In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 161 of 1154
Out for a walk in a bit. Not sure if I need my umbrella or not.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Moving. What a chore! I can't think of any handy good way to do it.
But I think you need boxes for the stuff you have to unpack first which are things you use every day: boxed food you eat often like cereal; 1 set of everday pots, pans, dishes, silverware, dish terg and sponges; a change of clothes, bathroom supplies, a few towels and washclothes, and one set of linens. And some things automatically sort themselves like clothes in a closet and clothes in a dresser.
OTOH you may or may not have a linen closet/ pantry/ built-in bookshelves/ desk/ in your new/ old place, so it makes no sense to me to be carefully organizing everything by one set of organization. Just put it all in boxes and sort it when you get there according to the rooms, closets and storage spaces in the new place. One family I know used the extra clothes and linens to pack the fragile stuff. :)
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, that's a big job SIX. We're doing similar work on our house, but due to age and debility much of it is going to conractors. In fact, we just has three very large single pane windows replaced ... actually one of those was a sliding glass door converted to a window. It made a huge difference in the comfort of the house and the heat load on the A/C. Hubby has the idea that we're going to renovate he bathrooms ourselves. Boy, I dunno. I have just enough energy to do the three things I have to do every day (walk the dog for a half hour, yardwork for an hour and cooking for two hours plus whatever errands I have to run and finances I need to take care of) and then I have maybe another hour in me, and then I'm done. I guess because I'm limited by energy and my knees I kinda peck away at things, but big jobs .... ?
Now, hubby likes to do big jobs in one fell swwop. Difference in work style... gets us bolloxed up sometimes.
Are you sure you know where the water is coming in? It might be coming in from more than one place ... windows and roof, for example. It would be a shame to do all of that repair and then have it get all wet again with the next thunderstorm! What kind of flooring? Carpeting or something else? (Thats another thing we had done: repalce carpeting with flooring that we had bought ages ago for the project)
But I look forward to the pictures though! Please be sure to take "before" and "in process" and "after" pictures. We've had a lot of things done and are tackling the big post-retirement cleanup (pecking away at it!) and I've always forgotten to take "before" pictures, so it's hard to get an overall view of the progress. It's hard sometimes to see where you've gotten unless you can see where you've been.
Cheering you on, SIX! Let's hope no nosy neighbor calls the city inspector on you!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
My neighbors are cool. I'm not worried about them. Code enforcement drives around fairly regularly though, and I don't know the new guy. Used to talk to the old guy all the time, but he retired around 5 years ago.
My windows are probably going to be an issue. That's why, unfortunately, I'm doing things a bit counter-intuitively by fixing the floor first. I figure if I get a visit, I at least want the floor to be secure and it will just look like a window replacement job.
I know exactly where the water is coming in from. There's no problem with the roof. It's the single pane crap aluminum windows. Especially in the front of the house. That's one thing I won't be posting is the before pics of how it's set up right now, because as far as I know, mine is the only house in the country with this "feature" and there's no reason for me to be posting things like that online. Let's just say that the front of the porch facing the street is ugly as hell and wasn't constructed professionally and if I were to spend 15 minutes washing the front of it again I'd have 30 gallons of water on the inside.
I'm haven't put much thought into what the flooring will be in the end. My only concern at this point is gutting what needs to be gutted, replacing whatever needs to be replaced structurally, and getting new good windows in there and sealing the room up from the elements. Once I start, I have to do it all fairly quickly. But when those things are finished I can do the rest of the job at my leisure.
My step-dad is supposed to come in with my mom to help next month. The first time I've seen them since we moved.
We're having a bit of a
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
"gutting what needs to be gutted, replacing whatever needs to be replaced structurally, and getting new good windows" So - down to the studs. Did that w/ the interior of most of the house a few years back - 2 paid people working but I did maybe a quarter of the job evenings and weekends. Do you have any basic construction knowledge, like materials to use or code requirements? Anyway, make sure the floor joists are good then, if they've been exposed to a lot of water they may be rotten.
I don't understand why the move has to be a big secret. It's not like your Grandma, brother or father can actually * DO * anything to stop the whole fiasco. And they're going to find out at some point anyway.
But I agree that it sucks for your mom's health. Is * SHE * ok with it all? Or has she been Shanghaied? Are you in good and free (frequent, unmonitored, uncensored) communication with her? She must have her own email/ phone, right?
ETA - also check for rot in the window framing and wall studs.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Moving. What a chore! I can't think of any handy good way to do it.
But I think you need boxes for the stuff you have to unpack first which are things you use every day: boxed food you eat often like cereal; 1 set of everday pots, pans, dishes, silverware, dish terg and sponges; a change of clothes, bathroom supplies, a few towels and washclothes, and one set of linens. And some things automatically sort themselves like clothes in a closet and clothes in a dresser.
OTOH you may or may not have a linen closet/ pantry/ built-in bookshelves/ desk/ in your new/ old place, so it makes no sense to me to be carefully organizing everything by one set of organization. Just put it all in boxes and sort it when you get there according to the rooms, closets and storage spaces in the new place. One family I know used the extra clothes and linens to pack the fragile stuff. :)
Practically zero storage space where I am but lots where I am going. So things will have to wait until I move. I will do what I can before next Saturday then everything will have to wait until then. No choice. Can't take anything over to the new place before because of things happening there.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Apparently an attempted armed robbery went down at the local strip mall I was at today. Lady who runs the local hamburger place in the mall with her husband was around the area when it happened. She saw cops with their guns drawn. Another person who was watching the proceedings told her that one of the 2 suspects was armed.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well that's exciting / nerve-wracking depending on your pov!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
"gutting what needs to be gutted, replacing whatever needs to be replaced structurally, and getting new good windows" So - down to the studs. Did that w/ the interior of most of the house a few years back - 2 paid people working but I did maybe a quarter of the job evenings and weekends. Do you have any basic construction knowledge, like materials to use or code requirements? Anyway, make sure the floor joists are good then, if they've been exposed to a lot of water they may be rotten.
I don't understand why the move has to be a big secret. It's not like your Grandma, brother or father can actually * DO * anything to stop the whole fiasco. And they're going to find out at some point anyway.
But I agree that it sucks for your mom's health. Is * SHE * ok with it all? Or has she been Shanghaied? Are you in good and free (frequent, unmonitored, uncensored) communication with her? She must have her own email/ phone, right?
ETA - also check for rot in the window framing and wall studs.
I'm more of a remodel guy and light handyman. I have some basic structural knowledge, but I really need my Step-Dad's help with that stuff, otherwise I'm going to be turning to YouTube for more than I really feel comfortable with. I've also never done windows before either, which could be a bit of a problem when I'm trying to do this on the downlow and I'm going to be installing 7 large windows that are going to need framing in a hurry.
Fortnuately, the electric is good. I was half expecting to find a bunch of romex cables, but it's all conduit. I do plan on re-situating some of that, but it will hardly be any work at all. I had to install all new electric in the basement after I gutted it.
As far as my mom is concerned, she seems great with it. She's not being shanghaied. Honestly, I've never seen a more loving relationship than what they have. They'd literally die for each other, and I have no doubt about that. It's the type of relationship where I think after one of them goes the other will be soon to follow from heartbreak.
But they're both so damned impulsive. They lost a lot of money when they had to do a fire sale on their old house, our cottage we had since my childhood and their business when they decided less than 2 years ago they were moving to Arizona and bought the house long before anything else got sold. I have no doubts they're going to take another huge hit on this as well.
I don't trust his kids, especially when it comes to my mom if something were to happen to him. He's in great shape for his age, but he's no spring chicken.
My feelings are just kind of hurt here about this whole thing, and if the humidity was no longer an issue, they could just move to Indiana and keep the low taxes and they'd have plenty of family close by... like their granddaughter that they haven't seen in a year and a half.
I'm trying to keep from saying anything that's going to keep us from talking to each other another 10 years. We have a history of that, and I thought we were long past something like that happening again.
I just need the warm weather to come back tomorrow so I can get some work done and keep my mind off of it. It was in the 30's with the windchill today here and I've spent most of the day bundled up and vedging out with these thoughts in my head.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Moving.
One personal trick (now called life hacks) I recall was what you could call cat burglary.
After the largest or most orderly stuff was boxed or stacked, I would always keep behind sleeping bags, large comforters, Beach blankets. I would toss odds and ends into the sleeping bags, then grasp it by the neck and haul it. Comforters and blankets are lesser versions, but by that time the odds and ends were smaller and fewer, but gathering the 4 corners together and tying them together like a hobo sack still worked great. Pillowcases haul the silverware and some knickknacks.
Not sure what is available to Brenda - vehicles, vans, trucks, trailers, several sturdy men, etc. Or what kind of stuff - furniture, huge furniture, assembly furniture, mattresses, etc.
If sturdy men are available, then having some dollies, carts, roller trucks can help, hauling 4-5 boxes at once instead of wearing your guys out shuffling around with only one box at a time. Those can be borrowed, or rented from appliance shops (often closed and carts unused on weekends).
For dressers, I would just carry out the drawers as if they were boxes, not bothering to transfer them to boxes in between.
When quick turnaround was needed, I would rent one of those storage lockers for a month or a week, and move the most time consuming or hardest stuff into the locker, then after moving day reverse the process. If you have a friend with a garage, that would make due. If the garage floor is not clean, a layer of cardboard to stack the boxes on top of works, or else I used discarded pallets. I think once I used pallets, with a tarp cover, and left it outdoors, when I had tape sealed the boxes. Or I put each box inside a large garbage bag.
I would stack or stage most of the stuff next to the door, or largest entryway (like patio door, removing both sides), or other Line of Demarcation. Less time wandering through the whole space on moving day, just a step or 2 inside the door, and back out with more boxes.
Night before moving day, mattress on the floor, only final necessities are not yet packed - like what you would have for a motel night. Bed disassembled at least the day before.
Oh, and use every piece of luggage stuffed with items, packed with linens and blankets for fragiles. Cheap luggage and seabags can be found at Goodwill, etc. Thrown out luggage doesn't need to be pretty for long-term possession, just holds together for a few days - and with roller wheels on the luggage, even better.
You could ask friends to borrow their luggage, as well. How many of your friends are not on vacation the next week?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME