New Deck

 So we've been wanting to replace our deck for a few years now. Here's what it looked like:

It was in pretty bad shape. So two years ago I had some contractors come and give me an estimate. The one I really liked never returned my calls or emails. :-(  So I dragged my feet . . .  Last year I had three more contractors come over - two I really didn't feel comfortable with, and the third was okay. So I was going to go with him . . . but dragged my feet again. So this year, I contacted 5 more contractors and asked for estimates. Only one got back to me! But I felt very comfortable with this company and they were highly rated, so we went with them. Turns out it was a good decision. They did an incredible job, were courteous, cleaned up at the end of each day, and weren't put out by all my questions.

With this Covid summer, scheduling has been a problem for them, so they couldn't say exactly when they would be able to do the work. The county is very slow with their permits, weather delays, etc. They also told me that materials were not always available and that when they were ready, the materials may not be. So what we did was order the material right away and got it delivered to my house. My wife and I carried it ALL into the garage (and there was a lot!) where it sat and waited until they had an opening in their schedule to install it. And that was this week. :-)  They thought it was going to be a day and a half, maybe a two day job. Turned out to be 3 1/2 days! But the results are great. Then today the owner told me that my decision to buy and have the materials delivered and wait was genius - these materials are not available now and we would have had to wait a lot longer.

A couple of the things I wanted to do when they tore out my old deck was (1.) close off the fox den that was under there, so that if the foxes ever get back under there, they can't just move back in! And (2.) get rid of all the trash that had been thrown under there before. Successful on both counts. I also took a picture of some of the interesting items of trash we found under there . . .

A toy gun, a long drill bit, a fork, a steak knife, a wrench, and a chicken bone! I'm not sure if the chicken bone was left there by humans, foxes, raccoons, or some other critter, but all now gone. :-)  We are very pleased with the results, and I would highly recommend this company if you are looking into getting or replacing a deck.

Don't Drive Drunk

I was in Detroit all this week visiting my in-laws. My son went to my house on New Year's Day to make sure there were no packages or things sitting out. There weren't. But something was missing - my mailbox! So my sons calls me . . . Did you do something with your mailbox? . . . Uh, no. Why? . . . 'Cause it isn't there!

My son found some chrome pieces and pieces of the mailbox on the sidewalk, some tire marks in the grass, and some mud tracks in the street. So he followed the dirt trail a couple of streets over and found the mailbox . . .

We're guessing that someone had a few too many on New Year's Eve and not only ran it over, but dragged it for a while. Our mail carrier said that there was another mailbox missing on another street. Same driver? Who knows.

Here's what it looked like up close. Oof-da!

So my job today was to dig out the old sheered-off post and install a new mailbox. It wasn't too bad a job. It was pretty warm here today, so the ground wasn't frozen and it was good weather to work outside. Not exactly what I wanted to do the day back from a mini-vacation, but what can you do? But I did a nice job, if I do say so myself!

Tired. Sore. Done!

This was my project that I completed yesterday:

I've been trying to improve the drainage around our house. Many of the downspouts simply go into the ground and I never knew where they came out! One day, I found one that didn't - it just dead-ended into dirt! So I fixed that one. Then I checked out this one and found it going into a "T," which I realized is the output of the sump pump, which I never knew where it actually went. (Was glad to find it!) Sadly, though, when I dug a little more, I found this section of pipe severely compromised. Some by roots (the culprits of which I dug up), but also but careless contractors who had crushed sections with their spades when they were digging. Argh! The section below the picture also has a spade intrusion into it, but I wasn't going to go digging that far, and the water seemed to flow okay past it. I think there may also be one farther up the line, but chose to leave that one as well for now. Hopefully, this will do the trick and all the water will happily flow away from our house. :-)

Labor Day

Well, it's been a long hiatus from blogging. Some of that was vacation, some busyness, some lack of incentive to post anything. I'm going to try to catch up.

First up, here's what I did on my Labor Day holiday:

I labored! :-)  We have a bunch of these large, overgrown, part dead, part rotten, all ugly bushes behind our house, next to our deck. Wanting to do something with our deck, we figured the first step is getting rid of these monstrosities. Without them, the whole backyard opens up and is much nicer. But what a lot of work! So many branches so densely grown together. I got the first three out - the first two were the biggest and toughest. There are three left - we may leave the last one, not sure yet. But also have to think about the stumps now. I'll try to dig them out, but if that's too hard, we'll just saw them off down below dirt level. Then we're thinking of putting a raised garden there. Anyway, that was my Labor Day!

Ain't It The Way

So last week while I was at Higher Things, the air conditioner in our home decided to stop working. Repairman cannot come until Friday. So this week? Yup - the hottest days of the year so far, every day in the 90s with high humidity. :-(

Strange Noise . . .

Ok, so I get up this morning and make my way down to my study in the basement. To do so I walk past the laundry room and hear the water running. Strange. Sounds like the washing machine, but it's early so no one up but me. The water noise is coming from the sump pump hole.

Oh no.

For those of you who do not have sump pumps, let me tell you this: there is no good scenario for what is happening at this point. None. Nada. This is bad no matter how you slice it.

So I gently move the cover to the sump hole and water starts squirting out. Okay, it just got worse. Images of my basement flooding are running through my head. So I unplug the pump and remove the cover . . . and thankfully, the water is not running out of the hole. This is probably the best case scenario! One of the couplings connecting the pump output to the output pipe had come loose and the water was squirting out of there. But what caused it to all of a sudden come loose?

I grab some buckets and bail the water out of the hole. It is as warm as bath water! Our pump must have been running quite some time. My guess is that with all of our extremely cold weather, the line has frozen somewhere and the pump just kept running and running, trying to push out the water until the coupling came apart under the pressure. Then the pump kept pumping but the water never left the hole, i.e. infinite loop.

So, I'll keep an eye on it for now and see what happens. Reminds me of another story when I heard water running in the middle of the night . . . but that's a story for another day. :-)

UPDATE: Confirmed line was clogged (and assumed frozen), so ran a new, temporary line to the waste sink in the laundry room. So now the water can get pumped out until the spring thaw, when I'll remove the temporary line and reattach the permanent one. (My wife will just have to watch her step until then!) And now I'll have the emergency line ready for it this ever happens again.

What Does Pastor Do on Christmas Eve?

Well . . . paint the bathroom, of course! Really, I did. Since we moved into our house last year (which needed some work and painting) we've managed to paint and fix many things - all except the master bath. It was painted a really bad orange color and had gaudy and ugly fixtures. So, I've been trying to get it done for Christmas - kind of a gift for my wife. We had the shower re-done, finally got someone to install the new shower door (long story), and now I've been trying to replace the vanity, mirror, light, fixtures, and repair and paint the walls.

Been making slow progress, working around everything else that needs to get done this season. But yesterday, I really wanted to get the new vanity installed and working. So had to finish painting where it goes. Done. But then when I went to install it, the drain on the new sink does not match up with the drain coming out of the wall! UGH! I really don't know why - we bought a very similar vanity and sink combo (shape and size-wise) to the one we're replacing, but the drain's far enough off that I couldn't get it done yesterday. :-(  So I need to wait until tomorrow to go to Home Depot and see if I can get what I need to fix it.

But - good news! - larger than expected attendance at church last night! As I've written here before, my congregation gets smaller at Christmas, not larger. In DC, everyone is from somewhere else, so many of my congregants travel over the holidays. Add to that some nasty illnesses going around, and my expectations were pretty low. But I was wrong! :-)  Still not as high as a usual Sunday, but nice to have as many as we did. Now looking forward to the Divine Service this morning . . . but first, to cook breakfast for my family! Started a new tradition last year of doing this - cooking a really big breakfast for everyone.

So a merry and blessed Christmas to you all!

Sold

On Thursday, the sale on my father's house closed. The old homestead is sold. It really wasn't in very good shape. My father had been unable to take care of it for the last number of years and it needs a lot of major work. We were fortunate to find a buyer willing to buy it "as is, where is" without having to put it on the market. Also, after he guts it and fixes it up he is going to move in - he's not going to flip it. That was important to my Dad. He wanted to find a good neighbor for the guy he shares a driveway with.

It will be strange not having a house in Philadelphia to stay in anymore. It was the perfect halfway stopping point to my sister in Connecticut. But we'll also no longer have to worry about getting the grass cut and the utilities paid. Lots of good memories there: tree climbing, ball playing, dog chasing, and much more. May the man who bought it and will live it be as blessed as we were there.

Good News

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Keeping busy with all kinds of things and trying to stay warm in the cold and snow.  :-)

Here's my good news: my son has applied to five colleges and actually heard back from one today, and was accepted! Western New England University (Springfield, MA) accepted him into its Civil Engineering program. He was pretty happy and pleased. Unfortunately for us, its a pretty expensive school - but they already offered him a merit scholarship, and then there is the need based aid we can receive. So we'll see. It's still early on in the whole process. Just happy he got accepted - now we'll wait and see what the other schools say.

My other bit of news is that I have used my wood pellet burning fireplace in my study a couple of times now! [Actual picture to the left.] It is really nice. Just hit the "on" button and in a few minutes the fire starts and warms the room up. The pellets auto-feed, so it's pretty fool proof. All I need to do is make sure the hopper doesn't run out of fuel so the fire keeps going. So last week I spent one day sitting by the fire and reading a book for my schools comps. Nice.

VBS Day 1 and Housing News

Well, the first day of Vacation Bible School is in the books. It was a good day. In the past, the kids are usually very calm and mild mannered the first couple of days, and then when they get used to things and get warmed up, the last few days are much more raucous. But this year, they started right in! So it was a fun day.

We're using the Higher Things package "From Above." It is affordable (only $75 and reproducible) and well done. The kids can easily understand the different directions - we can't go up to God, God comes down to us from above. So I'd recommend it to others, especially if you have a small VBS. Here's a couple of pictures from day 1 of the kids building their "Tower of Babels" from sugar wafers, graham crackers, and chocolate icing!

In other news, our realtor made our house listing "active" Saturday around 1 pm. That same day we had three folks come to look at the house! Sunday we had 6-7, and Monday a couple more. Today, one is scheduled so far. Last night we received one offer, which we'll talk over with the realtor today. So things are moving, at least on the selling side. Now we just need to find one to buy that is big enough and suits our needs. We'll be looking at one today right after VBS . . .

Yes, I Am Still Alive!

Haven't blogged in a while . . . very tired from all the activity here of getting our house ready to list, entertaining visitors, and getting ready to leave for Higher Things - Scranton early tomorrow morning. While we are gone the painters will come and re-paint the whole interior of our house. Got to do that if you want to sell well here. It's nice they can do it while we're away - that will make things much, much easier. So today, final preparations for Higher Things (teaching and preaching) and for the painters.

I am looking forward to Higher Things and being away for a few days. A change of pace will be nice. It's always busy and hectic - so much going on there! - but I'll get to sit and listen and be fed too, and talk to some brother pastors, and spend good time with my kids. So it'll be a good week.

We had a good Fathers Day weekend. My sister brought my father down to spend it with us. Then my in-laws came later that week and we got to play lots of cards with them. That's always nice.

What has been falling to the side with all this activity is my school stuff. I am still working on my French, but I haven't been able to do any exam reading. That's not good. We'll see how the next few weeks go. Once our house lists, the realtor expects it to be contracted pretty fast. We'll have a contingency on the contract of our finding a new house, so either things will get really hectic (if we find a place) or things will slow down as we just keep looking.

And then there's VBS in two weeks too . . .  :-)