The condition of the canal lock distresses me. The entire canal is in very bad shape. It needs to be dredged and the invasive weeds dealt with. The walls need to be repaired as well as the lock itself. AND they need to allow more water to flow through the canal. It’s getting very stagnant! Next thing you know the snapping turtles will refuse to live there.

The canal is a historic site; this lock should be considered historic and probably is. How is it that it is being allowed to crumble like this? When the Dexter family owned the paper mills in Windsor Locks they drained the canal ever year, cleaned it out, made repairs, then filled it up again. Since they sold it to Alhstrom (I believe that is spelled correctly) nothing has been done. A group called Friends of the Canal has been negotiating with Alstrom to let the Friends take care of draining and repairing. Alstrom is hung up on ‘liability’. True, when the Dexter family ran the canal, there were boats up and down the canal on a seasonal schedule, and I believe Connecticut Light and Power controlled the lock at the Windsor Locks end. Now the boats up stream go down to Long Island Sound on wheels.

Got It!

Late yesterday afternoon the building department called me to say my permit had been approved! This is the woman who deals with the public at the counter and she is very nice. As a matter of fact, she was apologetic when she called, saying she was sorry I had been put through such an ordeal. I should get it in the mail today or tomorrow. YES!

I have not (publicly) lost my cool through all of this. I have been very cheerful and nice. And, I guess, that has been the lesson for me to learn. It's the old vinegar and honey thing! ☺

Building Department Beyond Annoying

I got a call from the building department this morning saying the letter they made me get from the condo association isn't good enough because it isn't signed. It was emailed to me and I printed it and hand carried it to town hall. Why can't the inspector (the little prick!) just pick up the phone and call the management company to verify that the letter is legit? I sure would suspect me of dummying up a letter...better check up on me just to be sure!

I am waiting for a phone call from the management company telling me they have a SIGNED letter for me to pick up and hand deliver.

I would suggest to the building department they put a hoop at the door so towns people can jump through it on the way in and be done with it.

Playing Catch-up

Tilex does the trick!
I have given the tub and surround a couple of applications of Tilex. The results are amazing. The first time I applied it and waited 5 minutes before spraying it off, I could see the bottom of the tub was a black stream heading for the drain. That mold could not be seen on the surround, but after the Tilex loosened it, it became a disgusting stream of black.

BUT, after that there is barely any smell. Yes, I did it a second time and I think I will do a third, now that I know it won’t hurt the grout or the vinyl flooring. I think it’s on the painted walls, too, but have been advised not to use it on the paint…it will remove the paint.

When I re-paint the entire condo in the spring I will use Kilz on the walls as a primer…then paint.

If the former owners had just used their heads. The tub area is small, windowless and has no ventilation other than the ceiling fan. I’m not sure they ran the fan very long if at all.

New Carpet
The small bedroom now has new carpeting. Thank goodness! The old carpet was probably original (25 years) and black all along the baseboard, including in the closet and where the folding closet doors closed. This I’m told is from the ceiling air vent. I will need to take them down in the upstairs areas to clean them. That’s going to be a ‘gag reflex’ job! ☺

It’s all mine
I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but this is the first time in my life where my home is mine and mine alone. It’s not my parent’s, or my in-laws. Not my landlord’s. It’s mine. That’s why I want everything exactly the way I want it…not someone else’s choices or restrictions.

Speaking of restrictions…
I applied for the building permit to finish the basement. That was an education and I am now considered a contractor. Now, the building department wants a letter from the condo association that I have their permission to improve my basement. The condo association told me I didn’t need their permission as long as I wasn’t taking down any walls or making any structural changes. I’m waiting for the letter from the management company that says I have permission and I’ll hand deliver it to the building department.

I didn’t balk when they said I needed a smoke detector in each bedroom. I was not bothered when they said I needed a CO detector in the upstairs hall. I was fine with having all three smoke detectors hard wired together. In this town, when doing a renovation the entire unit has to be brought up to code. All that is for my safety and I’m OK with all of it. But this permission thing is annoying!

Physical Therapy
I have been discharged from PT. So far I am still pain free and able to do activities requiring me to put my arms in the air over my head...water aerobics and swimming. It feels good to feel good!

Mold Patrol and PT

Gosh, I’ve been here for 2 months already. It feels like I’ve been here longer than that. Maybe it’s because so much has been going on.

Upstairs bathroom…
I was advised to use a bleach solution (not vinegar) along the base of the tub and wall (where they meet). That took out a lot of the smell. However, when I lean into the tub to turn the water on, it smells musty. I was also advised to use Tilex® on the entire tub and surround. That’s on my shopping list for today.

I spent considerable time cleaning that bathroom yesterday. Picture this (your shower head has the same thing): where the shower pipe comes out of the wall there is a metal baffle (or whatever it’s called) that covers the hole. I decided to move this piece away from the wall so I could clean the inside of it. OMG! The baffle was cruddy, as expected, and the wallboard around the hole was damp, ‘rotten’, and black from guess what! I’ve never seen anything like it. I left the baffle off (away from the wall) to give the wallboard a chance to dry out.

My immediate solution will be to place the baffle up against the wall where it belongs and trace around it with a light pencil mark. Then I will cut out the section that is blackened by mold. The traced circle will let me know just how far I can go. The long-term solution would be to rip out the entire bathroom and put everything back new and dry, with an entire floor to ceiling one-piece surround. However it’s going to be a long time (maybe never) before I can accumulate 20K to do all that.

Physical Therapy
PT has been going well. I have been pain free the last two days. Considering I tore tendons around my shoulder blade, shoulder and neck back in mid-March, I am most appreciative of having no pain.

Back in March, I very unwisely lifted a very heavy bag of groceries and carried it up the stairs into the kitchen with my arm fully extended. The bag was so heavy I couldn’t have flexed my arm if I wanted to. That was just totally stupid on my part, and trust me, I will never do it again. I now make as many trips as necessary to bring stuff in from the car. Granted, now that I’m in the condo I don’t have that far to go…but any distance is too far if the object I’m carrying is obscenely heavy.

Learn from my pain! :-))

After the Storm

The afterglow. I had a front seat for last night's storm and this beautiful canvas.

Heat Wave

This has been brutal…a week of 90+ temps and humidity so high I can’t breathe outside. Makes me feel like I’m drowning. I thank God for the central air in my condo. I have never had it before and cannot see doing without it in the future. I bless it every day and I bless the electric grid for not failing.

It was somewhat difficult for me to sleep with all the windows closed and a fan circulating air upstairs, but I can get used to anything I guess, since I am sleeping well now.