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Havasu, very nice flooring!

The past few days we have been doing major cleanup and such at my house. Some friends came over and started tackling my brother's room and the kitchen. My brother has been sick a lot with respiratory problems so they decided it was a priority to clean up his space to get rid of dust and other things that could help his breathing.

The kitchen is a daunting task. We have to take everything out of the cabinets and give them a good rinse and then clean the cabinets and caulk inside them to keep bugs out, and put new liners on the shelves. After we get the cabinets and stuff cleared up we need to clean out the fridges and the stove-- although I think the stove needs to be replaced at this point.

The floors used to be nice parquet wood but the finish wore off and the tenants got the floor so wet that the floor permanently warped and chunks of it came up. We will likely have to replace the floor in the entire kitchen. We need something sturdy that can handle getting wet.

Our 20+ year old Kenmore garbage disposal finally died. It got clogged up and wasn't draining and the sink filled up and wouldn't drain. My friends were griping about the smell and were standing around trying to figure out what to do. I put on a glove to guard my fingers a bit and stuck my arm in and reached down into the disposal (making sure the switch was set to off first) and started clearing stuff out. That seemed to get it to drain fairly well. It continued to keep clogging though. I know that houses with septic tanks aren't supposed to have garbage disposals anyway so we may just have to get rid of it entirely. The problem is getting it to detach. It's stuck on there. We'll probably have to call in the plumber for that one. We definitely need to get rid of the S-trap and also try to figure out how to bring the venting up to code.

We also need to tackle the outside a bit and get stuff moved off of the porch and then clean up the siding. Once we get things fixed up enough we should be able to get insurance back on it (they canceled our insurance for bogus reasons-- claimed there were holes in the siding an that the policy holder did not live here-- both of which are untrue; they just didn't like that they had to pay a claim for the barn).

I've also been playing chauffeur for my mother. She will no longer even drive herself anywhere so I have to take her everywhere-- not that she even leaves the house much anymore. Hell, its hard to get her to even get out of bed now. I took her to the doctor today and he told her to adjust some of her medication and encouraged her to go tot he wellness center and use the new elliptical machine that lets you exercise while sitting down.
 
havasu, the parquet has to be removed entirely because huge sections have already come out and there are parts that warp upward and won't go down anymore. I'm going to have to chisel out the parts at the cabinets-- that is going to suck. Then I plan to get an underlayment that dampens noise. The main problem will be getting a flooring that my mother likes and that is very durable.
Sitting down and exercising is my type of exercise as well. Its sad because I used to be very active and doing martial arts and weight-lifting. I also used to swim a lot. Now getting out of bed is a challenge.

Chukar, WTF is that stuff? It sort of looks like cereal flakes, but I know its not. In the bucket it looks like a cross between rocks and giant oatmeal flakes. I'm afraid to look in my water heater...

Today I did a bit more cleaning, helped my brother with his laundry, drove people places, and waited in pizza hut for over an hour because they kept messing up my friend's order over and over. Got a new microcell tower in the house so my cellphones now get signal. Woohoo!
 
phishfood said:
What do you think caused all of that buildup?

I know what caused it, we have hard water between 22-25 grains of hardness the TDS count is over 500. I have to do this to all my commercial tanks else they fill and die fast. The alternative is installing a large commercial softener.
 
I know what caused it, we have hard water between 22-25 grains of hardness the TDS count is over 500. I have to do this to all my commercial tanks else they fill and die fast. The alternative is installing a large commercial softener.

Yikes! This may sound like a dumb question, but how do you measure the hardness of your water?
 
Water sample test, I pick them up from my local wholesaler, take the test they ship the test bottle back to a lab for testing. I'll see if I can post a sample report form later.

Thanks. That would probably take awhile in my area. I don't think there are any labs around. My area is pretty much devoid of many useful things.

Today I got tired of trying to scrub the insides of my cabinets and not being happy with the results so I got out some killz paint and just painted the inside of them. I had to take breaks in between bc having my head inside the cabinet with the paint fumes wasn't helping and the damned ladder kept sliding. At one point it slid far enough that I fell and got paint all over my arm and some on a nearby cabinet when I threw my hand out to try to brace myself. So now I have to figure out how to remove the paint from that without removing the poly. I started painting the inside of one of the doors but hated how it looked so I'm going to get some paint thinner to strip it off and then put a coat of poly on it. I don't care that the insides look sloppy. I was trying to fill in some small gaps and I will have to go back with some caulk and maybe something else to fill the gaps that are too large for caulk. The walls were wooden slats and the cabinets didn't have backs to them so there are gaps that let bugs get in from inside the walls (bc there are open spaces inside the walls where there is no floor and its just exposed to the outside underneath the house, things can get in). I'm trying to figure out the best way to fill the largest gaps.

I finally got my brother to come out and take a few minutes away from playing his video games to stop the ladder from sliding while I painted. I just finished painting the last one. I painted the underside of the shelves and the walls and such as well. If there was any mouse urine/feces left, its now coated. When it dries I will put in the new liners I got. They don't fit perfectly though, so there will be gaps that I will cover with tape. If the liners get dirty I'll be able to pull them up and rinse them off-- unlike the paper crap that was stuck on before.

One of my friends is coming back tomorrow to help us continue with the cleanup project.

My mother said "Aren't you embarrassed to have people come and help you clean up?" and I was tempted to say "Aren't you embarrassed that you won't get off your fat a$$ and actually clean up yourself?"

Quite frankly, I'm just grateful for the help. It's going to be a nice surprise for my sister when she comes to visit next month.

Also today I went to the feed store and picked up some 12% sweet feed for my cows.

Meanwhile all my bedsheets are in the wash so I'm going to be up waiting for them to be dry so I can go to sleep.
 
Got a phone call just before 11pm that my sister needed a ride home from a bar. It's fun waking the baby up to go for a nice drive.
 
Zanne / Keep chugging away on the clean up and before you know it, it will be done.

Chris / I have to applaud someone who still has the whit to make a phone call rather than kill herself or someone else on the road.

Phish / Them radishes look healthy.

Me, I slept in for the first time in a month. I like it!
 
She didn't have a car, I got them all a limo to go out but they stayed longer then planned. Told her to get a cab and I would pay but she didn't want to wait.

I was bitter.
 
Today I did nothing.

Yesterday I burned off a half ton of brush. There are years and years of stuff to burn off.
 
It is. Wife is complaining though. It's probably gone tonight.
 
I also have a 2 week growth beard. I like it, but starting to feel like a mountain man, itchy face and all.
 

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