A slumlord's life. . .

Today started out early. . . like dark o'thirty. . . more like 5:30 a.m. Phaeton Place had an appointment at 7:30 at Charger Enterprises to have some work done. Front A/C replaced because the compressor went out on the old one. Also, the two big doors (of four) on the refrigerator had to be replaced because the seals were bad and ripping off the box. And the awning wind sensor had to be replaced because it no longer works. That sensor has been replaced three times, but what we found out was that both the sensor and the control box must be replaced. They are a matched set and the chances of getting a perfect match without changing both at the same time is not likely. So we dropped the coach off on time and headed over to the apartments. I intended to get some sewing done and Terry wanted to work on the installation setup of our new HD TV in the bedroom of the motorhome.

Twas not to be however. As soon as we got to the "storage condo/apartment offices" we got a call from our newest tenant. She wanted to know if we had a rodent problem. Hmmmm. No, but we have had a large influx of 9 banded ground squirrels. This has occurred over the past 5-7 years. There is a new development behind us and they all have yards that look like golf courses, so the ground squirrels had to find new digs. They chose our subdivision and now we have to look at poisoning our yards to get rid of them. Anyway. last night, the new tenants found a ground squirrel in their house. It ran into the laundry closet and they blockaded it in there. Hehehe. Or so they thought. When we arrived armed with brooms and other tools, the little critter was no where to be found. What we did find was a hole in the dryer flex vent and an open vent outside. The flapper was stuck open, so it was a nice, inviting warm path for the little guy to run up the dryer vent into the house. And that is apparently how he made his escape. We decided to replace the aging dryer vent caps to the outside and replace vent pipe as needed.

All that required a trip to Menard's. . . grrrrr. But we already planned an outing, so off we went. We first went to pick up some plastic pipe Terry ordered to house the sewer slinky in the storage bays of the motorhome. We bought 5" square plastic because it fits perfectly into the space we wanted and it is heavy enough that we can stack something on top.

Then we went to Menard's and got the dryer vents. I found women's T-shirts for $3.99! Can you believe it? Women's tees are generally shorter than men's and I like them better, so I bought two. Big spender here. I can always use t-shirts.

Finally we stopped at Miller Door and Trim to pick up the trim boards and rosettes we had made. Last year we had to replaced two sliding glass doors. They are about 30 years old and they just plain fall apart. Terry found beautiful replacement doors, but the rough opening is different than for the previous doors and some plastering repair is needed. So instead of doing that and risk having it look bad, we bought decorative trim and had it stained and finished to match the rest of the household trim. The rosettes go at the corners and look really nice. The finished doors are very nice looking and do a better job of keeping cold air out in the winter.

After all that running around, Charger Enterprises called and said Phaeton Place was done. So we took off to Elkhart to pick up the coach. We took it over to the campground and stopped and filled with propane before parking back on our space. We plugged in, checked to make certain everything was running and left without setting up. We just had too much to do to take time to do it then.

Back at the apartments, Terry and our manager, George, spend the rest of the afternoon till supper time working on the dryer vents and changing furnace filters. They quit when they got hungry and we had dinner. Once that was cleaned up, we headed back over to the campground and Phaeton Place. It took awhile to get everything set back up. Terry got the new TV mounted in the bedroom and it looks nice. He still has some work to do, but it is going together well.

Now I'm falling asleep as I write this. What a day this has been, but it is over and it feels good to have gotten a lot done.

Till next time. . .

Dale