New York Renovator

I’m going to skip Find the Kitty Friday this week. We kinda have other things on our plates. We had flooding yesterday, and my house was hit.

Good news is that all the water is out of the basement, and the oil spill is completely contained. Today, we have to scrub down the walls and floor, and haul all the damaged stuff away to the landfill.

All the water is out, and the next job is cleaning.

The oil spill ruined everything in the basement, except the furnace! We were smart when we installed it after the last big flood in 2007– this time, we installed it on a metal stand, a good 2 feet up from the floor. The flood waters came within ONE INCH of the furnace! But it’s OK. Oh thank God!

But everything else is gone: my woodwork, my power saws, my maple flooring that was stored down there, various car parts and toys and patio furniture…. I’m not too sad, it’s just stuff and we can replace it. I’m sad about my power saws, though. I am hoping my insurance covers them.

So we have no hot water until we get a new tank. Looks like the insurance may not roll in a check until next week. I’ve convinced my husband that we can install it ourselves. The need for hot water is a great motivator.

The husband woke me up at around 7:30 this morning, telling me he needed my help. The basement had flooded.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you’ll remember that my area has severe flooding problems. It’s actually a sharp bone of contention in my town, as many of us think that super-over-development of surrounding rural areas has created a stormwater crisis. We suffered severe floods since 2000, with 2006 and 2007 being the worst. After the kids and I dug a dry well and we installed a second pump, the basement has rarely flooded in excess of a few inches for several years. We kinda hoped our flooding days were over. During last year’s renovation, I had to store a lot of stuff in the basement (we were using our garage as a living space): power tools, wood, everything from the garage, really. So while we always checked the basement when it rained, it has been dry thus far. And I haven’t had a chance to clean the basement and put the garage back together yet (I was going to do that as soon as the weather got warmer, which, incidentally, happened yesterday).

But we have had a heck of a lot of rain this month. Last I heard, the weather guy said that out of 28 days in April, we’ve had measurable rain for 26 of them. Earlier this week, we’ve had 6 inches of rain total for April. But last night’s torrential rains upped that a bit, I’d say.

To those who knew what was happening this morning: Thank you SO SO much for praying. I know it has helped. We had a complication this time, and I was very afraid of what would happen.

Unfortunately, we had stored in our basement–a lot of stuff: old engine oil waiting to go to the hazardous waste facility; paint; tools; etc. All that was washed up in the water that came surging in through our sump well. It coated everything and made water removal impossible.

The fire department came to help, but when they saw the oil, they had to call the DEC. It was pretty scary for a while, as I envisioned tens of thousands of dollars in bills from a HAZMAT team… but after it FINALLY stopped raining, we surveyed the damage. The DEC guy said that the oil spill was not large and therefore would not require a HAZMAT team (nor expensive bills). He said we could hire a professional cleanup crew to clean this up, or I could do it myself to save money. Guess which I chose…. he gave me a run down of what to get and how to clean it up, and how to dispose of the waste…. lots to do this week!

Anyway, we still have water in the basement. We have to control it carefully as we pump it out, because we cannot allow any oil to flow into the municipal water system (and the nearby creek). As the water goes down, we are mopping up the oil with large absorbent pads. Once the water is all gone, I begin the long process of shoveling out the sediment, removing the debris, junking the debris, and washing the walls and floor. My insurance will pay for a new water heater and for my ruined tools and power saws, thank God.

The yard is a disaster, filled with several layers of thick sediment from the flood waters. My house sits at a low spot in the general area, and seems to collect all the neighboring flood waters, so we bear the brunt of the flooding. I’ve got a lot of cleanup on my hands. I’ll have to take a few days off from work and writing sensa reviews or whatever to care for this.

If you ask what we need pray for, it’s NO MORE RAIN. Please, no more rain. I know so many people have it worse off than us, so pray for them, too. God is a big God, and He cares even about my small problems.

Thanks for your support, friends. It makes things like this more bearable. God bless you.

My arborvitae are dead, me thinks. The deer had them for dinner over the winter, all 8 of them. $200 down the drain.

Speaking of deer, they are absolutely fearless. I saw them out in my backyard, munching grass. I was a little fearful that they’d devour my new little willow tree back there, so I went to see if they’d done any damage.

SOMEBODY in the area has been feeding them, domesticating them. Because as I drew nearer and nearer, they were not afraid. At one point, they started to bolt, but when I talked soothingly, they were willing to come right up to me, as if they expected food or the best creatine powder. Oh, great.

I live in a town, on a busy street. Deer are a growing problem, not only to us gardeners and the pets (deer spread Lyme disease through the scads of deer ticks they drop in our lawns), but cars hit them when the deer jump out into the roads. These deer were so docile that I could tell they were being domesticated, somehow. Not good. They should be driven out into their natural habitat, the forests in the back.

Ugh, what do you do when the house falls apart faster than you can patch it up???

Yeah, it’s spring. Now that the snow has ebbed away, the busted up dregs of winter’s wrath has appeared. And blast it, I just can’t keep up.

First, there’s the front porch. Years ago now, I had to patch up the decking to put on a new roof. The decking was never properly supported (ever) and I didn’t have the know-how nor tools to dig below the frost line and support it. Now, the porch floor is tilting. A LOT. Ugh. I’m going to have to shore up the roof, remove the decking, and rebuild. NOT FUN.

Thank God the hydrangeas mask the slope and decrepit porch skirt trim!

Our garage door broke last year. The old cable and spring just gave way. We were in the house (thank GOD no one was in the garage) when we heard a huge slam. One of the cables that holds the door up on the track had split in half, like a weary rubber band. We tried to fix it then, but to no avail. I think we may have to hire some garage door company to get a new door, or at least fix the old one. This kind of work is a little beyond my capabilities, and the husband is concerned that the door may spring out or the other cable break while we’re trying to fix it. It’s just too dangerous.

Sad thing is, we don’t even use the room as a garage. Right now, it’s just a place where we keep our tools and junk (we have no storage space in the house, as the basement floods and there is no real attic). When we want to get the lawn mower or rakes out, we need a team of people to hoist the garage door and place a wooden post in the track to keep it up. :-p I have plans to eventually renovate the room into a media room or family room, but that’s not for a while yet. Nuts. I’m stuck.

So how’s your spring turning out as you survey your property? Is the to do list adding up? Still, even though there’s a lot to do with a home every spring, it’s SO worth it, owning your own home than renting.

Thinking about it makes me very queasy, but the topic must be covered. Bedbugs. *gag* *wretch* And I thought fleas were bad.

Bedbugs are making a comeback, especially in New York. Bedbugs were practically wiped out from the industrialized nations thanks to DDT. But DDT is now banned, and critters like malaria-bearing mosquitoes and bedbugs are coming back. The nasty disgusting creatures are spreading like wildfire in schools, hotels, even lawyer’s offices. YUK!!!!

I am a bit of a bug-o-phobe. I hate bugs, HATE the disgusting, dirty little creatures. The family is on quarantine— that is, no more thrift store clothing, and no more curbside or hand-me-down furniture. Not unless it’s fumigated!

We have some very nice furniture, some are pretty hand-me-downs from family members. But the sofas are much too large for my living room (which is crammed with desks and office equipment). We are thinking about downgrading to a smaller living room set. And to be honest, I’m very hesitant to take another hand-me-down, just because of bedbugs. Oh it would be horrible to have them, horrible! So no more second-hand anything. I’m going to have to be a very savvy shopper and get my discounts from the retail or online bedroom furniture store and etc. I’m not taking any chances.

How about you? Has news about bedbugs changed the way you do things? I am not 100% sure that bedbugs have been discovered in my county, but I don’t live dangerously. I’m allergic to fleas and God forbid a nasty bedbug touches my skin! From now on it’s BYOS– Buy Your Own Sofa!

We expected it. It’s still *only* February in Upstate New York. :S We really can’t breathe a sigh of relief until about mid-April, really. And I honestly don’t mind the snow, except that… well, this late in the season, it’s not that nice, fluffy Lake Effect snow from Lake Ontario. It’s monster snow, loaded with moisture chugging up the Eastern seaboard from the Gulf of Mexico. It’s obese snow, it’s snow that weighs about 100 pounds per shovelful! (Well, it feels that way!).

I’m watching it, before my eyes, turn from a grainy, misty kind of snow to flakes that are increasing in size. Last night, the weather dudes said maybe 5 inches. Today, it’s been upped to 10 of 12 inches.

Whoa!

Here’s a quick 1-minute video I took of the snowfall this morning. If the weather dudes are correct, multiply this by 10 and that’s what we’ll have by the end of the day. Yeehaw.

Winter is nice, I think. It’s kind of like nature’s all natural colon cleanse, LOL. (Pretty good, huh?) The fresh snow covers all the mud and debris left over from fall. I’m pretty happy right now about it, because all the ice dams are gone from the roof. Last week, it was over 50 degrees, which melted everything off the roofs! I was elated. Then, the next day, it was near 0! Such is New York.

Have a great weekend.

My husband is a part-time mail carrier. It’s not an easy job, especially in Upstate New York in the winter. Since the United States Post Office is in the news a lot right now (with all their financial problems and the threat of cutting Saturday delivery to make ends meet), I thought it would be cool to mention a few things about the post office– things you may not know because the media fails to report it.

Just for the record, I am against the USPS ending Saturday delivery. I think it would be fatal to the USPS, a really stupid move. What they SHOULD do is end the mandatory (super-expensive) pensions and perks that they dole out to retirees and veteran workers. [Note: I know this is a touchy subject, especially in light of the hooplah going on in Wisconsin. I feel the same way about things in NY-- it's too expensive to maintain a top-heavy government, and painful choices are being made.] There’s also quite a bit of waste in the USPS that can be slashed, but it takes acts of Congress to make these changes. The USPS is under government control, but they don’t receive a PENNY in tax money. Another example of waste is that some postal areas blend delivery areas– this doubles the expense of delivering mail because TWO or more offices serve ONE area.

Anyway, I saw a list called “13 Things Your Mail Carrier Won’t Tell You” at the Reader’s Digest website, and thought it was very worthy of passing on. These are all things my husband has brought up in one way or another. I include the best here. My own comments are in regular type.

• Maybe your dog won’t bite you. But in 2009, 2,863 of us were bitten, an average of nine bites per delivery day. That’s why I wince when your Doberman comes flying out the door. My husband has told me quite a few stories of some VERY close calls he’s had with dogs that “wouldn’t hurt a flea.” Uh huh. Folks, do you want your mail? Keep the dog inside. My kids need their dad home, not in a hospital.
• Remember this on Valentine’s Day: It takes our machines longer to read addresses on red envelopes (especially if they’re written in colored ink).


Photo from Wikipedia

• Media Mail is a bargain, but most of you don’t know to ask for it. Sending ten pounds of books from New York City to San Francisco through Media Mail costs $5.89, compared with $16.77 for Parcel Post. Besides books, use it to send manuscripts, DVDs, and CDs; just don’t include anything else in the package.
• The USPS doesn’t get a penny of your tax dollars.
• UPS and FedEx charge you $10 or more for messing up an address. Us? Not a cent. My husband will even make up the difference if an envelope is not properly stamped.
• Paychecks, personal cards, letters—anything that looks like good news—I put those on top. Utility and credit card bills? They go under everything else. Junk mail, flyers, and mail for stuff like male enhancement products is cased at the bottom.
• Mail carriers also have to endure- day after day– the smut and glut of porno and “ladies” magazines. Some magazines, like Playboy, are required to conceal their magazine covers with plastic or paper, but the “ladies” mags like “Shape” or “Cosmopolitan” do not, and those covers are sickening. I feel so sorry for mail carriers who have to endure that junk. You know, if the USPS forced such magazines to pay a little extra to cover their stuff, I’ll betcha that would solve the USPS financial problems in a one week, not to mention a whole lot of consciences and marriages.
• Sorry if I seem like I’m in a hurry, but I’m under the gun: Our supervisors tell us when to leave, how many pieces of mail to deliver, and when we should aim to be back. Then some of us scan bar codes in mailboxes along our route so they can monitor our progress.
• Yes, we do have to buy our own stamps, but a lot of us carry them for customers who need them. Very true! My husband always has a stash of stamps and he adds them gratis. He’s such a swell guy. Sad thing is, no one ever seems to realize how generous he really is. He also gets out of the car and moves your trash cans that have blown out in front of your mailbox, even though he does not HAVE to legally deliver your mail if there’s an impediment to your box.
• Please dress properly when you come to the door. A towel wrapped around you doesn’t cut it. And we definitely don’t want to see you in your underwear—or naked! My husband has had a few very uncomfortable encounters with ladies who treat the mailman as if he was some kind of nobody, not worthy of respect. It’s not fun to have to deliver mail to jiggly ladies who wear less cotton than an aspirin bottle. :-p
• We serve 150 million addresses six days a week, so we’re often in the right place at the right time. We pull people out of burning cars, catch burglars in the act, and call 911 to report traffic accidents, dead bodies, and more. My husband actually came to the rescue of an older, heavyset gentlemen living in a rural area who had fallen and couldn’t get up. His wife was trying to help him, but she was too weak to lift him. Together, my husband and the lady couldn’t even lift him, so my husband waited with the couple at their home until a rescue team arrived, because the wife was so stressed. It took the rescue team half an hour to get there, and that was time out of my husband’s day (and he was late for his second job, too).
• Most of us don’t mind if you pull up to our trucks while we’re delivering and ask for your mail a little early. But please get out of your car and come get it. Don’t just put your hand out your window and wait for me to bring it to you.
• We go to great lengths to deliver to every address, no matter how remote. That’s why, in the most rural areas, even UPS and FedEx rely on us to make their final deliveries. True. And some places are VERY remote. I have had to rescue my husband out of some places, too. One rural place, he ran out of gas. And another time, during a snowstorm, the van slipped into a ditch and fell in sideways. I had to try to tow him out (couldn’t) so we called a tow truck. All the while, the mail delivery was delayed. What was really sad was that, while we were out in the storm waiting for a tow truck, a customer on the route with a honking big SUV roared by us, didn’t even stop to help. But he got his mail with a smile, anyway.
• Those plants around your mailbox are beautiful, but I’d like them better if you kept them trimmed back. Please don’t plant flowers because bees and ants like them.
• Is it hot enough for me? The heat index is 110 degrees. What do you think? (Instead of asking that, offer me a cold drink.)
• Despite the “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” motto, we’re instructed not to deliver to a mailbox if the snow and ice around it isn’t cleared. Most of us take the motto to heart, though, and do our best to deliver in even the most hazardous conditions. My husband does everything humanly possible to deliver the mail, even for rude people who do not shovel their boxes out. And you know what? If the mail can’t get delivered that day, it has to be delivered the NEXT day– that’s TWO days mail that has to be delivered in ONE day in the same amount of time. And my husband has actually had to call in unavailable for his second job because the mail delivery was so heavy that day– so, he LOST money because he lost HOURS on his other job, because some folks didn’t shovel their mailboxes out and that made a chain reaction with the mail load. So give the mailman a break.
• I have people who leave a letter in their box and tape 44 cents in change to it. I’ll take it, but the next day I’ll be waiting in line like everyone else to buy you a stamp.
• It’s a small thing that makes my job so much easier: Please park your car in the driveway instead of in front of the mailbox. I live on a busy street, and while I never park in front of my mailbox, lots of people do. That means, I don’t get my mail because their car is in the way.

I hope this gives a little perspective on the USPS and the millions of men and women who work there. These people work very hard and deal with a multitude of mail products, people, weather and animals. I think they deserve our support! Thanks for reading.

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I was pretty happy and contented with winter until the temperatures tumbled into the double-digit SUB ZERO numbers, causing ice and ice dams. I found myself browsing the selection of gorgeous patio furniture at CNS Stores yesterday. *Sigh* They have over 200 stores– stores loaded with furniture and home decor and linens and the sweetest little wooden swing set. I’m torn between getting a porch swing or a rocker, because I am going to be OUTSIDE all summer long this year!!

Back to reality. Lots of Northeasterners groaning about the ice dams these days, and no wonder. We got ICE. All the snow on our roofs promptly froze. Then, the temps bounced back up, and the ice melted. Then it refroze. Not to mention that my attic leaks tons of heat because it is a) improperly insulated (another thing I need to fix), and b) there’s no insulation in the second floor walls (we have to renovate that section of the house yet).

Here’s a photo of an ice dam, for those who don’t know. Ice works its way up and under the shingles, where it meets with the warm air from the house. Leaks commence, and can be extremely destructive.

Photo courtesy of lyonscontracting.com

This house has evidence of some very serious ice dams from the past (scars of ugly, patched plaster are on some of the upstairs bedroom ceilings), but we’ve never had bad ice dams until this year. Maybe it’s because the house was never really WARM due to the disgusting forced air furnace system that was here. This year, with the new heating system, it’s downright toasty in the house. But I guess I’m paying a price…

We discovered some damage in our garage. Bad ice dams. This is the ceiling, from the inside:

Yes, that IS old tin ceiling. I think it’s about 120 years old, maybe. And above the tin ceiling is even older wallpaper– that probably dates back to the 1870s, I assume. The previous owners before us covered all these ceiling layers over with a 70′s drop ceiling. The drop ceiling has been collapsing, so that explains why we can see the old tin ceiling and old wallpaper and original plaster ceiling.

I’ll betcha there’s a human-sized icicle in the attic above the garage. I’m too afraid to look.

There’s not a whole lot we can do. Our roof is too steeply pitched to climb up on it and loosen the ice. I considered throwing rock salt up on the roof…. we tried to get roof rakes, but all the home centers are sold out. Yeah no kidding.

So we want spring to come now. REAL bad. lol. I am SICK of ice!!!!

I’ll always remember Christmas Day 2002 and February 2, 2011. Both were weather freaks.

On December 25, 2002, local weather forecasters thought they saw a monster storm coming, but for some odd reason, predicted only a few inches. Well, maybe he should have said a few inches per hour, because when the snow started, it wasn’t going to stop. When all was said and done, we had 28 inches of new snow that day. For most people, it was not a great inconvenience, since most businesses and schools were closed for the holiday. My husband, however, had to work that day (restaurant), and it took him forever to get home. (The weather wise guys later said they “knew about the massive storm all along” but hesitated for this or that reason.)

Then there’s the February 2, 2011 “storm.” It clobbered the midwest/western side of the Rust Belt pretty well (have you guys finally dug out yet, huh?), and our weathermen here in Upstate New York were quaking in anticipation about this one. They originally predicted 8″ then 12″ and then 18″! Since we already have a good snow mass packed around us, 12″ is a pretty good amount. Some businesses and nearly all the schools in a 250-mile radius issued closings and cancellations. Folks raced to the store to get bread and milk, prompted by excited news outlets.

But the whole thing fizzled out somewhere along the Pennsylvania border, no? We got a whopping THREE inches. It ended almost as quickly as it came. By 10am, the snow had dissipated. I saw glimpses of sun peeking through the clouds later that morning.

Oh well.

Later that evening, we got about 2 inches more– lake effect stuff from good old reliable snow donor, Lake Ontario. It’s fluffy and light, not at all like the slushy stuff that crawled through the Ohio Valley.

So anyway, here we are. The skies are bright blue and I decided to take camera in hand and venture out into the deep for a photo shoot. It’s cold out today, temps in the mid-teens.

Perhaps the first thing you notice are the enormous icicles looming atop the eaves. Grrr, these nasty things are responsible for some of the ice dams.

Snowbank in the driveway is about 18″ high.

The grill is buried. I’m not feeling like having a barbecue yet, anyway.

The sky is blue, like a sparkly sapphire.

Snow-covered bunny tracks. Since my good old feral cat died a few weeks ago the rabbits have been bolder. Their tracks are everywhere. Maybe it’s all this bunny traffic causing the dogs to bark their heads off all night long.

The mailbox with monster snowbank.

Blue shade from the trees. Pretty.

So thus ends *another* storm of the season. And gee, just think– we only have two more months of winter yet!

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” is the old postal proverb. Those mailmen must be in tip-top shape delivering mail, but my poor old mailbox has seen better days. You see, the snowplow has been through.

My mailbox actually fared pretty well than some others this year. Some poor folks have their mailboxes ripped right off of the posts by the sheer force of the snowplows roaring by.

Did you know that in most municipalities, the snowplow operator is not responsible for damage to your mailbox, even if he used it as target practice during a dull night of plowing? It’s true; the property owner swallows the cost of replacement.

Photo courtesy of chagrinvalleytimes.com

My own mailbox has been slowly waning for a few years, anyway. When we installed the mailbox a few years ago, carefully set the post into the ground, making sure the post was level and plumb. But the post has become as crooked as Harry Lauder’s walking stick. Not sure how this happened. Either the wood warped pitifully (it looks like it’s turning around to see who’s coming), or perhaps the ground has shifted so badly that the pole is a-kilter. We get a lot of water running underground here, I wouldn’t surprised if the fish took off with my mailbox one of these days…

Anyway, it’s always a sorry sight when winter is over– the seas of snow recede only to expose the ugly gray clumps of old sand and road salt littered all over the yards… and poking up through the crusty brown snowbanks are the mangled spindly legs of all the neighborhood mailboxes– well, those that survived the vicious clutches of the snowplow, that is. Some say that we never do find out what happens to some of them…. Old mailboxes never die, they just…. fade away….