A Little Success Goes a Long Way

Most of the time I'm pretty happy to not have an audience while doing my chores. I imagine anyone watching would think "what's she actually trying to accomplish?" or "sheesh, could she make THAT any more difficult?" Today I started a big project, and I certainly had my share of thank-god-no-one-is-watching moments. But more importantly, I had one moment where I felt so very proud, and I just have to share!

Bordering my back patio, I have three raised gardens made with railroad ties. Not my building material of choice, they were here when I bought the house. As a matter of fact, I'd hazard a guess that they've been here for nearly as long as the house (50+ years). They are rotting, and providing cosy little homes to unwanted critters, like the yellow jacket clan that's shown up the past 3 years.

One by one, I'll re-do the gardens, using concrete blocks. I started one today. The tallest of the three, it is 3 ties high, 10 feet long, 4 feet wide (one side is 10 feet, the other only 4, where it butts up against the house). I started on the short side, and it came apart (relatively) easily. I was pretty suprised at how much 'dirt' was inside the rotted ties. I use the quotes around the 'dirt' because I don't know - is it soil, that once was wood? is the wood gone, and this was soil from the garden? does it really matter? uh, no. moving on.

So there I am, muscling the ties out and into the wheel barrow, scooping out the dirt to backfill after I get the blocks in place, pulling out the nails and screws used to hold the thing together. After getting the short side and the end pulled out, I spent some time playing with the layout of the blocks, figuring out how to make the corners and such. BTW - Going with a rounded end instead of squared off. Why don't they make corner pieces for those retainer wall blocks? Do they just assume that we'll all have round gardens? Some of us really appreciate the linear look, you know!

I almost dumped the wheel barrow over on one trek to the far end of the yard. Yes, one of those moments that I hope no one sees. I also lost the head of the splitting maul I was using as a sledge hammer (use what you've got!). And really hoped no one saw that. Gave myself the Dad lecture: "each time you pick it up, check the head. grr grr grr" Thankfully Tanner was out of the way.

Then I started on the long side. The top tie came off very easily. As a matter of fact, nearly smashed my foot because it is REALLY heavy, and I didn't expect it to be that loose. And there I stand, with a 10 foot long railroad tie, on the walkway, pretty much in the way. My first thought was: pick up one end, stand it on the other, and flip it, and so on, until it was out of the way. HA! eyiyiyiyiyiii waaaay to heavy for that, I could barly lift it a few inches. Plan B. hmm... no Plan B in mind. If I can't lift it a few inches, I can't get it into the wheel barrow. Not that I'd be able to manage the weight in that anyway. And then there was the flash. You know, the flash of brilliance, when you realize that you're the smartest person around (really helps when you're the only one around, but let's not split hairs).

If I could get something under it that was round, I could roll it. There's some good thinkin'! I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket, and the roll of weed block from Costco, still unopened. Viola, wheels! Of course I still had to get the wheels under that thing. The crowbar, some chunks of 4 x 4. A little leverage, some blocks to prop one end up, while using more to lift it higher... my makeshift wheels underneath. And there it went... thankfully the yard slopes down, and no, I didn't take it all the way out to the alley. Just needed to get it off to the side and out of the way.

Yeah, as I reread what I wrote, it sounds a little lame. But seriously, it was heavy! And big. And awkward!

So there it is, my shining moment.

Moving the Cable

Some projects are definitely not one-person jobs, some definitely are. And some really could be one-person jobs, but would be much simpler, or even just less yucky or with a second set of hands. My most recent was one of those. I could have done it on my own, but knew my frustration level would peak far too soon if I tried. It was one of those projects that I knew would not play out as smoothly as imagined, and an extra set of eyes, hands, opinions, if not make it easier, would at least remind me to laugh.

I bought a new TV; flat panel (of course) requiring a new cabinet (of course), so I decided to take the opportunity to rearrange the living room, and put the TV in a new spot. This meant moving the cable (of course). I know I have the skills to do it. I know where the cable runs under the house, and I have the tools to do the work. But as I said, I didn’t want to do it alone, who wants to do the under the under-the-house stuff alone? So after acting all pitiful, I talked my Mom into coming to help. The original plan was that my sister would, but one of her kids was sick. Don’t get me wrong, Mom's more than just a back up - I just try to not abuse her with the yuckier (like going under the house) chores.

I told her my plan, she agreed in concept, and under the house we went. My crawl space is more like a walking space -- fairly tall, so you only have to watch your head when you are crossing under the floor joists. I only smacked my head a couple times, and I think Mom learned after her first smack. No large beady eyed critters were glaring from the corners, and only mid-sized spiders hanging around. We figured out where we needed to drill, to end up where we wanted the cable. I had already made a small hole in the wall. I'd found this cool doodad that the cable would run through, just big enough for the cable, instead of needing a full sized plate, and there by, needing only a small patch for when I decide I don’t want the cable there. From under the house we drilled, and drilled, and drilled! Not separate holes, mind you, but dang, these old houses are built! Subfloor, decking, bottom plate of the wall… it ended up being a hole about 4 inches deep. We ended up using the old fashioned brace and bit. Dad's tool supply comes to the rescue once again. Sure, I could have headed to the store to buy a really long bit for my cordless drill, but when would I need that again? And why spend money on that, when there's a perfectly good old fashioned tool handy. Definitely showing some hereditary behavior here.

At first, we thought we were drilling in the wrong spot. Once through the floor, and the bottom plate of the wall, shouldn't we see light? Finally with me holding the flashlight right up at the hole in the wall, Mom looking from underneath, she could see the light. Now to get the cable up into the wall, and with a wire hook, snag it. Yeah, it doesn't really seem reasonable when I type it. But that didn't stop us from spending about an hour farting around trying to make it work. We tried the thin wire to catch the cable, we tried a ball-chain to drop down through the hole, then we'd tie the cable to that and pull it up, we tried a coat hanger straightened out, sort of as a combo between the slip-down or pull-up method. Gosh, that small doodad needing such a small hole, was so nice. But it was not to be. So off to the store -- you didn't think we could do a home project without a trip to the store, did you? My favorite is HD, even though it is about twice the distance as L's. But where I live, that's 1 mile versus 2 miles. If I'm walking, it is enough to matter, but in the car? Nayh. We got the new plate for the cable outlet, looked at a handful of other things, Mom got something that was on her list... a typical run to the store.

Back home, bigger hole in the wall (so much for the future patch job that would be so easy), and now that we can see, I don't know how we missed the cable before. We were RIGHT THERE. From there it went easy; pull the wire through, put the cable end thingy on, new plate in. Cable hooked up, lights showing on the cable box; TV plugged in, HDMI running from the cable box to the TV. Run through the TV set up stuff. No signal. hmmm... really, there are so few parts. How can this be wrong. Call the cable company, "thank you for waiting, your call will be answered in approximately 18 minutes" oh brother. So we decide to carry the old, very heavy, TV out to the garage, and just as we are getting there, the lady come on the line! Shouting to the phone - "don't hang up, don't hang up! I've got something really heavy in my arms! just a sec!" Quickly setting the TV on the counter in the garage, I smash Mom's finger. Nothing broken, and she hasn't called to complain about major bruising. After telling my tale of woe, the cable lady says, "after you set your HDMI to cable, did you select that setting?" uh, no. So that works. Now, my cable remote that came with the new box doesn't seem to work, but my old one does. Um, yeah, I put the batteries in backwards. At this point, I'm blaming fatigue and hunger, not inherent stupidity. Please let it be fatigue and hunger.

The Backstory

In 1994 I purchased my condominium. It was my first real estate, and it was pretty easy to take care of. New construction, new appliances, and anything from the drywall out was the responsibility of the association, not me. Anything that went wrong was someone else's responsibility. All I had to do was decorate. I painted, installed a new dining room light and added a dimmer switch (with some help). It was easy.

Sure, there were some issues: Like the day I realized that the carpet on the deck had become a very healthy hydroponic garden for cottonwood seeds. It was beautiful, if that's what you're going for, but I didn't really want 8 gagillion cottonwood trees growing on my deck. Lesson learned? Oh yeah. You've got to stay on top of things, even in the crappy weather, even in a condo. But I also realized that I wanted more. I wanted a yard, I wanted more garden than a few petunias and pansies, more than one tomato plant in a pot. I wanted to not share walls with other people, and to get that, I was willing to gain the additional responsibilities that come with owning a house.

In 2003 I bought my house. Built in 1957, owned by one family for that entire time; small, but well built, large yard, nice neighbors, quiet street. I knew it was mine when I walked in. It felt right, and I still feel 'home' every time I come home. But a 50 year old house is not really the same as a brand new condo. More chores, more things going wrong, no one to deal with those issues except me and very generous family and friends. My family and friends have saved me more than once with technical advice, strong backs, and lots of moral support.

We're a close family, talking often. We show our love not so much in the I love yous but in the lending and ear, what can I do help? have you remembered to do this or that? how's the car running? type of ways. And this past fall we suffered a great loss when my father passed away. He was our guru on many things, including being our go-to guy on all the house stuff. That's not the key to him, or to how much he'll be missed, but it is the key to this blog. Probably I should have named the blog "Dad."

In his absence, I went searching for some sort of check-list of what I needed to do before winter hit. Yes, I've lived here for 6 years, and sure, I remember some stuff, and sure, I could have been keeping track of what I'd done in the past, but I didn't. What I found when I went searching was not what I needed. I needed something more personal, something that included the mistakes and recoveries. Something that let me know that the mistakes are part of the plan, part of how we learn, part of what makes us strong.

So I decided to start this blog. Not alone, mind you. My dear friend (we'll call her Bumblebee for now, since I don't know if she really wants to reveal herself) will be co-writing. She's recently divorced, and suddenly a 'single gal' with a much bigger (as in times 2), much older (as in times 2) house. We are geographically separated, and have significantly different weather related issues. I think we'll have fun with the sameness of the chores, even though the timing and degree will be different.

We're not all about home maintenance, and we're definitely not all about getting it right the first time. Next fall Bumblebee will have a great winter-preparedness story for us, but I bet she won't have a repeat on that subject. Besides our work and our pets and our families and friends, we love the bargain, and the reclamation of the found treasure. We'll have stories about that too. Maybe we can, collectively, create the checklists, head off some disasters, mitigate others. Share with us your stories and together we can... keep our houses from falling down?

We're not writers by trade. So, to our writer friends, please be gentle. We'll have typos, and you'll cringe over sentence structure. We'll do our best, but our best won't be perfect!