Project #1

Has your dishwasher been seeing a lot more action lately? Ours certainly has. That means, I’m lookin’ at the inside racks a lot more, and I’ve been noticing some stuff. Like rust spots. In fact, in 2 places, the rack has rusted through. This didn’t happen overnight; we’ve had the dishwasher for 8 1/2 years. There was rust on both the top and bottom racks, but mostly on the bottom rack. I never saw it before. I guess I should say I never noticed it before, but now that I have, it started to bug me.

So, I decided to have a project to abate this situation. I ordered “ReRack” online, and once it arrived. I went to work. The product costs $16.49 including delivery. A new rack costs about $100 each. It would have been better to do this project before the rust got this bad, but hey, who looks at the inside of their dishwasher?

Project #2

Along with looking at the inside of the dishwasher, I started noticing the grout around our kitchen sink. Guess I’m in the kitchen a lot more lately. The grout didn’t look so hot. So, I got some caulk, a caulking gun, and went to work on another project. I’ve never caulked before, just sayin’. However, I replaced the caulk along the whole back of the island as well as around all the edges of our porcelain sink. Another new experience, thanks to Covid-19.

Project #3

Every day, weather permitting, we take a nice walk. We live in New Town St. Charles which is a beautiful place to take walks. Homes are still being built. In the fields behind us, there is wild red clover growing. It is pretty impressive, but most of it won’t be there next year.

I couldn’t resist digging up a couple of these plants for our own yard. We’ll see what happens. If the plants die, I know where to get some more, at least for a while. Here’s our side yard:

Project #4

In our neighborhood Facebook group, sometimes people post things are they giving away for free. A neighbor down the block, posted a free garage sale with pictures of some of the items. It was 2 blocks from us, so off we went. We were able to get this chair which will be great for camping. It even kind of matches the chair Michael and Allie gave us last Christmas; well, it’s blue anyway.

The chair originally had a cooler on its left hand side; however, the owner told us when they used the cooler, the chair fell over when they got up. Other than that, the chair looks great and is comfortable. I may either put a shelf on the empty (cooler) frame, or I may attach a “bag” where I could put snacks, things I am reading, bug spray, sun screen, whatever. We envision both chairs would be used at our campsites. What do you think would be best – shelf, storage or another idea? I’ll update with a photo at the bottom of this post when this project is completed. In any case, I appreciate our neighbor’s generosity and plan to make good use of it. I can see myself, sitting in the chair at a beautiful campsite, a cold soda in the holder, and writing my next fascinating blog post. Stay safe!

Update – 5/6/2020

This morning, Allie and Michael sent me a new rocking chair like the one they gave us for Christmas. What a nice surprise! Now, Dan and I both can enjoy sitting by our camper in a nice, outdoor, rocking chair. I gave away the one I had gotten for free by posting it in our neighborhood Facebook group. It found another happy home in about a minute.

Thank you, Michael and Allie!