Busy, busy, busy.  The poplar tree is almost down.  Too bad.  It was a nice tree.  But every year it’s been leaning a little more toward the dining room, and frightening me just that much more.  Here it is in stick form – click to embigen.  If I walked out into the backyard and took the picture, you could see how much it’s leaning, but that smacks of effort.  And it’s cold out there.  And I’d have to put my pants on.  It’s just all too much.

The concrete slab in the basement has been sinking as long as we’ve lived here, so I hired some guys to come out and pump a slurry of sand, cement and my money into holes drilled into the basement floor to fill the void and raise the slab a little.  They can’t raise it all the way because the previous owner built a bathroom down there & put in about 3″ of concrete on the floor.  But they can at least fill the void below the slab and keep it from sinking any more – and raise it a little.  There is currently about 8″ of air between the bottom of he concrete floor and the soil.  So every year, the slab slips down a little more.  This should stop it.  They started Tuesday, but it was raining and they use a machine that they fill with a couple tons of slurry and drive down the hill to the back.  But it was slipping, so after 6 hours and 12 trips back and forth, they quit.  They are coming back Monday and should finish.

Then there’s the bedroom.  It’s been the home of 3 teenage boys over the years.  Erin and Gabe gave cleaning it up a shot while they were living there, but it’s really too far gone for mere painting to fix.  So I had the CDC come out in their haz-mat suits and purge the room with flames and priests.    After the floor is leveled somewhat I need to paint the room, probably about 28 coats, buy a carpet, have it installed, and put up a door.  I guess I’d better get moving so that it’s done before Brian, Susan, Nick and Dane get here…in one week.  Oh, and I’ve bought no Christmas presents yet.  I gotta go…