Floor Restored

The floor has been restored to it's original beauty. Richard came early this morning and worked for hours to get it finished. I spent most of the afternoon putting all the books back in the book shelves and Bob vacuumed the den. I also now have my den/office back too.

It has been a horrendous three weeks but it is great to have everything back to normal again. I will carefully watch that water line to the refrigerator. I never want to go through all this again.
The flooring was back ordered and it has taken weeks to find
the same lot number in some warehouse somewhere and then
more time to get it shipped. We can't thank Richard enough for
dropping everything to help us out.

The insurance company was more then fair too. I certainly can recommend AIG for both auto insurance and home insurance.

Hooray!

Great news! The flooring is in and the store has delivered it to us. I called Richard and he will be here in the morning to re-lay the flooring and get everything back to normal again. Tomorrow afternoon I will be re-sorting my books and getting the house back in order again. When that is done, I will take some pictures to post here.

The Day!

This supposed to be the day our replacement flooring comes in. I certainly hope so. We have had our home torn up for three weeks today and I have just had to clean around the mess.

Around 10:00 Bob will call Brown's and see if the truck has come in yet. If the flooring has arrived, we will go pick it up and call Richard to see when he can lay it.

I hope we never get into a mess like this again. Ever so often, I go by the refrigerator and check to see if the floor there is dry. I have become paranoid about it.

The car is beautifully repaired, my leg is nearly healed, and if the flooring can be fixed before this weekend, I will be delighted.

Wind and Rain

If it isn't rain...it's wind. I want to paint my yard swing but cannot do it in the rain or when the wind is blowing.

What a weird year this has been. First of all, this was a particularly cold winter. Then since spring arrived, it has been constant rain and wind. Bob did get our front porch concrete floor painted today and I did get the flower beds in the front weeded. When the wind stops, I will also put mulch in my flower beds again. I got two flower beds finished while there was a hiatus in the rain and wind. I have two more to do in the back and three to do in the front.

More Problems

We've had some new developments with our floor problems. We called on Monday to say we would come pick up the new flooring and were told the flooring still was not in. On Thursday, it is to arrive...we hope. Thursday will be three weeks that we have been in this mess.

I hope it comes in on Thursday. I don't know when Richard can lay it. He is very busy.

All we can do is wait. It is completely out of our hands.

It will be a long time before we buy anything from Brown's again. The adjuster said we were paying a premium buying it from them because it is available in Tulsa for 40 cents a square foot cheaper. I should have known better. I had a bad experience with them in the early eighties and had decided to give them another try. That was a mistake.

Rain, rain....go away

Today it is raining again. I am so tired of rain. I imagine I will be wishing for it in July and August though. We are under a flood watch and after the terrible flood this community suffered last year in 2007, I don't know if it could handle another. We lost the entire east side of our community. Over four hundred homes have been taken down now...either bought out by the refinery because of the oil spill or by the state of Kansas. The east side is a low, flat wilderness, fit only for a park, tennis courts or gardens. In fact, anything but housing.

The picture here is of the flood itself. The second one is the east side
after all the houses were taken down. It's real desolate. There's a real quandary about what to do with all that land. If left as it is, it will have to be mowed or the community will look even worse then it does now. That will be an expense too. We really need some low income housing or better yet some housing appropriate for remodeling for low income families. My suggestion is to buy a few older, well built homes and fix them up as either rentals or even better to sell. That way we could regain some of the lost population. The town needs a lot of infrastructure help as it is.

Tiger Lilies

Well, sitting out on my patio this Sunday morning enjoying the birds and the flowers, I noticed my tiger lilies are beginning to bloom. The black eyed susans are almost ready too but right now the clematis and the tiger lilies are the main attraction. Some are located behind Bob's shed here.

I love flowers and I work in my gardens nearly every day. I guess that's why I like to stay at home. Every morning I am up at 5:30 or 6:00 doing something. I feed the birds, feed the dog, feed the cat, water the flowers and generally just enjoy the quiet of the morning.

This morning I noticed the tiger lilies. I try to have something that blooms continually.

There's something very restful about watching the birda nd the hummingbirds and enjoying the beauty of flowers. Here below is the
Hibiscus plant our daughter gave us.

And next to that the gerber daisies that she gave us. There's also a container tomato plant with one small tomato already beginning to grow.

My sister gave me the tiger lilies and the lovely iris that bloomed earlier. Later in the season, there will be rose of sharon and crepe myrtle. I can hardly wait. We bought the crepe myrtle but the rose of sharon were given to us by Karan, a dear friend of ours.

Eventually, I hope to have the entire back yard lined with flower beds and flowering shrubbery.

I simply love working in the yard and making it beautiful.