Winter Gardening, Bathroom Is Done, Pot Roast and Thrift Shop Finds

Winter temps have set in now in Wisconsin, We have been down in the 20's some of the nights, so the outdoor plants are totally kerput. I love my coleus because they are my favorite colors of fuschia, magenta and green.  They add color immediately to the flower beds in the spring, because the leaves are the full riot of colors. The flowers are an added plus in the later summer of pale lilac blooms on thin stems.

My coleus cuttings that I talked about in recent posts have been safely ensconced in quart canning jars to grow some roots. It only takes a few weeks and they are ready to plant.  I have been doing this since the early 1990's since my friend Connie gave them to me.  I have shared them with other friends over the years as well.

The roots were filling up the jars, 

 so it was time to plant them in the dirt! 

I used three long plastic window boxes with no weep holes in the bottoms (don't want water on my hardwood floors!) I use moisture control potting soil over a layer of pea gravel for drainage.  With careful watering all winter long, they will be ready again for next spring.  I put the trays in the south facing guest bedroom window for the best exposure.   

I smile when I put down the layers of tin foil on the old wooden tv tray tables.  Fond memories of my Grandma Kafehl putting tin foil down on her end tables before she sat down her pots of african violets and cactus plants.  Ahhh I miss her.


Steve was done with driving today around noon. He started at 5 am ...ack!  He wanted to finish up the floor in the bathroom this afternoon.  A few days ago, he spread floor leveler over the patched in area of the floor where the old tub piping had originally been.

Now that it was dry, we could cut back the old flooring, carefully tuck a new piece under the edge back under the shower pan, and lay it out to do a "double cut" for an almost imperceptible seam. Once the seam was cut, we could use some vinyl flooring tape slid underneath and press it down firmly.  The third side got tucked under the tub and the last side along the wall will be held down by the baseboard and quarter round trim.  You almost can't see on the flooring seam where the patch job took place!

Here is Steve's corner with his shower.... and my little table and antique lamp set between the shower and the tub. Don't worry, the lamp is not even plugged in, nor is there an outlet nearby.  I like it for the flavor and decor...

We mounted the lip edge of the tub now firmly to the bead board walls (now that the flooring is tucked underneath the tub)  The tub is settled securely into place anyhow with the circle shaped feet and support brace on the bottom, plus the plumbing held into place.  All we needed to do now was to attach the lip edge that is held by six little screws. Steve attached the lip edge with the screws and used these handy little screw cap covers that snap into place. Looks much nicer than an ugly screw or having to put a trim strip over it.  See the screw to the left of the corner that the cap hides the screw nicely.

I don't like big towel bars, nor do we have a lot of wall space anyhow.  We have some moveable plexi hooks that we hang towels from the shower stall when they need to dry.  But when I am in the tub, I wanted a big hook, like a robe hook, to hang my two towels on to be within easy reach as I get out of the tub.  (I need one for my hair, and one for my body).

We stopped at Hobby Lobby and found two big wrought iron hooks that would work for my idea. There was an online coupon to bring up on the phone at the checkout to get 40% off for ONE item.  The nice lady at the checkout let Steve use the coupon on my phone for his hook, and then let me use the same phone coupon for my hook.  Deal!

We hung them on each side of the window frame and they will only be used when I am actually in the tub and want my towels within reach.  The other one on Steve's side is for his towel or washcloth he uses near the sink while shaving.   Like I said, they won't be hanging there all of the time, just when in use.  Don't think we have some weird decor theme of towels used as side curtains on the windows... LOL.

Sooo there we have it done!  My birthday isn't until next week, but the tub is finished and we are happy to say it looks more balanced and fits the space well.  We had wanted to do this tub 6 years ago and didn't at that time. I am glad we did it now....   Complete with the tray, pillow and towel hooks, we are finished!

This afternoon was cool and crisp,

but sunny....   we took a walk to the post office

and stopped at the little city center park.

Yesterday I had plopped a big ol pot roast in the electric pressure cooker.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE our electric pressure cookers!  We have an 8 quart Go Wise USA cooker in the motorhome and an 11 Quart Nesco one in the house.  You can do food so fast and so flavorful in a short time.

I add an envelope of onion soup mix and a few dollops of Andria's steak sauce.  40 minutes later it is fall apart tender.  Then I add a pile of peeled potato chunks, a bag of baby carrots, and a sliced up vidalia onion.  15 more minutes on high pressure and the meal is finished!   It was sooooo good that we re-heated leftovers tonight for supper. Yummmmmmmm!

Oh, yesterday I was also on an errand, and stopped at one of my favorite thrift shops in Plymouth WI.  I saw this interesting little juice pitcher.  I picked it up two times and set it back down.  I didn't really need it.  But passed it by. Then the third time I saw it as I passed that section, I put it in my cart. It was only 79 cents, and I could not resist.  Hmmmm  Maybe for a pitcher of ice water, lemonade or iced tea while I am sitting in my tub?

The other big "bargain" I stumbled on was a huge 9 yard hunk of quilting fabric for only $7 (worth about $90) and a bunch of fat quarter bundles for only $1.29 - 1.49 a bundle.  Each one is worth about $10-12. Score!

I am working on something that I will post about in my next blog... when the time is right. But I am glad to say that family is going to be fine, and healing takes time. Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts.

MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - EEEK EEEK It's A Water Leak!!!

Any RV owner would shudder at the sight of this photo. Nobody likes to see a pile of ripped out carpeting, padding, and wood strips.  Laying on the ground next to your RV. It can only mean that something BAD is happening.

 It means: 

EEEK EEEK 

We have a leak!!!

We take great pride in maintaining our twenty-two-year-old motorhome. We are meticulous in it's care, and do everything we can to do preventative maintenance.

But we haven't really been camping in our motorhome since July. When Steve went in there the other day, after being closed up in the hot weather, it smelled kind of musty and mildewy. He looked around and saw some mold on the carpet along side of the bed on the driver's side.

Mold can only mean one thing, water intrusion. And any RVer knows that when water intrudes into a motorhome it's very difficult to diagnose and halt it before does any further damage.

Of course, the first place to look is the roof! Steve examined it all very carefully and there's absolutely no water intrusion coming in on the roof--- not near the back fiberglass cap, the marker lights, the seams, or anywhere.

The second place that he looked was along all of the horizontal aluminum strips on the exterior of the motor home. We regularly check those every year, usually spring and fall. A thin bead of silicone keeps those secure and there is absolutely no water intrusion going on there.

Where oh where is this water getting into the floor of the motorhome?

It's not on the interior walls and it's not around the windows. Everything is high and dry. It's just the floor itself, under the carpeting, that is wet. He examined from back in the engine compartment and he examined from underneath.

Finally he was able to diagnose exactly where the water was intruding from. And you aren't going to believe it if I didn't have photos to prove it.

The moisture running off the roof, whether it's rainfall or morning dew, is trickling down the side of the motor home into this one concentrated area. It makes an exact beeline right down to this flapper door port that covers the 50 amp bayonet connection for our power cord!  It is travelling on the yellow line, not on the outside of that ribbed seam. It is travelling down the smooth flat wall in a stream right over that flap door.

I took these photos this morning of the exact trickle of morning dew coming right down the side of the motor home. You can actually see it in these photos.

It runs right straight down in a perfect line to this flap door. The flap door is held onto the motorhome's side by four screws that go directly to the inside of the rig. The water is running right down inside at this opening and through the wall!!

Here is a YouTube video I made of the entire track that this water has been making:

Once the water gets inside, it's in an enclosed area of a cabinet where there is a false bottom like shelf. It was built up with a false bottom shelf to make sure you don't cram something into the cabinet and touch or move those wires or screws on the inside.  So we couldn't see it at all until we tore out the false bottom shelf of this particular cabinet to get to where the wires come into the motorhome.

The water is trickling in around the screw holes and around the entire large circular opening of the outlet in the port. From there, the water was actually running down the inside of the plastic housing that covers the electrical wires, called a "loom". It's like a slit tubing flexible plastic hose. When Steve pulled the plastic loom away from the wires it was all full of moisture and actual water drops coming out!

(in this pic he already removed the inside power cord from the port connections)

So the water was running down

 and draining all along the floor???

When Steve pulled back the carpeting, the particle board flooring underneath the carpeting in this whole area is wet. This is NOT GOOD!!!!

Steve unhooked the power wires from the inside of the outlet and rerouted them directly to our Progressive Industries power management system unit in the lower compartment. We will bypass using this exterior bayonet port completely.  When we want to plug into power, we will just open our compartment door and run the cord out for now. Later he will make an access hole in the bottom of that compartment to run the cord out underneath the motorhome. That is how many other RVs are made and we will now make ours that way as well.

Now to address the problem of the wet wood. We set fans on it for the last 4 days to dry it out. Today we are coating it with this product from Minwax called Wood Hardener. We have used this before when we had a leak by the washing machine and it works very well. We have also used it on a threshold on our house door and a post on our porch. It hardens up the wood fibers with a resin which makes it firm again, like the original wood.

Once it is dry, we are going to seal the entire floor

 with a coat of floor and porch enamel paint.

Steve said this afternoon that it is dry enough now to cover with paint. I don't know why RV manufacturers don't coat this particle board in the first place with some type of sealer. As soon as you have a leak, it all swells up, rots, and falls apart if left untreated.

Seeing as we pulled out the carpeting on the floor, we also decided to pull out the vertical carpeting that is glued around the box encompassing our engine compartment. The king bed platform sets down on this box.  We don't know how far the mold spread, so we might as well remove all the carpeting back there, as well as wash the bedding at the same time.

We decided to recover the sides of the engine compartment box with a piece of cream colored vinyl sheet flooring. This is the same flooring we put on the back wall over the bed when we removed the mirror. Now it will all coordinate and match. With a bit of vinyl adhesive and some some tacking staples around the lip edge, it will look just fine. Right now we have it rolled out, getting the wrinkles out of it before installation.  I think this evening or tomorrow we will get that installed.

Yes, we had to remove the sliding bedroom door to get to all of the carpeting during the removal process...  so right now the door is laying on the mattress.

Once the paint is dry, we will put new carpeting down over it. We looked at some of the new carpet tiles that you can buy in 20 by 20 inch pieces. They are easy to install with double stick tape. So I think we will go with that idea. Either that or buy some long runner rugs cut to size on each side and across the end of the bed. It's only 15 inches wide on each side of the bed and 21 inches wide across the bottom of the bed. There's not a lot of floor space because the king size bed does take up a lot of room.

Either way, we are glad we caught this now because before it caused any worse damage.

We are due to be the Campground Hosts starting October 1st at High Cliff State Park so we need to get this fixed during the week before we head on out.

~~~~~~~~~~

The paint is drying, 

Steve left to go drive a transport for the county, 

and I am taking care of my coleus.

My friend Connie, whom I wrote about yesterday, gave me some of this coleus plant way back in about 1990 I think. I winter it over indoors every year.  Every Spring I plant it in my yard and let it grow. Every Fall I dig some up to bring indoors. I also snap off little cuttings to re-root in water.

I just love the colors of coleus. Magenta is my favorite color, and next to that burgundy and green. These plants have all of those colors wrapped together in one.  Because the leaves are the color feature, it also adds instant color to spring flowerbeds, instead of waiting for seeds or blooms. 

This year I have a full blooming bumper crop along the south side of the house. Grandson Mason asked us why would we ever put plants that grow all over our sidewalk. He said Grandma is crazy. (Yes, I am)

Yesterday I had a picture of the window box on the front of the house, today here is a picture of the window box along the south side, situated above my row of coleus.

The weather has been kind of crazy lately, with some evenings going down into the high 30's. I'm sure Frost is going to be coming soon --- so it's a good time to start these cuttings.

I snap off about 10 tender stems and put them into glass quart jars. Each jar is filled with water from my rain barrel rather than city tap water with chemicals. I think it helps them root faster.

By putting them in the little wagon, I can roll it out of the garage during the day, and back into the garage at night for protection. 

My work is done now for the day. I will wait for Steve to get home from his transport and maybe we will install that vinyl. In the meantime, I think it's a good time for a nap!

The Last Two Storm Windows Are Done!

Yesterday, after Steve was done driving his old fart party bus, we decided to finish up the very last two storm windows in the guest bedroom.

This side of the house faces South. There's no convenient porch roof, or bay window roof, to stand on like when doing the other four windows. Steve could have borrowed the neighbors tall ladder to get up high to the second story. I had a better idea.

How about we change it from the inside? I know that our beautiful old wooden windows not only lift up on the bottom pane, but the top pane will lower down so you can access the window frame by just reaching through from the inside to the outside!!!

Steve agreed, instead of dangerously balancing up on the ladder with an awkward window in his arm. This is going up 2+ stories high. Remember, it takes five steps to get up to the main floor of our house, plus we have 9' high ceilings. I would imagine it's about 20+ feet to the top of those windows.

We removed the interior lower windows and at the same time we replaced the sash cords like we did on the other windows.  The cords were quite worn and beaten, but not quite broken through. Refer to the previous blog about how we did that in case you have old windows with broken sash cords.

Steve could easily lean out and unscrew the old storm frames. Some of the screws were so old and painted over, again he had to screw them out with the tip of a pliers, or snap them off completely.

Once we got the old aluminum storm window frames off, he cleaned up the edges of the window sashing.

Now it was time to put a nice thick bead of silicone on all around the sides and top. I stuck my phone out of the window and took a photo of him from the bottom window up!

Now that we've done those first four storm windows on the other bedrooms, these went pretty well.  I guess we are "experienced" now?

Soon they were all done, and the interior windows put back in the frame, adjusted the window weights, and everything back into place.

The curtains were back up 

and things are back to normal in our guest room. 

For now.

In the winter months I pull back the curtains and line up four tables along these windows that face the South. I put plastic lids from Rubbermaid bins on top of the tables and set in pots of all of my coleus plants. I winter them over every year, as I've been doing for over 20 years. They are dug up from outside and also new shoots started to make smaller plants as well. I keep 8 to 10 pots of coleus going all winter long and bring them back out in the spring.

They are originally from my friend Connie, who shared them with me. I, in turn, have shared them with others over the years. When we go away in the winter months on vacation, I have my house sitting friend Sarah to care for them.

Here is what they look like this time of year alongside of the house...

I just love the colorful foliage,

and the blend of the fuschia and dark greens.

They are wonderful plants that don't have to wait to bloom to add color

to a flowerbed.... you get instant color in the

 Spring, Summer and Fall.

In my case, in Winter too 

because I bring them into the guest room! 

I put some into two pots flanking each side of our garage door.

They grow well in shade or sun, 

and take a LOT of water. 

These 2 pots take about a gallon each per day. 

Steve is gone this morning hauling a glass display cabinet for the museum. They bought it from a place over in Manitowoc and now it needs to get to Chilton.  Another volunteer and Steve are hoisting it and hopefully not breaking it.

Tomorrow we are helping with the museum, as hosts at the door to greet people, answer questions and lock up when we are all done.  Here is my blog post about the museum....

Calumet County Historical Museum

and their website:

http://www.calumetcountyhistoricalsociety.org/

and their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/CalumetHistoricalSociety

Here comes Steve in the door..... and he said they didn't crash anything and it is all in one piece!