Cecil's been at it, again.

When, first, Handyman Cecil came by, I gave him a list of things I wanted done around the house. I made sure that he understood I was seeking a long-term relationship, not just that he would do a job and disappear forever. He could work in my jobs around the jobs he had to do for other people because there was nothing urgent on the list. By the time Cecil could start on my list, COVID-19 had become a "thing" with which to contend. I told Cecil that he could do any/all of the outside jobs; but, he could not do any of the inside jobs - until a vaccine or a cure was developed.

Cecil started on the outside jobs by installing a permanent ladder (of which the bottom two rungs may be seen in the photo, below) in our basement escape window well.

A little later, Cecil installed a new storm door at the personnel door to the garage (photo, below), new gaskets around our three over-head garage doors (no photo), and a window well and bubble at one of my (basement) bedroom windows (no photo).

Cecil's next venture was painting the house - shown in this posting. Unexpectedly, we needed a new dishwasher installed and Cecil came to the rescue - shown in this posting.

This past week, Cecil and his son installed window wells and bubbles on the remaining seven, small, basement windows. I had wanted to try out the installation on one of my bedroom windows for a few months before committing to the time/effort/expense of having Cecil make installation at the other seven windows.

Photos (below) are with window wells, only, installed. (The one bubble is the "trial" installation.)

        

Photos (below) are with window wells & bubbles installed.

    

   

Advantages of having the window wells & bubbles installed: 1) The windows stay clean much longer (You know that I spent a lot of time cleaning those windows, don't you?) and 2) I can have the windows open - even while it is raining (There is an air gap between the wells and the bubbles.) Another thing that I've noticed is that I don't hear the nocturnal critters (voles?) or the early morning critters (usually, wild turkeys) rubbing up against the screen fabric that is the outer-most of the three layers (inner pane, storm pane, screen) of each window.

One last thing that Cecil wanted to do this week was to have a safety grid made for installation over the top of our basement escape window, intended to prevent someone's falling into the deep window well. He called me about it several times; but, I finally turned him "off" on that project - for now. I was getting too stressed over the whole thing. He was talking about a 50-pound welded steel grid which I thought would be a bit heavy since I would, while on the ladder, have to move the grid with one hand. Unfortunately, I had Cecil install the ladder at the end of the window well that would have provided me a clear space to slide the grid into. The other end has the gas meter and the sprinkler system's back-flow protection valve installation that prohibit sliding the grid that way - the shorter slide. (Cecil had wanted to put the ladder to that end, but he didn't give this as one of the reasons: he just wanted to put it opposite the stationary pane of the window.) My fault. I had told him to check into having welded aluminum, instead; but, that requires TIG welding, of course. So...I'll think it over for a while. It may have to wait until Cecil and I can sit at a table with pencil and paper for drawing sketches.

Cecil did have a point that I really needed to get that window well covered - its already having been uncovered for three years. In the meantime, I fished the old grid from under the compost pile, hosed it down, re-drove most of the nails (yes, our builder had used nails), and re-installed it over the window well (photo, below). After a few rains it will look a bit better even if it won't cure the slat that is slightly decomposed. (The grid was shown under a pile of masonry in this posting back in August, 2017.)

Comments

[Liz Hinds]

What a man! You should hang on Cecil: they're hard to find.

[Cop Car]

Liz--It has been rather nice having a dependable, multi-talented guy on call. Having never before lived in the same house for more than nine years' duration, it's a joy getting some of the accumulated "wants" addressed. I'm looking forward to the day (in my lifetime?) when it will be safe for Cecil to tackle some of the indoor jobs that are on the waiting list. Until several years ago, I would have done the indoor jobs, myself; but, I'm too unstable on ladders (not to mention that it wears me out to go up and down a ladder very much) and my essential tremors get in the way of doing electrical jobs; so I am exercising a bit of discretion. Or, perhaps I am just too lazy these days.