Round 2: Progress on the Fence

After a miserable time in our last attempt to dig holes for the fence, we did a little better today. Actually, we did quite a bit better!

Since I last posted, Rick and I went out to the yard, and he reconfigured where we could relocate the fence posts.  We are hopefully far enough away from the telephone wires now, and we have redesigned the fence layout so we are away from the tree trunk roots.

The weather, at last, is starting to show signs of spring.  Although Rick started out in a hooded down parka as he went out to dig holes early this morning, by this afternoon, he had shed both that coat, a lighter coat, and a sweatshirt.  We were both outside today without hats or hoods covering our ears, and we did not freeze to death.  That is progress in Wisconsin.

The pink and the white hyacinths both are in full bloom
in my backyard garden.

My gardens have been busy blooming for some time now.  The early spring hyacinth are really full and pretty right now, and the peonies and rhubarb both are up about four inches.  We have lots of rain predicted for the coming week; hopefully we can work around the showers to make some progress on the fence.  The predicted temperatures should allow us to pour concrete at last!

While I did my Friday cleaning this morning, Rick went to the northeast corner of the yard to see what he could find in our new post locations.  We are going just four feet out from the corner post on both the north and the east sides, and as expected, Rick hit roots in both holes.  He had broken a SawzAll pruning blade last week which stopped our progress.  The new blade helped him uproot quite a few roots of all sizes in the first two holes.  He almost gave up on one of them, but just as he was about to quit, he found the bottom of the root and the problem.  Once that was cleared, we could see that the ground underneath was just going to be a lot of clay and dirt.

The easiest hole turned out to be the corner one!  We should be able to put in a good, firm corner for that section of the yard.

Old shelves cover the holes on the north side of the yard.
We need to keep the holes covered so no children and no
critters (like baby bunnies) fall into the holes.

As he moved down the north side, he encountered a variety of surprises: more roots where we thought there would be none, a buried tin or metal box that was empty and literally rusting to pieces, and tricky roots that looked like buried power lines.  That last problem prompted him to call Diggers Hotline again to have them come back to our yard.  The gentlemen assured us that we were far enough away from the wires, and that what looked like wires really were very black-colored tree roots.

In all, Rick dug eight holes today.  He only went down a couple of feet; that was deep enough for us to know what kind of roots or wires we might encounter.  We also established the spacing for the holes.  I am happy to see the progress he made today.  That progress gives us both hope that we will be able to build this fence by ourselves after all.

While he had the SawzAll out, Rick also dug down around the trunk of the small pine tree that our neighbor Jake had cut down. The tree was planted by the former owner of the house, and it was located right on top of the property marker.  When Jake learned that the tree really was on his land, he gladly cut it down.  The SawzAll made short work of the stump just below the ground.  Rick had to be careful, though, because the roots were right next to the telephone junction box, and there were wires everywhere.  I am happy to see the trunk gone.

Rick dug all the holes from the corner post to the trees on the
east side of the yard. 

While Rick was digging holes, I was taking the dirt to fill in the two four-foot deep holes he had previously dug in our now-abandoned positions.  Then I took some of the black dirt that he unearthed to fill in some holes and valleys in our front yard.  We have many more places in our front yard to redistribute the dirt.  That is one thing that will not be a problem with this yard renovation.  Both our back and front yard go up and down like waves on a stormy sea.

Rick talked to his doctor yesterday; his Achilles surgery is definitely set for May 19.  We need to work each day that is not wet to get as much done as possible before that time. Today showed us both that we have a good chance of getting quite a bit enclosed.

Defeated by de Fence

We are back to the drawing board.

Rick went out this morning to dig another hole (the third one) for our fence.  I knew that this hole would be the most difficult because it was very near where we have removed a fairly good-sized cottonwood tree, so I suspected that he would hit roots.  Never did I dream, however, that he would encounter what he did.

He was outside before I was, but from the kitchen window, I could see that he was already hard at work with the SawzAll.  By the time I went outside, I was shocked to see that he had cut through and chipped away at about 10 inches of tree.  He had not just come across a large, horizontal root; instead, he was trying to put a hole right through what appeared to be one side of the vertical trunk root of the tree.

Digging a hole straight down the trunk root of a tree
is not a good idea.

As the picture shows, the tree part that you see in the hole is not looking down on the root, it is looking at the side of the hole and thus the side of the tree trunk that Rick was trying to cut through.  He worked at it for a couple of hours before finally deciding that the task was impossible without a trencher with a fairly good-sized bucket at the front.  We could not possibly put a hole in that location.

We looked down the line of post locations at the back of the lot, and Rick decided to try a hole in the other potentially trouble spot located just behind one of our birch trees.  He dug down one shovelful of dirt before encountering a web-like structure of roots.  Thankfully, the largest was about an inch in diameter, so we were able to use a pruner to go through those roots.  They took time and were irritating to deal with, but after the trunk root, these were manageable.

As he dug a little further, though, Rick came upon what we suspected was a telephone line since we were near the line the utility man had painted on the ground.  As we looked closer, we both thought for an instant that we had already severed a line.  Closer inspection showed us that the severed line really was a tree root, but the whole experience made us pause.  We also thought that we had found the main telephone line, but that, too, proved to be a large root.

Leaving that hole about a foot and a half deep, we moved on to the south side of the house.  Rick wanted to see if another hole near the painted lines would result in us finding the buried utility line.  This time, to our surprise, we definitely found an underground cable, but it was going perpendicular to the painted line that supposedly marked utility lines going either to our house or to our neighbor's house.  If we had known for sure that the line belonged to us, we would have just cut it since we no longer use any telephone land lines in our house.  However, without trenching up half of the yard, there was little way of knowing exactly where that wayward line lead.

That was three for three today, and Rick and I both were frustrated with the whole process.  Our only alternative, as we could see it, was to totally redesign the fence and to relocate all of the stakes to where we should dig the holes.  That meant that we would have to fill in the two four-foot deep holes that Rick killed himself to dig the past two days, but we saw little choice.

We decided that if we started in our original starting place on the northeast corner of the lot, we could go out with two shorter, four-foot panels on the north and the east sides.  Doing so would move all of the posts on both sides down four more feet, thus straddling on the east side where we knew the trunk root was for the old cottonwood tree, and moving further away from the birch tree. On the north side, we would move the posts four feet away from the wayward telephone cable.

To avoid the underground wires -- and hopefully be able to use a power auger to dig more holes -- we moved the fence line another foot closer to our house on the north side.  We also moved the fence line a bit closer into the property on the east side.  While Rick relocated the lines, I took a shovel and filled in all of the holes that he had dug today.  Then, together, we reset the stakes where the new holes should go.

This has been a frustrating day, to say the least.  The fact that the skies are cloudy and the weather is just damp and cold did not help our dispositions.  Rick had worked four hours only to have no new holes dug that we could use.  We have a new plan, but we are back to square one as far as the labor is concerned.

I just hope that this time we have a plan that will work in the end.

In Defense of Building a Fence

Since almost the entire nation is in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people are spending a great deal more time at home.  The one positive outcome of all of that home-time is that people are beginning to find time to do all of those home improvement jobs that they were able to ignore in the past.  Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards are doing booming business.  Of course, we are no exception.  We always can find something else to do to improve the property.

I promised Rick last year that if we did not move, he could build a fence around our property this year.  We have lots of trees and blowing leaves to our north, and lots of rental properties to our south. Also, since we are only one house in from the corner, people can see right into our back yard and our back patio from the street around the corner.  We are spoiled by the privacy we have with our fenced yard in Florida, and we want the same thing in this house, too.

The survey helped us locate the back corner of the lot.

Our first step was to get our land surveyed.  We had a pretty good idea where the lot lines were, so that survey gave us more legal peace of mind than any new information.  We did a preliminary stake-out of the fence.

We ordered the white vinyl fencing material from Lowes in Appleton, and last Tuesday they delivered it to our house.  Sadly, the semi-driver had a large forklift which was great at getting the three pallets of materials off the truck, but it was too heavy and too wide to carry those pallets to our back yard.

Rick and I spent quite a bit of time in bitterly cold weather disassembling the pallets so we could haul the materials to the back yard.  We had a small garden cart, so with some creative stacking, we were able to take back three fencing panel packets at a time.  We stacked the panel packets and then all of the fence posts on a slab next to our garden shed.  Then we wrapped the whole pile in tarps to keep it both together and somewhat dry.

The fencing materials are all piled together next to the shed.

Of course, in the midst of doing all that moving, klutzy me tripped and fell on some pallet debris.  I fell back on my behind, which is good since I have more padding there than on any other place on my body.  The bad thing is that I am still sore, so I suspect that I badly bruised or even broke my tailbone.  Thank God for Advil.

Rick ordered a cement mixer from Home Depot which he picked up and we assembled this week.  We have not ordered the cement mix yet since the evening temperatures are still dipping into the 20s. We could not pour cement yet anyway.  Right now temperatures are 30 degrees below normal for this time of the year.  We hope that they soon will warm up so we can start to build the fence in May.

Until then, we have taken out our new transit to measure the high and the low points of the yard.  The yard dips down a total of 19 inches from its highest to its lowest point.  Lots of measurements and drawings later, Rick thinks we have a plan of where to step down (or up) the fence so that the tops remain level.  We did not want to follow the terrain as some fencing companies do.  I would get dizzy each time I looked at the fence if we did so.

Of course, the orange mark indicating a telephone cable is right
next to our property line.

The first disappointing news came when we called 811 to have the utility lines marked.  The electrical lines are no problem, but the telephone lines run right along the property lines.  That foiled our plans to use a power auger to dig the majority of the holes since state law says one cannot use a power auger within 18 inches of any underground utility lines.

The frustrating point is that most people do not even use the telephone lines anymore.  However, since we have rental properties next to us and all along the road to the south of us, we have to be careful of the lines and to give the utility box at the corner of the property proper clearance.

Rather than waste time waiting for the weather to warm, we decided to dig one hole a day.  That way, we will have many of the holes completed when we are ready to start building the fence, and we will not kill ourselves trying to dig holes and build fences all in one day.

Rick dug the first hole near the sump pump outlet on the north side of the house.  The sump pump drains into a mini storm sewer that the previous homeowner had put in before we bought the house.  We were not quite sure where the sewer line was, so Rick carefully started to dig a hole.  He actually never hit the storm sewer, so we were lucky in that respect.

Unfortunately, what Rick did find was the composition of the soil.  The ground started with about a foot of good black topsoil.  They Rick hit a layer of clay for another foot or so.  That layer ended, and we were back to dirt for another couple of feet before Rick hit a second layer of clay.  The hole finally ended in dirt, but the first dig confirmed our worst fears: we would have to dig through clay.  Right now, the clay is still moist from the winter thaw, so it is fairly soft.  As the soil dries, however, it will become rock hard.  We need to keep digging while we still have spring conditions!

What every digger does NOT want to see: a root going
directly through the hole he is trying to dig.

Rick dug the second hole today.  Again, he started with black dirt, and then a layer of clay.  As he returned to a layer of dirt, however, he ran into another obstacle that I had warned him we would find.  He hit a root from one of the trees that we had had removed from the property.  The root was about 4-5 inches in diameter, and it had one fairly large side root branching off from the main root. SawsAll to the rescue!  We learned with our house in Florida that a SawsAll with a good pruning blade can work miracles when it comes to removing roots.

Rick and the SawsAll tackle the root.

The root took a few creative cuts and a bit of prying up with a long bar, but Rick finally was able to work past it.  A few other roots buried lower were more annoying than being an obstacle, so we kept on digging.  We had to use the bar to break up the clay as we got to a deeper level before we could use the post-hole digger to bring up the soil.  Then we reached the next challenge.

"Sher, I think we hit water," Rick said as he pulled up some very moist, heavy clay.  Sure enough.  We have always known that we had an underground creek and high water table toward the back of our property.  That is why our sump pump drips constantly this time of year.  As Rick finished the last couple of inches of the 48 inch deep hole, the hole slowly started to fill with some water.  Thankfully, concrete will cure even under water, so life will go on.

A pail full of root pieces shows who won in the end.

Wavy landscape, wonky underground wires, clay, roots, and water.  I certainly hope that those items will complete the list of things we have to deal with on this project.  In the end, I know we will be happy that we have added a fence.  Let's just hope we can get it up without it getting us down.

New "Normal"

Today is my birthday, and as I look out the window at the sunshine and the blooming flowers, I have to pause and wonder what the next year will hold for me.  Will it be a year to relax (finally) and to enjoy the fruits of our labors?  Will it be a time to explore new avenues of friendship and experiences?  Will it be a time to watch in wonder as Owen grows?  Will it be a time of painful loss as Mother continues to age and to struggle with heart failure?  Will any of us still be alive a year from now as the Cover-19 virus continues to ravage the world?

While millions of people across the world have to change their lifestyles and ways of working and shopping to keep their families safe, we retired folks must adapt to a new normal as well.  So what does our new life look like?

Our plans have changed, and we have to make other arrangements to adapt to that.  Our first change was to cancel our April flight north to Wisconsin and to book an earlier flight.  We did so because we are afraid that as airlines struggle with cancelled flight reservations, they are starting to cancel flights.  They offered us less expensive fares, and since we are flying Southwest, we will be able to use our "credit" on future flights when we return to Florida. We leave this coming Tuesday.

We are happy to be heading north because Wisconsin has less elderly people in the population and (so far) less diagnosed cases of the Covid-19 virus.  If I am going to be ill, also, I want it to be in Wisconsin, not in Florida.  Wisconsin has a superior healthcare system, in my humble opinion.  We happily will head north, especially now that the snow is melted.

The second change was a postponement of Rick's achilles surgery.  Since his was an elective surgery, it now is delayed a month in anticipation that the hospital facilities will be needed for Covid-19 patients.  We suspect that the surgery may be delayed even further as the virus creates more demand on medical facilities.

Our third change is our lack of interaction with other people.  We view church services online.  We try to shop in the middle of the morning when stores are less busy.  We stand at least 6 feet away from our neighbors when we talk to them... or we use messaging rather than face-to-face contact.  We sadly watched as a memorial service for a recently-deceased neighbor was cancelled.  We were disappointed that our monthly meeting with our weaving friends also had to be cancelled until further notice.  Life has changed.

What we do instead is to take advantage of the glorious spring weather here in Florida. We take long walks twice a day for exercise.  The fresh air and sunshine are wonderful.  We read, we weave, we interact through Facebook, Facetime, and online, and we watch the news to get the latest updates on what is happening in our crazy world.

If we do go out, we choose places that are outdoors and not crowded.  Right now is Spring Break time, so the beaches are crowded and off limits to us.  The beaches will be closed as of Sunday. We will try to go to the Florida Botanical Gardens today for a nice, outdoor stroll among the blooming bushes and flowers.  If the parking lot is too crowded, we will just drive away.

Our fourth change is the way we will approach our travels home.  We thought about driving, but we calculated that doing so was more dangerous than flying.  In addition to the hazards of the road for a 1500 mile drive, we also would have much more exposure to people through restaurants, hotel rooms, public restrooms, and gas stations.  Additionally, Rick's back and my knee probably could not tolerate a 1500 mile drive any more. We figured we would have less exposure to people in a 2 1/2 flight than in a three-day road trip.

So we will fly.  The great thing about all of our construction for the last several years is that we have a long-ago-purchased box of N-95 masks.  These are the same grade filter masks that the government is asking construction companies to donate to healthcare workers.  We will wear masks both in the rental car to the airport and all the while we are in the airport/ airplane.  My doctor told me that wearing a mask, while it may not protect me from every airborne germ, will do two things: the mask will frighten other people away from sitting next to me, and it will remind me not to touch my face.  That is a win-win plan in my mind.

Years of painting and staining also have left us with a supply of blue gloves.  We will wear those, too, in the airport.  Those will help protect us from unsanitary surfaces, and we can easily discard and change them, as needed.  When we get on the plane, we will follow our normal procedure of wiping down all surfaces with disinfectant wipes.  We will refuse to eat or to drink anything while in flight.

When we get to Wisconsin, we will adopt a self-imposed 14 day isolation period.  I would never forgive myself if I carried the virus and passed it on to any of my beloved family members.  I would rather be overcautious than overly sorry if someone became ill or died.

Once home, we will restock our freezer with Schwans foods and make one giant, expensive trip to the grocery store.  I just hope they still will have the essentials of milk, eggs, yogurt, cheese, pasta and pasta sauce, sugar, flour, and canned goods.  Fresh fruit and vegetables would be great also, but we will not get our hopes up yet.  What will be there, will be there.

Health experts now are predicting that this virus could come in waves and could last up to 18 months.   I pray they are wrong, but I accept the fact that caution is imperative. We all will have to adapt to life in a survival mode.  That is our new "normal."

Finished at Last

The artist who was constructing our art sculpture for the lanai wall dropped it off yesterday, so we spent part of the morning hanging the new art piece.  We both admit that we were a little disappointed in the final result, but for the lanai, it will be fine.

The new art work adds an interesting visual dimension to the lanai.

Why disappointed?  The trees in the art piece she had on display had a little different, more colorful patina.  Our trees are more of a flat black.  She also smoothed out one of the hanging holes on the rim, so we had to come up with an alternate way of hanging the piece because the smoothed hole had no upper edge to catch the head of a Tapcon.  Instead, Rick drilled a second hole; he fished copper wire through both holes and twisted the ends together to make a hanging loop.  We were able to use a Tapcon with the looped wire to fasten the piece to the wall.

The art is three dimensional, with the stained glass adding a realistic effect to the water.

Since the holes were not level with one another, placing the Tapcons in the right place so the art piece hung level was another challenge, but in the end, we were fine.

Rick scrubbed the grout film off the tiles yesterday and hosed down the entire floor.  Then he hosed down the screens from the inside out to wash off the accumulated yellow-green pollen that is filling the Florida air right now. If you have allergies, this is not the place to be as Spring approaches.

One conversation area is on the north side of the lanai.

Rick enjoys the other sitting area in a rocking chair on the
south side of the lanai.

The result?  We have a clean lanai with comfortable chairs and something interesting to look at on the wall.  The lanai is complete.  Now we can sit back with a good book or good company and enjoy the space.

Lingering Lanai Tile Installation

We had hoped to move patio furniture back into our newly-tiled lanai today, but that is not yet meant to be.

As Rodney was putting down the tile yesterday, he started to mutter about, "I hope I have enough tile to finish this job."  He wasted absolutely NOTHING, and with one clever cut on a tiny piece next to the wall, he was able to finish the whole floor, but he had no tile left for any future repairs.

The grouted tile helps make the lanai a more
unified room.  Rodney did an excellent job of
adding tile in front of the laundry room door.

Then he started to grout the tile.  Sigh.  The tile's rough sand finish tore up his sponges as he was wiping off the excess grout, and he seemed to be having trouble stretching it as far as he had hoped.    He said that the grout was difficult to put down but that it was the most durable grout on the market.  He said it would last forever, and for that I am happy.

I was a little upset at the color of the grout.  It seemed very dark to me, but Rodney assured me that the grout would dry "at least two shades lighter."  He was correct.  This morning when I looked at the floor, the grout had dried and lightened so that it blends in beautifully with the tile.

This corner of the lanai still needs grout.

Sadly, Rodney did not have enough grout to finish the floor.  He used a whole bag of grout, (which, on paper, should have been enough), but we have about a 3 x 6 foot area left that needs grout.  Rick said that would not be a problem, so he went out on Wednesday to get more grout.

First he tired Floor Decor because they were closer to our house than Pro Source, which is where we purchased the materials and tiles.  Floor Decor did not carry that type of grout.  OK.  His next stop was Pro Source.

The clerk at Pro Source apologetically informed him that although they usually have that grout in stock, they were out of that color.  The clerk tired to rob a bag of that color of grout from another job, but that did not work out either.

Rick had to order a back-up box of tile and the final bag of grout to finish the job.  The grout is supposed to be on the truck tomorrow (Friday),  but we probably won't hear from Pro Source until Monday.

We are SO glad that we did not try to put down this tile floor
ourselves.  This was a challenge even for the professional.

Of course, that means that the patio furniture will stay in the garage and off the lanai until next week some time when Rodney can come back to finish the job.  We had hoped to enjoy it this weekend, but we will have to wait for that pleasure just a bit longer. I guess all good things DO come to those who wait.

Tasty Water and Terrific Tile

A few days ago, I got up and went into the kitchen to get breakfast.  As my protein bar was thawing a bit, I used our filtered water to fill my cup to take my morning medication.  For whatever reason, the water tasted terrible.  Rick and I had already discussed the filtered water situation, trying to figure out how long ago we had replaced the filters.  The answer: too long ago!

Rick's research revealed that the replacement filter we needed had been discontinued and replaced by not less than four different variations on that one filter, and we were not sure that any of them would fit into the system under the sink.  We decided to change out the canisters for a new filtration system.  On Sunday, the new system arrived via Amazon Prime.  Rick took it out of the box "just to look at it."  He said he would not install it until Monday.

A couple of hours later, I walked into the kitchen, and this is what I saw:

Impatient Rick installs the new water filtration system
under the kitchen sink.

Needless to say, we now have a new filtered water system on our kitchen sink.  One taste of the new filtered water confirmed that we really did need to change what we had been using.  The water now somehow just tastes more pure.  I taste no chemicals.  Perhaps it is all my imagination, but if that is so, I am enjoying my imaginary better-tasting water.

The concrete slab, complete with expansion cracks, does
not make the lanai an appealing place to sit.

On Monday we received a call from Sean saying that he could get a tile installer to our house on Tuesday morning to tile the lanai.  Yahoo!  That is the last structural step we need to make the lanai complete. We chose a light beige tile with a "sandy" non-slip texture.  These tile are made specifically for outdoor areas and for pool decks which easily can get wet.  With the humidity in Florida, we were advised that these tile would be safe.  An added bonus: rather than mopping them, we can just wash them with a hose to keep them clean!

Rodney put down a white membrane over the
expansion cracks so the tile would not split
when the temperatures cause movement of the slab.

Rodney and Sean showed up bright and early this morning.  They unloaded all of the supplies, and then Rodney started to lay out some tile.  He showed us a couple of different patterns for the tile, and after we chose the one we wanted, he got to work.  He told us he would lay all of the full tiles today, and he would come back tomorrow to cut the filler tiles and to grout the whole floor.

Of course, the lanai floor is not square, so Rodney
started with the outer wall since that is the first place
one will see when entering the lanai.

Rodney mixes more mortar in the backyard as he completes
yet another row of tile.  He used a chalk line to make sure each
row was straight and true.

By this afternoon, the heat really set in, but Rodney kept on working.  We supplied him with cold water, and he kept laying our tile floor.  He still has to lay tile around the laundry room door, and that could be tricky because the door sill is almost flush with the floor.

By the end of the afternoon, almost all of the full tiles
were down.  One full row is left, and then cut pieces
to fill in where needed.

Another concern is the amount of tile we were told to buy.  Rodney has done an excellent job, creating almost no waste; however, in taking inventory of what is left, he may have just enough to finish the lanai... or he may be a tile or two short if any of them break while he cuts them.  We will see...

We are happy with the color of the tile which blends
well with both the pavers and with the color of the house.

We can't wait to get the tile finished.  Then Gladys will be complete.  We have taken almost nine years to transform her from a tired, sagging, beat-up old broad into a beautiful old lady who stands proudly in the neighborhood.  This has been a lot of time, money, and work, but we are thrilled that we can call her home.

Looooong Day

Rick got up early this morning, and he has had a long day installing the new light and new fan on the lanai.  I thought he would just install the light today, but once he got going, there was no stopping him.

Rick drilled the first hole, and together we pulled the wires
out and into the garage.

The most frightening point of the day was drilling holes into our new lanai ceiling, but that actually went rather smoothly.  Since the structure is only aluminum, we decided that just hanging lights and fans by a few screws was not a great idea, so part of the morning was spent attaching the light base and fan base to the ceiling and then manipulating the screws we used into a washer and a locking nut, all within a 2" tube in the ceiling.  Rick's fingers may never be the same again.

Our new lighting fixture provides plenty of light.

The lighting fixture we chose is very low profile and sleek.  We have yet to get power to it to see how bright it will be, but I am sure that it will be good enough to add illumination for a walk to the garbage cans or for a dusk discussion with family and friends on the lanai.

The fan was a took a little time to install since
Rick had to wire in the light, the fan itself, and the
remote control receiver.

The fan was a bit more complicated, but it, too, is now firmly attached to the ceiling.  Anyone who is 6' 5" may have to worry about the blades, but they are not in my way nor in Rick's way, so we are happy with it.

Rick adds the blades to the fan.

Rick works in the garage with the light and fan wires.

Of course, the worst part of the day was the snake's nest of wires going into the garage. Rick spent most of the afternoon connecting everything together, only to discover that the new GFI breaker kept tripping each time I flipped the switch.  He took the whole tangle of wires apart again to double check his wiring -- which was correct, by the way.  The trouble is in the breaker box itself, but Rick is too tired tonight to redo that work.  It can wait until he is fresh in the morning.

A light, a fan, four chairs and two tables
now fill part of the lanai.

We did do something yesterday that we had not planned to do until next fall.  We found some padded lanai furniture that fit us well and that was very comfortable.  I really did not want anything with cushions.  That furniture tends to be very expensive and usually is too large to fit my short legs.  The chairs we found have no cushions that need storage, and they stack when we need to take them in for the summer.  We can scrub them down with soap and a hose, just like we do our patio furniture in Wisconsin, so we are happy with our four-chair and two-tables conversation group.  We decided not to purchase a dining table for the lanai.  We hardly ever use our table on the porch in Wisconsin, and we both felt it would be a waste of money to do so here.  Perhaps we will add a chaise lounge to our seating group yet.  For now, we are satisfied with what we have.

We are expecting rain tomorrow, so I am happy that any work we have to do will be within the dry confines of the garage.