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e_moon60

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Many Things Have Happened... [Nov. 9th, 2015|04:00 pm]
e_moon60
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[Current Mood |accomplished]

Thanks to an inheritance, it became possible to do some repairs and refurbishments in the house my mother owned, that we use regularly for guests and entertaining.   Fixing the roof was one priority--the back room has been leaking in some (not all) rains for years, and when it leaks it leaks a lot.  It leaked right before the roof was torn off, when we had the heavy downpours.  A previous fix lasted maybe 10 - 15 years, but flat roofs just have a propensity to develop leaks. The main part of the house had hail damage and tree limb damage, though it wasn't leaking (yet.)   The first roofer didn't show up when he said he would, and didn't call, so after a week or two I went looking for another roofer.   Who got the old roof off, and the underlayment and "skin" of a new roof on before the next deluge...and the roof didn't leak.  There was much rejoicing when the green "wormer" buckets sitting on the table were dry!

Eventually, a metal roof will be up there, but it's not there yet.   Next...the carpeted areas in that house needed work.  The living room carpet (possibly original to the house)  had worn to holes, so the vacuum cleaner grabbed the edges and made things worse.  The pad under it was also worn to nothing in places.   The bedroom carpets also need changing or replacing by refinishing the wood floors, but we didn't have time (or the workforce to move furniture around) for that. 

Here's a picture of the roof in the process of removal:


The new roof will be green metal, when the metal comes in.  Except for the back room which will have a heavy, thick white membrane thing.

The carpet has no "before" picture (be glad--just imagine old, stained, beaten up and worn down carpet in one of those "sculpted" styles from way back.  Originally gray, but stained in places.)  This is the new carpet, installed.  It's got a subtle pattern that doesn't show up well in the flash pictures.  It's very pleasant to walk on.   The furniture that used to be in this room was mostly original to the house.  My mother liked it OK.   I did not.   She died 25 years ago in October, so I don't think I was hasty in sending it away to a new home a few weeks ago.
Carpet in LR        Carpet in Hall

The pattern is just visible here.   LR                                      Hall--LR door to the left.

We had a flood in the near meadow, trees and large limbs and old stumps down in the yards & elsewhere, and altogether a very busy time since the last post.   OTOH, 12 and a half inches (roughly) in less than three weeks turned things green, after the lack of rain from the third week in June until the third week in October.

Near-meadow-11-03-15
It comes back fast after a drought.
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-10 04:16 am (UTC)
BTW, if you think the LR looks small, it is--but it's made even smaller by the inconvenient placement of doors and the original owners having installed a large wooden mantel in the middle of one end wall at the right height and width to crack you on the head if you stand up from sitting in a chair placed under it. If you put a chair in the corner to one side, you're blocking the closet door and will be behind the front door if it opens. On the other side of the mantel is the door to the hall. You can put a narrow chair there, but your feet will be tripped over by anyone going into the hall to get to the bathroom. The front door is angled across from the door into the kitchen in such a way that it's difficult to arrange furniture effectively.

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[User Picture]From: fair_witness
2015-11-10 11:52 am (UTC)
Nice!
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[User Picture]From: draconin
2015-11-10 12:12 pm (UTC)
It's a painful & slow process doing something with a roof isn't it? I'm currently having mine fixed after a tree fell on it. Fortunately covered by insurance but *vastly* complicated by the fact that the current roof is asbestos. They're replacing the damaged section with ColorBond and repainting the whole roof so that (I'm told) the two sections will appear compatible.
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[User Picture]From: thewayne
2015-11-10 02:00 pm (UTC)
Metal roofs are great: they saved my wife's life in '12 when a 25' of lightning-struck pine came visiting, directly over her head (75 lbs per foot). We firmly believe that a shingle roof, which was what it was a few months prior, wouldn't have retarded its speed enough and I'd be a widower now.

They are noisier under heavy rain or hail, but we accept that compromise.

It was quite amusing to go to the contractor and tell him "I have a hole in the roof" then show him the photo. :-)
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[User Picture]From: blueeowyn
2015-11-10 02:08 pm (UTC)
Nice carpet and congrats on the new roof. Leaks are a fine thing to get rid of.
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From: (Anonymous)
2015-11-10 02:55 pm (UTC)

accomplishments

Looks terrific. I vote for refinishing the hardwoods.
The land looks terrific. What about the pesky diamond back rattlers? Did they get flooded? - KS
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-10 03:22 pm (UTC)

Re: accomplishments

Rattlers handle floods just fine...they may be swept along, but they quickly climb into anything that sticks out of the water--trees, bushes, rocks, even boats (incident from my youth--I wasn't IN the boat, but heard about it from someone who was.) In fact, the most recent personal experience a family member had with one was after the water went down. It retreated, buzzing away. We like* that kind.

Refinishing hardwood floors is the kind of thing people always suggest for someone else to do. I've done it once. At this point it will happen only if we get a stretch of time w/o guests coming and no rain in the forecast and money enough to hire lots of big strong younger people to haul all the furniture (beds, chests, etc.) out of the rooms, do the work, clean up, and put it all back. Carrying a sofa out of a room with an outside door is a lot easier than carrying a full size mattress & box springs down a hall, around a corner in a U-turn to get out the door, plus the bedstead and the other furniture in the room...and then having all that in the yard (because there's no other room to put it in, for the meantime until the work is done and the top coat of finish dries) with a tarp over it to keep it dry from overnight dew.

Carpet installation is a lot faster and less messy, though it still requires someone other than us to clear the bedrooms. (Yeah, we used to do that kind of thing. But not for a decade or so, now.0

E.

*"Like" as in "Better more and louder buzzing and less striking than the other way around."
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[User Picture]From: saare_snowqueen
2015-11-10 04:05 pm (UTC)
I was just thinking that I/we hadn't heard from you in awhile, so this illustrated up date is very welcome. Happy to read that you are doing well. What's the sock total for 2015 going to come out as?

My daughter in Oakland has jubilantly informed me that the rains have started there as well and there is much needed snow in the mountains. So, maybe - just maybe - the worst (for the western US) is ending.
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-10 05:39 pm (UTC)
Socks: If I count the two pairs I finished in January (started fall of 2014) I've done 15 pairs so far. If I don't count those two, it's 13--seven of the short socks and six of the regular ones.

On the needles right now are a pair of medium brown heather socks for a friend (at the toe decreases) and a pair of turquoise socks for myself (one just past the gusset decreases and the other on the gusset decreases.) If I get both those finished by Dec 1, then I might (!) get another pair done in December (the book will be turned in Dec 1, so finishing the socks by then it not the top priority!) At any rate, I expect to finish both those pairs by the end of the year and thus have a total of 8 "regular" pairs and 7 short pairs started and finished this past year. 15 total. I could easily count the two finished in January as equivalent to one pair...16. If I finish an additional pair...we're getting into what is for me stratospheric productivity, especially if I count the two pairs finished in January 2015 as two pairs. That would be 11 pairs of regular socks and 7 pairs of short ones in one year. But I won't know for sure until the end of the year. I decided to switch to a calendar year count this year, after counting from Jan 28 to Jan 27 (I started my first pair of socks ever on Jan 28, 2012.)

The next pair to cast on will either be Herdwick yarn (natural) or blue.

Socks for my friend should take less time than socks for me (her feet are substantially smaller than mine--about two inches shorter and not as big around) but she's almost 1700 miles away so there are pauses for consultation--I can't just grab her foot and check the fit every so often, as I do with my own feet & socks in progress.
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[User Picture]From: saare_snowqueen
2015-11-11 02:53 pm (UTC)
WOW! 13 - 17 pair in the year (depending on how you count) AND a new book almost ready to turn in. You have been busy.
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[User Picture]From: filkferengi
2015-11-12 03:46 am (UTC)
Which book is it you'll be turning in soon?

Thanks for the update!
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-12 05:04 am (UTC)
The new Vatta book. Its formal official title hasn't been set yet, but my title for it is "Cold Welcome."
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[User Picture]From: filkferengi
2015-11-12 01:14 pm (UTC)
I'll definitely be looking forward to it. You'll post here when I'll be able to buy it from Larry Smith, yes? [23 years later, my spouse has almost forgiven the friend who introduced me to Larry's Dealer Table of Budget Doom. {weg}]
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-12 02:35 pm (UTC)
The release date will show up here and several other places. I don't know when Larry Smith will have it (I don't know if he can acquire things by the release date--guessing yes, but not certain.) So you'll have to pester him.

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[User Picture]From: filkferengi
2015-11-12 02:56 pm (UTC)
No need. He's at most of the cons I get to. I try to have at least a few things to buy from him each time I see him [kind of our way of doing business locally]. I build up a stack at his table: some years it's a Brighton Pavilion; other years it's at least a yurt.

;)
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-12 09:33 pm (UTC)
And lo--today I got a call from Agent, who reported that Editor told him everyone likes the title COLD WELCOME and now it's official. YAY!
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[User Picture]From: filkferengi
2015-11-12 09:41 pm (UTC)
Does it have an official publication date yet? Like the Little Prince's fox, I like to know when to prepare my heart to be happy.
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-12 11:26 pm (UTC)
It has a tentative date. But they've changed dates enough before that I won't trust it until six months out when the catalogs show up. I'd rather not say, yet.
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[User Picture]From: filkferengi
2015-11-12 11:37 pm (UTC)
The title itself is a gracious plenty of intriguing.
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[User Picture]From: judith_dascoyne
2015-11-10 05:14 pm (UTC)
Congrats on the new roof and the rain.
Green is good.

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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-10 05:41 pm (UTC)
Green is wonderful. Although I would like it not to rain today, so I can leave windows open for the outgassing of carpet adhesive to move on out of the house.

Let it soak in a bit more, that would be great.
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[User Picture]From: e_moon60
2015-11-12 10:12 pm (UTC)
It's so pretty, all the young, tender green. The bluebonnet cotyledons have opened to those the tiny little leaves. And the roof doesn't leak. I do want it to be finished. It looks like the crew to remove the dangerous tree, the crew to finish the roof, and the crew to deliver the new furniture may all arrive next Thursday.

(eek?)
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