than we thought we would because in trying to take down a stubborn 2 x 4, Rick pulled a bit too hard and a whole section of ceiling decided not to let go of the falling wood.  Ah, well, I always wanted to spend money on a new ceiling that no one will see because it will be above the new cabinets...

When we got to the left-hand wall, I said, "As long as we have the wall open, why don't we run some wire down the wall for our new dishwasher and other outlets?"

New drywall on the ceiling, but original block walls still
showing on the back and right-hand walls.

"I hadn't thought of that, but that is a brilliant idea," Rick said.  "Go out to the garage and bring in the large wire."  I went out to the garage and found a large bundle of smaller wire and a small roll of fat, larger wire.  Of course, I brought in the wrong one.  However, by that time Rick had knocked a hole in the wall in a location that will someday be within one of my new cabinets, and he and I fished two wires from the upper to the lower walls. We will use those wires later this week to install additional outlets required in the new kitchen plan.

By dinner time, all of the new drywall was up.  After dinner, I put the four bags of insulation we took out of the attic back into the attic over the new "ceiling" while Rick added a coat of plaster "mud" to the concrete block walls that the old soffits used to cover.

The end of the three-sweat-band day shows drywall on the
ceiling and plaster mud on the walls.

The soffits are out, so Phase One of the kitchen remodel is complete.  Tomorrow we add another coat of mud, we tape and add mud to the ceiling, and we start to tackle the additional electrical outlets in the room.  Once we get this prep work done, we can call the kitchen contractor and tell him to come and install the new cabinets. Once those are in, then we can contact the granite people to measure for the counter tops.

The kitchen was the first room that we gutted last year after we moved into the house, and it is the second-to-the-last room (the main bath being the very last) that we are working to renovate.  Last week the master bath was a remarkable transformation, and I think that once we give Gladys a new kitchen, she will be a pretty classy old doll.

No Rest for the Possessed

The Bible says that Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but I think that Rick skipped that particular passage.  He agreed to try his new pants today for going to church, but since church did not start until 10:00 a.m., we could not possibly "waste" all of the time before the service, so we went to Home Depot first to buy a counter top for the main bathroom.  Since it is only 72" long, it easily fit into the bed of the truck, so from there we were off to church.

I have never felt more welcomed than I have in going to Christ the Lord Lutheran Church in Clearwater.  The congregation is small, and most of the congregation is elderly, but the church does support a school so there are a few younger families in the mix also.  When we went in, the pastor saw us sitting in a pew.  Before the service started, he came over, sat next to Rick, and welcomed us back. A nice woman named Gretchen sat in front of us all last year when we were here, and she welcomed us back also.  After service, the pastor's wife asked us if we were the "teachers from Wisconsin."  She said that she and her husband were just discussing us this week, wondering if we had made it back to Florida.  (We did not take the time to relate the story of Sam and the pants.)  We just said that we were glad to be back. Once we come back in January, we will officially change our membership from Messiah in Green Bay to Christ the Lord in Clearwater.  We think that this congregation can use our help and financial support more than Messiah (which has grown quite large), and the change will help us support our claim of Florida domicile.

Our new vanity, mirror, light, and working faucet!
Note the new towel rack and toilet paper holder
to the left of the sink.

The repositioned cabinet--the picture is
crooked, not the cabinet!

After church, my darling husband was back to work.  He is paranoid about the inspector coming in on Tuesday.  He wanted the whole master bathroom finished, so he is obsessed with getting everything in place.  He works like a man possessed by some demon that drives him forward.  The two pictures show the transformed master bathroom.  You will note that the cabinet, which we thought would open toward the toilet, is now positioned so that it opens toward the center of the room.  The reposition makes the upper shelves accessible, but we had to sacrifice the plug inside the cabinet in the process.

Today (Monday), Rick was further obsessed with getting the vanity up and running in the main bathroom.  He always underestimates the time it will take to complete a project.  He envisioned having the whole cabinet complete with drawers, doors, and a working sink by noon.  Ha!  Right... and I will totally re-landscape the back yard,  build a lanai, dig a pool, and re-roof the house in that time, too.  He is SO unrealistic with time.  I estimated the vanity as an all-day job with no working sink, and in the end we were both wrong.

The main bathroom vanity, with drawer slides in place,
awaiting the counter top.

First, I must admit that the vanity drawer slides fought Rick every step of the way.  He measured correctly, made templates, and did everything else right to make sure the slides were an easy task. However, the cabinet gremlins of the world all conspired against him, and the slides did not go smoothly.  I will spare you the gory details; let's just say that if the vanity had ears, it would now possess an entirely unprintable blue vocabulary.  In the end, Rick triumphed by getting the drawers all in, and he even had time and determination left to cut the vanity counter top, set in the sink, and get the plumbing flowing smoothly!

He still has to add drawer fronts and handles, and cabinet doors tomorrow, but right now I am thrilled to have a working vanity in the master bathroom.  The pink sink in this bathroom was one that we found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Green Bay.  It is a cast iron Kohler sink in beautiful shape.  Originally, the sink was very expensive, but its color and age have made it "outdated"; however, the materials and care that it received from the last owner make this the bargain of the year.  Oh, yeah, and the price was right too: we paid $10.00 for this gem.  I told my brother-in-law that when we get rid of it in a few years, I will sell it on Craig's List for $50.00.  (Just kidding... when we are finished with it, I will donate it back to the Habitat for Humanity Restore to get sold once again.)

Vanity with a counter top and working plumbing.

                                                               

                                                                                The $10.00 Habitat for Humanity Restore pink sink.

We still have some work to do before the window inspector comes tomorrow, but the last two days of hard work have resulted in complete transformations of both bathrooms in the house.  The main bath still needs lots of work and attention (eventually the tile and the pink will be a wistful memory), but our renovation of the main bath will have to wait until we have the time, energy, and most of all, budget to complete.

Let there Be Light

We have been very busy the last few days trying to finish the master bathroom while we also are shopping for new ceiling fans, staining the vanity for the main bath, and generally just bouncing from job to job.  Sam the stork has not been back to our yard, so perhaps his taste of electrician's screwdrivers was enough for him to ban us from his list of fine dining front yards.

We have been hearing for almost the last two weeks of the horrible heat wave in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest.  While we are having high 80's with a breeze most days here in Florida, they are having 100+ degree days with horribly high humidity.   That all changed as of yesterday.  Summer (read: humidity) has arrived in Florida.

On Saturdays, Dunedin holds a Farmer's Market (they call it "Green Market"), and we love to go down to get fresh fruits and veggies.  Rick got homemade pickles last year, but the pickle vendor has not been there yet this year.  However, a young couple has a booth where they sell homemade breads, bagels, rolls, and other wonderful delicacies.  We bought a few goodies and then ventured further to partake in the Third Annual Orange Festival.  Free orange juice and a quick walk around the booths was enough for us.  By 9:30 this morning, the heat was oppressive, and the paramedics were already attending to one elderly lady. We were going to go onward to get our daily Home Depot and Lowe's fix, but a phone call changed our plans. (More on that later.)

Our new front porch light that thinks it is a beacon
on a lighthouse!

One of the accomplishments of yesterday was getting a new light installed for our front door.  I found a marine-quality light that was guaranteed not to rust, rot, corrode, or otherwise fall to pieces due to the salt air that daily bombards our neighborhood. We wanted to have something with at least two bulbs because I hate having a wimpy light outside that does not even allow me to find the door's keyhole.  We were pleased with the look of the light I chose, and thanks to Rick's expertise, we soon had it installed where the old industrial spotlights that the previous owner had used once hung.  Once the evening came, Rick said, "Let's see how our new light works." He hit the switch next to the door. "Holy Wha!" he said.

Not only our doorway, but approximately half of the front yard was suddenly illuminated like a Broadway stage on opening night. In a bad storm, a Boeing 747 could use our front light to make an emergency landing on our street.  "Ah, Rick," I said, "I think it's bright enough..."

He always like to try the new "toys" in the house!

Another accomplishment was to get the wiring completed for the central vacuum.  As the picture shows, Rick took the vacuum for a successful test drive. (Note his chic paint pants!) We ended up with a 35 foot hose, so with the intake port in the center of the house, we now can vacuum every spider out of every nook and cranny in the entire house.

Andy, applying the stucco around the new front door.
He was a true master with stucco.

The completed stucco work around the new front door.

We were told by Jeff, the contractor that we worked with for our doors and windows, that he would send "his stucco guy" to our house to finish off the front door. Today when we were at the Orange Festival, Rick received a call from Andy, Jeff's "stucco guy."  We met him at home, and he assessed the job.  As Rick has often mentioned, the young people today do not want to learn the hard labor jobs.  He has long lamented that in the future we will be desperately short of masons, electricians, plumbers, and other manual tradesmen.  Jeff, who is 62, told us that Andy was older than he, and I must say that Jeff was not exaggerating.  As the picture shows, Andy was a short little old man (70+ for sure) who really knew his trade.  Rick asked him when he would like to schedule the job, and he said that he could start today. (Remember the heat that I just mentioned?)  He said that he would work as long as he was in the shade and as long as the slight breeze held out.  We agreed on a very reasonable price since he also found a section of the house next to the door that needed repair, and he started to work.  Rick and I ate lunch, ran some errands, and when we got home, we found a note on the door that said, "Work finished, $175.00." We will coordinate with Jeff to get that bill paid, but we are very pleased with the results.  We will have to paint the stucco as soon as it dries, but he did us a great favor by stuccoing under the door.  Now we can tie in a slab of cement with the existing porch and worry about adding tile to the whole thing when we return in January.

Our new bathroom light: what a change from the old one!

We wimpy young people decided to work in the air conditioned house.  Rick got tired of trying to paint around the old bathroom light, so he took it out.  Remember the 1960's row of bulbs, all covered by a three-sided square of glass that was held in place by white plastic screws? Yep, that's what hit the garbage can today.  The pictures show the new light that we installed.  It is not the most expensive or glamorous in the world, but it is modern, bright, clean, and really adds a bright jewel in Gladys' hair.  I smile each time I turn it on and enter the room.

The giant cabinet in the crooked little room.

Our last task of the day was to put the "feet" on the big white cabinet and to then hold our breath as we tried to stand it upright in the bathroom.  With a little finagling, we put it into position. Success... sort of. The cabinet did not sit level, so Rick got his level out.  First he saw how much the cabinet needed shifting.  He checked everything for level. The cabinet?  Check.  The new wall that he just built? Check.  The floor?  Well, not level but not too bad.  The old wall?  Ugh!  From bottom to top, the old wall is off by 3/4 of an inch. Like all little old ladies, Gladys sags and droops a bit in a few places. It's not fair, but our beautiful, level, plumb cabinet will have to be shimmed on one side to sit "level" in our cozy, crooked, little old house.

Since Sam still has not returned Rick's missing pants, our final task of today was to go to Kohl's to buy his some dress pants.  We actually plan on going to church tomorrow; that will be a familiar routine that I have missed in the past few weeks.  We have made such progress that we can afford to take a little time off for us and for some of the things that we want (rather than need) to do.

Health Problems and Small Accomplishments

The Fourth of July was a true bomb at our house.  The day started OK, although I could not convince Rick to take the day off.  We are under a couple of deadlines-- one to get the master bathroom finished so we can get the windows inspected, and one to get the kitchen prepped in time for the cupboards to be installed.

By late morning, I began to really feel awful.  I was exhausted, nauseated, and out of sorts.  I took my blood sugar and discovered that I was in the high 300's. (Normal is 80 - 100.)  I took a bolus of insulin and continued to push myself to keep going.  By 11:30, I tested again and found I had reached over 400.  I took another bolus and asked Rick to watch my insulin Pod as the medication (supposedly) went through the cannula into my system.  I had the Pod on my upper left arm, so he could easily see it.  He told me that the cannula was completely out of my arm which is why my blood sugar was going up even though I was trying to take more medication.

I changed my Pod which I hate to do early since I have to toss it out complete with the insulin that is still inside it.  Wasting insulin kills me because I know how expensive both the Pods and the medication are.  With a new Pod in place, I took a massive dose of insulin and had a light lunch.  By mid-afternoon I was getting back to normal and starting to feel a little better, but Rick was still fretting about my health.  That makes me feel both good to know that he really cares and terrible because I feel guilty for not being totally in control, even though I know this was an equipment malfunction.

By late afternoon, my blood sugar has swung the opposite way, and I was faced with a low reading.  Both high and low readings really take a toll on my body, and both make me feel like crap.  We had a light dinner as I struggled once again to gain control.

Rick asked what I felt like doing that evening, and I told him I wanted to go down to the Marina to watch the fireworks. We parked a few blocks away by the gelato shop so we did not have to hassle with trying to park the truck in a crowded area.  As we walked toward the Marina, we stopped at the local ice cream shop called Strachan's.  While their ice cream is good, it also is terribly expensive.  The shop is a cash-only enterprise, and as we stood in line awaiting our turn, we watched families in front of us with three or four children easily pay up to $5.00 for a couple of scoops of ice cream on sugar-laden cones. Six people, all ordering ice cream, at $5.00+ each.  You do the math!  Rick and I usually do not pay that much money for an entire meal.

Since we do not get out often, my scoop of Butterfinger and my scoop of black cherry ice cream really was good.  We got two scoops in a cup with two spoons and had the entire thing gone in the few blocks it took us to walk to the Marina.

One thing you should know about Dunedin.  While it is located in a very populated area (sort of like living in a suburb of a large city), the community itself is very quaint.  The locals are proud Scotsmen, artists, and small business owners.  The city streets are all lined with cobblestone sidewalks, and even later at night, one feels safe walking among the one-story, old-fashioned shops, bakeries, and numerous restaurants and cafes.

The crowds at the Marina were surprisingly light. We walked out on the pier a short distance, listened to the live band that was performing at Bon Appetite, a local restaurant, and waited for the fireworks to begin.  The Marina looks out over St. Joseph's Sound, a bay of water that is rimmed by a peninsula containing small beach communities.  Those communities back up to the Gulf of Mexico.  From our position on the pier, we could enjoy the fireworks across the Sound from four or five beach communities (including Treasure Island, Indian Rock, and Clearwater Beach) and the city of Clearwater.  We also had prime views of Dunedin's fireworks, so we saw various fireworks shows all from one prime location.

Locals tell us that the fireworks from Safety Harbor are the best.   Unfortunately, since Safety Harbor was directly behind us, we were not able to see their display, but we were not disappointed with the show we saw last night.

After living with them for a couple of days now, we have noticed that our new front doors, while they are heavy and look beautiful, may not be installed in the most secure of positions.  To accommodate the sill plate from the front porch, Chris positioned the door over treated lumber.  That leaves the bolts of the semi-stationary door inserted into lumber instead of concrete.  The door is sound now, but we both question how secure it would really be in a hurricane. That is one thing we will question when the contractor comes next week.  We may have more hassles with those doors yet.

Rick spent this morning with a power sander and the shop vac in the master bathroom trying to get the room ready for primer and paint.  We want to finish the bathroom by Sunday evening at the latest.  Rick spent a frustrating couple of hours yesterday putting in the pocket door handles and pull, so this afternoon he was able to put the moulding and jamb for the door in place.  Tomorrow, hopefully, we can prime and paint the walls, reserving Saturday and Sunday for adding the new light, the new mirror, installing the cabinet, finishing the electrical, and adding towel racks and toilet paper holders. Our new sink is supposed to arrive on Saturday, so if that comes in in time, we may be able to install that also.

I worked in the hallway and living room prepping the lower walls so they are set for new baseboard.  The living room and dining room are now ready; however, we have more wall space than we have prepared baseboard at this time.

Rick also spent part of today varnishing the main bathroom vanity that he and I stained cherry yesterday.  We have the little Kohler pink sink to install, but lots of work assembling and hanging the drawers and doors await us before that project is complete.

We also bought a new ceiling fan for the bedroom today, so now we have two bedroom fans that await installation.  As you can note, we have many more projects than we have hours in the day.  Once again, I am writing this late at night while an exhausted Rick snoozes in front of the TV.

However, the changes in Gladys are evident on a daily basis.  This is quickly becoming a very livable home, and the addition of bedroom furniture and kitchen cabinets in the next two weeks will transform it even further.

As I mentioned earlier, Gladys keeps getting a facelift and appears younger while Rick and I are battered, strained, cut up, and bruised.  Our muscles ache, Rick has re-injured his right shoulder, and we both feel the toll of our daily abuse of these getting-older bodies.  Hopefully, we will one day have a snug little house that will shelter our slowed-down, retired bodies in the wintertime so we can enjoy some of the hobbies that lay untouched yet in our "retirement" home.

New Doors

Chris and Frank came back today to install the Florida Room door and the new double doors in our main entrance. We really like the results, although the light streaming in the front of the house now from the setting Western sun is almost overwhelming.

My new central vacuum system! Sometimes
Rick's work really sucks!

I have to back up to yesterday when I could not get my husband to quit for the day.  We ended up installing my central vacuum until quite late in the night.  We still have to pick up some wire to make final connections, but the vac is now safely installed in the garage, complete with an exhaust pipe that reaches into the rafters.  The exhaust pipe probably will just look like a convenient place for geckos to hide in, so this could be an interesting venture unless we buy some screening to go over the end!  If nothing else, one must always keep the critters in mind when living in Florida.  I have not  really had a chance to try it yet, both because of the missing wiring and because the instructions clearly state that plaster dust will ruin the motor.  At the rate we are going with Gladys, I may be stuck using the shop vac for the rest of the decade.

We set the alarm for early today because Chris and Frank were set to arrive by 8:00 a.m.  They told us that to load our new double doors onto the truck took four men and a lot of muscle power.  When they unloaded it, they actually had to take the doors out of the frame and unload it in three component parts. I will say that then we close the door now, it makes a really reassuring thud!

During the day Rick and I took turns walking down to the barber shop around the corner from our house to get much needed haircuts.  We cannot believe the prices here.  While building materials and groceries are higher than Wisconsin's prices, haircut prices are not.  I usually pay 30 for a haircut in Wisconsin, and here they charged me $12 for just as good of a cut.  At that rate, I could even afford a good tip.

The new Florida room door with a stunning view
of our garbage can in the back yard!

I went first, so when I got home the Florida door was already installed. The Florida room door has a half-light in it with internal blinds.  The old door was solid and was rusting out, and the new one now is fiberglass (no rotting or rusting) and seems to "fit" the room better.  The opposite side of the room (south side) has two windows, so the north side wall with the one window and now a windowed door better balances the room.  I hope someday to have a lanai out this door rather than a wonderful view of our garbage can!

The new front doors completely transform the front of the house.  The doors seem to be a grand entrance to a wonderful home, so I hope that when people enter they are not too disappointed in the interior of Gladys. She is coming along nicely, and we are happy that the living room now seems to be filled with as much light as the Florida room.  Gladys is now secure on all fronts and hopefully will be a delightful, sunny, inviting place to call home.

Our new front doors!

Looking from the inside out.  Unfortunately, we cannot remove
the red tags in the doors until after the inspector approves
them.

Sam and the Screwdriver

Yesterday (Saturday) was a very disappointing day.  We started the day with the intention of finally getting the bathroom ceiling fan/ heater up so that Rick could connect it to the wires he so patiently threaded through the attic and wall.  He cut the opening for the fan, lifted it up, and discovered that putting a fan in the master bathroom was Mission Impossible.  (Where is Tom Cruise when you need him?)

We learned that with the fan in place, we had a maze of ceiling joists and rafters in the way.  We finally were able to finagle the fan into position, but we discovered that it still would not work because there was no way the exhaust vent could be connected to the fan or travel out to the soffits without major cutting of supporting structures. Since this is the corner of the house that already has its integrity compromised due to the block walls being cut for the medicine cabinet (and probably the shower plumbing), we were not about to tempt Fate any further.

So the ceiling fan came down, the gapping hole in the ceiling was patched with a giant square of drywall, and the fan went back into the box. Rick spent the rest of the morning adding 1/4" drywall to the ceiling for a smooth surface on which to apply a fresh coat of paint.

Another repair job was building a frame to hold drywall across the hole left by the medicine cabinet.  We stuffed the hole with batt insulation to try to keep the structure insulated, and then Rick filled that hole with another giant square of drywall.  At Home Depot yesterday, we bought a heavy-duty scraper to scrape off the most protruding "bumps" of rough plaster on that wall.  Hopefully, then, Rick will be able to apply a thin coat of drywall mud in order to make that a smooth wall to match the rest of the room.

Our house is in such disarray that we keep misplacing things.  Three days ago I used a special electrician's screwdriver to take off the faceplates in the bedroom before we painted the walls.  When I went to put them back on, I could not locate the screwdriver.  We looked everywhere... in the places it was supposed to be, in the places it might be, and even in the places it was highly unlikely to be.  No go.  No screwdriver.  Our standing joke since that time is that whenever we cannot find a tool, it must be with the missing screwdriver.  That leads me to the pants...

We got up this morning with full intentions of going to church.  We found a really nice WELS church in Clearwater, so I showered and laid out my "church clothes" with the intention of getting ready.  Then Rick came in the bedroom and said, "Where are my good pants? I know I packed them."

We looked everywhere-- in the closet, on the hangers under the good shirts, in the now-confirmed empty garment bags, and even in the suitcases packed away up in the closet.  No pants.

"They must be with the screwdriver," I said.  I did not want to go to church without him, so we both changed into paint clothes and got to work.

New outlets for the bathroom with Rick showing his prowess
in the background. Bet you didn't know that wild turkeys
can be found in Florida!

While I was in the garage painting the pocket door casing and frame, Rick said, "Your friend is back."  Yep, there he was, standing on the front walk up to the house, looking for breakfast: Sam the wood stork.  I quickly shut the garage door since I really did not need help with the painting, and then I came into the house.  While Rick was working again in the bathroom taping joints in the new drywall, I looked out the front bedroom windows.  Sam was still in the yard, pecking at bugs in the grass.

Suddenly, he reached way down in the grass and pulled up something bright yellow, and I watched in horror as he tilted his head back and tried to position in his 8 inch long beak the entire structure of my missing electrician's screwdriver!

"Ack!" I screamed.  "Sam's trying to eat my missing screwdriver!"

When I said that, Rick jumped off the ladder in the bathroom to run to the front door.  Simultaneously, Sam seemed to have discovered that a screwdriver was not listed in Audubon's book as a part of a wood stork's diet. He dropped the screwdriver and took a few steps away from it as Rick went running out of the front door, telling Sam to "Shoo!" As I took the bird-saliva-ridden screwdriver into the house for a washing, Rick mused, "Did you see if he had my pants?"

Renovation "decor" in the Florida Room.

The pants are still MIA, but we found enough to keep us busy the rest of the day.  We now have a painted pocket door for the master bath, painted casing to surround it, and 96 feet of newly painted baseboard that will have to have a second coat tomorrow.

No medicine cabinet, a new ceiling, and
scraped walls waiting for a new coat of
plaster and paint.

I also took the scraper we bought yesterday and attacked the bathroom walls.  Hopefully Rick will be able to add edging where the new and old walls meet as we continue to add drywall mud in layer after layer.  (Did I mention that stock in Home Depot and Lowe's would be a good idea?)

Another accomplishment this very humid afternoon was the completion of the dryer vent.  I now have a fully-functioning dryer that does NOT exhaust hot, humid air into the garage.  Yes! The vent is now located on the north wall of the house, connected to the dryer by a long run of aluminum to carry the air away.  No longer will we have to trip over the dryer vent pipe as we leave the kitchen, and having the hot air out of the house is an added bonus.

Each day we work hard and accomplish part or all of another task.  We can see the progress with each task that we do, but we also see all that needs to be completed yet.  Someday I hope that we can come down, actually enjoy some of our hobbies, ride our bikes, and putter around in the garden, transforming that into something beautiful that we can enjoy.  Who knows?  We may even be able to someday sit outside and watch Sam as he walks across the yard...wearing Rick's missing pants.