I am here, and have been posting on other threads and avoiding this one. Have been unfocused, so not too much progress. At least, not as much as I should have made.
This makes me feel depressed and is a self defeating spiral where it leads to more inactivity. I need to feel good about whatever progress there is while striving for more.
That said, there are a few things that have been going on.
I have had 3 dentist appointments at the dental school and we are well into the planning of the treatment, The cost for upper and lower partials (Temporary and permanent), scaling, extractions and fillings is 3K. Insurance only covers $1,200. Plus they want to extract 16 teeth!!! I can't afford that and don't want to lose that many teeth! And Julie's is worse. She will need full uppers and lowers. Don't know her cost. And she will lose all her teeth. It's horrible! We are having trouble dealing with it.
On the property tax, we have paid another $1,300 and will have the last $1,300 in time.
Car (Astro Van - Julie's DD) need repair badly. Back brakes, windshield cracked, window motor, sway bar links, trans problems, heater core, A/C, and leaking coolant on drivers side of radiator with every trip. At least my E350 is good to go.
The house has not much progress. I did re-clean the bedroom which had languished a little and needed it. Then, when we had a couple days of relatively warmer weather, I started working outside. I started attacking the ivy.
We have ivy covering portions of the outside of the house. The house is brick. There is 2 kinds of ivy. One is a small leafed type that has small tendrils and never gets very big. The other one is another story. It has big leaves and gets VERY big. The stalks get as big around as your arm. It has grown up my chimney and over the roof. In the back, it covered much of the wall and went around and through the gutter, over the roof and destroyed the fascia board.
I started to clear it off the windows when I cleaned up the bedroom. I went outside and started to clear it off the chimney as far up as I could reach. Then I saw that the 4" thick ropes were wrapped around the basement window frame. So I cut it off with a bow say near ground level and started prying it off the brick with a pry bar. i still have the rest of the chimney to do. I know the part on the roof is contributing to leaking. I will buy, build or borrow some scaffold to do this as I'm afraid of heights and working off a ladder this high is difficult to do when prying.
Then I cleared it off the window in the office that is in the back wall. Yesterday I had a new radio electric meter installed since the old one had quit working and they were estimating the bill (Actual reading will add $400 to our next bill - We'll need to get a payment plan). While it was being installed I noticed the vines were wrapped around the service entrance cables and the meter box. Service entrance is 70 years old and wire is exposed so I am worried about the wet vines shorting it out. Also worried about how to remove it. Started by cutting the vine on one side near the ground and pulling on it. THE WHOLE GUTTER AND PART OF THE FASCIA BOARD CAME LOOSE AND FELL DOWN!!! Some vines held it just above the service drop.
I went up to the bedroom and attached some rope and pulled it up and secured it until I could slide it sideways away from the wires and lower it to the ground. Then I pulled almost all the rest of the vines from in and around the service and meter box. There are now gaping holes where the fascia board is missing and I will need to secure that. But it is better to have all that off the house. I miss the greenery as I love ivy and how it softens the architecture, but it was destroying the house. Also removed was a very large trumpet vine that had also grown into the gutter/fascia. It can always be replanted later. The debris should fill at least 3 big b lack trash cans. I'll work on that today.
Finally, here is a funny thing that happened today that made me want to post here.
I was trudging up the stairs after seeing Julie off to work when I noticed something on a step that had fallen out of one of the boxes on the stair (Yes, they are still there). It was a flyer that said in large print "SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE"! I took it as an omen!
Photos below:
