Friday, September 21, 2012

But its white!

With the motorhome here overnight, the power cord was plugged in for all of that time....  That means the house batteries had the chance to soak on the charger for almost 24 hours...  Since the coach has been in storage since we arrived back here in Kansas, it is good to get it hooked back up again...

Of course that wasn't without event, as when I first plugged in the cord, the air conditioners were still in the on position and they tried to start and blew the fuse for a big portion of the house...

I had to trudge down into the back corner of the basement and mess with the breakers...It wasn't too hard as the one for the garage and outside outlets is right in the middle on the right....and I have popped it soooo many times...

Then I had to pull all the hose off of the back yard reel and drag it out to the curb where the water locker on the back of the coach was.  I had opened and drained the tank last night in the dark....  One of the neighbors had told the police that we were running sewer water down the street when I drained the fresh water tank before...   So I have learned to open the tank after dark...

So as the tank refilled, I stood beside it for a while, but it took much longer than I had remembered, since it was now completely empty.  I let it run over for a while sort of back flushing the tank out the hose fill port...  We have a valve that switches the hose fill connector to the tank fill position, so I have never used the hose fill port on the side of the coach for that purpose...

But by mid day, I removed the tools with their long handles that were wedged into position to hold up the freshly glued back splash.. I tugged on it and it seemed tight to the wall.  I didn't press my luck and pull hard as it seemed OK so why push it...

Next it needed the clear caulk put back into the corners.  Back on the bike and over to Lowes....  where I purchased a tub of bath caulk that I later learned didn't have any silicone in it.....  At first I grabbed a tube and realized that it was white when I was about half way to the register....  Wrong..

So back at the paint aisle again, I specifically purchased the product marked clear...  I messed around and picked out a new flashlight for inside the door on those dark campground nights, and rode back home on the MC.

I assembled all the tools for this caulk job and went out in the MH to get started...  Then cutting off the tip and reaching clear up under the range hood microwave, I started a bead........  It was white....!!  The tube said clear... Drat!!

I put the cap back over the cut off spout and jumped back on the bike for Lowes again... Its about a mile and a half over there, just past Wendy's... I showed the lady at the returns desk, and she just grunted at me and issued a credit to my credit card...

Back to the paint aisle, where I picked out the more expensive tube of clear with a little different label.  I paid for it and walked to the bike, but thought that I should check this tube right here in the parking lot.....  Yep, you guessed it,  WHITE....

Right back into the store and the refund lady, where I asked "Is there something I don't know about this stuff?"   She called the paint guy to come over on the phone......  Well now he did something that will never catch on with us males of the species, he began to read the fine print on the back of the label......      "Goes on white, drys clear!"  I felt stupid, but they didn't make me take back the first tube, so I just walked off shaking my head...

Back home I managed to get things all caulked and spread even with the little rubber caulk spreader that's in my paint supplies....  It looked weird all white...

The motorhome sat out there for the rest of the afternoon as I went on with other jobs, and at about dusk I went out and rolled up the electric cords and garden hoses..  Then drove the home back over to the storage...

And as I was locking up, I noticed that the caulk........  was......  still very white!!

So will it change to clear like they said, or will I have to dig all this out, and go get some genuine GE silicone clear that goes on clear....?  Surely they have some in that great big Lowes store, but I didn't find it and the paint guy didn't know where it was...

Postscript:  This dried very clear after several days!!

I'm sure the neighbors are thanking their luck stars that that big ole nasty motorhome is out of here again tonight..... Well at least Loyce is really happy that its back in storage, because she worries that we will offend these folks...

Man I don't really give a good two cents.....

Retired Rod

9 comments:

  1. I wouldn't get along with your neighbours. 'Nuff said.

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  2. Say, had you considered going back to Lowes & getting a gallon of clear paint & painting over the white caulking to make it clear again:)) Neighbors....don't ya just love the darn things:((

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  3. What's that old saying about high fences making for good neighbors. We even had
    an anonymous complaint here that we werent cleaning up after our Doberman.
    Riggs was insulted, hey I'm from a championship line of LABS !
    Donna

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  4. Be patient it will turn clear - I had the same issue earlier this summer

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  5. oh dear Rod as soon as I started reading this I EVEN KNEW it would dry clear lol. You should have called me. Neighbours what a pain in the butt.

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  6. Oh good grief!! What is wrong with people. At least here in the park everyone understands about motorhomes and fresh water tanks and dogs and what have you. But I would be like Loyce and worry about offending the neighbors. Jim's like you. Sure hope it's clear the next time you see it.

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  7. Yes, the caulk will dry clear. It just takes 24 hours or so depending on how thick it is applied.

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  8. Men !!! They don't read labels or instructions!

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  9. Maybe next time, in the dead of night, you should get a long sewer hose and drain your black tack into your neighbour's yard!!

    So, I'm just wondering if you buy 'white' silicone, does it dry 'clear'???

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