I wish I had important news to report for this post, but by now, I think you know better. We've had a pretty quiet day with just a few little items happening.
And we are drinking beer. All the restaurants and bars are closed again by Gubernatorial mandate because of the upsurge in Covid cases. So all our beer consumption is happening here at home. Which is fine because we stocked up on beer. But good luck finding any toilet paper.
We don't need any more furniture. And yet...
Mom bought a new bed that wasn't quite so high off the ground. And so we replaced the old California King with this new to us King size bed with a head board and foot board. It's quite high and almost requires a ladder to get up on it. But the view is spectacular.
It looks like it's really filling the whole room.
Susan finally got around to varnishing her project in the TV Room. She was delayed getting to the project for a good portion of the day. First, we realized that we threw away the old shammy block we used to varnish the floor with. So I went out to get another. $7.00! Then, she couldn't get the lid off the can of varnish.
I took it out to the Carriage House and used my jumbo screw driver on it. Once the lid was off, I had to remove a layer of skin that had formed on the top.
It was a beautiful Autumn day and we pretty much wasted it inside.
Before we go any further, please refer to my posts on October 23rd and 25th. That's when we had the first big snowfall of the season. Tree branches all over town snapped and fell, weighted down with snow and wet leaves. We had our maple tree to the west of the house drop a couple of big branches. They fell on the house and remained suspended up there...waiting for the next big wind to free them and swing into the house.
I contacted Randy, our insurance guy and he referred me to a tree trimmer they recommend for these kinds of things. Randy reminded me that we have a $1,000.00 deductible. I thought it was higher. Like $5,000.
The bid to remove the branches and clean up the tree came in at $1,700.00. Well, we'll get a little money back and the tree will be cleaned up and no longer threaten the chimney, which it had grown very close to.
The tree trimmers did the work and I submitted the invoice to the insurance company.
A few days later, I got a call from the local insurance adjuster who wanted to come and inspect the property. I told her I didn't think there was any damage, based on what the tree trimmer told me. Nonetheless, she was coming out to inspect. I asked if I needed to be there and she said no, as long as she didn't need to get in the house. I explained that we have no leaks we are aware of so entry in the house was not an issue.
I got a call today from Jody at Nationwide Insurance. She is the person whom Randy passed me on to and was handling the claim.
She told me that the adjuster said we needed a new roof and after spewing out a bunch of figures, told me they were sending a check for $13,000.00.
We are amazed! We did not expect to have to replace the roof, let alone have our insurance cover it.
We have a year to have the work done and if the bid comes in higher, I need to call and tell them.
Since we are heading into winter, we are not going to move forward with any decision until Spring.
So, that's the update on the roof. We are standing by now to see if they really do send us a check.
It is a weekend which means assorted stuff to do and beer to drink
The stuff I've done today include:
The Carriage House is going to be an on going ordeal. There is a lot of shit in there and I want most of it.
That's probably my biggest problem. I can't throw stuff away.
It has been trying to snow since I got up this morning but it's not really happening. It's cloudy enough and it's cold enough. It's just not moisty enough. That's my assessment as a former television weather person. And yes, "moisty" is a word. It must be because there it is right there...moisty.
We are enjoying a low effort Sunday. I'm going to stow some more summer deck stuff upstairs in the Carriage House and Susan is going to sand a little more. But right now we are watching the Seattle Seahawks lose their second game of the season to the Buffalo Billys. They are 6-2 for the season now. They were never really in this game. The final score was 44-34. Seattle was within se7en goal scores at one point, but the Billys pulled away.
With the potential for snow, I have a lovely fire blazing in the fireplace which inspired me to check out the Lookout Pass website.
There is a pile of leaves along the curb in front of the house. They run the length of the property and are mostly wet. Technically, they belong to the city. They are supposed to clean up leaves that fall in the street. Well, if I wait for the city to clean them up, I'm going to be blowing them out of the chute of my snow blower.
So I got out there today and filled my garbage can plus a couple of garbage bags with really wet heavy leaves. I've done my duty and am expecting a Citizen of the Year award soon.
She feels she has done enough damage for today.
One Halloween tradition we are continuing this year is the Punkin Toss. We only have two punkins to toss, so it's not as big an event as in past years.
Today was the first opportunity we have had to do Fall yard work. It was badly needed. The leaves were thick and I was afraid they were going to be really wet. Fortunately, they weren't.
That made the raking and blowing a lot easier. Especially the blowing. Leaves do not respond well to the Leaf Blower when they are wet.
