Hick's Freebie Magnet is Fully Charged

Hick came through the kitchen door Tuesday afternoon with a cardboard box. He deposited it on the cutting block, taking up half.

"Hey! You're not going to leave that there! Whatever it is, YOU need to put it away."

"It's food, Val. From the FREE food giveaway out at the junior college they have every month. Them gals at the Senior Center [Translation: Hick's Harem] was talkin' about it. They always go. There's too much stuff for them. They cain't use it all. One of 'em gave me this box."

Inside was a 5-lb bag of yellow onions. A 3-lb bag of Gala apples. A bag of Goldfish snacks that was BEST BY August 16. 

"She had two bags of these onions, and two bags of apples. She kept the bananas and some other stuff. This is what she didn't want, but didn't want to waste it."

That's fine. I use a lot of onions. We can eat the apples, or I can cook them with a bit of cinnamon. The Goldfish crackers aren't my favorite, but I'll eat them rather than throw them out. Oh, and I found out Thursday morning that there was more! Hick has been keeping it from me!

"There was an ice cream size container of pepperonis. They're at the house. I had them with me and wasn't comin' right home, so I put them there and forgot."

Yeah. A likely story. I'm sure Hick will be snacking on pepperonis. It's no loss to me. I hate pepperoni. But if they were here, I could add them to his pizza. So typical of Hick to only share with me what he deems sharable, heh, heh.

Back in Hick's Lap (House)

If it takes constant attention, and sending me very similar pictures to make Hick get to work on Lap House, I'm fine with it. I just past those approval-seeking pictures along to you. My people.

Hick had a story on Tuesday.

"Me and Old Buddy put in the upper cabinet this morning. I retched up [Hick's pronunciation of "reached"] and wondered why I couldn't get ahold of the door. We had put it in upside down! The handle was up by the ceiling!"

"Oh, my people will love that!"

"The worst thing is, we had put it up twice! Both the wrong way. After the first time, we seen a problem with the ceiling that we had to fix. Then we put the cabinet back, still upside down, and neither one of us noticed it!"

"So... did you fix it?"

"Not yet. We'll do it tomorrow. All we have to do is undo four screws and flip it over. Then screw them back in."

Hick got the cabinet fixed on Wednesday morning. By himself. Old Buddy didn't show up.

This would not have been a problem for Hick to do alone. You can see that he has that "cheat board" nailed to the wall, to hold the weight of the cabinet while it's being screwed. Also, Hick applied a coating of stain to the butcher block counter. That needed to be done within 48 hours of unwrapping the counter. The picture looks a little different, because this was taken when it was still dark outside, not with the morning light streaming in.

Still a lot of work to be done. You won't miss anything. 

A Side Note

FINALLY, Hick has the siding back on the outside of Lap House. It's the corner where he put in the new electric box. This was supposed to be a job for Old Buddy last week, but I don't think it happened then. Hick sent me a text on Monday that he was going out to put on the siding. Then a picture:

It looks like that corner is back to normal! Here's a closer look.

I can't even tell that the siding had been removed. Maybe the shade camouflages it, but I think Hick did a nice job fitting it back to the original condition.

Also, Hick has put some chairs on the front porch, making it look more home-y. I'm sure that was not the plan. It was likely to get the chairs out of the back yard for mowing purposes, and as a place to take a break from (sporadic) working.

Only the rest of the kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room, a laundry room, and a bathroom to go!

Butchering the Lap House Kitchen

Hick was back to work Monday at Lap House. I'm not so sure he had helpers this day, because he sent me a text every half hour or so. Meaning he wasn't putting all his energy into bossing people around!

Here's a preliminary look at the kitchen counter:

As Hick noted, this countertop is just set in place. Nothing fastened yet, nothing trimmed. I wasn't sure I would like the butcher block, but now I love it! I think it goes well with the new (lower) cabinets, and the vintage sink.

Hick was thinking about a white laminate floor, but I'm leaning towards a tan or beige. Not a wood grain, but something that looks like tile. That way it won't clash with the butcher block. I'll suggest it to Hick, but you know how he is about bargains. I suspect he will favor the budget, rather than my preferences.

Hick Is Working at Lap Speed

Thursday was another day of work on Lap House. The new lower cabinets were actually installed. Hick sent The Pony a picture, but not me! Of course The Pony shared. At first I thought it was the same picture I had gotten the day before (which The Pony didn't), where the new cabinets were just set in place. Nope! They're actually installed now.

That's a vintage cast iron porcelain enamel double sink with drainboards. Hick is leaving it. They are going for around $1000 from what I see on the innernets. The upper cabinet with the dishes is old. That is going away, says Hick. There won't be an upper cabinet in that area, but on the side. Also, the flooring is just linoleum, and will be torn out, to be replaced with laminate. Hick is thinking white, but I don't know if people want a WHITE kitchen floor. That's a lot of white. Hick said he did it in Bargain House, but I think that was more gray.

The view out the kitchen window is the unoccupied church next door, and its little toddler playground. The church building is for sale. I like the rock architecture. Hick took a tour of it with Realtor Guy, just for kicks (unfair to Realtor Guy, who told Hick he didn't mind, because he's more likely to make sales if he shows properties). Anyhoo... Hick said he can't imagine anybody buying the church to convert into a duplex, because it would take too much work.

I hope for more work on Lap House this week. If Hick can get it done soon, and on the market, I would complain less about keeping Cheap House for a total renovation.

The Return of the Laundry Bandit

I can't believe Hick was holding out on this information! Doesn't he know I have stories to tell? It was almost an accidental reveal. We were talking about the cold Hick has come down with.

"I don't know where you got it, but I sure don't want to catch it. From the timing, I'd say you caught it on Sunday or Monday."

"I don't want you to get it, either. I might have got it down at the lockers."

"Or kissing one of your Harem!"

"I ain't kissin' none of my Harem. Oh, and our laundry guy is back."

"I told you! Wait! I thought you said it was a woman. Some lady's granddaughter."

"I seen a man go in there carrying laundry. He has to know! I've got great big signs right over the washer that it's for tenants only. Next time, I'm gonna do what you said. And keep the clothes. I think it's the same people, and the husband is doing it now."

"If nobody asks about the clothes after a couple weeks, you could give them to the grandma and tell her next time you'll keep them. You think you know who it is, right?"

"Yeah. And they've been bringing a dog in there, too. The others told me about it. I went to talk to her, and told her she cain't be havin' a dog unless she has a doctor's note that she needs it for therapy. She said, 'I don't have a dog here. You can come and look in my apartment. It was just for a visit.'"

"Is it a little dog?"

"No! It's a great big dog!" Hick held his hand at the height of the couch arm.

"Well. You need to make that free laundry stop. They don't have any excuse, now that they're doing it with the signs up. Probably the grandma telling them to stop won't do it, either. So she shouldn't be blamed. They are adults. They can read the signs."

Hick was probably hanging onto this tale, waiting for a time when he needed to distract me from a line of interrogation he wanted to avoid...

Hick Grabs Another Man's Junk

Hick took the torn-out cabinets from Lap House to the landfill/recycling center. You have to pay by weight for what you are dumping. Hick says he backs SilverRedO into a big building, and has to unload it himself, among piles of stuff other dumpers have left.

"We were gettin' the cabinets unloaded, and saw a chainsaw just sitting there on a pile of stuff. And two grease guns. The old guy next to me said, 'Looks like somebody dumped a chainsaw.' I said, 'Yep.' And went and got it--"

"Wait! What if that other man wanted it? He pointed it out!"

"That's too bad. I got to it first. I seen it, too. He just happened to say that before I grabbed it. I got them two grease guns, too. I brought the chainsaw home, and it works! Nothing wrong with it. It's a 16- or 18-inch chainsaw. Worth $82, according to the internet. And them grease guns? One of them is air operated. One of them could be anywhere from $30 to $125. It was a pretty good haul, for going to dump the cabinets."

That's our Hick. His FREEbie Magnet is working overtime.