keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[sylvie]

Did you get over to The Village Herb Shop? That is always my main Chagrin destination. That and Breezewood Garden Center for their amazing holiday displays and goods.

So much that I do for the season has disappeared. I loved Sunnybrook Farms for the herbs in Chesterland; closed for good.
The Holiday House at Holden Arboretum's Lantern Court for the designer's festively decorated rooms. No idea why they stopped.
Champion Garden Town in Perry for the entire experience. Closed. There used to be a Christmas shop on Cascade Falls Rd, Concord, nestled in the woods and operated by a mom and daughter that stocked imported German ornaments. Retired, passed.
Rabbit Run's Holly Berry Tea and medieval chorale was a one time deal, apparently.

Sunrise Farm in Burton has the spirit that Champion's had during holidays. I first found it when I ordered sour cherries from them. $20 for pitted 10lb container. They have food samples galore, nice gifts, fresh and prepared produce.

I'm heading to Geneva State Lodge to see the decor and drive the light tour. Haven't done that yet, but sounds fun.

 

[keljonma]

Sylvie, by the time we got to the Village Herb, they were closed.

Champions closing was just sad - they could not afford the changes that they were told they needed to make to stay and sell fresh baked goods and other stuff (one of the cashiers told us that right before they closed). When we lived in Madison, we used to stop there and at many of the stands along 20 in Perry and Madison.

We don't get out to Burton much these days, since TR quit working in Hambdon/Chardon area. Although, we did drive through on Sunday on the way to Chagrin Falls. Belle's was packed! Every time we drive by, TR asks if we should stop for their famous pie!

We haven't been to the Geneva Lodge yet - last year they were decorated just beautifully for the holidays and had the fireplace in the waiting area going. Of course, last year was perfect weather for it - cold and snowy!!

 

[keljonma]

50 degrees today but winds are 10 mph and the sun keeps hiding behind the clouds. But much better than last year at this time, when we had over a foot of snow on the ground!

TR was looking at pictures taken during the last two years' winters - boy - very cold and snowy and cold and snowy! I am really liking this year's wet/warm/sunny end of autumn and start to winter. However, I am sure the lack of precipitation will not be a good thing come spring.

We have started a compost pile where the last tenants had their veg garden last year, hoping to get it up to a good working level of good soil by planting time. I got my Totally Tomatoes catalogue in the mail the other day! I am ready!

We are looking a bee supplies; I wish we had a place like Brushy Mountain close enough to drive to... (just dreaming.....) :/

We know of a fella (a friend of friends) that is on life support at Cleveland Clinic for H1N1. He is in his early 50's, and his body is shutting down. Prayers for Brad and his family would be appreciated.

Yesterday I got done with the census test just as TR called me to say he was done working with Don. Since where he was working was 40 minutes away from the test site, I did not stay to get my test results. So I will have to call the local office on Monday to get them. There were 4 people in the room who were retesting to improve their scores. Five people in the room were vets (one still on active duty), so they will get preference. The recruiter who ran the testing said that the Orwell area in Ashtabula County is really in need of workers. Orwell is a bit too south for me. The recruiter said that in March the people that have tested this year will be called to work, providing test scores and background check are good.

TR was moving rocks and boulders yesterday at one of the home sites at Roaming Lake. He said he was feeling his age a bit this morning, while he was getting ready to go to his hospital job.

We have decided that there are enough projects at this place to keep us busy for years. We are having trouble deciding where to start first on big projects. However, the first order of business is...the sun room. This room has great potential. The sun room is the room at the front of the house. It as long as the dining/living room about 30 feet (I listed the exact size somewhere earlier when that room was being painted by the men's group from church) and about 7 or 8 feet wide.

Does anyone know how to get dog urine smell out of hardwood floors? The previous tenants locked their dogs up in the sun room while they were gone during the day, so that room needs a LOT of work! The room needs work besides the floor, but I would really love to get the urine smell out of that room! It is really bad when the sun shines in. The sun comes from the south, so basically our only real sun during winter. TR has scrubbed the floor with Murphy's oil soap and water a couple times. I am afraid that years of damage will not be easily resolved. But I am open to all suggestions.

The sun room ceiling (originally plaster and lath) was covered within the past decade by ceiling tiles. When the roof leaked, the tiles started to come down and instead of telling the landlord so it could get fixed properly (or paying to fix it themselves and deduct that amount from the rent) the previous tenants decided to nail paneling to the ceiling at the spots where the tiles were coming down. Needless to say, that did not hold. The landlord said the roof was replaced within the last 5 years, but the tenants never said anything about the ceiling damage. TR and I are thinking of taking the ceiling back to the lath strips - the plaster looks like it is completely gone - and then installing tin ceiling tiles or ceiling tiles that look like tin tiles. That look would be appropriate for a house built in 1880. My guess is that the tin-look will be less expensive...but I am just guessing here. We saw some decent looking ones (tin-look) at Lowe's or Home Depot last week-end. My guess is that we will have to check to make sure the wood strips in the ceiling are still in good enough condition to put new tiles up....

The windows in the sun room need work as well. The original windows are double hung style with weights and pulleys. The windows are missing, but thankfully, the storm windows are installed! The storm windows currently need frames sanded, caulked, and painted; but that will wait until next spring. We could possibly go with new windows, but we would have to check with the landlord to see what his thoughts are on that, since we would want to deduct the cost of replacements from the rent. If he would prefer we stick with the old windows, I believe that they are in the shed near the drive. The windows would need screens made, I think.

The front door of the house is the door to the sun room. The threshold has rotted and fallen to the step. We have that area covered/protected to get through winter. I am not even thinking of this job until spring!

Such a sad state of affairs when a house goes unloved......

Hope everyone has a great day!

 

[delia_peterson]

What kind of testing do you have to do for Census? This is for hiring right?

 

[keljonma]

Yea, delia, it was for workers to be hired to do the work required for Census 2010. These are paid positions.

The test is a timed test - it takes 30 minutes. There is a sample test online - try Census2010 - I don't remember, but if you do a search here on ss for census, you may find the links when they were originally posted.

The signs for testing in our area have all been posted at the public libraries. There was some testing earlier in the year, but I didn't get called for that.

We were told we would be contacted in March 2010 for fingerprinting and background check if we passed the test with a high enough score.

 

[delia_peterson]

 

[Dace]

Good luck with the test!!

It sounds like you have found quite a place to make home. Is the landlord going to reimburse you for improvements?

I love old houses and would love to get one to fix up....I love the charm and the history and imagining all the stories the walls could tell


Prayers going up for Brad and his family.

 

[sylvie]

How did you like the test? I know I got the last question wrong. I thought it was tricky. Can't recall what it was now. The post office training was a week of tests, and each test contained one tricky question-like a control question. Oh, well.
March, huh?
After someone hung that one census taker I figured there would be a few openings suddenly materializing, lol.

 

[Farmfresh]

Does anyone know how to get dog urine smell out of hardwood floors?

Try this link http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-dog-urine.htm

Plus there is supposed to be a product out there called urin B gone that works by using enzymes.

I usually try to wipe and then really soak the floor with Clorox cleanup and wipe well if and when we have the problem, but I usually get it right away BEFORE it soaks down in.

Peroxide is supposed to help lighten any stains.

 

[keljonma]

Thanks for the link FF! We are not sure how old the urine is. We have already cleaned the floor twice and still the smell is noticeable when the sun shines in the room. I think we may have to remove the wood planking and put down new wood. blah! Such twits! I don't know how they could live that way. I see Revival Animal Health has some products in their catalogue, but I will have to look at that later.

I thought the census test was okay - nothing too bad. I did retake the online example tests a couple months before taking the test. A couple questions could have been answered two ways and I think there was one question (on the example test, not the real test) for which it seemed there was no correct answer. The real test seemed easier, maybe because I got all the test anxiety out of my system with the online tests I took - I got done with the test about 5 minutes before 30 minutes was up, so went over the test to make sure I was comfortable with the answers. I haven't called for my test results yet, but will probably do that today or tomorrow. The recruiter said that in the past year, she has only seen 3 tests with 100% correct answers. She said that was before counting the extra points the vets/military personnel get. I actually had completely forgotten about the test - but that is probably because I am still trying to get settled in the house.

Dace the landlord lets us work on the place in exchange for paying rent. We just keep the receipts and deduct that amount from the rent. We put a security deposit down right before we moved in, and then paid no rent in November, as we said we would clean up after the last tenants. If we waited for the landlord to do it, we may have not gotten in to the place in November. So it was just easier for us to do it. There are still some windows that need replaced, but they will now have to wait until spring.

We will probably end up replacing the flooring in the entry, as the floor is actually starting to sag and moves whenever it is walked on. So we would have to remove the old wood (plywood over wood slats) and replace with new.

Weather-wise we have had snow, melt, rain and snow. It snowed a bit last night, but we only ended up with about 1/2-inch snow.

TR is off work today so we came into the village to do errands and hit the library for internet. My 30 minutes is about up.

Have a great week!