Update on the old house...
The house passed inspection! Nothing needs fixed. YAY!
The house passed the VA appraiser...
however....
why is there always an however?
The POTTING SHED...
which sits way back here,
in the back of the double lot,
has to have the windows scraped. See all of the windows. 18 total...with panes
(which I shall refer to as pains!)
These windows came from the house, when we replaced them with new windows. The house was built in 1939. They are old.
And the thing is, we scraped the windows before we put the house on the market! I said I would paint them, and the realtor said they don't need painted, just scraped. WE ALREADY DID! Here's the thing...it's not paint that needs removed. It's the caulking.
And once you remove the caulking, the windows fall out. See the cracked window below? (bottom right) That happened while removing paint and caulking. So starting today, and who knows for how long...I will stop
painting doors
canning apples
cleaning house
working beehives
and I'll be spending my time removing caulk, paint, and adding caulk and paint. And who knows if these buyers are even gardeners. For all I know, they'll never use the greenhouse. I'm trying to stay positive peeps, but I'm not sleeping well, and I'm tired. Beyond tired.
This greenhouse/potting shed is a magical place. I love it. Here are a few pictures I took in the spring. I have some gorgeous pics of this place.
Private Charleston garden with a vintage Kokomo bricks.
Roses that grow in the "Charleston garden" on the South side of the potting shed. This area is a little nook, and it's warmer because it's so enclosed, so even though the roses are a zone 6 and we live in zone 5, they have lived and flourished there for years.
Looking out of the garden green house.
I know there is no use in complaining, but can I say something here.....why yes you can Cindy, it's your blog! Yup, these windows have lead paint on them. And amazingly enough, every window in this ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD has or had lead paint on them. These houses were built in the 1920's to the 1940's. They used lead paint back then. Most of these people built these houses, lived in them their entire lives, they raised kids in them, and most of the original owners are still alive! They are in their 90's! Hells bells, their kids are still alive!
My brother worked in a lead factory for years...
I'm just saying.......
Potting shed love...
Oh, did you hear me mention VA appraiser. Yup. VA loan. And of all times our government is shut down. I asked our realtor how this will affect our loan and he said we should be ok. He thinks we will still be on target for closing. He did say, it might take a little longer to get a piece of information we might need, if the person with that information is on furlough. How embarrassing. My husband and I are building a house and we get a long better than our government!
Oh, but here's a funny story that will lighten the mood. So, back in April when we were scraping the windows and they were falling apart, Dave said, I will never build another thing with these types of windows. They do not weather well. And we have some stashed at the house that he said I could not bring with me. "Just Sell them!" he said. So, I put a few in garage sales that we had, but our house had a lot of windows. So, I've been secretly, one by one, moving them to our new house, and tucking them away here and there. There is something on Pinterest I want to make. ( I tried to download it but can't get it to work.) Anyway, the other night Dave says, I know what we could do...we could just replace the windows in the greenhouse with the ones in the garage, that we haven't done anything with yet. They haven't been in the weather for all of these years, so they are still in good condition. Ruh Roh.....I had to fess up! They are no longer in the old garage. They are squirreled away here and there, at our new place!
So, at the new place....Still on the porches...
Dave is putting up the ceiling....what a huge decision this has been.
Things you don't even think of....See the decking...running lengthwise...so logically you would think the ceiling needs to run lengthwise. Well, this type of ceiling (vinyl bead board) doesn't come in long enough strips to run it lengthwise, on this porch. And it isn't made to overlap or but up against each other, end to end like that. So we would have had to divide the porch up with something so the pieces would fit. And of course, this vinyl bead board has to be ordered.
Then we talked about going with wood, because you can butt wood up against each other, but...
you can't use wood on this bottom porch ceiling.
Rain and snow will get on it and rot it. And I want them to match. I didn't think vinyl on one ceiling and wood on the others would look good.
So we ran the ceiling one way, and the porch the other. Guess what....after looking at a lot of pictures on the internet, it seems there is no right way to do it. They are all done every which way!
And it all looks good.
And see the aluminum pieces wrapped all around the porch...those are bent with this great big machine that my Shug borrowed.
He has to bend every single piece with this aluminum break, to make them fit.
And a couple of days ago, he had to get on the roof.
Since the family joke used to be that we had our own room at the emergency room, I was very nervous about him getting on the roof. Not to mention he has been having a lot of foot pain. (Achilles tendinitis-he went to the doc)
I don't know if you can see in the pic below...how the roof seems to be coming apart, right under Dave's hand. He had to nail it back down. Only he didn't see it until he got on the roof. So I had to go get the nails and hammer...I took the screen out of that window and handed them through it.
I didn't tell him about this soffitt...in the corner...see it hanging down. (sigh)
Ok, I know, long post. Gotta go finish painting garage doors so I can get to other house,
and start grouting and scraping and painting, oh my!
Cindy
