Thursday January 25, 2007
My dear friend
I have spent most of the days during the past weeks working on Karen’s trailer. A few weeks ago we were coming right along, thinking we were doing great, UNTIL I pulled out the kitchen stove to clean behind it. I couldn’t pull it out because some cabinet trim was in the way. Tim came to my rescue and removed the trim. Holes in the floor!
Then he removed the obviously new bottom of the cabinet, more holes in the floor. The base of the cabinets was rotten and so was the entire floor under them. This meant cutting out all of the rotten wood and replacing it with fresh. And it meant buying new base cabinets for the kitchen, an unplanned for expense.
Now we were suspicious of the rest of the kitchen floor. So we pulled up the new vinyl that they laid to sell the place and the old vinyl that was under that. We found thin plywood put on top of old vinyl over rotten wood. (In some places, not every where.)
Tim cut out the old wood and reinforced the floor joists and then put down cut the new plywood (5/8 inch) and I screwed it down. Where there are gaps, I am filling with wood putty.
The price of the plywood and new cabinets and the loss of the “new” vinyl set us back budget wise. What to do about flooring? Karen thought that she would not want carpet through out the trailer. It would be too hard for her to keep clean. So we planned to limit the carpet to the bedrooms and use an area rug in the living room. Really good vinyl is expensive and very expensive to have laid. I can’t do it. I can do a small area of the cheap stuff. I have done that a number of times. But the good stuff is hard to manage and requires special treatment to get it right. If a professional does not put it down the warranty is no good.
Then Karen and I got a crazy idea. What about paint and polyurethane? The first problem is no insulation in paint. OK, we can put down Mylar sheets, which is a great heat barrier, then a layer of roofing felt, and then a layer of Luan. (Luan is very thin plywood, like what some paintings are on. Roofing felt is “tar paper” and makes a great thin smooth wind block. ) That is what I hope to achieve this weekend.
Before we could do that, all of the ceiling painting (3 coats) and the wall painting had to be finished. Tim managed to get most of the sheet rock up last weekend and I mudded it. But the area behind the stove and sink was not done. I did that this week. I just finished putting up the last bit of sheet rock behind the sink area and mudding all of it this afternoon. After the mud dries it has to be sanded and remudded and this is done twice in areas that show. Not where it won’t! Then the sheet rock has to be primed with a special primer. After that, it takes 3 coats of the good paint. I have one coat of the good paint done where Tim got the sheet rock done last weekend. I am hoping to get 2 more coats on tomorrow. The ceiling needs one more coat to be finished.
I have also been working on painting the bathroom and the bedroom ceiling (one coat so far) and priming those walls.
Karen scrubbed up under the steel hood that is over the stove today. 409 would not cut the grease so she had to use steel wool. Finally she said, ”There is this one area that the steel wool won’t touch.” So I went to look. There is a drip line about 1/2 wide that is about 1/8 thick. I showed her how to take a putty knife and scrape it first. We sprayed it down with 409 and left it to sit over night.
I ran up to Fairfax about 2 weeks ago to go to Ikea and buy the base cabinets. I got her a new sink while I was at it. We came in for less than a $1000 which is really good. They are nice birch cabinets so they won’t match the top ones that we just painted white. But some day maybe she can afford to buy new top ones.
I have some steel left over from doing my kitchen and I am putting it up on the wall next to her stove so in case she has a grease fire there a bit of protection for the wall. It makes it easier to clean the grease off of too.
Back to painting the floor. We decided to do the “granite look” as “tiles.” This requires special paint and painting techniques but I think that we can do it. There will be little gold sparkles in it, which appeals to Karen a lot. After we paint it, I will put down 3-4 coats of polyurethane. The nice thing about it is if it gets scratched we can just buff and paint it out. We are using a variety of colors to get a sandstone colorization. Our base coat and therefore our “grout lines” will be a mushroom color. No gold flecks in that paint. I am praying for this to work out well. I have done some stuff like this before. I have gotten better over the years, but one never knows until one sees the results. Karen and I are thinking of doing a test board. I have already bought the paint.
In the meantime, in my “resting” time I have been making her drapes and curtains. The ones for the bedroom are turning out “swell.” Even I like them and I don’t particularly like that color. Aqua. Karen is sanding the white paint off of an Ikea TV table that I used as a coffee table in my den. She will use it as a window seat in her living room. After she has it all sanded we will put polyurethane on it and I will make a cushion for it. I got an extra sofa slipcover from Ikea that matches her sofas to make the cushion cover.
I was going to try and make her 2 love seat sized sofas but I found 2 matching slipcovered love seats at Ikea for less than half price. With the window seat/ storage, she can seat at least 5 people in her small living room. She has a round maple table in her dining area with 4 chairs and a desk chair at her desk. So she can seat at least ten if she has a party.
I haven’t marched a church since before Christmas. But I am still doing some interceding. I am still having dreams too. A few nights ago I had the same dream 5 times, until God was sure that I would not forget the name of the mountain. Bald Knob. It turns out it is about 35 miles north of Lake Moomaw. It is in West Virginia. God didn’t tell me anything about Bald Knob. Yet. Only the name. Then 2 nights ago I had the same dream twice with driving instructions and landmarks. But it was not enough for me to figure it out on a map. God must be having a hard time getting through to me what he wants me to do and where. I am willing enough to obey (I think) but I must be deaf. But I do know God’s timing is perfect and He is capable of being quite loud and clear if He wants to be. I figure the giving of the message is His responsibility and the obeying is mine.
As you can imagine with all of the trailer work going on, I am not too inclined to intercede much. I got up today and got ready to go to the trailer, even had my coat on. (Karen was at the door.) Then I was hit like a ton of bricks fell on me. I took off my coat and went into my bedroom and lay down on the couch and prayed. I wept over the nation until I was exhausted from weeping. So Karen and I didn’t go to the trailer until 3PM today!
Very strange. It does not usually happen that way. Usually I start praying, praising God, being in His presence and then He leads me to intercede for the church or place or what ever. And lately I do a lot of prayer at the computer as I read the prayer requests. God also wakes me in the middle of the night and brings to me special requests from those that I have already prayed for. I have never had Him sort of DEMAND that I pray. I have never been on the way out the door and had to take off my coat before! But then every day is a new experience!
My body (or pain level) is an on going obstacle to everything that I want to do or be. The hot flashes have tapered off. So I have recovered from the doctor’s mistake with the prescription. I am having some really bad pain filled days, but then I have some that are not so bad. I have been up to 4 codeine a day and some days that is number 4 not 3 (double the codeine in them.) But then yesterday I made it through on Ibuprofen. I try wearing different shoes and resting after lunch. I try Epsom salts soaks, which sometimes helps and sometimes makes it worse. The most wonderful thing is my bed. In this house I have one that came from Ikea that is like a hospital bed. It is adjustable. I can put my feet up, or my head. I can get some relief from the spinal pain and sleep in the night. I can’t do that on a regular bed.
I know that the doctor’s say it will only get worse, but I believe that God will heal me because He wants to keep me in service. I know, I know, He will heal me because He loves me. He loves me if I die too. But whom else does He have here in Chester that will take off their coat and cry over the nation? All joking aside, I was getting worse. My legs collapsed under me a number of times during the last three weeks. I would have this new sharp pain in my spine as my legs just went. Then this week I had less pain and no attacks of legs giving out. But today I am has tired as if I had been in pain all week. I ache everywhere. But crying always makes me feel crappy, stuffy nose and all of that. So I count it all to good
I can still walk. I can still work, even if it is only in small doses. I can see the beautiful world that God created and I know that HE created it. I have more than a lot of people right there. I have indoor plumbing, a warm house, and food on my table. I have so much to be thankful for, that the pain that I have is so little in comparison. Even in pain, I can see the beautiful sunset that we had tonight. I can laugh at the snowflakes coming down when the weatherman said cloudy and 45. There is so much evil and pain in the world. And I am so blessed.
I will wear out this body as a child wears out a crib. I will put it down some day and pick up a new one. But I will get all of the mileage out of this one I can.
I am sorry that I have not written sooner, but believe me I have not forgot to pray for you and the other Daughters of the King, or Truro or the poor Episcopal Church. I am with you in Spirit at the Bible Study on Thursday morning. And I lift up every prayer request that comes on the Internet. Keep me abreast of all of the news on the “home front.” May God give you rest and strength this night and tomorrow.
For His Sake,
Rebecca
