Sorry we missed the summer!

Yes, it seems this is true, but we will try to fill-in the spaces in-between all of those dates.  The newest of our blog will cover almost the entire month of September.  Then we will go back to August and farther back to the less hot weather of June and even May. 

Some images of our sailing and water adventures:

We bought a new personal flotation Device for Daisy
Do you think she looks scared?

Preparing Daisy for the water



Sunset on the mooring

Latest Purchase...a dinghy dolly



Using the dolly to place the dinghy in the water



Quiet time with Dad!



One of the better investments we have made
this year was a dinghy dolly that we purchased
from Dynamic Dollys in Providence, RI

We are now able to leave the dinghy covered and on
its' own dolly to quickly place into the water. 
We don't have to push the 100+lb dinghy up on a rack
or damage it getting it there.  Just out of the water, wheel
it to a location, cover it, and we're gone. 
Why we haven't done this before now, we don't know!

 

Countdown to Heading Back to Delaware

We're rushing to complete jobs in progress and those not started yet to complete by 18th April.  We expect to leave the beautiful confines of Sixty Oaks and Vero Beach specifically by Tuesday, 19th April.

Chris putting the finishing touches on the tile porch

We have accomplished a lot during our brief time here in the last 20 days, but weather permitting, we will finish all on the list.
Our screened-in porch has a completely different look with the beautiful porcelain tile finished by FSC here in Vero.


West View

While laying down the first coat of paint on the garage floor I noticed Sue hustling over to the neighbor's home.  I followed her to find her up our extension ladder and cleaning out her gutters.  We did this earlier and I applied the gutter guards to keep the Laurel Oak leaves from filling it up.  



Rolling the garage floor












closeup of porcelain tile

Mid-Week Excitement

We returned from Lowes on Monday with two translucent hurricane protection panels and we began to install one.  This panel was really rugged and met standards set forth by Miami - Dade County certification.  It is supposed to with stand winds of 200 mph.  Easy to drill and cut with the proper tools, but not flexible at all.  We measured twice and cut once, used the panel as our template to evenly place the retaining screws around the window.  Not taking too long, but moving to the next job of painting the garage door which hasn't seen paint since it was new.


After catching up on all of the maintenance items on Tuesday, Sue and I enjoyed an evening out with friends Jack and Carlene Rupertus from Wilmington and our RiverCross Fellowship Church.  They introduced us to the "Steak & Shake" Restaurant that is near their location in Port St. Lucie.  After dinner we drove to the "Estate Auction" held monthly in Stuart, FL.   We watched as over more than 1000 items went up for bid that night and Sue decided on some super soft leather chairs and I picked our first wall art.

Our First Florida Wall Art







Do you want it HERE?



Standing next to one of her chairs Sue shows
more of our "personal wall art"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Direct TV Debacle   

Earlier in the day, actually on Monday evening when I switched on "Dancin with the Stars", I found we received an error message affecting our TV.   I asked Sue "what did you talk about when you contacted the Direct TV sales support?"  She calmly answered, "that they had our address wrong and I wanted the billing address changed."  So on Tuesday morning she called back to find they stopped our TV service.  I was livid!  And to top this off...they couldn't send a service person until Friday to repair the damages.  Usually in Delaware, with Verizon, this is all accomplished by throwing a switch miles away to restore service.   Today, Wednesday, I received a call that the repairman was at our home in Delaware trying to gain entry to restore service.  Is this a bunch of screwed up people?

Home Owner Meeting - Increase Maintenance Level

On Sunday, 10 April, we had the opportunity to meet most of the other home owners and attend the yearly meeting at the cul-de-sac at the end of the lane.  We met the president, her board and learned most of the residents have been here for a long time.  I had a chance to alter the bylaws concerning hurricane panels for windows.  On Saturday, Sue and I saw some translucent 4x6 and 4x8 panels that were 1" thick and were approved by Dade County for 200+ wind situations.  And since the cost of these panels were so much less than the steel ones, I asked for a chance to use these panels and place them on the windows that could not be seen from the main street before we left later this month.  I received an almost unanimous vote since I waited to present this item lastly during the agenda.

Other maintenance projects we are actively working on are: high pressure blast the entire house and upper areas around rain gutters, garage floor, and paint it and the concrete side walkway. 

Sanding the 1x6 top covers were the worst

Painting Northeast Sector Windows where the weather usually comes from
 

Sue doing the third coat after I used an entire jar patching this area



Replaced both feeder valves that were leaking under the kitchen sink

 

The front porch (really small) needed so badly to be painted.  I used a whole tub of wood putty up patching the open spots and filling voids that looked terrible.  We put multiple coats on and will finish with a glossy cover on the very top.  I suppose the whole day was spent sanding, patching, and painting.

 

The limb is falling...

 On Sunday morning before church, John came over with his fantastic extended saw and cut a limb for me that was close to the roof and with a little wind could scratch the shingles and destroy them.  Sun protection is important, but not at the loss of roof shingles.

Sue was her normal self, worrying about dropping the limb on the newly painted porch area and day/night light. 


This light is required for each home in this 60 home development.  If the light ceases to work a fine is levied to the owner.  In looking over the history of this light, we found it has been a problem area for a considerable amount of time.  The previous owner didn't know why the light didn't go off during the daytime and then blinked for 20 seconds throughout the day.  I decided to replace the sensor in the light and found one in Lowes across the street.  When I took it apart I found the previous owner didn't wire the sensor correctly according to the schematic presented.  We will replace the tungsten bulb with an LED that will be less costly to operate over the next year and perhaps will last that long.
The last two nights the light has worked flawlessly coming on at nearly 8PM and going off at 7AM.
 


Busy working to Improve...

Below are two images of how the kitchen looked last week.  We replaced the "new" refrigerator with an older double-door model that is quieter and has a working ice maker.  This has been very important when making ice tea or lemonade.   We are so very happy to have the "new" countertops installed so quickly and the refrigerator replaced within a day.

 

 

Old Kitchen with smaller refrigerator



View from back of kitchen

Old pass-thru



 

New Pass-Thru





Vero Beach ~ March 29th - April 9th

We left with our bicycles attached at the trailer hitch with a Bell apparatus that I picked up on sale at Walmart for $30!! The VW Sportwagon was loaded beyond belief.  I did over inflate the tires to accept this load and it helped.  We had a complete sound system with a Yamaha receiver, 5 disc player, two Kliptch speakers and a huge subwoofer.  Mix in a 7' Ikea cabinet with 6 shelves, several large power tools, some kitchenware, a 24" flat screen, food from our DE refrigerator, clothes for a month, laptop, and us.

We drove straight through and made the bed when we arrived at 12:45 AM.  Times were exciting the next day.  We shopped at Lowes across the street and found a large gas grill on sale because the previous owner thought it was prudent to wax the covers (stainless) over the burners.  Of course when he lit it those covers ignited and caused quite a fuss.  It was returned and for some reason it did not have wheels.  It was totally as is, but at a savings of well over $150.  Before we went to bed that night we talked about this and the next morning at 6 am we drove over to Lowes to make a deal.  I had to find the manager at 6:30 in the morning and he was happy to let us load the wheel-less grill on a flat cart and push it to our home across the street.  This image is of Sue bringing it back to Lowes.  Oh yes, I chose this early since there would be less traffic on I-60 than later in the day.  Too bad Sue could capture at least one image of me pushing this grill strapped to the card across I-60.

Arrived with grill intact

One of the high priority projects we wanted to pursue was the replacement of the countertop in the kitchen area.  We visited a couple of vendors but none seemed too reasonable or would be speedy to have this done before we needed to leave for Delaware.  Then we stopped at FTC and met Ronan and he promised to come over and measure our kitchen the same day!  He did and we met the next day to select our granite.  We had three projects in mind: the kitchen top, filling the pass-through area and doing the tile on our porch area.  After haggling for a while we agreed on a price and he said that the work will be done in a week.  As we drove away, I said that it would be nice to have all of this in a week, but we didn't expect this service.  On Monday morning Chris called Sue to explain he would like to come out to the villa and make templates.  On Tuesday Chris called to ask if we had time for the installation!!
Actually, everything was completed on Tuesday afternoon.

Adding the one piece slab

Chris calling his boss to say they were finished

Enjoying dinner on Tuesday night

Time to Throw the Switch!

We waited more than two months after the solar panels (14 - 320 watt panels) were installed (January 15th), to have them wired to our main box and have the DC electricity converted to AC.  The inspection took place quickly after all was installed and our new meter placed into operation.  This meter will run forward, but we prefer to see it run in reverse!  All of this took place after two trees were cut down entirely and a new roof installed where the panels fit.

junction box from panels

reverse running meter

hopefully saving $$$$ on electric bill



Sue throwing the switch on March 15th

Back to Chilly Delaware!

What's this white stuff Mommy?


We had to leave warm, beautiful, exciting Vero Beach since our rental contract expired on Monday 29 February and we had no home to stay in.  We left Vero at 8:30 AM and parked the car in our driveway in Delaware at slightly after midnight the same day.  Total distance 1033 miles; time: 13 hours - 30 minutes; average speed of 76.5 mph at a rate of 42.9 mpg. Yes we stopped for one fill-up, one rest stop, and one dinner for a total of 2 hours.

Enough folks that have been following us have asked more about the villa we are buying in Vero Beach.  Here is more info about us and the home.

 
 
 
 

A Chick Fil A will be will be a short walk from our villa's back door. It should be finished on 31 March.  

A look into the garage where the workbench will be on the left side.  Many of the previous owners articles are still left in the garage for storage.  The settlement will take place on 16 March without us being present.

Sue and the owner, Julia talking about this comfortable location in Vero Beach.  She has lived here for 10 years and now plans to live with her daughter in Tampa.

The kitchen is illuminated by a 10'x 5' skylight and should save electrical $$$ during the daytime.  We found the black microwave at a local estate sale.

Sue and Daisy sitting on the Natuzzi electrical recliner waiting for our king size mattress to arrive.  We have loaded most of the furniture and queen size bed into the guest bedroom so the owner would have room in the master bedroom.  One of our favorite things to do while living in our rental home was to shop at the consignment stores in and around Vero.  One of these stores that always has gorgeous items is Kaleidoscope off of Dixie Highway.  Don always says that it makes him feel good to see such beautiful items at really affordable prices. Ck them out at: https://www.facebook.com/KaleidoscopeConsignments/


View from the front porch area.

This is how we were able to move furniture into the villa and not have the expense of transportation costing us too much.

Home Depot rents this truck for $19.95 per 75 minutes.  

The large (20x15) side porch or as folks in Florida call it a Lanai.  We hope to have it tiled and place a grill and furniture so we can enjoy the warmer weather.

Entrance to our gated community: Sixty Oaks.

 

 

Two able bodied Best Buy Employees helping to load our new TV into the Passat.  They wouldn't let us take it out of the store ourselves.

Come visit when you are in Florida...1906 Sixty Oaks Lane. We are easy to find, right off of SR60 and about five miles from Interstate #95.