Our work around here has been way-less-than-appropriate lately . . .

Everything we wanted done generally GOT done whenever we decided on doing it previously.  But hey, everything we needed done recently just hasn't gotten done at all lately! NOT good!

We decided to repair that back porch and turn that part of it into an interior room -- the porch that I just noted in this post previously.  So we asked Jenkins Tile & Marble to install the marble window sills and possibly install marble walls below all those windows as well. 

So one of the Jenkins Tile & Marble store guys came out and checked it out and determined that they could install all those things I wanted.  I was pleased about that because he would be installing all those marble window sills AND placing marble walls below all of those windows as well!  BUT I found he wouldn't be able to come install all that stuff for THREE months from then!!  Good grief!  That Jenkins company is working on SO many houses that got flooded back in August so we have to wait until they're done repairing ALL those houses that they got requested back in August.  I thought they could do ours sooner since it would probably take way less time to complete our porch as opposed to all those house repairs.  But they just put us on the list next after all those others.  Sigh.  But since I really want them to fix all those things for us, I'm having to actually wait until probably MARCH!  And they made me pay $1900 dollars before putting us on that list!  Then I'll complete the rest of the payment after they finish installing all that marble.  Well, I sure can't find someone else to install it sooner since they got ALL that money.  Sigh.     

Well that porch is still a mess even though Gigi has been moved over to the other side of the porch (and the other end of the property outside!)

 

We removed all those white metal things things that kept the dogs from breaking the screens.  But those screens are going to remain out there until glass windows get installed anyway.  Jenkins is going to remove those yukky window sills up there in that picture that the dog chewed on and THEN replace them with those marble window sills and put in those marble walls below all those windows as well. Those grubby curtains then will get pitched out and nice new ones be replaced.   But those gruppy ones can keep the porch private and generally keep rain out at the moment anyway.  Then once the marble window sills and walls are installed, Capital Glass will come and install thick glass windows.  That'll make it a regular interior room out there then.  And then we'll also have someone come put in regular flooring like inside as well. 

In the meantime, we're going to repaint all the walls and doors that the dog got screwed up.  Then in fact maybe we'll just get someone to install that epoxy floor then instead of after March!  

Anyway, that porch will be turned into an actual household INTERIOR room eventually.  But it's just taking SOOOO long to have it all done.  Sigh.  

Fortunately THIS door doesn't need painted since we replaced it after the dog moved out of here.  But the door from this end of the porch into the other side of it is a MESS from the dog who was in there previously,.  And the door from this room into the house also needs to be repainted.

So as a result, we have removed everything from out there so that once the windows are done, a company will come and install new epoxy flooring.  But as a result so many things that we removed from the porch got set into the living room.  And that stuff is all going to have to stay in there until that room gets finished up in March.  NOT good!

And then we also had a problem OUTSIDE.  We set up a tarp to keep rain off that part of the yard to our other dog, Joey, could go to his botty outside in the rain.  He won't go out in the rain and instead he pees on the porch.  NOT good. So we set up that huge tarp over at the side of the back porch so that when it would rain Joey could go out there instead of messing up the porch.

But hey -- it was up only a couple days when it got windy and it broke down!  Good grief!  We apparently should have gotten much thicker tarp.  So Mark took that thing back down and he and Jerry went back out to that building out in the back pasture and hauled up a huge tarp-covered tent that we had installed for the horses before we got the them here in our own property.  They couldn't fit into the barn where we were renting (enormous horses there!), so we set up that tarp tent so that the horses could go inside and eat hay etc. during storms.  Then when we brought them over to OUR house they could just come up to the porch outside their barn or go into their paddocks if they wanted to in their barn as well, so they didn't need that tent.  So when it rains they ALL just run up to the barn and hang out on the big outside porch or in their own rooms.  So that previous tent wasn't in use any longer -- it was just stuck down in the building out in the pasture.  Well, when that tarp we had on the porch got screwed up, we decided to put that big tent that we had for the horses previously in our back yard. That way it will not only let Joey go out when it's raining, it will also keep all our things out on the back concrete area nice and dry as well! 

It's pretty large, but two of those boards were broken -- that's why some of that roofing is pulled down on the end.  So we've ordered a new roof AND some side tarps that we can roll up or down whenever as well.  But although that roof has a couple of little holes near the center, it really does keep most of the rain away currently anyway.

And now we're getting Affordable Gutters to come install gutters across the BACK porch.  (They've already installed them on the front of the house AND on the barn as well.)

You might also view that behind that tarp in the photos above is a new fence that keeps Gigi out of the main back yard. You can actually see her there beyond that tarp in both photos above. She really likes that area of the property more than the place where she used to go out.  She likes all those giant trees over there.  They're Live Oak trees so the trees remain lovely ALL year -- the leaves don't even come off during the winter.  And she can view the horses more over there AND she can contact the dogs next door as well now.  (That's what she's doing in those photos -- she's viewing those dogs from the side fence.)

Anyway, for the next couple months I guess we'll see what we can do about repainting those walls in that porch room, and we'll get that heater/air conditioner that we received a while back and figure out where to install a new electrical portion for that thing.  (The only single electric now would be over behind a bed that'll be put in there, so the heater should NOT be right next to the bed!)  

But hey -- since I've been sick over the last few weeks I guess I won't be spending time to do things out there until it gets MUCH nicer out there than what it is now -- it's about 30 degrees during the way!  NOT good down here.  But it's supposed to be up in the high 70's by the end of this coming week.  SURE hope so!