In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Monday, September 7, 2026 11:50
VIEWED: 338648
PAGE 782 of 834
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
But what was that border along the ceiling? Wallpaper?
Sorry... must have caught you pre-edit and missed that question, Sigs.
Yeah. That was a roll of wallpaper I got for .50 at a Goodwill out in Illinois years back. I mean like YEARS back before they got greedy, put all their great stuff on eBay and Amazon when the employees weren't taking it for themselves and they didn't jack up the prices on what's left for the stores by 3 times. I barely even go there anymore these days, and only for jeans and belts when I do. I can literally buy clearance shirts at Walmart brand new for cheaper than most of their used t-shirts by quite a bit these days and the "half-price" days are the only time I ever go and it's not even competitive anymore.
Anyway... I loved how the border matched my shower curtain and the wood trim of everything at the time. It really was a nice looking border. But that had to go...
Until about 2 months ago, that border is the only "work" I ever did in that bathroom besides removing all of that failing caulk, doing it all up proper with backer rod and re-caulking the entire bath/shower area.
If I ever want to do that bathroom up totally proper, I'm going to break down one day and tile the walls.
But I know if I do that, I'm completely opening myself up to all of the horrors that lie underneath that vinyl, and I'm going to end up gutting the walls completely and either replace them with concrete board or that new awesome Space Age shit that is impervious to water and mold.
It's so cool and a shame that I'd probably have to put a lean on the house to buy it for myself. It's infinitely easier to work with than any other bathroom material I've ever used because you can score it and cut it with nothing but a straight edge and a utility knife without making any big production out of it or making a mess.
Instead of having to cut stuff outside and bring it in after you're done making the mess out there, you can just have have all of these super-dense, but super-lightweight foam pieces right outside the room and just cut them to size on the spot, put them up and there's zero mess to clean up. The only time it ever gets potentially messy at all is when you bust out the tube of sealent that goes with it for all the corners and joints, before you put your tile over it.
You could make your own if you wanted to, but they also sell prefabed specialty pieces for things like recesses in your shower wall for things like soap and razors made out of the same material and already glued together and sealed, ready to fit right between your studs.
I'm going to get the name Sigs. You should check that out if you ever remodel a bathroom yourself or know somebody who is considering doing it. If I could afford it, I'd be using it myself.
....
There it is. Kerdi-Board
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Schluter-Systems-0-5-in-x-32-in-x-48-in-Kerdi
-Board-Polystyrene-Foam-Backer-Board/4712901
I'd installed this once with my friend's dad. Amazing stuff.
But you're out of your mind if you think I'm going to pay $48 for a 4 foot by 32in length of anything that isn't gold plated.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Hey Sigs... on a completely unrelated topic. I just recently got some health insurance information that I found quite interesting.
The officially gave us the 6 month notice, 3 weeks late. When we are up for recertification, they're going to be looking back to the beginning of the year. They're not starting the clock on re-certify date, and they have no intention of giving you a 6 months grace period like they do for food-stamps when you no longer qualify for similar reasons, such as a very high unemployment rate going down to a level that no longer allows you food stamps unless you have kids or are over 55 years old.
I kind of figured all of that would be the case. I wasn't sure exactly when it would happen, but I assumed it would be right after mid-terms.
That's not the interesting thing...
I was always under the impression that the amount of work you had to do was 20 hours per week to keep things like this... or volunteer work, or job training, etc.
That's not the case at all. I mean, it does say that is one of the requirement for sure, but it's far from the only one that keeps you qualified.
The one that is interesting to me is where it says that over any 4 week (monthly) period, you're expected to earn at least $580. And then they go on to explain that this is equivalent to the national minimum wage of $7.25 at 80 hours per week. And they state this in such a way where they're very clearly saying that in leiu of working 20 hours per week, so long as you are earning at least $580 per month you are qualified. (I will have to verify if this is Gross or Net... but I would have to think it's Gross since the net could change so much from person to person).
This changes EVERYTHING!
If I end up going back to retail and/or staying there for any signifigant amount of time, I've got nobody to blame but myself.
If I cannot gross $6,960 in 365 days doing literally ANYTHING on my own, I probably don't deserve that insurance.
This may end up being a blessing in disguise, is kind of what I'm saying. I've never forced myself to go to work for myself. You've been telling me I should try that for years. And if I were to get myself back into a little better shape I'm sure I still have a few people I could reach out to that might be able to assist with that.
I'll mow lawns. I'll clean houses. I'll dog sit or walk dogs.
There's about a hundred things I could probably think of that I'd rather be doing to keep that insurance than going back to work any job where I have to deal with idiot managers and disrespectful customers.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Wow! That is fantastic SIX. 
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Out soon on a 66F day. Probably get hotter. Meds and new shoes today. I hate shoe shopping. Flat feet is no fun finding them. Then a couple of smaller things.
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All done after having my blood sugar bounce around before I grabbed something to eat. Meds and shoes got. Feel better now.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Wow! That is fantastic SIX.
The pictures or the health insurance update?
Sounds like you deserve to relax tonight. You going to watch Killers of the Flower Moon tonight?
Figured you would have mentioned if you'd watched it already.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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If nothing goes catastrophically wrong, I should have that bifold door up by nightfall.
I'm going to be cannibalizing parts from another door with new parts on the way tomorrow for the last two doors with a brand new track that "should" make installing the bedroom closets fairly easy.
I'm in the process of giving that thing a deep clean since I have the opportunity. Everything's been pulled down and wiped with microfiber. I had some glass panels from a table that somebody gave me to go over the refinished shelves, but unfortunately there were only 3 of them out of 4, and I have 4 shelves so the top shelf that nobody will ever see the top of didn't get that glass protection. I think there is some "gunk" up there I'm going to have to get my step ladder back up to give a good wipe down. After that I'll Windex the glass panels and get them back in place, and then I'll start the door.
I will have pictures. I just found some pictures of what that linen closet and the entire hallway up there looked like when I bought the house and just began working up there. These are pictures that I would have been posting here in the threads where me and Wish and JO would get together almost every night and BS.
WOW. They almost look alien to me. It's like a parallel world where this house was a complete piece of trash.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Alright...
Moment of truth. No putting it off any longer because nothing else is left in the way of it. It's all cleared out and clean up and ready for the door to be hung.
Fingers crossed it goes smoothly, because I'm going to have some awesome truly before/after pictures on this one from the humble beginnings of what this linen closet looked like before I got to it.
I use this thing every day, I've never once cleaned it like this, and I just forget how great it really looks after I refinished everything. It's going to be one of those "selling points" in my house like the pantry with the roll-out shelving I added. Every closet in my house is basically a work of art, and they all showcase different skills with none of them looking the same.
I do have to give the woman who lived here at some point before me credit for her creativity, even if everything was garishmaxxing to the extreme. What with all the Gay Chefs decor in the kitchen, and the 70's looking contact paper that covered every square inch of the inside of this closet.
You'll see what I mean when I post a photo of what it looked like later tonight. I swear to god, it happened every time I looked at it in real life just as it did when I saw the picture again today for the first time in years... I hear the song "Age of Aquarius" playing in my head when I see that contact paper.
"Feels like I'm drowning in the Age of Aquarius... The age of Aquarius... Aquarius! Aquarius...."
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Done. 
And it was a challenge every single step of the way. Pretty much everything that could go wrong with the harware did go wrong with the hardware, but without going into any specifics on the ten or so things I needed to do in between to get it up there, it was still easier to hang than the old one was now that I know how bifold doors work. The biggest issue I had here was that the old wheel absolutely needed to be used with the track, and the way that this hardware was installed in the door is different than any modern way of doing it. A lot of thought had to go into how to solve that problem without wasting days filling the old hole with wood filler and waiting for it to dry so I could drill a much smaller hole.
That original door had ZERO play.
Solid 1/2" peg going into a hole in the bottom bracket, and a solid 1" peg going into the hole in the top of the track that you need to secure down with a screw when you get it just right. Imagine trying to put a 1/2" metal pin into a hole you can't see through the bottom of a bifold door, and then trying to line up a solid pin on top without any spring action.
It was hard enough with that spring action in play, and a proper bottom piece, but MUCH easier than the original install.
The only thing is that the original door was the most solid bifold door I've ever seen and now it's not. And I know exactly why that is. If I ever want to make it that solid again, I know exactly what I need to do. But I have zero interest in ever doing it again.
I think when I get my pictures I'll snap one of the bag of old track hardware I just found in the basement today and how glad I won't have to look at any of that garbage with the 2 new track sets coming tomorrow.
It's dark out now, but the hard work is done. I can still do all the rest of the cleanup and get my new streamlined setup put together. If I can help it at all, I'd like to get all the stuff I would use within the next 1 to 3 months in the bathroom itself now, and anything that would only be needed 3 months or more from now will be out of the room and in that linen closet. Maybe I'll even use the linen closet for some actual linen instead of just toiletries and cleaning products.
I'll have some good pictures to share later tonight.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Lots to catch up on with you guys!
BRENDA, I hear you about flat feet and shoe shopping! I've got thst, plus EEEE width feet, and a bunion on my right foot. Once I find a brand and style that I like, I stick with it. Shoe shopping is such a trial!
Glad you noticed your blood sugar bouncing around. As I recall, you have hypoglycemia, right? I'll bet that's no fun.
SIX.
Interesting option on the insurance angle. I guess you report to the IRS as "self employed“. You might want to get a receipt book and save your copies bc I assume you'll be paid in cash? Also not sure what the contractor laws are there, but here any job worth more than $500 requires a license.
Also, don't do what our one handyman did: He did phenomenal work, a perfectionist. But had the strangest hours, would show up at 8PM and work until 3AM. That made sleeping difficult! And ultimately he bailed on a job and we couldn't get hold of him for completion. Once you get the rep for being reliable, people will be banging on your door! Also, have you thought of helping people de-hoard, or at least organize? It's light work but highly valued!
And congrats on getting that door up!
*****
Dpeaking of de- hoarding... I found dear daughter's secret stash in the front guest bedroom, where I rarely go. So we butted heads and then I sat her down in front of 8 bins ... #1 plastic, #2 plastic, glass, aluminum, general recycling, small scrap metal, and trash, and sorted thru the bags with her.
She's still mad at me.
When we get to her room, tho, I won't make her get rid of anything. It'll just be organizing so hopefully less friction.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
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