I haven't been posting because Steve won't fix my computer.
He wants meto use a new one he bought me some time ago, and I want to keep using this one. He won't update things for me, and I get bumped off-line all the time. I think he should be killed.
I've tried to post many times, but my long posts just get bumped off into cyber-land, and I never see them again.
My health is about the same, except for now, my hair is coming out in spades. I suppose all the stress and physical illness is causing me to go bald. I am so angry at this illness.
The work at Creekside just creeps along at a snail's pace. Janie and I seem to be the only one's who can walk fast, think, or make a decision. It keeps one of us after the men all the time, or nothing gets done.
We primed the dining and living rooms today, and they look fabulous! We used a beigey-yellowish primer for the dining room, as we plan to use gold wallpaper in there. We primed the living room with white, as we want that room a dusty antique desert rose color, with white wood work. It excited us to finally get to doing something others can actually see as progress.
Here at Clairemont, we had an incident with the Womack's dogs again. They chewed up our pet goat, Billy, so badly that we had to put him down. They had torn holes in him the size of grapefruits, and they had him down in the pond, perhaps to drown him. He was so muddy that I wasn't sure what kind of animal he was at first. I'm mad as blazes at the Womack's. They cut my fences to let their dogs come onto my property and kill my livestock. This has been an on-going problem for several years, and nothing seems to stop it.
I'm also angry at Stucco. He keeps raising the amount I owe him to complete his contract at Creekside, and I'm tired of paying him just what-ever he wants. He agreed that he would not ask for any money until the contract work was finished, then he has asked for money almost every week, and sometimes more than once in a week. I had warned him that he would not have any money left if he kept getting it all along, but he 'needed' it.
He is still wanting several hundred dollars more than he had told me he was owed a week ago.
I'm afraid it will ruin our friendship.
I worry too much,
I'm going to try to schedule an appointment to go to Mayo Clinic, but Steve will probably jinx my computer so that I can't fill out all the applications.
I need to find out what all is wrong with me, and get it fixed or just go ahead and die with it.
I can't stand this much longer.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012 AM
I had another of those 'sleeping migraines' yesterday. Steve said that I slept 12 hours. I just can't stay awake during those times, and if I get up, I throw up. I guess it's just my body telling me to rest, but it happens at some unhandy times.
It started snowing yesterday, and, this morning, we have a white yard. The roads look like they're clear, but I'd say there will be no school in Grainger County. They call off the schools for some of the oddest reasons.
Stucco and Guy have not been back to work at Creekside. It's been two weeks now. I don't know if Cherokee knows where Stucco is. She came by one night last week, and told Janie and me that she didn't know where he was then, and there's no sign that things have changed.
Steve is upset that Stucco left with one window unfinished. One whold side of the house is covered with scaffolding, needed to finish the trim on that one window, and it looks like a major work project, when it's only one window.
Junior, the man that Janie brought to work for us, is pretty good with his hands, but his mind is damaged from Agent Orange, and you have to keep a constant eye on him. He can't remember instructions from one minute to the next. He's always sorry when he messes up, and keeps telling me he's so grateful that I'm patient with him.
Things are still going slowly, but they're going.
I'm sleepy again, so I'm going back to bed for a few minutes.
It started snowing yesterday, and, this morning, we have a white yard. The roads look like they're clear, but I'd say there will be no school in Grainger County. They call off the schools for some of the oddest reasons.
Stucco and Guy have not been back to work at Creekside. It's been two weeks now. I don't know if Cherokee knows where Stucco is. She came by one night last week, and told Janie and me that she didn't know where he was then, and there's no sign that things have changed.
Steve is upset that Stucco left with one window unfinished. One whold side of the house is covered with scaffolding, needed to finish the trim on that one window, and it looks like a major work project, when it's only one window.
Junior, the man that Janie brought to work for us, is pretty good with his hands, but his mind is damaged from Agent Orange, and you have to keep a constant eye on him. He can't remember instructions from one minute to the next. He's always sorry when he messes up, and keeps telling me he's so grateful that I'm patient with him.
Things are still going slowly, but they're going.
I'm sleepy again, so I'm going back to bed for a few minutes.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 AM
I have a few minutes more this morning, as it's so foggy you can't see more than a few feet in front of yourself. I can begin my (outdoor) duties a little later this morning.
My feet and legs are so sore this morning. Janie and I built some shelves yesterday, which are in the cellar at Creekside, and I carried nails and screws down the stairs to stack on them. I feel like I've been marching all night. Steve said that I 'twitched' a lot more than usual.
We need to get a lot done today, too, as rain and cold weather is coming tomorrow, and we want everything ready for that.
Steve finally finished the installation of the new water heater in the west end of the crawl space.
I will now need to build a 'room' for it under the house, as it will need to be kept in a fairly well-insulated space. It will serve the two baths on the west end of the house. It's the one we got on a special sale at Lowe's in Jefferson City a few weeks ago. He drilled holes in the floor joists to run the pipes through, to get them up off the ground where they had been, and so that the floor insulation would also insulate the pipes as they run along under the house. I still have the floors in that part of the house to insulate. I'll use a lot of those foam rubber mattresses that I bought at Habitat for that purpose. It's LOT nicer than fiberglass in a tight, dark area.
I used some re-purposed laminate flooring insulation to line the south-facing wall of the downstairs west bathroom. That is the coldest bathroom in the house, and I think it's because it's got all those concrete stucco walls. I climbed up on a ladder, used some roofing nails to hang the insulation, and used some caulk for adhesive to secure the insulation to the walls all the way to the floor. There's a noticable difference in the temperature of that room. Janie noticed it right away when she came to work on Monday. She thinks my little money-saving ideas are neat, and she says she's learned a lot from me.
She was surprised at how simple it was for us to build those shelves. It is nice to have the floor space on the ground floor where all those nails were stored before.
We discussed taking some paving stones from Clairemont up to Creekside to pave the floor of the cellar. This conversation came about because Steve had a plumbing leak that flooded the floor of the cellar, making it look something like the French Broad River. We think it will make a good walking surface that also keeps us up out of the mud, should there ever be another plumbing disaster...and there will. I also hate walking on dirt floors in a house.
Janie and I are pretty close to getting the library ready for paint. It's going to take a lot to cover the maroon that some tasteless person had slathered all over the walls and baseboards in that room. We SO want to get just one room totally finished. We are also close to getting the upstairs west bath finished. Steve has to make some small repair in the overhead light, and we have to come up with a vanity top, and it will be finished, except for curtains on the windows.
The upstairs sunroom still has to have baseboards, window and door trim, overhead lights installed (which I have), and curtains.
Of course, all of the older part of the house will still have to have the floors sanded and re-finished. I don't know when we will get to leveling and re-working the floor of the downstairs sun room.
I talked with Dorothy and Robert Reagan yesterday at lunch at the Down Home, and Robert mentioned that Randy Reagan was his nephew. They encouraged me to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. Robert told me that they were, in the past, afraid that he would break into their home while they might be out to the grocery store. They said that they didn't want to live on the same road as he did.
Anna Vee Phillips told me several weeks ago that I should prosecute him, as other victims of his actions might not have the money to do so, or might not know how to go about it. I have assured everyone that I will prosecute him, and that he will serve every minute of his sentence this time.
I've been spending a lot of time late in the evenings (after the workers are gone) insulating the pipes under the floor. Steve has a lot of new connections and pipes, and I don't want them to freeze. I'm amazed at how many pipes there are to provide hot and cold water to a house that size. It takes a lot of patience, and a good working knowledge of bandaging comes in handy.
The bends and turns are the hardest part of the job. I need ace bandages.
We have a lot of heat tape, but Steve is afraid to use it. I just keep on wrapping.
There's still lots of concrete rubble and rock to remove from under the house, to make room for more work there, and to keep it from drawing moisture. Some of the wood remnants are mostly eaten away by insects, termites, and rot. I burn them, as I don't know what may still be living inside. The rock is used to fill the low end of the yard, with the smaller stones kept for our driveway at Clairemont where there are low places that become muddy.
Janie and I need to come back to Clairemont today with all the blow mold, unload it from the trailer, put it in the barn loft, and then load the trailer with paving stones, which we will then take to Creekside, carry down into the basement, and install on the basement floor. Sounds like a lot of fun, I know, but someone has to do it. And I'm someone.
Janie is so good at pitching in to help with just about any project.
She's good as gold.
The pestilence in my respiratory system is still keeping my immune system wrecked. Some days, I sound terrible, but some days, I don't sound too badly. I feel terrible almost all the time, and I constantly keep the symptoms of cold and flu. I have began to feel that I will die from this disease. No one is able to diagnose or treat it. I've had it for a year this month. My throat feels like I've swallowed needles, I'm weak, I'm tired all the time, my stomach hurts if I eat, and I'm passing small amounts of blood almost every day. My sinuses run all the time, I have bad headaches, and my tinitusis in overdrive.
I feel a need to get things finished.
My feet and legs are so sore this morning. Janie and I built some shelves yesterday, which are in the cellar at Creekside, and I carried nails and screws down the stairs to stack on them. I feel like I've been marching all night. Steve said that I 'twitched' a lot more than usual.
We need to get a lot done today, too, as rain and cold weather is coming tomorrow, and we want everything ready for that.
Steve finally finished the installation of the new water heater in the west end of the crawl space.
I will now need to build a 'room' for it under the house, as it will need to be kept in a fairly well-insulated space. It will serve the two baths on the west end of the house. It's the one we got on a special sale at Lowe's in Jefferson City a few weeks ago. He drilled holes in the floor joists to run the pipes through, to get them up off the ground where they had been, and so that the floor insulation would also insulate the pipes as they run along under the house. I still have the floors in that part of the house to insulate. I'll use a lot of those foam rubber mattresses that I bought at Habitat for that purpose. It's LOT nicer than fiberglass in a tight, dark area.
I used some re-purposed laminate flooring insulation to line the south-facing wall of the downstairs west bathroom. That is the coldest bathroom in the house, and I think it's because it's got all those concrete stucco walls. I climbed up on a ladder, used some roofing nails to hang the insulation, and used some caulk for adhesive to secure the insulation to the walls all the way to the floor. There's a noticable difference in the temperature of that room. Janie noticed it right away when she came to work on Monday. She thinks my little money-saving ideas are neat, and she says she's learned a lot from me.
She was surprised at how simple it was for us to build those shelves. It is nice to have the floor space on the ground floor where all those nails were stored before.
We discussed taking some paving stones from Clairemont up to Creekside to pave the floor of the cellar. This conversation came about because Steve had a plumbing leak that flooded the floor of the cellar, making it look something like the French Broad River. We think it will make a good walking surface that also keeps us up out of the mud, should there ever be another plumbing disaster...and there will. I also hate walking on dirt floors in a house.
Janie and I are pretty close to getting the library ready for paint. It's going to take a lot to cover the maroon that some tasteless person had slathered all over the walls and baseboards in that room. We SO want to get just one room totally finished. We are also close to getting the upstairs west bath finished. Steve has to make some small repair in the overhead light, and we have to come up with a vanity top, and it will be finished, except for curtains on the windows.
The upstairs sunroom still has to have baseboards, window and door trim, overhead lights installed (which I have), and curtains.
Of course, all of the older part of the house will still have to have the floors sanded and re-finished. I don't know when we will get to leveling and re-working the floor of the downstairs sun room.
I talked with Dorothy and Robert Reagan yesterday at lunch at the Down Home, and Robert mentioned that Randy Reagan was his nephew. They encouraged me to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. Robert told me that they were, in the past, afraid that he would break into their home while they might be out to the grocery store. They said that they didn't want to live on the same road as he did.
Anna Vee Phillips told me several weeks ago that I should prosecute him, as other victims of his actions might not have the money to do so, or might not know how to go about it. I have assured everyone that I will prosecute him, and that he will serve every minute of his sentence this time.
I've been spending a lot of time late in the evenings (after the workers are gone) insulating the pipes under the floor. Steve has a lot of new connections and pipes, and I don't want them to freeze. I'm amazed at how many pipes there are to provide hot and cold water to a house that size. It takes a lot of patience, and a good working knowledge of bandaging comes in handy.
The bends and turns are the hardest part of the job. I need ace bandages.
We have a lot of heat tape, but Steve is afraid to use it. I just keep on wrapping.
There's still lots of concrete rubble and rock to remove from under the house, to make room for more work there, and to keep it from drawing moisture. Some of the wood remnants are mostly eaten away by insects, termites, and rot. I burn them, as I don't know what may still be living inside. The rock is used to fill the low end of the yard, with the smaller stones kept for our driveway at Clairemont where there are low places that become muddy.
Janie and I need to come back to Clairemont today with all the blow mold, unload it from the trailer, put it in the barn loft, and then load the trailer with paving stones, which we will then take to Creekside, carry down into the basement, and install on the basement floor. Sounds like a lot of fun, I know, but someone has to do it. And I'm someone.
Janie is so good at pitching in to help with just about any project.
She's good as gold.
The pestilence in my respiratory system is still keeping my immune system wrecked. Some days, I sound terrible, but some days, I don't sound too badly. I feel terrible almost all the time, and I constantly keep the symptoms of cold and flu. I have began to feel that I will die from this disease. No one is able to diagnose or treat it. I've had it for a year this month. My throat feels like I've swallowed needles, I'm weak, I'm tired all the time, my stomach hurts if I eat, and I'm passing small amounts of blood almost every day. My sinuses run all the time, I have bad headaches, and my tinitusis in overdrive.
I feel a need to get things finished.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Friday, Early AM
I haven't been on my blog much lately, because my computer has been 'out of whack', and Steve won't fix it.
I'm going to hire someone to come and fix it.
Steve and I both have become so disillusioned with the very slow progress at Creekside, so we decided to have everyone (except Janie) take this past week off. We figured Janie and I could clean, sort, and catch up with the work that the men are doing.
We haven't really done as much as we had wished for, gut we have made a lot of progress.
Janie brought a neighbor friend of hers to help with the heavy lifting, and he has been a lot of help.
Steve has mostly conscripted him to re-hang doors and trim windows, and he's doing really good work. He's a disabled veteran from the Vietnam war, and has some mental and psychological problems (he can't be around many people at the same time), but his work is good.
He got the kitchen and cellar doors straightened out and level, and has trimmed the dining room windows, and he's only worked two days. Most of our time is spent looking for various pieces of lumber and the assorted tools he needs. He's warming up to us, and we're glad to have him.
Janie and I were talking with him yesterday afternoon, and someone mentioned that there were so many Baptists around here. He said that he had once been one, but was not now. When I asked what he is now, he said he was Apostolic. He REALLY warmed to me when I told him I was once Apostolic, myself. Now we have more common ground to talk on.
It's been cold, so Steve loaded a truck with fire wood and brought it to Creekside one day this week. That wood stove has made a tremendous change in the comfort level. We've tightened up that house so much, but it's still needing some more work, and it's a lot of square footage to heat. It seems like someone is always having to put some wood in the stove. It's supposed to be a bit warmer today and the next few days, so there will be a little less work.
Janie and I have finished the floor in the upstairs sunroom, and it's turned out beautifully. We still have the closet to floor, but it's a small area. We used engineered flooring, which is like thin plywood that has a wood finish on it. You have to put it down board by board, but it makes a very pretty floor. We took so long to get it done because we're constantly inturrupted by other projects and trips for supplies.
We discovered during the job that I had bought the wrong kind of adhesive. I always use latex base, because of the easy clean-up. But this time, I had got five gallons of mineral base. By the time we discovered my mistake, Janie had sat on the lid (upside down) and stuck it to the seat of her pants. We got it everywhere that we didn't want it. Clean up was a chore, but we got it all cleaned up and got back to work. We are both really proud of the floor.
Mary Douglass came by yesterday afternoon, and she is pleased that we're getting so much done. She's always said that Creekside would work me to death. It's not finished yet, so there's still a chance.
Steve said that Clarence Singleton was by to see me yesterday. He must be feeling better. He's had a terrible time with a former hip injury lately, and I worry about him and his well-being. I've tried to assure him that he's always welcome, and I'm sorry I missed him. Janie and I were out getting supplies.
Yesterday was a clear, crisp day, not too cold. If it weren't for all the mud, it would be a good time for yard work.
In spite of the work we're getting done at Creekside, there's still a LOT more to do.
Steve is currently running the water lines to the new water heater which will serve the west end of the house. There are two baths there. The old water heater, which was in the house when we bought it, will serve the east area, which will have two baths, the kitchen, and the laundry area.
Both are quick-recovery. The house was formerly served by only one water heater, and I'll bet there were a few cool showers. The new idea for two water heaters will eliminate running the water for a while to get it hot. I guess I'll get to go under the house to insulate the pipes. He's used pex, which is supposed to be cutting edge in water lines nowadays.
Janie and I are trying to come up with ideas to re-do the downstairs sun-room bath. It's a truely awkward room, with lots of wasted space, and it just doesn't 'flow'. The walls are concrete, which is very limiting, with tall windows, which is frustrating. It also now has the door facing a major living area, which I don't like. I'd rather have a small hallway with perhaps a closet at the end. We are thinking it over before we jump into it.
I offered Steve my sun room package that's been setting out in the back yard for a year to use to replace the back porch. I think it would be valuable space, and definately good for solar gain. It's all metal and glass, except for the floor, and it would be lots cheaper and less work than a stick-built room or porch. It's twelve by 32, so it would add a lot of year-round living space, and tremendous value to the house. It has it's own air conditioning and heating unit. Sometimes it's hard to get him to see the logic in my ideas.
I saw a little couple yesterday in Jefferson City that live here, and they are (like myself) addicted to yard sales, Goodwills, and re-sale stores. The man said he has some building materials, and he always thinks of me first. He has sold me lots of useful items in the past, and he's really low in his prices, so I was glad to bump into them. Janie said to turn her onto any I didn't want.
Janie and Pete are getting ready to change their siding and put up an outbuilding, and she's avidly collecting any building materials she can get her hands on. I gave them a set of roof trusses for Christmas, and I told her we could go through some lumber I have stashed away to see if there might be anything she could use. I've already promised her some facia stone. I don't have enough to do much with, but she's going to use it under her eat-in counter in her kitchen. There's enough for that. We love invisioning all our improvements together. Her husband, Pete, is disabled with some heart issues, but he putters around the house for her, and comes up with some fantastic ideas. He (like both of us) hates waste, and he will re-wire, put in handles, paint, and re-work just about anything until he's got it useful again. He restores antique cars, and he's a perfectionist with finishes and moving parts. They are a really neat couple.
Steve and I didn't do anything special for Christmas or New Year's. Both days, we worked at Creekside alone. I like it when we're there alone working. He's usually off somewhere else, but I hear his noises. There's not so much confusion when it's only us.
We usually wind up working alone late at night when everyone else is gone for the day. It feels cozy.
I'm going to hire someone to come and fix it.
Steve and I both have become so disillusioned with the very slow progress at Creekside, so we decided to have everyone (except Janie) take this past week off. We figured Janie and I could clean, sort, and catch up with the work that the men are doing.
We haven't really done as much as we had wished for, gut we have made a lot of progress.
Janie brought a neighbor friend of hers to help with the heavy lifting, and he has been a lot of help.
Steve has mostly conscripted him to re-hang doors and trim windows, and he's doing really good work. He's a disabled veteran from the Vietnam war, and has some mental and psychological problems (he can't be around many people at the same time), but his work is good.
He got the kitchen and cellar doors straightened out and level, and has trimmed the dining room windows, and he's only worked two days. Most of our time is spent looking for various pieces of lumber and the assorted tools he needs. He's warming up to us, and we're glad to have him.
Janie and I were talking with him yesterday afternoon, and someone mentioned that there were so many Baptists around here. He said that he had once been one, but was not now. When I asked what he is now, he said he was Apostolic. He REALLY warmed to me when I told him I was once Apostolic, myself. Now we have more common ground to talk on.
It's been cold, so Steve loaded a truck with fire wood and brought it to Creekside one day this week. That wood stove has made a tremendous change in the comfort level. We've tightened up that house so much, but it's still needing some more work, and it's a lot of square footage to heat. It seems like someone is always having to put some wood in the stove. It's supposed to be a bit warmer today and the next few days, so there will be a little less work.
Janie and I have finished the floor in the upstairs sunroom, and it's turned out beautifully. We still have the closet to floor, but it's a small area. We used engineered flooring, which is like thin plywood that has a wood finish on it. You have to put it down board by board, but it makes a very pretty floor. We took so long to get it done because we're constantly inturrupted by other projects and trips for supplies.
We discovered during the job that I had bought the wrong kind of adhesive. I always use latex base, because of the easy clean-up. But this time, I had got five gallons of mineral base. By the time we discovered my mistake, Janie had sat on the lid (upside down) and stuck it to the seat of her pants. We got it everywhere that we didn't want it. Clean up was a chore, but we got it all cleaned up and got back to work. We are both really proud of the floor.
Mary Douglass came by yesterday afternoon, and she is pleased that we're getting so much done. She's always said that Creekside would work me to death. It's not finished yet, so there's still a chance.
Steve said that Clarence Singleton was by to see me yesterday. He must be feeling better. He's had a terrible time with a former hip injury lately, and I worry about him and his well-being. I've tried to assure him that he's always welcome, and I'm sorry I missed him. Janie and I were out getting supplies.
Yesterday was a clear, crisp day, not too cold. If it weren't for all the mud, it would be a good time for yard work.
In spite of the work we're getting done at Creekside, there's still a LOT more to do.
Steve is currently running the water lines to the new water heater which will serve the west end of the house. There are two baths there. The old water heater, which was in the house when we bought it, will serve the east area, which will have two baths, the kitchen, and the laundry area.
Both are quick-recovery. The house was formerly served by only one water heater, and I'll bet there were a few cool showers. The new idea for two water heaters will eliminate running the water for a while to get it hot. I guess I'll get to go under the house to insulate the pipes. He's used pex, which is supposed to be cutting edge in water lines nowadays.
Janie and I are trying to come up with ideas to re-do the downstairs sun-room bath. It's a truely awkward room, with lots of wasted space, and it just doesn't 'flow'. The walls are concrete, which is very limiting, with tall windows, which is frustrating. It also now has the door facing a major living area, which I don't like. I'd rather have a small hallway with perhaps a closet at the end. We are thinking it over before we jump into it.
I offered Steve my sun room package that's been setting out in the back yard for a year to use to replace the back porch. I think it would be valuable space, and definately good for solar gain. It's all metal and glass, except for the floor, and it would be lots cheaper and less work than a stick-built room or porch. It's twelve by 32, so it would add a lot of year-round living space, and tremendous value to the house. It has it's own air conditioning and heating unit. Sometimes it's hard to get him to see the logic in my ideas.
I saw a little couple yesterday in Jefferson City that live here, and they are (like myself) addicted to yard sales, Goodwills, and re-sale stores. The man said he has some building materials, and he always thinks of me first. He has sold me lots of useful items in the past, and he's really low in his prices, so I was glad to bump into them. Janie said to turn her onto any I didn't want.
Janie and Pete are getting ready to change their siding and put up an outbuilding, and she's avidly collecting any building materials she can get her hands on. I gave them a set of roof trusses for Christmas, and I told her we could go through some lumber I have stashed away to see if there might be anything she could use. I've already promised her some facia stone. I don't have enough to do much with, but she's going to use it under her eat-in counter in her kitchen. There's enough for that. We love invisioning all our improvements together. Her husband, Pete, is disabled with some heart issues, but he putters around the house for her, and comes up with some fantastic ideas. He (like both of us) hates waste, and he will re-wire, put in handles, paint, and re-work just about anything until he's got it useful again. He restores antique cars, and he's a perfectionist with finishes and moving parts. They are a really neat couple.
Steve and I didn't do anything special for Christmas or New Year's. Both days, we worked at Creekside alone. I like it when we're there alone working. He's usually off somewhere else, but I hear his noises. There's not so much confusion when it's only us.
We usually wind up working alone late at night when everyone else is gone for the day. It feels cozy.
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