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We are still in the midst of a Stay Home order as the Covid-19 Corona-virus continues to shut down the world. Susan and I are both still working. We received our Gub'ment Stimulus money this past week which added $2,400.00 to our bank account. So we are still surviving this comfortably.
Fortunately, we have stuff to do here at the house which is keeping us from going stir crazy. We work on the house by day and watch TV by night. Currently, we are working our way through "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon and "Tiger King" on Netflix.
The project I wanted to complete this weekend was to make this window open. I am trying to restore all the windows as we go through the rooms so that they work reasonably well. That usually includes stripping them down the bare wood, tearing in to the window, and replacing the ropes that hold the weights.
This window was painted shut on the outside and then to make it even more unopenable, someone caulked the lower part of the window to the sill. I'm sure that was done to seal up the gap but it could be as easily sealed with a nice rubber strip along the bottom, which is what I intend to do.
It took a while and quite a bit of patience. I've done work on this window before and in the process, cracked the glass. I did not want to repeat that.
The hardest part was dealing with the weights. They must easily weigh 50 pounds each. While attaching the weights, I had a major problem with the rope falling off the pulleys and getting jammed. It took a while but we prevailed.
Susan has finished up the stripping and is concentrating on some small detail work on the door jams. She now thinks we are ready to start painting and putting up the picture rail and crown molding.
It's approaching three o'clock and time to relax with a cold malty beverage on the front porch.
We got very serious about this roof. I went so far as to look into a loan from our mortgage company and one from my local bank. We figured we could put down $5,000.00 and finance $20,000.00.
We were approved for both loans but then began to re-evaluate our situation. Since Susan isn't working at the arena and I'm only working 30 hours a week, we decided the timing was not right.
The roof still has a couple of years to go on it and there are no leaks so we are not desperate. Of course, in a couple of years, it's not going to be $25,000.00
We are at the end of the Lenten Season which means I get to drink beer again. It's been a tough go getting through this. There have been lots of evenings where I have come home and thought how nice a beer would be. The frothy taste, the bubbly foam...ahhhh.
We have someone coming over at 2:00 today to give us an estimate on a new roof. I have big reservations about this because I have a feeling from the phone contact that this is going to be a high pressure sales effort.
Originally, I had the appointment set for Monday. Then they called back and asked if I was married and would my wife be there. I said no and they requested to reschedule when she would be available. That little action alone set off an alarm. We'll see how it goes.
For now, we are making a run over to our church to paint a banner. We are going on our fourth week of suspended services but we thought our church should make a statement in lieu of Easter.
We do not expect that banner to last very long. It was windy out and the non tear fabric I used for the banner was pulling through the staples. At least I have it enshrined here forever...or for ever how long the Inter-web lasts.
After that, I have a couple of friends coming over at noon to enjoy the first beer with me.
4:33PM: I have dranken beer and it was worth the dranking.
The roof guy came by and looked everything over, took some measurement and gave us a bid of $27,000.00. I was expecting it to be around $30K so the three thousand dollar discount was appreciated. But, if we make the decision by Tuesday, the price is $23,000. I'm not sure what is magical about Tuesday that makes the price increase but I expect it has something to do with F.M.
(Hint: The M stands for "Magic".)
In the meantime, we are winding down our day which has turned out to be a good one. Susan is preparing some food for tomorrow. We are taking food over to Mom's. The house is currently alive with the smell of bacon, which is driving me nuts.
I am acutely aware that some of the information I post here could be used against us. For instance, I never post about an upcoming vacation or news of a trip until after we are home. I never say anything about the guns we may or may not own. If anybody wants to come over and find out, they are welcome to try.
So I am a little reticent to report that we have returned from a journey to Costco and acquired toilet paper. That was totally unexpected.
We got to Costco about noon:30 and realized there was a line. From the car, the line didn't seems too long. However, they have learned from Disneyland how to disguise the length of a line. When we got up to the line, we saw it was much longer.
To their credit, it was fast...probably 15 minutes. We wanted to get a ham for Easter just in case Mom wants to have dinner with us. And we got an assortment of other goodies as well.
I always make it a habit to check out the toilet paper aisle when I go to the store...any store, even Home Depot. I did not expect to find the gold mine that I discovered.
Including the beer we have been stockpiling during our Season of Lent No Beer sequestration, we are now set up for this Stay at Home Seclusion dealie for quite some time.
Hey Bad Guys! Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson are ready for your visit.
