Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 4 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Morning.
GROOOAN! Feel like someone took a baseball bat to every part of my body and my hands look like they were run through a meat grinder BUT we are done! We both just sit here and blink. A friend helped us 3 days but each day he was only able to stay about 4 hours. Still we\'d be a day or day and a half behind if it wasn\'t for him. Showed neighbors and even they were duly impressed. They thought we were only doing the kitchen!

Photos below.

Have to give a lot of credit to Dave. He is a Virgo so he has a very neat, fussy, and particular but systematic and efficient way of doing things and \'catches\' on quickly. I\'m a Taurus so I\'m the \'artist\' and esthetics person. I decided on the color and direction the tile would take and how it would fit in the room. I did the chalk lines. We have virtually NO small or \'cut to fit\' pieces! He followed laying each tile down and putting in the spacers (for the grout line).

Because this was so organized we whipped through the work. He began to mortar the pieces in place in the kitchen and I (and Tim) removed the carpet from the living room and scraped up the glue and took up the carpet tacks. It takes 4 hours for the mortar to dry and the tiles to set so at this time we had lunch and walked the dog.

We then switched places. Dave moved onto the living room laying tile and I went to the kitchen and began the grout. So this is how we managed to get through it so very quickly. Also the more you do it the faster you get! By the time he was done I had only half the living room to finish grouting and that\'s when Tim helped. The next two days we wiped, wiped, wiped up grout and rinsed, rinsed and rinsed the tile. Last day---Easter, we gave a final wipe down and buff and then put furniture back.

No! I do not ever want to do this kind of grunt labor for a living. We probably could but I have no desire to based on how we both feel and have felt physically the last few days regardless of how satisfying the results or sense of accomplishment. We still have plenty of left over tile in the garage.

We did it because the cost of labor was obscene! Lowest estimate was $3.00 a square foot up to $8.00 at the highest or $75.00 an hour at the cheapest! ROFL!!! Let\'s see our tile was .78 cents for 17\" x 17\" tiles and our living room is 20\' x 15\' and our kitchen is 13\' x 14\'! You do the math! Considering all inclusive of tile, grout, mortar, tile cutter, floats, buckets, sponges, spacers, and truck rental for $29.99 for 4 hours and a $89.00 delivery fee (remind me to tell you about that, it\'s hysterical) and feeding Tim it cost us $1,800.00 to do our tile. Uh...do you really think we\'re going to pay well over $2,000,00 for labor we can do ourselves? YEAH...RIGHT! ROFL!!!

We still need to do the 2 bathrooms. Thank God they\'re small but they will involve a large amount of intensive cutting and curves rather than straight edges. we have also decided to continue the tile from the living room down the hallway to the laundry room.

The laundry room we decided we are going to buy a \'nice\' quality linoleum that matches and put down there. It\'s a laundry room! I think of bleach, muddy shoes, the dog\'s area, wet coats (on occasion...LOL), dust, dirt coming in from the garage (attached) so it seems nice linoleum is more practical in there as far as cleaning, and if it gets \'stained\'/ruined or something gets dropped on it, it isn\'t such a big deal.

The carpet we have is soooo old, ugly and regardless of how many times we steam clean it, it is beyond resuscitation. Thus the reason we are going to do the hallway. The less carpet the better! We are only going to carpet the bedrooms. Uh...eye popping the expense on that! YIKES!!! That will absorb 1/2 to 2/3rds of our next years income tax refund. Again we can lower the cost by buying the carpet and padding ahead of time and removing and disposing of our old carpet and tacks because companies looooove to charge huge amounts of money for this BUT we can\'t lay and stretch carpet ourselves so we\'re at their mercy and prices.
:(

I would love to do more outside the home in terms of a \'real job\' and Tim, funny enough is a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist for our local SS Administration but even he said I fall into category 3 which is extremely limited in capacity, very high in terms of special work accommodations, definitely hobbled by an inability to drive, no public transportation and he also confided in me that regardless of my filing a workers comp claim or not with my employer they will do everything they can to fire me and get me out. Sad reason for this is that any company has \'liability\' insurance. The more \'incidents\' and \'accidents\' and employee has from getting a boo boo on their finger and needing a Band-Aid to something as serious as my condition while at work and the more paper work that is generated concerning them the more a risk I become. THEY, by law have to give me worker\'s comp regardless of my asking for it, claiming I won\'t file or be willing to sign saying so. Even if I did these things and suffered consequences a little later health wise they\'re still liable. I don\'t have to get a lawyer. All that has to happen is for my doctor to say, \"Yep, that time she bonked her head at work 3 years ago is why she can\'t stand up now\" and the company will get nailed when SS reviews my case and abilities.

So...now I finally know why the grocery store was on such a major campaign to fire me even though I was an outstanding employee, one their best and most efficient workers, had excellent attendance and caused no problems.

Tim told me not to take it personally. It IS what they do to EVERYONE with a problem. Sad isn\'t it? Really, really sad that people like me who want to work and can/could in some capacity aren\'t allowed to but yet am being penalized by the same corporations that want to throw everyone off of social programs and disability and don\'t understand why we have a \'welfare nation\' so to speak.

I dunno...you tell me?

So I no longer...thanks to Tim, feel guilty about not working. I look at it this way, I DO \'work\' so to speak. I take care of my home, my garden, my dog, my neighbor (Shirley, elderly...I help her a lot), I am a good friend. I pay my taxes. I am not a social derelict who gets into trouble or causes the tax payers money to institutionalize me. I am not morally bankrupt.

I get involved with charities and causes I believe in. I do not vegetate or wallow in self pity. I enrich my mind whenever possible. I create things of beauty like art and a garden. This is MY purpose and way of giving back to others and those around me.

These are things even the abled body people don\'t or won\'t do and they CAN. They have the money, they have the body and minds capable of it. They have a family who will support them both emotionally and financially. Yet they do nothing but take up oxygen, piss, moan and bitch and complain and do not one thing worthwhile or productive for themselves or others around them.

I think you work very hard to! Think of all the writing, research and presentation of knowledge you contribute to gardeners via DG! Now that\'s work! think about what you do for family, friends and community! How long have you been married? Hmmm....talk about work!

Wise Cactus say, \"Yep, don\'t sell yourself short. You Carrie work hard! Little Agave you work hard. You work harder than any people I know! Reason being you no longer take things for granted when it comes to relying on your bodies. You rely on your brains. Most people don\'t!\"

Some views of living room and kitchen. (You don\'t get to see the side where the appliances are due to all the crap still on the counters that need to be cleaned up...eye roll! ) We won\'t talk about dusting either.

Biggest irony of all when it comes to this tile and all of our hard work is that my living room is 20\' x 15\' and I got a 10\'x 13\' area rug and padding so if I have a seizure I don\'t crack my head open on all of my lovely tile. ROFL!!!

Peace. Out.
TTC