As usual I’m still not sewing and still haven’t plugged in
the machines because I haven’t dragged the big drill up from the basement and
haven’t denuded the shelf above the desk of its supposedly temporary contents.
having just gotten the new quote on the work to be done outside on the deck
that ate Dutchess County. You know what they say about figuring the
cost for a construction job and then doubling it…well, you get the
picture. I have never spent this kind of
money on one thing in my life and G, well, the deck costs more than he paid for
the house in 1978. Of course the house
has appreciated substantially since then. We can easily understand that it is not just a deck, we are putting in a
hidden under-deck electric pool cover system, which will make the pool much
more useable as removing the pool cover now is a two person job. The pool is free form and about 3 feet from
the house, if that, and substantial construction and excavation is required for
installing the pool cover as well as a substantial increase in deck space.
Have I mentioned that our house is on the edge of a ledge or
“cliff”? Really, it’s more of a steep
slope and not a true cliff. Is there an
official dividing line between steep slope and cliff? What percentage grade constitutes a
cliff? If you can’t walk up or down it,
does that mean it is a cliff even if it slopes rather than drops
precipitously? Whatever we call it,
half of the pool is now exposed on the edge of the cliff, and the exposed
concrete is cracking and needs to be reinforced.
The status of the pool is what prompted this whole mess,
along with a small 20 year old rotting deck, but it is the pool cover that has
elevated it into mind-numbing territory. We’re not complaining; we both immediately saw that if we are going to
live here and use the pool we have to put in the cover. G is 77, I have a bad back; pulling a big
heavy cover on and off the pool is not going to be feasible in the future. There is no way to put in any kind of
automatic cover without extending the deck over the cliff.
concrete dust out of the kitchen and dining room, floor to ceiling, including taking everything
out of every cabinet and washing it. That fine concrete dust was everywhere. My kitchen has never been so clean. The rest of the house awaits, dust is everywhere. It is probably in my fabric too, I know it got into the clothes closets. What a picnic that will be.
Sunday was gardening day: I cleared out the front flower beds and applied a generous helping of
compost and weed killer. I also planted
pansies around the emerging tulips in the iris bed. Tulips and pansies will be pulled up in late
May to be replaced with summer flowers. I spent hours and the beds look good but the yard as a whole is still
mostly dormant and dreary.
thrill was the quick and stupid job of cutting “trim bobbins” from a leftover
piece of ¼” MDF that was in the basement:
Silly to be thrilled by such a silly thing and a few minutes
work. They sit here, waiting to be
used.
I wrapped my flat ribbons around small cardboard “bobbins”
and liked that method of sorting them in the box that I wondered if I could do
something similar with the thicker trims. I measured the inside of the trim box and decided to try making “trim
bobbins”. Later today I will wrap the
trim and hopefully be able to file it by color and/or style of trim.
Meanwhile, beads and trims are piled up all over the worktable.