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Posted by MN~Sue Thanks so much for the birthday wishes! It means a lot to me!! We were out of town, so just getting a chance to check the board and reply to posts. We went to Grand Forks, ND to see our sons. Luke lives in Bismarck, ND now, so Grand Forks is about the half way mark for both of us. Jon still lives in Grand Forks. We had a very nice time; it's always a great time when we get to see our kids! The weather was good for traveling too! It was the first time we have left our kitty, Jazzy, home alone since our senior cat, Al, died. We were worried about leaving her. I think it must have been tough on her, because we have a NEW and IMPROVED kitty since returning......so we are enjoying that, haha. I can't believe how clingy she has been and even wants to sit and sleep in my lap. She always loved being held while STANDING - would do that for hours, if we could stand and hold her that long, but the minute we would sit down, she would be gone - funny. NOT NOW - she even wants to be a lap cat now! She has always slept next to me all night long, right up against me so that I can't move, haha....so it seemed funny that she never wanted to sit in one's lap. Oh, except when I am at the computer, then she insists on my holding her in my arms while I am sitting down, so that I can't type....go figure??!!! She has just been so sweet and cuddly and won't let me out of her sight since returning home. I hope she stays like this.........if not, I guess we will just have to take another trip, haha........! We were also worried about the possibility of our septic freezing up while away; it's estimated 20% of the septics in the area have had that problem. We had a really extended cold period of temps in the minus 20-30 degree range for something like 2 weeks, with barely any snow cover for insullation. Even though the temps were in the upper 20's and 30's while we were gone, the problem occurs when there is no water flowing through the system to keep it open, since the top layer on the septic becomes frozen and will then freeze solid the baffle that enters the tank. We were very relieved to find that ours had not frozen! HOWEVER, what we did come home to were water spots on the ceiling! UGH! We have at least 8 places that have water damage. The little bit of snow that was on the roof was melting in the warmer weather that occured while we were gone. The worst thing about this is that we had all the old shingles tore off less than 4 years ago and 30 year shingles put on!! We had no leaking problems before the new roofing job, just wanted to PREVENT that by having the new shingles put on. We were not pleased with the work the company did at the time they were working on the house and garage. They did the garage first and Terry inspected it before they started the house. He found numerous places where they had pounded the nails in the wrong part of shingles, where they were not covered over by the shingle on top of them. This would allow for seepage through the nail hole. He told them about this and they said they would caulk any exposed nails. WELL, then when they did the house, they did the same shoddy work again, more exposed nails. Again, they caulked and the owner assured us that they would NOT LEAK! YEAH right! There is an area of 8-10 inches in diameter around a kitchen light fixture that has soggy dry wall and stained brown and we had a puddle of water on a window sill from the ceiling above the kitchen sink and 5 more places in the kitchen and one above the computer in the bedroom. We are getting ready to start a remodeling project this spring and part of the project is redoing all the ceilings. Our house has that 'popcorn' texture on the ceilings (when we bought it, it was that way), which we are going to have scraped and then a 'knock-down' texture put on it that can be washed and repainted when needed, unlike the popcorn finish. NOW we have this roof problem, grrrr...... We spent over $8,000 to have the roofing job done and now have all these leaks. Terry has called them twice and they don't return his calls - which doesn't surprise us, since they wouldn't when originally doing the job either! This owner turned out to be a real jerk when dealing with him, trying to get him to complete the job, fix the problems, and even trying to over charge us, etc........so we doubt we will get anywhere with him......so don't know what we will do now. We certainly can't afford to start all over with the roof, 3 1/2 years later - ugh. We don't know if the plywood under the shingles may have rot problems now. The insulation in the attic has to be wet also. Terry thinks that what may have happened is that the caulk they put on, eventually dried out and cracked with the extreme cold this winter. He was up on the roof last night, trying to find the places where it was leaking and trying to re-caulk as a stop-gap measure before this snow storm was to hit this weekend....but he doesn't know if it will work or not. It was too cold to get the caulk to flow well, etc. It's very frustrating, especially as we are about to embark on this major remodel that is costing so much already. We canned the plans for the large addition to the living room, due to cost and are now planning just a 2' cantilevered space, the length of the living room (2' x 19'), which is certainly not cost effective, but doable, compared to doing the large addition. The new space will at least allow us enough room to have a gas fireplace that we have wanted forever and should help reduce energy costs, since we can just supplement the heat in the main living area of the house and keep the furnace turned down more for the rest of the house. It will also enable us to put duct work off of it, into the bedroom in the basment below, which will add much needed heat to that room when we have company that needs to use that room. And our other main goal was to give us more seating area, which hopefully, even this small 2' x 19' area will help with, since we will then house our TV/stereo and media along one wall in a custom built entertainment cabinet we are planning. We are also replacing all the windows in the house and just ordered them last week, so that's a big expense. We are removing all the carpets on the main floor and putting in wood flooring. Nothing has been done to the interior of our house since we bought it and it is 31 years old, so it really needs a total makeover! It's just like walking back into the 70's when you enter our home!! LOL. We used to laugh that my mom's home was just like a trip back to the 50's and now here we are, stuck in the 70's! The bathroom and kitchen badly need a makeover too, but all we will be able to do, at this time anyways, is a fresh coat of paint on the walls and the ceiling redo and paint, along with the rest of the main floor rooms. Wish we could get rid of the old linoleum floors in the bathroom and tile the floor and walls and get rid of the old linoleum in the kitchen and the old cheap laminate countertops, but just way too much expense to do it all. They say that redoing bathrooms and kitchens add the greatest improvement to one's home, but the entire house needs a redo....so they will stay stuck in the 70's! There is also electrical work that needs to be done and the movement of a cement step and sidewalk and landing and all.......can't you just see the $$$$ signs racing by - UGH!! AND now the leaky roof! It's just a good thing this happened BEFORE the remodel began....if there is any bright side to this newest development, haha. OH and we are siding the exterior of the house with steel siding.....our 'improvements' are costing more than what we paid for the house - ouch! AND still the basement needs to be redone if we can ever afford to do any more than is planned for now. So, as you can see, we are sort of buried in all the plans of remodeling, plus Terry just accepted a promotion, which is also keeping his head in over-drive with new job responsibilities to learn (his title is Assistant Area Forestry Supervisor) and also a new location (about 20-25 miles from here). We will have to move just about everything out of our main floor space (we have a rambler with walkout basement). Fortunately, we can live in the walkout basement while the main floor gets redone. We plan to rent one of those storage units that they put on your property and have that company move the heavy furniture into it for us....so, I will start packing our main floor before too long, so as not to be rushed too much. I can at least pack the things on the walls and all the nick-knacks. We have decided against having them put the hardwood flooring in the closets, to save some money that way, so also glad I now won't have to pack up everything in them as well!!! Hopefully, we can seal them off with tarps, well enough. We are also going to have a pocket door installed between the kitchen and rest of the house, to enable us to keep Jazzy (cat) out of the work areas and have a little privacy from the work and mess when needing to use the kitchen (when they're not painting and redoing the ceiling in there). It will be a busy spring and summer around here! Then Jon and Ashley's wedding on Sept. 1st! We hope the house is in order before family and friends arrive for that!! Well, how's that for a lengthy update! I better close here before I use up all the allotted space and I lose this post! Thanks again for the birthday wishes! Love,
on 2/24/2007, 4:06 pm, in reply to "Re: Sue(Mn`Sue) Happy Birthday!!!"
Dear Friends,
Sue
(it was Pooh or a Johnny Depp cupcake cake, they said, haha.......) Maybe I'll get Johnny next year??!!!
May the friendship here
brighten your day.
Hugs,
Sue
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