Category: Home Improvements

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Wind, shingles and neighbors

Wishing the next door neighbors would fix the shingles on their roof is a slight understatement. I stopped wishing and now I’m wanting them to fix the darn things. Or at least put a nail or two down.

Every time we get winds here, the shingles start flying. I think there is a word used instead of shingles, if one wants to get on someones bad list…but that is a different story. I’m just getting really tired of raking tiny bits and pieces up and then having to pick up the big pieces. Sometimes they are whole shingles just blowing off. They always seem to pelt my daughters truck and I’ll be darned if she is going to move it from our own driveway.

I’ve spoken numerous times about the shingles and even about them hitting V’s truck, but it falls on basically deaf ears. I always get the answer, “Yeah, we’ll do that in the Spring.”  Ummm…Stan? Spring is here and we’ve had fantastic weather for a week until this evening, to fix the shingles.

If having money was a problem, I would feel differently and not rant on about this. But I’m sure they can afford a home improvement task like this, and it wouldn’t hurt their pockets. “Stan” tends to brag up what they have, and keeps up with the Jone’s is what he does. But, can’t he see we have a new roof? Okay, so that might not work if he has a new lawn tractor in mind. The one he has is a year old not.

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New bedding decor for RV

Am thinking about doing some home improvement in the RV. I use it as an escape to write, listen to my kind of music and just enjoy the fact that I own nice, comfortable and inviting things around me and to be honest, everyone knows that I need a break from it all now and then, and all I have to do is tell the family I’m going on a road cruise. They know that I’ll be in the RV but not going anywhere.

I am in the the RV right now, and sitting here, I notice the family has more respect for this and keep it nice too. Unlike how they act in the house, unfortunately. Since I bought this myself, my husband respects that it’s my escape. When we go on family trips or what ever, it is “ours.”  When it pulls into this drive way, my RV has turned back into my peace of mind and spirit.

I sleep in the master bedroom, and I have thought out what I want to do, and I’m sticking with the satin bedding in all of the sleeping places. In the summer the family insist that the satin bedding keeps them cool. I don’t sleep on satin sheets, but I do know my thread count in bedding. 😉 I’m going to have my own choice of sheets and stuff. Along with getting more homey stuff for the living room space. I’m looking for sites. I guess thinking turned into wanting to shop, which will turn into a new look for the RV and cooler family.

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Finally Spring

It’s going to be a good day when I wake up. At 12:00 am it turned Spring. It seems like even though we had a mild winter, that Spring was teasing us when it got unseasonably nearly really, warm.

Today I did inventory of my yard. What I knew what would come up, and where. What I needed to move and transplant them in their new homes. It was good to get out and not be cold, as it was 82 degrees outside today.

Now comes Spring cleaning and making new spaces. Time for lots of home improvements and self improvements also. At least in my case.

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Needing kid and dog gates

I thought my days of baby gates were well over, until I got a call from my younger sister, who lives out of  State. It appears she is coming up here to visit some of the kid museums, the zoo that is up north a ways from us, and in general find another way to spoil her grand children, ( I do believe there are five of them, all under the age of 10 years old. This is going to be a scary experience for me, and by the time the stay here is over,  it will no doubt had been a bit scary for some of them also. For the most part the kids all but maybe 1 really likes Great Auntie. Problem is my sister. She may mean well, but it only goes so far.

My sister asked  if I will  lock my dog up in one of our bedrooms, since one of her grands were afraid my dog Jasper. She says Jasper bit her. My kid saw her hit Jasper with a stick on his nose. Jasp thought the kid wanted him to play tug o war and grabbed “his end” to pull. So this is when I told her about Kidco Gate Shop and the fact that they are into safety. I however, made it clear that while shopping for gates, to keep in mind that they were for the safety of Jasper, our family member also. She got my point.

I’m not too terribly worried about this visit. I told my sister, if she didn’t know what kind of gates to get, to read the Safety Gate Guide and Tips. Hopefully she will  envision what gates she would need in her own home and realize that it’s possible that what happened to my Jasper, could be happening to her own two “Fur Babies” as she calls them. She has to put them in her bedroom when the grands come over. I wish I would have known about this shop a long time ago.

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OCD over cleaning products

Yes, I have to admit that for as long as I can remember, I have no doubt tried every cleaning product that ever were to hit the shelves…and even as seen items in a magazine or on television. That was years ago though. I learned a lesson. I just don’t do it.  But, every time I see something I want to try that is a cleaning product, and it looks like something I want to try, I go to the store and buy it. Sometimes I have found, a person can get the same thing at quite a savings if you really compare materials they are made of, as in these swiffy ( my word ) wipers and wet cleaners. This also is a lesson I learned.

I compared weaves of the pads and the thickness of them also. The cleaning product used on the wet wipe things. Some generic or store brand will do, but only in certain areas. Now mind you, this is all my opinions, so make your own observations. Mine are based on saving money, while not loosing clean power. In this case, I happened to pick that swiffy cleaning product. I’m sure there will be more “reviews ” on down the line.

Right now, I’m on the search for a cupboard cleaner that actually does what it says it does. It’s either that or I stick to Murphys.

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Submersible pump needed

With the weather has been super odd, all over America… I now wish I would have bought another submersible pump. Now, I used to have one before getting married. I had every tool and useful thing that every woman should have and know how to use. for fix it, clean it, cut it…the right tools. If one buys cheap, that is what you get, in my experience.  Just watch for your, “stuff” if things start to disappear if there is a man around.  My ” stuff ” started disappearing at a very fast pace. Needless to say, it ticked me off. I should have a “tool” and ” guy stuff belongings,”  pre nup.

Now, I need to buy another submersible pump. I know I had one. It was older, but a great brand. Best I ever have had. So I’m frantically looking for the pump, since the rain is flooding the crawl space. Finally after driving myself looney, full knowing I had that darn pump, my husband tells me it’s in our neighbors cellar. Actually, it’s a fall storm cellar under the ground. I guess last summer, my husband decided he was going to fix the storm cellar, but needed to pump the water out first. Something took him off this project and, guess where my pump was found. A year later. Not cool.

I’ll get off my soap box now, if I can step into a small row boat when I get off of it. Even the yard is flooded.

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Thinking about stenceling

Lately, I’ve been looking at my walls and in the past, I would on whims, stencil a bit on my walls. Actually, I have stenciled an archway with ivy vines, fairy’s, butterflies and flowers. Since to me, it looked like  simple…well…stenciled stuff. To me, it looked “flat” on the wall. Not what I go for.

The more I looked at the archway, the more I wanted to change it. One night, everyone was asleep and I was in a really mellow mood. I got out my paints and hand painted connections between leaves and vines and such. Then added definition to the whole thing, buy painting what these subjects really looked like. I’m pleased to say, that the ivy on the wall, now looks like real ivy. The Fae’s are fluttering, and the flowers should have a smell…

I realize that there are patterns out there that an artist has made and the scene is awesome. But if I bought others pattern pieces, it wouldn’t feel like my own art. So, I’m going stick with my gardens on my wall and do this project all myself. Great thing about painting on walls…you can always paint over it, if you don’t like what you painted. That to me, is more home improvement!

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Address plaques as a gift

My oldest daughter and her family are planning on buying a house, that is totally awesome and fits their needs perfectly. I went to see the home, and decided right away to look at residential address plaques as a house warming gift. Since the house is way out on a country road, and set back from the road quite a way, it is rather hidden, or will be, once the corn and wheat fields start to grow, which is what the house is surrounded by. Also there is a dirt road before the house that literally just leads into a small woods. It’s easy to mistake that for a drive way.

I know that they are going to put in a new mail box, and that will have the house number on it, but sometimes since the road doesn’t have any street lights, it is hard to read the numbers in the dark, despite of head lights shining on them. I thought about browsing through the custom address plaques, that areilluminated for the house front its self. My daughter will keep the porch light on at night, if her husband isn’t home, but when he is home, she shuts it off, and if they had company at night, it would be hard to read the house number. Besides, if I find the right plaque, it’s a gift that my daughter wouldn’t buy for her self. It’s also a home improvement item…at least I think it makes an improvement on a home.

The personalized address plaques are what I am definitely looking to buy. The give a touch of class to a home, and I know my daughter would love that. She likes nice little touches that make a house more of a home. I did find a few that are in my budget range, so that is a financial help. I think it’s a good and unique gift to give.

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Plugged up sinks

My kitchen sink is totally plugged up. It could be from the kids not putting the little strainer thing in the drain, so it catches the icky stuff that they like to just wash down the sink. Usually I can unplug it all, but today, I gave up trying and have decided I need to borrow my friend’s “snake” and weave it down in to my drains, then hopefully it will free what ever is stuck or built up in there. At times like this, I wish this old house had a garbage disposal.

There are a lot of small, “must do,” things on my list for this weekend. We’re supposed to have some awesome warm weather coming in, so it would be a perfect time to get to these little jobs that need done. My husband has to work, and since he works nights, he’ll sleep during the day, but my boys and daughter told me that they would help me with the chores on my list. I’m kind of wondering if they really will when they have a change to get outside in the great weather, if we have what the forecasters are saying we will.

I do plan on the little home improvement things getting done…chores that just in case I need to, can be done by myself alone with out any help from others. I also want to get out in the yard, if it isn’t too muddy from the storms that we have been getting the last few days. Even if it is muddy, it’ll be great to sink my bare toes and feet into the earth again. The yard needs a major clean up and some branches and wood to be hauled away that can’t be used as kindling. Hopefully all goes according to a somewhat plan of what I want to do. That saying, “Even the best laid plans can go by the wayside, ” keeps running through the back of my mind.

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Help with Home Energy

I always thought the words home energy auditors, meant something really terrible, because of hearing about other kinds of auditors. Mainly like in the IRS kind.  As a matter of fact, after talking to my friend Destiny who lives in New Jersey, it is a wonderful and helpful idea to save on home energy bills and receiving help with getting your home to be fuel efficient and cozy, while saving a bunch of money in the process. We sure could use this up here in the North.

My friend is now in the process of getting estimates and then choosing home insulation contractors. Spring I would imagine, (at least for me) would be the perfect time to do this and the work, since it’s beginning to get warm outside and means that contractors wouldn’t be tracking snow into the house, or I wouldn’t be cooped up in the house and be in the way while the contractors did their work.

After doing some “homework,” I’ve decide to start looking into solar thermal system installation. I have always wanted to have this type of system in my home and we sure could save a lot of money on lower heating bills. Plus using solar, to me makes perfect sense. It’s clean, efficient, plentiful and beside that, I just really like the idea. Every time I think of solar, I think of the sun. That in it’s self makes me warm and happy. I’m glad my friend Destiny will be warm in New Jersey come winter and I might even find the same kind of services and help up here in the North. It sure would help.