The Outhouse and Update

Funny, not funny… More like embarrassing, disgusting, depressing, and irritating!

Several months ago, our toilet decided it was going to spring a teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, slooow water leak. Contractor #1 tried to fix it, thought he had fixed it, in fact. It was not fixed. We were going to have Contractor #1 look at it again, but we never saw him after that. That was in May, I believe.

In June, we were hopeful that Contractor #1 would be coming to work on the house and that we would ask him to look at the toilet leak again. We didn’t know at the time that he had no intention of coming back, so we just waited and put up with the water leak. It was very slow, after all. Then the freakin’ toilet decided it wasn’t going to flush anymore. I turned off the water to the toilet at this point. We used a pitcher of water to flush the damn toilet after that.

Dad fell and had a heat stroke in July. Up until then, I expected Dad to find another contractor to finish the house. It’s his money so it’s his responsibility, right? He should be making the decisions and hiring people because I know nothing about building a house and hiring people. I don’t know what’s a fair price to pay for this or for that. But now, it was up to me. Dad was in the hospital and didn’t come home until the beginning of August. By then, I had made arrangements to get the car fixed: alignment, new tires, and a/c. It was in serious bad shape! With the help of Other Daughter, I even found Contractor #2, who has finished up the house nicely! (Update at the end of this post.) I decided that, as big a pain in the huge royal ass it is, we can suffer with the toilet having to be flushed with a pitcher of water, because why spend the money on a new toilet or whatever would need to be done when we would be in the new house soon? That would be money better spent on the new house!

So, here we are, mid-November. We are still flushing with a pitcher of water. The bathroom always stinks like an outhouse. It’s like having an inside outhouse! I hate it! I hate it when someone comes over! Even close friends and family. I light candles (good candles) when I think someone is coming. When we move to the new house, it’s going to be weird having a flushable toilet! There are many things we’ll have to get used to. That might make an interesting post later on!

Anyway, the house is nearly ready for move-in. The HVAC is the last big thing left to do. The HVAC guy is always busy, but he said we are on his schedule for next week. Fingers crossed. Hmm… Maybe kitchen cabinets are actually the last big thing we’ll have to do. IF IF IF we have any money left over, that is. Even if we can’t get all the cabinets we want, we’ll make the kitchen usable. I can deal with it, being that it is a much better situation than this old dump of a house we are in now. We also need to go pick out a stove and a stove hood. I have some new furniture that needs to be put together, too. My new medicine cabinet needs to be hung in the bathroom. There are a few little things to be done that may or may not wait until we move in.

Of course, there’s still the flooring and trim that have to be done later. If we had done it after painting the interior, as most people do, it would have taken at least $6,000 for vinyl planking, plus labor! That would have taken a lot out of our funds, and we definitely wouldn’t be as far along as we are now. Nothing wrong with plywood floors for now

When the day comes that we will be moving into the new house, we can finally say goodbye to the inside outhouse! I can’t wait! (It gets old after a while!)

It’s a busy time of the year, friends. Pay attention and wear your seatbelt!

Until next time,

New House Update

Well, folks… The interior of the new house has been painted and it looks great! I forgot to take photos the last time I was out there because my daughter and her crew came for an unexpected visit. I took them out to see the house because they hadn’t seen it in such “nearly finished” condition.

It’s time to pick out flooring and we decided a while back that we were going to use vinyl plank flooring. We also decided on a “wood look” but not too dark and not too light. Well… That shit is expensive! Anywhere from $4000 to $6000 for the flooring and not counting labor. Holy crap. Dad wants to go to Lowe’s to look at the flooring in person because it’s hard to choose online. Going to Lowe’s would be fine except for the fact that the a/c in our car doesn’t work and it’s an hour drive from our house! When we go out, even if it’s just a curbside order at Walmart, Dad gets overly tired and over heated so he ends up falling at some point after we get home.

A couple of weeks ago, Dad fell 3 times in one day! He fell last night while getting ready for bed. One of these times, he’s going to get hurt. I worry about him so much. I desperately need the house finished and my sister here to help me. I’m trying to be patient.

Nothing else new here; My furbabies are fine and still pains in my you-know-what, I’m still amongst the living, and I’m…still…crazy. Hahaha!

This and That

The house is coming along slowly. I wish it were going faster because I am missing or have missed some good sales on appliances, cabinets, and many other things. I can’t get anything until the drywall is up and the flooring is down. Then I can measure and decide what to get and actually have a place to put it. I have nowhere to store anything!! Ugh! I know. I’m trying to be patient. Really, I am.

Last night, I was working a jigsaw puzzle in the kitchen and listening to an audiobook when all of a sudden, there was a huge crash in the living room. All 3 cats shot out of the living room and went into hiding! Scared the living shit out of everyone. It was Dad. Poor thing fell down. He’s ok but it sure sounded like he landed hard. He took my fan down with him and spilled his meds all over the room. I had a hell of a time getting him off the floor. I told him if he would stop being stubborn and use his cane, he could avoid falling, at least cut the number of falls down. The next time he got up he was using his cane. Today, not so much. Still stubborn. I guess that’s where I get it.

I decided to take my chances and purchase a LegXercise machine. I know it won’t help my pain or mobility issues. Please don’t insist that it will, like so many people do, because I know more about my issues than anyone else. Anyway, I primarily bought the LegXercise machine to help the circulation in my legs. It’s not painful to use, but I am feeling a bit of added pain after using it for 2 days. I started at twice a day for 15 minutes each time. Today, I did it once for 15 minutes.

I’m going to try my hand this week sometime at making homemade enchilada sauce and salsa. I’ve made salsa before but it’s been a long, long time. The enchilada sauce will be a new experience. Thanks to a dear friend, I have a tried and true recipe to try! Wish me luck!

It appears that Old Man Winter isn’t finished with us just yet. Snow in the forecast this week will slow work on the house again. Thankfully, we have propane and we don’t have to go anywhere.

That’s it for today, friends. Be good, be safe, and try not to strangle your MAGA neighbors for they know not what they have done!

Update On All Things Sh*t

Ok, not all things are shit. There have been some good things happening since my last post. Our new house is coming along. The house is wired, and the water lines and sewer pipes are in place and awaiting the next phase. The HVAC is nearly ready for hook-up. The insulation will be delivered on Wednesday. The next step will be the drywall. Such happiness and hope! I don’t think I can bear another cold ass winter in this old house!

Colder than a witch’s tit…

Which leads me to the shit part of this post. The weather has been colder than a witch’s tit. The last 2 nights were down in the single digits and tonight will be the 3rd. We always keep our water running to prevent the pipes from freezing. Running only the cold water always works. We have never run the hot water in the same manner and never had the hot water pipes freeze up. They say there’s a first time for everything and this was a first. The hot water pipes froze up, but hopefully not busted. It’s too cold to crawl under the house to check. Not that I could do it and Dad really doesn’t need to be doing it but he might insist if it were warmer. Anyway, maybe our contractor will check for us tomorrow when he comes. He wasn’t here today for his own reasons. 

Withdrawals suck…

Last week was a bad one for me. If you follow this blog you may remember me posting about my meds not coming when they should have which led to me having withdrawals. Now, don’t give me that “omg, she’s an addict” crap because I am not an addict. There’s a difference between being addicted and being dependent. I am dependent on my meds so that I can function. I had gone 3 days without my gabapentin, which has terrible withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking it abruptly. It was not a good 3 days as I had insomnia, massive sweating (in a 40-degree house, mind you), and heart palpitations. I had headaches off and on, and I was moody as hell. Wouldn’t you be moody on zero hours of sleep in 3 days?  I finally got my script in the mail but not before I got an emergency 10-day supply filled by a different pharmacy. Needless to say, I saved the 10-day supply in my “extras” stash. 

I think they need more training!

I blame the pharmacy for not filling the gabapentin automatically as they do the other meds I take. I had forgotten to order them myself because it was right before Christmas. I also blame the USPS. Even though I expected a delay due to the snow we got that week, I did expect my delivery when Informed Delivery told me it was out for delivery! But instead, it was 4 days later before it was actually delivered. The roads had been perfectly fine. If the mail carriers can’t do the job correctly, then they need to be replaced. Still the fault of the USPS. They have a lot of nerve raising the rates for every damn thing and then reducing the quality of service! 

Not much else going on…just trying to get through this cold spell. I’m wearing my Sherpa blanket hoodie, which I found on Amazon a few years ago. It’s been a lifesaver in this cold ass weather! I hope you’re staying warm…or cool, depending on where you are!

Have a great week, my friends!

 

 

Guess What?

I’ve been MIA for awhile now. I’d like to say I’ve spent the last few months consistently working on the cookbook but that would be a lie. I get tired of looking at it and so I stop working on it. I haven’t worked on it in weeks. Shame on me. But this morning, I decided to give it a look over and then order a copy to see what it looks like. With a tangible product in my hands, I can then make any changes and corrections necessary without the eye strain. (At least until I go to make the changes online.) It’ll be a couple of weeks before I get the book and then (knowing me) it will take some time to fix any errors. But soon after that I’ll be taking orders!

I hope you will keep in mind that this cookbook is just a recipe compilation. There are no photos. This is a no frill recipe collection. I hope you will like at least some of the recipes!

Will keep you posted! Thank you all for following my blog and being patient with me!