Years in The Making
February of 1999, Kevin agreed to spend his weekends bringing Stauffer Avenue into the 21st century. Where to start? Plumbing was the answer. During that winter 
Kevin made the trips from New Ulm to St.James with energy and tools on board. Hmm, he was among the troop just this last weekend, October 21st, 2017, that was helping us out here on Stauffer Avenue with a job jar.
Since 1999 this little home has been worked on continually. Kevin was on board in 1999 for the remake of the bathroom, the kitchen, and the half bath in the basement that included plumbing, wiring and heating. In time, our contractor, Elwood, put in new replacement windows, insulation of the home and new siding. In time, we have repaired what was needed, never to let it go until another day. This fall it was time for new basement windows, a complete air system for the home and today was the final chapter . . . we hope, of major items.
Today, Complete Basements came back and used the same crawl space that Kevin had worked through in 1999 putting new plumbing in. Today, a vapor barrier was put in to seal the area’s dirt floor. In times past, there was an exterior crawl space door, the one showing Dennis from the outside. When we had the foundation sprayed with foam that door was closed off. We have always left the crawl space open to make sure we weren’t fighting frozen water pipes. With it being open the chances of the dirt floor filtering in moisture and maybe a smell or two was possible. Not after today.
As it worked out the fellow in charge of today’s project is our contractor Elwood’s son. Ben and his co-worker from Complete Basements came in with snow flurries abound. It took them about five hours to maneuver around and under heat ducts, PCV pipes and water pipes. How could I not have a noon lunch for them. This is what Dennis and I hope is the last of the huge projects to secure our home for quite some time. We are well aware that when you own property, it takes repairs and we will stay on top of them.
We had an additional item that we have been fighting with Internet access via a wireless router. Mediacom came with a new one on board. When I told him the one we have had was over ten years old, he didn’t seemed surprised that we had called for a service call. When the fellow looked at the situation, he allowed us to know that the Mediacom modem was equipped to handle the wireless situation. I know when it came in the mail a time back, Dennis and I were just happy to get it connected to the coax cable correctly. Ya see . . . its like this . . . older ones such as we are, not only need family to guide us through changing times but also reliable service people to take us by the hand and then . . . here we are. We have a wonderfully safe and comfortable home, even if it takes us almost 20 years to get the job done.