A-A-A-A-A-A Professionals

Four nights ago we had a brown out in the Apartment. No big deal, sometimes they happen. The next morning we still had a problem.I had to move my make up mirror into the dining room to get dressed.  Bill went home in the afternoon and with his trusty little testing gadget and he found that we had full power at the OG&E box but half our breaker box was only showing half power.
 
Our clocks started doing this. Blinking the time. Lights were glowing orange instead of a white light.

 

A call into the electricians, who are wonderful, got them out the next day. They have a cool little tool that tracks leaking electricity in the ground. That's better than standing in the rain and sticking a metal rod in the ground. They found the leak of course it was under the new slab for the garage. The Residence and Apartment had no problem with power before the concrete work was done.

Time to dig under that slab. We know exactly where the lines come in and around the buildings and that made the electricians job much easier.

The power line was knicked when the concrete guys were digging the footing for the foundation. No one mentioned it, they just threw dirt on top of it and then the concrete. Over time as electric wire is exposed to water; the line actually turns to powder. Hard to conduct electricity through powder. The reason the problem was worsening is that more and more of the wires were being compromised. The decision was made that the electricians would come back out the first of the week and do a temporary fix that may hold for 20 years or for two days. No guarantees. That should give Bill enough time to splice into the wire and then run it over head in the garage.

Nope, that temporary fix won't work. Bill will have to do this work over the weekend. We woke up to no hot water this morning. We had been feeling lucky that the hot water heater, dishwasher, washer and dryer were doing okay. The television was okay as long as the kitchen lights weren't turned on. Gotta have hot water. Everything else can be worked around. I really don't want to come in to work to shower.

So, he was off to Locke Supply bright and early this morning to get his supplies. He won't do the work until Sunday afternoon. We ARE goipng to the lake after work nothing will stop us. With moving Mom and Dad and other family obligations we haven't been to the lake since Christmas. In the winter we rarely miss a weekend going. Need to be sure the house wintered alright and get the A/C turned on.

Fixing the Pros Mistakes Again

We seem to spend a lot of time fixing things the professionals have done for us. While I was doing all the piddly stuff, Bill was working on our concrete.

When the concrete guys laid the garage floor and drive they didn't do it quite right. They said it was because we didn't have plans and we couldn't tell them exactly where the garage doors were going to be. Well, if that was the case how did they know where to do a floor finish and where to do a drive finish? After many phone calls to them Bill just decided to fix it himself. We didn't notice the problem until we had paid them their complete bill.So we had no leverage to get them back out.

Your garage floor should sit slightly higher than your drive to stop rain water from coming into your garage and that missing from our job. So what Bill do? He got out his circular saw and start making cuts where this transition should be.The garage door will sit down in this trough and stop the water from coming in.


To keep the concrete dust out of the garage we set fans up to blow it outside. As he would move along the length we would move the fans down to his work area. He was also wearing a respirator. Fortunately, the wind was blowing the right direction also.

After sawing the cuts he then used a hammer and chisel to knock the concrete out. Then he used the saw again to grind away all the bumps.  He then cut what look like expansion joints into the drive to help carry the water away from the building. You can see the difference  of a floor finish and a drive finish in this picture. So how did they not know where the doors would be?

 You can't tell from this picture but the floor is dry and there is a big blowing rainstorm going on. We don't have ceiling lights in the garage yet, They will come when we hang the ceiling panels.

Piddly Stuff

Since January we have extremely busy moving my parents to the Edmond, where my sister and I live. Then when that was over; my brother came to town, you will notice he waited until the moved. That is a me giving him a hard time; there was no good time for him to come during the moving process we girls just jumped in and did it. Then Easter came, then another family duty and a weekend we just wanted to sit and do nothing. The last 4 months have been tough ones. Because of this; we haven't done anything on the house. Every spare minute has been spent at the family farm getting them moved out and that house ready for a renter. A couple of weekends ago was our weekend to do nothing. Well, in case you haven't figured it out we have trouble sitting still. So, we just spent the weekend doing piddly stuff.

In moving Mom and Dad I found a roll of insulation. We can always use insulation. It was not the R rating we wanted but I was able to double layer it which brought it up to the correct R value. Where there is a will there is a way.

So up on the scissor lift with my roll of insulation. Getting the outside wall above the front door insulated.

 I had to crawl out of the lift across that little bitty board to get to the wall. Bill had laid some boards on the far edge to sit on. I discovered they weren't nailed down when I scooted back on one and it slid off the support joist. Just keeps life exciting.









 Insulated wall, no more winter winds or summer heat.





Bill laughed at me. I was doing the insulation and crawling around on the second level joists in my housedress and house shoes. I wasn't planning on doing this work, so I wasn't dressed appropriately, it  just happened.  Good thing OSHA didn't show up or there would have been some fines levied.













The next thing I worked on that day was organizing the Residence. I can't stand a messy work area. Drives my husband crazy. He leaves everything out for the next job, I put away and then get out what I need for the next job. The big thing that has been bugging me was all the ceiling panels we are taking down from the Residence ceiling and will be putting into the garage for its ceiling. They were stacked neatly on pallets but they were in the middle of the floor. So I cleaned up an area and moved them over so they are out of the way and much closer to the garage where they will be used.

See, they are just totally in the way.

Handy dandy dolly that can stand up or lay down makes this quick work.

Neatly stacked out of the way and ready for install.

The it was time for a glass of wine, the couch and tv.

There Goes the Neighborhood

We moved out to the country. Love being close in for the amenities, love being far enough out to see the stars at night. Look what is going in one mile away

A Dollar General store. It is on land right next to a very nice building that houses a pet groomer, my hairdresser, a fancy welder and a two offices. Perfect use of the corner and we will probably frequent it. It was just a shock to see our country home to be so close to something that usually just goes in with dense population. Bill has already contacted their headquarters about getting a Red Box put into this location.If they were pretty stores we could be excited, but they are really ugly metal buildings. Said by a woman who lives in two ugly metal buildings at the moment.

Who Wants a Drumstick

 I have missed our huge flock of turkeys ever since we  moved. We have all kinds of other wild life but my traffic jam when going to work everyday used to be waiting for our flock of turkeys to cross the road. Now for the last year and a half there have been no turkeys in my way.

Well, last night as I am making dinner Bill hears a shreak and unintelligible gibberish coming from the kitchen. He quickly figured out what I was saying and came sneaking up to look at our TURKEY!!!!



Yes we had a single turkey lady out looking for a Tom. She was so brazen that she even walked up on the back patio.

Nope, no guy here, guess I need to continue looking.

Now if she will just tell her family and friends about our very tasty cracked corn. She was eating the corn and then set off to eat stuff from the ground. Good by grubs, fleas, ticks, ants and anything else crawling through the grass. Our cracked corn feeds deer, all kinds of birds, bunny rabbits, and now turkeys. This is a food bill I will have no trouble paying for.