The Rest of the List

Yesterday I gave a run down on the house improvements that we hope to get done this year. We ended up having another one. An unexpected one. We bought a new water heater a little less than two years ago – we thought that would last until long after we were out of here. Unfortunately it was not to be. A few days ago, our hot water started getting really hot. So hot that it was creating steam and air in the lines – when we turned our hot water on, it would be spitting out of the faucet. Then it started tripping the breaker and making popping noises, and yesterday, it tripped the breaker again, leaving a burn mark on the plastic cover over the electrical connections. So last night Harry took a look at new water heaters. Yes, our current one is under warranty. But since whatever problem it’s having is not a straightforward one – what is its problem…we don’t know – the thermostat (and which one)??, the heating element (and again, which one)??, we would have to have a plumber come in and figure it out. Of course the warranty only covers the part itself, not the person needed to diagnose it. And once we compared the cost of a new water heater to the cost of a plumber….yes it was off to Albany last night after work to pick up a new water heater. This one has a six year warranty, so we should be good for a year and a half – you think?

Now, back to the list I was going over yesterday. The stuff that was on there is hopefully going to be done by the end of this year.

These are the things that we have left to do next year.

• clean out basement
• wash basement floor and walls
• replace downstairs bathroom floor
• replace downstairs bathroom faucets and shower head
• replace kitchen light
• paint stairs into kitchen from garage
• dismantle backyard shed
• rent dumpster and FILL

Other than the shed and dumpster part, there’s not too much on that list that has to be done during the warm weather. So we’re hoping to get as much done early in the year as possible, so we have more time to play next year during the summer season.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel – it’s getting a little brighter all the time!

Ever Evolving “To Do” List

At the beginning of this year, Harry and I developed a list of items we hoped to finish up this year. We have accomplished almost everything on our list, plus some things that we didn’t think we would have the time to do. Since we bought the truck and fiver this year, it has been pretty easy to stay motivated. Our timeline is starting to compress somewhat. Believe it or not, we only have 15 months left until we put our house on the market! That may sound like a lot of time, but when we look at what we have accomplished in the past 9 months, and then think about what we still want to do, we realize that it’s not tons of time after all. SO….we recently revamped our list into what we believe is a pretty final list of what we want to accomplish and when we hope to get to everything.

We received a coupon the other day in the mail from Home Depot – 12 months, 0% interest for purchases over $299. LOL We haven’t purchased from them for a couple months and they are missing us! The coupon is good until the end of October. So in late October we are going to buy the last few things we need for the house – 2 sets of flooring for the bathroom floors, a new lighting fixture for the kitchen, and a new faucet/shower set for the downstairs bathroom. That’s it! The last bit of updating we plan to do in the house.

These are the things we still hope to get accomplished around here before the end of December:

• paint the downstairs bedroom and closet
• stain the trim on the sliding glass door
• paint the downstairs office
• replace the upstairs bathroom floor
• replace the upstairs bathroom vanity and mirror (already purchased)
• paint the upstairs bathroom
• finish the sorting in the office downstairs

That is a lot to do by the end of the year. But, we think it is doable, and leaves a manageable number of things on the list for next year. We have tried to leave less to do next year, since we would like to be able to use our fiver more often next year for shorter trips in the area. Driveway camping has been fun this summer, but it’s not as good as the real thing!

Mission Accomplished!

Well, we hope, anyway! Harry spent the day working on the mouse (and chipmunk) proofing of the trailer. We lucked out and our rainy day turned into a beautiful (and dry) fall day instead. Harry was excited to have such a nice day, and was out early measuring an area that needed to be covered with an aluminum screening that we purchased at Lowe’s. Then he cut a piece to fit, with a hole in the center which allowed the hydraulic cylinder to pass through.

He adhered the screening to the side of the trailer by using silicone caulking as a glue. I don’t see any rodents making their way through there now!

And then it was time for the big job!

 

 

First he gathered all the needed tools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mouse proofing substance is applied by using a spray gun included with the purchase and powered by an air compressor. It went on pretty easily (according to Harry).

 

 

 

 

 

And the other line of defense put into place has been to fill, seal and cover every hole and crevice that he could find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry used gutter screening (called gutter guards) which we found at Home Depot’s, which he attached into place with staples and screws. They were flat originally, and Harry bent them into right angles to fit.

It has been a big project, and Harry did such an awesome job!

My day was very uninteresting in comparison – so much so that I can compress it into this one paragraph. I worked on sorting out more JUNK in the office, threw some stuff away, added papers to our shred box, worked on our budget, and baked a chocolate pie for dessert tonight.

Monday again tomorrow. BUT, we only have a week and a half before we are on vacation!!! We’ll be heading to Williamsburg, VA for a week. So I guess starting another work week is tolerable. LOL

Season premiere of Amazing Race tonight!!

Work and Celebrating

In that order! I opened and closed today, which made for a longer Saturday work day than usual. I was glad to get home, and after a short rest, we were off again to Clifton Park. A friend of ours was having a birthday celebration for one of those “significant” years.

Rose was taking all the “over the hill” decorations in stride.

Do I look a little warm? There were a lot of people in this house. All that body heat warmed the place up!

 

 

 

Tomorrow it will be back to work at the house for me. I am still working on sorting stuff out, what else is new? Harry is still doing the mouse proofing. He worked on it for several hours this morning while I was at work, and it looks awesome! I will take some pictures tomorrow. Today Harry did take a couple pictures of the cribbing that he made to go under the landing gear.

The platform seems so much more stable now. The pieces are heavy though. The wood is very solid. I am going to build up some better muscles carrying them around! Now we only need some built to go under our stabilizers.

That will probably be on the list for next year! We have enough on this year’s already!!

Enjoying the Day

Today has been a great day to have off. I find the weather forecast so amusing sometimes. Last night, the weather guy forecast rain for the next five days, but at the same time, said it was a “complex” weather pattern and he would tell us more the next day. So tonight he will explain to us how all those complexities came together to actually bring us a beautiful day.

The tree in our front yard is turning colors very quickly, and has already lost a number of its leaves. Fall is definitely here. I am remaining hopeful for a long fall season, and an easy winter, after last year’s heavy snows.

I never get tired of seeing our fiver hanging out in the driveway. Even though we won’t be going on any more road trips with her until next year, it still gives me a thrill to look out our front window and know that we are getting ever closer to our traveling days. It definitely helps keep me motivated for gettin’ stuff done around here.

I am hoping that we stay on the “good side” of this complex weather pattern for the weekend, since Harry wants to finish up the mouse proofing. He is determined to keep the little critters from making their way inside. (He’s reminding me a little bit of Bill Murray’s character in Caddyshack. ) We read about a mouse repelling product on the Escapees forum, and so we decided to try it. If the weather cooperates, Harry is going to start applying it this weekend. Between that, and the foam in all the cracks and crevices and the covering with some kind of mesh of all the cracks that can’t be sealed by foam, and the peppermint what’chamacallit on the cotton balls that will be put inside, we should have multiple forms of defense to keep all these mice and chipmunks OUT of our fiver for the winter months. Hopefully.

One More Moving Day

We spent the day today once again moving furniture. We think, for pretty much the last time. You may recall that back in July (a couple months ago already!), we had movers bring the bedroom set and the office furniture to Harry’s son Andrew. At that time we also had the movers bring the hutch out of the living room out to the garage. Today finally, was the day when we took the dining room set and a dresser to Harry’s daughter Gretchen. Since it was a little more manageable, we rented a trailer and moved it ourselves. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day.

 

 

The trip was uneventful, although the trailer’s brakes didn’t seem to be very effective, so Harry had to rely quite a bit on the truck’s exhaust brakes. We were very glad when we finally landed.

 

 

Thank goodness Gretchen lives on the first floor, but it was still a bit tiring to carry these heavy pieces of furniture from the trailer into the apartment. We were all glad when everything was in, and the furniture looks great in its new home!

This is the last furniture we expect to be moving – the rest is disposable, and we plan to either sell it, or donate it to charity. Whichever way it goes, we plan to have someone else carrying it out of the house.

All too soon it was time to head back home, and so we said our goodbyes until next time.

 

We noticed on the way home that the days are already getting shorter. Although we arrived home a little before 7 pm, the sun was already going down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good night all!

Back to…You Know What!

Yeah, back to work and reality and all that good stuff.

Harry and I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Lake George. We really were so lucky with the weather we had. We only had a couple showers later in the day once or twice, but there was plenty of time for walks and bike rides. It was a wonderfully relaxing time.

A few impressions…we did not find the space inside confining at all. Taking out the two recliners that came with the rv and replacing it with a more comfortable one was a great move. We brought the cat tree into the living area from the house, and it fit great! I also think it made a huge difference for the cats, having their own space.

 

Of course Ariel managed to find a couple spaces to take over that I didn’t quite plan on leaving for her!

The cats adapted so much more easily than we expected.  They loved hanging out, watching all the squirrels and chipmunks running around. There was no crying, even on the first day – we were both so surprised.

As I mentioned a couple days ago, we loved our new Weber Q BBQ. Harry was outside cooking our dinner almost every day.

We also enjoyed sitting outside, enjoying the fresh air and reading.

Another impresson - we did not miss the house at all. I think maybe the one thing that we will miss is our nice shower with lots of water pressure. However, it’s definitely a trade off that we are willing to make.

Another BIG thing that we will love is having flexibility with our traveling schedule. On Thursday morning, we once again had the “fun” of packing up and heading out in the rain. Both of us remarked on how nice it will be to be able to adapt our timing according to the weather report. Since we both had to be back to work this morning, that wasn’t an option yesterday.

We did have something to look forward to today – the arrival of the truck box that Harry ordered a couple weeks ago.

We are so pleased. It fits perfectly and gives us so much additional storage space.

And now we are done for the time being – no more purchases until next spring! Unfortunately, no more trips either – our fiver has been moved back into her spot in the driveway. Barring any unforeseen development, she should be staying put now until probably next May. <sigh>

Today I made a new master list of stuff we need to get done this year and next – I believe it’s the final and complete draft of our list. But this blog entry is long enough for one day, so I shall leave that for next time.

Have a great evening everyone! 

Another Relaxing Day

We have lucked out with our week here in Lake George. So far the temps have been great, with highs in the 70s. And it’s been sunny, with the exception of a short storm coming through the area yesterday afternoon. We have taken several walks, and another bike ride.

It is really quiet here. Most of the campers left on Sunday, and of the ones who remained, most of them pulled out on Monday. There are still some rvs around us, but we think they might be seasonal ones, since the majority don’t seem to be occupied at the moment. So it’s been a wonderful experience of the outdoors. Very rarely does someone walk or drive by.

We have bbq’d every night and are enjoying our new Weber Q. We are both glad that we decided to order it so it would come before our week here.

Today we went into the village of Lake George. Wow, what a difference from just a couple weeks ago. We knew it wouldn’t be too busy after Labor Day, but it was empty!

We didn’t have to fight too many people for this parking place!

This afternoon, we read our kindles and I took a nap. As you can see, nothing exciting going on around here, but it’s been so great. Neither Harry nor I are missing the house.

 

 

And I don’t think the cats are either. They have discovered there are a lot of interesting critters running around in them thar woods.

I am glad that we still have one more full day here before we have to think about heading back.

Could Get Used to This

We had a great first day here in Lake George. For much of the morning, we watched rigs drive by on their way out. The park went from being completely full to having a lot of empty sites.

We are tucked up into a site on a little rise.

Even if the site next door has someone in it, this site is kind of off by itself.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a little cool yesterday when we first got up. We tried out the fireplace, and as everyone has said, it was great for taking out the chill. We were surprised at how much heat it gave off, and I didn’t even really turn it up high.

We actually got out and got a little exercise. We went for a walk….

 

 

 

 

 

and a bike ride….

 

 

…and then we sat outside and read our kindles while we enjoyed an apple and some cream cheese dip.

Yes, I definitely could get used to this.

 

 

 

 

And both Harry and I have been pleasantly surprised at how well the cats have adapted. No crying, or waking us up all night. I thought they would do fine, but I expected it to take a couple days.

 

I wish our stay here was going to be for longer than just a few days, but we just keep saying, just a little over a year left. Until then, we’ll just have to keep “practicing.”