Unintended consequences

All I wanted was a nap, a nap on a nice fall day, with the windows open. But my windows don't open, so why not get a screen door? After all, the post Ike electric crisis clearly justified a screen door for bedroom ventilation. $40 later, we were on our way home from Lowe's, and I was dreaming of soft breezes cross my face as I slumbered. After several hours of trimming and sanding, the door was in. I bought a vinyl door, so I don't even have to paint it.

Whack! It only opened about a foot. Our low and extended eaves were blocking it. I had a screen door, but no way to get out of the house. Carl began removing sections of the eave. He stopped short of removing the face plate, which would have left a gaping hole under the roof line. The door opens almost 90 degrees now, enough to go in and out without turning sideways. Now there was extensive repair needed on the eave so that animals did not crawl in the attic. And paint. I would need paint, and where on earth was there still a Sears store in business to get a matching gallon? Amazingly, the original South Main Sears store is still there, and they still sell paint. $20, plus $40 in other stuff I bought while I was there, and $10 and 10,000 calories for lunch at a Prince's Hamburgers because the Sears Store on South Main reminded me of the Prince's Drive Inn that used to be next door and the Prince's special sauce.

While working on the door, I noticed a rotted door sill plate, and asked Carl to replace it. He did. Then he said "Well, the bottoms of the cedar siding planks are rotted too. We should cut off about 6 inches and put in a hardi-plank at the bottom. $99.

After the rotted boards were cut off, it was clear we also needed to replace the 1 by 4 battens that the siding was nailed on. $58. And we needed another router bit. $26. I was afraid for a minute we would come home with the router bit set, $99. And a box of screws, better get the big box, $26. And having used up the package of sawzall blades, better replace those, $32.

Now that the 1 by 4 was removed, it was clear that I needed to grout from the edge of the quarry tiles on the patio to the house......this is getting old.......And treated 1 x 4's clearly should be retreated. (Clearly? Wait a minute. This is when I began to question my engineer husband about why we needed to treat treated wood?)

And look up on the roof. The pine needles from Ike have never come down from the valleys and surely they are going to corrode the metal flashing. Better get up on the roof and take care of that.

I have not had my nap yet, but when I do, it is going to be very very delicious as the breezes waft through my $500 three week installation screen door. At this point they will probably be spring breezes, because the hardi-plank is not installed yet, and then there's painting, and oh, those 7 tiles have come loose where the joint cracked in the patio, I think I should replace those. And there's still that section of wall past the patio on the garage wall to repair, and that will require that first I cut all the eave high hibiscus down to ground level....etc etc etc.