The family reunion is over. Summer is over. Fall is here and I am rushing to complete all the outside chores before it gets too cold to work outside, comfortably. The nursery has a sale on. Perennials for half price. My kind of sale! My purchases include 3 rose bushes and 3 asters...blue, of course, er, purple...the closest I can come to blue. All six perennials go into the ground. The pumpkin orange mums must be saved. They get planted, too. They may live or die, depending upon the winter. Mums should be planted in the spring, according to a master gardener. Who can find mum plants in the spring? The answer to that question is to find a grower specializing in Mums. Good old internet.
My lawn furniture should go into the garage, but Stephen has his things in that space. The trouble with letting people store their things "temporarily" is temporarily goes on forever. Stephen gets a call to get his things and to help me move my furniture into the garage. He gets one, two, three...maybe four calls. He's busy. My lawn furniture sits on the grass. I am mowing around lawn furniture. I mow and trim both lawns. I see my tenant has mowed her lawn, but left a big swath of uncut grass. Could that piece be on my side of the property line? I think it is. I make a mental note to remove the grass from my border.
Andy has taken the things He wants from the pile I removed from his bedroom. The remains are all over the garage I park my truck in. I can't get my truck in the garage. My job, again, is to go through Andy's left overs and discard them. He has signed a paper stating that what He leaves behind, He is abandoning. I think I will invite Chris and Stephen to go through the discards to take what they want. I had better get started on sorting Andy's things. The clothes go in one pile. Some things I discard. I've only made a dent in the pile .
Over at the Melba Street house: Several days are spent attempting to waterproof the basement from the outside. On the inside, the dehumidifier is working its magic. UGL makes great products for masonry waterproofing. DriLock is used to patch cracks and minor hole. 5% silicone solution goes on the masonry. It gets soaked into the pores of the blocks and dries there. The clear solution becomes a vapor barrier. A sprayed on concrete application is pulling from the foundation...sure sign of water entry. Will my silicone solution work over the winter? I can't tell.
My bad habit: eating breakfast out. At my favorite place, I spy my neighbor and his sister and brother-in-law. We eat breakfast together. Bill is a Greek contractor related to the owner of the diner. Can Bill dry up my basement? Bill and I drive to Melba Street. Together, We walk the property and discuss possible solutions. What Bill proposes, has already been done to the east and north walls of my house. We should do the same for the south and west walls. This means tearing down the deck to get to the foundation wall. I dread paying for this project, but it must be done. The deck is the original one. It was built when the house was built: 1975. I guess 30 years is a good long life for a wood deck. It was starting to get rickety, so now is the time to take it down. Bill will get back to me with a proposal. We agree that it is too cold to work now. The project will take place this spring.
Chris said He would like to move into the Melba Street house this winter. He will arrange for a job transfer closer . He already has some of his things stored "temporarily" at Melba Street. I'm beginning to see a pattern here.