I think about posting something here but have never gotten around to it. I'll be heading south for the winter and I'm thinking I'll have time to do some thinking and writing. In the meantime I thought you might get a kick out of my journal about working on my house for the last two weeks...
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11/25-11/27 Monday through Wednesday mostly what I did was try to stay warm. My gas heater is working well but it's cold out and I don't use it to heat the back while I'm sleeping. It was 52 on T-day morning. However, I did repair and paint the old exterior door John gave me that I'll use for the garage door in the back. I brought it in the LR to repair it and because I had nothing else I wanted to do I painted it... My new tankless water heater came in and as soon as it gets a bit warmer I'll work to put that in.
11/28 T-day with Jo at Katrina's house. Good food good weather.
11/29 Black Friday. I didn't go anywhere. But I did order a new MacBook Pro. I'm hoping the better display will be easier on my old eyes. Today I installed the two back doors and now I can secure the house when I leave. I carried the new water heater to the basement and will work on that tomorrow. It was 45 and sunny today. I could hear lawn mowers in the neighborhood. Probably mowing leaves although some of my lawn could use mowing. I think I'll mow a little bit on Sunday. Just to clean out the gas in the tank and so I can say I mowed my grass in December.
11/30 Saturday. 7AM, 25 out, 51 in my bedroom, 62 in LR. A new low but I don't feel cold yet. I turned on the electric heater back here and turned up the fire as I walked by on my way to the john so I expect it'll warm up shortly. Supposed to get above freezing by noon. By then the sun will not be on the east wall where I have to knock a hole in the cinder block for the water heater vent. Maybe the sun will make it warm enough so I'll check it out. For now I'll just have breakfast, watch TV and then collect the tools I'll need...
12/1 Sunday. 50 inside this morning but it got up to 54 outside by afternoon which was really nice. I'm getting used to these cold mornings. I chiseled the 5" hole in the cinder block for the water heater exhaust and it about did me in. I did have just enough energy left to tar the vent boots on the roof which I hope will fix that small leak when it rains really hard. But I was beat after all that and took the rest of the day off.
12/2 Monday. 58 inside this morning, 35 out. (I forgot to close my bedroom door) My right arm is sore from holding that chisel for so long yesterday. I spent several hours on the phone and net ordering parts. Otherwise I just took it easy for once. It was overcast and without sun my ambition drops to near zero.
12/3 Tuesday. 55 inside, 40 out. Feels normal now. Cloudy but a little sun. John is coming over about 11 and we're going to take the dump trailer with all the construction trash (mostly roofing) and pile on my 55 boxes of shingles down to Katrina and Dirk's parents farm and dump it in their big hole. Saves me the trouble of wrapping those boxes in plastic and dumping fees. I weighed one of the boxes and it was 50 pounds. I would have had to handle (move, lift) each box 4 times otherwise. I'm hoping John and Bobby will do most of the lifting and I'll only have to help load some of it. BTW 55 times 50 pounds is 2,750 pounds and I've already lifted them twice. No wonder my back hurts... John and Bob showed up at a little after 10 and we loaded all the boxes of siding, all 55 of them and took them to the farm where we met Katrina, drove down a long heavily rutted (I said they weren't ruts, they were canyons) and got rid of all that crap. With the garage and basement free of those boxes I straightened up the garage, mowed the grass and leaves to run the gas out of the mower and took it, the tiller and a whole bunch of stuff down to the basement. I can put my car in the garage now!
12/4 Wednesday. 61 in, 50 out, going to be a nice day. It got really warm and nice as the day wore on, mid 60's and sunny. I went down and mounted the new water heater in the basement and installed the vent. That was heavy work as it weighs over 50 lbs and I had to lift it several times to mount it on the wall. But that's done and now all I have is plumbing.
12/5 Thursday. 64 in, 48 out, overcast. But now it's noon and kinda gloomy out and I have absolutely no mojo to do anything. I'm just kinda puttering. I went to the basement where it was cold and dank so I decided not to do the water heater today. Last week I bought a 8 pound turkey breast thinking it would fit in my little oven, it didn't so I borrowed a crock pot and have it in there now, tented with tin foil because it's too big to put the lid on. I may or may not have turkey for dinner... Ah, the sun just came out and what a difference that makes... It was still chilly in the basement so I avoided doing anything down there. Instead I cleaned up outside and hauled a bunch of stuff to the curb. The turkey seems to be cooked but i don't have anything to go with it. I mostly wanted it for the leftovers anyway. That about sums up this not very productive day.
12/6 Friday. 64 in, 58 out. Rain forecast for the day but it'll get to 65 they say. It's going to get really cold after this so I better get to doing the water heater today... No sun = no ambition. I know I should do something in the basement but so far nothing... The weather almost got better, the sun almost came out and my ambition almost came back. Other than walking around the yard I haven't done a damn thing.
12/7 Saturday. 39/60 temps. Rain and overcast. Winter storm warning. Talk of freezing rain with near freezing temps. I'll head over to Lowe's and get a bunch of stuff to install the WH in the basement and maybe try running a heater down there. Or I could do stuff in the house like work on the other china cabinet or paint the bathroom doors. Or not. No sun, no mojo... And as it turned out I didn't even go to Lowe's. But I did move a bunch of stuff to the new addition, tools and supplies etc. And I did a few things in the fix up area, but not much. Getting really cold out, windy and just not nice.
12/8 Sunday. 33/52 Seems much colder because of the dampness outside. Supposed to sleet today so I have no plans of going out. And at the moment I have no plans of doing anything. Seems my mojo went south for the winter so I better go after it...
