Putting the Porch Together

One of the lovelier attributes of the house in Geneva is the screened in side porch. It is a lovely place to sit at times during the fairer parts of the year, here in Central NY. I like to open the porch as early as makes sense and put it to bed as late as makes sense. I started the opening process today.

The first thing necessary to getting the porch ready for "the season" is to wash off the detritus that accumulated over the fall and winter. There was a surprising thickness of dirt on the floor. As well as pine needles and leaves. First a quick sweep, lifting up the cool gutter doors that someone (Pa?) installed so many years ago. Then to a quick rinse with the hose.

Aha! Sometimes things are really easy, sometimes they are a little less so. That was the case with the hose. First off, the outer faucet doesn't function anymore - which means that the water must be turned on and off in the basement - a little bit of a hike back and forth. First turn on - water flowing, hmm, that isn't right - the hose was closed, there ought to be no running water. To the faucet - oops - the hose became detached. No biggie, I will just, er, well, um, it didn't just become detached, the plastic bit (why was it plastic?) that attached the hose to the faucet broke. Made in China. Not that I am impugning the quality of Chinese goods - heck, a lot of Apple Products are assembled in China - but sometimes they do cut corners - like using plastic where a metal connector would have lasted longer. Sigh. You get what you pay for. So, back to the basement to turn the water off. I hoped to find another hose somewhere. And I did. In the garage/barn. Yay! Simple to attach the hose to the faucet and then disconnect the two old hoses, like, er, um, umph, grrrr. To the tool box! First tool, a simple pair of pliers. Um, no good. Back to the tool box again, for one of my favorite of all tools, the vise grip. Grip onto the hose, hold tight, twist the other hose bit with the pliers. And slowly, and surely they come apart. Yay! Now, to simply attach the two...oh, that's why the hose was in the garage/barn. The attaching end has broken a bit. Even though it was metal. Sigh. Ah, duct tape to the rescue. Tape, tape, tape. To the basement to turn on the water and...wait, the water is running - did I forget to turn off the hose end? Nope, the taping didn't work. Sigh. Back to the basement to turn the water off again. Back to the hose connection. Let's see if I can do a better job of connecting the two hoses with duct tape. Tape, tape, tape and open the hose a bit so that the pressure is lessened on the connection. Back to the basement to turn the water on and it is running, as expected. Though there is quite a leak at the connection, enough pressure is getting through the hoses to accomplish the rinsing. Finally. Yay! Back to the basement to turn the water off one last time. It has occurred to me, subsequently - or maybe during all of the hither and yondering, I could have swapped the places of the hoses, though that would have meant that the spray nozzle wouldn't be able to be attached. Sigh. I will need to buy yet another new hose. Huzzuh. Still, everything is rinsed and the porch is drying out in anticipation of being put together.

Phase two - Porch Assemble! - Everything looked dry, so I went out to start the process of putting the pieces that comprise the porch in their proper places. First off, the plastic tarp that I used to keep wetness and dirt off the soft goods. Up it came, and, oops, more wetness - I guess I sprayed the plastic when I was washing (well rinsing) the floor. Plastic out onto the side yard to dry out - swept the water a little to spread it out so it would dry faster and then off to do other stuff while the floor continued to dry.

Back again - folded the plastic and unrolled the rug. That is the hardest part. In years gone past, we used to put the rug in the basement - unearthing it and bringing it upstairs was a tough job. Two years ago, I got smart and put all of the soft goods on the little sofabed thing and covered it all with the plastic. Viola! A lot less work. Flip the sofa bed on its side and the rug just makes it past. Woohoo! Down goes the sofa bed, furniture and pillows placed and tada! the porch is ready for primetime. With a the sofa bed being covered with the Christmas "snow" which was a nice think white bedspread. Not the traditional covering, but it will suffice until such time as the other cover makes an appearance. Or not.

All in all, about an hours worth of work, I would say - spread out over the afternoon - it would have been more fun with help, but as it was, it was still not onerous. Yay! And maybe, just maybe, mom will go out and sit there now and again. Maybe not. We shall see.

It just might work...

Last night I wrote down all the things that I would like to accomplish before heading to Maine a week from Tuesday. The list is not all inclusive - I am not putting down daily tasks like cooking and shopping and working at the Smith. And there might be a couple of things that I have forgotten to put on it - hopefully they will come to me before too long - anyway - here is the list:

Pills for mom
Car Looked at/Oil Change
Bike Rack
Bike Helmet
Laundry
Empty Out Orange Room
Clean Little Bathroom
Pay for laptop fixage
Give Card Back to Kelly
Pay Bills
Pack mom and me
Call Time Warner (ick) about speed boost
Vacuum my room
Look in dance studio and third floor for good chair

Most of these are easily doable with a little planning. Monday will be the day when I get the ball rolling on most of these. And here is where the little epiphany thing happened. Used to be, when I took my car to Dave's Garage to have it looked at, I would walk back to the house. And when I was called and told that the car was ready, I would walk back down. Not a big deal - maybe half an hour each way. Then I had my little aha moment. If I bought the car/bike rack before getting the car looked at, I could take the bike down to the car place on the bike rack - ride home and then ride back to the car place then carry the bike home on the rack. Win, win, win! Love those triple win things (which makes me think of horse racing and taking mom to the track again this summer - at least once - hopefully more frequently than that...) Anyway, that will knock three things off my list. Yay! And, while I am out and about, I will try to do some of the other errands on my list - get as many accomplished on Monday as I can. Yay!

Today, I plan to do some of the things around the house - oh, one I don't know if I want to add to the list or not - put the porch back together. It is a good day to do it - not much wind, pretty warm - that way, when I rinse the floor, it ought to dry quickly. Maybe I will wash the floor today and put the porch together tomorrow. One little problem is that mom's port-o-potty is in the doorway to the porch. Hmm. I will have to think on that one...

Ok, time to get started - I have been toiling away on this and a relationship post about what exactly I mean when I talk about relationships. But I gotta eat!