Hot Again!!

I won't go into how long it has been since I have posted....I have been quite preoccupied with work, failing banks, regulators, dog rescues, chickens, smart-mouthed teenagers, job searching and driving to my new job - not necessarily in that order.
We haven't done much around to house due to time and money resources. We did have the air handler in the attic (bad idea) overflow it's pan from condensation, with no shut off switch, for MONTHS before the ceiling in our bedroom finally came down on us  at 4am one fine morning...so THAT is fixed. Finally painted that ceiling!

We have our deck maybe 80-90% taken down; I never thought it fit well with our 1915 house; I would prefer some patio area off the two back doors, and some "floating decks" around the yard, where we will reuse the Trex boards from the deck. Our backyard is a huge mess....lots of die off from the two previous winter's hard freezes, lots of building materials scattered around, lots of attention needed there. The one thing which is new and complete back there is the CHICKEN COOP. We have 2 2nd season hens (a white leghorn and a NH Red) and 2 pullets(a barred rock and a buff orphington). When they are totally happy, we will get as many as one egg each, every day. They are not always happy. We are learning.

The siding and windows continue to deteriorate; we replace what is in most need. that will never be done, it is forever ongoing. We will need to do some windows VERY SOON. I honestly don't know what is keeping some of them attached to the house. The front porch will need to be rebuilt too. The floors need refinishing. Regardless, this house is our home, not a museum, or a showroom. I hope someday that the "finished project" fairy will visit us in our sleep, and we will wake up to gleaming floors, painted trim, rebuilt windows and new, smooth siding.

Winter To Do List

Was outside yesterday clearing some more weeds and vines in the back yard; our winter to do list was born. Siding behind the A.C unit is in bad shape, that will be replaced up to the windows, same with a patch of siding on the deck; this work will most likely reveal rotted sill as well. Also an area above the front porch will be replaced. What I'm really looking forward to is rebuilding the deck....it is pulling away from the house and looked terribly skewed; will will tear it down and rebuild, probably lower to the ground, using as much of the existing "Trex" materials as possible. Depending on the level of rot found with the siding, we may not get to the deck until next year. There is a "Frankenstein" door (pieced together in a rather rough manner) on the side of the house off the office which needs to be worked over and painted; we can probably fit that in before it gets too hot again. We will also repair a few of the windows which are in the worst shape.

Phew! Has it REALLY been that long??

I honestly don't know where the time goes....here we are in October! Not much as changed in this old house...still have many outstanding projects. It was a hot summer, and our electric bills went as high as $600...if only we could afford to reside, replace the 40+ windows and insulate, we would save some money on the bill, but probably not enough to pay for the work in my lifetime. We will eventually need to work on some of the windows as they are about to fall off the house...silly old rotted wood! We had a year or so of hardly any work being done following the husband getting sick last summer, and my having surgery this past spring, followed by a horrible post op infection...no more details here, but let's just say I am happy to be sitting here, insomnia or not! 
My "hope list" for the cooler months coming up will include the replacement of some siding that I can't stand looking at anymore....I literally will not go on our deck any more because I can't look at the rotted state of some of the siding back there....just a few spots here and there...that's the way it will be unless we win Lotto and can reside the entire house. Also included on "the list" is some backyard work; this got really out of hand during the time where we could not physically do any work....the backyard is another spot where I would rather not spend much time....too bad too, it's a HUGE backyard and has...yes, I'll use that word...POTENTIAL. Right now it looks like the only thing it is lacking is a couple of old appliances and maybe a 72 Lincoln Town Car. We try to do outdoor projects while it is cool because we are not 20 and fit, so working too much outside in 95 degree weather creates a "drop dead in the yard" hazard. WE may pay some attention to the front porch as well, but we have some major work to do there, so that might wait until next year. We have tackled the deadly bougainvillea hedge along our driveway, we still are killing off the baby sprouts...as gorgeous as this plant can be, the 4 inch thorns which can easily poke you in the eye if you walk too close kind of puts me off. We will put some sort of kinder, gentler plant there...I didn't realize we had so much space between the driveway and the property line fence...the bougainvillea was over 5 feet deep! We also have a palm tree which has fallen over (one of the violent windstorms from a month or two back) and is laying across a power line...no ill effects thus far, but it looks HORRIBLE, and will probably eventually cause a problem; TECO won't take it down because it is in our yard.  We will have to have the power shut off the day we plan on cutting it. Anyone here in the hood have a chainsaw we can borrow?? ;-)
Since I last posted we have lost another dog as well, George was out 14 year old cocker spaniel...I miss him and his brother Louie, who was put down a year ago. We are down to one dog for the first time in 14 years! I have thought about getting Sally, our loyal watchdog, a companion as she is very playful with other dogs and I think she would enjoy a young dog friend...and she is not an affectionate dog; I really miss having a lap dog who slobbers all over you; but it is so peaceful here now, I hesitate to break the silence with a new dog. We have been working long, crazy hours too, so a puppy might not be a good idea. 
I am going to try to post more here...I lost my password again and it was like pulling teeth resetting; I need to get this onto my gmail account, I just haven't figured out how.


Oh, and thank you, Japanese person, for your continued comments! I will probably start requiring registration for comments going forward...but you did keep the blog alive in my absence! 

More Progress

It has been so busy, I have not had a chance to post...I finally uploaded the pics of the progress on the side of the house.....another weekend or two and this will be done. The top two show the new siding in place....the third down shows the sorry condition of the wood behind the siding on the "bad" side and the bottom shows the new door installed. It should all look pretty good once everything is painted....We'll probably remove the iron railing once we're done with the siding-it is not appropriate for the house and it is rusted beyond repair. Things for once are going along as quick or even quicker than I figured....yay!

Progress Made!

Busy week! At work anyway......over the weekend we got siding up on the side we tore up a couple weeks ago (I would post a pic if I remembered where I put the camera). That's one side down, one to go.....the other side is falling off the house in chunks, so I'm assuming it is in worse shape. Side one was good practice! We are ready for whatever awaits us under the rotted clapboards of side two! We also put the new/old door in on the side...it had been on the front porch for some time. It is a good fit for the house, better than the fan-lite door that was in there, and in much better shape.....the rain still came in, but not through the cracks in the door! We still have to put the door sweep on, that should help. That door is so exposed to the elements....I wonder if we should build a little roof thing over it; the name escapes me. It's a *mini* roof just for a door. We also got the new kitchen faucet in; we were waiting on that until we were ready to do the sink and counters, but the faucet we had was in bad shape and was leaking water under the sink. We tried to repair it but there were too many leaks; it was old and cheap. So there's a gleaming new Kohler "Forte'" faucet in there now.....looks very nice....works very good...all is well in the kitchen. Makes me want to do the sink and counter now so they will be good enough for the new faucet. Soon enough.......
I saw a lot of granite counters on the home tour...I love granite, had it in our last house....but I think I want to do tile in this kitchen; I think it would suit it better. It's a little artsy, a little cozy.....the problem is the number of choices is mind numbing; so many colors, sizes, textures and materials. I will be looking over pictures of counters for months to come......

Oh Well......

Although we are happy to be able to take the new sod off life support with the coming of what appears to be "rainy season", it does present some challenges in our outside projects. It has been a little wet to start the siding project......if it clears up enough today we may start pulling some wood off, but chances are we'll have to wait until next week. Of course the weather may pose some scheduling problems for the next several months...but we will just have to work around it the best we can...this is one of those "have to do" projects that will soon affect the inside with water damage if not addressed. Yeah, we should've done it over the winter......hindsight is 20/20, eh? We will continue to plug away at other stuff we've been working on.....my daughter *had* to paint her room yesterday, and that didn't get finished, so we will tie that up today while she enjoys a birthday party (sucks to be 13).
On another note, I noticed that the house/apartments across the street went up for sale (5309 Branch), no sign yet, but I'm on "ziprealty.com" quite often watching the neighborhood real estate scene and this popped up. This is a bungalow with an apartment carved into it (in law apt?) and two really odd back buildings which contain rental units; one appears to be a garage with an upstairs apt, the other could possibly have been a storage/shelter unit with another apt. The bungalow was built in the twenties, and the other units were build in the 40s/50s. They want $375K for it....I don't know if that's good-they seemed to have had a really hard time getting and keeping it rented, but in speaking with a former tenant, we were told the owners were not willing to make any updates or even let the tenants make updates, and they wanted a pretty steep rent for the condition/size. The main house has been vacant for some time now, and the other two back units just vacated last week. I hate having a vacant property across from us. I think it needs some major updating, but I'm sure the main house could be converted back to a one unit pretty easily. I've been in there once, and the floors are in great shape, and it has a fireplace(a sore spot with me as I feel I have the only house in Seminole Heights without one.I have a charming indoor industrial style sprinkler system, but no fireplace!) If your looking for something to buy...take a look..we would love to have some decent neighbors across the street!

The Grand Entrance

It's not the best picture, but this was as close as I could get with the current state of my back and the pesky iron handrail in the way. This is where my little buddies, be they rats or squirrels enter my house. Entry has just been made a bit easier as a big chunk of rotted siding just fell off the house there (note the small plant growing out of the house close to the door frame). We thought it was through a little hole up where the roof meets the siding over our laundry room, but this makes more sense-and we fixed the other hole, and I still hear them coming and going. I hear them back up in the ceiling, after a long period of only hearing them in the walls; this makes me think they may be nesting, preparing for some bundles of furry joy. This weekend we start on the repair of this side of the house; the bump out which used to be a wrap around porch and is now an office. We will get some siding from Rome Lumber, and start tearing off the rotten stuff...hopefully the sill is ok, but it is probably not. Yes, we still have the backyard to do, but this is a priority.....the backyard will resume when the rodents have lost their access. The door has to go as well; I got a great door for $20 bucks off craigslist; it is perfect for the side door. The current door not only does not fit the style of the house, but it is so badly rotted, you can see daylight through it when you are in the office or foyer and when it rains, we have to put a towel down in front of the door. So if you drive by and see us outside staring horrifically at the side of the house (facing Hillsborough) give us a wave of encouragement.