Our Olde House: September 2025
It was too hot to do anything outside in August, so Miss Sherry and I decided to plan a few updates to Our Olde House, which we could do from our couch. We have plenty of projects that need to be completed, most of which remain ‘in progress’ due to lack of interest or avoiding the chaos inherent with remodeling projects. The biggest pending project is replacing the back deck, which was damaged by the tree falling and simple old age.
I already had the new plastic decking for the bottom section of the deck, and I was pretty sure that I was not going to be able to get the same matching pattern now for the top section, but I was wrong, thank goodness. The matching boards were ordered and received, and now we are just waiting for the weather to cool off so the workers can begin. The new decking came in twenty foot lengths which I decided that I could carry from the driveway to the patio in the backyard. All was well until the next morning when my right hip was telling me that I deserved another Mister Smarty Pants award for carrying those boards.
Since I was not sure if I had any permanent hip damage and my hip definitely was not feeling better after a few days, I decided to go to the doctor as soon as I could get an appointment. In the meantime, Miss Sherry and I tried several remedies to ease the pain, only one of which actually worked. As it turned out the doctor suggested continued use for another week of the arthritis pain cream that worked, and to call back after that if the pain persisted. I was fine after a week, with another reminder that I should no longer do many things that were easy for me to do when I had celebrated fewer birthdays.
We are also replacing our wooden fence and gate next to the apartment with wrought iron fencing and a gate. Miss Sherry called the company who installed the wrought iron fence and double gate behind the carport a few years ago. We got an estimate, and they will be making the fence and gate over the next few weeks.
We contacted the contractor who rebuilt our kitchen to complete several small projects around the house. We have one kitchen cabinet that needs to have reinforced drawer slides installed to accommodate the heavier garbage cans stored there. The sunroom flooring is not holding up under the traffic of the two humans and two cats who have broken off the edges of some of the flooring, so the one hundred square feet of flooring in the sunroom needs to be replaced.
We need to repaint and caulk the back wall of the house, which took a pretty good shot from the tree falling. We also have four window screens in the sunroom that were damaged by the tree falling that need to be replaced. And lest we forget, the metal back door has a spot completely rusted through, so that needs to be replaced, too.
I really like the new flooring I put in my bathroom; it is thicker than the old flooring and has a rubber backing which seems to make it sturdier. Miss Sherry and I looked for new sunroom flooring at a local store and found a few possible choices with the rubber backing. We are also going to look at flooring at a specialty store to see if they have better choices. We need to select and obtain the new flooring before we schedule the floor removal and installation.
The wrought iron fence people came and removed the wooden fence and gate a few days ago; they came back today and installed the wrought iron posts. The fence sections and gate are being built, but we will not have them installed until the back deck is completed. This will give the deck workmen easier access to the backyard deck and will prevent the wrought iron fence and gate from being damaged during the construction process.
Just to be clear, the ‘we’ who will be doing all of this work does not include me. I am retired from working for others, and also retired from ‘doing it myself’ after the ladder threw me onto the back deck. I am content to watch, preferably from inside where it is air conditioned, and have no intention of getting a head start on any task. Over the years of living in Clinton, Miss Sherry has found honest and skilled craftsmen to be the ‘we’ in our projects; we are happy to trade funding for jobs well done, and we are very grateful that we can afford to do so and help other hard-working neighbors.
