OUCH!!

Getting older is hard.

Dealing with an older house is hard.

Woe is me.

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Seriously, this has been a double-whammy week.

I’ve been feeling some overly-sensitive sensations in one of my molars for the last couple of months, and a dentist visit this week confirmed what I had surmised: a teenage-years amalgam filling is finally giving way.  The tooth needs a crown.  Even with insurance, this is expensive.

And then . . . for several years I’ve been aware that my back-porch addition flat roof needed replacing.  Calls to several roofers have gone unheeded; they just don’t show up to even bid on a job!  And these are people that have been recommended to me.

Well, my neighbors hired Miguel and his son Brandon to work on their roofing needs, and they are very happy.  And I watched these guys work over the last couple of weeks.  So I asked them for a bid.

Miguel showed me photos of the shoddy workmanship — no flashing, no sealing around the AC lines as they enter the house — and the cracked roofing material on my porch roof.  Here goes a quick grand….  But it needs to be done, and there’s no time like the present.

And as I update this post before publishing, the roof is now complete.  Rarely have been happier to spend $1000 than I am right now.  These guys were just super!

Severe weather

Where I’ve lived

An almost-exhaustive compendium of
photos of places I’ve lived over my 56 years

1961. The New Orleans hospital in which I was born.

1961. With G-ma Ruth on the steps of my parents’ residence hall at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

1962. Coushatta, Louisiana.

1964. My parents’ rental house in Columbia, Missouri.

1965. The house on Clayton in Columbia — my parents’ first home purchase.

On our way to church in Columbia, 1967. I am 5, Karen 3, and Beth a newborn.

1967. The rental house in Hannibal.

Inside this rental house in Hannibal.

1969. And just next door, the home my parents purchased in Hannibal.

1971. Lee’s Summit. The home on Wingate, in Briarcroft subdivision.

Inside that home on Wingate, my parents are canoodling.

1975. At the piano, in the home on Wingate.

 

1979. Just before I started college, my parents bought their dream home in Lee’s Summit.

1979. Landen Hall, at Southwest Baptist University. My college home for four years.

In my dorm room, decorating a Christmas tree during my freshman year at SBU.

I am missing photos of the places I lived during the summers of 1981 and 1982, as I worked in Missouri between college semesters.  Summer 1981 was at Southwest Baptist University in the Admissions office; Summer 1982, in Tarkio as a summer missionary.

1983. Willow Springs. My first rental home.

1984. A townhouse in Blue Springs.

Townhouse living room. Drab. The painting on the wall is by Aunt Esther. The bookshelf is one I made as a kid. The coffee table was a Mom-&-Pop hand-me-down.

1986.  I am missing a photo of the house I rented in Bolivar while I was Director of Admissions at Southwest Baptist University.  The building has subsequently been demolished.

1987. A townhouse in Blue Springs, on Arlington Place. I was there four months.

1987. A duplex in Blue Springs, near Highway 7 and I-70.

1988. The first home I ever owned, on Summit Circle in Blue Springs.

1995. Just back from the UK, I rented out my home, and moved into Kansas City, where I lived in a loft in this building in the City Market.

1997. During my time at the University of Kansas, I lived in two different apartments in this townhouse building. Some of the best memories of my life are here.

1999. I am missing a photo of my townhouse in Owensboro, Kentucky, where I taught college for one year.

2000. A gated community in Muncie, Indiana. I lived in a condo in this building for 8 years.

Christmas at Halteman Villas.

At the condo, with students for a final meal as we wrapped up the show choir year: a big pan of canneloni, with Derek Wilson, Luke Meyer, Brian Calvert and mohawk, Amanda Krupinski, Jesse Diaz, Meghan Reiser, and Adam Hendrickson’s arm.

2008. The rental duplex on Alfred Avenue in Saint Louis.

At the duplex on Alfred. We were getting rain.

And then I bought my own dream home in November 2008.  And I’ve been here ever since, with one dog and then another.  I like it here.

Tuesday evening, on the porch swing.

The new, 25 Lawn Place, on January 27.

From the south.

Front porch.

Empty porches on Lawn Place.

25 Lawn Place, dressed for the season.

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Here’s a bonus: my elementary school in Lee’s Summit.

1971. Pleasant Lea Elementary School.

 

Random photos

Random photos from this past week!

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I thought about renting this beauty at the airport in Phoenix…. Of course they walk you by the exotic car collection on the way to Kias and Hyundais.

According to Starbucks at Lambert airport, I am now Jaff.

Thursday dinner of chicken with lemon artichoke sauce, pasta in a light cream sauce, and Parmesan bread.

The boy loves the fireplace.

5.30 a.m. Friday. Lawn Place.

Tuesday on campus.

Marlettos hit this Tuesday lunch out of the park. Chicken and beans and red peppers in a sweet sauce, with scallions and cashews. SO yummy.

Monday evening at the Missouri Botanical Garden, after leaving a cooking class.

From the Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix.

Neighborhood changes

Busy week on Lawn Place.

21 has apparently sold for an extraordinary amount of money, which helps all of us on home value as the comps rise.  This is good news indeed!

The house south of me has some foundation repairs in the offing.  (How I tremble when I remember my own foundation issues five years ago.)

The house to the north of me is getting all new windows, with ensuing banging of hammers &c.

And my own new windows arrive next week.

Renewal is a good thing.

New sidewalk

What a difference a week makes!

We have some cleanup to do, but the new sidewalk is a thing of beauty.

Sidewalk

Several weeks ago, I posted a photo of the surveyor markings on my the sidewalk in front of my little house on Lawn Place.

The demolition crew arrived Tuesday.

Three years of patience is about to be rewarded.  And I’m told — at NO cost to me, since the cause of my sidewalk deterioration is a big elm tree on the city right-of-way.