Oh, to be free of the Stix & Brix....

Hi all -- Dianne here.  Roger is talking at an awards ceremony at his former school corporation this afternoon, so I thought I'd bring you all up to date on our progress.


The first thing we did after arriving in Pendleton was to get the yard cleaned up and flowers planted.  That was actually fun.  I even planted a couple of tomato plants in case the house isn't sold in August.  The part that was NOT fun was cutting back a row of forsythia bushes that had taken over the entire back yard.  (Roger had that little chore.)

 From a "pyro-queen" perspective, one of the bonuses of cleaning up the yard was all of the sticks that we were able to pick up from the yard that had fallen over the winter.  (This is a yearly activity when you have huge, mature oak and maple trees in the yard).   Last fall we had purchased a fire ring, so we were able to have a camp fire in the side yard (backs up to a woods) and pretend we weren't house-bound for the summer.   Burning the sticks and twigs was the most enjoyable chore from our list of 55.   The wine was flowing freely....

One chore that was NOT enjoyable at all was replacing the old ceiling tiles in the bathroom and utility room with new ones.  You would think that it would be a simple matter of lifting the old tiles out and replacing with the new, since the grid was already in place.   Let's just say that with the heat ducts and other overhead obstructions, heat vents, light fixtures, and so on that it took us two-and-a-half hours just to replace three of the tiles!  This was a two-day activity; one day for the small utility room, then another for the even-smaller bathroom.   It looks great now, but I wouldn't want to do it again EVER.  

This little house is 110 years old, and the old ceiling tiles had been in place since 1991.  Twenty years of dust and debris wafted off the upper surface of each one that we lifted down.   Not only that, the very first tile that we replaced had a dead mouse laying on top of it!!!!  (The house is next to a vacant, wooded lot and across from a farm field, so we had put mouse bait out while we were gone last winter).   That gave us a thrill, to say the least.   Luckily, that was the only "surprise" we had while removing the old tiles.  Roger took a photo of his lovely bride,  decked out with goggles, face mask, and shower cap to avoid the dust and debris as it showered down upon us.   (I consented to posting this for a little comic relief.)

  I remember when Roger and I lived in this same little house as newlyweds in 1972, when his parents owned it, and how well we worked together back then.  Well, let's just say that 38 years of marriage has made us both a bit more "lippy" and uninhibited as far as voicing our "concerns" to each other!   You'd think we'd kill each other living in the small motorhome 24/7 together, but for some reason we usually get along just fine in that tiny space. 


Next we will tackle the walls.  That should be a blog unto itself.  We bought this little house about seven years ago for our daughter (a single mom) and granddaughter to live in rent-free, like Roger and I did when we were first married.  I'm pretty domestic:  I bake my bread (even in the motor home) and love to cook from scratch.  My daughters -- let's just say they are not exactly domestic goddesses.   Must be a generational thing.  Anyway, there is much to be done to rehab the walls.  I found a neat project on the internet that will make the old paneling look like textured dry wall.  I'll let you know how it turns out, so check back soon, if you're interested at all.


Next week we take our motor home in for its 60,000-mile maintenance.  We can highly recommend Mount Comfort RV on the east side of Indianapolis for service.  They are a Workhorse chassis repair facility, and they have always done a good job for us.  We trust them and their advice.  We've saved up a list of items for them to deal with.


As soon as we get the motor home back, Memorial Day weekend we have reservations to camp with our friends, and hopefully do a little kayaking on the Flatrock River.  I'm sure we'll be MORE than ready to hit the road for a brief break by then!