Summer Vacation???

Not a moment of our “summer vacation” was spent not working on the house or our new Big Red truck. Including weekends, from the day we arrived home in early April, after our accident in NC, until the day we left the driveway on September 8th, we:

- spackled and sanded over 250 nail holes, inside and out
- patched 20 sq ft of concrete on the driveway
- power washed entire outside of house, patio, front walk and portion of driveway
- removed over 300 stick-on, glow-in-the-dark stars from Kevin’s bedroom ceiling
- primed and painted over 1600 sq ft of walls and trim inside and outside
- removed old caulk and recaulked a tub and separate stall shower
- etched and applied two coats of paint to 500 sq feet of concrete floor
- installed a new light fixture
- replaced the kitchen and a bathroom floor
- removed, painted and reinstalled bathroom vanity and shelving unit
- removed, painted and reinstalled doors to different bathroom vanity and lower kitchen cabinets
- removed and reinstalled base and wall cabinets in basement to enable painting the wall behind them
- steam cleaned 350 sq ft of carpet
- sanded and applied 3 coats of polyurethane to 130 sq ft of hardwood flooring
- steel-wooled and wiped down shower stall walls three times and applied two coats of epoxy paint to same
- mounted stair well handrail
- installed carpet runner on full flight of stairs
- repaired front door threshold
- replaced water system expansion tank
- transplanted over 90 plants
- weeded entire yard and survived multiple bee stings
- fertilized entire yard 3 times
- packed up and moved the entire contents of the house into a storage unit and the RV

For your enjoyment, the following are stories of some of our experiences above.

GALAXIES GALORE
When Chris’ son, Kevin, was a young boy he received a gift of several hundred glow-in-the-dark stick-on stars, planets and galaxies, which he promptly stuck all over his bedroom ceiling and fan blades. More than 10 years later, we were tasked with removing them prior to repainting his room. Now, one would think that scraping them off with the swipe of a putty knife would work. Nay, nay!! These little puppies had to be removed one at a time. Jay pried them up with a razor blade scraper, peeled them off the scraper with his fingers, then held them in his hand until a sufficient number had been accumulated to warrant a ladder descent and a trip to the trash can. To add to the difficulty, due to Jay’s bifocals, he had to hold his head waaaayyyyy back to keep the ceiling in focus so that he could find them. The almost pure white stickers blended into the white ceiling and after a while stickers and ceiling blurred together requiring numerous and shortly spaced breaks. A night time quality check was required before slinging paint. Visualize this if you dare. Jay, in his all together and armed with a flashlight, entered the barren room devoid of window coverings, and discovered to his amazement, multiple galaxies still clinging to the ceiling. This bizarre ritual was repeated three consecutive nights before all celestial bodies were removed. We felt that photos of Jay would not be well received so, omitted them.


BEE STINGS

Most of our front yard is carpeted with a dense periwinkle ground cover which is shaded by magnificent, tall oak trees. The abundant squirrel population hoards most of the hundreds of acorns the trees shed each year, but escapees do germinate and take up residence in the periwinkle. One of Chris’ annual gardening tasks is to weed out the baby oak trees. This is no small task as even an 8” tall plant can have a tap root equal to its height, requiring considerable digging with a trowel to remove and minimize disturbing the surrounding plants. Given the number of baby trees this summer, she decided to use a chemical brush killer to hasten the process. Enlisting Jay’s help, she waded through the periwinkle cutting off the tops of the Oaks then, with an eye-dropper, Jay would apply a few drops of the herbicide to the freshly cut “trunk”, thus minimizing the broadcasting of toxic chemicals over a large area. Aside from the occasional weeding foray, the periwinkle is undisturbed by foot traffic. Unbeknownst to Chris and Jay, bees had constructed two ground hives. Do you have any idea how territorial bees can be when one unwittingly disturbs their abode? Multiple bee stings later, we located their hives and thereafter gave them a wide berth. Some baby oaks survived to live another year.

FLOOR FOLLY

Due to a mold infestation years ago, we removed the old carpeting in the basement leaving it bare concrete. Before renting the house, we felt compelled to put some type of covering on it but most remedies seemed too expensive or too labor intensive. Paint seemed to be the most practical solution. However, unlike walls, you don’t just prime, then paint. Concrete requires etching. It’s like using sandpaper on bare wood. Muriatic acid is the etcher of choice but the fumes are capable of asphyxiation and since there was only a stairwell to provide air circulation we sought another solution. Home Despot, (sorry, Depot), to the rescue; or so we thought. We gleefully found a concrete cleaner/etcher, that we were told, did not have the deadly fumes of Muriatic acid.

We decided to do only 2/3 of the total floor area to begin as we needed to access other areas of the basement. Taking the standard precautions of covering all skin surfaces with rubber boots, long pants, long-sleeved shirts, goggles, gloves, respirators and plastic poncho (for Chris) we set to work mixing the solution, and scrubbing the floor with a stiff-bristled brush as directed. After the allotted etching time, we began to rinse off the chemical. We rinsed and we rinsed and we rinsed and rinsed again. At first we just brought the hose downstairs to dilute the mixture and suck it all up with the wet vacuum. But, each time we thought we had disposed of the chemical, more bubbles would appear in the damp concrete. That’s right, bubbles. Remember the product was a “cleaner”/etcher. Like Tim the Tool Man, we decided we needed “More power!!!”. So, down came the power washer. Two hours later, we gave up. What bubbles remained embedded in the floor would remain with the house forever. Needless to say we resorted to the Muriatic Acid for the remainder of the project which was finished in less than 1/3 of the time. Sometimes the old ways are still the best ways.

Chris, almost completely covered in protective garb with scrub brush and vacuum in hand.

Clear plastic was taped around the baseboard and up the walls to protect them from chemical and water spray.