I seldom post in the mornings any more, and it's because I rush around trying to get some things done here before I go up to Creekside for the day.
Once I'm up there, it's so hard to quit there and come home to do anything, so if something needs doing here, I need to do it in the morning.
This house has suffered miserably while I've been so busy at Creekside.
I feel like there's just not enough of ME to do all I need to do.
There's enough hours in the day, there's just not enough strength and time to do all I want to get done.
I went to Habitat on Merchant's Road yesterday to get some tile to go around the windows in the new upstairs bathroom at Creekside. It takes so long to get there from here. I found some lovely parquet floor tile there, and the nice fellow in charge made me a really good price on it, so I bought it. I'm considering using it on the floor in our downstairs guest bath here at Clairemont. The congoleum in there was damaged by a heating pad we use on the floor in the winter, and we've not repaired it yet. That's a project for us for later.
I also bought some beautiful ceramic tile accent pieces for use at Creekside. I'm thinking I might use tile to trim the windows in one of the baths. It would look nice, and the window moisture would not be a problem with tile. That house still has moisture problems.
The man at Habitat forgot to load the tile I had gone there for. I hate to take the time today to go back for it. I might just wait to get it at another time. Steve is coming home tomorrow, and he doesn't like to go to that kind of place with me. We're always interested in different types of things, and can't agree on anything.
I found a great wood stove on Craig's List for the basement at Creekside. I had bought a small wood stove a few weeks ago for there, but this one is really big, and will hold bigger fires for longer. It looks like one of those stoves made from a 55-gallon drum, but is actually steel, with all the fittings and even a small rack on the top to hold a pot for cooking or heating water. The man who sold it met me at Habitat, so it saved a trip.
Stucco has now got the stucco put around the tall front windows in the downstairs sun room. They're dramatic, being 7 1/2 feet tall, and arched at the top. When I walk into that room, I get the feeling that the front wall is gone. They look splendid on the front of the house, and let in so much light. They're low-e, and face north, so they will not get full sun, but will be warmer in the winter. When we cut into the wall, we found all kinds of junk stuffed into the wall cavities.
There were old newspapers, cold drink bottles, and a varied assortment of junk. I'm not sure if the papers were intended for insulation or not, but they didn't do a very good job if they were. I'm stuffing the cavities with foam and fiberglass.
I used some table place mats to staple to the plywood in the bathroom, where we made the window smaller. They're the foam type, a little spongy, and they really insulate well in small spaces. I had lined the walls in my Hobby Hut with them last winter, and they work really well when you want a lot of insulating factor with not much loss of space. I get them at Goodwills and yard sales, and I like the ones with square corners. You can cut them with a knife or scissors, and they're good for sliding back into really tight places. Not just anyone can have Vera desingns inside their walls.
I painted the walls and ceiling in the small upstairs bath. The ceiling, of course, is white, and the walls are an antique dusty rose color that matches perfectly (because I mixed it) the grout lines in the wallpaper I'm going to use for the wainscoating. It is a padded tile design, with a small flower, and it looks amazingly like ceramic tile. It's really pretty.
The lady at the wallpaper store and I had a friendly visit while I was there. She has cancer (brain tumor) and is terminal, but is really up-beat, and she loved the way I joked with her and made her laugh. She wants me to visit her agian, and I will, not just for a visit, but she has a lovely and large assortment of wallpapers, which I love. Steve doesn't like wallpaper, but I do. I use it a lot.
I had bought some silk flowers at some yard sales (surprise!), and I put them out in the flower beds that Debbie had cleaned out at Creekside. She came by for her paycheck yesterday evening, and she loved the flowers. I told her to 'Just smell them', and she got down on her knees to sniff them before she realized that they were silk. They add a lot of color to the front of the house, and I love teasing people, so they're a good foil for me. I think I'll go upstairs and get into my stash there and take along some more this morning to put out. It will make things look good for Steve when he gets home.
We were talking last night about perhaps having the hired help to take next week off, so we can be just us two working together and not having to worry about other people being around. His people skills are not the best, anyway, so it might be a relief for everyone if there's not so much going on. The workers are getting tired, too, and I'd think they would like a few days off.
Randy was off part of day before yesterday, and all day yesterday, for his grandmother's funeral. She lived here in Rutledge.
Stucco and Cherokee have a new van. They traded some work on a car for Jason Higgs for it, and Cherokee is thrilled to have another car. She had gone to see her grandson (who is in foster care) yesterday, and the former live-in (for Cherokee's son) slashed her tires in the parking lot. She had to call Stucco to come and get her, and she was in Maryville. Most of his day was useless.
A weasel has got into my last pen of pigeons and killed most of them. The ones who are still living had blood on their throats yesterday morning, and I'm dreading going up there this morning to see what's been done. Weasels slash the throats of their victims and suck their blood. They can go through a key hole, and are almost impossible to trap.
I've decided to just give up on birds. There are way too many varmits and thieves around, and I'm tired of supporting both cultures. I still have six peafowl, and I"ll keep them. For now.
I feel like I'm out of control, and I don't like that feeling.
I need to get ready and go up to Creekside.
....and take some flowers. The 'fast-blooming kind'.
Oh! I didn't mention Barbara. She's still fat.
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