Sister Visit, Not

I live 2 hours away from the town where most of my family lives/lived in MD.  When my sister and hubby decided to move to FL after retiring, she planned to visit me before leaving the area.  Well, moving is stressful and busy, and she couldn't get the free time.  I understood that.  I would have been equally pressed for time.

This April, she emailed that her hubby was returning to the old town to meet old friends and go fishing in Canada with them.  Susie decided to go along as far as the old town and stay with her daughter and visit old friends there.  She said she was going to drive the 2 hours to visit me one day here.

Things happen.  She decided driving 2 hours in a strange rental car (she doesn't like driving) was too uncomfortable.  We considered meeting in the middle, but that would have just been in a restaurant for or hour and that's not a great place to talk.  I considered some outside locations, but the temp is hitting 95+ and the heat index over 100, so that wasn't a good idea.

We decided to just keep talking on the telephone every so often.

I miss her generally.  She is not only a sister but a person I like.  I mean, if she was only a neighbor, I would like her too.

But with 2 months notice, I started fixing the house up.  I'm a single guy set in his ways; I don't worry too much about how the house looks inside.  But I repainted the bathroom, mopped the floors, washed other walls ( the kitchen really needed it), etc.  And I had yard stuff to show.  The new compost bin, the new deck (3 years old but she hasn't seen it), the enclosed garden, flowers everywhere.  Etc.

It would have been nice to show her the things I've done.  And to sit and talk to her.

But at least I have a nice clean house!  That should last about a month, LOL!

While You Sleep

Have you ever considered what goes on in the world when you are asleep?  I know that when I go to bed, I am totally cut off from the world.  And the first thing I do when I wake up is turn on the radio on the headboard (tuned to a news station) to hear of events.

But what if something really important happened while I was sleeping?  What if the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupted?  What if India and Pakistan exchanged Nuclear weapon attacks?  What if the Sun went dead?  I mean, I would just sleep for days waiting for dawn and get colder and colder and colder.

I say this because I had the strangest dream last night.  Aliens arrived on Earth, and I didn't know about it.  And they were good aliens.  They announced they would take everyone who arrived at any major city by dawn to a newer better Earth2 (since they knew what we needed and had found one), and I slept through it.

I ignore the phone at night, I don't have smart phone with alert apps, and I doubt neighbors would beat on my door to tell me the good news.

Actually, it would be bad enough just to not know that some virus had been dropped in my area by some terrorists...

I suppose this has something to do with a feeling of lack of control over my life while I sleep, but it is still an interesting question.

"What if something really important happens when you are asleep"?

Batteries

I practically live on batteries here.  Everthing has a battery.  Sure, the oven and refrigerator and TV are AC powered but most things need a battery.  I have recharageable batteries for almost every minor thing in the house though.

I have flashlights, wall clocks, kitchen timers, weather stations, a cordless vacuum, a laptop, a cordless leaf-blower, a cordless hedge-trimmer, cordless tools, and portable stereo radios all over.  So I have rechargeable batteries for almost everything.  I am building a shelf in the basement dedicated to recharging things.

But there are some annoying devices that use those little round batteries.  Kitchen timers mostly, but even a caliper needs one.  I hate that there are not rechargeable versions for them. 

Two kitchen timers and the calipers all went dead last week.  So I set out to get new batteries.  First, I discovered that the 3 stores I went to do not stock the kitchen timer batteries, but they could be ordered at 2.  The batteries cost more than the timers.  I can buy new timers cheaper than the batteries.  That makes no sense. 

So I will buy slightly more expensive timers that have batteries of a type that I can replace with rechargeables. 

The kind that fits my caliper comes only in packs of 3.  The battery lasted 10 years; the shelf life of the replacement battery is 3 years.  I will never need the other 2 batteries!  But the joke is on them.  One of the batteries in the 3-pack wasn't even the right kind.  Same size wrong voltage. 

Yeah, OK, the joke isn't really on them, but the error costs me nothing as the last battery of the 3 would be long-depleted natuarally before I needed it so I could just throw it away and no loss. 

We need rechargeable small round batteries!

Newspaper Reading

I love newspapers.  And I am lucky that my "local" newspaper is The Washington Post.  So I get local and national news articles.  I love the editorials, science articles, political articles, and comics the best. 

But I got to the point where I wasn't reading the new newspaper every day.  When I got 3 months behind, I cancelled my subscription.  Kept reading the older papers of course. 

It was actually very interesting.  I could completely ignore the sports section as being old and the local news was outdated.  The comics were fine; few of them are topical. 

The editorials became hilarious!  You never realize how silly most columnists and editorials are until you read them after their predictions are made.  I was reading liberal and conservative ideas about what Trump would do in his first 100 days after the first 100 days.  None were right.  Well, some were, and those people were right very often!  It is a good way to decide who to pay attention to.

Looking back, what some of the columnists suggested would happen and knowing what DID happen was great reading.  George Will (conservative) was right about a lot, so was E J Dionne (liberal).  Charles Krauthammer was nearly almost always wrong.

I missed some of the comics that had story arcs.  But they aren't my favorites.  I find it pretty hard to care about those "soap opera" ones like Judge Parker. 

I missed the Style Invitational contest feature.  That suggests weird contests in the Sunday paper like writing haikus about current events, combining Kentucky race horse names together for humor, and creating puns by rearranging letters in Post headlines for anagrams and the like.  I entered the contests in the past and got mentioned twice.

For a first entry printed, you get one of those pine tree air fresheners.  Its your "first ink" (fir stink, get it?)

But reading old papers, I couldn't enter because of the deadlines.  Now I have new papers and can enter again hurray.

"There was a time when
I was gone but now I'm back
Never win again."

LOL!

But now I know which columnists to pay more attention to.

Inside House Work

I got the main bathroom redone yesterday.  Only too a year.  Really!

I had the tub and surrounding tile replaced June 2016.  It left raw plaster around it and all I had to do was repaint that.  But I decided the repaint the whole thing.  And didn't, and didn't and didn't.

I did Monday.  Now, when I repaint, I do it right. Remove all the outlet covers and towel bar and TP holder and mirror.  Sand the raw plaster around the tub and tilework to utter smoothness and use a tack cloth to remove any plaster dust.  Paint the raw plaster with a primer coat.  Wash the walls with TSP (Trisodium phosphate), rinse the walls with clean water 3 times, cover all the edges with tape, cover everything with drop cloths, paint the corners with a good brush, paint the walls with a roller.  I was only covering "golden bamboo" color paint.

I thought "a day".  It took 3.  And several hours yesterday after the paint dried for 2 days to re-install the outlet covers, towel bar, TP holder, etc. The mirror was a real pain.

Part of the problem was that all the screws that fitted the attachments were both rusty and clogged with drywall dust I could brush off.  I have a large assortment of screws, but of course none matched the type, size, and lengths I needed for new plastic anchors into the drywall.

I went around in circles trying to match what I had to what I needed.  No luck.  Then DUH!  Most of the towel bar attachments were wood.  So I just drilled the holes in them a little larger to fit the screws I had.  Sometimes the solution to a problem is right there.

So I got the outlet covers on first.  They were always slightly crooked, so it was easy to correct that.  NOT!  I had to adjust the actual switches and outlets a bit to get them straightened out.  Careful to not touch anything electrical inside the switches, almost.  I reached in too far once and ZZAPP!  A wasp sting, but I was wearing rubber-soled shoes so no grounding connection.  I got more careful after that.

But I got THAT done.  Then it was time for the 3'x3' mirror.  The mirror takes 3 hands to attach and I was just 1 hand short.  I will tell you that it IS possible to use your thighs as a hand to hold a drill in place with one hand holding a mirror upright and another hand to tighten a new drill bit in, but I WON'T say it is easy.

But it got done...

Last was the shower curtain rod.  When the contractor removed it, it came right off after removing 4 screws.  Somehow, it became a bit longer while it sat around for a year.  I attached one collar.  That was a mess itself.  I was expecting to just drill into drywall and tap a plastic anchor in the hole to hold a screw.  Instead, I hit wood.  Wood is good.  Except the hole I drilled for the plastic anchor was bigger than the screw (that is normal).  So I had to get a larger screw to to match the hole sized for the plastic anchor.  Which meant I had to drill a larger hole in the shower curtain collar,

It is ALWAYS something to adjust or resize.  It's maddening sometimes.  So I got that screw to fit the hole and went to the one on the other side.  The drill went right through the drywall.  No wood.  So THAT one needed a plastic anchor.

OK, so at least I know the pattern for the collar on the other side of the tub.  Right?  Wrong!

The other side hit no wood.  So more plastic anchors.  I ALMOST screwed the other collar into the wall, but realized the shower curtain rod had to be in them both first.  At guess what?  The shower curtain rod didn't want to fit.  It seemed a hair too long and threatened to scrape my nice paint job!

I had to play around with the rod a few minuted before I discovered that the wall there is not perfectly straight.  Moving the collar and rod to one side gave me just enough clearance to get it to fit against the plastic anchors I had installed.

Screwing them in was easy.  NOT!  The curtain rod prevented my electric screwdriver from getting a clean fit into the screw slots.  ARGGHH!

I finally found a really long screwdriver and got it attached manually.

It was a real pleasure to finally reattach the outer decorative shower curtain itself onto the rod and attach an inner mildew resistant shower curtain.

2 days work took a lot of 4 days.  But it is done.

You may think I hate doing this kind of stuff.  I don't actually.  Sure, the problems drive me mad sometimes, but if I wanted to avoid that, I would just hire people to do it.  I do it because I want to know *I* did it.

Mom use to laugh as she told friends about how, when I was even a toddler, I would refuse help with tying shoelaces and getting dressed, saying "Mark Do".  And I haven't changed...

Tomorrow, I attack cleaning and repainting the kitchen walls...  After the bathroom, "piece of cake", right?

The House Next Door

Well, the house next door has been for sale for several months.  I have considered buying it as a rental property.  I don't really want a rental property, but there were reasons for this one.

1.  It is next door.
2.  I would like some control over who my neighbor is.
3.  I want to remove the trees shading my garden.
4.  I don't want a neighbor with dogs.
5.  I want to reclaim my property line.

Background:

The houses behind and on the other side are well separated from me.  This house is really close.  The trees shade my garden 1/3 of the day.  My cats like to wander in that yard, and if the new residents have dogs, that could be dangerous.  There are trees and invasive shrubs and vines I would like to get rid of.

When I built my fence 25 years ago, I set it inside my property line by a foot on the advice of my Dad (he said I needed to do that to assure I had a legal right to get on the other side to repair my fence).  It was bad advice; I essentially gave up that part of my yard through Common Law.  The neighbor at the time immediately built a small side fence that connected to mine, shutting me out.

The junk trees shade my yard, the row of forsythia I originally planted in naive ignorance as a property-divider invade my flowerbeds, and a maple tree planted in the side yard has sent surface roots ruining the lawn and making mowing like driving over railroad ties.  The roots are reaching my foundation.  I lose 3 hours of desperately-needed morning sunlight in my gardens, and I want the gardens.

Last Month:

I hesitated to bid on the property.  I don't think of myself as a "landlord".  I could do without the trouble involved.  My investments are uncomplicated; I have CDs and Index Mutual Funds.  I'm financially secure.  The "For Sale" sign was still on the property.

But I looked up "Buying A Rental Property" online at  few sites.  There are rental management companies that handle everything.  And being next door would be convenient for maintenance and repairs.  It wouldn't be as difficult as I thought, and if there were problems with the renters, I would know easily enough.

It's not for profit.  It's for protection and control.  Zillow suggests the house as a rental would pay for itself in 5-10 years free and clear.

I submitted a back-up bid on the property, but revoked it a week later thinking I had WAY overbid at $185,000.

2 Weeks Ago:

I called the seller ( foreclosure company).  They say the house was auctioned off last week.  DAMN, DAMN, DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!

I waited a week too long after 6 months of dithering about it.  I submitted a backup bid $10,000 above the apparent selling price i(the "earnest money" down payment was 5%, so I could calculate the purchase price) in case the auction sale falls through.    That would be trivial in the long run.  Zillow estimates the house to be $30,000 underpriced in 5 years. and that's not counting the rental income.  I probably couldn't have actually lost money buying it last month if I had tried.

Dear Deceased Dad made me hesitate.  He had a couple rental apartments and complained about them all the time.  But he didn't buy them for the reasons I wanted this property.  I should have realized that sooner... 

I don't want to go into money here too much, but I could just write a check for the house.  I bought stocks at the bottom in 2008.

My dithering has probably cost me decent sunlight, control over who my neighbors are (and some there have been bad - late night parties and constantly barking dogs), the ability to eliminate invasive shrubs and trees, and a decent investment (though I don't need it).

I'm probably going to regret not acting sooner, but I have no one to blame but myself!

Last Week:

I hoped the current sale fell through.  It was certainly bought as a rental.  Maybe I can buy it from the new owner.  Who wouldn't like a quick profit if it is merely an investment to them?  Or maybe I could pay the new owner to let me have those trees cut down at my expense.  I could even agree to replace them with small ornamental trees.

There are still some possibilities...  But I'm sitting here kicking myself for not having acted sooner.

Now: 

The sale to another went through and it turns out it was just $3,000 less than my backup bid.  I thought the highest bid was $157,500.  If I had left it, they MIGHT have found a way to accept my bid.  But the For Sale sign is gone, and I saw someone walking around the property looking like they owned it. 

Dithering and second-guessing yourself is the worst business decisions you can make.  I may never have another chance at controlling this property. 

Independence Day

We celebrate with this day that represents the day our Independence was announced to the world...  And also acknowledge the nation of Britain  (our very good friends) that set us to begin and gave us much of our beginning.

It was not an easy separation, but, as a child leaves the parent and also a servant leaves the master, the separation occurred.

That our relation has come to steadfast admiration and support over time is possibly unique in history, we also remember that this day.

But today we DO celebrate our freedom, born in battle, blood, and explosions.

Cleaning and Projects

I kind of stay to myself and don't have many visitors.  I'm even somewhat of a hermit.  And the inside of my house is NOT my pride and joy.  I could almost be happy in a log cabin and thresh floor, given a decent kitchen, stereo, plasma TV, Internet and waterbed.  And I'm sure the cats would be happy too. 

So my focus is mostly on the yard, cooking, excellent TV when I watch it, cats, and sleeping in comfort.  Dust bunnies on the floors do not bother me and what I can't see under the furniture matters even less.  I can go longer without vacuuming than you can imagine

I've been in my house for 30 years and I still have some of the original paint and carpet.  I smoke and the walls need cleaning.  Mostly, if something isn't broken, I don't worry about it much. 

But sometimes there is a visitor and I have to clean.  I used to have to do that about  once a month, but since I broke off with a friend 6 years ago and Dad had to move on to assisted-living several years ago, I haven't done much at all.  My house and I were going to slowly deteriorate together.  That's half humorous and half reality.  Most of you would cringe seeing the inside of the house.

My sister is visiting soon and I suddenly care about the inside.  I've been busy.  I filled 2 vacuum cleaner bags with dust bunnies.  I've been going around sweeping dust-webs out of the corners of the ceiling.  Tomorrow, I'll mop the vinyl and wood floors and vacuum the carpets. 

Today's project was to repaint the full bath.  It was overdue...  I had the tub and tiles replaced in May.  Of last year!  It had plaster repairs at the time, and I meant to repaint it then.  But there was always something else to do.  I have had the cleaning supplies, primer and paint and supplies sitting in a bag in the bathroom ever since. 

So yesterday I started doing it.  I used the TSP (trisodium phosphate) to wash the walls and ceiling.  The stuff works great, but needs several clean wipes after.  I used the (very clean) toilet has a convenient supply of clean rinse water.  It took 4 clean-water-wipes before I was satisfied it was gone.  When It all dried, I used a primer coat on the bare plaster.

Today I painted.  The taping of the edges was quite a job.  A bathroom has a LOT of edges (lights, outlets, tile, cabinets).  I have done a fair amount of painting (every apartment and house I've ever been in got thoroughly painted) because I don't like beige and white walls.  So the actual painting part is fairly easy.  Except that the ceiling needed painting also, that was awkward.

It only took 2.5 hours from opening the paint can to cleaning the brush and roller. 

I hated the color!  I didn't want a strong color in a small room, and a bathroom should be a relaxing color.  So I chose a very light green.  Picture  the innermost stalks of a bunch of celery and add a touch of gray...

I chose the color, the color matched the paint chip I gave the store, but it seemed so gray!  I decided I would have to mix more green into the paint and redo it.  But as it dried during the evening, it looked a lot better.  It was actually detectably greener as it dried.  It needs a 2nd coat, but it looks good enough for a visit.  And I still might add some green to the paint for the 2nd coat. 

At least now, I can rehang the shower curtain rod, the shower curtain, and the large mirror (for which I am surrounding with a stained wood frame that matches the cabinets and outlet covers).

I plan to do the kitchen Tuesday.  Everything is easier the 2nd time...

Wednesday will be for collecting clutter into boxes to hide away temporarily, LOL!  Also, cleaning the kitchen and putting all the stuff I use on occasionally into cabinets and closets.  And mop the floors.

Thursday is for grocery-shopping.  I will be due for that anyway.  My local meat/deli/liquor store (it is a weird combination) has a special this week on rib-eye steaks, standing beef rib roast, and large fresh shrimp.  I haven't decided which I will get yet.  But mostly, I buy fresh fruits and veggies, so that also means a trip to Safeway.

I have the outside looking reasonably good.  4 large new deck pots and 3 hanging baskets with flowers that are just beginning to bloom; possibly the first ripe tomatoes, beans, and fancy lettuce.  The new compost bin is "finished" (well, I will add a top later).  Flowers in bloom in the yard. 

I hope the cats don't panic.  It would be nice if they come out and greet her.  My sister is a cat person too.  Iza is most likely to come out.  She is generally fearless.  Marley is friendly but skittish.  Ayla routinely stays in the bedroom except at dawn and dusk, though lately she is going outside more often and so would have to pass through the main rooms if she wants to get out.

I feel like I will be ready for a visitor.  Sometimes, it is not so much how the house looks so much as how much better it looks that it did before.  Does that make sense?  Cleaner is cleaner, and showing a new improvement to the house (the bathroom and possibly the kitchen) matters.

The sad thing is that I have a list of home-improvement projects I will be starting in a few weeks.  When it gets really hot outside in July/August, I pay more attention to the inside.  And, in recognition of 30 years here, this is the year I'll be having contractors in to do stuff I'm no longer trusting myself to do properly or at all.

I'll be posting about those in a few weeks as I finalize choice of new flooring to replace old carpet,  extending basement siding and hung ceiling,  removing a basement washroom I've never had much use for, new driveway, and installing an attic floor for storage space.

I also plan to update utilities in the house.  The 30 year old water heater will be replaced with an instant water heater and a dedicated one for the kitchen sink.  A new refrigerator (the existing one will become a basement storage refrigerator for bulk vegetables), some damaged doors will be replaced, and there are various small things that need expertise I don't have.   I'm even considering one of those ceiling attachments you can hang skillets from for convenience.

I'll be busy with overseeing some work then.  I will probably be the last serious work I have done on this house.  

Ah Astilbes...

I love Astilbes.  Had several dozen at one time.  Around the pond, next to the deck, in the shade of an apple tree.  But over 15 years, some died out naturally, some failed because of additional sun, and some died from being too shaded by brambles.

So this year I decided to get some new ones growing.  There are really fancy ones, but I'm satisfyied with "regulars".  I found bare-roots on sale at ebay.  25 for $60.  I bought a set of 25 and planted them in the backyard where a few remaining Astilbes were growing happily each year.

I think I didn't plant them properly.  I went by the included instructions, but they never seemed to set roots.  Well, it was in almost pure compost and maybe they don't like that.  And it is sunnier in that spot than it used to be (a new deck, new shade patterns).  And it has been really dry in June here, so I maybe should have watered them more often.

I lost 1/3 of the backyard bunch.  I have shadecloth over them now, and some are doing better.

I also added some to a front yard island in the shade of a Saucer Magnolia tree.  I'm fighting deer now, and they ate up all my hostas.  But they don't like Astilbes much.  They pulled a couple up but didn't eat them.  I replanted them.  Some are starting to flower.  I water them deeply every 3 days.

(Add pictures)

Flowerbeds

The newer flowerbeds are doing great.  I never imagined the meadow bed would look so good (last year was dismal, but the flowers were just getting established).

The Hummer etc bed is doing good for a first year with annuals and should be better next year when the perennials and self-sowing annuals get going.

I'm not seeing the hummers/butterflies yet, but the bees are busy.  The Summer has just started, and I expect more flowers to bloom there that the hummers and the butterflies will like.

Meanwhile, it's not like they are lacking pollen and nectar.  I have 3 of the best hummingbird feeders I have yet found and several butterfly bushes are blooming now  with various butterflies feeding at them.

Speaking of hummingbird feeders, I was so pleased to discover how easy it is to make the "nectar".  When I started doing it decades ago, the rule was to boil water, set a cup of it in a pyrex cup rinsed with vinegar, add 1/4 sugar, stir til dissolved, cool it, and add it to the freshly cleaned (no soap) feeders.  The boiling was to make the sugar-water supersaturated so it wouldn't crystalize out when it cooled.  So the instructions I had learned said...

When I mentioned it on a gardening site, I was corrected by many posters.  They said the sugar dissolved just fine in merely hot water and was ready to go at outside temperature.  Checking hummingbird sites confirmed that.

Wow, did that make things easier!  And if you don't think there are hummingbirds around your yard, try setting up a few feeder stations and they will appear.

BTW, the best feeders I have found are "Hum-Zingers" .

Easy to clean, easy to fill, and the birds love it.  And I have no connection to the company.  They don't know I exist.

Funny story:  I never saw hummingbirds when I moved here.  But when I bought my first hummer feeder and stood around outside looking for place to hang it, a hummingbird came to it IN MY HAND and fed!  They are around; most people just don't know it.

 Meanwhile, the daylilies are doing great!  I had a bunch of them in pots and ignored them for 2 years, finally planting them last Fall.  I didn't remember how many colors they had!

I might get really into those...