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Apr. 21st, 2008 05:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gazerwolfCouldn't sleep and I'm bored, so I figured I'd post some of the things I've been doing lately.
This was about two weeks ago now.
I took up all the carpet in the top floor of the house...I'd been thinking about it for a while but was prompted to do so by two of the boys being sent home from school by itching.
It only happened occasionally but they had been sent home three times for this...the school nurse was thinking scabies...(actually two different ones...one able to prescribe the cream for scabies)
Knowing that I had done everything to treat scabies all three times (the cream, washing all the bedclothes...etc) (including this last time) I started looking for other problems the next day while they were at school.
I suspected fleas or an allergy to cat dander....both of which could be in the carpets in their rooms...My oldest (Jake) wasn't having the problem you see...and he has no carpet in his room.
I go upstairs and move stuff to start ripping up the carpet and find out instantly what the problem is...bedbugs.
Don't know where they came from...they were only upstairs and mainly in Mike's room.
So I went back downstairs (quickly) and did some internet research on bedbugs (to see a picture of them to make sure and to see what needed to be done)
I went to the hardware store to get insecticide...(could only find ONE that specifically mentioned bedbugs on it's label) and too sheets of plastic and some duct tape. Then I went back home.
Went back upstairs and went back to ripping the carpet up...cause from what I read that would be easier than trying to get them out of the carpet.
I hauled the carpet out of the house through the quickest route possible and threw it in the front yard. I then went back upstairs and started removing carpet strips and staples (that took forever it seemed)
I vacuumed up all the dust (man there was a lot of dust in those carpets) and then sprayed the insecticide on every survice in the room. I mean EVERY surface. I included the mattresses (bedclothes were already downstairs in the wash and the pillows in the dryer on high heat (supposed to kill the bugs)) and the entire bedframe.
I let that dry for a bit while I went to go get the boys at the bus stop.
After we got back I set the boys to playing downstairs while I finished upstairs...I went back up and wrapped both mattresses in the plastic and duct taped the openings...and the folds...sealing in any bedbugs in them WITH the insecticide I had sprayed on them earlier.
Then I put the rooms back together...then I sprayed insecticide on and in my vacuum. (after emptying the collector) Then I set the boys to doing homework with strict instructions NOT to go upstairs and went outside to bundle up all that carpet for the trash collection...which wouldn't be by for another week...as they had just picked up that morning.
Got done with that and went inside and downstairs threw everything I was wearing in the wash (including my hat) Threw my shoes in the dryer with the boys bedclothes got redressed in something else and went back up stairs.
The two youngest got to sleep on the couch that night...just in case.
THIS Thursday I decided I would fix the front stair (again) since my prior patchwork had cracked quite a lot over the winter.
I get to picking and quite a bit of step crumbles away at my touch...so I find out why my patchwork cracked...major portions of the cement of the step had reverted back to sand....I'd say a good 2/3s just washed away with water when I turned the hose on it...the other 1/3 was rocks and larger chunks of concrete.
After picking and washing the step for a few hours I wound up with what solid structure was left...about 1/4 of the original step I'd guess...most of it in the middle...both sides were mostly gone.
I only had 1 bag of 80 lbs of cement in anticipation of this job...and this looked to me like at least 2 were needed.
So I decided I needed to head to the hardware store to get another bag...and I remembered that Dorthy (next door) had asked me to get her some lumber to fix her back rail next time I went to the hardware store...so I headed over to next door with my measuring tape to see how long a piece I needed to get and met her on her back porch. She told me she had some cement out in her garage if I wanted it, so I went and she had 3 bags (two 80lb and one 40lb) I took the two 80lbs (just in case).
She gave me the money for her lumber and off I went to the hardware store...completely forgetting that I had set one of our cordless phones on the roof of the van while I was working....it fell off halfway there...thats when I remembered it...I kept going because there was no good way to go back and get it (no place to turn around and by the time I realized what the sound was I was too far to walk back and get it easily...Mike was with me as he had come home early that day and I couldn't leave him in the van and walk that far away on a busy road.)
I get to the hardware store and get her lumber (and some screws to put it in with) and then head back to where the phone came off (thankfully near the corner of another street) and pulled over and got most of the pieces (the main phone body and the battery cover...the battery had been run over.)
I got home and it was far to close to time to get Ben at the bus stop to be mixing and pouring cement so I went ahead and started working on Dorthy's rail. (spending the time chatting with Dorthy while I worked.) The rail was easy.
I went back home and built a cement form for the steps outa some of that scrap lumber I had from the shelves in the basement. Went in and got cleaned up a little and went to get Ben...then went to the school to get Jake from his after school activity.
Came home set them all up to do homework and got busy in earnest. Mixed cement, poured it in the form...almost the entire three bags...had a bunch of helpers too...all three boys came out to "watch" while I worked.
The step looks better but it still needs some work...I didn't compact the cement enough in some places so it has some air gaps...I need to use a thicker mix to fix those though...and I'm gonna let it cure a while longer before I fix it. The step below has some pits in it that I need to patch too.
The phone worked fine after we got a battery for it.
This was about two weeks ago now.
I took up all the carpet in the top floor of the house...I'd been thinking about it for a while but was prompted to do so by two of the boys being sent home from school by itching.
It only happened occasionally but they had been sent home three times for this...the school nurse was thinking scabies...(actually two different ones...one able to prescribe the cream for scabies)
Knowing that I had done everything to treat scabies all three times (the cream, washing all the bedclothes...etc) (including this last time) I started looking for other problems the next day while they were at school.
I suspected fleas or an allergy to cat dander....both of which could be in the carpets in their rooms...My oldest (Jake) wasn't having the problem you see...and he has no carpet in his room.
I go upstairs and move stuff to start ripping up the carpet and find out instantly what the problem is...bedbugs.
Don't know where they came from...they were only upstairs and mainly in Mike's room.
So I went back downstairs (quickly) and did some internet research on bedbugs (to see a picture of them to make sure and to see what needed to be done)
I went to the hardware store to get insecticide...(could only find ONE that specifically mentioned bedbugs on it's label) and too sheets of plastic and some duct tape. Then I went back home.
Went back upstairs and went back to ripping the carpet up...cause from what I read that would be easier than trying to get them out of the carpet.
I hauled the carpet out of the house through the quickest route possible and threw it in the front yard. I then went back upstairs and started removing carpet strips and staples (that took forever it seemed)
I vacuumed up all the dust (man there was a lot of dust in those carpets) and then sprayed the insecticide on every survice in the room. I mean EVERY surface. I included the mattresses (bedclothes were already downstairs in the wash and the pillows in the dryer on high heat (supposed to kill the bugs)) and the entire bedframe.
I let that dry for a bit while I went to go get the boys at the bus stop.
After we got back I set the boys to playing downstairs while I finished upstairs...I went back up and wrapped both mattresses in the plastic and duct taped the openings...and the folds...sealing in any bedbugs in them WITH the insecticide I had sprayed on them earlier.
Then I put the rooms back together...then I sprayed insecticide on and in my vacuum. (after emptying the collector) Then I set the boys to doing homework with strict instructions NOT to go upstairs and went outside to bundle up all that carpet for the trash collection...which wouldn't be by for another week...as they had just picked up that morning.
Got done with that and went inside and downstairs threw everything I was wearing in the wash (including my hat) Threw my shoes in the dryer with the boys bedclothes got redressed in something else and went back up stairs.
The two youngest got to sleep on the couch that night...just in case.
THIS Thursday I decided I would fix the front stair (again) since my prior patchwork had cracked quite a lot over the winter.
I get to picking and quite a bit of step crumbles away at my touch...so I find out why my patchwork cracked...major portions of the cement of the step had reverted back to sand....I'd say a good 2/3s just washed away with water when I turned the hose on it...the other 1/3 was rocks and larger chunks of concrete.
After picking and washing the step for a few hours I wound up with what solid structure was left...about 1/4 of the original step I'd guess...most of it in the middle...both sides were mostly gone.
I only had 1 bag of 80 lbs of cement in anticipation of this job...and this looked to me like at least 2 were needed.
So I decided I needed to head to the hardware store to get another bag...and I remembered that Dorthy (next door) had asked me to get her some lumber to fix her back rail next time I went to the hardware store...so I headed over to next door with my measuring tape to see how long a piece I needed to get and met her on her back porch. She told me she had some cement out in her garage if I wanted it, so I went and she had 3 bags (two 80lb and one 40lb) I took the two 80lbs (just in case).
She gave me the money for her lumber and off I went to the hardware store...completely forgetting that I had set one of our cordless phones on the roof of the van while I was working....it fell off halfway there...thats when I remembered it...I kept going because there was no good way to go back and get it (no place to turn around and by the time I realized what the sound was I was too far to walk back and get it easily...Mike was with me as he had come home early that day and I couldn't leave him in the van and walk that far away on a busy road.)
I get to the hardware store and get her lumber (and some screws to put it in with) and then head back to where the phone came off (thankfully near the corner of another street) and pulled over and got most of the pieces (the main phone body and the battery cover...the battery had been run over.)
I got home and it was far to close to time to get Ben at the bus stop to be mixing and pouring cement so I went ahead and started working on Dorthy's rail. (spending the time chatting with Dorthy while I worked.) The rail was easy.
I went back home and built a cement form for the steps outa some of that scrap lumber I had from the shelves in the basement. Went in and got cleaned up a little and went to get Ben...then went to the school to get Jake from his after school activity.
Came home set them all up to do homework and got busy in earnest. Mixed cement, poured it in the form...almost the entire three bags...had a bunch of helpers too...all three boys came out to "watch" while I worked.
The step looks better but it still needs some work...I didn't compact the cement enough in some places so it has some air gaps...I need to use a thicker mix to fix those though...and I'm gonna let it cure a while longer before I fix it. The step below has some pits in it that I need to patch too.
The phone worked fine after we got a battery for it.
