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.