It’s been three weeks since I wrote anything and so much has happened. First of all, the house is almost finished. The stucco is done and it is incredible. I am waiting to take pictures as the roof is not done.
Perhaps, one more week and the roof will be done. It was supposed to be done over two weeks ago, but things just keep happening…which of course, has meant more and more money for different supplies.
I had put some money down on a stove and a double oven as we thought we were going to have enough insurance money left over to redo the kitchen, but that is not going to happen now. I had them refund the money and we are going to wait until the spring.
The roof is costing more and taking longer than we expected. This whole contractor thing has been extremely frustrating and time-consuming. I can now tell you the 10 different types of flashing that are need on a roof and where they are needed, etc….as I have had to order them…we wanted copper (I have champagne taste on a beer budget) but opted instead for copper metallic steel.
All the flashing has been custom ordered. It is coming from a steel metal building company and I have had to draw the specifications for each piece of flashing. Numerous trips, learning, and lots of research to learn exactly what had to be done and how to do it.
Recently, we were at another person’s home that were in the process of reroofing too. I noticed their crew were putting on the racks (side tiles), but had not put side flashing with a drip edge under the tile. I told the home owners and they had the crew redo the work.
You have to learn every detail and aspect and educate yourself in whatever it is that the workers are doing. I am so glad it is almost over. I will be glad to have my home free of workers and not have to play contactor (babysitter?!?) anymore.
However, it has been a blessing in disguise. On our own, it would have been several years to stucco the entire house and put on a tile roof and in a few weeks-it will be done!
And- it is beautiful! And we will not have to paint the house anymore. And the ugly old wood siding is covered. And I now have my Italian Villa that I have always wanted.
We had a hard freeze last week and all the tomato and pepper plants froze so Fito and all picked all the green tomatoes, peppers, and brought them inside.
Monday morning, I could not sleep so I arose at 4:30 am and started running everything through the food processor. There were five- 5 gallon buckets of produce. I then used canned tomatoes, dehydrated onion and garlic to supplement the fresh and made three huge batches of salsa. I also took all the bags of peppers and tomatoes that I had put in the freezer all summer.
I had the salsa ready by 8:30 am when I left to go teach and then when I came back at 10:30 am, I began to put the salsa in jars and process them. We ended up with 35 quarts and 38 pints of homemade salsa.
Today, I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and made poppy seed bread. I did not have any eggs. The chickens are eating their eggs or something else is…so I used dehydrated eggs and it came out just as well. I was very pleased with the dehydrated eggs.
I made over 20 loaves as we have a scout troop coming to camp out here tonight. I thought it would be nice to have a treat for them.
Last Friday, I took my grills to my afternoon class and made Pupuses for the class (about 20). They had been bugging me about my Pupusas as I told them they were the best.
Sunday, we had company and I cooked for over 20. I just took some pork pieces and steak pieces. (I didn’t have two bags of either…so I decided to mix them). They were frozen, so I cooked them in water, then added dehydrated onion, garlic, cumin, 3 Goya packets, cans of corn, potatoes, and carrots, and made rice and beans.
Later, I made chocolate chip cookies.
I have been offered some more training sessions, which pay more than the coaching and classes so I am excited.
We also went one day about a week ago to Tulsa to meet up with some friends we had not seen in years. I took my mom and we had an enjoyable evening. If any of you are ever in the OKC area, just let us know. Old friends are like gold…new friends like silver…or so the song goes.
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