feng_shui_house

My dragon pattern was in the mailbox! EEE! (now, finding time to DO it...) They overlooked all sorts of embellishments/refinements/substitutions that would make them more fun. Like rickrack in the mouth for teeth! :^)

Third pool guy called, he says he'll be by Thurs. aft. Think it very unlikely I'll hire third guy because of fibs & dispromptitude (I think that should be a word; it means you're not only late, you're too discourteous to call and say you'll be late.). Still, if I can get an estimate as bargaining material, yay.

Window repair plotting still going on.

When I woke from my nap I suddenly recalled one of the reasons I couldn't drill into the cement framing the window opening-all the windows in that room have steel embedded in the cement (possibly it was a pre-formed setting). When I had installed the blinds I'd tried to put them into the cement rather than the wood. I had tried for days, until I gave up in weeping despair without making more than a shiny spot on the steel even after I chewed through the cement and broke several strong bits. I can't drill to put molly bolts in to hold up plywood. DRAT. That WOULD be the proper way. I just can't do it.

I drilled an exploratory line in the drywall above the worst place on the termited window & found the wood originally was 3 3/4 inches wide. It's still good wood for 1 1/2 inches at a minimum, and since no fasteners came down with the rot, then the masonry nails holding it to the concrete must still be there in the remaining wood. No amount of jiggling and prodding shifted the wood, so I think I can probably cut wood to fit between the concrete & the drywall, use the cut wood to force wood putty in to make the surface level, let the wood putty thoroughly harden, then screw long screws through the new wood into the original wood and then the blind mounts can attach to the new wood.

I have had to do more 'creative' engineering on ehouse. Half the time even when I know the proper way a thing should be done, circumstances force me to adapt.

I shall never give up, never surrender!