Happy Thanksgiving

We had such a nice Thanksgiving. I ate too much, as usual, but had a great day.

I walked outside on Thursday morning to get something from my vehicle and noticed the flat tire on my car. While I was irritated, I didn't flip out like I normally would have. You can see the screw/nail/piece of metal sticking out from the tread. I'm not sure where I acquired it, but based on the condition of the metal, it has been in there a little while. I'm glad it went flat while I was at home and not traveling or at work or somewhere else.

I guess we should be thankful for small blessings. =)

I went to an auto repair shop that was recommended by a family memeber, but they weren't open. I went to Bo Lovein Ford and Mr. Rowe said he would go to the house and pick up the car and fix it. He picked it up and returned it in about 30 minutes. They are great! The Honda is ready to go.

Sunroom Repairs (Part 1)

The previous post showed the work going on in the master bedroom. This one shows the sunroom work.

The part of the house with the master bedroom and sunroom was an addition (not sure when it was added). Due to a deteriorating flue cap on the roof, water collected in the crawlspace and caused fungus to grow on the wood. This fungus destroyed the wood it came in contact with and made that part of the house very unsafe. This wood is so brittle that simply tapping the wood causes it to crumble. The inspector said the subflooring in this part of the house is so deteriorated that if left unrepaired, will just collapse one day (with everything on it dropping to the dirt under the house - sounds like fun!).

This picture shows the room before any work began. Those things on the wall are light fixtures - not my style, so those will probably be replaced.

This pictures shows this room after the carpet was removed and a hole cut into the floor to check the extent of the damage.

This picture shows the room after a half of the floor was removed to expose the support framing.

This is a close up of the beams. This is what wood-eating fungus looks like.

Overhead view of the damaged framing.

Unfortunately, no work has been going on at the house for the last week (Justin has been doing some work in the evenings, but the contractor hasn't been working). We are unhappy about some issues with the contractor we hired, so we're evaluating the situation and hope work resumes soon. We were hoping all of this work would have been completed by Thanksgiving, but that is definitely not possible.

Master Bedroom Repairs (Part 1)

Justin and I are having some repairs made to the house. The contractor began working on Wednesday of last week. He and his crew got quite a bit of work done and said they would be ready to install the wood flooring this week. Justin and I decided to paint the master bedroom before they installed the new floor.


This picture shows the room before any work was done. The walls were very dark (either black or very dark blue). It took a lot of primer to cover that paint. We decided to paint the walls a pale tan. We think it looks really nice. Once again, I didn't get a picture of the walls, but you can see the new wall color in the 4th and 5th pictures below.


This picture shows the room after the carpet was removed. For some reason, the hardwood beneath the carpet didn't extend across the entire room. The wood that was there was in bad condition. That's our treadmill. It's a pain to move, so it was still in the room when the contractor began working. We intended to move it this weekend, but that didn't happen.
This is the room after the underlayment was installed. We're not sure why they installed the foam strips since the flooring is solid wood. (You generally only install the foam when you "float" an engineered wood floor or laminate floor).

Justin questioned the contractor about the floor not being level with the rest of the house because of the plywood subfloor being so high. Due to this, one layer of plywood would need to be removed so the new wood flooring would be at the same level as the existing floor. Justin decided to removed the plywood himself. When he did, he discovered some water damage the contractor missed.

This is what one corner of the room looked like after the vapor barrier and foam strips were removed. You can see the new paint color in this picture.
After he discovered the water damaged plywood, Justin removed the plywood and found even more damage beneath it. Needless to say, we were both unhappy about this discovery - a) because the contractor should have found this before Justin did and b) this is going to cost more money.

I'll post pictures of the sunroom work soon.

Pete, Annabelle, and the Webkinz

My niece enjoys collecting Webkinz stuffed animals. I really don't know what they are, but I know you buy the stuffed animal and register it online and do something with it. Some of her Webkinz animals are at Mama's house.

One day recently, Pete and Annabelle were exploring at Mama's house and found the Webkinz leopard (I think this is what it is). They were very interested in this leopard and decided they would play with it. When they find a toy they really like, they will throw it in the air and catch it and then shake the daylights out of it. It is the funniest thing to me! After they've shaken it, they will roll around on the floor with the toy in their mouth. Sometimes they will play tug-of-war with the toy. This is when the arms or legs (sometimes the eyes) get removed from the animal's body.

The Honda Meets a Foot

Since I am blogging about injuries to the Honda, I'll tell you about the Honda being vandalized.

As I said in the previous blog, I spent many weekends in Atlanta this summer while Justin and I were house hunting. One weekend, we had appointments to see quite a few houses and were starting at 9:00 a.m. Justin was renting a room in a house that had a parking lot behind the house for the residents and their guests. When we walked out of the house that morning, we noticed a piece of clear, red plastic (it was part of a tail light) on the ground. We looked at the vehicle (SUV) closest to the plastic and noticed their tail light was broken. We also noticed scratches on the paint and the rear window wiper on the ground. I made the comment to Justin that it would really suck to be the owner of that vehicle. He agreed and we kept walking.

When we got to my car, my mouth dropped to the ground. My car was damaged, too! It didn't have as much damage as the SUV, but it had enough. The main thing was the big dent in the trunk. Because my car was so dirty, the vandal's shoe print was left in the dirt and dust on my car when he/she decided to kick my car. There were also scratches (the "scratches" didn't break the paint, so I guess they weren't really scratches) around the trunk and on the sides near the trunk. I was beyond furious!


I guess the person hated Hondas because the six vehicles around mine were Hondas and all were damaged. Mine and the SUV seemed to have the most damage. The others had scrapes and small dings. They apparently liked German cars because the BMW and Mercedes parked on either end of the Hondas were fine. We spoke with some of the other residents later and no one remembered hearing anything during the night and no one knows why this happened.

Justin and I had the house appointments so we had to leave. When we returned that afternoon, I called the police and filed a report. I learned something that day. When I called the police department, I called their non-emergency number and explained what I needed. I was told that in order for a policeman to be dispatched, I would have to call 911 even though it wasn't an emergency. So, I called 911 and a policeman arrived in about 30 minutes. He was very nice and informative.

I called the body shop that fixed the tire tread damage the week before and they gave me the number for a dent specialist. He came to my office and fixed it. I was amazed at how well he did...you couldn't even tell the car had been damaged when he finished. Before he started, he said it would only be about 90% perfect when he finished. I was hesitant, but I think it was 100% perfect! He worked for about an hour and charged $200. It was well worth it because he did a fantastic job.

The Honda Meets Tire Tread

While Justin and I were house hunting this summer, I spent many weekends in Atlanta. I was headed back to Nashville one Sunday evening when I encountered a piece of tire tread in the road.

I never really thought about pieces of tire causing a lot of damage until a couple of years ago. Justin and I were headed to Valdosta from Tifton on I-75 and saw a pick-up truck pulling a trailer hit a piece of tire tread. The tread flew into the air and hit a little Lexus that was in front of us. I was driving the Explorer and just drove over the tread after it hit the Lexus. As I went around the car, I could tell that there was quite a bit of damage. The side mirror was hanging by wires and there were lots of black scrapes and scratches down the previously white paint.

When the Honda encountered the tread, I was north of Macon. The vehicle in front of me hit the tread and it flew into the air. It hit the road and bounced up again as I was driving by it. Because of other vehicles, I couldn't swerve to avoid it, so I had to hit it. My first thought was that my tire might have been damaged but the car wasn't driving differently so I kept going.

I stopped in a few minutes when I got to Macon. As I was getting gas, I noticed that my bumper looked odd. After further checking, I realized my car had some damage from the tread. The bumper was detached on one side and it was cracked. The headlight was also cracked.

I used the restroom at the gas station and then went back to my car and called the insurance company. After getting all of that taken care of, I continued home. The insurance company arranged for me to get a rental car while my car was in the shop. I was to drop off my car the next day at the body shop and the rental car would be waiting for me. I was reminded to bring my driver's license with me.

During lunch the next day, I went to pick up my food and realized my wallet was missing. I searched my car and office. I drove to Nashville and searched the house. I went to Justin's parents' house because I stopped by there the night before to pick up Pete and Annabelle. I just could not find it! I grabbed my passport and headed back to Valdosta. I was going to go to the license office and get a replacement license, but they aren't open on Monday. I had to call the car rental office and the insurance company to make arrangements for the next day since I didn't have a license. I was so annoyed. I even called the gas station where I stopped and asked if they had found my wallet. They said it hadn't been turned in.

I got a replacement license the next day and got my car fixed before the weekend. The damage total was right at $1,000. I couldn't believe that a piece of tire tread did that much damage to my car!

On the 4th of July, I was headed back to Atlanta for the weekend (and more house hunting!) and stopped at the same gas station for gas. I asked the lady at the counter if anyone had turned in a wallet and she said they did have one. She pulled it out and it was mine! I was so happy! I had already gotten a new license and a new credit card, but I had everything else back and all of my stuff was still in the wallet. I guess I left it in the restroom when I was washing my hands. I'm so thankful an honest person found it.