Today was carpet cleaning day. Linda had been picking up the house for the last week getting ready but we still had a lot of last minute stuff to move, including the cats. We put them in the library along with their food, water, and litter tray. We also moved their cat “tree” out there. They were confused and unhappy about the arrangement but we figured it would be less stressful for them than constantly trying to find new places to hide as Jack moved about the house with his big, noisy carpet cleaning machine.
Jack Hoskins runs a one-man carpet and upholstery cleaning business named Duraclean. Located in Farmington Hills near our previous house, Jack took care of our cleaning needs for the last years we were there. When we bought the house in Oceola Township we had him clean all of carpets after the painters were done but before we moved anything into the house. We did not have him clean the carpets in 2014 but had him out today to do all of them, including my office / ham shack, which was under construction when he was here in 2013. Jack arrived right on time at 8:30 AM, walked through the job with both of us, and then spent most of the rest of the day cleaning. Jack works hard and always does a nice job.
Once Jack was squared away we bagged up the pieces of carpet and pad from the bus that would not fit in the trash container and took the container and the bags to the curb.” (We live on a dirt road and don’t really have curbs, but it doesn’t sound right to say we took the trash to the edge of the street.) We then unloaded the box from my car with the garden trailer I bought at Lowe’s yesterday, opened it, removed all of the parts, and assembled it. Linda broke down the cardboard packaging, gathered up some other cardboard and our usual recyclables, and we loaded them into my car to take to Recycle Livingston later.
Keith Kish (Kish Lawn Care) showed up mid-morning to finish cutting our grass. His Hustler zero-turn riding mower was not repaired yet but he borrowed an articulated stand-behind mower from his son. Something failed in the hydraulic pump on his Hustler and blew a 1 inch hole in it. The cost to replace the pump and put the mower back in service will be significant but his business is primarily based on that machine.
I mostly puttered in the bus while Jack worked in the house and Keith worked in the yard. Linda eventually went to the recycling center and then stopped at Lowe’s to buy some plants, pots, and potting soil. She is going to try growing some tomatoes, which are one of her favorite summer things, and some herbs. She moved the hummingbird feeder away from our deck and hung it on a stand in the shade of a tree we can see from our outdoor table.
I boxed up the ceramic tile pieces that were still spread out on the floor of the bus and moved the box to the garage. That stuff is heavy! I turned on the chassis batteries so I could move the driver’s seat forward to get access to the seatbelt attachment bolts. I unbolted the two seatbelt straps and removed them so I could remove the last pieces of the old white carpet from behind and next to the seat. I then reattached the seatbelts, moved the driver’s chair back, and turned off the chassis batteries. Refinishing the area around the driver’s seat will be its own special challenge and may not get done with tile as I may need something more flexible. It will not, however, be heavy carpet intended for use on floors.
My next task was to remove the flexible duct adapters from the HVAC chases. One of them has an AC electrical cable passing through it, so I will have to undo the cable from a nearby outlet box to get the adapter free. While I was working on these relatively minor tasks I was also thinking about furniture options. It finally dawned on me that we did not have buy an expensive custom made sofa-bed or use chairs instead and try to figure out how to finish that area. I could build a simple but very effective sofa out of wood and have a bottom and back cushion made to the exact dimensions we need using a fabric of our choice. That opened up the possibility of the fabric matching whatever we get on the chairs. The seat cushion could double as a bed for one person, with the back cushion removed, and the seat could hinge up to reveal a large storage area rather than dealing with the complexity of a drawer on suspension glides. The HVAC supply and return could also be easily be accommodated and I would not have to figure out how to finish the chase or conceal all of the wires that run along the floor in front of the chase. I discussed the idea with Linda and she liked it.
I moved the dinette table up front and we considered its size and placement relative to the seating we would like to use on the passenger side of the coach across from the sofa. We agreed that one of the things we would do while we are at the GLAMARAMA rally is visit Lambright Furniture in Shipshewana and Bradd & Hall in Elkhart. We also discussed buying a carpet remnant and trimming it to fit in the front part of the bus while we attend the GLAMARAMA rally.
I called Butch to see how his cataract surgery went on Monday. Apparently it went well, at least his world is suddenly brighter and more colorful. We talked through various bus projects, including approaches I might take to get a flat, level underlayment for the floor tile.
Keith wrapped up his work, collected his payment, and moved on to Sean’s yard just north of ours. I suggested that he come every week instead of every other week as long as the grass is growing as quickly as it has the last two weeks and he agreed. Keith normally does a nice job with our lawn but was now a couple of days behind schedule and trying to catch up using equipment that was not his. He did not want to drive the stand-behind mower over or near gravel, so some areas along the pull-through driveway did not get cut. He was also not able to work around obstructions as tightly as he can with his zero-turn mower, and appeared to not overlap some rows.
Jack wrapped up his work not long after Keith and took off for another short job before calling it a day. I let the cats back into the house and then decided to get out our self-propelled Honda walk-behind mower and trim up the yard in front of the house and some of the areas Keith had missed. It took a while to get the mower started but I eventually did.
Linda made a nice salad and baked an Amy’s pizza for dinner. It was 6:30 PM by the time we finished eating. Linda gathered up the plastic wine glasses and toilet paper holders she bought yesterday at IKEA and we drove to the store in Canton to return them. The glasses were too tall to fit in our wine glass display case in the bus and the toilet paper holders did not fit in the places we needed them to go in the house. While we were at the store we looked at their selection of refrigerators, none of which will fit through the entrance door on the bus, and just wandered through looking for ideas. We were not up that long after we got home, it having been a long but productive day.
