I have a contractor coming by tomorrow to wrap my crawlspace. I've always lived in houses with crawlspaces. I swore this time I was gonna have a real basement. But I couldn't pass up the deal I got on such a large lot... My last pest treatment company gave me a quote of $10,000. I laughed and thanked them for insulting me. They have since been bought by Orkin (I understand that they called Orkin and said "Please buy us.") So Orkin came out for their first annual inspection and the guy gave me a quote of $3,000. THAT I can afford. I mowed the fields yesterday and ran the weed eater this morning to make it easier for them, and for my own self-respect. When the Orkin guy went under the crawl to inspect things there was a PEX water supply pipe hanging down across the entrance, so I got under there and secured it (dunno why it was sagging.) I thought I was gonna have to Shop Vac up some water that had puddled last time I was under so they wouldn't wrap over it, but there was none. When they're finished, I'm gonna get a plumber out to take a look at things. The Orkin guy thinks the water is from the ground and the rain, but I disagree. The plumbing contractor who worked for the investor I bought the place from did a horrible job, as did the company I called out to fix it. I fixed things, but I think there's still a drain leaking. And the bad plumbers cut a roof vent out of the system (because it was in the way.) It should likely be replaced. I could do the work, and I might if the wrap makes it clean enough under there. I'd need another set of hands to turn on the water when I'm under there observing, and...more importantly...turn it off when I see it leaking.
I guess I didn't know that pest control companies would wrap a crawlspace. (We have slabs around here. )
I had my toe nails cut and feet oiled this morning by a Podiatrist that comes to my Assisted Living every other month. It's all part of my monthly rent. I had Physical Therapy to my left arm by my Therapist also this morning. The rest of my day will be spent reading history and responding to email.
Me, either. Most of the commercials I see for it are foundation repair businesses. But it makes sense, since the pest guys are under there looking around. That guy who quoted me $11k also tried to sell me on putting glue traps around my garage for no good reason whatsover. I've had no rodent or critter intrusion, and if I did, I wouldn't use glue traps, for a lot of reasons. And I'm on 51 acres surrounded by well over 1,000 acres of farmland...I'm not in suburbia. I asked him what the heck he would even recommend such a thing for, and he said "Aren't you curious what you have on your property?" I said "I already know...I got at least one of each." I'm wonder if Orkin employees will show up, or if they deploy subs.
So far I'm feeling a bit better today. I had a message from my oncologist that was very supportive and promised more help with chemo side effects. Also, I discovered that blubbering is an excellent way to receive Pity Flowers. The local florist is loving me lately.
I've been out picking at the fringes of these firewood racks, doing the final organization. From this pointout, it should be Use & Maintain mode. The crawlspace wrapping guys are here. They were delighted when I told them to drive their trucks across the field around to the back of the house so they could actually work out of them and not have to make a million trips dragging crap 100 feet. I just came inside a few minutes ago. It's 90° out but at least the humidity's under 40%. I don't often contract work out. I don't know if I feel good or guilty sitting in the a/c while someone else is in that crawlspace. I guess writing the check will assuage my guilt...and take the edge off of that good feeling.
We are finding more and more that it isn't so bad paying someone to do stuff. When I paid to have the dishwasher installed I fully expected my husband to object, but he did OK with being JAFO for a change. Last week he paid a crew to wash the motorhome, something the two of us have always done in years past. ♫"The times they are a changin." ♪
Some people live their entire lives without picking up a screwdriver. I've known guys who always lived in apartments so had the maintenance man do stuff. I'm at the point I would be happy to never go under any crawlspace ever again. I've spent way too many hours under houses I've owned. You know, we exchanged hours of our lives for that money while working. There's nothing wrong with cashing it back in for some of that time while also saving ourselves a little aggravation. The crawlspace plastic is finished, and while it's not really the A1 job you see on TV (all white & shiny, no seams, etc.) for what I paid it's sufficient. It covers the dirt and will stop moisture from coming up. And they cleaned up all the old ripped tarp material that was put down, as well as the old insulation that was laying around, as well as a few courses of aluminum siding that had been shoved under there. I told the guy if I had known they were gonna haul all that crap away, I would have shoved some other stuff under there and saved myself a trip to the landfill.
We've always been DIYers; if we could save a few bucks doing things ourselves then we did. We've tiled, painted, built, and my hubby is excellent at plumbing and electrical. He has also done our vehicle maintenance including the RV, but I think it's time to let some of that stuff go. We can afford to let go of a few bucks so I suppose this is what we were saving it for.
I sprayed the poison ivy that's cropping up around my property. My house is in the middle of 7 cleared acres and there's poison ivy growing out from under the deck!!! I have no idea how it got there. It's also growing (in small amounts for now) around trees & under shrubs in the middle of this cleared area where it never has before...so I poisoned it all. I suspect this is only Round One. I got another gallon of the concentrate mixed up on the sprayer ready to go (actually, I made too much. ) Other than that, I was gonna build a new crawlspace door and repair the damaged cinder block around it, since I got the crawlspace sorta-wrapped yesterday: I'm gonna replace my decking with Trex, and will build a matching door from the material, so I'm going to wait on doing the door. I guess I could go ahead and fix that damaged block. I really don't understand why the contractor who did that (before I moved in) didn't uniformly enlarge the opening and build a door to fit. There are no standard sizes...it's all custom-cut. If I can work around the wrap that was just installed, I might go ahead and enlarge the opening myself.
Ugh. I just woke up from an unintentional nap after supper, so now I'll be awake all night. I'm turning into one of those "nodding off" old people.
I do the same thing after supper (Texas)/dinner (elsewhere out west) and I stopped my pending reputation as a nodder by going to bed and calling it my bedtime. I decided it was more honorable to be an early riser and be teased for going to bed at 6 PM than be an old nodder. Besides my neck cannot tolerate much nodding with 3 fused vertebrae. I always hate it if visiting at my friends and I lose track of time and her granddaughter is there and sees the clock at 6:05 PM and says, "Auntie, what did the mama cow say to her baby calf that was frocking around the meadow at dusk?" I now regret telling her that joke when she was little and stayed with me while her mother was having surgery and she didn't want to go to bed. Its pasture bedtime isn't verbalized but I get the message.
We're supposed to have thunderstorms later today, so I'm gonna get out early and run the weedeater in spots I overlooked when I trimmed a few days ago. I'm going to fix a trash can rack I built some time ago...some of the decking is coming loose and a crossbar fell off. It looks like it needs longer screws. I know that bears have tugged on it a few times since I built it, so it's been subject to unforeseen stresses. Maybe I'll shorten it. I set it up for 3 cans (garbage, recyclables, cardboard) but since bear stared visiting, I keep the garbage can in my garage. I'm also gonna remove the firewood and stands I've got on my front porch and clean it off, time & weather permitting. I'm not gonna need them until next winter and I don't like keeping termite food near the house unless it's cold out.
Well, today is going to be great. I got my lawn mowed in time and then came the heavy rains we needed badly. I will get my walk in between showers today and will go grocery shopping maskless as many in my community are now doing. It is illegal for anyone to ask you if you are vaccinated so a bit of lost America is being reclaimed here so "praise the lord and load your firearms" as my grandpa would say. The rest of the day I will probably play on my compuker. It will be a good day.