Scorching the World

Today we worked on the garage.   Period. Actually, we didn't get much work done today. In the morning, Tom went to Lowe’s to get some last-minute things. I had breakfast and tried to start painting the waterproofing stuff in the shower, but it took me about an hour to find it. When I finally did, I couldn’t open the bucket. So I waited for Tom to get home. Eventually I did get to paint the first coat on the shower wall. It is like painting with pudding – that’s how thick it is. Tom and I put up a couple sheets of sheetrock. It sure isn’t much, but it’s about all we can do until other people do their parts. In the afternoon I decided I should go get some groceries. I also needed to get the things Tom needed for tomorrow’s breakfast for our neighbor’s volleyball students. I got too hot and it made me sick. Besides that, I forgot some of the things, so Tom had to go back to the store to buy the rest that we needed. Eventually in the late afternoon, a crew came to put stucco ...

Tom and I started working in the garage first thing, but soon there were only hard things to do that I couldn’t help with. So I came in and worked on my regular stuff inside, in the air conditioning. Curtis came to continue working on plumbing and our friend Beto came to remove stucco so that we can frame in the front window. I felt so bad for him and his son out in the hot sun, working so hard, but they got it done. Now Tom will frame the actual window size and someone else is supposed to come tomorrow to put in the stucco so we can install the window, hopefully tomorrow too. They were all gone by about 1pm. Tom and I grabbed a short lunch and nap because Tom was already exhausted, then we went back out and worked on things the rest of the day. We put in sheetrock behind where the toilet will be and painted it because it’s hard to paint behind a toilet after it is installed. Then we worked on installing the ceiling above the shower. It was a very irregular shape, so we spent A LOT...

I love that I don’t have to jump up and run to meetings early on Sundays. We get up, shower, dress, eat, read scriptures or a Come Follow Me videos, and at 10 (which seems like many hours of relaxation have passed) Tom joined a Zoom ward council and at 11am I joined Sunday School. It’s just sad that hardly anybody joins those lessons. Today it was me, Janna (sitting next to me), and the missionaries. About halfway through, another sister joined who I didn’t know. When the lesson was almost done, the teacher asked the new sister who she was because the picture of her didn’t have her name, and she gave her name and described herself as an inactive member. We welcomed her and invited her to join again next week. So that was fun. As soon as that ended I connected with Anne and Carma and we had a good chat about lots of things, but we tried facebook video messenger and the sound was terrible. I don’t think we will use that again. While I was chatting, Janna left to go back to work for t...

Tom’s plan was to go to Lowe’s as soon as they opened at 6am to get supplies before Carlos Fernandez showed up to do our electrical in the garage. (I can’t wait for the day that I feel like it deserves to be called a studio instead of a garage). But we were up several hours in the night, so by 5:30-6am, we were in a deep sleep. Carlos was supposed to be here by 7am, so Tom was dressed and ready for that. He was in the garage, working on a few things, and cleaning up in preparation. Carlos got her about 8am with his wife. We were so happy to see them – partly because they are great friends, and partly because we really need the electricity hooked up in the garage before we can move forward with anything else. I had some Clean Queen work that I focused on while they were all in the garage working. About 11:30 Tom came in to make lunch. We bought a lot of potatoes when Trina was here and had a lot leftover, so Tom wanted to use them up, so he made breakfast for lunch. He fried spuds, ...

Tom and I started early on the garage, right after breakfast. Curtis came over around 10 and worked until 1pm. Tom and I continued until we couldn’t do any more without supplies. We went to Lowe’s and bought the first of the fun stuff! I got to choose some pretty tile for the bathroom. That was the most fun I’ve had since we started this, except for drawing floor plans. We were still working in the garage when Janna came back from her week at work. She talked to us quite a while but we tried to keep working while she talked. There was so much that Tom needed to get done before people come to do work tomorrow, and I wanted to help him, so we just kept working until I felt like I couldn’t hold up my head anymore. He had told me several times to go ahead and go in the house to rest, but I didn’t want to leave him. I finally said, “I’m going to go in and lay down.” So he turned everything off, followed me in and was shocked to see that it was 10pm! He thought it was only 7 or 8pm. We wat...

So today Tom and Curtis worked on the studio all day. I wanted to help, but most of what they did required two men only, and they like the garage door open so they have more light and have access to everything in the driveway and back yard, and so they don’t turn on the a/c. So I stayed in the house and worked on my own things and I stopped in the middle of the day to fix some lunch for them, like I’ve done every day for 2 ½ weeks. About 3:30, Tom asked me to make a quick trip to Lowe’s for 2 things they needed, but Curtis was gone when I got back, so it wasn’t such an emergency. In the evening, Tom needed to be at the Church with the Bishop while he conducted a baptism interview for an 8-year old and afterwards thought about going to Knudsens to help Caeli with her giant piece of furniture again but decided it wasn’t a good day for that. Instead, he went to the grocery store and bought the same things I had just bought when I ran to the store in the afternoon. He didn’t text me ...

Trina was really quick at getting the kids and car all packed up. Most of them didn’t even eat breakfast before they left around 8 or 9 am. So sad to see them go. Tom and I got right into working on the garage. It just seems like we work and work, and yet nothing is very different from one day to the next. We are still working on getting the plumbing in, and today we focused on the shower stall. I never thought it would be so complicated and slow to get done! We had help from Curtis, and after he left Tom and I tried to get a whole lot done. I suggested we put all our efforts into getting as much done as possible, even if we had to stay up all might. We worked until he ran out of screws and had to go to Lowe’s for that and a few other things. By the time he got back, I was too tired to keep working. It was going on 9pm and my resolve to work all night had vanished.  

We had a couple of things that we needed to get done in the studio while we had extra helpers. The biggest one was that we needed to take most of the sheetrock off the ceiling. That’s super hard to drop it without dropping it. We spent quite of time in the morning cleaning up the studio. We took all the tools and everything out so that nothing would be in the way when we pulled down the sheetrock. Tom wanted it in whole pieces as much as possible. So 3 of 4 of us would stand under the huge piece of sheetrock while either Tom or Trina would unscrew all the screws. With the last screw, it would fall on Tom or Trina’s head, and the rest of us would try to use our sticks to lower the sheetrock slowly, as a couple of others would get hold of it to take it the rest of the way down. It was a major process and not easy. It was hot and very dirty. We used safety glasses, but still got stuff in our eyes.  All the kids wanted to quit but their mothers encouraged them to keep at it until we ...

Some time ago Geneva bought a wedding dress to use as a base to make a prom dress. She brought it with her to visit us so that I could help her do some “adjustments” to it. The first thing she wanted was a row of pink tulle on the bottom. Actually before that, she cut off the train and cut the length for her height. She did that before she came and actually hand hemmed the whole thing! So we went to JoAnn’s for the tulle. It was complicated because Trina needed to drop off her car to be repaired and Tom wanted to go with us to do that, so we went in our car, Trina in hers, dropped it off, Tom talked to the guy to explain, then we had to drop Tom back off at home so he could talk to our architect who was already at our house waiting for him. Trina, Geneva, and I went to the store and had a little trouble trying to uses our combined math skills to figure out how much tulle based on the length around her skirt, times three, divided by how many lengths we could get out of one yard. It ...

This morning b efore anything else, I watched Scripture Gems and Teaching with Power for the current week’s Come Follow Me lesson. I hadn’t made time to watch all of them during the week and wanted to see them before we started the upcoming week’s lesson. Tom had Ward Council at 10am on Zoom and Trina had her ward Sunday School on Zoom at 10 which I listened in on. It was really good. They had about 35 people who participated.  There was also a Zoom baptism, but we missed that. At 11am, we joined my ward’s Zoom Sunday School. Our renter, Janna, also joined on her phone, which caused an echo in the because we were in the same room, so Trina and I went in the office to participate. (Janna stayed with us and joined us for everything we did all weekend.)  My Sunday School only had our household in the class- me, Trina, Geneva, and Janna, plus the teacher. We get very poor participation in our ward's Sunday School Zoom meetings. I wanted to re-watch Our Turtle House from last w...

Tom wanted to make breakfast burritos so before anyone woke up he ran to the store to get potatoes and milk. I spent the whole time cleaning the kitchen. It’s hard to keep it clean with so many people in the house. We had a fabulous breakfast, then settled in to the same stuff – Tom working on the studio and everyone else doing our own things. We were supposed to have several people come to do the things we can’t do, but nobody made it. So it was Tom all alone. In the afternoon I convinced Tanya and Trina to go out there with me to help him. We weren’t much help, but I think he appreciated it. Progress is so slow when it is only one or two people working on massive things. Tom was finally ready to swim at 8:30 and several kids jumped in with him. They swam until well after dark. We tried to get Trina caught up on The Baker and the Beauty while kids aren’t in the house, which is tricky, so we watched that off and on during the day. Tanya took charge of dinner, which was sure nic...

Golly, where do the days go? Tom and Trina had to go drop off her car to be smog checked by 9:30, so they left. They dropped off her car, then went to Knudsens to help Caeli get a humongous cabinet into the house and into her room. Then they went to Lowe’s and got more needed supplies for the studio. All day Trevor watches to the clock because Tanya told him that the shade is over the pool around 4:30. Until then, the kids play until time to eat then play again. Trina has been working on things for the kids’ online school, ordering supplies, etc., and it has been so complicated that it took a couple of days. I’ve helped Tom when I could, but mostly he works with Curtis. He was trying to screw something in with his power screwdriver, but the tip was so dull that he had to push really hard and it slipped and he almost screwed a hole in his head! I was so shocked that I insisted he stop work until he can buy a new screwdriver tip. So he and I left to go shopping. We went to Fresno Ag beca...

Tom and I always wake up before anyone else, so we just stayed in bed to not wake anyone up and discussed all the stuff we have going on. It was nice being forced to just stay in bed and quiet for a little while. Since it was under 70 degrees outside we went for a walk about 7am. That felt really good. It’s been too warm in the mornings to be able to go for walks. When we got back, some of the kids were awake, and others woke up slowly. I let Trevor choose from the list of breakfast menus, what he would like today, and he chose French toast. It was a yummy breakfast. We had lots and lots of things we needed to do today, especially Trina had a lot of things she needed to get done urgently, so we didn’t try to take down the ceiling. Tom had too many other things going on anyway, trying with Curtis to get the toilet plumbing hooked up. So I didn’t help in the garage hardly at all. I cooked and cleaned and did Clean Queen while kids played and adults did what they needed. About 4pm, ...

I wanted to get to the store super early to beat both crowds and heat. So I got up at 6 and to Walmart by 7. I had a really long list of things we would need for the week that Pettus’ are here, plus a whole lot of groceries. It took a couple of hours, and on the way home Tom asked if I could stop at Lowe’s for something, but I had frozen things in the car, so I didn’t want to stop. By the time I got home, I needed to unpack the fridge and freezer foods and then get to some Clean Queen emergencies. The rest of the day I did Clean Queen and watched movies. There wasn’t much I could help with in the garage, so I just cleaned and got things ready for the Pettus to get here. I texted back and forth with Trina throughout the day so she could tell me the progress she was having with getting everything done she needed to do, getting packed, and getting people in the car to come. She actually bought a car to come in! Tom had to go buy more supplies for the garage in the early afternoon,...

Well, what can I say. Tom and I built walls, almost installed the bathroom door (finishing tomorrow), took down some ceiling sheetrock, which is really hard because it is heavy and we have to have 2 people hold it to keep it from falling on us and breaking into pieces while one person unscrews it. Curtis came and worked on plumbing again. I had no idea plumbing would take so long! I think this is his 2 nd whole week. In the evening after Curtis went home, we went to Lowe’s for more supplies, but couldn’t find what we needed or anyone who would help us find it. So we went to Home Depot – we really don’t like Home Depot because they are so openly supportive of gay political rights, but they had everything we needed, were fully stocked, everything organized, and we were able to get help whenever we needed it. After we unloaded everything, we sat down to relax and watch a movie but Tom fell asleep. He would wake up periodically and ask me to clarify what had happened and why, then he ...

We took advantage of the quarantine and had a very leisurely morning. We slept in longer, got up later, and took it easy for several hours. I finally got dressed by 11 for our Zoom Sunday School; Tom got dressed from the waist up. Right after Sunday School I get to chat with my sisters – a highlight of every week. I miss them and being able to hang out together. We are fortunate to have been raised in a close-knit family who all loves each other. I’ve been meeting people who didn’t get that blessing. I hated to hang up, so we were almost half hour late getting to Tanya’s house. They wanted to host because the huge piece of furniture that I helped Caeli pick up last week wouldn’t fit in their front door. Caeli had a plan how to disassemble it to get it in, so Tom needed to look at it. Caeli has really been thinking and figuring it to find a way to make it work. Tanya and Todd aren’t convinced. We had a nice Sacrament meeting, then a good dinner. Tanya found a recipe she likes that...

Jaime Cervantes was here by 8am to install the back window. It sure is a blessing that we have wonderful friends who are willing to work for a reduced price and help us get this thing done. We sent a text to Tanya last night saying we sure could use some help in the garage this morning before it gets hot. Tanya said she would bring the boys over. Today we needed to take down all the sheetrock from all the walls and ceiling. It was already getting warm, but we used hammers and a sledge hammer to bust holes and pull it off. I think Kaden and Cannon enjoyed breaking walls. They did a LOT!   Usually it’s hard to get them to work, but they stayed at it as long as they got regular water and snack breaks. Caeli brought a friend, and part of the time, Caeli pulled one strip of door frame off one door while her friend, Abby, helped remove sheetrock. Then those two spent the rest of the time swimming. Cannon and Kaden joined them when we had most of the sheetrock off. Tanya and I went ...

Last night we were both so very tired, we were in bed at 10pm. After about 10 minutes, Tom asked me a question about the remodel. A minute later, I asked him and we began talking about different ideas and issues and soon we were so wide awake we decided to just get up and look at our floor plan. We talked and talked until 1am when we finally decided we could go to sleep. Fidel showed up at 7am ready to go to work installing the air conditioner! Hooray! It will be so much easier to work out there when we are not dying in 105 degree heat. But Tom was still in pajamas, so he showed them what they needed to know to get started, then went to get dressed. He never got to leave the garage for the rest of the day. Curtis Flowe came and started on the plumbing again, but we needed to buy some things that were urgently needed for the day, and we had an appointment at 9am to buy a bathroom vanity we found on Craig’s List. So we left people working and took off. First we went to Home Depot to ...

It’s funny because the garage didn’t look very different at the end of the day in comparison to the beginning of the day, but we sure were busy. First thing in the morning we decided we needed to buy a bathroom vanity, and Tom needed the plumbing pipes. So we went to Lowe’s and had such a hard time finding ANYTHING, or getting any help, that the last time he asked a guy who worked there a question, when I asked him what the guy said, Tom said, “he said to go to Home Depot.”. I’m sure he didn’t really say that, but Tom was pretty frustrated. So we went to Home Depot and found someone who could help Tom get the right pipes for plumbing, but we couldn’t find a vanity. We had been gone almost 3 hours and were ready for breakfast, so we gave up and went home. After breakfast, Tom needed to go to the office in Fresno, and while he was there he picked up the a/c unit that he had ordered. While he was gone, Curtis Flowe showed up to work on the plumbing. I was available if he had any que...

It was cool enough this morning for us to go for a walk. It felt good to be outside, breathing fresh air and getting a little exercise! Tom had to go to work today in Stockton. That worked out well for him because the Synergy office there has a warehouse where they keep, among other things, energy efficient windows. So while he was there, he was able to get the two windows we need for the studio apartment, and they gave them to him for free! Major score! He also visited our good friend whose husband died right before the quarantine began to see how she is doing. While he was gone, I worked on digging out a bush by the back door and a few other things not worth mentioning. We had an appointment at 4:30 with our neighbor, Eric to come and measure our driveway to prepare for the new garage. After Tom got home about 4:15, he ate, then we took a nap until Eric knocked on the back door. He looked at the measurements and explained the process to us. It was good to get some concrete informatio...

There are things we have to wait for before we can do much more than just plan in the studio. Tomorrow our neighbor (who was supposed to come over on Saturday) is supposed to come over to measure the driveway in preparation to pour new cement and build the new garage. With the proper measurements, we have to get professional plans drawn up. We can install windows in the studio, but Tom has to pick them up, which he will do tomorrow. He can get at least one free from his work because his boss is nice. We will install an a/c unit which Tom ordered today; it will come in on Wednesday and then we can install it on Thursday. Our friend who will draft our blueprints will come Thursday, we hope. We can’t do anything very serious until we have those plans. There aren’t very many things we can do before we get the plans submitted for permits, so it is super frustrating to me that we have an urgent deadline and all we can do right now is wait. So this morning Tom and I both decided to ...

7/4   I got moving slowly because there wasn’t anything urgent for me, but Tom had to be out of the house by 6:30am. The Bishopric was doing another drive-through breakfast for the ward for the 4 th . They served eggs, sausage and pancakes. Tom brought home a bunch of leftover sausage. He also had taken stuff that he prepared lasts night to make the Bishopric some breakfast burritos  They served about 100 people and had a great time doing it., and were happy to have the burritos! Tom was talking about what else they might do for the ward and Mike Coleman told him the budget is about depleted. Tom ask why and was told that it is because budget is based on Sacrament meeting attendance, and since nobody is attending right now…. Tom told them that since Church is now done in the home, the attendance should be nearly 100% and our budget should be the highest it has ever been! I did a little cleaning, then went back to my favorite pastime – working on the floorplan for the ...

Tom convinced me that it was better in the long run for us to work on the Comet today instead of the garage, so once again, we were out in the heat of the day. Yesterday our area fan died because the motor overheated, so we didn’t have that to help, but we survived. He got a couple of bucket seats to replace the old front bench seat that was in horrible condition.  He got them at a wrecking yard, and the car had been in a fire so some of the vinyl and foam was melted. He took them to a place and got them recovered, so they look really good. He had to install carpeting first, then cut holes in it and the foam and the rubber insulation to be able to bolt the seats. That was really hard work. We did our best to make the carpet fit. It was carpeting that was custom made for Tom’s Comet, but it really didn’t fit very well at all. We did our best to get it smooth, then cut the holes. It was hard. I think it took a couple of hours just for that part. Then we had to bolt in the seats. ...

I felt like I needed to take out all the stick-on tiles that the previous owner had put in the garage. They covered about 20 sq ft by the back door to the garage. They were easy to pull up, but left a sticky residue that could almost pull your skin off when you stepped on it barefoot. So when Tom went to Lowe’s for sheetrock, I asked him to get some goo gone. He forgot, so I googled how to remove sticky residue from concrete. The solution is simply to use vegetable oil and baking soda. I only have pretty expensive olive or grape seed oil and didn’t want to use that, so I used my big tub of coconut oil. Luckily I also had a big container of baking soda. So I spread the oil all over the floor and poured baking soda on top of it. Then I realized I now needed a way to remove the oil so I got a bucket of soapy water and tried mopping with that, but then I needed a way to remove all the very sudsy water. I finally had to just get on my hands and knees and scrub it off. It was hot and hard wo...

The year is officially more than half gone now and most of it has been spent in quarantine. The goal for the day was to get the framing for the space where the water heater will be moved to. I don’t know how to do that, so I began by trying to take apart the cabinets that we just built. I began taking screws out of the parts I could easily remove. Tom wanted to get the newly recovered bucket seats installed in his Comet because they are sitting in the middle of the garage, along with other things I have not been able/capable of moving. After a little while he decided he should work with me while I was available and work on his Comet later when it was too hot for me to be outside. So we got the cabinets removed, and all their contents moved into the shed. The garage still isn’t empty, but we are more ready to work in there. Then we started on framing the area where the water heater will be. It’s just a couple of feet from where it is now. We spent almost the rest of the day workin...