In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 302 of 1154
So, over at this end ... not sure f I posted this but the reason why our efforts got kicked into hig gear is because we're having out-of-town visitors stopping by. And altho they're only staying a day and a half (on their way to some place else) I've always felt that they were cirtical/judgmental. And, wowuldn't you know it but it was the guest bathroom sink that we had to remove!
So. Vanity has been modified and painted, the sink is installed, the bathroom and guest bedroom have been cleaned. I also did some adventitous cleaning and dusting, changed the filters on the return air ducts, and managed to tidy up the office considerably. While that, I have 1 1/2 large boxes of giveaway stuff collected and will be adding more.
So Tuesday is D-day for us. Hubby is building a platform for the mattress (so they don't have to sleep on a matress on the floor!) and I only need to wash the comforter, mattress cover and one other large item and move the nightstand, light, etc in place and just vacuum up all of the floors around the house. (It's so dusty around here!)
Once our visitors have come and gone I'm going to cover the bathroom vent (the one that goes right thru the roof) with cardboard so we don't get leaves and dust blowing in, cover the bed with an old sheet, close the door and keep it in its more-or-less pristine state until next time, when it should only take a little dusting to make it good again.
One room DONE.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Just imagine, SIX! You're ready for anything man, beast. or nature has in store for you!
Well... Second did quote something that made sense in another thread the other day, although it didn't apply at all to the point that he was making where he put it, of course.
It was in regards to how easy Americans have it and how they don't need to use most of their brains because of that.
I might bitch a lot, and I might have the added pressure right now of overcoming a lot of crap I let pile up over the years on top of additional pile ups because of neglect, but I generally thrive in chaos. I'm learning so much here about stuff that most Americans never even think about I could probably write a book.
Maybe I will. I could call it something like "The American Handyperson's Prep Guide For The Second Great Depression"
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Seriously, I know that you're so done with that house, but in reality you're in better shape with it than you've ever been. I think it's just hard to see the progress that you've made and how far you've come when you're up to your ass in alligators!
You might be right here. It's probable that a lot of these problems were problems from day one, but I wasn't aware of what was behind the walls and under the floors.
There was a lot of damage I either directly caused or I'm responsible for from neglect though. If anything, I'd like to think that the work I've done vs the new shit that's popped up that I need to take care of comes out to a wash.
Now that the porch is back in, I really think that I could sell this house tomorrow and make back what I paid for it. Especially since it's a better market than when I bought it.
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When you sell it, the next owner is going to have a perfectly lovely functional family home, where everything works like it should. I hope you make beaucoup bucks on it, you sure have put in your "sweat equity"!
We're not there yet. Not by a long shot. But I do believe that once the screen door is installed and I get that visqueen up over the louvers this week that at least I will have taken care of any of the things that were causing the place to degrade prematurely.
Let's see....
Structural repairs and a new floor in porch. Cracked drain pipe fixed. Backup solution for the sump pump in the event of power failure. Racoon family removed and access sealed so it won't happen again. Crawl space visqueen scoured so all of my work down there wasn't gross. House de-hoarded, with most of the garage de-hoarded and organized as well. Ground re-graded all along the house. Patio pavers all pulled up and ready for grass to be planted in the spring. Heat system working at least 5 times as good as it ever has. New entry steps for front porch and pillars re-painted.
I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting at the moment. It's been a good few months.
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Enjoy the winter, being as snug in a bug in a rug.
As long as my old furnace doesn't die on me.
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PS: What kind of generator? We're looking at getting one.
It's a Dewalt. It was used and out of the box, and I didn't get the manual with it, so I couldn't tell you what the specs are.
Without measuring it, I would guess it was around 3 feet long, by 2 1/2 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet long. It's got three plug receptacles. Two standard A/C wall outlet types as well as a 4-prong 20AMP.
If I bought more plugs for it, I'm sure it would power the fridge and a light or two and maybe even a TV. I haven't really tried to research the exact specs yet since at this point I'm just thrilled to have a working backup solution in place for the next outage event.
Be sure to do your research before you buy one so you don't throw away your money. It's not something to skimp on since it will be the emergency backup a
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
"When you sell it, the next owner is going to have a perfectly lovely functional family home"
Once it's all fixed up ... why sell it? (Unless you're hoping for a profit, that is.)
It's a ton of maintenance. Even when I have it fully restored and things were all in working order, there is just so much land and landscaping to take care of. Water is always going to be an issue because of the location too, so any solutions I make are only temporary measures relying on mechanical parts that will eventually fail and cost money to replace. It's way too much house for one person too. I really only live in one room and use a kitchen and bathroom like I have done for years in previous apartments. Also, my aversion for paying somebody 5 to 10 times more to do something than it would cost me to do it is fine when I'm 40 and in generally good health, but in a house that will require much more of that than most other homes, I've already decided that one way or another this is not the house I'm going to die in.
I got it for so cheap because it was a rehab/foreclosure and I bought at the rock bottom of the market. It's virtually already paid for itself since I would have thrown what I paid for it away on rent the last 8 years.
Looking at it one way, if I sold it for $25 right now I'd be making a profit. But I can't look at it that way since I wasted all that time and didn't do anything to bolster my nest egg. I figure right now I'd have to sell it for what I paid plus $10k to break even.
Now that I'm not sitting here everyday afraid that it's about to fall over, I'm not in such a huge hurry. I've still got some time and energy in me to keep making improvements. My loose plan at this point is to spend the next year or two and around $8k to $10 in repairs and upgrades and sell the house for a $50k profit when I'm done.
It would be so nice to then take that money, move into a house for half of what I sell this one for that only has 2 bedrooms and a small lawn and isn't on a floodplain and is down by my brother where things are cheaper, life is slower and people are nicer.
That's the dream.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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CONGRATULATIONS SIGNY!!!
I hope it feels as good as it sounds!
But wait - there's more! Didn't you ALSO make substantial progress on the garage and overall decluttering? And on the painting?
So CONGRATULATIONS again SIGNY!!! YAY!!!
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What a nice dream that is, Jack. I'm really glad for you that you've gotten so far, and I hope (and expect! because ... why not?) you'll get to your goal.
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Quote:Well, not "DONE" done, just at the point where we don't have to work on it anymore. At some point in the distant future we would like to replace the entire vanity, and the bathroom needs repainting. But that's for the distant future. It wouldn't have been such an issue if a copper pipe hand't ctacked and dear daughter hadn't taken it upon herself to start complulsively peeling paint, so all we've done is recover lost ground, and that not even 100%.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
CONGRATULATIONS SIGNY!!!
I hope it feels as good as it sounds!
But wait - there's more! Didn't you ALSO make substantial progress on the garage and overall decluttering? And on the painting?
So CONGRATULATIONS again SIGNY!!! YAY!!!
Made progress elsewhere but it's been scatteredt ... painting the back bedrooms, declusttering everywhere, organizing and decluttering the garage ... but since no whole rooms have been entirely done it's harder to see progress. You probably know the feeling! I CAN count the number of giveaway boxes, and bins and pounds of trash crossing the perimeter in the outbound direction ... about 200 lbs of scrap wood and 300 lbs of scrap metal and the equivalent of six large boxes of donation items ... I think the next thing is to figure out how to sell the bigger more expensive stuff.
Anyone want an entire setting of fine china?
Anyway, I'm looking foreward to the day when I can si down, look around and think to myself ... this room is DONE, and easier to keep clean!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:You need a dog, BRENDA! S/he would have cleaned it up for you!
Originally posted by Brenda:
Some old and dead electronics taken in to be recycled today.
3 windchimes hung up. Indoors.
But I did drop some ice cream on the floor. :(. Cleaned that up and had to get some more out of the freezer.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY
One problem with that solution SIG. I don't like dogs. Cat person.
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Ran into my manager yesterday as I was heading out and we had a nice little chat. She asked me how I was doing and I said I was good. Still doing organizing but that was a good thing. She said, "Well, you are home now and you can do it whenever you want." I agreed and added, "I can sit down and watch tv or get up and do a couple of small things. " In my head I added ,"No rush at all."
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Off to take a nice hot shower in a minute.
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