Mama Carol

One big plus for us is the distance from Escambia Bay, Pensacola Bay and Blackwater Bay. We're a good distance from all of them, at least five miles from the closest one (Blackwater Bay). We're about two miles to Blackwater River and seriously, the entire town of Milton would be underwater before it would reach us. Our only flood risk would be if the roof blew off.

Fortunately, we are not coastal. We are inland, about 25 miles or so. North of I-10. We have been told several times and by several people that homeowners south of I-10 is unbelievably expensive. We priced homeowners and it was pretty reasonable actually. We just didn't have the money to get it at the time. And this year was the year of the new knees. Hopefully next year we can get homeowners insurance. We had never been without it until we moved here. Hubby was thinking about the leaf blower!! He was going to give this a try next week. He wasn't sure it would work but sure wou

You may be on to something there, too. Maybe the cycle should be the perma-press cycle as it does have a cool down (or so I've been told since I never use it). Maybe that is absolutely the answer to what Marvinthemartian asked. Or perhaps a low heat cycle would work.

I absolutely hate ironing. Did it for extra money as a teen and now despise it. I was talking with a friend one day about how to cut the time necessary to get dress shirts nice looking. Taking them out of the dryer before they were over dry, smoothing them out and then hanging them up, washing just a few shirts in a load. I tried everything. That same friend one day looked at me and said "the best way to get a dress shirt to look nice is to take it to the cleaners and let them do it". I really don't think the dryer is at fault with shirts or anything else not coming out with few or

I talked with my husband about this and told him what Paxilpapa and Guard Dad said. He agrees and has decided also that the power ventilator is not the way to go. He is going to clean out the soffit vents as best he can and then have someone install two eave vents. We have such a slight pitch to the roof it would be next to impossible to have someone go in the attic and install any kind of barrier to keep the blown in insulation from stopping up the soffit vents. It's more of a crawl space up there than an attic. He also said it appeared as though the previous owner had two power ven

We are on one of the highest points in the county, so there is virtually no flood chance for us. If we flood, the beaches and the 25 miles between us will be under water as would the farm land between us and Alabama. Even when we had that flood back in April, we were high and dry. Didn't even have water in the garage. The water just runs quickly downhill from here. The only issue we had was we had sand gather under the privacy fence but that happens with a rain of an inch. This house has withstood a number of hurricanes (Opal, Ivan, Dennis and getting brushed by Katrina, Rita and Wilma)

Yep, we're in Florida, about 25 miles east of Pensacola. I expect the R-value on the insulation is more than adequate. As I said, the previous owner believed in doing things right and sometimes over what is merely adequate. I seriously don't know how many inches of insulation we have but like I said earlier, you can stand in the garage, look up the ladder into the attic and see the insulation so there is plenty of it. Hubby said he had never seen so much insulation in a house. He really believes the soffit vents may be stopped up because the top layer of the insulation is blown in.

the one we're looking at has no electricity running to it. All solar powered. We have actually seen it. A cord runs from the solar panel to the motor of the fan. That's it. No power cord, no electricity needed. I understand that might totally eliminate the fire possibility but should make that possibility quite low. The Lowe's employee we talked to had installed it on his house and verified that there was no power source needed other than the solar panel. We had seen the panels on a few houses around but didn't know what they were. Too small to operate a very large motor. They a

We got the ridge vent already and the soffit vents. We think they may be blocked by the blown in insulation in the attic. Not sure what R-rating a foot of insulation would be but I suspect we have enough insulation. I keep meaning to call Gulf Power to do the energy audit. I did one online and it said to install energy efficient windows (which we have) and insulation (which we have). Oh, and a programmable thermostat, which we have. Since we both feel the soffit vents may be blocked, that might be the best first step to take. And then eave vents. Ours is the only house on the

Sounds like we need a qualified roofer to come out and talk with us before we buy anything. So, gable end vents maybe along with seeing if we can unblock the soffit vents?

As I was doing my exercises today I was listening to "Little Drummer Boy" and "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas". I got my Christmas music fix for the day.

We have a good 6 inch layer of the pink insulation and then at least another 6 inches of blown in on top of it. You can see it even standing in the garage looking into the attic. It's that thick. The powered vent would be at the opposite end of the house from our bedroom so noise wouldn't be a problem for us. The neighbor maybe but we have yet to see them open the window on that side of their house so it wouldn't likely bother them either.

we have the ridge vent already. Roof was replaced after Hurricane Dennis, maybe even a couple of years after the hurricane. Not sure when the insulation was added but it seems as though the blown in insulation may be blocking the air flow. We have no homeowners insurance to contact or to care. The power vent we are looking at is solar powered and has no electrical wires. The power comes strictly from the sun. It's also a vent with louvers that open and close. Pretty cool actually. Seems to be a fairly new product. And it may be available here and not in the Atlanta area.

NOT looking for a referral, just information. We need a power ventilator and an eave vent installed. We have no idea who would do this type of work. Would it be something a roofer would do? HVAC? General repair person? We went to Lowe's and Home Depot and know what we need to do but hubby can't climb a ladder to do it so we need someone to do the work. We asked at Lowe's and Home Depot and nobody knew who you would call to do that either. The guys we talked to had done the work themselves. Thanks. Again, not asking for a referral just an idea of what type of tradesman wou

The student who wrote this was in Winnipeg. The last time I looked, Winnipeg was in Canada. It's just possible they do things differently up there.

LOL. We had a dog that we had to sneak around behind his back to hug each other. I was sure I was going to have start asking the dog for permission to sleep in my own bed!

Much like zero tolerance? Another great idea.

The way we have always done things is this: my house, my rules. Your house, your rules. If I wouldn't want someone else's dog on my furniture in my house (which I don't), even if you allow YOUR dog to do that at YOUR house, I wouldn't let mine get on your furniture. In fact, unless I know for a fact that my pet is welcome at your house when I visit, I leave it at home or at a kennel.

I remember sitting in my primary care doc's office back in 2010 and looking over to see a woman that HAD to be a drug rep. Nobody dresses like that to go to the doctor. Nor do they carry a rolling case, nice leather notebook and all the other stuff she had. If she wasn't a drug rep she was sure selling something.

I requested medical records almost two weeks ago. I've only heard back from one provider saying they are ready to pick up. At $1 a page. At the doctor's office a half hour drive away. Think I'll wait until the hospital says they have the records ready and pick them all up at one time. You used to be able to go in and request records, get them and leave. Now you have to "request" them and wait for them to get ready. And pay for them to the tune of $1 a page. I had two surgeries. I may have a heart attack when I go to pay for the records from the hospital for those surgeries.

So all those pens and notepads and calendars I have seen in the doctors offices this year have been there awhile? Yeah, I remember patients calling and wanting some prescription over the phone. Percocet or Dilaudid would be fine but no, I don't want to come in. or the patient who called and said it was an emergency and they HAD to come in today because they got hurt last week.

Now you're talking!!

Favorite: It's really a tie between the Harry Simeon version of "Little Drummer Boy" and the Josh Groban version of "Oh Holy Night". Least favorite: None really. One Christmas song guaranteed to reduce me to a sniveling, blubbering crybaby: Christmas In Dixie. I remember standing in my kitchen baking cookies on Christmas Eve. My husband wasn't home yet from his business trip and had another to go to bright and early the day after Christmas, so he would only be home for about 36 hours, if that long, and then wouldn't be back until New Year's Eve. I had little Christmas spirit (t

I have had just the opposite problem. I have not gotten prescriptions . Sometimes I was given something too mild for the problem (prescription Motrin for the pain of a kidney stone for instance) or nothing at all (told to use saline spray when I had a full blown sinus infection and I'm prone to bronchitis). I had a cortisone shot in my knee because of excruciating joint pain back in March. No meds. None. No pain med, nothing. Cortisone shot in my shoulder last month. No pain med, nothing. And cortisone shots will often make you hurt really bad all over. I had other injections in

I completely agree. Their ribs are wonderful. They have a salad which has barbecue on it that is pretty awesome, too. We have great seafood here but lousy barbecue. Our choices are Shanes and a place that gets their sauce from a Kraft bottle. Sad but those are our choices pretty much. There's one more place we haven't tried but if the first two are an indication, there is no point in trying the other one. But if you want great seafood, we got that covered. Many times over. And finally found a place with incredible hush puppies, which I'm no fan of but I'll eat theirs.