We made it back. Left on Friday, stopped and saw my
stepbrother in South Carolina and daughter in New Jersey and still made it home
by Sunday.
The New England weather tried to cooperate and give us what
we were used to n Florida – it was in the 80’s for the first couple of weeks
but it just couldn’t keep it up – so it let us know we weren’t in Florida
anymore – a good ¼” diameter hail storm broke the Florida illusion.
Even though the cottage in Voluntown was vacant most of the
winter it still wanted some attention. First think was the shower – I had
ripped out the old one before I left, ordered a new base (wrong size –had to
send it back to CA for a bigger one) and the tile so everything was ready for
me when I got home. It was the first time I had installed the small glass tiles
and it was quite an ordeal –applying mastic, cutting the glass tiles and
getting them installed before the mastic set up - but from a couple of feet away it looks pretty
good. Son-in-law Dan came over to help me with the grouting – it had a very
limited pot life before it set up so two people were a must.
Polly came up and helped me do the new drain plumbing in the
basement – she slopped the primer and glue on while I tried to assemble them
before they cured – only one leak and a little more glue fixed that. The red
stuff on the shower trap is my blood – one of the flooring screws got me when I
went to hammer a pipe joint together with my hand –ouch.
Now this all took a week and a half and my shower was either
at Polly’s or in the hot tub on the back porch. So as soon as the grouting was
done, I got two companies to come in and
give me an estimate on the glass enclosure for the shower – It was a lot more
than I expected (low bid was $2165) and a lot longer lead time than I expected
– 4 weeks. So to save the neighbors from having to look at a bare old man going
out to the hot tub every morning, we rigged an old shower curtain that Polly
had and the shower is now operational.
We just peck away at the jobs and pretty soon they are all
done – carpets have had their once a year shampoo, the outside of the cottage
has been power washer and the decks sprayed for mold. It’s just like the beaver
that decided he’d tackle this tree. It’ll take him a while but it’ll be tasty
when he gets it down – (This is in my son’s back yard in North Stonington)
