A few more things completed

Today, the countertop is finally, completely done. I finished the caulking this afternoon. While the caulking came out okay, I really don't like the way it looks. I may change it out, or we may live with it for a few years until we tile the backsplash. We'll see how bad it bothers us (or me I should say - I don't think C is that particular about caulk). The problem was that the gap was too wide for caulk, and I had to do two passes and let it dry in between. The first pass created a bottom in the gap so the second pass could fill it. The wet caulk in the second pass got caught on the sticky, rubbery sufaceof the dry pass and thus wouldn't smooth out properly. But, at least it's done. After two months, the countertop can come off my daily to do list.

Now we are into maintenance mode - waxing once a month and sealing once a year. A lot of people balk at the maintenance, but it doesn't bother me. There's really no maintenance free countertop except maybe formica, and we didn't want that for other reasons (wears poorly, burns easily). I did manage to pick up another polishing bonnet (those pads you use to wax and buff a car that look like sheep skin). I have three now, and I think I need 5 to be able to wax the entire countertop in one pass. The bonnets get gummed up with wax easily and I have to machine wash them before finishing the waxing. BTW - have I mentioned how much I LOVE having a washer and dryer? Doing laundry is soooo easy now. One of my favorite features is the timer - I can put the clothes in and set the timer so it washes at night (when there is less drain on the power grid) or when one of us won't be bathing. I haven't had my own washer in so long - it was always a mad dash to try to snag one of the machines at our apartment, or a whole evening at the laundromat. Laundry is a non-issue now - I just do it whenever, one load at a time.

This is a trick my contractor showed me - you use tape on the countertop and the wall and push the caulk into the gap with your finger. When you pull the tape up, there is (in theory at least) a clean bead of caulk).


Here is my finished caulk job. As you can see, it's a bit rough. The irregularities come from the shape of the concrete.


I also finished the bathroom window completely. The trim is done and it is completely sanded and buffed and the patching is done. 1 down, 12 to go!



We found today's dog poo left on the lawn early this morning. It's so gross, and it's becoming a near-daily event. My Pop told me about dog repellant sprays, which I didn't even know existed. After doing a google search, I ordered some spray from this company: www.liquidfence.com. I choose their product because it is made of plant oils, is biodegradeable, and non-toxic. It's just a bunch of smelly plant oils that dogs and cats don't like. I can't wait to spray it all around. I hope to catch the reaction of slobs who don't pick up when their dog won't go near our lawn. I am also thrilled that it works on cats - the neighbor's cats will have to find another litterbox other than our backyard.

In the meantime, I put this fence up to keep them off the lawn at least. There's nothing I can do to keep them off the median strip between the sidewalk and street, but at least this will keep them off the lawn until we do our landscaping. I put the rest of the fence up later in the week.





After not returning my calls for over two weeks, the plumber finally called today and said he would try to have the sink in by Thursday. I'm not hopeful, and if I were a "bettin' woman" I would bet no on this..... but I didn't buy my usual case of bottled water today so we'll see if I'm drinking filtered water from my sink-top dispenser by the end of the week.