189 - The Whole Fandamily

Bo and Walter are getting along, even if Bo is a little rambunctious with him sometimes. He noses him around and grooms him with that little teeth chattering thing dogs do. We have to tell him to back off, but he is trying to be gentle. Walter doesn't mind it for a little while, then I think he freezes up until he sees his chance and he runs away.

Gracie is... still behind the bed. Perturbed, but less so. Last night when everyone was sleeping, she came out to snuggle with me for a little while. She and Bo had a confrontation the first day he was here, she swatted him across the nose. To her credit, she did warn him several times. She gave him the crazy eyes, she growled, she hissed, and he tried to make contact anyway... so she gave him contact.

Walter has come out of his shell and is decidedly in kitten mode. Sweet when he's ready to fall asleep, like a bat out of hell when he's in play mode. He has very sharp teeth... I was hand feeding him a piece of meat the other day - will never be doing that again. I put oregano oil on it and my finger is fine, but it was a lesson learned. Walter is a carnivore and still has a starvation-avoidance mindset. For the most part he's good about not biting your fingers or destroying anything, but when he's playing he does forget sometimes. He had some seed ticks behind his ear and we didn't realize it until they fell off and we found all these little round bubbles that have blood in them when you pop them. And they move... somehow... So I washed all the sheets and we put diatomaceous earth on the floor and everywhere else. I didn't know those things existed, but now I do and they need to die... or else they turn into ticks, and we dealt with that at grandma's so it's not happening here...

Bo is settling in. He has bursts of energy and loves to play with his stuffed duck, then he wants to go outside for a little bit and run around, go to the bathroom, run around some more. He's good about coming back to the front door to be let in. Sometimes he hops up on the couch and snuggles with us, other times he prefers the floor. We're finding a rhythm. He chooses to listen to us sometimes... other times, not so much. And he is so skinny... you can see his rib cage. But he eats, loves cat food oddly, which is cool because I stocked up on cat food on sale at WM the other day, but we do need to get him some dog food he'll eat. My allergies aren't too bad today. Yesterday was a trial but he's not in my face all the time now so I think that helps. Or my theory was right... being around one dog for an extended period of time makes the sneezing stop.

We also have... an outdoor cat. I wasn't feeding him but he won't leave, he hangs out by the front door or under the stairs that lead up to the deck, and he is Bo's outdoor buddy so I put water out for him. I figured he could find food, but water might be harder for him. He doesn't look malnourished so he must be a mouser or killing birds or rabbits. Tonight we put Bo on the balcony with a bone and Bootsie was licking all over the tinfoil we set it on so I gave him a piece of meat because it felt cruel not to. He snarfed it up. I decided that we always have pan scraps and things we scrape off our plates... it doesn't cost us anything and it was going in the trash anyway. He is fighting to survive and I can understand that and I guess we're a safe harbor. So we have Bootsie, typical black with white boots. He is sweet and docile, lets Bo push him around and doesn't mind a bit. Guess when it gets cold he'll end up in the basement at night. Maybe he'll keep the mouse population under control and hopefully run other cats off... because seriously, no more cats. Anymore will end up at a pound somewhere.

As for us, we're happy to see each other. It's been about a month and it was lonely here without the hubs. We had Mexican tonight, I cooked carnitas and rice and now we're watching a movie. Typical Saturday, only now our family has grown... which isn't such a bad thing. The contract has been signed and the buyers put earnest and option money down so I feel like that's going to happen. And Mike has applied for a few jobs, we're also trying to see if the oil rig job will pan out. Concrete doesn't appear to be working out and Jason might be closing up shop.

Walter is a little love bug. Loves to be up high and kneads like there is no tomorrow.

So tiny.

And photogenic.

Big goofy Bo.

Friends.

The bone from the pork butt, I cooked it for about an hour and let it cool then we let him play with it in the basement. Initially he was on the back deck, but when Bootsie made his move, Bo pushed it down the stairs. Figured the basement was the easiest place.

Trying to share a bowl of food. Poor Walter didn't stand a chance.

Bo sleeping in his typical curled up fashion.

Bootsie

188 - Things I Did Today

She's back. Oh the things you see when you're sitting on the toilet.

There wasn't really any caulk around the tub. I cleaned a lot of mildew from the tile and finally got around to caulking this morning.

But I couldn't exactly get this part to work. We'll come back to that. And yes, it looks grimy... I sprayed hydrogen peroxide on it, I attacked it with Soft Scrub and I let a bleach gel soak into it. Yes, all at different times. This is apparently as good as it gets.

Mike told me about the foam sealant he bought. It's a one-time use can. So I caulked around the gap between the concrete block and the door frame. Mike will have to shim the door to get rid of the gap at the top. So basically I think he tricked me into foaming around the doors in the basement. Mm-hmm.

Foamed around the gap between the garage door and the concrete block too. Was getting the hang of it so it looks like I know what I'm doing. The picture you don't see is when it squirted out and looks messy... that's on the other side of the entry door...

The space in the middle where stuff used to be.

The basement door lock I changed out and re-keyed a couple of weeks ago.

The space near the washer and dryer that I also cleared out.

The famed dehumidifier. Still ticking.

So once this sets up I have to cut the excess foam away and caulk and I'm done. For now.

187 - Progress

The dehumidifier is pretty great. When I first put it in the basement, the humidity was a whopping 83%. In the first three hours it pulled 65 pints of water from the air. Ever since I connected the hose so that it will run continuously and not fill the bucket (which shuts it off and lets the humidity creep back up) I can tell a definite improvement in both the feel and smell of the air in the basement. The humidity is now around 51-52%.

1,300 sq ft is probably a little much for one dehumidifier, so if we had two it would probably get a little lower, but I think 40% is about where you want to stop pulling the moisture out anyway, so I'm pretty satisfied with its performance. I think organizing the basement has also helped the air flow. I emptied and consolidated at least ten boxes last week, probably more. This may be the first week that the trash guys have no boxes to pick up. Anyway, I feel like we can have things in the basement and they are safe from mildew now. I found a sealant you can spray on the inside of a basement to help with moisture so we are considering that. You apply it with a pressure washer, and we have one of those, but right now it's a matter of getting things we absolutely need and nothing more.

And the plumbers stopped by yesterday. We had a leak and they determined it was the bidet. So it was my fault. I was sitting on the couch kicking myself that my great idea to hopefully save money in the long run, and reduce what ended up in the septic tank, was going to end up costing us more money. And then they surprised me. I asked how much I owed and they said nothing, that they might have loosened the connector when they changed out the pipe. I doubt that's true, but I appreciate it.

So the yard is completely mowed, the humidity seems to be under control, and there are no more leaks in the basement. If nothing else, that is at least an improvement. Other than that I cleared a little of the clutter out of our junk room and cleaned a little. Not a very exciting day and no pictures. :(