Caulk is NOT an all purpose mending tool!

19 June – Well here it is the weekend and it has been a busy last several days. On Wednesday my granddaughter called and asked me to take her to the library – then we came back to my house and she helped me put new door handles on all the interior doors to replace the well worn knobs. Oh my – if we had known what we were getting into, I wonder if we would have started.
In the guest bedroom, the door is either smaller than the frame – or the lock does not extend as far as it should and the door does not exactly hold tight. Of course you would have to push it to get it open so it should not be a problem. I cannot see myself pushing into my guest room in the middle of the night and scaring guests – then again on Halloween it might be fun. Hmmmmmm! Then as I was working in my bedroom Dana found that the screw heads in all the bathroom screws had been damaged so that she could not get them to turn. With my ratchet screwdriver and a LOT of pushing – I repeat a LOT of pushing – I managed to get them out far enough that we could do the rest by fingertip. We found the same thing in one of the plate screws for my bedroom door.
Then – the big one – the door to the den which also serves as an extra guest room. The French doors were fine and went together well except I had to drill an extra hold for the lower screw since the circular part of the door handle was bigger on the new ones. That was ok and it worked out fine – but then we went to the other door – the way the den is laid out it is almost a pass through room from the living room to the back of the house – as far as we can figure out someone who lived here had an anger management problem and had – we are guessing here – slammed into the locked door so hard he or she had pulled the plate right off the frame – more than off the frame – it had ripped some of the frame off and damaged the hole. So – in his or her infinite wisdom – shoving the hole full of bathrub caulk and shoving the plate back on and sticking the screws into the caulk was a good way to fix the broken door.
We scraped out the caulk – well I did – and Dana filled in all the damaged places with wood filler – we will still have to build up the broken frame a little, sand it down and then paint it but it looks pretty good and it seems to be cured so I will drill it tomorrow and put the plate on. Then I will work on the buildup of the frame next week.
Then we unpacked all the pictures of family and either hung them on the walls or placed them around the house on various bookcases and tables. I did the “military” wall in my den – that has pictures of me and two of the three sons in uniform. I am still looking for one of my youngest son in uniform but he is not into having pictures taken so I might not be able to find one. I also have pictures of various ships the two Navy sons have been on and a flag from Iraq that was given to me because of support activities I was involved in with the youth of my church in Texas. That is pretty special to me. Then I have my “I love me wall”. You know, those awards and accolades they give you when you retire instead of a load of money! And I put up at least one of my diplomas.
Wednesday afternoon around two the plumber finally got there – he was the reason we were staying very close to home. He had to replace all the valves in all the sinks in the house. He was not a happy camper about the one in the kitchen – it took him longer to do that one sink than it did all the rest (four more) put together. He said he had never seen such a cobbled up mess. You might have read earlier – the reason I had a plumber at all was when we were trying to put new faucets in – my son and his friend found out that the valves were messed up. And were they ever!!! But now I have nice new valves, pipes and faucets. Eventually I am going to have to replace the guest bathroom sink – and eventually I want to replace my tub in the master bath with a whirlpool – but that is going to be a long time coming. The important things have to come first.
Thursday I really mostly took the day off – I did finally get the rebate from the gas company for the energy efficient appliances and thermostat I put in the house. Now if only I would get the rebates from Nevada for the other energy efficient appliances – I might be able to get those windows done.
I did meet my next door neighbor – we met in the yard and she showed me their backyard – WOW! They have an amazing pool and all sorts of stuff – a garden that she is trying to shade with solar screens so the plants do not burn up in the NV sun; a yard full of deck furniture and children’s play stuff – just an interesting yard. We weeded our respective yards for a bit and I invited her in to see what I have done with the house so far – she told me one of the reasons there were so many problems with the house is that the last seven sets of people who have lived here have been renters and they just did not seem to care about the place. She thought some of them might have been on drugs – oh yay. Hope they do not have any stashes hidden away in the attic or anything – I would hate to have my house blow up in the middle of the night.
Friday was literally a waiting day – ALL DAY. Had to wait for my end tables to be delivered – the original one I ordered had been backordered so many times, I just gave up and cancelled that one – and then found two that were on sale that came out to the same price as the original one – I just love sale prices! I also had to wait for the pest control guy to come and spray and I had to wait for the people from Lowes to measure my door frames. I want to put security/screen doors on front and back. They offer security but they also will allow me to open my doors on nice days and get a good breeze going through the house. Since the patio door is almost full length window, I think I will sleep better if I have the security door closed and locked at night. Of course that does not cover the ten other windows in the house – but my security system is supposed to pick up glass breaking so – hopefully – it will go off and scare anyone away.
I am not really afraid of living alone and yet I am taking precautions that I might not have worried about when I lived in that small town in Texas. I am in a huge city now and it seems there are problems all over. I think the current economic problems add to those temptations and some people who might not turn to thievery are now doing whatever they can to eat. No, I do not condone it, but I try to understand it. Would I do it – no. I have taken some pretty crummy jobs in my life just to feed my kids, and I would do it all over again. But there are those who are desperate – so!
It took all day Friday to get everything delivered – so I unpacked a few more boxes.
24 Jun – Well let’s see – it has been a busy week around here – nothing big. Working in the yard – trying to figure out landscaping and how to keep those rocks in the yard and not on the sidewalk and being a safety hazard.
Can anyone please tell me how weeds can grow through three inches of rock – when the last rain we got was in March? And why do desert plants all have thorns that are longer than my gloves? I cleaned up all the weeds in the front this week – if I am out there by 6:30 in the morning I can work a couple of hours before it gets to be so hot – then crawl into the shower. That massaging shower head feels good on aching muscles. Got both sides of the front done and I think I have ideas of what I am going to do to make it look like something more than a rock pile. For one thing I have to rake the rocks up and put down a barrier! And I am planning a flower planter/seat wall along one side of the yard – and will do something along the front with bricks or blocks or something to keep the rocks in. I cannot wall it in too much or when we have our few rains (read “deluge”) a year – my yard will be a swimming pool – and everything will wash out. We do not get lots of rain – but when we get it – it comes down in buckets for a little while.
Not sure what I will do along the driveway. And the backyard – well among other things I still have weeks to pull there. And did I mention the terracing that would keep the dogs out of my plantings? Hmmm – well guess WHO can get up there – I watched her today and it looks like she just climbs up the wall – straight up!
Ordered my security/screen doors this week and they will be installed Monday. It is more for the screen door part that I want them – I love being able to open front and back door in the early mornings and air out the house before the heat bludgeons us to death. We are in the triple digits now – that will run through August and maybe even September, but the evenings are relatively comfortable and the mornings so far have been in the high 70’s and that is still comfortable yard working weather. The way my house sits – my patio is not in the hot, hot late afternoon sun – so it is pleasant out there as the sun goes down and the breeze – ok WIND – comes up. It is pretty windy here – but when it is sort of gentle it is not too bad and I like it.
I think I should just have Lowes drive their delivery trucks by my house and dump stuff off – it might be easier. I have to run by there tomorrow after church and get the locks for the security doors keyed alike – I hate carrying a ton of keys.
Speaking of keys – today was one of the more interesting days I have had lately! I got up a little later than usual – about 6:30 instead of my normal time – made breakfast and ate out on the patio while trying to keep the dogs from stealing my oatmeal and coffee. Then I came in and was putting around the house doing a few little chores; folding the towels from the dryer and putting them away; dusting; going to the garage to get paper towels because I was out. Ok – this is the interesting part. You will notice, I have not mentioned showering and dressing for the day – but going to a closed garage is ok in pajamas! BUT! Yes, there has to be a but in there. I forgot to click the lock on the door handle – and the door closes all by itself every time I go into the garage – and I was locked out. No key in the garage! No cell phone to call my son or his girl friend! My boarder was not home! I was in pajamas – bed hair smoothed a little, but not looking good here. Thought maybe I had unlocked the front door – nope.
Luckily my neighbor was out waxing his car and came to the rescue. First he tried getting into a couple of windows. The good news is that I have REALLY GOOD locks on my windows. The bad news is that we could not get them open. The window on my back door has been loose and in fact I have been planning to fix it – it is on the list, but not near the top of the list. Now it is the top. Al was able to take the frame off and get the window out and get the door unlocked. At the moment the window is held back together with 100 mile an hour tape. (If you do not know what that is – ask a veteran!) I ran to Lowes and got liquid nail – oh the reason the window was on the list and not already fixed is that it is a plastic window frame on a metal door – which was taking a little thinking – ergo liquid nails at Lowes today.
Before it could be put back together, I had to clean it all up – which meant scraping off the ton of caulk – bathroom caulk – they used to hold it together. Whoever did the repairs in this house previously seems to have felt that bathroom caulk was the one all purpose mender for every job. So far I have found so many strange things held together by caulk – I could not even begin to list them. Holding the window in place with caulk was interesting. I got it all cleaned out – under part of the caulk at the bottom of the window was about an eighth of an inch of dirt. Plain old dirt. Obviously whoever caulked it did not see any reason to clean it first. I scraped and scrubbed and scraped some more but it is clean now.
Well, Al just left after “nailing” the frame in – we are using 100 mile an hour tape to hold it in until the liquid nails dry – then cleanup – the old razor blade will get used a lot for that – and caulking and my window should be good as new for awhile. Well the door does need painting – inside and out – but that is a fall job. It is just too hot to paint right now – and I do not want my house all shut up with paint fumes.
Let’s see – what other adventures can a old lady get into when buying a house – just little things like putting up paper towel holder in the laundry room, towel racks in the master bathroom, sorting the garage and those things. I did get another shelving unit for the garage and I have to put that together and get it up – it will work great in the space I want it in – and get stuff off the floor. I hate clutter and I do not want my garage cluttered anymore than my house.
Now I will digress for a minute – my son from CA came last weekend and into the early part of this week and we were talking about the drive to and from CA. I drive over to the San Diego area about once a month – or every other month – for a week of “green” and visiting with family. I have two sons and aunt and cousins living in the area. I remembered the last time I drove over and was going through the CA agriculture control point. They are adamant they do not want anything not grown in CA coming into their state. Of course you drive nearly a hundred miles past the NV line before you get there, but no biggie because the inspectors are pretty much not checking. As I drove through the inspector was looking over his shoulder laughing and talking with his buddy in the next booth – I could have been waving orange trees out my car window and he would not have noticed! He would have just waved me on through. It reminded me of that old Johnny Cash song about pig iron.
Will be out of the “moving in” business for the next 2 ½ weeks as I have visitors coming. First my friend from Texas will be here from tomorrow until the first. Then on the afternoon of the first another friend – one who has been a friend for over 20 years – will be arriving from Florida for an eight day visit. I am looking forward to seeing them and having them see my house – as unsettled as it still it. There is much to do, but it is all on the list and eventually it will all get done.
Til later – talk to you in a week or so.

15 Jun – Yesterday was so frustrating I just did not want to even think of writing anything – first I had to go to my doctor’s to get them to fix the prescription they called into my mail order pharmacy – they cut it by 2/3 – and as far as I can tell they still do not have it fixed. (The mail in pharmacy calls me when orders arrive.)

Then I had to go to the furniture store because the end table I ordered in April is on back order for the third or fourth time. I gave up and cancelled that order and ordered two different ones. They are really different too. They are wider in back than in front so that a lamp will be stable on them. Kind of cool looking really. Then I had to go get odds and ends for the house and groceries. The problem is, even though the grocery store opens early, I had to do that last because I needed milk – and the furniture store does not open until ten am. By then my day is about a third over – I am almost ready for lunch.

So afternoon was just doing odds and ends of putting stuff away. I was going to try to put the lights under my cabinet but this morning my loving son saved my knuckles – and perhaps my little doggies ears as they are too young to hear bad words! I had tried before, but my arms are just not strong enough to push those tiny screws into the oak! Why is oak so HARD! It is so nice to be able to see as I am working in my kitchen – yes I do have lights in there, but any woman knows how wonderful lights under the cabinets can be. He said he will put up a couple more as soon as I go to Lowes and get them. He is wonderful!

I hung pictures in my bedroom and my bathroom this morning – finally got my clock in the bathroom hung. I think most of the pictures – i.e. mostly paintings or prints – are on the walls in my bedroom. They had better be as I am running out of walls.

The hardest part is getting the ladder moved – it is heavy, clumsy and a little hard to maneuver – especially through doors. But am almost done with the bathroom so tomorrow I should be able to move it out of my bedroom. However, it is so decorative at the end of my bed – doesn’t everyone keep a ladder at the foot of their bed.

Tomorrow afternoon my plumber comes to fix the valve problem and to put in my new faucets – we could have put the faucets in, if the valves were not messed up – but since he has to change out the valves anyhow, I am having him put in the faucets. Am also going to ask him to PLEASE switch the hot and cold water in the laundry room around – I nearly scalded my hand off Sunday sticking it under what I thought was cold water. It was not!

While he is fixing valves, I am going to be hanging pictures in the family room and the den. I do still have boxes to unpack and will work on those once I get the stuff that is already unpacked up and out of the way. I moved stuff around in my kitchen today so I should have room to put my metal baking pans away now. And NOW Angel cannot try to drag them through the doggie door. Today she managed to get the dustpan from behind the trash bin and was trying to drag it through the doggie door – I heard such a clatter and rushed out there to find a very frustrated little dog. The doggie door is about six inches square – the dustpan is about 8 inches by 8 inches – just a smidgen too big. She was really trying though. Too bad the camera was not handy. I just cannot get them to hold onto those cute events while I run into the den and get the camera. Nuts!

I am frustrated because I cannot figure out what to do at a reasonable cost for window treatments. I have drapes in the living/dining area – and curtains at the middle part of the bow in the kitchen – but the rest are the old – many years old and faded and worn – mini blinds that were in the house. They really need replacing, but wow – there are about a million options and they all cost an arm and a leg. Any suggestions?

I can do these repair things myself!

Angel is the light haired one - and she does look like an Angel anyway. The little dark lady is Maxi.

13 June – Well FINALLY I can actually get my computer on my desk and my dining room table is back to being a table! YAY! From the time I came home from the hospital (when my desk was upstairs) until now my dining room table has been my computer table. While I was at the apartment, the stairs were the issue – and since the move – even though I have regained most of my strength – my desk was holding boxes. I got those all sorted and filed yesterday – and some stuff added to either the shelter boxes or the recycle bins – and now I have a desk again.

I am so proud of me today!!!! I usually do not do any work on Sunday, but my little Angel – you remember, the dog who is so misnamed – can open cupboards. My son’s friend, Rob, who stays with me put child locks on all the lower cupboards we THOUGHT we in danger – or at least a danger to the dogs; he put them on the two doors under the sink, the door to the cabinet where I keep their treats – for very obvious reasons ; and the door to the pantry. She had dragged cereal from the pantry, drain cleaner from under the sink, and all the doggie treats from that cabinet before we got the locks. The drain clean is the stuff in those little packets you put in your disposal to clean it – she had is all over the floor but somehow she did not have any in her mouth or on her – she must have thought I had gone crazy when I swooped her up and stuck her mouth under the faucet to wash it out; then stuck her paws under the faucet to be sure.

I thought I was all safe – then yesterday I heard such a clatter. She was in the cabinet with my pots and pans and trying to drag them out. Then she got into the cabinet where I keep all those little plastic containers we use to store stuff – and all their lids. She had them scattered all over the living room! I used one of the chairs to my little table to block the doors until I could get to Lowes – then today after church I put the locks on. The wood on those cabinets must be made of stone! I had to get my drill out and use about a 1/8” drill bit – maybe not quite that big, but pretty close – to get the holes started and deep enough so I could get the screws to go in. Even then – I really had to work to get enough pressure to get the screws in and the locks tight. I only had to take one off – because I had put it on backwards and had to turn it around – and I got them all on. It only took me two hours to do four doors! However, I was wringing wet when I was done and covered in sawdust!

Since I was a mess anyway, I went out and trimmed the dead flowers off the two hanging pots I have in my backyard – the only growing things (other than weeds) that I have right now. Well I do have two vines inside, but they do not count. It is too hot here now – well actually this week had been pretty nice and cool but it SHOULD be too hot to plant now. I will have to wait until fall. Once I am more or less settled inside, I am going to start planning my yard – will draw it out on paper so I get an idea of what will go where.

Now, I will post this and then go take a nice long HOT shower! Til later.

Vacation from moving

8 June – Well it has been awhile hasn’t it? I decided to take a week off from “moving” and go visit family in CA. It was a fun trip – interesting at times too.  Driving down was amazing because I thought the traffic from the holiday weekend would be all over – I was soooooo wrong. Everyone must have wanted one more night to share their checkbooks with Vegas because it was bumper to bumper all the way to Escondido. Made good time, but oh that traffic. And people say we have traffic! HA!
That first day we just chatted and ate lunch and rested. It was my first long drive since being sick and it did take a bit out of me – but you just cannot keep a good woman down! Next day we went up to the casino – yes I know I live in a state filled with casinos – but I seldom go unless I am visiting Dee in CA. Dee is my aunt, but we are so close in age she is more like a big sister and we always have such a good time together. Then Thursday came – we were driving to Palm Springs to visit my cousin and see my new little baby third cousin – Dee’s first great grandbaby. Dee decided to take the mountain road – the same road we were taking when she – driving with no glasses – said “You know I can’t see a thing without my glasses, right?” Since the drop-off on my side of the car was far, far below – I just held my breath. Yes, we went over that same mountain – and again she was not wearing glasses. Well non prescription sunglasses do not count as glasses do they? I held my breath for a long time on that trip let me tell you. Then while we were at Lauri’s – we were going to lunch and Dee told Lauri to drive because she had been having dizzy spells. And this is the woman who was driving us home – back over that mountain with its hairpin dizzying turns and major drop offs – sigh!
On Friday my son came to visit from La Mesa – mostly to see Dee since I was going down to La Mesa to see him and his brother the next day. We fixed ribs and Dee has a great secret recipe – she gets them pre-cooked from Vons (Safeway) – she said they have to be Ralph’s brand because anything else is not so good. Those were very good ribs.
Sat I drove down to La Mesa to see both younger sons. Kev has just gotten a new Camero and I had not seen it yet. It is beautiful and he takes such good care of it. He may still have it when they next anniversary Camero comes out! We went out to Torrey Pines and hiked awhile and I got a gazillion pictures of the ocean and beach. Then we drove along 101 for awhile past the dog beach – yes a beach where dogs are welcome. How cool is that – my dogs would have been in seventh heaven. Not in Kev’s car though – we would have had to take mine. I am sure the dogs would not be welcome in that new car – LOL.
Kev took me up to Mt Soledad Memorial – a wonderful memorial to veterans and those killed in action. It is a wall of pictures and tributes and it is beautiful. It is topped with a huge cross – which the ACLU and various others have been trying to get taken down for years. However since it technically is not on government owned land – so far they have lost – as they should. No one would mind if another religion chose to have their own memorial for their veterans. Kevin says it is not really about the cross at all, but simply a way for the cell phone companies to get access to a higher point for their towers. He might be very right – there were towers all over the neighboring hills. The view from up there was awesome and again I took a lot of pictures. But most of my pictures were of the Monument itself. Beautiful.
Then I came home! Came home to find out that all the water valves in my house had been jerry-rigged by – I guess – the previous owners (anyway someone who is not very knowledgeable about maintenance) and instead of using plumber’s putty – whoever did it used epoxy. I have a plumber coming Friday to give me an estimate of the damages to my checkbook – I am trying to change out leaking faucets and that is how we found it. My older son’s friend and my son were trying to install the new faucets for me. Also – to cap it all off – the shutoff valve on the hot water heater cannot be shutoff – which makes it pretty useless. Who ever heard of a shutoff valve not shutting off? So anyway – that should make for an interesting estimate.
Driving home – wow I have never seen so many CHP – there were cars pulled over all along the way getting tickets. Some of them had passed me like I was standing still – and I was pushing the speed limit by about five MPH. In one place there were three pulled over in about a space of two miles – bam, bam, bam.
This week so far has been running errands, catching up on doctor appointments – with good news and longer times between appointments FINALLY – and working on the house. Have my office partially done now – had to move some things around from when the furniture was first put in there – and moved a rocking chair into my bedroom where it belonged anyway – now all I have to do is unpack the rest of my desk stuff and hang up my “military wall” – my sons and I in uniform pictures along with some commemorative flags that are framed. Then the office will be done. And the rest of the house is getting there. After the plumbing is fixed – if I have any money left – I want to change out the interior door knobs for door levers – and I need to do something with window coverings – but I might have to wait a bit until my savings acct gets healthier again. I have time to wait.

9 June – Today was a day to finally catch up on some long overdue letter writing. Tomorrow I tackle the den/office and get it settled. Did get the furniture moved around yesterday – granddaughter was over and helped. This evening a carpenter friend is going to take care of some of those carpentry issues in the house – then once the BIG plumbing issue is done – I can think of whatever else I want to do. I did buy one hanging plant for the back patio and may get another – the colors of the flowers brighten things up so nicely. And with the water reservoir I can keep them from drying out too much. After the plumber comes tomorrow I have to do some shopping and deliver a Mary Kay order – well I will do that in the morning. Life does go on. Got the letter writing done, but ran out of stamps so I think a stop at the post office will be in order tomorrow. Til later – moving is so much fun. I can hardly wait til it is over and I can really make this house my own.