Thanks to you all for your comments and concerns over our dental bill. One thing I didn’t add is that I am absolutely phobic when it comes to going to the dentist. I need to be sedated........no, I’m not kidding. My mom took me to what she thought was a very good children’s dentist. Unfortunately, he was an absolute menace. I still hear ‘horror’ stories from other kids, who like me, sat in his chair of terror! I was actually one of the lucky ones, as he never actually struck me. He always raised his hand to strike and yelled constantly, but he never hit me. I finally graduated from his dental chair to my mom’s ‘grown up ‘ dentist. He was not much better. He convinced my mom that he could handle the braces I needed on my upper teeth. I didn’t know then, but he had no clue what he was doing. He practically sat in my lap when he was installing them and then he always overtighted them. I was in so much pain after every visit.......and in the end he removed them to soon and my teeth moved back into the same position that had always been in. All that torture for nothing! Lastly, I’m difficult to numb. The Novocain always seems to wear off half way through the procedure. I’m just a mess! Bottom line is, DH is moving forward and having his work done....today.....right now as I type. Me, I’m waiting.......need to recover from his bill and then I’m going to talk to at least one more dentist before I go under the drill....LOL......thanks again for your comments and advice.....I’ll keep you updated on the dental saga as it continues to unfold........

Ah, where does the time go these days. Work, work, work! Our day’s seem to always be the same. Up and off to the ‘stick’ house for more work. The past week was spent painting the master bedroom and it is finally nearing completion.

Yesterday we cut the ‘cove’ molding to go between the ceiling and top of the newly painted kitchen cabinets. Now, neither myself or my DH are woodworkers.....so angles are definitely not our forte. We only had one simple 45 degree angle.....how hard can that be.....well, about twenty cuts later and we finally figured it out. It seemed so simple, once we got it right. LOL! All you woodworkers know, that the trick is placing the molding onto the miter saw in the same position it will be on the wall. Jeeze louise! What an ordeal, but its done and all that is left is a little calking and ugh....more painting.

Now, DH has turned his attention to trimming out the windows in our dining room. Great! More angles.......more calk.....and alas...more paint!

To top everything off, we had a very exciting trip to the dentist last week. Both of us have put off the whole ‘dental thing’ for quite some time. It was no surprise that we both need some rather extensive work done. What was a surprise was the cost of all this ‘repair’ work. I actually asked the dentist if it wouldn’t be cheaper to just pull out my teeth and buy dentures. He didn’t seem to think that was the way to go....The bottom line runs around $15,000 for both of us. Yeah! I said $15,000!! DH made his appointment......me, I’m getting a second opinion.....

Well, guess I’d better get outta this easy chair, roll up my sleeves, and pick up that paint brush........for yet another exciting day.......

Thanks for all those ‘happy thoughts’! The grouting procedure went well and it looks fantastic. Still in ‘home improvement’ mode......The master bedroom and bath are now freshly painted and I am working on the trim.

In the middle of all this home improvement chaos, I’m also looking after my teenage niece. My brother is out of town and my niece does not like staying at the house at night alone.....soooo, I’m spending my nights at my brother’s house this week. She’s certainly no trouble, but I’m not used to getting up at 6:15 am to see her off to school. Man....that is early.....and I’m not sleeping well at night.....ya know, strange bed and the anticipation of the alarm going off. Anyway, after she is off to school I head out myself. The first day I went back to the fiver. It was about 7:30 am and I knew DH was still in bed. Got out my key and started to unlock the door....well, just as I was turning the key in the lock, DH stumbles to the door to unlock it from the inside. I don’t know what exactly happened, but the result was the door stayed locked! DH and the furballs on the inside.....me on the outside......and a locked door between us...LOL! This is frustrating to say the least. I told DH to open the largest window at the back of the fiver and hand me out the furballs so I could at least let them out for their morning constitutional. Then I suggested DH remove the screws surrounding the lock on the inside and see if he could see what the problem might be....obviously using the window to go in and out of the fiver was not going to be convenient for the long term....fortunately DH was able to fix the lock within a few minutes. Thank goodness, I was so ready for my coffee! Of course, this whole event was my fault. DH insisted I have a lesson on how to lock and unlock the fiver door.....jeez, it is a wonder I can still feed myself....LOL....just kidding honey!

Yesterday we saw yet another load of our 'life', on a truck and headed for new adventures. Trinity Mission came around 1pm and loaded it up and off it went.....

Today, we grout! Yes indeed.....so keep those 'happy thoughts' coming our way! LOL!

Last night at the fiver was rather interesting. Fall is upon us it seems.....the acorns are falling.....bombarding may be a better word. We had just crawled into bed last night when the on slot began.....At one point, we were sure a squirrel had fallen along with the acorns. Last year, we had two of our vent covers cracked by falling acorns. This year, DH has installed the larger vent covers so hopefully that will no longer be an issue. The furballs literally think the sky is falling.....poor Cosmo (he sleeps on our bed) was trying his best to curl up on my pillow....pushing his butt right in my face. I guess he thinks 'Mom' can protect him from the 'falling sky'....LOL! Thank goodness it didn't last to long and we all managed to get a good nights sleep and yes, Cosmo resumed his spot at the foot of the bed........

Here is a partial shot of the kitchen with the new counter tops, back splash, and freshly painted cabinets.

And here is a close up of the tile....no grout as of yet

As you can see we are getting very close to completion on the kitchen....thank goodness. Thanks Penny for the info on the saw dust......we are looking into that.

Today was spent cleaning out, sorting, and boxing.....getting items ready for tomorrows pick up from Trinity Mission. Boy are they gonna be surprised.....hope we are first on their list cause we may just fill up their truck. I'm gonna definitely get my $20 bucks worth...He He! It's time to let go of all those things we kept holding onto thinking we would do something with them or sell or whatever.....they just need to go. I also went through some of our old hand-me-down photos. These are old photos of people and places I know nothing about.....photos my grandmother gave me that she didn't know what to do with. Some I just threw out, others I will show to my mother and see if she wants them.

This week is gonna be a very busy one....but I'll try to keep you posted on our progress......and by the way thanks for taking the time to read my blog and stick with me these past few months and I'm always glad to receive comments. Hopefully soon, we will be back on the road and done with all this home improvement stuff......believe me I am so ready.....

Back in the kitchen yesterday......we decided to tackle tiling the backsplash. DH rented us a wet saw for the job. We got a very good deal on it.....basically $50.00 for the entire weekend. We rented it Friday afternoon and the rental store is closed Saturday and Sunday. So, we have use of the the saw for 2 days for the price of one. We have done tiling before, but we have always used the hand tools for cutting the tile. Never again....the tile saw is definitely the way to go......makes cutting a breeze. We are using the small mosaic type tiles that come glued to a sheet for easier installing....and so far so good.

We went out for lunch and stopped by Lowes to pick up the grout for the tile. It seems grouting has changed quite a bit these days. They now recommend using an epoxy grout. You know the drill.....mix part A with part B and work fast before it hardens. I have to say the sales person had us both scared to death by the time he was done explaining all the ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’! The bottom line is....work in small sections at a time, only mix what you need, and tape off any surrounding areas to protect them. Geeze, I sure hope we don’t screw this up! We are still putting up the tile, so I’m thinking we won’t get to the grouting till Monday or Tuesday. I’ll let you know how it goes and yes, I will post some photos. If I do say so myself, the kitchen is looking fantastic. It has really given me the ‘decorating bug’ to start doing some things to our fiver, but the house is all consuming right now.....

I posted my kiln on Craig’s list the other day. I used to do china painting. I hate to give it up, but it is one of those sacrifices that one makes for the ‘greater goode’! LOL! Right off the bat, I received an email asking if I still had the kiln. I quickly reply....YES...and await their response. Well, I got scammed! This person tells me to consider it sold (sight unseen) and that he will send me a check, but I have to provide him all my personal information. Then he will even pay to have the kiln shipped to him....again ‘sight unseen’.....Yeah, right......I haven’t lost that many brain cells....

Back in the 'saddle' again as they say....Today was spent gathering more items for the "stick house". We are now re-doing the master bathroom. Nothing major just paint, new sink, new lighting. We had redone the guest bath and it looked so nice it made the master bath look 'shabby'. One thing seems to always lead to another.

Our frig at the stick house died.....repair man said it was the compressor and it would run around $500 to fix. We are not going to repair it. The sad thing is it is not very old...guess they just don't make things like they used to.....aah is my age showing....that sounds like something my mother would say....ugh!

I called Trinity Mission today. They are coming on Tuesday to haul away our king size bed, chest of drawers, and some other odds and ends. Ya know, the bed is in excellent shape and I'm sure will make someone very happy......So, here we are donating all this stuff and Trinity is still 'charging' us a $20 donation fee to haul it away....yet, they wonder why donations are down...mmmmm

Back at the river and the fiver, things are a little quieter these days. My Dad and Shirley left for Florida last Tuesday. The place just doesn't seem the same with them gone. When I drove down the driveway Tuesday and there was no motor home sitting there next to our fiver......well, it was kinda sad. I know we will be seeing them again soon, but just the same.... I miss them.

New carpet....I can tell you that the photos do not do it justice. We just love it and it is so much more comfortable under foot. We have a 1/2 pad under it. The installers actually had to adjust the slides in order to get them to roll up and over the carpet.

This is a close up and I think you can see the texture here in this one. The color is called Tree Bark and it doesn't really show well here in the photo. It is a rich warm brown with gray undertones..LOL..how's that for decorator speak!

One decision we made was to rid ourselves of the love seat. We love all the extra room we have with just the two recliners. I think we will be bringing another end table of sorts on board at some point....and there are some favorite accessories from the stick house that I'm thinking about....I'll take more photos as the 'decor' develops.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. We sure did.....our grandson and his Mom came up for a visit. It was such fun......a weekend full of love and laughter.....can't ask for anything better than that.....

As to the ‘rest of the repair story’........our Apollo brand combination microwave convection oven. For those of you that have been following this blog for a while, you know we had our first Apollo replaced this past May. The microwave function had completely stopped working. It was still under our 2 year rv warranty and so Forest River replaced it, at their expense. with a brand new unit. Well, at about 9 weeks the new one stopped working......same problem... the microwave function stopped working all together. Now you would think that this would be covered by the manufacturer's warranty. After all, we had not even had the thing for 90 days. Apollo apparently said, “NO” and I think there was a lot of back in forth between Apollo and Forest River. Eventually, it was decided to repair the unit rather than replace it. OK, no problem....as long as it works and keeps working. The bad news......I was very upset with the condition of my oven when it was returned. It seemed absolutely no care was taken with it. It had been scratched both on the outside and on the interior metal tray. It was also dirty, yes dirty! Apparently they had “tested” the oven by cooking some food in it, but nobody had bothered to clean it before its return to me. Well, I went on a rampage......believe me, everyone knew Mama was NOT HAPPY. In the end, we decided to keep the ding dong thing and hope for the best.

The moral of this story is.......I will never own another “Apollo” made anything. They have no quality control and they definitely do not stand behind their products. Buyer BEWARE! Whew! Sorry for the ranting, but I just had to get that off my chest.....and yes, I do feel better now. LOL!

On a happier note.....I have just about finished hanging all the kitchen cabinet doors in the 'stick' house. I will hopefully get some photos of them and our new carpet in the fiver in the next blog.