Repairs!

Living here on this southwest coast of Florida, has been just perfect barring the hurricane six years ago that devastated our home but in the end it was a blessing for us in disguise…
Yes, you heard that right…
Go with me here…Doing what others would call making lemonade out of lemons that is… with our 1958 home’s destruction we had enough damage to need to gut our home that had only been partially refurbished by then and we had many more plans for it to be accomplished before Hubby’s retirement.
Ironically enough the insurance money enabled us to speed up those renovations due to necessity, and to be able to move out of the 240 square foot trailer that we rented after the hurricane alongside our home so Hubby could stay in county and not have a long commute to work. Because if you didn’t have family or friends in county to stay with there were very few rentals to stay in (too many were destroyed too) during getting our home back to livability.
And so we are thrilled that our little gem or jewel as I love to call it is near as perfect as we had imagined for this phase of our lives.

Except for one small thing…
We are on a saltwater canal like I have mentioned and we have a small swimming pool and boat dock and lift, etc. and the fish pond, gardens and we have a garage and Hubby has a workshop behind it and we have sheds that match our stucco home and it is small one but a two bedroom/ two bath with a nice covered patio and bonus sunroom.
The small thing is we live in an unincorporated area not in city limits and although we have city sewers and city water the water is very hard!
Yes, we could install a water softener but they now ask a small fortune for any we have checked into!
Perhaps we should investigate further, and will more than likely since every time we talk to the utility company and complain they do send someone out to flush the lines.
For my laundry I have been using baking soda with each load and that appears to work or I should say help, less damage to those towels which seem to rip every time I would soak them.
In all the homes we have owned over the years I don’t recall the water ever being this hard.
It has deteriorated the faucets in the kitchen which we were fortunate to be able to replace three times, two of our own and once the faucet company since we really thought it was the flaw of the faucet and most recently it has not allowed me to close the drain in my bathtub and switch the faucet to a downspout for a bath, but I do mostly take showers since I have a special chair in the tub for that purpose and a hand held shower head.
But today besides Hubby fixing the grout around the tub which had cracked slightly he had to fill the tub for that purpose, which is recommended to simulate the weight of a person so he also unstuck the drain and lower tub faucet! Fortunately but I must admit somewhat oddly, I suppose, there is access from our guestroom closet with a little screwed on door which buts right up against the back of my tub and to all the tubs faucets and drains. He admitted that his biggest fear was that couplings could have broken but they were copper and it took detachment very well. You see Hubby also was an apprentice plumber while going through college for engineering, multi faceted he is as the saying goes.
And with the building, physically of our NJ home and all the other homes' renovations and additions it was just another piece of cake for him.
All the problem called for was a cleaning up of the individual parts and a reminder to me that I should use them to keep them from freezing up again anytime in the near future. Apparently that was why they were so stiff and unmovable… remember that folks it goes for just about everything… if you don’t use it you lose it! LOL!
I bet most of you knew I was going to say that!
On that note of hearty silliness I will wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!
And next time please be here or be square, OK?

PS he also repaired the adorable sailboat and lighthouse whirligig that he had made years ago; its wooden broom handle pole stand had broken so he repurposed a metal pole we had in the shed we had left over from our dock swing that wind also destroyed way back. Yep, Hubby is a saver, so far not a hoarder, at least I hope not! LOL! Any-who it is back in the veggie garden doing its thing keeping the critters/birds away that might eat our crops that haven’t come up yet! Lucky for them with this weather, huh? But Florida is coming back and real soon too, tomorrow we have been told!