This one's for you Mr. Lewis!

​It finally happened, I launched my first ebook  with the paperback version available in a few weeks and it has nothing to do with remodeling, lol. Don't be surprised because you will find all kinds of different topics on this blog. 
This story was prompted of course, by my stray cat Mr. Lewis.  Available on amazon.com.
​He showed up one day on my porch. I had just moved to Greenville, NC and soon I figured out that he was homeless. Yes I know, don't feed stray cats but to me it was a moment of awareness. Here he was, abandoned by some people who could have cared less, just left him behind to whatever. Pretty sad and cowardly in my book. So I started to feed him and then built a little house out of cardboard for him, since it was getting pretty cold, even in NC. Unfortunately he didn't get along with Sweetie so I couldn't let him in. Sweetie was not liking it at all.
Eventually I wound up buying my fixer upper. After I moved everything into the house it was time for Mr. Lewis and Sweetie. I must admit I really dreaded that more than anything. I expected the worst because I knew I had to keep them both inside until they got used to their new location and each other. So I settled Mr. Lewis in my downstairs office, which had French doors and he could look out and see what was going on. Of course Sweetie pranced by every now and then looking through the glass.  
As you know cats are nosy and quite intelligent. It didn't take long and suddenly Mr. Lewis was standing in the middle of the kitchen with Sweetie approaching. Oh, oh  I thought that would be it I would have to break up a fight but to my great and happy surprise they sniffed each other and that was that. They actually became the best of friends.   
I googled it and found an article that said if two cats start out in the same place together they don't seem to have the same territorial issues. Great, sometimes you get a break. Sweetie adapted well to his new home the old world traveler, I guess coming from New York had him conditioned to moving, but Mr. Lewis was having a hard time. The house was surrounded by trees and shrubs and every time I let Lewis out he would hide in the woods and not come out all day. So I had to coax him out with food, throw a blanket over him and carry him into the house. But eventually he adjusted and was the best house cat ever and besides that he oversaw all my work on the house to make sure it was up to par.
 Sad to say only 8 month after we moved he died of congestive heart failure. The Vet didn't pick up on it at all, and here is my advise - have your animal checked with at least one x-ray to take a look at his or her heart. Because if you catch it early there is medication that can prolong their life. I had no clue he had any problems except he was a  bit slow. But one day he started to gasp for air and it really scared me so I brought him to the Vet and she said he was fine. As soon as I brought him home he was even worse, I took him back and she did an x-ray and told me the bad news that his heart was enlarged and his lungs were filled with fluid, he was end stage congestive heart failure. So that night I had to put him down. It was a very, very sad night.  After that I decided to write the book for him and all those that don't have chance at a good life unless somebody opens their heart!
So if you see a cat flying around your house, he might be looking to be your beloved house pet!

3.  Mulch or rock your yard.

There is nothing like a nice rich looking flower bed with clean lines to compliment your front yard. By the way did you ever hear of artillery fungus. A good friend had pressure washed my house and had noticed these tiny black spots on my siding and porch. I had smelled this musty smell but couldn't figure out what caused it. So if you smell a musty smell around your house, it's most likely your mulch. He told me that it was a fungus that shoots it's spores unto house, porch or wherever. It is found in mulch that is rotting due to moisture caused by humidity, excessive rain or being in the shade and never really drying out. In order to get rid of this fungus it needs to be replaced either by new mulch or rocks. I decided on rocks because I did not want to spend money on mulch every year. So I found these light grey rocks at Lowe's and made a border between the house and my plants.  

Leaking for years, plumbing from the 50's all brass pipes and no shut off valves in the entire house.  I will confess I was overwhelmed especially after I ripped down the tile wall in the shower and exposed 4 knobs of dubious origin. I am not a full-fletched plumber (you might have guessed that by now) but I had promised my sis I would help. Now my first impulse was to run to Lowe's, maybe they had a real plumber for customer service and I could relate my problems to him .But  what if they didn't?  So I made my list instead and I tried and I am saying tried, to foresee all the possible p r o b l e m s I would run into trying to create a plumbing miracle and you know what I mean. Ever heard of Blue Hawk ?

• Fast, easy installation
• No soldering, gluing or crimping                                                                                                
• we were hoping so but unfortunately that was not the case only because the problem were the ancient pipes which were thick brass. I am happy to report that at the end the Blue Hawk fittings came through for me after I took out my Saws-all and cut the pipes straight off to fit, it all came together. 

Let me just briefly mention the cast iron sink... installed no doubt with a double lifetime guarantee with elbows that were indestructible. Guess I should have known. So then Wendy and Marvin stop by (the nice neighbors) and Marvin gets his torch out and off with the elbows, now we were able to install everything else. Wahoo!                                                                                 One more thing, my sister and my nieces wound up at the local Volunteer Firehouse (Berne, NY) for showers and potti nearly every night because the water main in the basement had to be shut off as there were no shut off valves in the whole, entire house. Premature cheers would erupt when water flowed and no apparent leaks were sighted. But for some unknown reason when the sun went down a tiny leak would spring, although intermittently throughout the day, I would feel the pipes reassuring myself all was well. That's it, I was done, done, done for the day, they went to the Firehouse and I went to friends.  The tight schedule of 7 vacation days was dwindling fast, as I also had to tile the floor, install paneling around perimeter of bathroom, replace the leaky toilet and then the indestructible sink as well as tile the bathtub surround. In fact I wound up spending 10 days and then racing back to Greenville for a job interview.

                                     But all is well that ends well, see below!
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