Hick House Downstairs: Kitchen 03-14-19

You've seen the kitchen counter and sink and cabinets. Here's two more walls of the kitchen.

Hick and HOS covered up the old flue. By now, they've probably finished the top section, too. Hick is planning to use sheets of paneling over the bottom half of these walls, and paint the top. That's HOS's job. He's using a green paint that I assume goes with the countertop. Hick says it looks good, anyway. More pictures of that as I get them. Hick says he has a built-in table to build by this flue.

This corner is where Hick plans to put the stove and refrigerator. He wants the fridge in the corner, then the stove to the left. HOS wants stove in the corner, then the fridge to the left. Actually, HOS wants the fridge in the back porch pantry. Don't know who's winning this one, but I'm guessing it will be Hick. At least as far as keeping the fridge in the kitchen. This corner is where the dirty old sink was removed.

You can see across the hall to the bathroom, which has been enclosed with drywall. Still some to do on the inside of the bathroom.

The framing is ready for the drywall at the end of the shower. Looks like a little box for hooking up water (?) for the washer later.

In a couple days, I'll reveal the master bedroom. Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Hick House Downstairs: Living Room 03-14-19

The kitchen and bathroom have been the main focus of Hick and HOS's efforts. Here are a few photos I took last week to show more of the downstairs layout.

Here is more of the living room, looking in from the entryway. HOS has been painting the ceiling. The front window is fine, just has a shade over it. Those two leaning windows are going elsewhere. The black frame will be in the master bedroom, and the other is going upstairs to replace a broken window, I think in the Fleetwood Mac bedroom, which is on the uphill side of the house.

If you stand with your back to that bright window, you can see the front door and entryway. Plastic is covering the archway to the master bedroom, to keep out sawdust from Hick's temporary workroom. The way Hick described it, I thought the archway was actually arched. Apparently not. The plan is for shelves here, for the living room, and in the bedroom on the other side. If Hick runs out of time and/or money, he will use drywall to close the opening.

Here's the entry to the kitchen, with shy Hick hiding behind the wall. I'm pretty sure he thought he was in the picture. That door behind him leads to the hall and bathroom. The dark corner is where the dirty sink was removed.

More from the kitchen tomorrow.

Hick's a Glutton For Aggrandisement

After my tour of Hick House on Thursday, just as I was buckling up my seatbelt in the shotgun seat of SilverRedO for a ride back to T-Hoe at the post office... Hick shoved his phone in my face.

"Look at that! My buddy sent it to me."

You can't be too careful looking at something on Hick's phone after such a preface. There's a reason both Genius and The Pony have decreed that Hick is not allowed to send them random pictures. I guess Hick thought it was safe, since I was strapped down, and in a moving vehicle.

It was a house.

Hick is like that Cookie-Mouse. If you give Hick money to buy a $5000 house, pretty soon he's going to want another house. And the 'nother house has to be a better bargain than
A $5000 HOUSE!

"It's over on Sixth Street. I'm going by later to look at it. It's ONLY $1600!"

Seriously. Just when you think houses can't get any cheaper. I told Hick to drive me over there. I didn't want to be hearing about it second-hand. Sometimes Hick's eyes glaze over with a lack of dollar $igns.

It's a house only Hick (and possibly HOS) could love. On the drive over, Hick already had grand plans to get this house. "I figure if I offer $1000, the guy'll probably jump at it, just to get rid of it." And grand plans to fix it up in three months and flip it. "I can do most of it myself. I'm sure HOS would help me for a share of the profit. I'd just need him for some plumbing, or climbing on ladders."

This is why I demanded to ride along with him!

Hick knew this house right away. "It's This Guy's old house! One of his rental houses, that he sold to Another Guy."

"I don't think this one is even worth $1000. You'd have to put so much money into it, even with just the basics. It needs a roof. There's a sag in the middle of the foundation. That can't be good."

"A roof for that would only run you about $2000. You could jack up the foundation. It may be nothing. I wonder what the inside looks like."

"You can go look in that end window. Because there's no window in it!"

With Hick so excited about his new flipping hobby, there's a slight chance that another flip house is on Thevictorians' horizon.

This house ain't it.

Hick House Downstairs Entry: Abandon All Hope of Luxury, Ye Who Enter Here

Thursday, Hick offered me a tour of Hick House again. HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) had done some painting the night before. "It looks a lot different!" Hick is an eternal optimist. Val... not so much. I went, but only on the condition that Hick would pick me up at the post office in SilverRedO. I wasn't about to risk T-Hoe's arthritic gear box just to visit a $5000 house.

I stood in the small front yard for a picture of the side porch. I LOVE that porch! In fact, I might love it even more than the upstairs Sunroom that I think has so much potential.

Upon closer inspection, the front wall of Hick House is covered with the tarpaper brick, and not actual bricks. The porch, though, is built like a brick...um...porch. Hick and HOS are currently storing HOS's FREE siding that they're planning to use on the top front triangle area by the Sunroom, and also on the front of the house there at the porch. And also maybe that downhill side of the house where they replaced the windows. Depends on how much siding HOS can get. Right now the poor porch is kind of their staging area.

Stepping inside the front door, I could tell how much brighter the area was after HOS's first coat of paint. By no means is it finished, but it gives you an idea what it can become. Too bad I didn't have many before pictures of this area. But this is still pretty much before it's livable.

Straight ahead as you enter, we have the door to the future master bedroom. It's best that door remains closed right now. That's Hick Central, where he has his saw set up under the peeling ceiling.

If you turn right upon entering the front door, you see the landing of the two steps, and the door that leads to the other two flights of stairs that take you up to the Sunroom.

HOS's painting did not progress that far. Not sure how he got to the ceiling there with his tools on the landing.

It's amazing how a coat of paint can make an area seem light and airy, rather than gloom-and-doomy.

If you look left upon entering the front door, you see the living room. It's also kind of a staging area right now. Looks like HOS has saved every cigarette butt from every break. And looks like he takes a mustard break, too! I don't know what that's all about.

Don't worry, a baby doesn't live here! Hick had that bouncy seat in one of his storage units. He brought it over because HOD (HOS's Oldest Daughter) brought HOS's eight-month-old baby over early one day, and they needed something to keep him in! Can't have a loose baby in Hick House!

The window faces down the hill. It's the big one you saw in the outside picture of the window replacements. There's Hick, lurking in the doorway to the kitchen. He's got his installed cabinets plastic-ed off from the drywall work they've been doing.

More on the living room another time. This was just to give you an idea of the layout, and how much work Hick and HOS have to go.

Emergency At 27,984 Feet!

That's 5.3 miles. The distance from home to town.

Remember when Hick House tried to kill T-Hoe? I sure do! I was sort of getting over it. After all, nearly a week had gone by. A pretty good week, too! Time was starting to heal my perception of T-Hoe's wounds. Hick himself was inside the belly of that beast, putting up drywall around the kitchen flue, when I drove to Country Mart on Wednesday, to get him his special ice cream.

Let the record show that this ice cream is not special because it's permissible for diabetics. Nor because it's made from the finest ingredients, virtually a health food that assures long life. Nope. Hick's ice cream is special because that's the kind he likes. Individual cups of vanilla swirled with strawberry and chocolate. He had run out the previous evening, so I went to get more. Because I'm a getter like that.

I'd stopped by my pharmacy for prescription refills, and came into Country Mart's lot from the side entrance. My favorite parking spot in front of the store was open. I turned right, to pull in. Normally I come down an aisle across from this space, and pull straight in, without turning. Since I had a 90-degree turn now, I was a bit discombobulated with the depth of this slot. I let T-Hoe roll a little too far, and bumped the yellow concrete parking-space bumper. That's what they're for, you know! To let you feel when you're all the way in the space, without going too far.

It was just a gentle bump. Not like my long-ago friend who jumped the bumper while parking at an Ozark Mountain Daredevils concert. I put T-Hoe in PARK, turned him off, and went inside for the ice cream, along with some Peaches N Cream store-brand instant oatmeal (mine), flavored water (Hick's).

When I came out, it was just after 1:00. A stop by The Gas Station Chicken Store for my 44 oz Diet Coke, and my errands would be over. Time to chill in my dark basement lair with lunch and my magical elixir and some scratchers and New Delly. This was a short trip. I didn't leave Backroads. Just a five-mile trip to town for my essentials, then back home.

I wrote down my debit amount in the checkbook, started up T-Hoe, and looked behind me for traffic or pedestrians before backing out. WAIT A MINUTE! T-Hoe wouldn't get in gear! He was stuck again. I turned him off and tried again. Nope. I yanked the steering wheel side to side, in case it was somehow locked in position and preventing shifting. C'mon! It's not like I can run a System Restore on T-Hoe. Dang it! Hick's ice cream wasn't going to like this much. I called Hick. He interrogated me about what I was trying to do.  

"I'm just trying to move the shifter from PARK to REVERSE. It's stuck. Just like at the house. But I'm level. I bumped the concrete parking bumper, barely. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. I've driven this car for 10 years, and hit those bumpers way harder than this time, and this has never happened before."

"Okay. I'll be right there. The only other thing to do is call AAA, but I can be there faster."

I listened to the radio until it went off (after 15 minutes). I got out and looked at the front tires. They were touching the concrete bumper thingy. But neither was indented or misshapen by pressure against the concrete. I leaned against T-Hoe's front end. Tried to give him a push backwards. Man! He's as solid as a brick porch on a $5000 house! I tried to rock T-Hoe back and forth. I might have moved him half a millimeter. I jiggled my excess adipose tissue way more than I jiggled T-Hoe. I got back in, turned on the radio, and waited for my Knight in Gray Hoodie to arrive.

This was about the time Hick should get here. It had been 15 minutes since my call. I started T-Hoe and tried to put him in gear. Nothing. Turned him off, then back on, and tried again. Nope. I saw Hick turning on the side street, approaching me, past the Hardee's, past the Dairy Queen, past the rock that a lady got her car stuck on last summer, past my pharmacy, and into Country Mart's lot. He pulled up beside me, and parked just right for T-Hoe's door not to open all the way because of the location of SilverRedO's mirror.

Hick asked if I had T-Hoe in 4 Wheel Auto. No, I did not. Just in the regular 2 Wheel Drive like any other car driving around on non-slippery streets. I figured Hick might attach a strap or chain to T-Hoe's rear pulling things, and jolt him out of gear, like over at Hick House. Hick acted like he didn't believe T-Hoe was stuck in PARK. I clambered out, he climbed in, started T-Hoe up, and POPPED HIM RIGHT INTO REVERSE!

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT????"

"I just put it in gear, Val."

"I tried SO MANY TIMES! It was stuck! You must have really yanked on it! I didn't want to break it. It wouldn't move, anyway. But I didn't yank on it hard."

"I didn't use much force at all, Val."

"I can't believe you did that! I must have loosened it up for you! I just tried it two times when I saw you driving down the street."

"I don't know. It could have been a fluke. Your tire against the concrete, and you put it in park without taking your foot off the brake."

"You mean I'm supposed to have my foot off the brake when I put it in PARK? I don't think so! I would be rolling!"

"Not if you were against the concrete stopper. If you'd let off, the car would have rolled back a little and adjusted itself."

"Huh. I think you yanked it really hard, and I didn't. But you do have that PopArm, so it couldn't have been REAL hard..."

"See? I told you. There's not a lot of things that could go wrong. There's just cogs in the differential. Maybe T-Hoe is getting older, and they stick."

"Wouldn't they be all worn and smooth if he's older, and more likely to slip OUT of gear, instead of sticking?"

"Well. Maybe... or maybe it's in the shifter arm. Maybe it needs a little bit of oil."

"Will you oil my arm?"

"Yes, Val. I'll oil your arm."

"My blog buddy Linda said she had this problem with her car, and her husband fixed it with a paperclip. I don't know if she was joshin' me, or if he was joshin' her... is that even possible."

"No, Val. You can't fix it with a paperclip."

So sayeth my Knight in Gray Hoodie, having ridden to my rescue, assuring me he would pull into The Gas Station Chicken Store with me to make sure T-Hoe didn't act up again... and then left me at the light while he bypassed The Gas Station Chicken Store and went back to Hick House.

I have my suspicions that something is going wrong with T-Hoe's transmission. Hick doesn't seem to think so. I guess I'll take his word for it.  Because unlike the finer points of grammar and punctuation, assorted conspiracy theories, and trivial details concerning all episodes of Seinfeld... Val does not know much about cars.

Val's Month-Late BirthdayGiftPalooza

Val has been feeling a positive flow of energy coming her way, especially last week. Not only did she find 26 PENNIES, but other riches came her way. Monetary, and not.

The tax refund came in on Tuesday, directly deposited, so that left Public Enemy #2 Val off the hook for ALLEGEDLY trying to deposit an ALLEGEDLY fake check at her bank.

Wednesday, as I sat in T-Hoe sorting through the mail, I was greeted by the back cover of a mail-order catalog:

Looks like the ladybugs haven't forsaken me!

Thursday, I ran some errands and toured Hick House, making me bypass the cemetery without a visit. "I just don't have time today. I'm headed the wrong way right now. I can stop by later." Wouldn't you know it, not even a mile up the road, a certain song came on the radio. "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye," by Patty Loveless. If I'd been sitting graveside in T-Hoe, having a one-sided conversation with Mom, that's when the song would have come on! Surely that wasn't a sign, was it? A sign of chastisement for not stopping? Or a sign of forgiveness because I was indeed busy that day? Or a sign that I really need to LET GO? I don't know, but I stopped by Friday, just in case...

 Also on Thursday, I won $50 on a $5 scratcher. I didn't take a picture of it, even though it happened! Because it was only $50.

Friday, I made the time to stop by the cemetery on my way to the main post office. For the first time in three months, I got my DISH bill with enough time to get a check mailed back by the deadline! Yes. I consider that lucky. I'm tired of mailing my check the day after I get it, then having to pay online anyway when it doesn't arrive by midnight on the due date. Mailed it the same day this time. Take THAT, DISH! I think they drag their feet on the mail over there at DISH.

Since I was on that side of town (actually, in another town besides Backroads), I stopped at an unplanned Casey's for my scratchers. It was a good move.

I had the "L" symbol, which means WIN ALL. That's a $200 winner on a $5 scratcher. Val LOVES Lucy!

Yes, I had a good week, starting with those 16 pennies on Monday the 11th. Huh. It's almost like my birthday week came exactly one month late...

Val Hastens Her AsCENT to Pennyillionaire Status

You'll never believe what I found MONDAY, March 11, when returning to T-Hoe from gathering the mail out of EmBee. That's right! You must be psychic! It WAS pennies. Yes. Plural. It's the amount you're not gonna believe. I found 16 pennies on the blacktop county road!

There are 11 of them. I guess the angle of the almost-sun had to be just right. I hadn't seen a one of them when I walked across the road to get the mail. One glinted as I walked back. The more I squinted, the more I saw, in a wide swath. The dirtier ones blended in with the gravel distributed for a recent freezing rain event. I picked them up, looked over my shoulder towards the mailbox side of the road, and noticed some MORE that I'd missed!


Here are the other five. I'm sure you'll have to look closely or zoom in. They're in a flying-bat kind of shape. I must apologize to those of you who would like to see an individual closeup of each of the 16 pennies. I WAS in the middle of the road, and didn't think it was safe to linger. As I picked them up, I did note that 10 were face-down, and 6 were face-up.

Don't worry! I WASHED these road pennies, because some were absolutely filthy. Put them in a little cup of water and DAWN, the dish detergent that gets oily baby animals clean. It got my pennies, clean, too!

When I came upstairs later to check their dates, I found it interesting that even that a random shaking-out on the paper towel, and sliding them apart for drying, resulted in 8 pennies face-down, and 8 pennies face-up. As it should be, with 50-50 odds. For the record, the years of these pennies were: 1957 (a WHEAT penny), 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1996, 2002, 2012, 2013, 2014 (4), 2015, 2017, 2018.
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You'll never believe what I found on WEDNESDAY, March 12. Okay. You will. I'm a believable kind of Val. Of course I was on the lookout for pennies when I crossed the road to get the mail. But what I found was a DIME! Heads-up, from 2017, with kind of a bad scar on FDR's face. Of course I looked around, in case there might be 15 more. 

There wasn't, but there WAS a penny! Face-up, from 2013.


I got closeups of those two, and that's all you're getting, because there are MORE COINS TO COME! I proceeded to town, feeling all special for getting coins at the mailbox for two days in a row. Of course when you least expect it, a coin falls into your lap. Not so much falls into my lap, as lays patiently on the floor of the Casey's over in Main Post Office Town until I find it.

No room for the closeup of this heads-up 1984, because when I turned to leave, I found ANOTHER NICKEL on the way out! "When I rains, it pours!" says Val and the little Morton Salt girl.

"Whew! Am I going to have a good Pennyillionaire story this week!" said Val as she pocketed her 1995 face-down rightful nickel and headed to her last stop, The Gas Station Chicken Store. Where you're not gonna believe it, but...

I found a penny on the way in! Face-down, from 1993.
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With such spectacular good fortune on Monday and Tuesday, I was almost relieved when Wednesday rolled around, and I didn't find a singer coin. But you know what's coming, don't you?

On THURSDAY, March 14, at my very first stop, I was called over to a closed register by an Orb K clerk. When I looked down, it was obvious to me why she had chosen to open the register at the very moment I was next in line.

I'd have missed that somewhat-copper pair if she hadn't opened up. The front one was face-down, a 1998, and the second one was heads-up, a 2008. Here, I'll give you a closer look at these two.


Now I see why that one was so hard to pick up! It was trying to hide under the energy-supplement rack.

I went outside into the gale winds of the Great Midwest Bomb Cyclone of  '19, and nearly stepped on ANOTHER penny as I reached to open T-Hoe's door. I swear it was not there when I got out. I always look around, because that's where I often find pennies meant just for me. Maybe it blew in on a 60 mph wind gust.

It was a bit awkward getting the picture, what with clutching three scratchers in my left armpit, T-Hoe's keyring in my right hand, and swaying the the gale-force winds. I did it, though. For YOU, and because as Genius likes to say, "Pics or it didn't happen." This was a face-down 1982.

Whew! As I type this up on Thursday night, I'm almost afraid to leave the house on Friday and Saturday. There might be a limit on the number of pennies you can harvest per week!
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Val People Problems! Just as I feared, on FRIDAY, March 15, I stopped to pick up the mail, and found THREE MORE PENNIES! A face-down 2018, a heads-up 1979, and a heads-up 1994.

It's kind of hard to see the last two. Go straight up from the penny at the bottom, the area between the black dot and the twig, and look slightly left of center. I knew where they were, and could hardly find them in this picture.
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Oh, NO! The nightmare to the nightmare! Today (SATURDAY, March 16), I found TWO MORE pennies by the mailbox! With the sun's glare, I couldn't even tell if I had them in frame, but a zoom-in shows I caught both.

The dirtier one, just to the right of center, was a face-down 1980. The other, off to the left of center, was a 1998, heads-up. I had to rush home and stop the presses to ad my two cents!

I've been closely inspecting the road here since my 16-penny windfall on Monday, so new pennies are springing up every day. It must be a kid on the bus tossing them out the window. I don't care where they come from! I'll gladly take them. If no new ones are there on Sunday, I can believe my school bus theory.

I made 46 cents this week! If this keeps up, I'll have to keep a tally for tax time next year.
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2019 Running Total
Penny   # 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44.
Dime    # 4.
Nickel  # 3, 4.
Quarter  still at 1.

2018 TOTALS
Penny  131
Dime  17
Nickel  6
Quarter  1

2017 TOTALS (Started in March, 2017)
Penny  78
Dime   6
Nickel  0
Quarter  0
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