24 June, 2020 - Gutters Mostly Done & My Buddy Elden

Dear, Mom -

Well, my friend Elden and I spent all day running to get supplies and fixing the rotted wood behind the gutter. He was here from 10 in the morning to about 7pm tonight. We didn't really get started hammering and hanging wood until 1pm. He did all of it for free, so I am not complaining. I have not seen him since February. He works at a construction job where they have to be tested for the virus that is going around on a regular basis and he has always been negative. He also doesn't see other people outside of work and the store. He's a really dear friend. He was the one that helped me at a moment's notice to move Aunt Jo from her independent living apartment to the assisted living facility. He is the type of guy that will always be there when you need him no matter what. Her is a picture of us from today:

Elden and I went and got the wood and accidentally got the wrong stuff. We had to go back to the lumber store and get another type of wood (pine) and it was cheaper and perfect. I just have to paint and weatherize it. It looks really nice so far, though. And there is no reason to put the gutter back up because the slope of the roof is so gradual, I don't think it really amounts to much in the gutter. You have to understand out house is put together in sections from different years and a lot of it is willy nilly and doesn't match up right. Because of this, we have to wing it on a lot of repairs. I trust Elden's opinion about just leaving the gutter down and weatherizing the wood so any water will just drip off of it and onto the cement below. This is a temporary fix, however. I really want to find a way to conserve the water coming off the house for the garden and lawn, so I will need to have another professional who does gutters give us an opinion of how to get the water into a gutter which will then feed into a rain barrel.

You can see the stark white line of wood. That is the new wood that we painted. There is just a small lip of flashing above it that will catch the rain and have it drip to the cement below. Ugh. We have so much home improvement that needs to be done and little money to do it with. We are just going to do a bit at a time. I told Holly it will help with the resale of the house eventually because she said she just gave up years ago. I told her we can't give up if we want to be able to have a decent resale value. Plus, our neighborhood is growing so fast, even if they come in and knock it down and build a brand new house, we should still be able to pay off our current mortgage and have money left to build a newer, smaller house in a rural area with a bit of land. 

The next picture is the gutter we saved and the wood under it that I will need to paint twice tomorrow. The right corner is where I found squirrels had actually bent the metal flashing back enough to force the last piece of wood down so they could gain access to the crawl space in the attic. Those critters are smart, to say the least.

Holly was in the music studio most of today, so Elden and I worked together outside. She was lovely enough to pick up lunch and dessert from our neighbor Paula's sandwich shop. We all had tuna sandwiches and brownies. We definitely built up hunger by dinner time.

I am pretty tired and it is quarter after 10 pm. I am going to listen to a bit of a podcast with my sleep timer on and try to get up earlier tomorrow so I can get Elsa the dog a long walk in the cool air. She gets so hot when it gets over 75 degrees. I have a feeling she won't get any other exercise until the evening cool air comes along since I will need to paint when I come home from work. I would still like to get her out of the city over the fourth of July weekend due to all the maniacs with illegal fireworks. Having a dog that was once shot and also traumatized by lawnmowers does not make for an easy summer. I give her something that helps to calm her a bit, but I literally have to give her tranquilizers on the 4th or she goes into full panic mode pacing and trying to get into spaces she can't possibly fit into. She is always well looked after, but I feel so bad for her having to go through it. That is why if I can get her to a camp site for a couple of nights, she will at least miss the worst of the holiday weekend. I hope I can make it happen.

Have a lovely day. Enjoy the sunshine. Sing a song and make some art. Do whatever makes you feel happy. I will be there as soon as I can to tell you in person how much I love you! You are the best mom ever and I am proud of you for always being so brave and strong. Hugs and kisses, Sally.