WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2024
Replies
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Yesterday, I dug up bulbs ... some of the bulbs. We have quite a large bulb bed so I only got about 1/3 of it dug. I haven't done a lot of digging in the garden just recently and my glutes are feeling it!
I also pulled weeds at the new place. It's been empty since January, so there are a few weeds around.
Question about flooring:
What is your preferred flooring?
- carpet (thick, thin?)
- vinyl
- laminate
- engineered hardwood
- hardwood
- tiles
- stone
- bamboo
- cork
- concrete
And why?
I'm thinking I would like to get rid of all carpet for allergy reasons and because I see carpet as dirty in the sense that it collects and hides all sorts of things.
Concrete wouldn't work where we are, but I also see it as cold and industrial.
Tiles have grout which (in my experience) ends up looking grubby over time.
Machka in Oz
Machka,
Coming from someone who used to co-own a flooring store. It really truly depends on your lifestyle. I agree with you that carpet is the worst option. It never really is clean. I hear your complaints about tile. It's also cold and hard on the feet. So here's a run down on my top options from your list:
Vinyl, specifically LVP (luxury vinyl planks): This has really come a long way, and this is what I have in my home. Granted, it came with it, but we are in the process of ripping up the carpeted rooms and putting in matching LVP. There are a lot of options and it holds up to just about anything. A really great option if you have pets, kids, grandkids.
Engineered wood: Does OZ get humid? If so, this would be your best bet if you want a wood floor. Engineered wood flooring will not expand and contract as much as a solid wood flooring. And while you can't sand and refinish it, it can be screen coated if needed. The top layer is roughed up and a new finish is applied. The factory finishes are also better than anything you would apply to solid wood with UV protection to prevent fading and resist scratches. That said.. if you have animals or littles running around, nothing is scratch proof. You'll have to accept living with that.
You have cork and bamboo on your list. I know these are very environmentally friendly options, but some things to consider. Don't go cheap on either option. China particularly puts out some cheap subpar products that you will regret in the long run. Cork is soft. It will dent. You cannot have heels or anything sharp on it. Bamboo is technically a grass. Cheap products can shred into sharp slivers.
Hope this helps!
Linda
Jacksonville, FL8 -
Thank you very much @MsElphaba!!
We are leaning heavily toward engineered hardwood. It will mainly be my husband and me, and our cat. And yes, it does get humid at times.
This is a sample of flooring we have sitting in front of the island. In the picture, you can see some of the island and then the flooring.
I've looked at so many paint colours today they've all blended into one!!
Machka in Oz3 -
Sue ... Glad that your tenant is finally gone!
Eclipse Day ... Yesterday Buffalo had crystal clear blue skies. As I expected, today it is cloudy and gray. We'll see if we get any breaks in the clouds around 3:00. Son left an hour early for work this morning. I don't think he had any problems getting into the city. The commute home might be a different story.
My mom.Received a phone call yesterday evening from my mom's assisted living facility. My mom's dementia is taking a nasty turn. She is becoming verbally combative with her aides. Swearing. Refusing showers. Refusing to not only use her call button, but also refusing to allow the aides to assist her in any way. She won't leave her room for any reason including to eat. She no longer enjoys reading (her passion). She won't talk to her friends on the phone. All she does is stare out the window. Her quality of life is deteriorating. Her health and safety are at considerable risk. So we now have to consider memory care. I was told that others from the facility, including the doctor, will call me today. This transition is going to be painful for us all. In her dementia, she will not understand and will believe she is being punished. Tears are very close today.
Beth near Buffalo
15 -
My brother passed away yesterday. He had been suffering from severe COPD for the last 7 years. He was 70 yrs old and the first of us 5 children to pass away. I had not seen him since our mom passed away before 2020 but we stayed in contact through social media.
Carol in GA19 -
Good morning, Friends,
It’s 60F here in Jacksonville, FL this morning.
Machka: I used to fence with Tim. He took it up in middle school. He started doing tournaments where, as a loving and dutiful mother, I would carry his equipment around from piste to piste for him. One time he said that I must do that because I can’t fence. WELL. Challenge accepted! Must say it was very therapeutic standing on the opposite side of a piste with a foil in my hand aimed my son. LOL
Also, I think I missed a conversation about doing flooring yourself. When my ex and I ran our flooring store, I have to say about 30% of the jobs we took were customers who started doing it on their own or even completed the project and realized they didn’t do it right. There are lots of specialty tools involved depending on the flooring that some people don’t think about. For example, an undercut saw. You’ll probably want the flooring to slip under the baseboards and door jambs. An undercut saw will saw off the bottom of those so the floor can do that. Even if you use a shoe moulding on the baseboards, the door jambs will need to be cut. Is that something you really want to take on yourself?
Michele NC: Sorry to hear about the fall. If the glasses were the only thing broken, I’d take that as a win. Be careful.
Lisa: Love that planter! Sounds like you are having fun buying plants. Can there ever be too many?
Sue in WA: Yay! She’s gone. Did she have a security deposit? At least you could keep that to help make repairs. Keep a list of everything you do and spend cleaning up. It will be helpful if she either does sue or tries to ask for the deposit back.
Heather: Keep your eye on the future being pain-free after surgery! Sorry you are going through so much pain now.
Had a fun weekend with Jack! Made a spaghetti dinner Saturday when Jake and Mason also came over. When I say made, I made the pasta, sauce, and meatballs from scratch. However, did toss a froze garlic loaf in the oven. Jack was tickled watching the pile of dough become spaghetti.
Yesterday, I washed my Crosstrek at home for the first time. “Maggie” came out looking gorgeous. Love that car and I’m kicking myself for not discovering Subaru’s earlier in my life. Anyone else name their cars?
Capped it off by taking Jack to his first live theatrical show. A local church performed "The Sound of Music". He did pretty well for a 5-year-old. Granted, I had a stash of M&Ms that I was handing out. He wasn’t really thrilled with the nuns, but for the most part enjoyed the show. After the show, came out to the car… and there was bird poop on it. Oh well, my grandfather used to say that was a sign of good luck.
Traveling to MN this week for my niece’s baby shower. Gotta get everything ready to Tim can take care of the animals while I’m gone and get myself packed. I was just going to take a bag I could carry on, but then I had to go out and get a bottle of locally distilled whiskey for my sister, so a check-in bag it is.
Make it a great day,
Linda
Jacksonville, FL
9 -
Beth ~ So sad to hear about your mom's continuing decline. We had to put our now dead BIL in memory care when he was doing the same type of behaviors you describe. It made me very depressed to visit him there and now feel that it was a blessing when his time here passed. He was very unhappy the last few years of his life and hated being out of his beloved childhood home.
Lisa ~ Your planter looks very good and when you scrape the mortar off and plant flowers there it will be lovely.
Sue ~ So glad your wicked tenant has left. We had a renter that left our house in a mess and it took 4 mo's before we could get it ready to be rented again. This was the second tenant that had to be evicted due to non-payment. Now we have a lady that has been there for 5 yrs and she is very good about letting us know when repairs need to be made.
Heather ~ Having to crawl up the stairs sounds awful. Do you and John have a downstairs bedroom that would make getting the morning tea easier?
Flooring ~ We have engineered flooring in the dining and living room and hardwood in the den, hallways, and one bath. I love the engineered flooring and agree that the hardwood has some expansion problems.
Carol in GA
3 -
(((Carol))) So sorry about your brother.2
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Good morning, Friends,
It’s 60F here in Jacksonville, FL this morning.
Machka: I used to fence with Tim. He took it up in middle school. He started doing tournaments where, as a loving and dutiful mother, I would carry his equipment around from piste to piste for him. One time he said that I must do that because I can’t fence. WELL. Challenge accepted! Must say it was very therapeutic standing on the opposite side of a piste with a foil in my hand aimed my son. LOL
Also, I think I missed a conversation about doing flooring yourself. When my ex and I ran our flooring store, I have to say about 30% of the jobs we took were customers who started doing it on their own or even completed the project and realized they didn’t do it right. There are lots of specialty tools involved depending on the flooring that some people don’t think about. For example, an undercut saw. You’ll probably want the flooring to slip under the baseboards and door jambs. An undercut saw will saw off the bottom of those so the floor can do that. Even if you use a shoe moulding on the baseboards, the door jambs will need to be cut. Is that something you really want to take on yourself?
The part of the conversation you missed where I said there is no way we would be doing the floors ourselves ... but we might do the painting ourselves. It's a whole lot less expensive to repaint a wall than to have someone come in and fix a floor.
I wouldn't even consider doing a floor ourselves! The stress alone would be overwhelming.
We want the job done well for us and also to increase the value of the property.
M in Oz
5 -
Beth - I'm so sorry. All the hugs in the world coming your way.
Carol - So sorry about your brother. Not looking forward to getting the news on my older brothers--two of the three have serious medical issues. Will you attend the funeral or memorial?
Machka - Looking at the paint samples, one of the things Corey and I decided on is keeping the paint colors bright white in the areas where we need to see well, like the bathroom and the kitchen, and then light ivory elsewhere. All the color in the house is brought in by furnishings of one kind or another, other than the kitchen, where the original lower cabinets are a deep teal. Paint, for me, has to do with maximizing light as I get older, other than in the bedroom, which I want to be able to completely darken. Regarding the floor, sounds like you have good advice.
Sue - I'm so glad the terrible tenant is finally gone, and you're doing everything you can to ensure she can't return. It seldom seems the litigious nature of this society works well for the good guys, just the bad ones. Honestly, it would be less energy if people just acted like decent human beings! They have to work so hard at being rotten.
Michele - Sorry about the fall, hope there are not issues arising from it.
Heather - I cannot imagine crawling up and down stairs as an option. Sounds painful in and of itself. I do not doubt that you'll come out of the surgery exceeding all expectations for recovery time and extent. The differing advice on different sides of the pond is a little unnerving - every message you can find here says to walk as much as you can before hip replacement, but you're being told not to walk over there. Who's right? Maybe both are right and what matters is what you do after? I don't have a good answer for that.
Linda - What a great smile on that boy! Sounds like you had enormous fun with him. Well done on you making all that from scratch. You're tougher than I am on the pasta front. I've made it, but it was one of many things I've done in this life that, while I CAN do them, it doesn't mean I ever want to again. Like laying bricks. 👀😀🧱🙃 I'm OK with a $1 box of spaghetti noodles from Walmart. I have to admit, I like the idea that we can make them if we want them, though.
The eclipse - Totality here will be 1:50 pm. Corey dragged his welding helmet out for me in case I want to watch it and got it charged up for me. I might put an alarm on my phone, but if I'm outside, I figure I'll know it's in progress... pretty sure Egg won't care, but I could be wrong. That's usually her naptime.
Slept soooo well last night. Already got my "good morning" call from Corey, and we got dinner sorted out (taco salad for him, just a taco for me), and I'm eating leftover copycat Malibu chicken for lunch, chopped up and made into a chicken salad slider for me. Leftover chicken is a recipe for getting stuck unless I get it a lot moister with some kind of sauce or dressing.
Right now, in order - have to get my flex-tape on my knees, left it off for 24 hours to let the skin recover. Then to get my meds in order for the week, then a little laundry folded. Then yoga and outside to get some work done on cleaning up that bed. After that, it's what my energy will let me do.
Corey got his raised beds planted out yesterday, now all he has to do is put up his hogwire trellis. Then he finished the backsplash for his sunroom kitchen and grilled shrimp for me and steak for him for dinner. One of my favorite meals.
Above is the kitchen - he extended the tile on the right side as well after dinner and just left the paver bricks at the very back of the grill. He'll be picking up some trim to finish the backsplash this week. I'm pleased with it, I think it's a very olde-worlde kind of design and picks up the teal in the back wall. There are still a few things to get done, but it's a comfortable room already.
And the fern will go at the far end of my flowerbed once I've got some dirt in it. I might have to cover it in the winters, but I think it will look gorgeous in there for the spring and summer. We'll see...
Off to the races, kids, lots to do...
Love y'all,
Lisa in AR
8 -
Just had to fill in a great , long, pre-op form from the hospital. L O N G......
Plus lots of online info booklets.
Everything online. Good job I'm fairly competent in that respect. I know a few my age who aren't.
I've also got notice from the savings account that I am going to use for the ops about the renewal date in May. Of course, I will have to close the account. Will have to put the money somewhere for the meantime. Shame, because interest rates are so good at the moment.
Haven't heard back from Saga about the insurance claim. Waiting for the doctors to ring me.
I have a phone appointment on Wednesday evening about pain meds.
So sorry, Beth, about all this.
Carol - And your brother. Both my parents died of COPD. My father's last years were terrible. He was 71.
Love Heather UK xxxxxxxx3 -
Beth so sorry to hear about your Mom's decline. The end of dementia is truly horrible for the patient and the caregiver. My mom was headed that way, but cancer took her before it got too bad.
Carol, so sorry about your brother. May he rest in peace.
Lisa that's a beautiful room!
I did my twenty eight minutes on my bike and fourteen minutes walking! Yay!
Annie in Delaware2 -
Happy eclipse day. I am one who is excited about it, even though it is cloudy here right now and we are only 15 to 20 percent eclipsed. Another won't pass on this continent for 20 years, so it is a big deal. We were in the path of totality in 2017. It was incredible. Watched from our back yard, so we didn't have to travel. We were so impacted by it that we made hotel reservations in Texas for this week to watch again. Fortunately, none of us ended up being able to travel this week, so reservations cancelled. Still, we all have our glasses, so we will view separately, hubby from here, me from work, and 17 year old from school. At one point, he'll be on the school bus transitioning from one school to the other, so I am hopeful he will wear the glasses so he can take a look. If the clouds break. I am excited!
Carol, so sorry about your brother, and Beth, about your mom. MicheleNC and Heather, so sorry about your hip issues.
All property from my mom has been sold and money transferred. I need to get with the attorney to finalize distribution and get reimbursement for appropriate expenses over the last 16 months. It has been hard.
Everyone take care.
Flea
Willamette Valley OR6 -
Carol ... So sorry to hear of your brother's passing ...my prayers are with you and your family.
Beth2 -
Sue-Great news on the tenant. It may be a mess, but she's gone!
Heather-Your routine sounds inconvenient, but it's good that you're doing it. You still need to keep active somehow. A former colleague got hip replacements and he said it was the best thing he did for himself. A friend recently had knee replacements and she said the same.
I love the artwork you all share. Machka, those markers look cool. What are they? Maybe I'll try them. I still need hobbies. I did buy a puzzle early in the year and had a goal to get it put together before baseball season started. I did. Now I need something else. Maybe drawing or coloring. I don't like messy things, so painting isn't my bag.
I'm considering renting shared office space (like WeWork). I need to get out of the house more. The mister and I are together too much. We're arguing again.
I need to make serious changes. I'm also considering getting a part-time flexible job. I no longer can live comfortably on my salary. That will also get me out of the house. Maybe the zoo.
Anyway, off to have my coffee.
Tina in CA, trying to remember not to look at the sun today. It's really sunny!3 -
Lisa, sun room looks so nice and inviting.
Beth, sorry to hear about your mom. Difficult for everyone involved.
Carol, condolences on the passing of your brother.
Stressful week. Been waiting for daughter to get her results regarding breast cancer test (ABUS). She was told results were sent to doctor April 1st but never received. She's been calling trying to find out what happened and finally has a doctor appointment for tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it is just a fluid filled cyst but ridiculous it has taken this long to find out. When I was diagnosed nine years ago, the mammogram didn't show the tumor but the ultrasound did. Got the results the next day and the following week was in for a biopsy. Everything followed quickly after that. I'm hoping she doesn't have to go through that.
We are in for a partial eclipse. Edmonton is at 34% so probably we are about the same. Not planning on viewing and may be silly but keeping dogs/cats indoors until it is over with.
Machka, good decision on floor installation. For us, we built the house entirely on our own except for electrical and we also hired someone to tape/texture after we put up all the drywall. Surprised we stayed married after a lot of loud discussions as we were building. I recall one incident in particular was the built in closet that hubby framed out in the master bedroom. I was at work when he did it and had asked him to hold off until I got home. He did it himself which annoyed me and when I got home I took the tape measure and measured it out. He was out by 1 1/2 inch from one end to the other. I insisted that he rip it out and redo it. In retrospect, that 1 1/2 inch would probably not even be noticeable. Poor guy dealt with a lot during our "building" years.
Joy5 -
Carol so sorry about your brother. Having a sibling die before me is a fear I have. I am the oldest of 5 and my 2 younger brothers have health issues. I also fear losing a child. My heart goes out to you.
RVrita5 -
Today is visit your local Zoo day! I love zoos. I simply don’t get to visit them as often as I’d like.
2 -
Sue, if you haven’t already, you should take pics of the damage/mess left behind by your tenant, maybe even get the lawyer over as a legal witness. If she tries to sue you for anything the pics should help your side of the story.
Beth so sorry to hear of your mother’s decline, definitely hard on everybody.
Carol so sorry to hear of your brother’s passing. 70 is just so young!
Linda, thanks for the info on flooring! Always nice to get info from someone who has had direct experience with the products and knows, professionally, the pros and cons of different products.
Off to the gym this morning, the day is busy! It’s all self inflicted busy tho, so at least it’s stuff I want to do, lol!
Hugs for those needing them and congrats to those celebrating!
Evelyn, Vancouver Island5 -
Had a frustrating 30 mins waiting on the phone to Saga. Gave up.
Mushroom risotto for dinner. I've prepared most of it, just the finishing off to do. John has cut up the beans to go with it.
Today was not one of my best. Frustrating. I can feel a headache threatening. I feel like Lisa, battling idiots. Tomorrow I will take my trolley round to the shops to buy veggies for Wednesday when Edie and my son come over. Also need bread and milk.
Time marches on. Another day nearer my first op.
Love Heather UK xxxxxxxx3 -
Hugs Carol, so sorry to hear of your brothers passing.🙏
Heather, you are prepping the best you can for this surgery. Recovery for you will be just keeping you from over working yourself.💖. Hugs to you!
Machka, enjoy this new house process! Remember not everyone gets that opportunity to pick colors (like me the renter) so pace yourself!😁👍🏼
I think I will have to have a heart to heart with my eldest sister. She called me the other day giving me dates her daughter has vacation, days that they will be camping, and so forth. So that I can plan my trip down to Oregon. Or that she can plan her trip up to me driving her 5th wheel. Honestly I don't want to do either. I just want to stay here by myself (and husband). I know that sounds a wee bit like a hermit. I have traveled down to visit my middle son, see grandkids, see sister the last 5 years, and though it was nice, staying home sounds just as nice. We do have dental appointments, dermatology appointments, and yearly liver appts to do throughout June and July (excuses I know). I know this year is our 40th but with dental work for husband, I don't see that happening. Traveling has lost its appeal.
Rebecca
Whidbey
Wa7
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