I’m excited to share with you a new series I’m starting called, “Talk Till Dawn”, I want this to be about my everyday life, the things I’m reading, eating, my everyday ups and down, along with photos that I’ve taken over the week.
I haven’t decided yet how often this will be, right now I’m just going to get it going and see what comes of it. I encourage you to share with me similar situations and we can all support one another.
My life and home is far from perfect even though I always share with you pretty home decor picture. Now from time to time I’ll give you a look at how things can get out of control like everyone else’s life.
February’s almost over and it’s been a rough month with the weather around here. Our furnace went out twice and hubby had to replace the same part both times. It wasn’t a super costly part, $300 each time, but it left us without a normal heat source. Luckily we had a propane stand up unit that worked in a pinch. It’s hubbies heat source for the barn but the barn had to do without for a while. Of course the furnace always has to take a puke when it’s below zero and in the middle of a blizzard.
The third time the furnace quit it was our heat pump that operates our geo thermal unit. Hind sight we now know the heat pump was failing and taking out the other furnace part. Luckily the heat pump was still under warranty so it’s being replaced for free but the bad part is it had to be ordered and 10 days later it’s still not in.
We do have an emergency system on our furnace that allows it to run off electricity in the event the heat pump goes out, so we have had heat. But here’s the down side; our electric bill will probably be about $700 operating the furnace this way. Yikes right? We didn’t have an option though we had to have heat and with my hubby working out of town a lot I didn’t want to use the propane heater from the barn. That thing scares me and I don’t get any sleep when we’re using it; I’m so afraid something will go wrong and I need to be awake and alert if something goes bad.
During the middle of all this furnace stuff we had a horrible nor’easter that brought wind gusts of 60mph and you guessed it we had roof damage. During the night hubby said he if the wind kept up we’d be lucky to have a roof come morning and he was right.
He left for work before it was daylight so once the sun was up I took a look outside and shingles were scattered all over the yard. I did call and make a claim with our insurance just so there was a record of it but we haven’t had a professional look at it yet. Our roof is extremely steep and extremely high. At its highest point it’s about 4 stories in the air.
We roofed it when we built the cabin but I’m pretty sure we’ll have it fixed by someone else. Its just to dangerous and we no longer have our piece of equipment to do it. I told hubby I though we should pay the difference after the claim and have a steel roof put on. He agreed but I’m not sure it will fit into the budget right now. If not I’m fine with the shingles being replaced and the steel option can be done sometime in the future.
It’s what I originally wanted when we built the cabin but at that time (since we paid cash for the build) it was just an expense we didn’t have the money for. So good ole shingles won out!
If you follow me on IG you’ve read I’m painting the kitchen cupboards. Not a new color just a new coat of paint. I still love the white cupboards and the green island but the white needs to be refreshed every other year. It’s taken me 3 days to get all the painting done.
I remember in my younger days I’d have painted the whole kitchen in one day but not now. I split it up into three sections and each section took me 2 hours. I did the fridge and pantry wall the first day. The sink and stove section the second day, and the island the third day.
Wow I’ve become old, LOL. I hate to paint so this worked out perfectly; two hours a day was plenty for me. Painting is boring and not very rewarding in my opinion especially with no color change.
I did change the finish this time though. Eight years ago; the first time I painted the cabinets from them being raw wood I used matte finish paint. Let me say…..BIG mistake that finish is impossible to keep looking clean. Everything sticks to it and when I washed an area I could always see the difference in the finish.
The second time I painted them I used a Satin finish; that was way better than matte but still not quite right. (I’m sounding like the 3 little bears story right about now, lol). The third time was the charm. I used semi-gloss. I know, I know it’s not normally used for cabinets but I love the finish, it’s easy to keep clean, and it reflects light. It’s a winner in my book and this will be the finish I continue to use.
This project’s been hanging over my head for a while now and I’m so glad I finally followed through and got it done. It’s been number one on my to do list but somehow it just kept getting moved to the bottom of the list. But this week was the perfect week; hubby was out of town working and my son was in Texas hunting so I could tear the kitchen apart and not have to have it back together to cook.
Just between you and me that didn’t happen. I’m too much of a neat freak to let my kitchen be out of control for even a day. After I finished painting every day I cleaned all my brushes and rollers. Put everything away, vacuumed, and whipped the kitchen down. The OCD in me just wouldn’t let it happen.
I’ve had a better month when it comes to my Mom. I haven’t waked every morning with that horrible sick feeling that she’s gone. Don’t get me wrong I do cry every day but it’s not haunting me like it was. I started a new Bible study and that’s helped and I just decided I couldn’t expect others around me to not have joy in their lives because of my unhappiness.
Did anyone happen to watch the NBC special called “Elvis All Star Tribute”? I didn’t catch it the night of but I did rewatch it on Hulu. When they sang the gospel songs it reminded me of my Mom. She used to sing those same songs, totally off key mind you, and we’d all cringe when she started up. I got a good laugh we often commented of how our ears bleed when my Mom sang. Boy what I’d give to hear that off key voice singing again.
Until next time take care and thank you for spending the time talking till dawn with me today!
I sat down to have my morning coffee while I read Talk to Dawn. I cringed over the heat drama, dabbed a bit at my eyes missing your Mom with you, and then the roof. Oh my and you painted the cabinets too? The photos are scrumptious and reminded me that spring is coming very soon. Take good care of yourself and thanks for writing.
Good read! I’m so glad your days are brighter. It takes time to adjust and go on. I watched the Elvis tribute! Really enjoyed hearing those songs again and Mac Davis!! He’s still got “it”? I used to watch his TV show. That was eons ago. To me that’s when TV shows were really good. Nobody got all up in the air about what was said, what someone wore, or if they were properly represented. They were silly, funny, and entertaining. At the time I wasn’t an Elvis fan. Beatles ruled! But he became a favorite too. Just took a little longer!
Shouldn’t have said people didn’t get “all up in the air” about stuff. It was just handled differently and soon blew over.
Dawn..I am so ready for spring! Our Michigan weather has been tough for the last few weeks!! No heat…yikes, I was thinking you had a wood burner in the cabin….Even just a little sunshine makes my day!!
Had a very similar thing this winter with the furnace. Heat pump went completely out and since my HVAC system is 23 years old, could not just replace the heat pump – no compatible heat pumps are made now. The entire system had to be replaced – $5200. Plus, I had to use just the indoor part of the system to heat my house for a week and my heat bills went way up. Hopefully, with an entire new energy efficient system, my heat costs will be less and I can recoup the extra slam to my electric bill. Thank goodness for installment plans with low interest rates. Still, yikes…. Never a good time.
We had the huge winds here in Indiana also. Fortunately, no shingles lost on my house, but I had someone else’s in my yard. Thankful for that.
I had propane heat and space heaters in California, never got used to it myself, but needed. Dang! I totally understand about timing when HVAC breaks down. The heat is expensive itself, especially where you live, you certainly need it. My husband is a HVAC Tech and needs to replace the motor in our AC soon, before our Hades summer ( starts in May and ends in October ). That’s our expense, high AC bill, not helping when the rate went up and will again. Always nice to know someone in a trade, barter for labor, for one:).
Love the Spring pictures, especially the blue jar ones, pretty:).
Keep warm, Kathleen in Az
I understand the pain of high bills for heat! When I first moved to the farm when I married my husband back in ’05, our ancient oil-burning furnace would gobble oil at the rate of $700+ a month and that was with keeping the heat at 58. I froze that first winter!! He still likes keeping the heat below 65 and I prefer it at 75 (blaming my dad for that since I’ve been caring for him for 3 years and that’s where it has to be), so when I finally go home again, it will be interesting! I’m sorry you are dealing with roofing issues as well…that’s so hard. Spring needs to get here in a hurry…I’m tired of the rain/snow we’ve been getting in the shadow of the Sierras! Thanks for the sneak peek at your pretty flowers! Learning to live with the loss of your mother is difficult, but the acute pain does recede…in 11 days my mom will have been gone 8 years.