A Woman’s Work is Never Done

I’ve been working pretty steadily, though I usually only work from 5:30 til about 8 a.m. (Assuming I can drag out of bed at 5:30) After that it’s just too hot for me, and I spend the rest of the day lounging around reading.  Here’s the house as it is now. Not much different, but I did get the molding around the door and I added the pink gingerbread gingerbread trim. I made that gingerbread myself! The corbels I bought to use there & on the future porch are at a 90° angle which would have been perfect for the 12/12 pitch roof I’d planned, but I changed the pitch to 10/12 so it didn’t fit at all. I tried shimming it out and it looked terrible, so I just tried to duplicate the others but at the correct angle. It’s pretty crude but since it’s up high, I think it’s OK.

My doctor gave me some base molding that he had left over from a mother-in-law apartment that he built! I figured it up and the amount I need to do the base molding for the whole interior is….13 feet!! Hahaha! One whole wall is kitchen cabinets so I don’t need any there, another whole wall will be a storage shelving unit, so none there, there won’t be any in front of the exterior door, or closet and bathroom doors. So there was plenty of it left for me to use as door molding. It’s not exactly the right thing but it’ll do. The molding I was using for the windows was too narrow to cover the big gap on the one side of the door…..instead of centering the door in the opening, Tyler set the hinge side snug against the studs which left a giant gap on the other side.  (I’m finding lots of things that Tyler didn’t do Quite Right.) Oh yeah, I kinda fired him.  I was nice about it but the week he wanted off to take care of his kids had stretched out to a month!

I’ve been dealing with some health issues, and I couldn’t even begin to tell you if it’s serious or not. I just don’t know yet. I had to get a CT scan of my brain and now I have to get an MRI for further clarity. Poor little brain! I think it’s just overworked.  I have been having speech difficulties; lisping and slurring and sounding like a drunk. (It’s much better already) The CT scan didn’t show any reason for it so for now my doctor is calling it an unknown brain inflammation, and I’m on a 6 day course of Prednisone which is supposed to take care of that.  Oh how I hate that stuff!! It’s already raising my glucose readings into the stratosphere, after I worked SO hard to bring them down! I just started it today. I sure hope it doesn’t cause me to be even MORE irritable than I already am.  Nobody likes a cranky-pants. The only good thing is that now I can use “brain damage” as an excuse for forgetting and doing dumb things!

Getting the CT scan was a bit of adventure; I couldn’t afford to have it done at the local hospital because it costs around $3000-4000. I decided to drive to Phoenix and get it done for $124 at an imaging center. My car’s air conditioner is broken and it was going to be 106-108° in Phoenix so I reserved a rental car. Well they called me at 7:15 that morning and said they wouldn’t have a car for me until 3 pm. My appointment was at 4:15 so obviously that wouldn’t work! I had to drive my own car. I left within minutes of getting that call in order to try and beat the worst of the heat. I got there around noon and went to a friend’s house; she drove me to the appointment in her nice air-conditioned car. I left at 5:15 a.m. the next morning so I could get outta there while it was still “cool”, though it was 85 degrees there!

I stayed overnight with the sister of one of my best camping buddies and got to visit with her and her sis; she happened to be there visiting! It was really great to spend an afternoon and evening with them.

The bed I slept in was sooo comfy! It really brought home to me how truly horrible my bed is. It’s just a very soft piece of cheap 3″ foam with 2″ memory foam on top, and an inflatable camping pad underneath it all. That pad won’t stay inflated, so I’m basically sleeping directly on plywood.  So I came home and ordered a piece of 4″ firm foam. I hated to spend the money but I really need a good night’s sleep. On this bed I wake up many times in the night. In the bed at Joanne’s, I only woke up once!! I can’t wait to get it. The bed in the house will be the same size, so it’ll work in both places.

I will be able to get the MRI done locally though, as I just switched my Medicare Advantage plan to one that costs $140 a month but covers a lot more. For instance, the co-pay for the MRI is $264. I’m going to have to repay my old Medicare plan $785 though, as they pro-rate the amount of money available to spend and I was only in the plan for 7 months but spent most of the money. It’s confusing, I know. My old plan was something new; a Medicare Savings Account. They give you $2520  in a special account with a debit card at the beginning of the year  and I had to pay all my own medical expenses out of that fund. Once that money runs out, I’d have to pay all my expenses up to $8700 out of my own pocket. Yikes! If you don’t use all the money, the balance rolls over into the next year. I thought it was a great idea back when I chose it, and I only went to the doctor once a year!!

I have been chipping away at the jobs Tyler was responsible for. We still have two strangely shaped triangle pieces of siding to go up at the top of the bump-out section, and the one in front is tricky because it meets up with part of the gable roof. It needs flashing between the two, then there’s a little tiny bit of roofing that’s not done where the two meet. I  tried a pretty bizarre way to make a template to use when cutting the siding, and it worked! I pulled off about 12′ of heavy duty aluminum foil and folded it in thirds. I pressed that into that strange triangle opening and voila! I had the impression! I just traced it onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out, did a little fine-tuning and here’s my template! Oh it’s upside-down and backwards in this photo. Naturally the back side of the house is not quite the same so I’ll have to make a new template but that sure was an easy way. Sometimes it’s good that my brain thinks differently from most people. When I told Tyler about trying that, he thought I was nuts.

I installed the deadbolt lock on the door the other day. It took forever but I got it done! I’m not very good at following written directions. I need lots of pictures. I haven’t cut the hole in the door frame where the bolt goes in just yet. Yesterday I installed the door threshold and I’m happy to report that after today’s torrential rain, the house floor is DRY! Yay!

I seem to have lots of unfinished projects. I haven’t finished painting yet because I’ve run out of paint and don’t have money to buy more this month. I have some stuff to do on the back of the house but my nifty ladder is so heavy, I haven’t felt like dragging it around to the back.

After today’s rain there was a beautiful double rainbow. It’s faded here, but look closely, it ends right on top of my tiny house!! And I really did get a pot of gold! Some of my friends from my dog show days went in together and donated some money to help with the medical expenses! What an amazing generous group of people….and I haven’t shown dogs for around 20 years. English Cocker people are the best!

I truly HATE asking for money. But it looks like I might be facing way more medical bills that I ever imagined, and that means house construction will come to a screeching halt. If you enjoy the blog and have ever thought about giving a little bit to show appreciation, now’s the time! There is a link at the top right that goes to Paypal. $1, $2, $5, every bit would be greatly appreciated!!