recently

  Recently we went down to our old stomping grounds in Southern Maryland to celebrate a 50th birthday with a few dear friends.  It was lovely.  Southern Maryland is not known for its hospitable weather in August.  Usually it is blazing hot and the humidity is so thick you must cut the air in order to pass through it.  However, Saturday was only in the low 80s, and the humidity, while present, was not wilting.  A light breeze kept the  air moving and the mosquitos away, and generally it was a lovely day.
    Prior to the party we drove around and saw the college where both my husband and I were undergrads and where I taught for five years. We drove past our old house, which used to be one of four houses on a dirt road.  Well, some things change.  Our old house ( an ugly split foyer with no real curb appeal) now sits on a paved road and is surrounded by  a couple dozen McMansions where once it was surrounded by forest...so sad.
    We went down to Point Lookout and the children played in the surf, picked up shells, and generally had a fabulous time getting soaking wet - pictures are forthcoming - they are in the camera which is still with them.
    Sunday we split up - my husband and the two youngest are still in MD in Ocean City, visiting family, and will be doing some more traveling around the state before heading north.  My mom, and my eldest went to CT so he could have his special week with his grandmother. I had to get back here for rehearsals.
    I have the house to myself - well, the animals and I do.  I have a million projects I hope to get completed, but I also have to learn my lines - so I  have to get a bit more organized than I was today.  Because, really, there is no excuse not to get all my lines for the show memorized.
    We just started rehearsals for Cabaret, and the trickiest part for me, thus far, is getting the German memorized.  I took French!

Waiting for the rain

   We are supposed to get thunderstorms today and tomorrow.  I am very excited by this because the highway dept. workers were at our driveway this morning trenching and swaling (if that is a word!) and generally making a path for water to run towards the ravine which will take it out to the Susquehanna River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay.
    I did not remember, but apparently watching construction vehicles rip up part of your lawn and driveway is greatly entertaining to a nearly six year old boy.  Especially when one of the men gives you a ride in the excavator!

   So now we have a trench in front of the house filled with rocks about the size of a fist.  The end of the driveway has a dip and a hump of blacktop, and that extends across the front of the neighbor's yard and driveway and out to the ravine.

 I do not really know why we have rock and they have blacktop, but it may be necessary.  I will admit I am just a twitch jealous, because their side looks neater than ours... but beggars can't be choosers and I will be very happy if this works and keeps the water from the mountain  in the trench and out of the garage!

autism and outside and church

   My eldest son does not go to church.  The last time he went, it was his little brother's baptism - about 5 years ago - with just family, and he still left the church a bit early.  there is something about the cavernous spaces in a church, and the music and sitting and standing that is too much.
   Today, he and I went berry picking.  The younger two are at a water park and so he and I set out to do something special.  When I asked what he wanted to do, going to the blueberry farm was his choice.  We drove out and started picking under a blue sky, with a zephyr  keeping things cool.  We played name games as we picked.  We competed for who would be the champion berry picker.  we debated whether the word wizened was pronounced  with an "iz" sound in the middle or an "eez" sound.  We picked nine pounds of berries.
    As we were gathering the fruits, I realized that this is his church.  It doesn't matter if he never makes his Confirmation in the Catholic Church, or if he never knows what the Council of Trent or Vatican II were.  He knows what is good through experience.  He sees what glory there is in the time he spends out in nature, relaxed and happy and without any of the anxiety that impedes the rest of his time.
  
  

Fixing Things #3

    Everything we have tried to change a little has resulted in at least two more jobs required BEFORE we could do the initial fix.  Examples:  fix the plaster and sand before painting, replace the bracing and fill in the cement hole before replacing the cap to the porch.
   Well, we took the carpet up off the stairs leading to the bedrooms, and discovered the previous owners had removed some coving from under the treads and thus removing some extra support for the edges of the treads. (Can you guess where this is going?)  We found the  treads had been painted black, which must have been pretty, and I may repaint them that way.  We also found the last three treads were cracking  all the way across.

 We spend a good hour pulling A LOT of staples out of the wood where the padding had been attached to the steps.  

The family that pulls staples together, ...um, ... has safe feet together??? 

                                                

   We came up with at least a temporary solution to the tread  issue.  My husband put glue in the cracks, and then screwed the broken section into the rest of the tread.  He then cut  planks to fit under the treads, the same size as the risers, and pounded that in to add support uner the cracked area.  So far it is holding up.  

Adding the riser facings.

     The reason we just didn't pull off the cracked treads and make new ones is that the bottom steps are quite irregular - rounded at the bottom, cut in around the newel post,  and not a simple fix.  We are not at a point where we could removes access to the upper floor of the house for a day or two, so for now, the facing fix is what we stay with. 

     When we pulled the carpet off the upper landing, we found another quirky thing. There was linoleum under the carpet (and thus over the hardwood) on the landing.   It is definitely lino, not vinyl, and it looks like it is pieced into the pattern.  I was not expecting it, and we will eventually remove it, as it is filled with holes from the staples and the tack strips, but for now I plan to clean it up and live with it for a while. 

You can see the hardwood edge of the step under the gold edging strip.

This is a better idea of the colours. 

   So what is next in this summer adventure of  flying sawdust and paint drops?  We started pulling up the carpet in the living room.  So nice not to be living with someone else's stains!  We still have one strip left to go - there are two heavy pieces of furniture to shift to get to that part, but it will happen!

Fixing Things #2

          For me, the main goal in having my nephew come up to work was to get the front porch fixed.  The steps are cement and fine, but the cap or decking is wooden  and was rotting in places - Not Safe!  So , after the dining room wallpaper was removed and the plaster worked on, the boys started working on ripping out the porch top.  Wow!  What a mess!  Not only was the tongue in groove top rotten in a couple places, but the  supports were rotten under the pillars.  Some was water damaged and some was eaten away by carpenter ants.

    

Pillar is braced and the boards are being pried out.

Mildew AND rot - what fun!

My nephew's thumb gives you an idea of the scale of the tunnels that were
bored through the wood. 

Mostly water rot.

    After removing all the wood, they discovered that one of the blocks in the foundation was crumbling away - there was a huge hole in it - more than half of the black was gone.  I think we may have discovered where mice have been accessing the house!  After some quick research, my husband filled the hole with Great Stuff.  It will insulate for certain.  Maybe the basement will not be as cold this winter!

Helping Daddy is fun - once we've vacuumed out the spider webs!

Our little handyman as seen through a double layer of dirty glass.  We kicked up an AMAZING amount of dirt and dust  this week!

     New boards are in place on top of new bracing, and we are waiting for the second coat of sand paint to dry before painting the columns and the bases.  Our next goal is the living room carpet - but one thing at a time!

  

    

Fixing things #1

    We have very little time in the academic year to get things done around the house.  This summer we decided it was finally time to get the nasty, dirty, "old lady" wall paper off the dining room walls. There are several other tasks necessary as well.
    We asked my nephew to come up and stay with us for a week or son to help out.  He is a great guy and  toiled along side us, uncomplaining, even on the nasty days of high humidity and HEAT.  (It has since cooled off.) He helped move the VERY large corner cupboard that came from my husband's grandmother's home.  BIG AND HEAVY!!  We had china and crystal on every dresser top and table for a week - looked like we were having a wedding!
    First thing was to remove the paper:

excuse my back, please

The plaster was not in great shape, but we have had worse.

Next we had some plaster cracking to fix.  The previous owners seemed to have taken great pride in hiding all the bad plaster in every room by covering it in paper. 

taking a breather and assessing

 We had to prime the walls, which our youngest took to with some vigor. 

Why is he wearing his CARS bike helmet?  We really never found out.

Next came colour - Ralph Lauren "Kauai" in eggshell.  I don't know about you, but when I was in Kauai it was never this shade of green. 

     After two coats of paint, then two coats of trim colour (I will never beg for crown moulding again - my shoulders are sore!) we have an almost completed dining room.  We still have to  refinish the floors, but we are planning on doing it all at the same time - dining room, foyer and living room.  The hardwood floors have remnants of a felt padding from under the carpet that have fused to the shellac/varnish (?) on the floor, and NOTHING is taking it up short of stripping it.  It looks like we have moss growing on the wooden floors. 

We Can Do It!

   Over all this was a pretty smooth job.  We had a few conversations regarding the trim colour - I wanted cream, hubby wanted white - but, as I said to my nephew, this is not worth fighting about, so white it is. Curtains, wall art and mirrors still to come, but I am REALLY pleased to be rid of the little pink flowers!

squeeky wheel?

  After nearly five years of asking, and two different  highway managers holding the job, we finally may have a solution in the wind for our water problem.  Our road and the one on the hill in front of our house are graded in such a way that the water and effluvium from storms runs down our driveway and into our garage - making for a very messy, muddy garage at times.  The previous owners put in a drain system to carry driveway runoff under the patio and have is run out into the grass in the backyard.  Which works - until all the road  water brings  gravel from the road along with the maple seeds and leaves, and everything else that comes down in storms.

The lower step was covered with water, where the basketball is floating is the  lower patio - the water is anywhere from
6 - 12 inches deep there

Garage door handle is 4 inches above the pavement

the water is racing over the patio, as well as pouring through the pipe under the patio.
the result is washed out gardens,  and a magnolia with roots being exposed more and more.

   After calling and leaving another message for the highway manager about how I voted for him because he stood on my front step and promised he would help me with this mess if he got the job; saying I wanted a day and time when he would be here not just -"oh we'll be working out there sometime in July," yesterday at 8 a.m., we walked the area and showed him the mess - as well as all the road gravel in our magnolia roots, and we have a promise of road work including a swale and rock work  starting July 5th.  

    Of course, if all the works, and the culverts actually take care of the majority of the water in the way they should, I am not certain how I shall handle it.  In our house, if a storm comes - day or night either my husband, or I, are out in the driveway getting soaked to the skin as we clear detritus from the drain.  How odd it will be to be able to just sit and look out the window at the rain...