Thursday, October 1, 2015

Two Steps Back and New Members for our Team

Even though it was 102 today, I decided to take the afternoon off and tackle some chores.  First step, pull off the paneling around the door in order to find the leak.  It took a while to get the paneling off and I made a big mess.  I felt like I was taking two steps backwards after we worked so hard to make the place livable. I got up on the ladder and poured water around the outside of the door.  I went inside and watched the water trickle in right where the drip edge is located on the outside.  



See where the brown drip edge was cut to make room for the door frame?  Even though I thought I caulked every gap, there was a hole inside the drip edge channel right by the door frame which let all that water drain right in, down the wall, ooze out the bottom of the paneling and pool under the linoleum.  At least, I hope that is the cause.  I've thought I found the cause of the water leak 3 times already but I am pretty confident that I have found the real cause this time.


I caulked the hole on the outside, caulked all the edges on the inside, and tomorrow I will buy some Great Stuff Foam for even more protection.  Then I will pour water around the door again and if the inside is dry I can put up new paneling and FINALLY finish trimming the door inside and out.  I also drilled some drain holes in the drip channel so that the water will drain away from the door.


This mystery wire was cut by the handyman who put in the door.  Obviously, the outlet doesn't work now.  My coworker said he would come over this weekend and help me reconnect it and figure out my electric panel.  The panel is still labeled 'furnace' and 'dryer' and there hasn't been a furnace or dryer here in over 10 years.

Here's another project I have started.  Barn cats.  Specifically, mouse hunters.  I contacted a cat rescue to see if they had any unadoptable cats that would be suitable for an indoor/outdoor situation.  After 3 months of waiting, 2 cats were delivered this week.


A woman had trapped them when they were 6 months old and tried to tame them but they did not appreciate the attempt at taming.  The woman brought them to the pound to be euthanized for being unfriendly.  I do not mind if my cats are unfriendly as long as they keep the mice and rats away.  We have set them up in the back room where they will stay in a large crate for 10 days and then they can roam the room for another 10 days.  After that, I will open the cat door and, hopefully, they will remember to come back to the room for food, water and shelter.  Ideally, I would like to close off the jacuzzi area, greenhouse, and under the mobile home so that they can hunt in those areas and not leave the safety of an enclosed space.  This is the area that the cat door opens to.  The jacuzzi area has a chainlink fence but no roof yet.  I have added 'build catio' to my to-do list. I have wanted a catio for a while now and these cats are so pretty, I don't want them to be coyote food.

I took tomorrow off too so I will continue working on the door weather-proofing and then move on to, maybe, getting water to my nephew's shower, then painting my bedroom, building a bedframe to get my mattress off the floor, putting up the overhead cabinet for my kitchen, organizing my storage room...and the list goes on.

3 comments:

Michelle H. said...

Hope your barn cats can make a dent in the rodent population. We need some too. We live in the country and have two house cats but they don't go outside. Maybe I should see if our humane society has some. A stray cat came up a couple of years ago and we'd hoped it would stay, but it didn't. However, it did trap a rattlesnake that my husband took care of (ahem) before it left. They're good to have around!
Blessings!
Michelle from Texas

Michelle H. said...

PS
I've been reading back through your blog. It's so interesting! I'm up to year 2012 now. You'll have a great diary to look back through over the years.

Daizy said...

I sure hope they trap rattlesnakes too or drive them off. I hope they aren't too bored hanging around my place. Maybe I should buy some mice for them. haha. This blog is quite a diary. I should go back and read it from the beginning too. It would be very interesting to see how my goals have changed through the years.