Leaky Toilet Fixed!

 

Before

Something that has been bothering me the past few weeks is my leaky toilet. 

Here at Casa Tipton-Kelly, there is always something that needs looking after. Get one thing fixed and another thing pops up. Like whack-a-mole. 

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that there was a trickle of water seeping into my toilet bowl after I used it. Oh no. Here we go, another home maintenance project. This is the kind of thing that Bill always used to take care of. Yes, I had a live in handyman for over fifty years. Needless to say I was spoiled. Spoiled rotten some would say. When Bill started to lose his eyesight I had to start learning some basic handyman jobs. And you know me, this is not my milieu. I'm a charmer. My speciality is shopping. Not fixing things. 

I was especially reluctant to hire a plumber at random. For years I had a contract with a local service company but when their servicemen went on commission three years ago and I realized I was being taken advantage of, I dropped them. That's another whole story. I sign up for a service agreement at $260 a year but I'm still spending a couple thousand dollars a year replacing parts. I did a little research and found out the big home service companies when the repairman commission route. 

I thought I could fix this water trickle problem myself but to no avail. I replaced the ball. I replaced the flapper. I adjusted and adjusted and adjusted, and still a trickle of water seeped into my toilet bowl. 

During my research I discovered I had the old type of fixture in my toilet tank. What? Why is it everything I have "old", including me. Everything old is wearing out, including me. 

I checked YouTube and tried to fix it myself to no avail. I called my widowed neighbor and asked him to look at it. He's couldn't fix it either and only succeeded in breaking the arm to the floater ball. I don't need this. I got a new arm for the floater ball and had one helluva time getting the new it attached. One thing, it's all butch work. A long way away from baking pies for this sensitive gay guy. Finally I gave in and asked my neighbor who has a friend who is a plumber to install one of those new systems without the floater ball. He did that this morning and now my toilet works fine! 

After

Not a sexy story but another day in the Life of Ron On His Own. 

One day at a time folks. One day at a time. 

Freezer Chest Cleanout

Yesterday I did something I've been putting off for years. I cleaned out my freezer chest. 

What a job that was!

Of course it took a lot longer (several hours) than I had anticipated. 

What pushed me to clean out my freezer chest was the ice buildup was too much. I had to get rid of that ice buildup or eventually I wouldn't be able to close the lid.

I'm ashamed to admit it but I found frozen food Erin 2018! I tossed it all out on my compost pile at the edge of my property. Beef stew, raw chicken breasts, chili, frozen veggies, banana bread. You get the idea.

Last week I cleaned out my refrigerator during that drama. Now I have a cleaned out freezer chest. I feel like a tremendous load has been taken off of me. And of course I have vowed never to let that happen again and I'm serious about that. 

I don't freeze meals anymore. Whatever I make, I try to eat it within the week I make it. The main things I freeze now are meats that I get on sale. Have you been to your local supermarket lately? Of course you have. Unbelievable the prices. Sure, there's inflation but you can't tell me that the food producers aren't taking advantage of this situation now and raising prices even more than their costs. I haven't eaten steak in over forty years but I was shocked when I saw two New York strip steaks for sale last $19.98! Last night I had a breaded chicken cutlet that I brought on sale for $5.82. It was marked down from $9.51 because it was near its expiration date. There were four of those breaded chicken breasts. Yes, I'll get four meals for $5.82. I wonder how families with modest incomes manage. 

One thing about my major clean out yesterday, that is one less chore the administrators of my estate will have to do. Next up, cleaning out my garage. Bill had so many poisonous sprays out there. I don't believe in spraying poison in my yard or air. The only exception is hornet nest spray. When Pat comes down hopefully next month, we'll tackle that challenge. 

Roof Walking

My handyman cleaning out my roof gutters and installing gutter guards

Who is that on my roof? 

I can tell you who it's not......me!

I finally had gutter guards installed in two areas of my roof that constantly get clogged. 

That guy on my roof is a handyman who was previously working on my neighbor's enclosed deck.

For most of my years with Bill, he did this handyman type of work, including walking on roofs. Of course his later years he didn't do any roof climbing. And of course I wouldn't dare. I get woozy when I step on the second step of a foot ladder to change an overhead light.  Bill, in his good days even worked at the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago installing the antenna for General Electric.

Bill worked at the very top of the Sear Tower in Chicago to install that antennae 

At one time I even walking on our roof at our house in Pennsylvania during the construction phase. Of course this was back in the spring of 1980, when I was young and physically fit like this young man. I even have a picture somewhere of me on that roof but I can't locate it now. Which reminds me, I've only scanned about forty percent of my photos. I haven't scanned pictures since before COVID. I better get on that project before I check out for good.

Back to my roof. Every year I have clogged gutters from those three river birch trees in that photo. In the spring it's the seeds and in the fall it's the tiny leaves. Always a headache to get someone over her to clean out the gutters. My previous guy, I've had to call him three times and he still didn't come. I decided to seize the opportunity of asking my neighbor to ask her handyman if he could come over and clean out my gutters. Well, he not only cleaned out my gutters but he suggested putting in gutter guards, which I consented to. Now I won't have this problem every year of clogged gutters.

Owning a home, the maintenance is constant. But I much prefer to own my own home especially Casa Tipton-Kelly which is the culmination of my lifetime quest to have a perfect home. 

I'm so happy this job is done now. One less worry.

Next!

BOOM1 BOOM! BOOM!

 

Life has a way of delivering punches to the gut just when you think things are calming down. 

That's what happened this past week.

As I was pulling in our garage from our Daily Ride, I was feeling good about keeping our expenses down this month. I was thinking "I can actually save some money this month." HA!

As I was thinking this I saw the dreaded "Tire check" light on my dashboard. Oh no! 

I had that light a couple of weeks ago. I checked the air pressure in my tires and found the culprit. It was my right left rear tire. I filled it up to 32 air pressure and that dreaded dashboard light went out. 

Now it was on again. Okay, I know what it is. About a year ago I had a near flat. I took our car to my local trusted garage and "Herb" discovered a LARGE nail embedded in my tire. Great (sarcasm)! Herb put a large patch on my tire. I thought that fixed the problem. Well it did for awhile, but now the problem was back. Off to the garage. 

Herb checked the tire and said that's what it was, a "slow leak."

He said he had already put the largest patch on it and the bad news was that the tire had to be replaced. The even worse news was that that tire, Uniroyal, was no longer available. It was discontinued, of course. I would have to buy FOUR new tires. Total cost $915.49. OUCH!

There goes my "savings" for this month. What really hurts is that the tires I have now still have great treads. I purchased them brand new in 2018 for my 2010 Subaru Forester which had the original tires. Okay, calm down Ron. At least you have money in reserve to pay for this unexpected expense.

Then as I was finally able to semi-relax and get back to my normal routine, I detected a familiar smell from under our kitchen sink. It was the smell of standing water. 

A couple of years ago I had a leak in my spray nozzle. I'm thinking, "It can't be that, I'm so careful." Well, it wasn't THAT. Upon further investigation I discovered the leak was coming from my garbage disposal. Yes, THAT garbage disposal that I paid $174 to have reset last month. I finally adjusted myself to accepting that unnecessary expense and here I have yet ANOTHER leak. 

Time to call my plumber.  This is going to be expensive. He arrives the next morning and yes, my garbage disposal is shot. This garbage disposal which I rarely use (I put all my garbage in my compost pile at the corner of our almost one acre lot next to the cornfield). He asked me how old my garbage disposal was. I told him that it was brand new with the house, 2006.  He said he's seen this so often, the garbage disposals usually "rust out after 12 to 15 years." New garbage disposal $787.00.  Of course that includes installation and my discount for being a member of their service plan. 

You know folks it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. 

Again, we're lucky here because I do have a reserve fund for emergencies like this. But talk about planned obsolescence. 

Bill and I lived in our Pennsylvania house for twenty five years. Never once did we have to replace our garbage disposal, get all new tires when one tire went flat or even a whole new HVAC system which I had to get several years ago because the original HVAC that came with house that only lasted TEN years. That little baby cost us over $10,000. 

As I'm typing this blog, I hear Bill choking on his morning custard. His esophagus is shot. We can't get him a new one at his age. The last time at the hospital they recommended that he get his good through a stomach tube. We're not doing that. We're managing. Just like we're managing with all these unexpected bills. 

Maybe next month we'll get a break.