By the fourth week of April, most of the above text of February 10 through to the end of April was emailed to and posted by the website company to inform others of the outcome of preliminary order placements for the published book version of this manuscript. In December, one began the completion of this manuscript.
During the course of the remainder of this year, my focus was on accomplishing necessary home repairs and maintenance. The first project and most imperative was the installation of new sheetrock and tile surrounding the bath tub area of the lavatory. Over the past fifteen years, water damages were sustained to this area of our home due to what one considered to be the over use of the shower by family members. Years ago and in the 1960’s, few people cleansed their bodies through showering. Instead people bathed in the bathtub thus averting damages to the wall area surrounding the shower and bathtub. The tradesmen hired, completed this work in one day, charged a reasonable price, and I was satisfied with the workmanship. Later however, a modern dial like faucet installed created aggravation as filling the bathtub required moving the dial controlled by a lever from hot to cold at intervals to provide for an acceptable bath water temperature. At some point I plan to change this “innovative” dial faucet back to a two knob, hot and cold system where the water temperatures are combined upon exiting the faucet. Following the completion of this project, I installed a Styrofoam tile onto interior hall ceilings that showed imperfections. This tile was light weight, easy to cut and install, inexpensive, and resembled an old fashioned tin ceiling when painted. I also attached pennant lighting to old and outdated “high hat” fixtures in the halls. This innovative lighting did not require any rewiring. All that was necessary was to attach an electrical cord with a socket attachment from the old fixture to the new that resulted in an attractive, quaint appearance to the hallways and blended well with the “tin ceiling”. A tradesman was hired to attach molding between this ceiling and the walls which gave the halls a more elegant appearance. His partner repaired sheetrock in the areas of the house that had shown wear over the years where re-taping, spackling, and sanding was necessary. Through a discussion with these men, it was revealed that a lack of union jobs in the construction industry prompted them to seek independent work on their own. Later I stated to spouse that there is a need in our community and likely other communities in this nation and world for new affordable housing that could maintain jobs for a lengthy time for construction workers, and be of great benefit to many people. An idea for a specific kind of affordable housing likely pleasing to most, especially single people, young couples with perhaps one or two children, and the elderly is different than what is commonly offered and available and is written below as follows:
Housing style: ranch built on a slab with no stairs to climb. Various options made available to people for exterior siding to express a person’s individuality
Living area: modest sized to include a living room, dining room, comfortably sized kitchen with room to seat four to six people, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a laundry area
Land area: small, self manageable lot of property (for example 50 feet to 75 feet by 100 feet) with a level fenced in backyard for children’s and pet’s safety and for privacy