Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[bobmacliberty]

Our critter guy just left.  We had him come out to evaluate what's needed for the dead animal stench in our office.  Bad news all around.  The dead animal is likely in the wall.  He climbed around the attic and didn't see any creatures but he didn't expect to.  If the animal had been on top of the insulation, we likely wouldn't have smelled it.  Only choices are to tear down drywall or wait for the odor to dissipate.  We're going with the later option and a lot of Febreze.

 

The critter guy also showed me several places where there are attic openings to the outside at what he called soffit returns...where soffits meet other parts of the roof.  He said one opening was large enough for a possum to get in (tying things back to our earlier discussion).  There are droppings in several places, animal tracks on ductwork, trampled down insulation, and even tunnels through insulation.  Sounds like we have a veritable rodent zoo.

 

So...a 2 step fix that won't be cheap.  First step is to completely seal all openings and put traps in the attic.  Once they are sure that there are no animals left in the attic, they move to step 2 which is a disinfectant/deodorant for the existing insulation followed by an additional 6 inches of new insulation blown in.  We had many places where we didn't have enough insulation so at least some of the cost will be offset by lower AC and heating bills.  And they offer a one year guarantee.  If we hear any noises in the attic, they investigate and remediate free of charge.  Some peace of mind there.  Still...ouch.

[bobmacliberty]

8 minutes ago, derorim said:

The TV location leaves a little to be desired, though.  😁😇

 

Yup...life in a partially moved in house.  You may notice the drywall work above the fireplace.  Previous owners had white molding on the wall forming a frame around a TV.  We're putting a 75 inch TV up there that didn't fit the frame well.  We ripped down the molding and are painting that entire wall.  TV then gets mounted above the fireplace.  I'm not a fan of mounting a TV that high.  We didn't really even want a fireplace, and the over fireplace TV location that usually comes with it.  I bought a tilting TV mount and I'm sure we'll get used to it.

[gc]

15 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I was able to get the trap yesterday and baited it with peanut butter and peanuts.  Nothing overnight as I had just set the trap on the floor but we could hear him scampering about between the furnace room and the family room in the bulkhead around the hot and cold air returns.  
 

I was out for the day and when I got home my son said he opened the door to check and was staring right at a big black squirrel climbing our water pipe. Looked around and saw the mess that the squirrel had made as he tried to claw his way out through our vinyl clad window. 
 

I moved the trap up to the window ledge and went upstairs, booked a couple of cruises, talked to a client and had dinner.  Went down to check and lo and behold we had us a pretty mad squirrel in a cage.  Took him for a nice long drive to a conservation area.  I opened the door on the trap and he shot out of there that would put Nates sports cars to shame.

 

Time now for a drink then to clean up the damage.  He just added to the damage the first squirrel did 10 years ago. 
 

 

 

Here is an other idea Ken in case he finds his way back

[A&L_Ont]

32 minutes ago, gc said:

 

Here is an other idea Ken in case he finds his way back

@Lionesssit might be too late for the unfortunate squirrel but not too late for you. 😉😆

[Sheal]

Did they say how long it would take for the critter smell to dissipate?  Weeks?  Months?

 

I agree about the placement of the TV over the fireplace.  I love fireplaces but it is hard to work both into the placement plan.  I love the color of the walls, would you know what it is?    We put on a mud room and I'm not crazy about the color I picked.  Husband and daughter thought it looked fine and I'm sure the DH would be pretty annoyed to hear I don't like it at this point.  He is still putting up the trim work and I figure once the woodwork is done it might take the spotlight off the color.  That and some artwork.

 

At least it was a quick death.  I would imagine you would feel even worse if you saw if twitching.

 

 

[firefly333]

3 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I don't remember when I last gave an update on furniture for our new house.  It has slowly been trickling in.  We now have 2 loveseats in addition to the 2 recliners that we had previously, an area rug, and the "beverage center" that was previously damaged in shipment and needed to be reordered.  

 

We've also received one of the guest beds.  Still waiting on great room coffee and side tables, kitchen table chairs and a dining room set.  My wife has decided what she wants for our master bed (frame and headboard) and the other guest bed and we'll be ordering them soon.  I expect another 12-16 weeks for those to arrive.  Lots of knick-knacks still needed to fill in various shelves and nooks.  I'm trying to learn patience in retirement but it's hard after years of go-go-go at work.

Looks very comfortable.  Nice.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, Lionesss said:

Been a busy day here.

 

Up at 5;30am.  DH made a car appointment for me at 7am.  and had to have my morning coffee, feed the cat, and get ready.

 

Car appointment went well, oil change tire rotation.

 

Off to grocery store bought a $5 lottery ticket, won $30.

 

Dropped off taxes at accountants office.

 

Then on my way home minding my own business, driving down our street a squirrel ran out I slammed on my brakes  ((((((((SCREACHHHHHH)))))))))))))))   THUD. Saw the furry tail blowing in the wind, no movement.

 

Now I feel terrible.

 

 

 

We have bird and squirrel feeders and much to my husbands dismay. Feel for the little guy.  Wonder if was one of our feeder patrons???

 

So decided to stay home and clean out a closet.

 

Stay healthy.

I've done the same thing and really hate it. Squirrels run along the fences here and jump right in front of you. I cant tell you how many times I've slammed on my brakes when one runs across in front of me. We have so many here, but who would want to hit anything alive. I feel for you.

[Milwaukee Eight]

3 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I don't remember when I last gave an update on furniture for our new house.  It has slowly been trickling in.  We now have 2 loveseats in addition to the 2 recliners that we had previously, an area rug, and the "beverage center" that was previously damaged in shipment and needed to be reordered.  

 

We've also received one of the guest beds.  Still waiting on great room coffee and side tables, kitchen table chairs and a dining room set.  My wife has decided what she wants for our master bed (frame and headboard) and the other guest bed and we'll be ordering them soon.  I expect another 12-16 weeks for those to arrive.  Lots of knick-knacks still needed to fill in various shelves and nooks.  I'm trying to learn patience in retirement but it's hard after years of go-go-go at work.

Nice. Are you waiting for a wall mount for the TV?  I ask as we will need one soon for our new build and there seems to be such a delay to get anything. 
 

M8

[Ocean Boy]

@lionessI understand how you feel. Hitting a squirrel would ruin my day.

[Milwaukee Eight]

We have survey stakes!!!!  Hoping this means lot clearing soon. 

[bobmacliberty]

28 minutes ago, Sheal said:

Did they say how long it would take for the critter smell to dissipate?  Weeks?  Months?

 

I agree about the placement of the TV over the fireplace.  I love fireplaces but it is hard to work both into the placement plan.  I love the color of the walls, would you know what it is?    We put on a mud room and I'm not crazy about the color I picked.  Husband and daughter thought it looked fine and I'm sure the DH would be pretty annoyed to hear I don't like it at this point.  He is still putting up the trim work and I figure once the woodwork is done it might take the spotlight off the color.  That and some artwork.

 

At least it was a quick death.  I would imagine you would feel even worse if you saw if twitching.

 

 

 

We've had the smell for nearly a week and it is already getting better.  Hopefully just a couple more days and it will be gone. 

 

As for the wall color, you're probably talking about the seafoam green back wall.  Previous owners did not leave any spare paint in that color but left a sample of the paint on a piece of cardboard.  Our local Sherwin Williams store could not match it to anything in their catalog, probably because the cardboard sample isn't great.  My wife will be picking up some of their swatches to see if she can match it that way.  I'll post here if we find the color name. 

 

The fireplace wall is almost Agreeable Gray from Sherwin Williams.  I say almost because there was 3/4 of a gallon of agreeable gray left in a closet with other paint and we used it to paint over some other drywall patches on other walls of the same color.  The agreeable gray is about one shade darker than the walls. ☹️  The patches look very blotchy.  Several walls in the house use the gray color and need paint touchups, so we'll probably end up repainting all of the gray.  They originally used all flat paint and we prefer satin/eggshell, so we'll also change that.

[DaniDanielle]

I have the six year old granddaughter here doing zoom school.  She needed a big circle drawn so I used a protractor.  Her expression was priceless.  She couldn’t believe that thing could draw!

[bobmacliberty]

10 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Nice. Are you waiting for a wall mount for the TV?  I ask as we will need one soon for our new build and there seems to be such a delay to get anything. 
 

M8

 

Already have the wall mount.  We ordered a Sanus mount from Amazon and it arrived in a couple of days.  I probably could have used the mount that was already there.  It was only rated for up to a 70 inch TV (ours is 75 inch) but rated for 135 pounds, which is way more than our TV weighs.  Since we had to rework that wall anyway, I took the old one down and replaced it with one rated for up to 90 inch TV and 175 pounds.  Didn't feel like constantly wondering if the TV would come crashing down one day.

[bobmacliberty]

4 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

I have the six year old granddaughter here doing zoom school.  She needed a big circle drawn so I used a protractor.  Her expression was priceless.  She couldn’t believe that thing could draw!

 

I had a match teacher in high school that would stand with his shoulder against the black board and swing his arm in a circle to draw a nearly perfect chalk circle on the board.  Really cool thing to watch if you were a math nerd like me.  Do blackboards and chalk still exist?

[Sheal]

Flat is great for flawed walls but horrible to clean.  Do the blotches just need another coat?

[bobmacliberty]

1 minute ago, Sheal said:

Flat is great for flawed walls but horrible to clean.  Do the blotches just need another coat?

 

That's why we prefer a satin finish.  Unfortunately, another coat won't fix it as it's definitely a darker shade.  Blotchy might not be the best way to describe it.

[firefly333]

2 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Already have the wall mount.  We ordered a Sanus mount from Amazon and it arrived in a couple of days.  I probably could have used the mount that was already there.  It was only rated for up to a 70 inch TV (ours is 75 inch) but rated for 135 pounds, which is way more than our TV weighs.  Since we had to rework that wall anyway, I took the old one down and replaced it with one rated for up to 90 inch TV and 175 pounds.  Didn't feel like constantly wondering if the TV would come crashing down one day.

My parents had their 70 inch tv, the sound went out late last year. I moved them up to a 75 inch. I was surprised how cheap tvs are compared to the 5k they used to cost. My dad kept saying get the old one repaired, he is so deaf, hard to say to him, at these prices, better to upgrade. Now they got roku and stuff they dont have a clue about or how to stream. Lol I barely know but set it up on roku and made a account, but I'm about equally lost. But I was sure their old tv not worth fixing. 

 

Tech just keeps rolling on, at the price of tvs it's like they paid me to buy a roku tv. Or samsung crystal or another type ..I took roku. Best known. It was a neighborhood effort to set it up for them.

[firefly333]

4 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I had a match teacher in high school that would stand with his shoulder against the black board and swing his arm in a circle to draw a nearly perfect chalk circle on the board.  Really cool thing to watch if you were a math nerd like me.  Do blackboards and chalk still exist?

I was thinking at worst even a piece of string and a pencil. I'm sure my protracter is long since lost.

 

Idk about chalkboard, I've seen chalk art here on sidewalks. 

 

I was surprised my contractor told me I'm the first person he ever saw write in cursive writing. I guess they dont teach it anymore. I thought you had to sign your name in cursive, guess not.

[bobmacliberty]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Tech just keeps rolling on, at the price of tvs it's like they paid me to buy a roku tv. Or samsung crystal or another type ..I took roku. Best known. It was a neighborhood effort to set it up for them.

 

True for a lot of things these days.  Cheaper to buy new rather than fix.  We have a dishwasher in this situation now.  A more cynical person than me would say there is some planned obsolescence happening.  😉

[bobmacliberty]

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

I was surprised my contractor told me I'm the first person he ever saw write in cursive writing. I guess they dont teach it anymore. I thought you had to sign your name in cursive, guess not.

 

When my now 25 year old daughter was in first grade, her handwriting was atrocious (still is). We asked her teacher about it during a parent teacher conference.  She told us not to worry as they don't really focus on handwriting anymore and everyone would be using keyboards.  That was sometime around 2002!

[bobmacliberty]

12 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

That's why we prefer a satin finish.  Unfortunately, another coat won't fix it as it's definitely a darker shade.  Blotchy might not be the best way to describe it.

Here’s what I’m talking about. Toilet paper holder was mounted on the wall behind the toilet so I moved it and patched the drywall where it had been mounted. 

[Sheal]

LOL.  Paint does fade over the years and those patches would stick out like a sore thumb.

 

Toilet paper holder behind the toilet?  Sounds like an awkward place to put it.  Well, they say most accidents happen in the bathroom.  Only thing worse than falling in the tub would be falling off the toilet.

 

 

[derorim]

29 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

I have the six year old granddaughter here doing zoom school.

 

I've been going over and helping my 6 year old granddaughter with zoom school as well.  She is in the classroom most of the time now, thank goodness.  Some of the kids on zoom were connecting remotely from day care, without any apparent assistance from an adult. 

 

23 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Do blackboards and chalk still exist?

 

Those were the good old days... It was always fun to be the one the teacher chose to "clean the erasers" by taking them outside and smacking them together, creating clouds of chalk dust.  

 

16 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I was surprised my contractor told me I'm the first person he ever saw write in cursive writing. I guess they don't teach it anymore. I thought you had to sign your name in cursive, guess not.

 

It makes me very sad that they don't teach cursive any more.  Cursive is so personal and expressive.  And yeah, how would one sign their name?  I guess we don't need lines for both "printed name" and "signature" blocks on forms any more.  

[DaniDanielle]

Public schools here don’t teach cursive.  My daughter is a private school teacher and they teach it.

I am sure you still need to sign your name on things.  Blackboards and chalk pretty much a thing of the past😢

[Milwaukee Eight]

5 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Our new sleep number bed has a feature called responsive air.  It will adjust the air as you move around to keep it consistent.  If you move from your back to your side for example, you're body is putting more pressure on the mattress on your side (same weight pressing on a smaller surface area).  The mattress will adjust accordingly.  It's a nice feature but if you're sensitive to noise while sleeping, you can hear the pump.  Doesn't wake me (I sleep like a rock) but my wife could hear it if she wasn't wearing ear plugs.  You can turn this feature off and the pump will only come on if you purposely adjust the firmness setting.

 

I think this is a fairly new feature and if you tried the hotel SN bed a while ago, I'd agree with Rory that the bed likely had a slow leak of a sensor issue.  We now have 3 SN beds and the pump has become quieter with each successive bed.

Good points. We have same feature but doesn’t wake us either. Our pump is not very loud. This bed is about 2 years old.