On Gutters

I didn't realize how important proper gutters are. I watched the water pour down in sheets above the front window of my house. A year after I had my driveway paved, the water started filling up in my basement. Their were several occassions in which I had to wet vac a few inches of water out if it. These were the times the sump pump decided not to work. It took me a while to realize what the real problem was. There was a drainage pipe from the gutters, on the front corner of the house. This drain just dumped all that water down my, now paved, driveway and seeped into the basement. Most of the gutters were barely hanging on to the house. I did my infamous- online -research and decided to go with a covered gutter, although there were very mixed reviews. Joe Salesman came out with his little bag of samples and his lovely laminated book. I didn't feel like playing the old "Bathfitters" game but I needed gutters ASAP. Joe Salesman pulled the old "I don't know if I can go that cheap, let me call my manager" bullshit that they so like to play. I called him on it, but I still overpaid. Apparently, the game is like this, you say "no that is too much money". They leave and if it is the right timing, you can get that price dropped to 1/3 of the original estimate. I didn't know that at the time, but now I am telling you. Trying to research gutter prices on line is a bit unrealistic. I tried this and got prices of anywhere from $1.60 to $2.20 per foot. I don't know if installation was included. I paid 3x times that amount. I got the LeafGuard brand gutters. The installers were on time and quick. They were here and gone before I knew it. I did not get the drain along the driveway and I don't have that sheet of water running down the front of my house. Part of the reason I went with this company, was that they were supposed to replace the rotted wood on the soffet that was ruined from being wet. I am pretty sure I had bad wood and they didn't replace any of it. I had them come out and told them the places I could see that were bad but they insisted there was nothing wrong with the wood. They said it wasn't rotted it was just marks from where the nails were on the previous gutters. I am happy to not have water in the basement, although right now, maybe I regret that because maybe the fleas would drown. But, with my luck, it is more likely they would float to the top of the water and make way for the rest of my house, instead of being confined to the basement. I have heard good reviews on "The Gutter Guys" but I have not had a personal experience with that company.

Don't buy American Standard toilets, part 2

I found out that, of course, American Standard has their own "specially" sized tank lever. It was my third trip to Home Depot, after discovering this fact online (which wasn't easy), that I found, in small print, a lever that says "for American Standard toilets". It actually fits and works. The plumber came out again and said if the water starts to leak from the shut off valve again, the pipe would have to be replaced. Yee-hah, something else to look forward too. Upon further research, I found a posting from a lawyers office from August 2007 concerning a class action law suit against American Standard for the same problems I was having. Go figure???? I filled out the necessary information but it is now a year later so I don't know what has become of it or if I can still put my two cents in.

On the Indestructible Flea

My basement was/is infested with fleas. Through much research, I am extremely grossed out and amazed at the strength of the cat flea. I also know much more than I ever wanted to know. Fleas can go dormant for two years! They hide and reproduce constantly. The live for 200 days. Even if you kill the adult in another week or two you have a whole new generation of infestation. One of the best ways of controlling a flea population after treating is to vaccuum. I have learned from experience this does pretty much nothing on a concrete basement floor. I ran out and bought enough of a product called "Hot Shot" to treat my whole house. I purchased this product because it didn't require you to put out the pilot lights. I removed the pets from the house, treated them and followed the directions on the box. It stated that you may have to do treatment again in 2 to 4 weeks. Twenty-Four hours later, I had just as many fleas as I had the day before. There were not any type of dead insects at all in my basement or anywhere else in my house either. In a long moment of anger I sent a letter to the manufacturer who promptly refunded my money. My next attempt was "Raid" fogger. In the mean time I was using a spray Raid flea killing product. The fogger did kill some crickets and the flea population seemed to dwindle but they were still there. Hiding in wait to attack....I have gotten into the habit of going into the basement wearing shorts so I can see how many fleas jump on my "glow-in-the-dark" white legs. Gross, yes, and it freaks me out too, but I don't know how else to know. I end up jumping around screaming and swatting at them, which, by the way is completely ineffectual. I took the dogs the vet because I thought the older dog was getting sick from the treatments. He gave the dogs cortisone shots and treated them with Frontline. He warned me that I will probably have to keep treating for six months. I was very disenheartened but felt better about the dogs being taken care of. I have managed to keep the fleas in the basement, although the vet did say if the dogs went in the basement, the fleas would bite them and die but that seems cruel to me, so I can't do it. This has all been very expensive ( I've calculated a good $500 so far) and not getting any cheaper as time goes by. What else is new? I have spent hundreds of dollars trying to exterminate these fleas. As a last resort, before calling a professional or moving (which I am seriously debating) I have purchased several cans of a product called "Ultracide". Ultracide claims to be professional strength, serious flea killer that lasts through a complete flea season, although I am not sure what that means. Is it like, winter, spring, summer, fall or is it the life cycle of a flea? I was so excited when the box arrived. At this point, I am broke and exhausted. I open the box, read the directions and start spraying. 24 hours passed. I went down in the basement, near the washer and dryer and stomped around a bit. They are drawn to the vibration of footsteps. Nothing jumped on me so I waited a little longer, afraid to get too excited. I walked to another section and nothing! The excitement I had been restraining all day was building, could this finally be over? Then I walked to the darker, far corner and boom; 4 fleas jumped on my ankles. My heart sunk. I grabbed a new spray can and went crazy spraying all over again. I will probably be dead before the fleas are from inhaling all that poison. If this is my last post...you'll know why.
UPDATE: Ultracide did not kill the fleas.
Another update: I called 2 exterinators today. One said they would charge $160 + tax to spray. The other said it seems like I have done everything I was supposed to do, so give it another week and see what happens. I put on a respirator and sprayed the basement like crazy with 2 cans of Ultraside for 880 square feet. One can is supposed to do 2630 square feet.
UPDATE: I tried Borax and it didn't do anything. The Ultracide seemed to "reduce" the population but didn't get rid of them. I then read that fleas like warmth and dampness. (I sure don't want them to feel comfortable.) I do have a dehumidifier in my basement, so I turned that on. Again, that seemed to help and there seemed to be less of a population. One of my dogs did run into the basement when the door was open ( I wasn't looking) and trotted all over the place. She picked of several fleas but they didn't drop off and die as the vet said they would. She was scratching like crazy for several days and I was getting bit again. I had eight bites accross my shoulder in a matter of minutes. I put Frontline on her again, 2 weeks earlier than I was supposed to. I won't let that happen again.
I did "bomb" again this weekend. I doubled the amount of bombs I had previously used. They are the "Raid Fumigators" and you don't have to turn the pilot lights off. I walked all over the basement in my white tube socks (that I bought just to test the # of fleas).I didn't think I picked up any but a little while later I did notice one crawling up the sock. I killed it, but the next day I was bit on my calf, so they are lingering. I don't like using all those chemicals but my washer and dryer are in the basement and I hate going down there. Maybe the answer is just persistence. You would think with nothing to eat they would die and I'm hoping that the colder weather might help but I'm not sure. I can't even get up the nerve to vacuum the concrete. I am so tired of being bitten. To be continued...

About Sam

We had a cat. He was not the nicest cat, nor was he the friendliest cat but he warmed up to some people. Unfortunately, I was never one of them, but I did my best to take care of him. For a few years he lived his life hanging out in the window, or hiding under things where he couldn't be found. He lived peacefully with our dog. Then my daughter got a scottish terrier. The scottie is a warrior, he wants to fight everything on four legs. His natural instinct was to attach the cat. So the cat, became more and more of a recluse. He took to hiding in the basement. As time went by, the cat got used to hearing the click of the scotties claws as he wondered around the first floor of the house. After awhile, he knew when the scottie was tucked away in bed and it was safe to emerge from the basement. I put a little door on the basement door so he could come and go as he pleased but he wouldn't go near it. I ended up having to block it off so the scottie didn't go through it and attach the cat. I felt bad for the cat and I tried to find him a home for two years but no one would take him. He was too old. It became a habit of his to yell at the basement door late at night for my son to let him out to wander. This wouldn't have been a problem if he wasn't so good at hiding and the scottie wasn't so good at hunting. So my son had to make sure he would return safely to the basement when he went to bed. The cat never "meowed". I swear he would yell an eerie "hello" and many people swear he could call my son's name. When this past summer came along, late at night my son got into the habit of sitting outside with the cat. He was not an outside cat, he was declawed, but he would hang close to my son, till one night he ran off into the darkness. I saw him the next day, hiding in the hollowed out tree in the back yard of the empty house next door. I called my son and told him where he was and he said he would get him when he returned him. He did get him, very late at night, and deposited him in my basement covered with lots of new friends.

On Identity Theft

Somewhere around 1983 I was a victim of identity theft. I left my purse unattended and my wallet was stolen. The thief knew not to charge more than $50 on my credit card at a time so no one would call to verify the transaction. As I recall, my credit card bill was 8 pages long by the time I got it. They had opened a charge account at Neiman Marcus, that one took a while to take care of. I even received letters about returns "I" had made to stores I had never been to. It took years to clean things up. You attempt to be careful after that. You watch and read all the information you get about identity theft because it has become such a big thing. My social security card is locked away. I do alot of things electronically. I monitor my credit card bills and bank accounts. I shred things with personal info. Can you ever do enough? A few years ago I received a letter from an old health insurance carrier. Someone in their office may have sold my information to a third party, they just wanted to let me know to watch my credit. Last week I received a letter from my mortgage company. An employee (now former) may have sold unauthorized personal information about me to a third party. This information includes my name address, social security number and other information they had on file, like were I work, my bank account, etc. Great! Here we go again. At least they offered to pay for a credit monitoring service although that alone is minimal in all the stress this could involve.

The Secret Price of Bathfitters

I know you have all seen the ads for Bathfitters. They are the distributor and installer of the one-peice bathtub/surround system. If you call them and try to get an idea of what they charge, it isn't going to happen. They insist that they need to send a sales rep out to you to give you an estimate. So you make an appointment and the rep comes out to your house with his little bag full of color samples and all kinds of brochures. The bottom line is they are trying to compare the cost of reconstructing your entire bathroom vs. getting the new one peice bath tub system. In 2006, their estimate for getting your bathroom re-done was $8000. The cost of the one peice bath system is a great savings at only $4000. Mind you that is only the bathtub/bathsurround. The best part of the visit is when you tell them that it is way too much money. They offer you a one time only whopping 10% off, that's a $400 savings but you can only have it if you sign up right then and there. There is a sucker born everyday.

On Poison Ivy

The house next door was foreclosed on several years ago. The owner didn't take care of the property. It was overgrown and falling apart. Someone bought it as an investment when the housing market started to get out of control. They let it sit for too long before they did anything to it so I think it became a bit of a money pit. The house was sold again and has been sitting for another year. They just put a "for rent" sign up which I am not thrilled about (not). Between our two properties is a small wire grid fence. Along my neighbors side, there is alot of plant growth. Miscellaneous and mysterious vines, weeds, bamboo, wild roses and poison ivy grow freely there. I am allergic to poison ivy. These vines will grow towards my yard because I am on the east where, we all know, the sun rises. They get to the point where they take over the driveway and either I have to cut them back or lose my parking space. Of course, their driveway is on the other side of the yard, where there are no evil plants growing (I really am a nature lover). This summer I had to cut this all back so I could find my car and my driveway. I forgot about the poison ivy, although it wouldn't have mattered. All the products I have for controlling poison ivy instruct you to "wash the infected area within 10 minutes of coming into contact with the plant". Considering the fact that it took me 40 minutes to cut back and dispose of the vines and leaves, I would have had to come in and wash up 4x, as well as change my clothing 4x....uhhh...not happening. So I had the rash, all over the place and it just kept spreading. Now if you do research on the internet, several websites claim the rash doesn't spread from the liquid in the rash that forms. I would like those websites to explain why it was showing up on different places of my body throughout the next 10 days. They claim it is the oil on the plant that causes the rash to form. In those 10 days, I thoroughly washed on at least 12 occasions. I seriously think there was no oil on my body. I didn't wear the same clothes and they were washed anyway, so that isn't the reason. I ended up getting my doctor to prescribe steroids, as nothing over the counter was working. Cortizone-10, Ivarest, Aveeno Anti-Itch Cream, were all a waste of money, none of these products soothed the itch or kept it from spreading. Benadryl was probably the only product that gave me any relief until I got the steroids. The internet also advised that steroid treatment had to last for a full 14 days. I took it for 5 days and was fine after that. I also tried rubbing alcohol, bleach and laundry detergent on the rashes, all that did was scar me. Fels Napha and aloe were the cures when I was a child, and then a dip in the Altantic Ocean or a swimming pool. I couldn't get to the ocean or a pool this time, so maybe it only works if you do all three. When I was done healing and got over my phobia enough to do something about the poison ivy I went out and bought a 1.33 gallon pump spray bottle of "Round Up" for poison ivy. I sprayed once, when I got they nerve and was disappointed when I didn't see anything happen. After a week I sprayed again and this time things started to turn brown. I figured "3's a charm" and hit it a week later. Although I am not a fan of spraying chemicals, I also paid good money to have my driveway paved so I could park in it and didn't enjoy my 3 week bout with poison ivy. The weeds are not presently growing on my side of the fence and I can't really say I care if the brown shriveled up dying plants are not attractive. Enough is enough.