In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 490 of 1154
Quote:It's not something I'd get because I have different intentions for a desk. But it seems like it might meet Brenda's needs. It's small(ish) and fits almost anywhere, and you can get your knees under it while seated at a standard-sized chair, and it fits a laptop. And it's a permanent legitimate piece of furniture, which I think is something Brenda might possibly appreciate after living unsettled for so long in a temporary jury-rigged setting. It could take some internet searching, but there are even places that have solid pine unfinished furniture for sale that's relatively cheap. She might find something like that, if the idea appeals to her.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
That's a sweet-looking desk, KIKI. If I didn't have a houseful of furniture... some of which I'd like to get rid of... I'd get one!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is find the correct search term to use with google! So if it appeals to her, hopefully I've cracked some of the code to use!
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Whew!
Yeah. At least it seems the foundation of the house itself was built well. I have some fixing that needs to be done, but unlike the porch addition they knew what they were doing on the house.
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That may have something to do with that intermittent underground stream that KIKI suggested was running under your home. It CAN move ... and remove ... a fair bit of dirt
It's possible, but now that I know more about the area it's probably that it's just constantly wet soil around here unless we've got a drought. The ditch across the street that is supposed to take care of a lot of this was up to the top all spring long, and when I say "up to the top", that looks to be about 5 feet higher than my first floor. We've gone almost a month now with hardly any rain and my grass is still growing like weeds and hasn't turned brown, even though its' been in the high 80's and 90's nearly everyday and sunny.
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Gutters need to be angled slightly downward toward the downspouts, correct?
Yeah, but you can do that by angling the gutters themselves and probably shouldn't rely on a bad pitch of your roof and structure to do that work for you.
Plus, if you look at my pictures, I don't know how many downspouts should be installed and exactly where. I'll let the gutter guy decide that one for me. But if I put two of them on the right side of the overhang that's probably overkill and will look dumb, since it's only about 4.5 feet either way. But if I put it on the back corner and not at the front of the overhang on the right side and the angle is downward away from the house, it would simply pool up in there and start dumping over the side of the gutter when it rained heavy.
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So basically the answer to the sunken (sinking?) slab is to put in taller columns, right?
Maybe? I'm hoping the sinking issue is going to be mostly remedied after the gutters are installed. I'm going to be jacking the overhang up quite a bit to get it level, so there is now going to be a lot of downward pressure on the front of the slab that hasn't been there for a long time. I'm going to see if I can do any meaningful research before I do anything. I think I'm going to get wider columns that look fancier and have more surface area on contact with the slab too.
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That must be some crack! And some underground stream!
It's cinder block walls, so not a crack per sa... A mortar joint deteriorated at some point below the window, and idiots who lived here before did a horrible patch job on the surface that cracked at some point because that's what happens when you take shortcuts and do things the wrong way. I'm just hoping that it doesn't go down much more than a single layer of blocks or I'm going to be in for a lot of digging.
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Er... that's what climate scientists say. Warmer air lofts more water, leading to more precipitation. Except for the extreme southwest, where much of that lofted, wrung out air sinks and dries things out.
I'm not going to argue that. Lake Michigan is where our water is supposed to eventually go but it's not going anywhere because Lake Michigan is past max capacity.
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It's hard to believe that you'd get 200 gallon from off your roof. Not sure of the configuration of that area of your house. I thought that the full-height part of the basement was in the back, so are you talking about a crack that could potentially extend deep into the soil, or is just at the soil surface?
I'm hoping it's just at the soil surface. The last few years around here, the backyard is a freaking marsh after these 3" rains because there's so much water everywhere that never evaporates. At least we're having our first hot and relatively dry summer in 5 years, so at least there's that.
But given the amount of water everywhere that reall
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I've been struggling to stay awake, and dozing off sitting up all day, despite lots of coffee in the AM.
That is NOT the way to get things done!
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Managed to get out my three bins of yardwaste, and dug into the tax statements and banking records to figure out ONE of hubby's retirement fuckups. That one is a simple fix even tho it involved two institutions making several mistakes in a row, it only left a problem on the 1099. Not sure about the other one, but I did manage to explain in detail to the research team what happened with the first problem.
Have been helping hubby sort things and put the garage in order. It's been my mission to sort and label all of his wood screws. machine bolts, eyebolts etc and he has a crap=ton! An 8'X16" shelf-full!
Heard from an ex-colleague of mine that one of the former souce testers has fourth stage pancreatic cancer. That's terrible news. I didn't really like a lot of people that I worked with, I thought most of them were just amoral, but this tester was a real standup kind of guy, and didn't mind crossing TPTB to get things done. I'm trying to write an email to him, but I don't know what to say.
Other than that, I'm just keeping on keeping on. Nothing special or big going on. Need to get my rear in gear on the legal aspects of our daughter's future, and do some concerted work in that direction.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Sounds like you've got the work under control too. I envy your husband for even being able to think about spending time organizing bolts and whatnot. I'd imagine if I were still here five years from now I wouldn't be able to find the time to do that. I know where all of my tools and materials are now, but I've got a huge "junk drawer" of sorts with those kinds of things in it, and although it might take me a while to find what I need, it hasn't failed me yet.
I actually was unpleasantly surprised this year when my new license plate sticker came and was actually a new license plate. I had forgot how difficult it was to install the new one last time since everything on the back of my car there is deteriorated and rusted out.
I couldn't even tell you what I did this time since that was a month ago and it's a hodgepodge of a job, but that new license is tight and isn't going to move for another 10 years. I think it will last longer than the car does at this point.
But it sure is nice to have that junk drawer full of nuts and bolts and other odds and ends. I got a ton of them when my parents moved south, and I've always kept any extra bits and pieces from things I've bought and/or thrown away with the hoard. Never throw away a good nut or bolt or washer.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I've been struggling to stay awake, and dozing off sitting up all day, despite lots of coffee in the AM.
That is NOT the way to get things done!
You're probably not sleeping well.
With all the house stresses on my end, and everybody and my brother needing things from me too, I've been getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep every night for the last month or so. I can't unwind at night and sleeping after I eat isn't working like it used to. I end up looking at the clock at 4AM and realizing I went down another YouTube rabbit hole and wonder where the night went.
Took the opportunity of a rainy day today to catch up on sleep, but now I'll probably be up all night again.
I think I need to consider my own coffee over indulgence. It goes way beyond an AM thing here.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Hi Brenda!
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Well, I went and bought a small laundry hamper and turned it upside down to use as a writing table of sorts. Still not really high enough, so might have to get something else to add to it.
IDK how expensive or cheap this kind of thing might be, but have you considered ordering something like this?
If you want to do some internet checking, after looking around a bit, the name for this category of furniture is called
drop front desk
I can't order anything on line but looking for something better wouldn't hurt then maybe when I can get some help, I can get it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Happy sunshine day, BRENDA!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Thanks. Suppose to rain tomorrow. I missed the weather on the local news tonight. So will have to check out the weather site I go to.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Those aren't cheap, even on the low end (around $200 at Walmart and Target). And that one looks to be at least middlingly fancy with quality wood.
If a laundry hamper is what you're trying to use right now Brenda, you could probably find a bar stool at the local goodwill for under 5 bucks.
I'm assuming it's not just the cost that is prohibiting you from getting a proper piece of furniture, but also the ease of being able to bring something home with you as well. A bar stool is lightweight and easy to move around.
You could even get a small piece of plywood cheap and bring that home with you and either drill or glue that to the top of the bar stool. If it has padding, just remove that to affix it to the bare wood.
And if it turns out to be too high for you, all you need to do is saw off the four legs to the length you want it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
You are right. It's not just the cost but my ability to get it home. I was looking for that at Walmart but they don't have any in stock right now. I'm thinking about checking out my local Salvation Army Thrift store in the next couple of days for something better.
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I've figured out it's due to the heat even tho the bedroom has AC, and the fact that my mattress heats up too much where I'm laying down on it. I figured it out because I can sleep elsewhere, but I'm EXTREMELY uncomfortable in bed because ... as cool as I keep the room I still sweat, and for whatever reason I'm ultra-sensitive to the sensation of sticking to the linens.
So today I ordered a polymer random mesh made for boats that you put under your mattress. The original onboard intention was to allow for air circulation underneath, to keep mattresses from molding (because, on ships, mattresses are placed on solid plywood and never get a chance to dry out underneath).
It was cheap, and I think it'll allow for cooling.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
You are right. It's not just the cost but my ability to get it home. I was looking for that at Walmart but they don't have any in stock right now. I'm thinking about checking out my local Salvation Army Thrift store in the next couple of days for something better.
I'm wondering if possibly you could have WalMart deliver something to you if you paid for it with cash in the store.
I've never tried that, but it might be worth looking into if you find something you feel is worth the price but getting it home is a deal breaker.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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