For Donna and anyone else living vicariously through all my bad home improvement experiences lol...Hopefully I won't be repeating myself

Yesterday was another busy one. There is a crack between the house and the cement that goes all the way around so my husband stopped by on his way to a job and asked (ha, is asked really the word for it?) that I use the laytex block paint and go around and paint the crack shut. So I have another coat this morning and the siding people are supposed to be here today. They would've been here yesterday but someone's wife died on Friday or some story like that. These people are just really Johnny on the spot... right...only for their money. Their secretary hunted me down like an animal to let me know they needed the deposit. We didn't even have the loan money from the bank yet...the bank that loaned us the money had let the siding company know we qualified.

Despite my detour to do hubby's bidding I managed to get the floor in my spare bedroom cleaned up and I got a coat of wood preservative on it. Today I will put some stain on the baseboards and maybe the floor. Although I may wait and do paint on the walls first so if I do drip I can clean it up and not screw up my new floor finish. When he stopped to ask me if I could paint over the crack I told him "this is why my room is never finished". I am always having to do something else or injured!

This weekend I tore all the sheetrock off the wall that has the mold on it. After I removed the insulation there was a huge crack and you could see right through to the outside. This is the wood that is under the stucco. There is a concrete footing that goes all the way around the house and so Hubby dug out all the old caulk and we bought some concrete caulk and he filled all the cracks and then put quick crete over the top of this. The dogs were so freaked out by my destruction that they couldn't go in the room all weekend! This is the room where their bed is and they would walk in the room and then look longinly at their bed and then leave. They are just gonna love the noise from the siding guys. They are supposed to attach strips of wood all over the house to attach the siding to. So it should be very loud and I doubt I will be able to get much of anything done as the dogs will be so upset that they won't be able to function. Which is pretty sad when you are a dog!

One of the fun things about fixing up old houses is that when you start one project, you usually end up finding 2 or 3 or more things that have to be done before you can do what you started out to do.

Glad you're keeping up with everything as it needs to be done though & I hope your dogs survive the siding installation work.

I would hate to think about putting any of these repairs off... especially the cracked footing and other things related to our water issues. Of course we have had more rain this year than anything else. The 2 siding guys showed up first thing (it was close to 1:00). I hate to know what time they will show up to work every day if they think 1 is first thing. They dropped the trailer off and left promising to return first thing. I figured there would be a crew and one guy said that the two of them work well together and this shouldn't take longer than 3 weeks. 3 weeks!!!! I was hoping that this would be done in a week. So everything hanging on the walls is off...all my breakable stuff is packed away and so my house looks like a big disaster.

I did get started painting in my bedroom I am refinishing the floor in yesterday. I am sure I will get that finished this morning and am hoping to get a layer of stain on the baseboards and floor.

Maybe I am unreasonable...no siding guys by noon. So I call the siding company and the guy was just "shell-shocked...he is usually Johhny-on-the-spot". So he is going to call and see what is going on with the guy. The siding company guy calls me back and says they came to my house earlier. I told him there is no way they came to my house as I was here all morning and my dogs bark like crazy any time someone pulls into the drive. "Well, they drove by your house. He said there might be some rain" me--there hasn't been as much as a spit of rain. The guys stayed in the town 10 miles from where we live so it wasn't like they were somewhere that it was raining and didn't come because of that. I tell the siding guy that they had told me I had to be here at 8 when they came because they would need to plug into my electricity. And then I say it was common courtsey that they could've called to say "hey lady...we aren't coming today". And if they didn't know my phone number the siding company sure had it. So the guy is very appologetic and tells me this guy is always on time, yatta yatta, there must be something wrong. "this guy is the siding guy and does wonderful work". I ask the guy "so he said it could take 3 weeks to side my house" and there is this big pause and he says "well, I hear that your house has a curved roof" and that was about all he had to say.

So around 1:30 the guy shows up and tells me that he had to drive to Elk City (2 hours + from here) to pay bills that had to be paid. These guys are from a town that is about 3 hours away from us in the opposite direction. So I am just thinking "whatever" and trying not to get too close to smell his breath thinking they were probably hung over or drunk or something.

My husband shows up later and I go with him to pick up some pipe. We come back at 2:30 to see the guys pulling out of the driveway leaving. So we say "maybe they are having a break". Well they don't ever show back up. So then we are discussing if this is a huge mistake and that this guy better do a good job. I am keeping up with their hours on my calendar. Hubby says not everyone works as hard as we do. I am thinking little kids work harder than that lol. Hopefully tommorow I will have a better update for you.

I did get my bedroom painted yesterday and am working on a few little things on the bedroom floor. Hubby declares today is "clean your house day" as our house is a disaster. Looks like it will be a mess for 3 more weeks--all I can say is I hope that it is only 3 more weeks and not months!

Oh no Connie. What a bad start to the siding installation. Sure hope things go much better tomorrow.

I am happy to report that the guys showed up at 8:30 and worked until 4. They got the trim put up around 9 windows.

I was productive...I got my house cleaned up and did some laundry and then after lunch I put stain on the baseboards and floor in my spare bedroom! So I think I will wait until Tuesday to put any furniture in there so that the floor is good and dry.

Much better report today Connie.

Hope they can keep up with this pace. I know you can keep up with yours!

They came yesterday about 8:30 and worked until about 12:30. They lack putting the trim on 3 of the downstairs windows and the other guy started putting siding under the porch on the ceiling. I guess they were out of wood strips and something else so said they were going back to where they come from for more supplies and would be back this morning. The guy said he really wanted to get some work done and planned to work over the weekend if that was ok with me. I told him to knock himself out!

Our gas oven was making weird odors when you used it and it would burn your eyes so I was off first thing yesterday for a new oven. Just what you want to spend your money on that you have earmarked for paying off the siding! But I guess at least we had the money to pay for it. Other than that I didn't get a whole lot accomplished other than moving the furniture in the living room and vacumming under stuff.

Today we are off to Oklahoma City to purchase a new screen door for the front door. The siding guy has to take the screen door off to do the trim so we figured it would be a good time to buy the new screen (and it will match the trim) and the siding guy said he would put it on. I am thinking I need to throw a coat of paint on that last door I bought (it is a screen door with a large removable glass area and that is where the screen is)and see if he will put it up for me too.


I am also going to buy a brass register cover for that room I just finished and am thinking about buying stuff to build some shelves for over the windows. We have a couple in the dining room and they are overflowing and I would like to have a collection of old toys on that shelf for that room.

Oh and I need some new fish. Lol...guess I don't "need" new fish, but I want some. We are taking the dogs with us (it is about 2 1/2 hrs drive) as they will let them go into Lowes, Home Depot, Pets Mart, PetCo and so they can get out and get some socializing. Their favorite part is probably the trip to McDonalds for cheeseburgers, 6 each lol.

Well, I hope they really put some time in over the weekend so they can really show some progress on that siding.

Hope you had fun in Oklahoma city. Glad the dogs get some fun out of it anyway. You've got Great Danes - don't you?

Yes, two great danes and a sheltie. Our sheltie does not like to ride in the car unless she has to and she is not real fond of strangers touching her and usually she is the one everyone wants to pet so we figure that it is kinder to leave her home. We did have a good time...I bought some fish for my tank and they were all looking pretty perky this morning when I woke up. So if they are all ok in a week I will take them out of the quaranteen tank and put them in the big tank. Last trip for fish I didn't do so good. I had bought some little sharks and 3 of them died and I only have one left and they are a schooling fish and poor guy, he has been hanging out with the tiger barbs (there are 6 of them) and he will be so thrilled to have 4 more sharks to hang out with, that is if he doesn't believe that he is a tiger barb by then lol.

The siding guys got all the undersides of the porches done and I am not sure what else. I think it is taking longer than they thought because they are having to put strips of wood to attach the siding to because they can't just put it on without the wood. Maybe they will show today and do some work. They had told me that they would and I said "it's Labor Day weekend" and the guy says sometimes you gotta work on holidays and weekends.