The Smile Continued

 

Smile from yesterday's post is is continued today

To jog your memory, the above is our back yard fence from 3 years ago, Hurricane Ian, leaned our fence against the neighbor's new fence and took down his giant banyan tree. Ian removed the whole fence across the street, and they dragged their gate to the curb, and I dragged it over here and we blocked the hole to keep Beau contained in a safe environment. The fence was ok, ugly but still a fence. Fast Forward to this past Oct and this is how it looked after Hurricane Milton.

I can hear you thinking, so what is there to SMILE about in these photos. Trust me this eyesore has been driving me crazy for 3 plus years

Yesterday, at noon, we sat consuming our lunch and talking about how well we did at the dermatolgist and transferring Bob from place to place and suddenly

 What was that? bob says What was What? I say "sounded like a sledgehammer, in the two-story house behind us. Bob says I don't hear anything. 

I race to the door and there is a BABY with a sledgehammer, Smashing the Neighbors New fence, I describe in detail to Bob. He rants on about the fence is only 2 years old, and I say remember last week when loud music played from the back yard and I said, Jim never makes noise like that, and I checked the county records and that house sold to new owner 14 months ago... Bob says No, I don't remember that. (dementia) 

I say OH NO! if they take down that fence our fence is leaning on it will fall down on them and they will leave that part of the yard with NO fence and Beau can get out and the pit bulls next door can get in our yard. Knuff Said, there was more, but skip that part.

I race to the door and over to the fence and say HELLOOOO! and startled the handsome baby with the hammer and make him jump. SMILE now. He might have been 30 but I doubt it. He SMILED really big and said HI!

I started with I am 80, my husband is 88 and he is in a wheelchair and can't walk, and we have no way to move that fence, it's been like those 3 years. I think he might be another ANGEL. he was smiling and laughing.

I explained the problem and he leaned through to see our fence and he may have said OH MY! He listened to every word I said, and I said could you do this part last? to leave our fence up and could you if I pay you remove what is leaning on the fence and take it with you? I will pay for it if you can.

He said I think we can, I will ask my boss and see what he says.  I come back in and tell bob, and he starts ranting, while I am SMILING about everyone is a crook, they will want a thousand dollars (dementia words) and I calmly finish my lunch with a SMILE in my heart because I have wanted that gone for 3 years.

20 minutes later, I hear voices, and it sounds like it's in our yard, I walk to the slider doors, and another young baby man is standing at the door talking on his cell. He says Hi, I just talked to our boss, and he said we can do what you asked, and the charge will be 150.00. Is that ok? I am smiling so big I can hardly talk.  He says give me your contact info and i will put in my phone.  

An hour later, after a lot of bamming going on, I hear voices and race to the door in time to see the two of them putting 2 sections of the fence they were removing on our side, and screwing them together

When they left at five, the old fence was gone, and the only thing standing was our snaggle tooth 30-year-old fence. 

They are working as I type this, and I am smiling and waiting to see how this story ends. 

this is what it looks like now, if you enlarge you can see through the snaggle tooth fence that is ours and the new one they removed yesterday. Beau is safe and when they are gone, I HOPE ours will be too.

I am dying to know just what fence they will put up as a replacement. I hope its wood, but am guessing white plastic, and as long as its a fence I don't care.

Banyan Tree and Nature Force

 

Remember The stump to the Banyan that fell on October 26 during Hurricane Ian?

this is What it looked like a few days ago. 

enlarge to see how many pieces. it took 8 hour, 2 men to cut these pieces

A few days after the photos, I heard an explosion! then a 2nd one!

I ran out in the back yard, and it was the truck lifting these huge logs

dropping them one by one in dump truck.

Each one went BOOM!

We learned from a neighbor that when the tree turned over, the roots pulled up the water meter and all the pipes, see the white ribbon below? that is where the city is putting new meters

and the owner has to pay for the rest. 

this stump turned up on its side and pulled it all out.. they put it back down and now have to figure out how to remove it, 3 weeks and counting to clean up one tree

Today Sunday Nov 13th 2022. 

and on the 20th of November still the same stump and still just like this on 12/2/2022

Joining Rosy at Adventures of the LLB Gang for Nature Friday

The Trash is GONE, Baby Gone!

 

Tuesday Oct. 25th , 3 weeks after Iam slammed us, the trash truck rolled to the first pile of trash

and the arm came out and I snapped and snapped through the front window while singing

the trash truck is here, come look, come look.

He pulled the truck forward, climbed out, climbed up up to the top, 

the big arm dropped down and 

\

up went the trash

Again and again

Until he had picked it all up. I thought he was amazing, he handled that arm like it was nothing at all.

Even Bob was impressed.

You will be happy to hear that this is the last of the Hurricane Photos. 

They are not in order, but they are all under the label Hurricane Ian

and landed on Nature Friday.

Thankful for our new garage door

 

After Picking up Beaus Meds, I came home from the vet's office Wednesday morning, and paused in our runway, snapped a pick of me with my seat belt on, you can see I have the dot on the middle of the hood and the dash as proof, I can drive the SUV into and not through the door or INTO the door. 

I tapped the remote the new door glided to the top and as I went in through the same door we have gone in for 33 years, I said to Bob, I am so thankful we have the door, and I can drive in and get out and step in the house.  

DID I TELL YOU THE FRONT DOOR WE USED TO GET IN AND OUT FOR 5 WEEKS, THE KEY WOULD NOT WORK BECAUSE WE HAD NEVER USED IT.  Had to buy graphite to fix it.

Bob said, I was going to leave the door open for you but I knew you would want to see how pretty it is and take a photo, so I put it down. I had left him working at his work bench with the door UP.

NOTE to all of you who commented yesterday about a permit.

In the State of Florida anything that is done to the house has to have a permit and be inspected. 

All electrical, plumbing, all alterations to a home must have a permit and be inspected. 

No permit needed to replace things in the bathrooms, if using the same plumbing and not moving things around.

Get this! The owner of the home is responsible for getting the permit, or not letting the LICENSEND contractor get it and hang it in plain sight.

If they don't get one, we can be cited. I DID Not know that until now

We can be cited and fined for letting an unlicensed contractor work on our home.

Fema has the state waive the permits/inspections because of the hurricane, they allowed the permits to be pulled after the work is done,, but they must be pulled within 160 days

Found HERE

We paid 150 for permits for Roofing, our tree that was taken down, and for the new installation of the door. I made a mistake on the 250,00 yesterday. It is in the estimated cost of all installations.

One of the silly things to me, is we are allowed to replace sheetrock as long as it is not more than 2 Sheets.

 More than that, get a permit. 

No permit needed to put a new Air Conditioner in place As Long As it can just be put in place with the same hook up that is already there. 

ANYTHING that is Altered to be replaced. GET THAT PERMIT 

We had THREE permits and THREE inspections for our ONE ROOF replaced. They have to stop work and wait for it to be inspected in phases. They want to know it is done properly.

This is a close up of the new door. the one that came down had only one metal bar in the middle. Now we are required to have this many and for another 1000.00 there would have been more.
Each of the metal pieces where they cross, must have 4 bolts. Bob loves this door; he keeps admiring it and admitted it is a much better door than the other
When I make the appt for the inspector to inspect and bring a permit, if the door doesn't pass it has to come down or they have to come back and do it right.

The New Door Garage door

 

Precision Door, came on 11/1/2022 just 4 weeks after we ordered and were told

it would be 13 weeks before it came in.

He backed unloaded all his STUFF and , 2 sections of the old down in 15 minutes

Down and on the truck and strapped down tight.

New boxes in, and opened, all in 30 minutes.

Justins middle name must be Organized.

All by himself.

He got all the way 3 sections up, see above and below

and Boom!

The slow down began it took 3 hours to go from above to below! There are hundreds of bolts on this hurricane proof to 183 MPH. 

When he went to hook up the motor that opens the door, a part was bent.

He called for a part, and 30 minutes later

two trucks were nose to nose 

and it took both of them to get it done and out the door at the 5 and 1/2 hour mark.

And then The Final Inspection and he washed the two trucks and tucked them in the garage

and I came in to shower off and create this post.

The Door Is Back and Working

BUT for one thing.

The county waived the permits and the permit will come in the mail to ME in a week and I have to CALL the County with in 160 days and set up an appointment for them

to come and approve the permit.

BIG red Letters, its against the law to not get the permit.

Guess what else? they added the permit to my cost.

250.00

OV VEY!

I refuse to tell you what he was saying here

Fence Minor Miracle On Final Friday Fiction

 

The hole in the rotted fence day after

Ian kicked about 5 sections of fence, making this hole and leaning the rest on the neighbor's new fence.

no Harm to that fence!

The large banyan that went down, was the same gust that put the hole here.

This means it could have been so much worse.

All the trees, all the fence and he houses withstood that gust, but the big tree did not.

The problem left for us was Beaus Safety!

 The first two days after Ian we had to watch him and guard the hole, which meant he had to stay in the house while we did clean up. 

On the third day the neighbors across the street dragged 

a gate out to the curb. They lost the 3 trees and light pole and their entire fence. 

Ancient Snapper said to Ancient Bob,

LOOK! the plug for the hole in the fence is at the curb!

Hurry! before someone else takes it.

I was sure there was a long line of other homeowners waiting for a rotted gate!

Two ancients staggered across the street, with ancient Bob declaring it would not work.

We each lifted an end, there may have been WORDS between the two of us, as to whehter 

we would carry it flat on end, drag it behind, carry it sideways.

Behold, with only a few HBO words and loud shouting, the hole was plugged and

Beau Was Safe!

30 days later, it still looks like this.

We DO have a plan! Rest is Required! 

Also required is much prodding of the Ancient Man before we tackle the project!

The fence is UGLY, but Beau can't get out.

Joining Yam at Final Friday Fiction. for the Rules Click HERE No fiction here, who needs fiction when our life is one big True Story

Thankful Thursday 30 days after Ian

Yard after 10 days of hard labor

Yard before Ian

next day after Ian, what was left of the ears, banana..

We thoughtwe lost them all, but we stood the big ear up, cut off all dead leaves, leaving one leaf, cut the banana tree down, put the stump back in the ground. and stood up one of the small ears, pushing the dirt firmly around it and  Today is Thankful thursday and look at it now

The stump of the bannana has new growth, the big Ear has 3 leaves, the little ear has 3 leaves and you can't see the cassava, but 5 that I planted have new growth.

We are thankful we are thriving, the plants are coming back, the roof stayed on, and now it has been 30 days since Ian visited.

30 days after Ian, Florida is like a giant green house.

And I am thankful for a blog friend who sent me her old iphone that took these photos