Floor update

 2 weeks have gone by and we are still waiting for the final coat of poly to be put on the floors. Matt did finally respond to our texts on Friday to say that he would have Chris come and do the final coat.  We declined, said that we wanted him, the guy with 20yrs experience, to finish the job.  He again got a little pissy and said we'd have to wait until this week for him to be able to do it.  Fine. It's Monday and of course we've had no word from him on what day he thinks he might grace us with his presence. Oh well.

 In the meantime, Steve is doing a few repairs to the floors that we decided we could handle....boards along the living room wall that were patched 40 years ago with particle board because the original owners put down carpet over them....in other words, do a crappy job because no one can see it. Ours isn't going to be much better because the wood strip we are using will be set in horizontal to the boards on the floor...but it will also be sort of covered by bookcases....so we're trying to be ok with it.  The only other option would've been to tear out about 25 boards and feather in new ones.  That seemed excessive...and expensive. We may end up regretting that decision. 

Lulu

We are 'baby-sitting' for Katie and Wilson this week. Katie is visiting family in Missouri and after calling 15 (!!!) kennels that were completely booked up, she decided to 'impose' on us (her words, not ours). Lulu has had issues here before, including holding one of our cats in her mouth after being attacked by said cat....NO injuries to the cat...but very scary to the people. We figured most of her issues were more because she was insecure, they had gotten her exactly a week before their visit.  So we figured that whatever issues she has, we can deal with.  3 full days in and the only real issue is that Lulu is highly reactive to cats...and we have 11 of them...so lots of opportunities to 'react' to them.  Add to that the fact that our big moose Theo likes to chase cats and it's kind of a perfect storm for issues to abound. We've dealt with it by making the 'ugly sound' we learned in obedience training....a loud ahh ahh, along with some NO's and so far, she pulls back pretty much immediately.  We're still on high alert most of the day, but I think it will be a good thing once the week is up.  We can feel more secure in the future when she comes to visit. 

Her other issue was with Khloe, so to make things easier this time....Khloe is spending the week with Brad and Laurel....and Eddie.  She is enjoying herself...as usual.

Heat is too Hot

We had to get up by 4am (3:25 to be exact) to drive Annie to the airport in Bakersfield for a 6am flight....so when we got home, Steve went right back to sleep and I did garden chores. I figured I might as well be outside while the weather was still nice.  Expected high today is 110degrees.  I will be spending the rest of the day sitting in front of a fan watching mayhem on Midsomer Murders. 

Peach Harvest

 

We've decided that next year, after harvest, we're going to pull out our Red Haven Peach. We planted it because it was my dad's favorite peach and we had one growing up. Delicious, and typically huge, peaches. But, Red Haven requires 950 chilling hours (continuous temps between 34 and 48degrees) and tho we are supposed to get 1100/season....it just doesn't seem to get enough. That has always been an issue...and is getting worse. The peaches are good but small, no matter how many we cull (this year I estimated that we took off at least 80% of the fruit) ...and the tree is struggling. It is also in the shade of a rapidly growing Pistache tree. So we've decided to plant an Evas pride...which requires a paltry 200 chilling hours. We'll keep it in a half barrel for a year and let it get a bit of growth before we plant it into the yard....and move it a few feet from the shade of the big tree. Hoping to see an improvement in yield. Today, we cleaned the tree of peaches and were actually surprised at how big the harvest was. Some to share, some for the freezer, some for dinner, and the rest I'll think about tomorrow. They are not big...but DELICIOUS.

 

Summer 2021....wish I had a real camera...our phone sucks. 

 

 From July 6, 2017  

Trying to get as much family time in before Sam leaves tomorrow....... 

 We are in the process of refinishing our wood floors....our 100 yr. old, probably never been refinished EVER, wood floors.  It has not been smooth sailing.  We hired a young man (ok, 40ish, but young to us) who has been doing this work for over 20 yrs. but was fairly new to the area.  We spoke to him in March (?) felt very comfortable with him and settled on June to do the job.  He didn't have a 'crew' so gave us a time line of 2 weeks to get it done.  We rented a storage facility starting in May because we basically had to empty the house. 

In June, after a couple of 'delays' on our part....the work began.  In the interim, Matt had hired 2 guys as his crew and one of them, Chris, showed up to start the job.  We trusted Matt and figured Chris would be doing the 'easier' parts and that Matt would supervise. Chris was a very nice man who was excited about the job and told us how much we were going to "love the finished product".  He started on Tuesday, June  .  

Chris sanded for 2 days, lots of noise, lots of dust, then wood puttied the entire floor.  I had some misgivings about using wood putty, but was assured by Matt that, "this wasn't stuff you bought at Home Depot" and would look great in the end. It didn't.  I hated it.  Steven tolerated it.  Matt was offended that we questioned his expertise and said that "everybody, every floor, got wood puttied".  After having a complete meltdown, lots of tears on my part, little sleep for 2 nights and much research on the internet (puttying is standard for some, a big NO for others) we decided that ship had sailed and there really wasn't much we could do but accept it. 

Moving on.  We had a LOT of stains (cats?) in the extra/purple room and had decided to go with a dark stain on the floors to hide them.  BUT....after the first coat of stain was put down, by Chris, it reacted to half the floor in a completely unacceptable way. It was a mess.  Big swipes of almost black and no wood grain showing thru.  It 'appeared' as tho Chris had put in on and not wiped it off quick enough...tho he said he had, and half the room did look great.  Chris called Matt to show him the problem...sent pics...and they decided he should resand the floor and wait for Matt to take a look....the next day. 

We decided overnight that we would go natural in that room rather than make another attempt at staining....to avoid a possible 3rd sanding.  Before we could even suggest that, Matt made the same suggestion.  He said it must be something with "our floors."  Maybe he didn't want to blame Chris....maybe he just wanted to get to his other job. It was obvious he didn't want to take the time to figure out the problem and we were uneasy about another sanding so we all agreed to skip the stain. Chris had been pretty much left alone on our job and up till now that 'seemed' fine.  But this goof made us wonder. Were we truly getting the best possible job from Matt.  

The next day,  Matt finally showed up to do some work.  The patch job Chris did on an area where our old floor heater once was....a job that required boards be taken out and replaced, was not up to his standards, so he redid it....and then it wasn't up to ours (wrong color boards....VERY light next to VERY dark and it looked like stripes) so he did it again.  We picked out the boards and it ended up perfect.  He also helped repair a long gap that ran right in front of our bedroom door and was almost 1/4 inch wide.  The wood putty was obviously NOT working in that spot and because of the movement of the floor every time it was stepped on, it wasn't going to stay put. Matt seemed to think a few more coats of the putty would be fine...but Steve did a bit of research and decided it needed a sliver of wood because of the width.  He cut the wood, using some scraps we had and glued it in.  Matt helped finish it off. Best TWO decisions we'd made so far was insisting on having him do the patch job over and putting in the shim instead of using wood patch.  It pissed Matt off (he tried not to show it...but he was obviously losing patience with us/ME at that point) but we're so glad we pushed for that.  

I should add that part of the reason I was on Matt's bad side was that I had texted him questioning why HE wasn't on the job.  I said that considering the 'issues' we'd had it seemed like he was being remiss in not showing up DAILY to at least check on Chris's work.  Especially since we found out that Chris had 4 MONTHS of experience.  We were sold 20yr. of experience....we got 4 months. 

Moving on.  After all the fixes, Chris (again, alone) came 3 days in a row to do the poly.  Matt dropped by on day 2 to day to pick up his equipment and the remainder of what we owed him..took a cursory look around and left.  Chris finished the 3rd coat and that was it.  No final walk-thru, no double-checking to make sure the job was up to his standards....nothing. 

I did make the mistake of walking on the floors, which seemed dry, too early....and managed to step in a spot where the poly had obviously been put on too thick (you could see a big swipe that was made by the applicator).  I apologized and asked for Matt's help in fixing the spot.  I figured he could just come by and wipe on a bit more poly and ...ta da....all would be well.  He promised to do just that...or, rather, he said he would TRY to get by the next week.  I also told him about several areas...more than a few...that were gritty, and some places where the poly didn't seem to even be applied....missed spots.  I asked for advice on how to fix those areas.  He never answered that question, but since he said he'd be over to fix my goof, I figured I'd ask him then.  A week went by and NO word from him.  I waited until Sunday to see what was going on and if he'd have time to stop by.  No response. I text again on Monday. No response. Again on Tuesday.  Finally, he texts back that he is SO busy that he "won't be able to make it there afterall." But that he can SELL us a can of the poly and show Steve how to apply it. I tell him fine, can he get it there on Wednesday because (as I've said several times) we NEED TO GET IT DOWN ASAP as it has a 2 week curing time.  He says he will be there Wed. Wednesday comes and Wednesday goes.  No show on Matt....and of course, no text. I wait to text again until Friday because Wilson was here on Thursday and didn't really want to interrupt our visit.  His response on FRIDAY....12 days from when we asked for help on this spot...was that he was OUT OF POLY and could only get it in Fresno. Sigh.  We had been in Fresno the previous Saturday and would happily have picked up a couple of quarts. 

Then the texts got ugly. I told him that the reason we needed him to come by was to advise us on issues that were substandard.  He replies that "all he can do is recoat all the floors at his usual rate."  So we've now gone from us just needing advice on repairs to his offering AT FULL COST to redo all three rooms.  I think at this point he realized that Chris had not done as good a job as should have been done and he'll do one final coat to fix it all.  BUT we have to pay for it.  And I said just that.  I basically questioned the integrity of someone who expected us to PAY to get the job finished CORRECTLY...and I told him that maybe he should have stopped by AFTER the final coat to see if the job was done to his normal standards...because we felt it hadn't been.  He basically responded by saying it was my fault because he had asked me not to go in till the next day (not true). I said it wasn't about ONE SPOT...it was the entire job that was substandard.  I said we hired HIM to do the job...but HE didn't...

After all this, he finished by offering to do a final coat of the entire house (3 rooms) for nothing....because he wanted to make it right.  BUT that he would not talk to me again and would only deal with Steve.  OK...sure.  Weirdly, I had no intention of him doing another coat.  We didn't expect that....or think it was needed.  We just wanted advice....ADVICE ...on how to fix the issues...of which there were many.  We would've been ok with that. Not sure why he went from completely trying to brush us off to offering to do the job for free...but maybe being a bitch has it's perks.  

Anyway, at this point, we're not even sure we're going to take him up on his offer.  We have a friend who used to do floors and we've asked him to come over and take a look at the job and give us his opinion on how to move forward.  There are definitely areas that need to be fixed...repolyed...including my goof....but we're not sure the whole floor need to be redone. We'll see. 

....to be continued. 

 This is a test.  I have actually been unable to even SEE my blog for the past 2 years...not sure what is going on.  Hoping this works.

I blame Facebook

It's been forever, but I'm back...if only to have a place to journal.  I've missed documenting our kids lives and as much fun as it is to get instant feedback on Facebook, the downside is that it's there...and then it's gone.  Blogging was a way of scrapbooking without glue...and I miss it. So starting today, an attempt will be made to post once a week.  Here we go!

Three years....and counting.  So much has changed that I can not even remember what it felt like to have written what I wrote that day in Aug. 2012.  And it hurts to look at a photo of my Mom and know that I can no longer give her a hug or apologize for not appreciating her when she was here.  Life sucks.....and I can't find joy in much of anything any more.  May have been a mistake to think I could write again.  Must go now.

Life as we know it

It's never quite how you think it will be, is it?  In Sept. of 2011, Steven and I became the ...ahem...proud surrogate parents of our nephew Nathaniel, age 13.  Reasons don't matter, and he is now safely back in the arms of his father but for 4 months we took the reins of his life and tho our impact on his future was negligable, we did manage to keep him alive until his dad could resume his own life.  Shortly after his departure, my mother took a spill and could no longer manage to stay by herself, so she came to live with us.  Our wonderful daughter, whose room had finally been painted and made girlie after years of looking like the inside of NASA headquarters, volunteered to move back into her old room which we had turned into a pantry  (not kidding).

What a difference a year makes.  We now find ourselves caring for an elderly parent in a scenario being played out all across this country....a club we never thought we'd be joining (did we think mom was never going to BE elderly?).  We've gone from helping her change channels and taking her to her doctor's appts. to carrying her to the commode and feeding her meals.  She is frustrated and sad and in pain and I am frustrated and sad and unable to make her pain go away. I'm crying because of the burden and crying with guilt because I consider my mother a burden.  I'm alternately Mother Theresa and Dr Mengele.  In the immortal words of young people everywhere...this sucks.

 But, there are rays of light in an otherwise dim reality. Family has been a Godsend; without their support, physical help (thanks Stephanie) and the cleaning ladies (thanks John and Ashley) we don't know what we'd do...certainly drink a LOT more wine. This weekend two of my brothers are coming, one from Napa the other from Pennsylvania and I look forward to lots of laughs, lots of help and...well....lots of wine.  God has been extraordinarily good to us.  Simply allowing us to care for Mom is a gift.  Spending her last months here has allowed us to see a kindness in each other, especially our daughter, that we might never have experienced.  There is nothing in the world quite like watching your 18yr. old daughter give your mother a manicure.  I don't want to think of what the next few months will involve, neither the workload nor the eventual grief is a happy expectation, but it's our world right now and so we accept it.  We get up each day and do what we have to do...because we have to.

Mostly we try to remember to tell Mom how much we love her....every day.

Congratulations Annie