September 6, 2025 - Removal of Switch in Homer - Installing New Chair Material- Lots of Work on Alexa's House

My Blog Reflection

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

Scott Adams

September 6, 2025:

The husband of the previous owner of Homer installed a switch on the left side of the dash. I bought Homer from the wife, who received him in their divorce. She had no idea what the switch was for. Not knowing what it did, I didn't touch it for almost ten years. 

Last fall we were heading to Indiana and I decided to push the switch. When I did the voltage gauge indicated that the truck alternator was then charging the house batteries. Cool. I kept the switch on but unfortunately some miles down the road we smelled something burning. I pulled over in a parking lot. We opened the hood, looked all around, smelled around, etc. Nothing. I went back into the cab and could smell it. I decided the switch I pushed had shorted out. 

After getting back home John and I messed around with with the switch but didn't get it working.  I decided that since I did without the alternator charging the house batteries for ten years, I could continue on that path rather than spending money to fix the issue.

I took the switch out, taped up the wires, and was left with this hole in the dash.

I couldn't tolerate a hole in the dash so I fashioned a cover made out of a piece of a wooden cigar box, painted it flat black to match the dash, and glued it in place. I'm happy with the result. The picture quality is poor because the camera was facing the sun.

September 6, 2025:

The material arrived for the patio chairs. They had told me two to three weeks but it is always nice to get things early. I decided to tackle the first chair. Getting the old material out and the new material back in was not too difficult once we got the hang of it. (I needed Kelly's help tugging, etc.) The hardest part was putting the metal back supports back in. We learned our lesson and the supports will be put in last on the next chair. Here is a picture. The material is a little shorter and I don't know why since I measured the length exactly. In any event, I had the privilege of being the first to sit in it.

I left all of the tools out with the intention of working on the second chair on Sunday but we got side tracked. 

My daughter, Alexa, just closed on a house in Perryville and is in need of an electric stove. I was looking on Facebook Marketplace and saw an electric stove in excellent condition for sale for $100.00 in Ste. Genevieve. The crazy part was that I know the seller. I immediately responded and told him we wanted it. He called back and said since it was us we could have it for free. I said "no way". We worked out picking it up Sunday morning. 

September 7, 2025:

I hooked up the trailer and we headed to Ste. Genevieve about 11:00 a.m. When we got there Bill and George had the stove on the front porch. They had just bought this house and want a gas stove, thus getting rid of this one. I strapped it on to my dolly and we loaded it on the trailer. I tried hard to give Bill the $100.00 but he wouldn't take it. We finally agreed that I my daughter could donate the money in Bill's name to a group he mentioned.

We dropped the stove off in Alexa's garage and headed home. We then decided to load the lawn mower on the trailer, since it was hooked up, and head out to the lake and cut the grass, probably for the last time this season. We also wanted to go out and bring back the push mower for Alexa to use at her house.

After the grass was cut I went to move the golf cart out of the shed to get to the lawn mower and it barely started. We drove it around a little to charge the battery and headed home with two mowers. We dropped our mower off at the house, unhooked the trailer, and loaded the push mower in the bed of the truck. After dropping it off in Alexa's garage we dropped the truck off at the repair shop where they are trying to find a phantom draw on the battery.

By the time we got all of that done I was ready to relax and watch a little football. The other patio chair can wait.

September 9, 2025:

Kelly and I changed out the seating material in the other patio chair in record time. These two chairs should last a long time.

September 10, 2025:

While at the house on the 10th, Kelly found that water was leaking from the attic, through the bathroom vent and on to the floor. I knew it had to be the condensation line from the AC unit, which is located in that area of the attic. Sure enough I went up there and found that a 45 degree fitting on the trap was cracked and leaking water. In the picture you can see the black line where it cracked.

My thought was that the AC duct cleaning crew, who had just been there a day or two ago, must has stepped on it and cracked it. My friend, Gary, who is a retired HVAC guy, said it probably froze over the winter and cracked. This is a problem when the unit is located in an unheated attic. He gave me a box of parts and glue to make a repair.

September 11, 2025:

Alexa and I went got to work on replacing the broken trap. She has never worked with plastic plumbing so I showed her how to make a repair. Here is the repaired trap. Gary said that the one-piece trap is less likely to freeze. He also advised that every winter the trap should be blown out or RV anti-freeze dumped in so it doesn't freeze again.

Gary and I went to lunch later in the day. He advised that I would have to add water to the trap to get the condensation water to draw correctly. I did not know that so back in the attic I went and poured some water in.

The home Alexa purchased has pine tongue and groove floors throughout. She and her friend, Aaron, pulled up the carpet in the two bedrooms and the linoleum in the living room to reveal the pine flooring, which was in good shape. The dining area, kitchen, and hall was all covered with a 1/4 inch underlayment and linoleum. In cutting out a couple of small squares we determined that the pine floors ran under the underlayment and were in great shape. 

Alexa left for the weekend to attend a wedding in North Carolina. Kelly and I decided to start taking up the underlayment and linoleum in the dining room. This is how much we got up after six hours of work. It was slow work because the underlayment is nailed down about every six inches. LOTS OF NAILS TO PULL OUT. We were beat since most of the work was on our hands and knees. I can get down but have a heck of a time getting up. You can see some of the old finish shining.

September 13, 2025:

Laying on the floor in the kitchen when Alexa bought the house, were two brand new rolls of linoleum. We were sure it was there to replace what was down in the dining room, kitchen, and hall. Alexa decided to take up all of the linoleum and not to replace it with the new linoleum left there. I put it on Facebook Marketplace this morning for $50.00.

Within an hour online I had a purchaser who will pick it up tomorrow morning. We will be glad to get it out of the way.

September 14, 2025

For the next couple of days Alexa continued the work of pulling up the old linoleum and underlayment. Kelly and I were too worn out from our earlier work to help much. Here are a couple of pictures.

Hallway before:

Hallway after: 

The off color square in the hall was a patch to cover the old hole in the floor where a heat register originally had been to allow heat to come up from the furnace in the basement. A pretty common way of heating the house back in the 1930s. 

This is what the transition looked like from the dining area to the kitchen. At one point linoleum had been glued down before the underlayment.

This "new" wood grain linoleum also came with the house. It will be used on the back porch. Alexa and I will have our hand at installing it. If it is not perfect, who cares?

September 23, 2025

The floor refinishers arrived and went to work on sanding off the old finish, the old glue, staining, and polyurethaning. They worked for four days finishing up on Monday September 29th. 

Here is what the floors looked like when stained but not with any finish on yet. The first picture is the kitchen. The two darker lines could not be sanded out and we believe there was a wall there at one time closing off the kitchen. The stove and refrigerator will be installed on the right.

This is a picture of the living room and dining room. Very nice.

This is a picture of the hall looking into the back bedroom.

Alexa is thrilled with the stain color and the work done. Her decision to pull up all the underlayment and linoleum and go with the original pine floor was a good one. It was a lot of work but the results have been worth it. The workers suggested not walking on the floor, or moving anything in, for several days. Alexa has lots of outside work to keep her busy for a couple of days so that won't be a problem. 

The first of next week we will move the refrigerator and stove in. Her next big inside job is cleaning all the hot water heat radiator fins. They have decades of dust and grime on them. This too will be a slow process because when cleaning you cannot be rough with the aluminum fins. They bend easily and then lose some of their efficiency.

Most of my help on the main floor has been "supervisory" and "advisory". I hate to admit it but the mind is willing and the flesh is weak when it comes to manual labor at this stage in my life. I have a little kitchen work to do. I revised a cabinet over the refrigerator. I modified the door and it has to be installed. The garbage disposal I took out and took home to get working will need to be reinstalled as well. Outside I have to make a new cellar door. The old one is broken off and much too heavy.

September 29, 2025

I had my third radium treatment. All went well. Tomorrow we will go over to the house and Alexa will do yard work while I figure out what I need for a new cellar door.

 

 

  

 

 

August 22, 2025 - September 5, 2025 New Chair Project - New Bypass Valves for Homer - Gray Water Valve Leak - Campout

My Blog Reflection

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.

Daniel Boone

August 22, 2025:

Last evening Kelly and I were sitting on the deck (now that it has cooled down a little) enjoying an adult beverage, when my chair seat ripped. I have to admit it took some effort to get out of the hole. LOL

On our deck we have two of these very well-made chairs that we use all of the time. They were part of the contents of Ron's condo in Florida which we bought from his estate. They have served us well but they are now about 15 years old. Everything else about the chairs is in wonderful shape. I replaced the springs a couple of summers ago. I got online to find out about replacing the fabric. The chair fabric is custom made to the exact size of each chair. Thus new material is not cheap. I watched a video and it doesn't look difficult to replace the material so I ordered a new one for each chair, along with all new plastic end caps to keep bugs and water out. All of the plastic caps are rotten and just break off when you pry on them. (Did I mention I hate plastic parts?) The replacement material should be here in two-three weeks. I'll report back on the installation.

August 26, 2025:

Once again I have to get blood drawn for the cancer institute study. Luckily, for a change, I can get it drawn in Perryville and I do not have to drive to St. Louis. Kelly also has to get blood drawn in Ste. Genevieve today. 

After our blood draws we brought Homer to the house to fix a few items and get him prepared for a our next camping trip. 

Homer Project:

The major Homer project was to replace the winterizing bypass kit for the water heater. All RVs have a winterizing kit installed the purpose of which is to allow you to avoid having to fill the entire water heater tank with RV antifreeze when you drain all the water to winterize the water system for the winter.

I never had any problem with the bypass kit in Homer until last fall. Homer's kit only had one valve on the cold water line. By closing it the antifreeze does not enter the tank through the cold water line. Last year when I winterized Homer I had to add multiple gallons of RV antifreeze. The reason was that the RV antifreeze was back flowing into the tank through the hot water line. It is not supposed to do that. My assumption was that somewhere in the system there is a check valve on the hot water line which is designed to keep the water (or in the case the antifreeze) from back flowing into the tank. This check valve obviously had malfunctioned.

The water heater, and all of the plumbing for it, is located in the bathroom on the floor behind a cabinet door about fourteen inches by twelve inches. Here is a picture of the door.

As you can imagine, there is not a lot of room to work. To make the job easier I removed the cabinet door to get it totally out of the way. 

Here is what the original bypass kit looked like. The arrow points to the one valve on the bottom inlet to the tank. I found no manual valve, nor check valve, on the top (hot water) line. This surprised me. The curled white hose is to bypass the water from going into the tank.

The new bypass kit has a valve for the top (hot) water line and a valve for the bottom (cold) water line. In the picture the yellow arrows point to the black handle of each valve on the new kit. The clear, u-shaped garden hose is the bypass line.

The old valve was much better quality than the new ones. It was all metal no plastic. But being old it leaked a little when turned from one position to the other. So to the recycle bin it goes.

While the new valves have black plastic handles, surely they will outlast me. When each valve is closed the water will circle from the bottom cold water line to the hot water line through the bypass hose, thus keeping all antifreeze out of the hot water tank. Yippee!

I always cringe at working on 30 year old plumbing, particularly when working in very tight areas. Fortunately there were no leaks on my install. However, the plastic outside tank drain leaked. I pulled it out and put in a new plastic one using lots of Teflon tape around it. No leak there anymore either. These plastic plugs are so durable and trustworthy that they come in a package of FIVE.   

Everything is dry as a bone in the water heater access area on the outside of Homer.

After all leaks were addressed I turned on the water heater to make sure it made hot water and there still were no leaks. I then hooked the electric up, closed the fridge, and turned it on to make sure it is good to go on electric for our trip.

August 30, 2025:

The last time I dumped the waste water holding tanks I noticed that the 1 1/2 inch gray water valve, when opened, leaked. I didn't explore the leak at the time but did today. The valve itself is an easy replacement. Four bolts hold the valve in a bracket that has a sewer pipe connection on each side. A rubber o-ring on each side of the valve case makes a tight seal. You simply take the four bolts out and the valve itself slides out. 

In looking at this area I do not believe this valve has ever been replaced. I assumed the rubber seals had deteriorated and thus the leak. Before ordering a new one I put water in the tank, emptied it, and to my surprise, the valve was not leaking but rather the fitting on the valve mounting bracket. The leak was on the side of the bracket leading to the drain pipe. The other side of the valve mount connects directly to the gray water holding tank and is was covered up with foam insulation at the factory. Here is a picture. The yellow arrow points to the holding tank fitting that is covered with foam from the factory.

Properly repairing this leak will be a major project because the valve mount is glued in into the pipes. It will have to be cut out with care and the glue removed from the pipes before a new one can be installed. 

Since there is no pressure in the pipe when the water is drained, I decided to attempt a quick repair by putting silicone around the leaking fitting. In the picture below the top arrow points to the valve assembly itself, which is held in the mounting bracket by four bolts. To the left of the valve is the clear silicone caulk I spread all away around the fitting in the hope that it will seal it. The bottom arrow points to the silicone caulk.

I don't know if this repair will hold but the silicone I purchased is for windows and doors so it is made for outdoor use. I have my fingers crossed.  

August 31, 2025:

Today we went to Buchheit's General Store looking for a few items. I noticed this display as we entered - 55 gallon drums for sale for $27.99. I remember when they were gladly given away once emptied.  When we moved to Perryville they were used by everyone to burn their trash. Times have changed.

September 2, 2025:

I got my next Radium 223 injection. I am not to be around other people for five days due to the radioactivity that could emanate to others from my system via body fluids. Since we could not attend the June nor August summer campouts with our RV club, we decided to schedule a couple of days of camping with my sister, Renee, and her husband, Jim, at their campground in Cuba, Missouri. We decided such a campout will be safe for all because we will be in separate campers, across the road from each other, all of our daily interaction will all be outside. We try to camp with them at least once per summer and this will be our first opportunity with the treatment schedule.

If the pool is open I will not get in it, nor will I use of the any public facilities at the campground. We are looking forward to it. It has been a rough summer. I have a full bottle of Canadian Whiskey to take along and I plan on putting a pretty good dent in it.

September 3, 2025:

We left Perryville at 8:00 a.m. and arrived at Meramec Valley Campground in Cuba, Missouri, at 10:30 a.m. Renee had to be at the gate with her card to let us in. I will digress here for a moment about that. 

Here is a picture of the campground entrance. Originally there was an attendant at the gatehouse who let you in if you were a member or a paid guest. The attendant was eliminated years ago, I'm sure due to cost, and now there is a telephone at the gatehouse with a number to call so someone in the office can open the gate. This is a membership campground and so all members have a card to get in. Members could always have paying guests but a few years ago the campground was opened it to the public to generate more income. 

In the past I have arrived at the gate and called the number and no one answered. In fact, I think only one time someone answered. The other times I had to call Renee and she would have to drive up and use her card to open the gate for us. 

When you open a place to the general public this is terrible system. You pull up to the gate, off the highway, and are now sitting, in your rig, at the gate, with nowhere to go if no one answers the phone to open the gate. Your only option is to back out into the highway to get out. The road in the lower right is the lane to the storage area for campers. Here is a picture. There is no way any camper could back 90 degrees into this gravel road to turn around. There needs to be a better system for entry by non-members who don't have a card to open the gate.

Once Renee let us in the gate and we checked-in it didn't take long to set up Homer across from Renee and Jim's camper and settle in for three days of R n R.

You can see from this picture that virtually no one was there midweek after school has started. Nice and quiet.

The weather was perfect all three days. Wednesday Renee and Kelly were even able to get in the pool while Jim and I hung out.

Renee and Jim have owned a membership in Meramec Valley Campground for about twenty-five years. It was really a hopping place back in the day but, like many other places, membership has fallen off. Lower membership means lower income which makes general maintenance and improvements more difficult. They have remodeled the office and the laundry/shower house near our campsite.

The three pools and equipment have been upgraded and are all in excellent shape, as are the sitting areas.

The pool house, however, is a different story. While all new pool equipment has been installed, the building itself needs some major surgery. I hope that its remodel is in the budget because it is an eyesore on the major road through the park.

They have expanded and updated the playground near the pool. I think it is a work in progress.

The main road to and around the campground is asphalt and needs to be completely replaced. In many places it is now more gravel than asphalt. It does not give a good impression. I hope its replacement is in the budget soon.

Our campout was great in all respects. We had great meals and the weather was fabulous. The place was quiet and relaxing. 

We can't have a campout without a nice fire. For some reason the ladies sat on one side and the guys sat on the other. LOL

September 5, 2025:

We enjoyed the time together and the great weather but all good things come to an end. Upon leaving we decided to meet at the "Bourbon Cafe" in Bourbon, Missouri, for breakfast. The place is owned by Dan Gray and his wife. Dan went to St. Louise de Marillac Grade School with Renee and I and then became an anchor on a St. Louis news channel for several decades. Unfortunately he wasn't there when we stopped for breakfast. It would have been nice to meet up with him. 

The "Bourbon Cafe" would be unique anywhere but in this town of only 1,500 residents it was outstanding. It is only open Thursday through Sunday from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Here is a picture of the inside. You go up to the counter and order and the food is brought out to you.

I have never before been serenaded during breakfast but this guy was quite a treat singing just across from our table.

The menu is not your typical breakfast or lunch fare. Kelly had "Avocado Toast", which was sourdough bread with salmon, avocado, etc. on top. I had the "Panini Breakfast", which had egg, bacon, cheese, etc. on it. Both were quite tasty and reasonably priced. This stop was a great way to end our time together. We agreed that we should spend more time together but you know how that goes. Even though we are all retired we seem to be busy much of the time.

Once home we had Homer unpacked in record time. Upon checking the mail I had a package which was the replacement material for the two chairs. I was surprised that it had arrived since their website said two to three weeks before delivery. I now have a weekend project.