Maintenance Activities

Since Ireland, our focus has primarily been on maintenance activities. I’m guessing I won’t include this post in my list of favorites.

Personal

Pretty much immediately upon our return, I got my root canal. It went well, so I won’t give you details other than I really liked my doctor. She was about my age, short, capable, efficient, explained things clearly but concisely, and was obviously an introvert. I felt we could be friends. She told me I was a great patient.

Lake

Over Labor Day weekend, I asked my brother to change two lightbulbs and hinted at a third. Three got changed, but not the one I hinted at, and it took two days. Maintenance always takes a little longer than expected, especially at the lake. I’m guessing the light fixtures here are from the ’90’s, and the only way a light bulb is coming out is if it is snapped off by a falling roof shingle.

While changing the light bulbs, my brother noticed the upper deck off his bedroom needed some cleaning, so we pulled out the power washer. We quickly realized there was a split in the hose. We patched it up with some duct tape. You can imagine how well that worked. It was good enough for a quick job on the upper deck and the main deck.

I tried to disconnect the hose from the power washer so we could replace it, but after a couple hours of trying, that was a no go. I looked up online how long electric power washers are supposed to last. This power washer, also from the 90’s and our home in Dunstable, has done its duty.

I really wanted to get the upper deck washed one more time, so I had Dave holding the hose so the spray from the split was heading out onto the lawn rather than through the screen slider into the family room. But he was worried the vibration from the washer would set off his vertigo, so he called Nicole up for help. I’m not sure he fully explained to her what she needed to do, so when he turned the power washer on, the hose went a little wild. He kept yelling up to me to turn the power washer off, but I only had the sprayer end. He was next to the on/off switch and the plug.

So we temporarily gave up on power washing. We have another power washer but that one is out of gas.

The three of us headed out to the sitting dock to decompress after promising Nicole we would behave (we hadn’t been).

North End

We took a break from lake maintenance to help Nicole finish moving into her apartment. Again, as we headed out from Methuen, Nicole asked us to promise to behave. I told her, based on our start, it wasn’t looking good.

Dave focused on cleaning. Nicole focused on the boxes. I focused on organizing, getting the internet up and running, installing a new Ring camera, and setting up the TV. The TV set up isn’t quite finished because it took a while to find the stand legs, but we never found the screws. We also removed three doors.

Tension only came into play at the end when I wanted to do a little more and they wanted to do a little less. They won. We went for gelato.

Lake Again

We returned to the lake, and now that the main deck was clean, we decided to throw another coat of stain on it with left over stain. That involved moving the furniture off the deck. Or most of the furniture. With my knees and his shoulders, we aren’t moving the big stuff.

This is where I know family members are yelling “Why didn’t you wait for us?”

This job is best accomplished in perfect weather with no small children, no dogs, and a limited number of adults.

We seized the opportunity.

(Don’t worry, the next crew up here can help us with the beached boat.)

As he stained, I replaced the railing post caps while trying to stay ahead of him. Along with a light bulb, we lost a cap to a falling roof shingle, and we decided they all needed to be replaced. While waiting for the stain to dry, I noticed one of the caps is not on quite right.

And of course, we ran out of stain.

Tomorrow, we were expecting the HVAC guy and the sump pump guy for yearly maintenance of those systems. I got an email this morning from the sump pump company. They are short staffed and would like to reschedule for the end of November.