My Ceiling

Hi there everyone...how is your day going???? Thought I would show you a few pictures of my ceiling.....before and afters are always fun to look at.

This is what the ceiling looked like with all the tiles that fell from the water dripping so much. Pat the project manager had already taken down the ceiling fan and lights. A new fan and lights will be going up.

In the picture you can see all the tiles were taken down to the original ceiling and part of it removed...uge what a mess.

In these two pictures......all the old insulation and ceiling are gone.....to think in all that mess.....there was not much of a mold problem.....reason being there was a lot of air movement, good in that respect...but bad cause the heating bills were high. There was not a lot of insulation up there.

Look at this picture.....down at the bottom left....you can see where that part of the roof was patched with plywood. There still is a dip in the roof and the ceiling sagged 3 inches....Pat said.

The men working on this ceiling must of spent at least 45 minutes trying to figure out how to brace the beams....and this is what they came up with....looks pretty sturdy to me. One of the beams had actually disintegrated  it was so water soaked.

In this picture you can see all the insulation they put up....there is over 16 inches of insulation up there....so it will be WARM in the winter and COOL in the summer......nice!!!

In this last picture the sheet rock plaster board after it was installed. Next step is for the plaster guy to come and finish off the ceiling, covering the seams and nails and making a swirly design on the ceiling.

That will be in my next blog....as tomorrow 30 people will be here in my little house to finish off the work started. The kitchen will be painted with a lovely color called "morning sun". The fan replaced and the cabinet doors put back up. I have a new border for the kitchen....but I have to wait at least 2 weeks to put that up for the paint to set.

There will be plumbing done in the kitchen and bathroom, new faucets and a new taller toilet installed and grab bars to help us up off the toilet. New windows installed in the basement, and electrical work done in the basement and outside. Pat said he will update this old house and make it new. I am excited, because he is going to put a big light over my desk where I do my card making.....WOW....let there be light!!!!

The porch will be painted, my old shutters painted and put back up. The front and backyard landscaped, with a few flowers and shrubs planted. They might even redo my fence that keeps the kids out of my back yard. So YEAH!!!!

Saturday or Sunday I will update you on my "almost new" house. It should be fun....we will hang around for a couple of hours, then leave for the rest of the day. So you all have a good day and keep looking up....things do get better.
Cheers ~ Louise

Flowers Make Us Happy

Hi there everyone. Well, finally I am feeling better. That was a long drawn out icky sickness. The Doctor is treating me for an ulcer. Guess I let too many things get in my way and get me upset.....time to back off from gathering too many things on my plate. I must learn to take one day at a time and one plate full of stress at a time.....just seemed like many things were coming at me from every direction. The problems are still there...but I have eliminated a few things out of my life to ease the pressure. If that makes sense.

Yesterday, my kitchen ceiling was getting fixed, so I took a long walk with Kylie and got a few pictures of the neighbors flowers. In the above picture are her lovely daffodils...aren't they cute? They all seem to be smiling in this 70 degree weather.

Here is my neighbor's Magnolia tree....gosh it is so pretty. Was hard to get a picture of the flower up close....all the flowers were facing upward towards the sky.

These are my red tulips in the front yard....I am amazed that I have over 50 tulips planted in the front....wow I did not realize I had that many...I shall have to count the tulips in the back too.

These lovelies are in the front yard also. A red variegated tulip????

Last but not least, a close up of my red tulips.....sweet.

In my next blog I will update you on our kitchen ceiling. You won't believe what the men did, like everything came down, right down to the beams....it was totally unbelievable. They only found a little bit of mold.....so that was a miracle. For all the water leaks.....yes that was a miracle, I think God had his hand on our roof, protecting us from the mold.

Well, time to close, hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Cheers ~ Louise

Ceiling Problems

Hi everyone, how is your day going? Hope you're keeping warm if you live in a cold place. Hope you get the rain you need, if you are in a dry place. Hope you are keeping cool if you are in a hot place. Hope you're weather is good where ever you are. If you need a little snow we can send ya some, got lots today....(smile)

Thought you would like to see what I am dealing with and have been dealing with for the last 10+ years.....yep, it's a mess alright. I do not look forward to rain, especially heavy rains. The leaking ceiling is right in the middle of the kitchen, so needless to say, I have to dodge buckets, pots and towels when the drips start. At one point, during a real bad storm, we had to empty the bucket 4-5 times in one down-pour. It was like someone opened the faucet and the water poured down.

Right after that rain....we got the roof patched...at the cost of $1200......but it was to no avail, because after about a year, the leaks began again. Our roof never leaked for 10 years, not till after it was redone by the city. We were told to sue the guy that did the work (didn't have the $$$) and he is no longer in business. (I wonder why???) The city contracted him, after a couple of complaints he was let go, but that was after he messed up on our roof. Damage done.

In 2002 we got a loan from the city to get siding, windows, doors and the roof done plus new gutters. Repaying the loan would happen only if and when we decided to put the house up for sale. As we are not planning on moving any time soon...there is no reason to payback. Only problem is there would be a lien against the house....which I am not comfortable with. Makes it very hard to refinance, if we did that.

In this picture you can see how the ceiling is buckeling, as there are leaks in every corner of the tiles....no sense getting the ceiling fixed till we know for sure the roof is fixed and not leaking again. So there you have it, my tale of woe. You can see why I prefer snow at this time. Snow doesn't leak....for now.

Today I filled out papers for another loan from the city...won't hurt to try. See if they will help us a 2nd time....this time I want a roofer that knows what he is doing....do you blame me??? Also, we will ask for NEW gutters as we never got them the first time around. The roofer just had our old gutters re-galvinized and then they were put up backwards, which has cost alot of seepage in the basement.

Well, time to close, need to go ride my bike and make a card or two....have a good evening and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise