Bead Goodies

The Confident Power Pisser

2009-12-18T04:45:00.001-05:00

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about connectedness. I'm alone 99% of the time. I'm not married, I have no children, I work at home so I don't have colleagues, I don't have any friends that live near by, etc. I'm alone most of the time. I've thought about that a lot lately and I've come to realize that I'm not alone. Physically, yes, I'm alone, but I don't feel that way. The people who have come into my life (and seemly gone from it) are still with me. The affect me constantly.

A few months ago one of my sisters emailed someone we both knew over 20 years ago. One day I get an instant message from her taunting me that she has a "secret". I tell her to SPILL IT and after she's had her fun taunting me about it, she tells me that she emailed this person and has received a response. In this response this person expressed how much of an impact I had on their life. My sister was like, "Isn't that cool?! I'll bet you had no idea!" I told her I was and wasn't surprised. Many, many times I have thought about people I haven't seen in decades and my sister confessed to having had the same experience. We both agreed that these people would probably be very surprised that we still think about them.

There are MANY people in my life. I may not physically interact with many of them any more, but they still affect me. I'm alone, but not. You see? I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

The other night as I was making beads I thought about someone I never actually knew. She was a psychologist who worked in the same building as I did when I was an undergrad at EDU. One day while at work, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I was in a stall when this psychologist woman came in. I finished up and went back to the office. As I walk through the door, I'm laughing. Sue Ickes, a woman who worked with me at the time, is sitting at her desk. She asks me what's so funny. I then ask her, "Have you ever been in the bathroom with that dark haired psychologist that works down the hall?" Sue says with a half smile, "Yeah..." Then I say something like, "Um, have you ever noticed anything odd about her? You know, in the bathroom?" Sue starts to laugh. I say, "Don't you think she pees really loud?" She agrees. We laugh and wonder out loud to each other WHY someone would pee like this woman pees! It was impressive (I guess!). I called her the Power Peer!! Anyway, so I'm torching the other night and I'm thinking about this interesting encounter I had years ago with a woman I never knew and I'm laughing OUT LOUD!

This very confident pisser woman, whoever she is, still affects me. She still has me laughing! Over Thanksgiving my brother-in-law's "windsock booby demo" made me laugh out loud too. Both experiences were funny but one came from a woman I never knew 10 years ago while the other was with a family member and occurred recently. Both people had a similar affect on me in my life RIGHT NOW. I don't think people realize how much they affect one another -- initially and continuously. I certainly didn't until I noticed it in my own life. Not sure why I'm saying all this. I'm thankful, I guess, and want to express that. You may think your interactions with one another or with me are insignificant, but they ARE NOT. To all of you, THANK YOU!

BOO!

2009-12-16T17:28:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, December 16th

I know. It's been a while. My only excuse for not blogging is that I haven't felt like it. Sorry.

I haven't written since September, aye? Well, let's see. Building a big bonfire over the wasp nest I had in my yard worked. I planted more grass there and although it was late in the season by that time, I did get some grass growing.

All the leaves fell down and my lazy self mowed 'em all over (and over and over) instead of raking and bagging them.

I did manage to install the heating cable on my roof. I believe each side took about 2 hours. Not a difficult project.

Today is the first day that we're getting significant snow that I'm guessing will stick around. It's a beautiful kind of snow too -- large flakes falling softly.

I'd say we're going to get about 6 inches.

I don't know if the heating cables work yet, but I will soon! I'll probably plug 'em in tomorrow. It's not really pretty -- the heating cables. They're difficult to see on the roof itself, but I have cables hanging off the back. I REFUSE to hire an electrician to install outlets near the roof! All the electric in my house has been replaced. I'm DONE with that! I'm just so done...

Yeah so, it's FINE! If it saves me from raking the roof off, it's FINE! If it works, it will be WONDERFUL.

So, that's what I did this fall to prepare for winter. Pretty much the minimum. I haven't been too motivated lately. I spend most of my time these days reading, sleeping, working and playing Facebook games. Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.

Kevin finally showed up to build my office desk last week. Here are the preliminary before/after shots.

I say "preliminary" because the countertop hasn't been installed yet. I was told that it will be another 3 weeks before it will be ready.

I put down the rug this morning. I bought it at Lowes (I ordered it online and then picked it up cuz I know from experience that what I want is NEVER available in the size I need it right there in the store). Yeah anyway, it's nice. It's green. Love green!

There's some burgundy in it too.

I have 2 office chairs -- a burgundy one and a green one. Initially, I had the green one upstairs and the burgundy one downstairs, but I decided I like the burgundy one better. So, I lugged it upstairs last night (and I do mean LUGGED. OMG, VERY heavy chair!). It goes great with the burgundy in the rug. I'm very happy.

My office isn't done yet. I need to replace the garbage can...

Garbage cans are always tough! I need a large one in this room. Those dinky little bathroom ones aren't going to cut it. The tall kitchen ones are ugly, imo. I can't hide this one in a cabinet like I can for the kitchen. 'Tis an issue, this trash can. I'm thinking I might build one. You know, buy some oak boards, stain 'em, cut 'em, glue 'em together into a box shape and then put some crown molding around the top and bottom. It sounds like a doable project for me.

The opposite side of my office is very much unfinished...

I need a dresser type piece of furniture in this spot because I need the drawers to store all my frit sample baggies.

I want a lamp. I hate overhead lights. I gotta have a lamp! But I don't want a lamp to sit on the dresser like I have now because I want a picture arrangement on that wall and a lamp would obstruct that. Right now, I don't have room for a floor lamp. Yeah, I know, it looks like I do. Just move the dresser over! Ah, but I really don't want to. Here's the area...

The door into my bathroom is right there (as is the door into the office). Moving the dresser would make that entryway small/narrow and I don't want that. I need a smaller dresser (but not too small!) and finding a small dresser is TOUGH! So much of the furniture sold these days is oversized/overstuffed/HUGE. None of that stuff is appropriate for my small house. It sucks! I'm not looking forward to shopping. I will do it though...maybe after Christmas.

Then I have this small area to do/deal with.

I need to buy something to put on that table. I haven't decided yet if I want a picture there or not. Still thinking about it. I suppose it would depend on what I put ON the table, which I have no clue about yet.

So, although I'm making progress in my office, I haven't actually done much myself (you know, other than pay for it). I've been such a slug lately! I haven't felt motivated at all. A year ago, I was gung-ho about house stuff. Kitty was right when she told me that if I feel like doing house stuff DO IT and don't feel guilty about not making beads because the motivation won't always be there. At the time, I was motivated and believing that I could someday feel UNmotivated was hard to understand. I get it now.

OKAY! So, I've updated my blog! Off to shower, clean beads, answer emails, slip in a few rounds of Bejewled Bliz, etc. You know, the usual!

Electrical woes – kiln & de-icing cable

2009-09-25T20:17:00.003-04:00

Last night when I sat down to make beads I go to put my first bead into the kiln and notice a problem immediately. The kiln element is hanging down almost touching the floor of the kiln. Not good! I knew the element was going because I had to tuck it back into position a couple times within the last few weeks plus I saw a couple clips at the bottom of the kiln. It’s all very irritating. I can’t continue to make beads with the wire hanging like that in the kiln…

This is not unusual for my kiln. It happens about every 3 years. And because it’s not unusual, I keep a spare heating ring around for just such an occurrence.

I run upstairs, get the spare and switch ‘em out. I lose 500 degrees in the process, but no beads were lost and I can continue to make beads as usual. This is what a GOOD heating element should look like!

I let the heating ring cool overnight and (from experience) checked the electrical connection.

Yup, it’s bad too.

Thankfully, I watched my father fix my kiln once (both problems) and know how to do it myself now. I even keep everything I need to fix my kiln on-hand!

So, that was last night.

Since today was the first day in about 5 days that it hasn’t rained, I decided to install the de-icing cable. But before I started that job, I checked on my wood bees. Yup. The little fuckers are still there, swarming around like they still have a nest underground somewhere. It pissed me off! So, I took a shovel and started jabbing at it. That was a mistake. It REALLY pissed ‘em off! Two of them stung me. One on my back and another one under my arm. Although both sings hurt, the sting on my arm also got red and hot. The reaction went almost up to my elbow!

Normally, I don’t react much to bee stings but this one I did. I should probably be more cautious in the future with bees... ANYWAY, I was pissed! All that work I did last week to get rid of them did NOTHING. I decided to build as big of a fire over top of that spot as I could! BURN baby, BURN!!!!!!

Oh yeah! So, I let that pile burn as I installed the de-icing cable on the South side of my house. When the smoldering pile cools down in a few days, I’ll take a shovel to it and really hack up that spot!

Installing the de-icing cable wasn’t bad at all once I got used to being up on the ladder.

Unfortunately, the 100-foot cable I bought was about 20 feet too short. The cable needs to terminate INSIDE the downspout. If it doesn’t, all the snow and ice melt from the roof is gonna freeze there.

I measured and re-measured, but I didn’t account for the loop at the end of each triangle needed to connect the roof cable to the gutter cable. HHHH. It just SUCKS!!! I spent 4-5 hours putting that cable up only to take it down!

So now, I have to return one of the cables and buy 2 more.

Garbage…

Today sucked. I plan to spend the rest of the night playing games on the computer. You know, to make up for it….

Mirror smear, bees, grass and de-icing cable

2009-09-22T16:37:00.003-04:00

This morning as I sat down to take my morning piss, I see something strange on my vanity mirror.

At first I thought the mirror was cracked!! When I got up close to it though, I was relieved to find that it was just a smear. The strange thing about it though is that I don’t remember it being there last night (and I made several trips to the bathroom AFTER brushing my teeth last night). I would never leave a big smudge like that on the mirror and I can’t believe I didn’t notice it.

To me, it looks like a foot wearing argyle socks and either a clog or slipper.

Anyway. A suspicious smear started my day today!

Last week when I mowed the grass, I noticed a bee hive. There hasn’t been a year gone by yet that I’ve lived here and I’ve NOT had bees! These bees are ground-nesting bees and I’ve had them in this same spot before. It’s a spot in the yard where an old tree stump used to be. It’s nothing that sticks out above ground and I only noticed it when I had bees nesting in this spot 5 years ago. Anyway, I’ve been stung by those suckers before while mowing and they HAD to go! So, I dumped some gasoline on that spot and set it on fire.

LOL. Notice my neighbor’s UNmowed grass? Yup. I haven’t touched it (and neither have they…)!

Anyway…I let that sucker burn for about 30 – 50 minutes. The bees were NOT happy!

After dumping gasoline, setting it on fire and letting it burn for a good while, I then flooded the hole with water. I kept that spot submerged for at least an hour. While keeping the spot under water I stood there with a pair of scissors and cut off as many bee heads as I could. After I got bored of doing that, I filled the spot with dirt and planted grass. It’s been about a week now and this is what the spot looks like now:

What’s shocking to me is that the bees are STILL there!

I doused their home with gas, I set it on fire, then I flooded it, and then I covered it with dirt and planted grass. OMG, what will it take for the little buggers to give up on it already!?? It’s frustrating. I want them GONE by the time I need to mow again.

Speaking of grass, this summer I’ve noticed a lot of these weeds growing in my yard:

I don’t know what they’re called, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE THEM! They’re like potholes all over the yard. So, about 2 weeks ago I went out in my yard and started digging them up. After about an hour or so of doing that I managed to chew up my yard pretty good….

Lots of bear spots all over the place. MAN! About a week ago, I spent $60 on seeding soil and grass seed and a whole day repairing the damage (plus morning and evening waterings every day since). Today is the first day I’ve noticed the new grass coming up. THANK GOD!

I think next summer I’m gonna weed-and-feed the really bad spots and maybe restrict my digging/manual weed removal to a few spots at a time. HHHH. What a mess!

A couple weeks ago I ordered de-icing cable for my roof and it arrived in the mail on Monday.

For those of you who’ve read my blog for any length of time know that every winter I whine about all the ice that accumulates on the eves of my house. Hopefully, this will take care of the problem. I figure it’s worth a shot! I plan to install it myself. Kitty brought her long ladder over and I’ve worked out my plan.

The only outdoor outlets I have are next to the sliding glass door (not pictured but on the far right). So, that’s where I’ll start the cable. It will terminate somewhere in the downspout. According to my measurements, I need 96 feet of cable per side. I ordered two 100-foot cables. Hopefully, I measured correctly. We’ll see!!

Right now, I have the cables stretched out in my side yard to straighten them out as much as possible before I install them.

I plan to install them this week or early next week.

No news from Tussey Mountain about the office cabinets I want installed. I waited a month before asking for an update, but still nothing. I can’t WAIT until my house is finished! I HATE REMODELING!

This is funny: Photo-bombing kitty!!

Pet Society, death file and office

2009-08-27T11:18:00.001-04:00

Since I last wrote, I’ve been adding Facebook friends like crazy for Thelma…

So, the majority of my FB “friends” now really aren’t. I have no idea who these people are!

But I’m cool with that. I just hide their blab from my wall and it’s like they aren’t even there.

Because coinage isn’t a problem for Thelma anymore, she can buy pretty much anything she wants. And what girl doesn’t like THAT!?? This week’s theme in Pet Society is wizardry. Thelma pretty much bought all the cool new wizard stuff including the requisite clothes. I think she looks quite snazzy!!

Here’s the best part though, I’m not the only one who thinks so!! Earlier this week one of my, um, “friends” made this post on Facebook!

Oh yeah. Having coin is a lot more fun!!

A few weeks ago, I went into Tussey Mountain Custom Kitchen, the folks who did my kitchen (Kevin), to talk about having some more work done on my house. The project I have in mind this time is an office desk and cabinets. Here’s what my office desk area looks like now:

The desk was custom made for me by my dad. It’s a GREAT desk – not too big, not too small and constructed of high quality materials. I’ve always loved it and have used it daily since high school. The only aspect about it that I don’t like is that it’s gray and metal. What I want is a desk just like it but one that looks a little less industrial/corporate business. In addition to the desk, I want cabinets installed above it (the additional storage is gonna be awesome!). So, to really get what I want I need to hire out. Anyway, here’s the drawing Patty gave me of the proposed project:

I haven’t been given a contract yet because there’s still some pending details that need to be ironed out. Patty and Kevin have a booth at the county fair every year and the fair is going on this week so they’ve been pretty busy. Next week, I hope to get this project under contract. I want it all DONE before it snows. I don’t want a repeat of last winter with all that shoveling!

Since I last wrote, I also had my last will and testament drawn up along with a health directive. I can now die without worrying that all my assets will go to the state instead of my family. Yay! In addition to having a will, I’ve also started gathering up all my important papers so that everything will be easy to find in the event of my death. So far my pile includes the title to my car, the deed to my house, my birth certificate and my SS card. I still need to make copies of those plus gather all the information needed to close my online life, my financial life, to take over my frit business and close all my utilities. ::sigh:: I guess I have a ways to go yet before I can check off “death file” from my to-do list. Yeah, working on it… I’m glad I have a will now. That was the most important part!

Fruits of my Facebook Pet Society begging campaign

2009-08-11T12:44:00.001-04:00

I play Pet Society on Facebook. It’s a game where you can make up a pet, buy stuff for it, decorate your house, go fishing, visit with other pets, etc. It’s fun and I enjoy it. :) My pet’s name is Thelma. Meet Thelma!!

Thelma is ALWAYS broke!!

And there is so much that Thelma would like to buy! For starters, new eyes and a new mouth.

Before…

After!!

Well okay, not quite after. $2400 coins!! I have $0 at the moment. So, no new eyes or mouth for Thelma…

Thelma has only ONE outfit (the one she’s wearing…). In her wardrobe are 2 items: black shoes and a pair of sunglasses…

There are lots of things in the shop that she would love to buy!! This watermelon dress is cute…

All this stuff, Thelma wants!!!

Any piece of bling would be nice! The pink ribbon would look GREAT on her, I think. But alas, 0 coin…

Not having any coin is a big problem for Thelma! The best way to make coin in Pet Society is to have other pets to interact with – friends in Facebook that also have a pet. ::sigh:: Unlike some people (LAURIE ELLER!), I don’t have many friends in Facebook and of the few I do, very few have a pet in Pet Society. So, over the past week or so I’ve shamelessly asked my FB friends to please make a pet in Pet Society. I give ‘em the whole shpeal about how it doesn’t take much time, that they don’t ever have to go back to play, how it would benefit me, etc. The majority of my requests were totally ignored (and they were PERSONAL requests too and not general invites to the game) {{sniff}}. Fine, whatever. Thankfully, several of my FB buddies did make up a pet!!!!!!!!!!!! And to those of you who did, THANK YOU!!! Melissa, Kelly, Heather, Stefanie and Nicole.

And Laurie, thanks for letting me be friends with your daughter, Nicole. AND for being my cash cow!

Did I just call my good friend Laurie a COW?? Um, kinda… Okay here’s the thing, Pet Society came out with fishing a couple weeks ago. It’s totally awesome! So, I go out to the food shop and buy all kinds of food items to use as bait. I go fishing and I catch fish. Thelma has a good time!!! I hear there’s some rare fish in the pond and, of course, Thelma wants ‘em all!! It takes special bait to catch a special fish. Thelma wants the apple fish BAD and so she goes to the food shop and buys lots of apples. Thelma quickly uses up all her apples without catching the elusive apple fish and has no more coin to buy more apples and yet still feels like fishing… ::sigh:: Thelma ALWAYS needs coin!! Apples are only 5 coin each.

Where can Thelma make 5 measly coin?? CUPPIECUPPIE!!!!!!!! Since Laurie’s pet, Cuppiepuppie, is starving, filthy and miserable….

Thelma can go over there and rub her until coins start popping out of her!!

While fishing for the apple fish (it took me 146 apples to finally get the apple fish), I visited Cuppiepuppie A LOT. So, thanks for being Thelma’s cash cow Laurie!!

And here are all my fish (and a poop…)!

Nice tank, isn’t it? It was a gift from my nephew, CJ. (Given to me because… YES, YOU GUESSED IT! Thelma had no coin to buy one for herself!!!). At $3,000 coin, it wasn’t a small gift…

Kisses!

Is that Molly? Is Molly one of your FB friends? NO! You crazy people. Molly’s a DOG… (albeit a really cute one)!

What can I say? I was desperate for Pet Society friends!

So, after all my shameless soliciting, Thelma now has 8 more friends to visit than she had last week. That’s 160-240 more coin every day for Thelma. THANK YOU!!!

AMAZING dog video!!

2009-08-11T09:04:00.002-04:00

AMAZING dog video!!
I thoroughly enjoyed this!!! I thought some of you might too.

Pervy Wanker

2009-08-10T01:01:00.007-04:00

I found this on Lampwork Etc: Why you shouldn’t add your boss as a Facebook friend.

“Pervy wanker”?? LOL!

Been awhile…

2009-08-05T00:36:00.001-04:00

Yeah, I know. I haven’t updated my blog in weeks. Sorry!

A few weeks ago my mother came up to visit. She stayed with my sister Kitty for 4 days and my sister in OH for 4 days. While she was visiting Kitty she came by to see my house (with Kitty and kids in tow). I’ve had a lot of work done since she’s seen it last (3 years ago). So, I gave her a tour of my little house and then we spent some time visiting. This year, I actually had furniture! (Albeit not enough for everyone…) BUT, we had a good time anyway. The girls LOVED it! Molls went from lap to lap getting massaged…

And Maggs found new victims to endlessly play ball!

While my mom was up, I didn’t get any pictures of her. Sorry! Well, I guess that isn’t exactly true. I did get a picture of her feet…

The turkeys are still coming by every day (or several times a day).

(Yeah, my back deck is terrible, isn’t it? Next year. I’ll get it a new one next year! I’m still recovering from the Vern fiasco from last summer…)

I love watching the turkeys! They like to sit at the base of the pine trees back there and roll around…

kicking up dust…

Apparently, they like to dust themselves. I’ve seen them do it many times. My neighbor’s removed an old doghouse last summer and there’s a nice dusty spot there now. They visit it often!

Last month, one of my beads was on the cover of Bead Trends magazine. That was kinda cool…

My name was not given, but my Etsy store address was:

I had nothing to do with getting that bead on the cover. One of my buyers made a bracelet and SHE submitted it for publication, which was then featured on the cover. Worked out great for me – no extra work whatsoever. :)

I tried my hand at more cooking. I made this dish…

I made it in my crock-pot. I mixed up apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, oatmeal and water. I figured with these ingredients, I couldn’t go wrong! I was mistaken. It tastes okay, I guess, but not nearly as good as I thought it would. My biggest problem with the dish is its texture!

Slimy and gelatinous. It’s like eating chilled vomit. It’s nasty. Come garbage day, I’m throwing it out.

I made some crock-pot chicken too. I cooked 1 bag of chicken breasts with a half a bottle of Kraft BBQ sauce.

The BBQ sauce cooked down to a watery mixture and discolored the chicken to an unappetizing corpse like color. It’s not a tasty dish to me. I love Buffalo wings, so I thought I would like this too. I was wrong. Another failed dish. My culinary intuition sucks, obviously…

Lastly, I made fudge popsicles.

These, I liked! Fudge Jell-O, sugar and cream. Delicious! I wish I had some better molds though. I couldn’t find any at Wal-Mart so I made do with ice cube trays. I’ll keep looking.

Wild turkeys

2009-07-17T01:25:00.001-04:00

For the past week or so a group of wild turkeys have been grazing around the neighborhood. They especially love grazing under my neighbor’s apple tree. If they’re around, the go for the tree first and then spread out. They’re lovely! The group consists of 10 members and I think they’re all female.

I have tremendous respect for wild turkeys and I’ll tell ya why. About 10 years ago my dad and I were driving and came across a turkey in the road. She stood right in the middle of the road so, of course, dad stopped the car. We waited for her to move along, but she just stood there staring at us. It was odd! I remember making the comment about how stupid this animal must be to just stand in the middle of the road like that. Being only a few feet from a running vehicle would make most animals run. Not her. She stood her ground!! Then we saw it. There, coming up out of the ditch were more turkeys – LITTLE turkeys!! There must have been 20 or 30 (mostly chicks, but several adult turkeys bringing up the rear). Dad and I sat there watching in total amazement. When all the turkeys had gotten across safely, the one that stopped our car cleared the road. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. Wild turkeys, imo, ROCK.

Here’s a close-up.

I can’t say I have any experience with turkeys one-on-one, but among themselves they seem very intelligent and affectionate and I welcome them to my backyard any time!

The picture I didn’t take…

2009-07-07T11:00:00.001-04:00

The picture I didn’t take…

The picture I didn’t take but wish I had of my dad’s living room BECKY took! She emailed it to me this morning. Thank you Becky!!

This is how the living room looked on August 20th 2007:

And this is what it looks like now (taken from the front door):

4th of July & Dad's House

2009-07-06T21:11:00.002-04:00

With very few exceptions, every year on the 4th of July we have a family picnic. This year, as last year, it was at my aunt Ellen’s house. This year, however, EVERYONE was invited! Just about everyone in the family that lives in the area was there. It was nice!

My aunt Ellen did a great job planning activities to keep all the kids occupied. There was rock decorating…

Hay rides, a scavenger hunt, bubble blowing and a piñata. With all the activities and visiting going on it was hard to feel bored.

This year, my youngest sister and her family came up from North Carolina for a short visit. We took the opportunity to get a group photo of just us (Becky, me, Kitty and Marsha):

Notice all the warm weather attire? Yeah, it was chilly! It was windy, somewhat cloudy and in the lower 70s. Better than sweltering hot, imo.

My aunt Ellen’s house is just over the hill from my dad’s former house. Whenever I’m there, I always check it out (either from the road or from the wood pile). It looked like Nate and Heather were having their own 4th of July family gathering. I didn’t take any pictures of the house from the woodpile or the road because they wouldn’t have been that different from the pictures I took last year (from woodpile, from road). I think about the house often and I miss it. I went back to the woodpile a couple of times throughout the day. I wondered if my sister’s and I should just go over there and ask to see it. They had people over anyway –would it be that big of a deal for 4 more just 15 or 20 minutes? So, I went back to the party and found my sisters and asked them what they thought. We all thought it was a good idea. So, we walked over the hill and went to dad’s house! We met Heather in the driveway. She recognized us immediately. I asked if we could see the house and she said, “Sure!”

We entered the house through the back door. This door:

We all noticed that the wooden door was gone and was replaced with a steel one. The biggest change in the kitchen was the new sliding glass door. The old one was cloudy. Also, the floors were different. Nate installed laminate flooring. It was a HUGE improvement to the old orange and brown vinyl floor! The light fixtures were different too.

I must admit I was glad to see that they hadn’t repainted the kitchen (and some of the other rooms). Kitty and I spent 6 grueling weeks stripping wallpaper and painting every room in the house. Yeah so, it was nice to see that not all our work was undone immediately…

Okay, then we went to the living room. MUCHO ooh-ing and awing when we entered this room! OMG, it’s HUGE now! They took a wall out (the den is gone). It’s a beautiful room now!

The fireplace is centered in the room where it wasn’t before, the old fireplace stove is gone and the paneling was replaced with a rich chocolate color. We all loved it!

The front door is the same, but the wood spindle things are gone:

My biggest regret was not getting a picture from the front door to show the before and after of the wall that was removed. It’s SUCH an improvement and I can’t really show it. Sorry…

Next, we went to see the bathroom and bedrooms. Here’s the hallway (you can see the new floor in this picture). They kept the paneling and haven’t repainted. :)

The bathroom didn’t look that different. The paint was the same, the mirror, the light fixtures, etc. They did get a new toilet and new floor. I don’t know about the bathtub/shower. I didn’t look.

The master bedroom was next. Heather painted the room a deep chocolate and put in new carpet (ivory colored). I LOVED it!!

Next, we checked out the remaining 3 bedrooms. All 3 were painted a blue of varying tones (all dark) and all had new carpet and ceiling fans. Um, they were typical boy’s rooms…

I didn’t get a picture of one of the bedrooms (the purple room that had the mural painted on one of the walls). It was blue like the others, had star stickers on the ceiling and had a bunch of crap in it. It wasn’t worth taking a picture of, imo.

Finally, we made our way to the basement. A large part of the basement was dedicated to a play area:

It was very neat. Every toy seemed to have its place. I noticed that the floor had been etched and painted and there were large area rugs around. It was very nice. We ohh-ed and awed a lot!

The other large part of the basement was made into an entertainment area:

The basement bathroom looked great! The old boiler was gone:

And it was painted and made up to look like a nice bathroom!

I didn’t take pictures of the furnace room, the tool room or the laundry room. The furnace room had the furnace in it, although it was no longer connected (they have an outdoor furnace now) and the old boiler in it. The tool room was full of junk and the laundry room had the washer and dryer on one side, a new hot water tank with the old one right next to it and junk on the other side of the room. Eh, none of those rooms were worth taking pictures of. Maybe next time!

Nate and Heather were very accommodating. They opened every door and turned on every light. They let us see everything. We had nothing but good stuff to say about all that they had done. They’ve owned the house almost 2 years and they’ve accomplished a lot in that time. Nate did most of the work himself. We were all very impressed.

We left feeling good. We liked what we saw and knew that our old house was being well cared for. It was a good experience and the highlight of the day (at least for me).

Molls and Mags and how they like to sleep

2009-06-27T05:03:00.004-04:00

My life has been quite uneventful lately. I haven’t been particularity motivated to do a whole lot. Etsy’s been a bit slower than usual and when stuff doesn’t sell as quickly as I’m used to, I don’t feel quite as motivated to make beads. I still torch almost every day, but I’ve had more 2-3 hour workdays than 6-9 hour workdays lately. I haven’t been in the mood to do any house projects either. I’ve been a real slouch lately! I know me. This is how it is. Spunkiness comes and goes…

I finally got a picture of my Mags sleeping in a cute position! Normally, as soon as I get my camera out she sits up. So, here it is, folks!!

Molls and Mags are very different sleepers. Mags likes to make herself a nest and then when it’s made just right, she’ll sleep in the middle of it. Sometimes she likes to be covered and other times not. Here’s her latest “nest”:

It’s high on both sides. It really is a nest made out of blankets!! Maggie is tired. LOL

Molls isn’t quite as particular. As long as she'a UNDER the blankets, she’s happy. I *LOVE* the way Molly sleeps (Yes. I know. I’ve mentioned this before). Sometimes I see nothing but a pile of blankets, other times I see just a snout or a butt peeking out. And on rare occasions I see BOTH hanging out!

Yeah, my little porn star! A one-of-a-kind and she’s all MINE!!!

Sconces, Facebook RC, Molls

2009-06-15T17:06:00.001-04:00

I finally received the sconces I bought off eBay for the kitchen picture arrangement. The sconces I bought weren’t 100% perfect. I knew that when I bought them. No, they weren’t defective. The votive cups they came with were red.

No problem. I figured I’d just buy clear votive cups and chuck the red ones. The sconces and the replacement votive cups are all made by Home Interiors & Gifts. So, everything should fit. These are the votive cups I bought:

Yup. That was the plan. I open the box and find that these red votive cups are GLUED to the base!

This, peeps, is a big glob of glue…

MAN! I paid forty bucks for these sconces plus another eight bucks for the clear votive cups. I was NOT happy. I tried dissolving the glue with paint thinner and that didn’t work. My only option was to break the glass. I thought about the problem for a while and decided that I would try thermal cracking the glass first. If that didn’t work, then a hammer surely would.

So, yesterday I set out to bust up these red votive cups. I set the offending sconce part in a glass jar and found some nasty mustard colored glass that I would use to thermal shock the thing apart. I was hoping it didn’t explode (I was kinda worried because the red votive cup was “crackled”).

OMG, my little plan worked better than I had hoped! As soon as I put the half melted rod into the cup, the bottom just fell out! SA-WEEET!

No explosion or broken glass everywhere. It was GREAT.

The second cup did require a hammer, but one smack is all it took to loosen the bottom (keeper) part.

The bottoms were completely unaffected/unharmed throughout the process, thank goodness!

And the replacement votive cups fit in there perfectly!!!

Okay so, once I did all that I went to hang them. On the backs of them there’s a metal bit that holds a nail…

When I hung the first one on the wall, I wasn’t quite happy with how easily it could be knocked down. When I got them both up there, I wiggled one – just a little – and it came tumbling down. I was lucky, VERY LUCKY, that I caught the votive cup before it smashed to the floor. The problem, I figured, was that the metal bit was angled wrong. There wasn’t enough space behind it to hold the nail. So, I get a pair of pliers and try to bend it just enough so that the nail would fit better. Yeah, I do that and it promptly brakes off!

These sconces are turning out to be a lot more work than I intended! Since the first one broke off so easily and since they’re unacceptable they was they are, I broke the second one off too. The metal bits were welded or soldered in the wrong place, imo. They needed to be lower. Like this:

That way there’s plenty of room for a nail to actually HOLD it up on the wall. What I need now is a soldering iron or gun. I don’t own one, but I will soon, I guess.

So, the kitchen sconce situation is still pending.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve really gotten into Facebook’s Restaurant City game! It sucks up more of my time than I’d like to admit. :) I really enjoy it!! Here’s the inside of my restaurant (Roadkill Lodge):

What I like best about the game is building the menu! There are lots of dishes to make, but you have to have all the right ingredients before you can either learn it or level up that dish. My highest dish right now is my dessert.

I’m REALLY hoping for a banana tonight!!! Every night at 8 o’clock (eastern time), the game releases a free ingredient plus sends out a food quiz (a correct answer will get you an ingredient). So, 8 PM is an exciting time! What did I get, what did everyone else get, what ingredients are for sale (and how much), the flurry of trade requests, etc. LOL. It’s fun!

This afternoon I noticed something a bit odd…

Dirty kitchen rags don’t just pull themselves out of the holes of a laundry basket by themselves!!!

MOLLS! I didn’t see her do it, but I have no doubt it was her. Maggie never gets into mischief. It’s always THAT BROWN ONE! I’m on to you little one. I’m ON TO YOU!

Picture arrangement, bathroom rug, book sale

2009-06-08T12:15:00.001-04:00

I finally got the sconce for my living room picture arrangement. Here it is!

With the exception of getting a new television, I believe my living room is finished.

I also got the bathroom rug I bought off eBay. It’s okay. I wish it were more colorful…

It also has red in it.

It’s not the perfect rug for the room, but it’s okay for now. If I find something better, I’ll buy it. Right now though, I’m tired of looking so it’s gonna stay for a while.

My sister, her family and I went to the Erie County Library System’s used book sale. We were there as the doors opened. The place was PACKED!

As time went by, more and more people came in, it got hotter (and smellier!) and the books got more and more jumbled. After only an hour, we were all ready to leave! It was a mad house. Even so, we all took home a good haul!

I like to read before going to bed, so I got enough to last the rest of the year. The books were cheap -- $1.00 for paperbacks and $2.00 for hard covers. It was definitely worth the hassle!

I don’t have anything unusual going on this week. It should be a relaxing and productive week for me and the girls.

More pictures on the wall

2009-06-04T03:58:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week, I received the 2 pictures I bought off eBay for my living room:

I also bought a picture shelf, candle and the Lenox rose to go with these pictures. Here’s the arrangement:

And a close-up of the picture accents:

And here’s what it looks like in the room:

Along with the 2 flower pictures, I also received a swag. It was for the gazebo picture:

The auction described this swag as burgundy. Here’s the auction picture:

Do these flowers look burgundy to you?

They are without question PURPLE. ::sigh:: As much as I love purple, purple isn’t what I want in the living room! So, I decided to put the purple swag in the bathroom…

And then move the swag that was in the bathroom into the living room:

I’m not sure if the white flower swag is going to stay in the living room. When I open the door all the way, it hits it. It is a puffy swag…

I’ve decided to wait and see if it’s problematic. Aesthetically, I think it’s fine.

I have one more wall in the living room to decorate and then I’ll be done!

I bought this picture for that wall:

But I haven’t hung it yet because I’m waiting on the 2-arm sconce that goes with it (eBay purchase):

I got the replacement wastebasket this week also:

It’s a tad bit pinkish. I didn’t notice it in the store, but next to my ivory wall and white toilet it looks a little pink. BUT, I don’t care. It’s good enough. It looks fine…

My young neighbors are still keeping up with their own yard work.
Work it, girl! WORK IT!

Looks tiring…

Yeah, been there, done that. I'm so glad I'm not doing it any more. :)

Pictures on the wall

2009-05-28T17:04:00.001-04:00

I went to Wal-Mart a few days ago and found a rug for my kitchen!

I bought it for either the kitchen or bathroom. It was too big for the bathroom, so it’s now officially the kitchen rug.

I’m having the toughest time finding a bathroom rug I like. I’ve checked out most of the stores locally and have had ZERO luck. I’ve now resorted to shopping online. There ARE purple bathroom rugs out there…

This one the green is all wrong:

This one has blue in it:

This one I found on eBay and is being sold as a set. The rug looks flimsy plus it’s a little busier than I want:

This one is okay, but I’m not crazy about the purple loopy edge pattern:

This one is too busy (the checkered thing is a bit much…):

The ones I like best are the next 3.

This one is okay, but it has pink in it. Plus I’m worried about the shade of purple. I want a bathroom rug that has purple IN it but not the dominate color.

I could buy the rug that goes with the wastebasket I bought. Kohl’s wants $40 for it plus I’m not crazy about the abstract nature of the flowers.

So, that leaves me with this one. It’s perfect except there’s NO purple in it. It does have SOME color to it while not being too busy. I just wish the flowers were purple and not white.

The thing is, is that I’m getting tired of looking. I’ll probably buy the above the rug and if I ever run into the PERFECT rug, I’ll grab it up. Until then, this one is okay.

Yesterday, I decided to hang 2 of my new pictures up. Neither arrangement is done, but since the accents won’t affect the picture’s position on the wall, there’s no reason I can’t hang them now. Here’s the one in the kitchen. Ooooooooooh-Ahhhhhhhhhh!

To complete the arrangement, I bought 2 sconces (Kitty, I was out bid on the brass set. I ended up buying 2 bronze ones instead.). To go here and here:

And the gazebo picture!

I bought a floral swag to go over it. Kinda like this:

I got the floral figurine that I bought for the bathroom in the mail today. It’s a little smaller than I thought it would be, but that’s okay. It’s fine (the colors in it are PERFECT).

It looks good up there!

Last week, I also bought a rose figurine to go on a picture shelf in the living room and I got it also today.

It’s really nice! It’s made by Lenox (I bought it used off eBay).

Once I buy a rug for my bathroom, that should be it. I’ll be all done buying everything I need to decorate the living room, bathroom and kitchen. All I have to do is wait around for it all to get here.

Painting, glass prep work, living room

2009-05-26T02:32:00.002-04:00

I swear, this will be the LAST time I post pictures of my plain kitchen walls! I know, so exciting. I’m excited though. I’m DONE and it was worth doing because both are much improved. I’ll put the trim back on the lights later today.

It didn’t take me all of yesterday to paint one wall. I spent the rest of the day prepping for beads. I was shocked at how LONG it took me. I spent 8-9 hours yesterday prepping for beads and several more today. I now have all the prep work done for the next 10 days. I guess when I think about it, an hour of prep work every day is about right. I’ve just never done it all at one go before (and I doubt I’ll ever do it again).

And a close-up of the twisties cuz twisties are AWESOME. I never get tired of looking at twisties – even my own.

Stringer is…..not as exciting………

Tonight I turned on my new lamp in the living room. WOW! It’s looking so homey in there. I can’t wait to get everything I need to complete the picture arrangements I have planned. Ohhhhhhh, aaaaaaaaa!

More painting and house stuff

2009-05-23T14:39:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I got the first coat of ceiling paint on. I’ll put the second coat on today and I’ll be DONE with the ceiling. YAY!!

The wall. I continued to have issues with the wall yesterday. Apparently, I put too much spackling on too quickly yesterday and the bubbles came back with a vengeance. ARGH! So, I cut out the offending paint (YES, I guess it’s possible to do that if all the paint layers are wet enough…). I let the wall dry for several hours and applied 3 VERY THIN layers of spackling 3-4 hours apart. That seemed to do the trick, thank god.

I put a thin layer of primer over the spots this morning and I’ll put the first coat of paint on tomorrow. Normally, I would do the painting later today, but I’ve already had mucho issues so I don’t want to push my luck.

I had the ceiling painted by yesterday afternoon. I didn’t feel like making beads so I decided to go shopping. Last weekend when I went to the mall to buy my cousin a baby shower gift, I stopped off at JCPenny’s home department. While I was there I noticed that all their lamps were 50% off. I didn’t buy a lamp then cuz it wasn’t what I was there for (I am a purposeful shopper). All this week I’ve been thinking about those lamps. I need one and I’d hate to go back in a month or so and find that they’re all full price. So, last night I decided to go back to Penny’s and buy a lamp.

$200 bucks, this lamp!

At 50% off, I paid $100. SWEET!

So, while I was in Erie (a 45-minute car ride away), I decided to check out the Amish Buggy, which is less than a mile away from the mall, for an end table. I bought a small table for my living room last year when I bought my kitchen table and chairs. If possible, I want the end table to match it. Since I bought the small TV table at an Amish furniture store, the Amish Buggy seemed like a good place to look for a matching piece. It took me about 2 minutes to find it AND it was on sale! I guess with the recession EVERYTHING is on sale. And here it is (it’s an excellent match):

And a doily, cuz it looks better with a doily…

OKAY! End table, doily and lamp (ta-da!):

I’m making some serious progress on my living room! I’m still working on the picture arrangements. I want one here and here:

And another one here:

And a TV here:

And a couple of burgundy accent pillows for the loveseat.

Okay so, last weekend when I was at the mall I bought an accent rug for my kitchen. I want a rug for the floor around the sink. Right here:

When I got it home, I didn’t like it. It was too small. I want a rug that’s about 2’x5’, I’ve decided. So, the rug I bought for the kitchen ended up on the basement staircase landing (an unplanned bonus):

You know when I said that my goal this year was to furnish and decorate my living room? Well, that’s not entirely correct. In addition to that, I also want to finish decorating the bathroom and kitchen. A little here, a little there and I’m making progress!

Last weekend while in Erie I also bought new shower curtain hooks. I bought bathroom coordinates a few years ago. Those of you who read my blog might remember when I got them. Anyway, the colors were purple, yellow and green. Although I’m still going with those colors, the coordinates I bought originally aren’t the right shade. They’re pastel (the purple is lavender and the green is mint) and I want darker colors. Here are the old shower hooks:

It’s the MINT I don’t like. They’ve GOT to go! The yellowish ivory is much better, imo.

I also bought new hand towels.

Here is the old hand towel:

Color makes all the difference! Much better. I refuse to buy colored bath towels, btw. It seems whenever I do it only takes a few months and they get blotchy and faded. Yeah, no thanks.

The visible hand towels in my bathroom are only for decoration, btw. The hand towel I actually use I keep in the second drawer of the vanity with the shavers and dental floss (clean ones in the cabinet). :) So, if you’re ever at my house, don’t be rubbing your dirty hands all over my good hand towels! Use the cruddy ones like I do.

So, the shower hooks and hand towels have been replaced. That leaves the wastebasket and rug.

When I was at my cousin’s baby shower last weekend, I told my aunt Ellen how much I liked her bathroom (it’s purple like mine!). I asked her where she found her shower curtain and bathroom coordinates and she said Kohls. When I bought my area rug for my living room earlier this week, I also went to Kohls to check out their purple bathroom stuff. Indeed, they do sell purple bathroom stuff. I loved the wastepaper basket in particular. It would go perfectly in my bathroom. I quickly picked it up and checked it out. It all looked good! Then I saw the price…$55.00!!!!!!!!!!!! Um. NO. As quickly as I picked it up, I put it right back. There’s no way I’m paying $55 for a painted ceramic rubbish bin. I don’t care if it IS purple!

So, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a wastebasket for my bathroom. At every store I went to this week, I looked. No luck. Here’s my current wastepaper basket, btw. It’s nice, but again, I’m not liking the mint and lavender…

So, I’ve been kinda bummed about the wastebasket situation. I found the perfect one, but my cheap-self won’t buy it. Here’s a picture of it…

This morning I decided to search on eBay for it (you know, to see if I could find it cheaper). I found it…

At $55.00, Kohls can KISS IT. At $57.00, this eBay seller can FRENCH KISS IT! ::sigh::

So, eBay was a bust. Then I decided to see if Kohls was having or would have some kind of sale soon or if I could find a coupon code (you know, ANYTHING to make this garbage can cheaper!). I check out their website and YES, I see a sale price!

I also found a promo code for an additional 10% off. COOL. So, I decided to buy it. My final price was $37.00 with shipping and tax. $37 is still a bit higher than I wanted to pay (personally, I think $25 is plenty for a small wastebasket), but I bought it anyway cuz it’s perfect and I can’t find one anywhere else.

So, that leaves the rug. I still haven’t found one to replace it yet. I’m working on it…

There’s one more spot I need to deal with in the bathroom before I call the room finished. Here’s the spot:

I put a candle with a ring of flowers on the toilet tank and a candle with potpourri on the countertop. So, candles, flowers and potpourri are all out. What I need there is a knickknack. As much as I dislike knickknacks (they’re glorified dust collectors), I need one. Whenever I’m out shopping, I keep an eye out. I’ve had ZERO luck and I’ve been looking for over a year. Last night, I decided to try eBay (I’ve had GREAT luck with eBay and decorating) and I found one I liked. Here it is:

It was a Buy It Now, so I didn’t even need to wait and bid on it. I think I paid $22 for it (with shipping). I hope I like it in person and that it looks good up on that shelf. I’ll find out, I guess.

Okay, so that’s it. It’s been a productive decorating/painting week! Speaking of painting, I need to get to that second coat of paint on the kitchen ceiling before the sun goes down much further (The secret to a good paint job is good lighting, and YES, I learned that the hard way!). TTYL.

Priming, new furniture, new rug, neighbors

2009-05-21T22:56:00.003-04:00

It seems all I ever talk about are: house projects, my dogs, my neighbors and occasionally beads. Well, today is no different!

I got my kitchen ceiling primed and ready to be painted. I won’t miss that shiny paint whatsoever!

I got the wall primed too.

But I’m not 100% done with the walll…

Kind of a long story. I started painting with a paddle type thingy, thinking it would drip less than a roller, plus it said on the package that it applied the paint flatter than a roller. WELL, that POS turned out to be a waste of time and money! It left streaks/lines, which I can live with on the ceiling but not the wall. So, I primed the wall with the paddle. I didn’t like it and switched to a roller. MUCH better. The roller didn’t cover the streaks very well so I spackled over the worst of them/those at eye level. Then I primed the wall again (3rd time) with a roller. I noticed some spots that I didn’t sand as well as I should have so I respackled/sanded/primed (4th time). Yeah, it’s like the grout situation…. Well, after I do all that I notice some spots where bubbled up. I tried sticking a pin in them. That didn’t work. OMG. FINE. So, I took a spoon and scraped them open. I’ll fix those spots tomorrow. That wall needs to dry completely before I go near it again! It’s frustrating. Normally, I’m not that anal about a wall, but THIS wall shows every fault because of the sliding glass door plus it’s right next to the table and I want at least the part of the wall that’s at eye level to be as close to flawless as I can get it. Overall, the wall is much improved, thank goodness. Now, I’ve just got these 4 spots to fix. Anyway, I’m making progress in my usual way, I guess. I hate painting…

While in the kitchen painting, I notice my young neighbors doing their yard work. They own a push mower, but not a riding mower, which they need cuz they own an acre and a half. Apparently, they borrowed one from someone.

Overall, they do a very good job mowing their yard. They weed-wack a lot more often than I ever do. Plus they use their pusher a lot more so when they do mow, it’s nice and neat. Me, I buzz the yard down with the rider every week and then push mow the spots I couldn’t get to with the rider every other week and then weed-wack every 3 weeks or so. Anyway, my young neighbors are now doing their own yard work!

Today was exciting. This afternoon the loveseat and recliner I ordered a month ago were delivered. YAY!

Other than having Kitty’s old couch in there for a year and having curtains on the windows, I’ve never done anything with this room. It’s almost always been an empty room. Well, not any more! My goal this year is to get my living room completely finished. (In January, my goal was to be to furnish and decorate the entire inside of my house, but I’ve downsized my ambitions…).

Now that I actually have these pieces in the room, I see now that I’ll probably need one more picture arrangement. This corner is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I plan to put an end table and lamp in this area, but it will be far enough from the wall that a picture would be nice right there.

Okay so, this morning the painting thing wasn’t going that great but having the furniture delivered was exciting. I decided to not think about painting today but instead decided to go shopping for an area rug. I found one at Home Depot.

Oh yeah! It’s starting to look like someone lives here!

I also put down a rug in front of the front door. I bought it at JCPenny when I went out to buy Nicole a baby shower gift last Friday.

To finish the room I still need one more picture, several “go with” picture items like sconces, wall planters, wall shelves, etc., an end table, a lamp, 2 small pillows for the loveseat, and a TV. Yup, I think that’s it!

Baby shower, stamps & painting

2009-05-18T16:22:00.003-04:00

I went to my cousin Lynne’s baby shower yesterday. It was WELL attended!

The party pretty much consisted of mingling and eating for 3 hours.

Here is the only picture I took that had the mother-to-be in it. Her name is Nicole and she’s a junior at Edinboro University. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get any pics of my cousin Lynne.

The party took place at my aunt Ellen’s house. Here’s a picture of Kitty and her family in the kitchen, which, btw, I used as inspiration for my own kitchen.

After talking with my aunt Ellen I learned that she got her mower stuck near where my dad’s wood pile used to be. Kitty, Craig and the kids and I decided to get it unstuck. While doing that I took the opportunity to take some pictures of my dad’s house (which isn’t his any more cuz he died…). Anyway, it’s always nice to see the house.

After getting home, I took a 3-hour nap and then made beads. Not too exciting.

I ordered stamps last week and I got them in the mail today. Normally, when I buy stamps I get them as a pile of stamps. Like this:

This last order was different though. All the one-cent, two-cent and five-cent stamps came INDIVIDUALLY packaged!

It’s so very annoying! Every single sheet is packaged all by itself. I got a huge pile of ‘em…

This afternoon I decided to get started on painting the kitchen ceiling.

I got the trim painting (primer) done, but that’s it.

I’ll put the first coat of primer on the remainder of the ceiling tomorrow. I hope to sneak a nap in this afternoon and then make beads tonight.

I love the way my Molls sleeps!

2009-05-16T20:53:00.002-04:00

I love the way my Molls sleeps. It's always cute -- even if all I see is her hind-end! :)

Why are you bothering me!?

Speaking of Molly’s hind-end, it’s completely free of that irritation she had a few weeks ago. I’ll spare you the close-up “after” shots. LOL. I don’t powder her any more, but I still use the hemorrhoid astringent cleaning wipes.

My kitchen is clean again. Yay! Tonight I’m making beads and tomorrow I’m going to my cousin’s baby shower. I’ll take pictures!

Spackling

2009-05-15T21:19:00.002-04:00

Okay, I’m done spackling the ceiling and wall in my kitchen.

Now, I have a HUGE mess on my hands.

The floor…

The countertops and appliances…

Well, EVERYTHING!

I just came back from shopping (I needed to buy a gift for a baby shower I’m going to this weekend) and I’m really tired. Shopping really whips me out, which is probably why I don’t care to do it. I think I’m going to go to bed early tonight and clean it all up tomorrow.

I’m REALLY glad that I’m done with the spackling, especially the ceiling. It was ZERO fun. Painting isn’t much better, unfortunately. I plan to start painting early next week. The sooner I can get this particular job behind me, the better.

Yuck!

2009-05-14T14:21:00.001-04:00

I’m stringing up beads, minding my own business, and something catches my eye. What is THAT?

A spider -- a particularly large one. YUCK!

I see them in my basement every now and then, but rarely upstairs. How did she get in??

Tools of capture!

One more picture before I evict her!

I’m a magnet for unwanted critters lately….

Today, I’m spackling. Fun, fun.

Yard work & new screen

2009-05-13T19:28:00.001-04:00

I mowed the yard yesterday. I planted grass on my burn pit. Since I don’t burn stuff regularly (I have garbage pick-up) I really don’t need it any more (it’s a spring time thing). In a couple weeks (I hope), the big black scorch mark will be gone.

I got my push mower up to snuff yesterday too and so I finally was able to do a proper mow job on the grass. While clipping the grass behind the propane tanks I discovered where the chipmunk that chewed my window screen lived.

I stuck a rock in one of the holes. Not sure why cuz that never works. I put a bag of poison in the window well this spring and I haven’t seen the little bastard since. Maybe the rock will discourage any newcomer. Who knows!

After I buzzed down the yard, I finally got around to taking the basement screen window out. I *hate* rodents! It seems I have problems with them every year.

I got the new screen in (finally!).

It took me a few tries. Cutting a replacement screen EXACTLY the right size is harder than it sounds!

So, here it is!

Today is a bead making day. So, I better whip-whip and get going!

Molls, bathroom beauties, pictures, house work

2009-05-12T17:21:00.001-04:00

Molly’s “butt roll” LOL. (Please ignore her bad haircut. I gave her a “quickie” and haven’t had time to clean it up.)

A few weeks ago I bought some pictures and a swag for my bathroom on eBay. They arrived in the mail a few days ago.

I finally got around to hanging the new pictures up.

And the new swag…

I didn’t chuck what I had there before. I just put the new swag on top. It looks much better now. Here’s what it used to look like:

I still haven’t hung the gazebo picture up yet that I bought for the living room. I did get the copper rose I wanted to hang with it, but now that I see it, I don’t think it’s enough. I think I need a sconce to complete the ensemble.

I also bought another picture for the living room:

And this is the spot I plan to hang it:

I haven’t purchased anything to go with it yet. I’m thinking I might get a shelf. Not sure.

The last picture I bought was for the kitchen. I also got some leaf things to hang with it.

Yeah so, my living room now has all these pictures sitting around waiting to be hung…

The reason I haven’t hung the kitchen picture yet is because I need to fix the wall I plan to hang it on first. Vern is NOT a good drywall finisher! The high glass paint plus the way the light hits it makes it really obvious. I need to fix it!

This spot is either drywall mud that wasn’t sanded enough or paint. I don’t know. I sanded some of it off, to see if I could, and I should be able to fix it.

There are several spots where I can clearly see the drywall mud patch. It was poorly finished, imo. I hope I can fix them!

They are really hard to photograph, but in person it’s much easier to see (especially with the lighting in this room plus the high gloss paint). I plan to cover the patches as best I can with spackling and then repaint the wall with a satin finish. As it is, I’m not happy with it and before I hang the picture I want to fix the wall.

AND before I fix that wall, I want to fix the ceiling. I hate the high gloss paint. I should have used flat paint on the ceiling.

But before just slapping some new paint up there, I might as well fix all the faults first (and there are plenty…) here too.

First, there are lots of popped screws.

And Vern got lazy around several of the lights…

He probably thought the trim would cover it. He was wrong!

And there are some visible seams that I might try and make less visible. Flat paint alone should make the situation much better. I’ll do what I can though.

So, I have a lot of pita type of painting to do before I can hang my new picture in there. I went to Wal-Mart today and bought all the primer/paint I need. I’ll start working on that soon.

I still haven’t replaced the basement window screen…

The stuff to fix it has been in my kitchen for at least a month!

I also want to replace the basement door threshold. It’s the one I bought for 20 some bucks at Home Depot several months ago. It’s too light! I tried stripping it before I installed it, but nothing worked. Whatever type of top coat is on it, is some tough stuff! It’s natural oak and all the woodwork in my house is golden oak.

So, when I bought all the thresholds for my living room, I also bought an extra one for this spot (at $2/foot I might as well). It’s been in my kitchen – what? since February? Not sure, but it’s been on my to-do list for a while.

I swear, the work around here never ends! ::sigh:: I plan to chew through these projects soon. I’m getting really tired of thinking about all the needs done and not being able to move forward because I need to do certain things first. When I’m making beads, I don’t have time to do anything else. So, what I’ve decided to do is make beads on one day and then the next work on house stuff and alternate like that until I’ve made some progress. I’ll keep ya’ll updated on how things go.

Backyard shed – new roof

2009-05-07T19:43:00.001-04:00

I finally finished re-reroofing my shed this afternoon! OMG, was that project A LOT of work.

I did the demo on Sunday.

On Monday I cleaned up and bought materials.

On Tuesday, I added 4 new boards to replace the rotten one on the roof and added pieces of 2x4 to some of the rafters to give me something solid to hammer the trim board onto.

Then I added the trim board…

And painted it.

Next, I added more flashing to the peek and where the little shed meets the bigger shed.

There were a lot of nail holes in the old flashing on the peek.

So, I smeared rubberized tar in all those holes plus all the seams on the new flashing. You know, just to be safe!

Then I started putting on the tar felt paper. I bought the 30-pound stuff. I started off by putting felt paper in every vulnerable spot – the peek, the edges and where the 2 sheds meet.

I was kinda anal about it. When I did the edges, I covered up as much as I could. I’m not sure, if that’s the right thing to do, but that’s what I did.

After I got all the vulnerable spots covered, I then covered the whole roof, which I finished on Wednesday. I layered it in such a way that there’s at least 2 layers over the whole thing. I also added the drip edge.

By Wednesday afternoon I was FINALLY ready to add the new shingles. After reaseraching how to install shingles (doing the “first course” and the peek), I went at it. It took me a day and a half to install the new shingles. It only rained once and I worked right threw it. I was on a mission to finish!

Okay so, here’s the new roof!

I think I did a good job. Time will tell, I guess.

Oh, I also added some mesh filter type stuff to block off the space between the rafters and the fascia in the smaller shed.

Hopefully, that will discourage the mice from nesting in those areas. I found several mouse nests while demoing. One was quite fresh. It had a dead mouse still in it (I guess the poison I put out did it’s thing!).

I have no idea if that will work. Here’s hoping!

So, I have a new roof on my shed and I am so, soo, soooooooo glad it’s over! That was so much work. I’m sore all over!

Unfortunately, the shed isn’t quite up to snuff yet. The smaller shed needs a new floor (cuz the roof was leaking really bad and the dumbass who built it used OSB board, which rotted right out.)

I also want to build a new ramp. So, I’m not done DONE with the shed, but at least the roof part is done.

My backyard shed

2009-05-03T20:34:00.002-04:00

I have a shed in my backyard (well actually, it’s two sheds put together). It’s where I keep my mowers, rakes, shovels and stuff.

Well, the roof on it has been leaking for about 3 years and one of my projects to do this summer is put a new roof on it. It needs work badly!!

Today, I decided to start working on it. I don’t know what kind of roofing material was on it. I’ve never seen it before. It was asphalt, but not shingles. It was more like asphalt sheeting (plus tar paper). I’m sure whoever did it last choose not to put shingles on it cuz it was too expensive. It was crap! It was probably crap when it was put on… Anyway, I got it all off.

Overall, the roof is in okay condition. (Notice how the flashing doesn’t cover the entire peek? Nice.)

Some of the edges have some water damage.

There was a piece of wood that covered the rafters right here…

It was so rotten it just fell off!!

There was one part of the roof that had extensive water damage.

So, I took that board off.

The ends of the rafters on this edge aren’t in great condition.

I don’t mind replacing a few pieces of wood, but I am NOT going to replace the rafters! It would have to be much, much worse for me to want to do that. I’ll put a fresh piece of wood over them, plus a new roof. That’s good enough, imo.

Okay, so I did all that and then went inside to get something to eat. I realized then that I was getting kinda tired. I did plan to clean up that mess, but there’s always tomorrow…

Car inspection and new curtains

2009-05-01T12:01:00.001-04:00

She passed!!

She’s good for another year, thank goodness.

One of my goals this year is to make my house more of a home. I’ve owned my house now for almost 5 years and thus far I’ve spent almost all my time, effort and money on the house itself and nearly nothing on all those things that make a house a home (like furniture, pictures, etc.). The year is almost half over and my progress has been SLOW. Anyway, I bought some new curtains for my living room. Here is what I had up:

And here are the new curtains:

I *hate* shopping for curtains! The new curtains are okay. My house is small, the rooms inside are small and the windows are small. Curtains that obscure too might light make the room (plus the office and living room) look dank and even smaller. I don’t need that! The new curtains provide some privacy and still let quite a bit of light in. Perfect. Overall, I’m happy with them (AND they were on sale, so I got a good deal on them).

Yard work & car inspection

2009-04-28T12:40:00.002-04:00

This past weekend I noticed one of my young neighbors out doing some yard work! Greg raked up the stones from the front yard…

Gassed up his mower…

And mowed his line in the grass!!

He was the first of my neighbors to mow! I guess he’s letting me know that he can handle his own yard work this year. Alright!!

He didn’t mow any of the back yard, but a lot of the sticks were picked up. I noticed yesterday they have a little burn pile going.

I did a little yard work too yesterday. I burned my burn pile.

I had all kinds of stuff to burn this year – the underlayment of the old bathroom floor, lots of pieces of scrap woodwork and laminate flooring, and my old office chairs. Kinda sad seeing the chairs go. I spent lots of time in them.

I also juiced up my mower battery and mowed my front yard. I’m always relived that the mower works after sitting in the shed all winter. Mice LOVE to live in my shed. Aside from some mouse poop on the deck, it ran fine (thank goodness! No wires chewed).

I dropped my car off to be inspected yesterday. Fingers crossed she passes!!

Mini Pepperoni and cheese calzones!

2009-04-24T19:27:00.000-04:00

Mini Pepperoni and cheese calzones!

They turned out GREAT!

Crispy on the outside…

And gooey on the inside!

MAN! Excellent. And they were so easy to make! I have some ham and cheese I was going to use to make a breakfast casserole, but I’ve decided to use it instead to make ham and cheese calzones. OH YEAH!! I love it when stuff turns out.

Picture and rolls

2009-04-24T17:34:00.001-04:00

About a week and a half ago I ordered a picture for my living room. I finally got it and here it is!!

It’s a gazebo scene with fall foliage and spring flowers. Lol. Well, it’s pretty!

As much as I love the paint job in my living room, I don’t mind coving some of it up. I plan to put it here:

I haven’t hung it yet cuz I haven’t received the copper rose accent that I plan to hang with it. When I do, I’ll show it to ya.

It’s gonna be a lot different in my living room when I finally get furniture in there. I won’t be able to be quite as lazy and use the room as a stopover any more. Currently, I have my last glass order in there…

Twenty pounds of dark ivory. The new batch ROCKS! I haven’t seen this dark of an ivory in 3 years or so.

This afternoon I made pepperoni rolls. I’ve never made them before, so here’s hoping they turn out. I added cheese too, so they aren’t technically pepperoni rolls and they aren’t round either – more like mini-loafs. Whatever. As long as they taste good! I used frozen bread dough to make them. I bought a bag of 5. I need to use them up before they get freezer burn. I only have one loaf pan so I’m thawing them one at a time. I should add another loaf pan to my shopping list.

Not much else is going on at my house. My life is pretty much sleeping and working. Yesterday, I slept for 13 hours and today I slept 12. I *love* to sleep! I don’t sleep those hours straight though. I usually get 7-9 hours in a long sleep (not necessarily at night) and then 3-5 hours during a nap. Add 8-10 working and my day is gone. Speaking of work, I need to get busy! ttyl

Car, Molls, Yard Work

2009-04-22T11:53:00.001-04:00

I got my car back yesterday! The new cradle looks much better than the old one.

In addition to having the engine cradle replaced, I also had 25 feet of the brake line replaced, which, as it turns out, is NOT a cheap repair either. My car still needs new back brake drums and an inspection. If it passes (fingers crossed!), I will have spent $1500 or so. It better pass cuz another car repair bill would really suck right now.

Molly’s pee’er is doing MUCH better!!! Check it out!

And a close up:

It’s still not 100%. Her skin shouldn’t be dark like that, but it’s much better than it was. She now only has one open sore.

And a close up:

The clean/powder routine IS working, so that sore should be gone in a week or so. She takes it all in stride!

Yeah. I don’t skimp on the powder!

Speaking of Molly. A couple years ago she fell down the stairs and knocked 3 of her front teeth askew. One of those teeth FINALLY fell out this week.

And a close up:

I found the felled tooth on the basement floor. Kinda nasty…

I’m hoping the other 2 eventually fall out as well. They’re hard to clean because they’re loose. Plus they’re extremely susceptible to decay because some of the root is exposed.

Earlier this week the weather warmed up enough that I could start working on cleaning up the yard. The part I hate the most is removing all the gravel from the front yard that the snowplow kicked up. It’s hard as hell to rake and a pita to pick up.

This year, I decided to try something different and use my shop-vac to suck it up. It worked GREAT! Screw the squatting with the bucket method! It was still hard on my back and took several hours, but it was the easiest method I’ve ever tried. So, that was good.

I removed lots of sticks from the back yard. I got a little burn pile going…

I noticed this morning that since I picked up the sticks last more sticks fell. So, I’m not 100% done with the clean-up, but I’m pretty close (the gravel is the biggest thing).

This weekend it’s supposed to get into the mid 70’s and I might get the mower out and buzz the yard down. Yee-haw! I’m kinda anxious to mow. I want that “mowed line” between my yard and my neighbor’s yard! For those of you who don’t know the history of my neighbor’s and the yard work you can read it here.

Okay, so all the crap in the back yard is still there.

Close-up of crap:

In addition to all the old crap, they now have a new addition to their back yard…

They must have a pellet stove or something. It’s ash. A LOT of ash!

I can’t help but wonder what that pile will look like in 5 years. You’d think they’d have spread it out instead of making a pile of it. I guess they don’t mind looking a pile of ash. Not my businesses, so whatever…

They have what everybody else around here has. Lots of sticks in the back yard:

And gravel in the front yard:

The only difference is they haven’t cleaned it up yet. Now granted, they still have time, but I’m betting they won’t pick it up until they absolutely have to. AND I’M NOT HELPING THEM! The thing is is the longer they put it off, the harder the clean up will be (especially the gravel). They’ve got some pretty big pieces out there. Chunks of road…

And chunks of concrete in the back yard that could easily be mowed over (I know, cuz I’ve mowed over their shit before).

So, all that is SO THEIR PROBLEM! I’m gonna do my own yard and that’s it. If they struggle with theirs, I don’t care. This will be summer number 4 for them and it’s time they did the work themselves. If they don’t do the work, they can enjoy the fruits of their labor – a crappy looking yard. I don’t care…

Yeah so, I’ll keep ya’ll updated on how they do.

Expensive car repair

2009-04-16T12:31:00.002-04:00

Okay, I got the estimate to have my car fixed. It took about an hour and a half (a real drag…). I asked that while my car was jacked up, that I be let in to look at it. So, they did that. Showed me how the metal was rusted all the way through. I asked about the frame on the body and he said it was in good shape (thank god!). I told him how I just had the brake line fixed and he showed me where I should probably have even more replaced (due to rust). Aside from the engine cradle, it will also need new bearings, brushes and a front-end alignment (all goes along with a new engine cradle). So, when it was all said and done the estimate to fix it was $869. Although this is an expensive repair, it IS worth doing on my car. I was so relieved!! A new car was NOT on my agenda this year.

Once I got the estimate, I told them to schedule me in. He said it would take about a week to get the part and then a couple days to install it. Okay. Cool. On my way home I went back to Lee (my mechanic) to schedule another day to have my car inspected (along with new brake drums and more of the brake line replaced). While I was there, he recommended that I have my car under-coated once a year to keep the rust at bay and he recommended a place where I could have that done. Okay, cool. That sounds like a good idea.

Very soon after coming home, I started making blueberry muffins. Before I even got the muffins in the oven, the body shop called and said they found an engine cradle for my car (it’s used, which is fine), that they would give me a rental car FREE and that I could drop off my car today. OMG! YEAH!

I’m home now. The car they gave me to drive is a cute little lime green Pontiac.

So, my car is officially at “the shop”. It probably won’t be done until next week. My appointment to have it inspected is on April 29th. I’ll let you know if she passes (I had no idea it would be such an ordeal this year!).

The muffins I made this morning are GREAT, btw! They’re blueberry. (I also put chicken in the crock-pot.) REAL food is wonderful!

A thing of beauty…

My new oven is a lot more efficient than my old oven (or maybe even most ovens). When I’m told to bake something for 15 minutes, I now know to check it at 10 minutes (and not just take the suggested time as fact). Yeah so, the cooking thing is going better. :)

More car trouble

2009-04-15T17:23:00.002-04:00

I took my car in to be inspected today. It failed. It failed last year too, but all I needed to get it to pass was new brake pads. No biggie. That’s not the case this year. This year, the damage is much more extensive. My mechanic told me that I need a new engine frame. I asked him to show me. He did. He took a small tire gauge thingy, tapped it and a big chunk fell off! So, then I say, “I guess this means she didn’t pass…” to which he responds, “OH NO!”

Without jacking the car up, it’s really hard to see the engine frame. I’ll show you what I can though. When I turn the wheels all the way to the right…

and then jam my camera up in there, this is what I see…

The rust is EXTENSIVE!

My car isn’t even safe to drive any more!

As I sit here typing this I’m REALLY pissed off! Of all the things on a car that should last, it should be the ~~fucking~~ FRAME! My car isn’t THAT old. It’s a 2000 Chevy Cavalier with 64,000 miles. This should NOT happen to a middle-aged car with low-ish miles. If this is how GM builds cars, then they totally deserve bankruptcy, imo! To hell with them. They deserve everything that coming to 'em!! I will never buy a Chevy again. If I do buy a new car, it will be a foreign car.

I have an appointment to get an estimate tomorrow morning on fixing the problem. If the cost to repair it is more than what the car is worth, then I’m getting a new car. This just totally sucks!

Susan Boyle!

2009-04-13T20:49:00.006-04:00

Check this woman OUT!!!

Susan Boyle

Too bad the USA doesn't broadcast this show (Britain’s Got Talent). At least we can see some of it on utube.

Biscuits, Molls and office chairs

2009-04-13T17:37:00.003-04:00

Thank you ladies for all your advice about baking biscuits (cut the biscuits thinner, lower the baking temperature and lengthen the baking time). I followed it and was successful. :)

And they taste good too!

Now that I can make biscuits I can also make creamed chicken over biscuits (crock pot) and there’s a breakfast casserole that I want to try and although the recipe calls for cubed bread, I’d much rather use biscuits. So, getting the biscuit thing down was important.

I’ve changed my method of attack on Molly’s crotch rot. The creams just don’t seem to be working and when I got to thinking about it and maybe instead of keeping her lubed up that I should be keeping her dry instead. So, that’s what I’m doing. After every trip outside, I gently clean her off with the hemorrhoid cleaning pads and then I put powder on her. Hopefully, this new approach will do the trick.

This picture illustrates perfectly my frustration! After coming in from going outside, Maggie immediately takes care of herself and Molly just lies there and makes ME to do it!

YES. I will eventually stop talking about my dog’s genitals. I swear.

Today, I bought new office chairs. Yay!! One is for my office desk and the other is for my lampworking table.

My old office chairs were given to me by my dad 11 years ago. Of all the chairs in my house, these are the two I use the most. In fact, they were the only 2 chairs I had in my entire house up until I bought my kitchen table chairs. I got a lot of use out of them! Here’s my old office chair:

Yes. It’s ugly. I can live with ugly, but what was getting difficult to live with was how uncomfortable the chair was. To make the chair more comfortable I added a seat cushion (several years ago) and a towel (several months ago). The towel helped, but not much. The chair itself is down to the frame and I can only do so much to minimize that.

My lampworking chair isn’t quite as bad, but it was getting there…

Yes. That is my butt print you see there! Lol. I’m sure you’re all wondering what the socks are for too, right? These chairs were too tall for me so my dad cut the legs down. The cut edge on the legs were really hard on my painted cement floor, so I added the socks. The socks also made pushing the chair in and out easier.

I’ve needed to replace these chairs for a long time (I hate shopping, so I kept putting it off..). I’m so glad I finally just went out and did it! The new chairs are SO MUCH better! I’ll be putting the old ones in the burn pile in a few weeks. Until then, the dogs will enjoy the new “basement furniture”! lol.

Hopefully, these new chairs will last a long time. The sales person told me that they’re business grade and not residential grade. I bought the models they had on the floor because they were 50% off. If I had ordered these chairs at full price, they would have been $800 EACH. Um. Wow. No. Even at $400 each, they’re pricey, imo (I was shocked!). The floor models are FINE. They don’t match, but they won’t be next to each other either, so it doesn’t matter. The green one will be my office chair and the burgundy one will be my lampworking chair.

Aside from getting new office chairs, I also wanted to buy some furniture for my living room. I bought a loveseat and recliner. It will be 6 weeks before they come in. I’ll show ‘em to you when they arrive. They’re GREEN!!

No biscuits

2009-04-11T04:31:00.007-04:00

Last night I decided to make biscuits. I used the recipe that I’ve had forever and one that my mom always used. I remember my mom baking her biscuits in a pie pan, so that’s what I did too. I made the dough, used my brand new biscuit cutter and put ‘em in my brand new pie pan. The recipe said to bake them at 450 for 10-14 mins. So, my plan was to set the timer for 10 minutes and go from there. At 10 minutes they seemed pretty brown to me, so I took ‘em out. I let them cool and went to eat one only to find that they were doughy in the middle. I tried putting them back into the oven and that didn’t work. Okay, FINE. I chucked ‘em. A bit of a learning curve, I guess.

So, tonight I decided to give the baking biscuits thing another go. I set the timer for 12 minutes this time and kept an eye on ‘em. At 12 minutes, they looked really brown to me so I took ‘em out.

I don’t remember my mom’s biscuits being this brown on top. I really thought they were cooked this time. Nope…

MAN! Not as doughy, but still undercooked. So, I chucked these too…

So, now I have still have no biscuits! I’ll try again tomorrow, I guess. I don’t want to mess up again, so tomorrow I plan to pound the dough out thinner, use a different dish and make more biscuits so that they aren’t as thick. Hopefully, they’ll cook all the way through without being burnt or over cooked on top. I realize I’m not a great cook, but I really thought making biscuits would be easy. ::sigh::

Beads, crown molding, Molls, cooking, and taxes

2009-04-09T11:13:00.002-04:00

I’ve been really busy making beads for the past few weeks. So busy, it’s hard to find time to do anything else! Many of the beads I make require a lot of prep work, the bulk of which is involves making twisties. I’ve made lots of twisties lately…

I did some test beads a few new bead designs. The one on the upper right is okay. The others need a bit more work.

I managed to finish installing the crown molding in my bathroom.

I’m STILL dealing with Molly’s crotch rot. ::sigh:: It’s NOT getting any better despite all my efforts. I did some research online about it and what she has is a “vulvar fold infection”. This is NOT a problem Molly should have. A typical case of this is on a dog who’s pee’er is very small (NOT true for Molly. Her twat’s huge!), on a dog who is overweight (nope), has excessive vulvar skin folds (no) or on a dog who’s vulva is recessed (definitely not). These are all very good reasons why a dog would get a vulvar fold infection. Molly has no good reason for having issues with this. She just refuses to clean herself after going outside. The location of the infection says it all…

It’s a totally accessible area for her! WTH?

A simple wipe after going outside didn’t help. I tried using an antiseptic wash. That didn’t do anything either. I also tried Neosporin, again nadda. All of these things I would do after EACH trip outside. Still no improvement. I took Molly to the vet for this a couple years ago and was given a topical antibiotic. It worked until I stopped using it. While I was there the vet also recommended that I clean her with hemorrhoid/vaginal cleaning pads. Those also worked until I stop using them. What really prevents this is me keeping her shaved. ANYWAY, she’s got it again and I need to get rid of it! While I was at Wal-Mart yesterday, I spent some time in the genital/butt care isle (an uncomfortable place to be, trust me!). I got several canisters of genital/butt cleansing pads plus some butt cream (Preparation H) and vaginal cream (anti-yeast). Hopefully, one of these specialized creams will do what Neosporin couldn’t.

The whole situation is aggravating! ARGH.

She is a cute little bugger though…

Then I kinda melt and all is forgiven!

Lately I’ve grown VERY weary of my diet. It’s the same old, same old – peanut butter sandwiches, chicken nuggets, yogurt, fried eggs, cheese. It’s all fast and easy type food. I’m SO bored with it! So, I’ve decided to start cooking and baking more. I hit Wal-Mart pretty hard yesterday!

I want to make muffins, rolls and biscuits. I want real food like casseroles and lasagna! I rarely cook so I needed a lot of the basics (like flour, sugar and shortening) plus containers to cook the food in (if I want muffins, a muffin pan is a must!) and I also bought containers to store the food in once I have it made. This morning I used my oven for the first time (Pathetic, I know! I HAVE used the stovetop, btw, just not the oven.) and made lasagna. It’s excellent. I had some for breakfast. :)

Last night I went over to Kitty’s and Craig helped me with my taxes.

Normally, I can handle doing my own taxes, but ever since my dad died, they’re a lot more complicated. Hopefully, I have only one more year of weird-o taxes to do and then it will all be behind me.

The LIGHT

2009-03-31T16:28:00.001-04:00

As I turn around I sense I’m in some kind of tunnel. It’s dark, but I see a LIGHT!! It’s SO bright and beautiful. Immediately, I sense that I’m not alone. There are beings in the Light! I can’t see their faces, but there are definitely 2 beings in the Light…

Oh. It’s just the dogs…

Looking at me curiously.

LOL. Well, that was fun. Kiln’s hot. Gotta go!!

Bathroom grout & staircase

2009-03-31T11:14:00.001-04:00

I removed the offending grout on my bathroom floor last week:

I used my carbide cutting wheel drill bit (Dremel). It worked GREAT! It was very exacting and just what I needed. Overall, the grout-removing project went fine. It was an EXTREMLY messy process though. I had to wear a dust mask and eventually I came upon the bright idea of using my shop vac to suck the dust up as I removed the grout. I wish I had done that all along. At one point, I got a chunk of grout in my eye. I repeatedly tried flushing it out to no avail. It was right on my iris! It HAD to come out. I ended up having to scrap it off with a piece of folded up toilet paper. It SUCKED. I hate eye injuries and FIXING eye injuries… Okay so, by the time I finished removing the grout, my entire house was COVERED in a fine white dust…

It was awful. It even got onto the basement steps! After making the mess and cleaning the mess, I finally got around to regrouting the bathroom floor. I sealed it last night. It looks fine, thank god.

I’m REALLY glad the whole grout situation is behind me.

I got the handrail up!! Ohhhhh-awwwwwe!!!!!!!

Somehow, I managed to get a blister from installing the handrail (from the screwdriver, no doubt). My new-grown callus provided me with very little protection…

I finally got around to adding the quarter-round around the last step of the staircase. Here it was before:

And after:

So now, the laminate floor install project is 100% DONE! Finally.

The last thing I worked on this week was the crown molding on my staircase. The gaps and glue were unappealing to me, so I wanted to cover it up. Without the flash you can see the gaps…

And with a flash, you can see the glue…

Close-up of the glue…

I added the molding this morning:

Kinda tough to see, but it’s much better now! There are still some gaps cuz the wall is wavy and I can only cover up some of that…

But it’s minor. NOT seeing the glue is the biggest improvement.

So, the staircase is all finished!!

I LOVE getting stuff done!! My next house project is installing crown molding in the bathroom, which I plan to work on this week.

Two steps forward, one step back

2009-03-25T10:05:00.001-04:00

Howdy. I’m still working on various projects around my house. I know, it’s all I write about these days. What can I say? It’s what I’m doing in my life right now! Aside from making beads, of course, and there’s nothing exciting about that really.

I got all the woodwork prepped and ready to be installed in various places around the house.

I marked out where I wanted the brackets for the handrail and then installed them. I was moving right along but when I went to double check that the railing would line up with the brackets, they didn’t. MAN! Two of them did (out of 4)…

Thinking about it, OF COURSE two brackets would line up. It only takes 2 points to achieve a straight line. DUH. I found the studs and measured and stuff. ::sigh:: My problem, I think, was finding the bottom. The staircase runner is on an angle and it’s tough to find the “bottom” of that (in EXACTLY the same place for all 4 brackets). Anyway, now I have to fix the drywall and find the correct position for the other 2 brackets. It shouldn’t be difficult now that I have 2 fixed points (draw a line between them and where that line intersects the stud is where the bracket needs to go). See how easy that is? Yeah. Hindsight is 20/20…

I’ve been diligently working on stripping the sealer off the grout on the bathroom floor in those areas where too much was left to dry. I’ve now come to the conclusion that the gray spots on my grout was caused by 2 things: too much sealer and imperfections in the grout. Any divots in the grout held more sealer. Those spots turned gray. Anyway, I’ve been stripping it and scrubbing the hell out of it and all the imperfections now have NO sealer. The gray spots are gone (good). However, all my scrubbing also made the divots much worse…

It SUX!

The now pronounced divots are worse than the gray spots I started with. The whole situation really bites! I’ve decided to remove the grout in those areas and regrout it.

So, I’ve been working on stuff and not really getting anything accomplished. I’m learning a few things though (and don’t tell me that “that’s what counts” cuz I don’t want to hear it).

Gett’n stuff done

2009-03-18T16:08:00.001-04:00

I really, REALLY want to get the laminate floor project 100% done, so I decided to install all the transitions last night. I cut off the overhang from the 2 remaining transitions (shown yesterday) and found that it was the perfect shape for the bottom part of the “T”.

Once I did that, installing it was no problem!

The transition for the bathroom involved a little more work. I had to cut a couple notches in it. It was easy to do with my skill saw.

Once I got the bathroom transition cut and in position, I realized that the bathroom door wouldn’t shut. AH. So, I had to take the door off and cut it…

I did that successfully. The door cleared the new transition.

Ta-da!!

I make it sound so easy and I guess it was. It took me 5 hours to install these 2 transitions though. Little jobbers really add up! Overall, I’m happy with them and am even happier that they’re finally installed! Now, the only job left to do to finish the laminate floor install is to put the quarter round around the last step to the upstairs staircase. I’m putting poly on the woodwork today and tomorrow.

When I was at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago I noticed a box of socket sealers. HUH! I had no idea they made such things.

Both Kevin and Scott mentioned the cold breeze coming through my electrical outlets. I noticed it too, but didn’t think I could do anything about it. I’m just letting ya’ll know that if you’ve ever noticed that the electrical outlets on your exterior walls are cold that you CAN do something about it! They’re really easy to install too. The only hick-up is when you have 2 electrical goodies right next to each other and in that case you’ll have to cut them. Otherwise, a very easy and cheap thing to do ($3/box – I only needed one box).

I finished giving Mags a haircut.

So, she’s back to her scrawny self!

LoL! Molls! She’s always got her nose in something!! (What’s on her nose today is a remnant of a felt cabinet bumper. LOL).

OH! I got my car back this afternoon and she’s as good as new! Six feet of new brake line, plus rear tire alignment and an oil and filter change was only $63. :)

This & that 2

2009-03-17T18:35:00.003-04:00

I took my car into the garage this afternoon. Hopefully, it will be fixed by tomorrow afternoon. I couldn’t believe I could get an appointment so quickly. Normally, I have to wait a week or so! I’m also very thankful that there’s an auto garage within walking distance of my house (about a mile). It would be a REAL pita if I had to bum a ride and/or wait for the work to be done.

I’ve been working on finishing up all the projects I have going on in my life right now. Yesterday I installed the transition by the front door. The only farting around I had to do was add an eight of an inch piece of wood.

Without it, it wasn’t flat.

So, that one is done. Two down and 2 to go.

The other 2 transitions involve going from laminate to tile. I really thought the transitions I bought would work, but now I realize that they won’t. The first transitions I bought, I didn’t like because they were rounded at the top and it felt funny walking over them. The second set of transitions I bought will work for the front door but not these other 2. My inexperience is a real handicap sometimes! The reason the transition that worked for the front door won’t work for the other 2 is because the tile isn’t 100% straight. When I put a straight transition next to it, it looks nasty!

I tried using my Dremel and a grinding stone to straighten the tile, but that just isn’t doable. Tile is REALLY hard stuff. What I need is a “T” transition that’s flat on top. Home Depot sells “T” transitions, but they’re rounded and REALLY pricey (like $35 for 6 feet – I think NOT). What I’ve decided to do is modify the transitions I do have by cutting off the ledge and then making a support piece. The support piece will need to be angled because one floor is higher than the other.

C & M Hardwoods sells flat pieces, but I just don’t want to drive all the way out there AGAIN. I’ll see what I can do with what I have and if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll go. I just wish I knew all this before I went out to buy transitions in the first place. I waste so much time because I don’t know what I’m doing! It’s irritating…

I got the basement floor painted. I figured since I had to paint over the Drylock, that I might as well do some spot painting as well. I did all the prep work last night (scraping and etching areas with peeling paint). The floor looks patchy, but that will fade away in about a month.

I finished Molly’s haircut (finally!) and started on Maggie’s (paws and face):

Isn’t my Mags CUTE!??

Molly’s cute too!! Just maybe more on the inside…

I’ve noticed this past year that my hands have really toughened up. I’ve got a growing callus on my right hand:

And some really thick skin on my thumb!

Girly hands I have not…

Car trouble

2009-03-15T18:11:00.001-04:00

I went out this afternoon to buy food, but before I went to Wal-Mart I stopped to put gas in my car. As I go to pull out I notice my brake petal went almost to the floor! It definitely felt different. I tested the brakes and although I could get the brakes to stop the car, they were definitely SOFT. AH! I go on my way to Wal-Mart (less than a block away) and proceed carefully. When I finish my shopping and go back to my car I notice some fresh honey-colored liquid under my car. I kneel down to see if it’s coming from my car and sure enough it is. I put all my groceries into the car and then go back inside to buy brake fluid. I put the brake fluid in, pump the brakes some and they’re still soft. I check the brake light and it’s not on, but I know there’s something wrong with the brakes on my car. The drive home was seriously stressful!

When I pulled into the driveway I had to slam the brakes as hard as I could to get the car to stop!

I put a plastic bin under the leak…

By the time I had unloaded the groceries and put them all away, there was a good dollop of break fluid in it!

I HATE car trouble! I must get this fixed ASAP.

Cake Shop

2009-03-14T18:38:00.004-04:00

This is a fun game!!

Cake Shop

Install baseboard – CHECK!!

2009-03-12T20:29:00.002-04:00

Before making beads tonight, I decided to put in the last piece of baseboard. Ohhh, ahhhh!!

Check out that joint! No wood putty either. There was a time when I didn’t know how to make those joints. I can’t believe now I paid Kevin to install the baseboard in my kitchen! Oh well…

And nice and tight by the door.

Overall, an easy job that went well. Cool. Now, on to other things!

This & that

2009-03-12T16:48:00.002-04:00

It’s been almost a week since I last wrote and I can’t say I’ve completed a single thing. Well, that’s not exactly true. I did install one of the transitions! It’s the only one that’s laminate and not wood. So, it was really easy to install – cut it to length and snap it in.

I finished putting the last coat of poly on the transition piece for the 3 other thresholds and the last piece of baseboard last night. I can install the baseboard any time now, but before I can install the transitions, I need to clean them up first. Mucho thinset over flow…

Sometime last week I had to go back to C & M Hardwoods to buy more transitions. I didn’t like the first ones I bought there. They were rounded on top and I did NOT like how that felt under foot. So, I went back and bought the flat kind. While I was there I bought some other woodwork too.

None of the “other woodwork” has been poly’ed yet. I did stain it though. This other woodwork is for various other projects I’d like to do. I bought crown molding for the bathroom. I really liked how the office and living room turned out and decided I wanted some in the bathroom also. I plan to install it myself.

I bought quarter round molding…

It will go around the last step of the staircase:

My only concern with this little project is cutting the carpet. I hope I can cut it straight! Then after it’s cut, I’ll need to secure it somehow – nails? staples? Yeah, I don’t know.

I also bought a couple pieces of molding for the staircase. It’s identical to the molding I picked out for the crown molding in the living room, bathroom and office, but I plan to use it in a very different way. Over the past 5 years, the runner on the staircase has pulled away from the wall. It’s not going anywhere and there’s nothing wrong with it exactly. It just looks bad…

So, I bought this little molding to cover it up!

Speaking of the staircase, mine is very steep…

I’d like a handrail. So, while I was at C & M Hardwoods I bought one.

I’ve done absolutely nothing with it except buy it and bring it into the house.

So, I’ve got all this miscellaneous woodwork, in various stages of preparation, all around my house for several different projects, which I plan to do soon-ish/eventually.

My bathroom was tiled, what? a few weeks ago…

Yeah, yeah, looks good. But not really. When I sealed it, I let some of it dry on there and you’re not supposed to do that. So, now my creamy grout has gray spots on it…

My mistake. So, I had to buy this special sealer stripper stuff and according to the directions, I have to let the stripper sit on the grout WET for an hour and then scrub it off. I can’t let the stuff dry on there. Hmmm. Sounds like a time-consuming project. Soooooo, that stuff has been sitting on my kitchen table for at least a week:

Every spring, my basement takes on water. It’s really annoying! When I first bought the house, it was awful! Ninety percent of the water comes from where the floor and wall meet. I tried patching the joints with regular cement, hydraulic cement, nothing worked. Eventually, I ended up putting a gutter in (made out of plastic tubing and silicone). It worked/works great! The water comes in, but I don’t see it. It goes right to the drain.

Okay so, that dealt with most of the water. There’s still water on the floor though. It bugs me! It’s coming from cracks on the floor. I’ve tried patching them and that didn’t work. I can’t solve this problem with a gutter (darn!). So, I’ve just lived with it. This week I’ve decided to try putting Drylock over the cracks! I figure it can’t hurt…

I’ve put 2 coats on there so far and I’d like to get 4 or 5 on there plus 1-2 coats of gray floor paint. So, that’s an on-going project I’m working on (but haven’t completed…).

So, I’m dicking around with this and that -- starting/planning a lot of different projects, but finishing none of them. It’s a bit overwhelming and seeing Molls walk by is no help…

Earlier this week I noticed she was sleeping ON TOP of her blankets. She only does that when she’s hot. She ALWAYS sleeps under the blankets – even in the summer. So when I see her on top of her blankets, I know she needs a trim. I gave her a “quickie” to make her more comfortable and figured I’d clip her properly within a day or so. It’s been about 5 days now…

Oh, I know, it’s just terrible! Both the girls need a trim…

I left the clippers out as a visual reminder to finish Molly's haircut. I pass by ‘em all the time and yet she's still a "work in progress"...

Some time this winter a chipmunk chewed one of the screens on my basement window.

Rodents give me nothing but grief! Holes are everywhere on this screen!

I bought the materials needed to fix it, but I haven’t fixed it yet…

A few weeks ago, I mixed up a lot of new frit blends (I was MOTIVATED/INSPIRED!). I did some work with them right after I mixed 'em up, but I really haven't touched 'em since. So, they're on the "to-do" pile also.

When I get up, I usually get the mail out, then clean beads, photograph beads and then post beads. After that, I work on one of the various projects I’m in the middle of and then kinda soon after that I start to feel tired and then decide to take a nap. Lol. When I wake up from my nap, I make beads for the rest of the evening/night. It seems I hardly have any free time to really accomplish anything. AND the work around the house is NEVER ENDING. omg. My goal has always been to have it “all done”. HA! I’m starting to think that that’s impossible!

::yawn:: I feel a nap coming on… ttyl

Laminate floor install

2009-03-06T01:47:00.002-05:00

Well, I now have new laminate floors in my living room and office. The whole project took an entire week and it was a tough week too. I worked on the floors and ONLY the floors! I finished yesterday morning.

Removing the old carpet, padding, and tack strips was easy enough. It was a bit time-consuming because I had to cut it all up into garbage bag sized pieces. No hang-ups though.

One of the baseboards in my living room split when it was installed. So, I knew ahead of time that when I removed it that it would split completely. What I didn’t expect was to have SEVERAL baseboards split. In total 4 pieces split (25 feet). Yeah, that part sucked. I was careful and I used my multi-painter’s tool thingy, but it happened anyway…

Cutting all the doorjambs took ~~forever~~ hours. I did them all by hand. Six doorjambs/12 cuts.

My dad made me a desk 11 years ago. It’s a corner desk that consists of 2 parts that screw together and has one leg. Well, over the years and being moved several times, this one leg was barely hanging on. And because I choose to move the desk from one side of the office to the other as I installed the laminate, it was painfully obvious that I had to do something to secure it. So, this was an unexpected “job” I had to take care of. What I ended up doing was making a couple legs from a spare 2x4 I had. It’s not attractive, but it worked.

I used L-brackets to secure them to the table surface.

It seems like the prep work for this floor took FOREVER. So, when I was finally ready to install the new floor, I was excited. While ripping out the old carpet and cutting all the doorjambs, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do. I had a plan and my plan was start in the left corner of both rooms and have them perfectly come together in the doorway so that I wouldn’t have a transition between these 2 rooms. Well, that didn’t work out. I measured and measured and measured again, but they were 1/8th of an inch off. ARGH! ANY gap is too much when the planks need to tightly lock together. I don't know why they were off. The rooms must be off.

Oh, it pained me so to commit to a transistion! I could see no other way around it…

About halfway through the install I started to look at how much planking I had laid down and how much I had left. It was then that I realized that I was at least 4 boxes short plus 25 feet short on underlayment. I have no excuse for that. I can be a real idiot sometimes…

The installation kit for laminate included all these black triangle wedges that are supposed to go along the wall to insure enough space to allow for expansion. Those little buggers were a REAL pita until I finally decided to nail those SOBs to the wall! Oh, I struggled and struggled with them. I wish I had nailed them from the get-go and saved myself all the headache.

The installation itself was pretty simple. I ended up buying a cheap jigsaw. That was a huge help. Laminate is TOUGH as I’ll get out to cut! I used $30 worth of blades on the office alone. I was really bummed out about that. It seemed a bit excessive. So, I was kinda obsessing about all theses blades I was chewing threw and discovered I was loading the blades into my jigsaw backwards… Hey! I never claimed to be an expert! Once I figured out the saw, the blades lasted a lot longer. :)

The full boards were extremely easy to install. It was the cut ones that were time-consuming and yes, I made a lot of mistakes with cutting. I’m sure I wasted more material than someone who had more experience would. But, that’s okay. I expected it. Eventually, I got the cutting thing down – not down pat, but I made a lot fewer mistakes as the days ~~dragged~~ went on. On really complicated pieces (okay, more like on any pieces that required more thought than simply cutting to length), I would make a full pattern of the plank in paper and then trace it on to the board and then cut it. This was a particularly challenging board:

This board went here:

It was a bit frustrating at times. Like that board beneath the steps (shown above) – I spent a very long time making a pattern for it and then cutting it. When I went to install it, I couldn’t. To install the planks I had to lift them up 15 degrees to engage the locking mechanism and the shape of this board prevented me from doing that. I ended up having to cut it into 3 pieces. Experience would have told me that from the get-go, I think. I wasted a lot of time because of my inexperience.

You know, when I cut the doorjambs I really thought that the laminate would go UNDER them. I found out early that you can’t lift a plank 15 degrees to install it if it’s under a doorjamb. I wasted several hours trying, trust me. Nope. It just wasn’t possible. All I could do was cut as close to the doorjambs as I could (and add wood putty to the gaps later).

Overall, the floor turned out really well. There aren’t any mistakes in it (I don’t think). I’m really, REALLY glad it’s over! It was a lot of work.

Now, all that’s left to do is add the door transitions, replace all the split baseboards and install some quarter-round around the last step of the staircase. All doable and not that hard.

Kitchen & bathroom projects done; moving on to laminate floors

2009-02-26T12:51:00.002-05:00

Wow, it’s been a week since I’ve updated. Sorry!

I thought putting my bathroom back together again would take an afternoon. It didn’t. It was more like an afternoon and most of the next day. Anyway, everything is put back together and I can now show you the “official” before and after pictures of my kitchen and bathroom. I tried to match the camera angles wherever possible.

Okay so, here’s the kitchen:

The kitchen is SO much better than it was. My old kitchen was so nasty! I think it was impossible to NOT improve on it. lol

I don’t have any pictures of the REAL before pictures of the bathroom – pictures of what it looked like when I bought the house. At the time (4 and a half years ago), I didn’t want to be reminded of just how nasty that room was. Anyway, here’s what my bathroom looks like now.

The tub and shower:

The toilet area:

The vanity area:

I thought I had tons of “before” pictures of the bathroom, but I guess I don’t. I didn’t take any of the tub and shower. I have partials, but none are what I wish they were. Anyway, here’s what I do have:

So, that’s it. I still need to do some more decorating in those rooms, but the big stuff is all done. It’s on to other areas of the house!

A couple days ago, I finally made up my mind on what laminate floor I wanted in the living room and office. Once the deciding was over, I went to Home Depot and bought it. I plan to install it myself. I was pleasantly surprised at the price of this stuff! The planks, the underpayment and the installation kit for my 2 rooms was less than $350! Who-whoo!! After paying ~~out the ass~~ for tile, it was refreshing.

Okay so once I got the stuff home, I opened one box and laid out the planks to see what it would look like:

I like it! I ripped out all the carpet in the living room last night.

This is what my living room looks like right now:

Yeah. Nasty. VERY motivating. Installing laminate flooring is quite easy (from what I’ve read). The hardest part of the whole process is the prep work and of the prep work the hardest part is cutting the doorjambs. I have 6 doorjambs that need cut. Right now, my focus is the living room. My office still has carpet.

I really want to do this SOON. Today, I plan to go out and buy thresholds/transitions and furniture sliders. Scott told me where to buy hardwood, unstained, CHEAP thresholds. The hardwood thresholds at Home Depot are $20 each and all of them are pre-stained, which means that they may or may not be the color you want, which is ridiculous (I whined about this before…). This other place (out in the boonies in a town I’ve never heard of) sells hardwood thresholds for $3-$5 each. OH YEAH! So today, I’m off to C & M Hardwoods located in Centerville, PA to buy 3 door thresholds. Good times. I suck at finding my way in a new location. I always get lost! HHH. I printed out driving directions. I’m just hoping for the best.

Scott – Day11 (final day!)

2009-02-19T21:06:00.002-05:00

One of the first things I do when I get up each morning is visit the bathroom. So, this morning I’m sitting on the thrown and I notice the upper portion of my maxi pad is folded with the plastic side up. Yeah I know, TMI. So, I take care of the situation and when I stand up to flush the toilet I see 2 large drops of blood on my brand new floor! What’s worse was that the drops didn’t land on the tile but on my 2-day old, ivory colored, UNsealed grout! OMG, I freaked. I tried scrubbing it with vinegar, with bleach, and although I lightened it somewhat, nothing worked. The fresh, unsealed grout soaked it right up! Normally, I would go online and research ways of dealing with it, but I didn’t have time this morning. By the time I got done scrubbing, Scott was due to arrive within the hour. I did NOT want him to see this and I absolutely did NOT want to explain how it happened. Thankfully, as Scott tiled and grouted I watched him do it and I asked lots of questions about the whole process, why he did things a certain way, what would I do if a tile broke or the grout fell out or got damaged, etc. I learned all kinds of stuff. Anyway, I decided that since the scrubbing wasn't working that I should just go for it and physically grind out the stains. I got my trusty Dremel out and used the carbide-cutting wheel. It worked GREAT! I then re-grouted the damaged areas and prayed that it would dry before Scott arrived. Thankfully, he was an hour and a half late today! The grout had time to dry, he never noticed a thing, and the floor looks as good as it did before “the incident”! I guess, if I’m REALLY looking, I can see where I patched it. But it’s so minor…

It’s a slightly different color because the batch of grout I mixed either had more or less water in it than Scott’s (I know this because Scott told me this tidbit of information in response to one of my questions. What question? I have no idea.) Anyway, it all worked out (t’was stressful there for awhile)! It’s hardly noticeable and once I seal it, the patch will bond even more with the original grout.

Today was Scott’s last day. He sealed all the joints and corners with clear silicone and wrote out the bill. Thankfully, what he wanted for the job was extremely reasonable. He charged me only for the hours actually worked and not for number of days worked (as Vern did). It was all good! Scott was easy to get along with, he did a good job and he didn’t over charge me. I’m very happy!

When Scott left he took the remainder of his tools with him. I also removed all the Salvation Army blankets I had laying around. So, my living room is now…

completely empty.

Well, almost. I have one small table in there.

I’ve had some type of covering over my carpets since June. The night before Vern started on my roof, I taped a bunch of sheets to the carpet. You know, to keep it clean. Well, one of the first things he did when he walked in my house was lay down a bunch of painter’s canvas all over the place. He put them right on top of the sheets I had put down. Okay, whatever. I kinda forgot about the taped sheets. Well, when he cleared out, I removed the sheets and the tape from the floor. I quickly found out that putting any kind of adhesive on carpet is a BAD IDEA! I didn’t use duct tape, thankfully. I used masking tape. However, because they were there for so long they did stain my carpet AND left an adhesive residue all over it…

I knew about this problem months ago. I kept the blankets on the floor because I didn’t want to look at it. Now that the carpet is fully exposed, it’s only going to get worse. I’ve tried scrubbing it only to have the staining either come back or take on an orange tint from the cleaner I used (Goo-gone). Yeah, sucks. I’ve decided I’m not going to deal with it at all but instead rip it out and install vinyl planking instead. I’ll keep the upstairs carpeted, but the first floor will be all hard floors. It’s easy to clean, has a 30-year warranty and looks good. Sounds perfect. Sign me up! I plan to buy the planking soon and install it whenever (but soonish).

I don’t want a light colored floor because all my woodwork is light(ish). I don’t want dark either because I don’t want to have to furnish my house with light colored furniture, which is what you have to do with a dark floor. So, I’m aiming for a medium brown that isn’t too orangish. The woodwork I have now is orangish and if I get a floor that is also orangish, I’m worried it will clash. It’s a tough decision! All the samples I brought home are NO help… I need to go back and look AGAIN.

Tonight I installed an under cabinet light.

So, now I have a light over the sink, under the microwave and in this spot, which amounts to a light under every other cabinet and/or spot. There aren't any dark corners now nor over done. There is a cord assoicated with this light but thankfully the fridge covers up almost all of it.

Tonight I plan to rub down all the new tile with some warm water (no soap) to remove all the grout residue, clean the rest of the bathroom (lots of dust flew around when Scott removed the drywall) and put all my pictures and candles back in that room. I don’t plan to hang the shower curtain, put the ceiling vent or baseboards back until the grout is sealed (Monday’s job). Tomorrow I plan to make beads and have a normal, nothing-unusual-is-happening kind of day -- FINALLY!

Interesting household tips

2009-02-19T12:38:00.001-05:00

Interesting household tips...

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza - Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy.. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs - Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting - When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size... You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread - To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away - Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass - Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes - Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum - To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling - Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! .. static is gone.

Measuring Cups - Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car . When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope - If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner - Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies - To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants - Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ... well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

Polar Bear

2009-02-18T22:59:00.003-05:00

K, so I’m surfing the net looking at pics of cute animals and I come across this one…

Cute? Yes. Kinda sad tho… From the looks of it, that pile of snow he’s on is melting fast! He’s probably some California zoo bear and the snow was just a “treat”. Poor guy!!!!!! He’s really giv’n that snow some serious lov’n!

Cuteness!!!

2009-02-18T22:25:00.000-05:00

Scott day 10

2009-02-18T20:09:00.002-05:00

Today was a GREAT day!!! Scott got right to work laying the tile in the kitchen:

While he was doing that I put the baseboard back in the area around the toilet. I figured since I was the one who had to put it back anyway, I might as well do it BEFORE the toilet was installed.

Kevin showed up around 11 am and he put the toilet back, all the shower fixtures and helped me rehang the door (all good stuff!). I helped as much as I could -- fetching tools, lining up bolts and/or pins, etc. He was here for probably an hour.

By 1 pm Scott had completely finished laying the tile in the kichen. (I was shocked!). He left for an hour or so to let the tiles set up and then came back and grouted it all too!

Before he left, cleaned up most of his stuff, took my old tub surround, and helped me move my table into the kitchen (agian, all good stuff!!):

He’ll be back tomorrow morning to seal all the corners and edges and that’s it! (And get paid too. lol). I am beyond happy that it will all be over TOMORROW!

I plan to seal all the new grout and put everything back together on Monday.

Tonight I’ve been cleaning and putting as much stuff away as possible. I also FINALLY installed the paper towel holder I bought months and months ago.

Scott days 8 & 9

2009-02-17T16:42:00.001-05:00

Scott days 8 & 9

The first thing Scott did on Monday morning was pull the toilet out!

It’s a good thing I cleaned up the sunroom/porch over the weekend because that’s where we put it:

He finished laying all the tile yesterday. He was here until 4:30 pm (the longest he’s ever worked)!

It looks really good!!

Today, he added all the grout.

OMG, my bathroom is looking AWSOME!!

Tomorrow morning Kevin is supposed to stop by and reset the toilet. So, that means only one more night without a working toilet. I’ve been using a bucket. It’s not bad. It definitely beats squatting outside, which I’ve done. I have a newfound appreciation for toilet seats, that’s for sure! The skinny rims on buckets are ROUGH on butt-cheeks. You know, just fyi…

I imagine Scott will start laying the tile in the kitchen tomorrow. Since there’s no prep-work needed for the backsplash, I can’t imagine why it couldn’t be started. And since it’s only the backsplash and it’s all field tile with nothing fancy going on, I’m really hoping that the whole thing will be done on or by this Friday. I hope so!! I am SO ready for all of this to be over. THREE DAYS. The countdown is ON.

The slob that lives here

2009-02-15T13:32:00.003-05:00

Scott called in “sick” on Friday. I wasn’t surprised at all. The man just doesn’t like to work! Whatever. My primary concern with him is money. I don’t want to pay him for 3 weeks of work that could have been done in a week and a half. I really wish I had him under contract, but I don’t. I know his rate is $4 a square foot, add the cost of materials, plus time spent demo-ing/prepping, plus like a dollar more per square foot for laying the tile on a 45. I should crunch those numbers. AH. Stressful. I’ve been down this road before and don’t EVER want to go there again.

My house is a MESS and it’s stressing me out. Some of it is NOT mine!

Or it’s just a byproduct of all the house work I’ve had done lately…

My kitchen table is still in the middle of my office with tile stuff under it. The shit on top of it is mine though…

So, for the past few weeks (maybe months…) I look around my house, see the mess and say “it’s not mine” or “I can’t put that away yet”. Yeah, that mentality has kinda spread…

I kept all my kitchen stuff in my bedroom. When the kitchen was finally finished, I put it away. Most of it.

Lots of miscellaneous crap still remains. Painter’s tape, an empty package of mouse poison, bulb splitters, disposable bowls and plates, mink oil, empty air fresheners, screw drivers, duct tape. OMG, all kinds of shit! I should really pick that stuff up…

Oh, and then there’s the laundry. Dirty and clean sitting next to woodwork scrap and some other miscellaneous crap…

Then there’s the mess by my bed! I like to read before I go to sleep and I often print stuff out from the Internet. When I’m done with it … I ah …well, chuck it! Yup, right there. On the floor.

Right next to my foot warming paraphernalia (wool socks and heating gel pad) and slippery pants. OMG, I’m so lazy! I’m normally not this bad about keeping my living space clean and orderly. I think seeing the mess in other areas of my house and not being able to do much about it has spread to EVERY area of my house. It was tolerable for a while, but it’s really starting to bug me. I can’t live like this. It’s stress’n me out! I. MUST. CLEAN. THE. HOUSE.

I noticed yesterday that Moll’s pee’er is all red and irritated. Poor thing.

This is a chronic problem with her. It’s caused by her urine. She will NOT lick herself after peeing and I don’t blame her cuz that’s GOT to be nasty, but because she doesn’t clean herself, the urine just sits there and irritates her skin. Once the skin opens up, it can get really bad. This is why I started shaving my dogs’ pee’ers (any extra fuzz acts like a sponge and Molly WILL get a sore twat). The thing is is that I hate to shave their nether regions bald when the rest of ‘em is furry. It looks – um – ODD. Molls is paying the price now. ::guilty:: I guess, in the future it’s bald pee’ers for both dogs all the time – odd looking or not. From the pic it doesn’t look bad (I’ll spare you the mega close-up!) but trust me, there’s raw skin in all the crevices. I can’t shave her now. That just makes her skin even more irritated. I’ve clipped what I could with scissors and now all I can do for her is wipe her dry after every trip outside (it’s a real pita). Once the irritation is gone (and it will be. This has happened before…), it’s SHAVE’N time! Mags has anal gland issues and Molls has pee’er issues! The toy poodle I grew up with had neither. I guess my girls are special... And you know what? They never tell ya these things when you’re buying the cute little buggers!

Scott – day 7

2009-02-12T20:01:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Scott said he planned to grout the tile around the tub. Well, that never happened. Today he laid down the cement board on the floor and laid the large uncut pieces:

While he was hammering down the cement board, I was down in the basement making frit beads. All his hammering let loose a ton of dirt and dust from the rafters. So much so that I could see the little bits burn up as the crossed my flame. It was a little fireworks show! When I knew he was finished installing the cement board, I went up to watch him start the next phase of the project. He showed me his centerlines and where he planned to lay the tile. I didn’t like it. His plan was to use the center of the actual floor he planned to tile. From previous experience, I know that an actual center and a visual center are 2 entirely different things and it’s the VISUAL center that’s important. Thankfully, it was an easy argument for me to make. All I had to do was point up:

The main light in my bathroom was installed at the actual center of the room, but it’s not in the visual center. It now looks “off”. One of my bedroom lights has the same issue. Being a flooring professional, I really thought he’d know all about the visual vs. actual center issue. I guess not. Anyway, he redrew his centerlines to the visual center of the room and did not argue with me (whew!). He was here for 3.5 hours.

Tomorrow he has an appointment with one of his children’s school teachers. I doubt he’ll be here for more than 2 hours. He’ll either grout the tile around the tub or cut the tile for the floor tomorrow. Either way, by choosing to not grout the tub today he added an additional day to the whole project, which sucks.

He hasn’t touched the area around the toilet yet:

He isn’t a certified plumber and so will NOT reset a toilet. Once he pulls it out, Kevin will have to come back and reset it. If he pulls it now, I won’t have a working toilet over the weekend and neither of us want that.

So, that’s it. The project drags on…

Scott – day 6

2009-02-11T19:23:00.002-05:00

On Monday Scott said he was going to be late on Tuesday. Well, “late” turned into not showing up at all. No phone call or notification, nothing -- just me waiting around all day for him to show up. It DOES irritate me. Today, he showed up as usual, which was great BUT all he did was add one row of tile. He was here for 2 hours and then left. I understand that tile can’t be laid all at once, but I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t have started the kitchen backsplash today while the bathroom tile was setting. Doing a job in 2-3 hour increments pisses me off. Whether it’s Vern or Scott or anyone else, it irritates me! Scott’s a nice guy, does a good job, etc. but he’s dragging the job out longer than necessary, imo. Be here, work diligently, be nice, get paid, and get out. See? It’s very simple! The longer he drags it out, the more miserable I get. I HATE remodeling. I absolutely hate it! Anyway…here’s what the bathroom looks like this evening:

It looks good. I’m very happy with it. He plans to grout it tomorrow. Here’s a close up of the tile:

Laying the tile on the floor will take 3 days minimum (day 1: full pieces, day 2 cut pieces, day 3 gout), but since he doesn’t want to leave me with no working toilet over the weekend, he’ll drag it out into next week I’m sure. Hopefully, it’s only by one day. It BETTER be! Then there’s the kitchen backsplash and god knows how long that will take. I know, I know, I shouldn’t whine so much. He’s only been working here for a week (it feels longer!). I’m just beyond ready to move on with my life. I want my house back!

Today was the first time since Vern that I retreated to the basement and tried to forget that anything was going on. I worked on making new frit blends. So far, I have 5 new possible blends! Now, I haven’t fully tested ‘em or anything so I’m making no commitments, but so far so good!

Spanish Garden:

Bamboo Thicket:

Dusted Lilac:

Canterbury:

Black Magic:

I’m not done yet either. I’m just full of ideas! When I’m done updating this entry I’m going back at it to test some more!

Scott – day 5

2009-02-09T21:31:00.001-05:00

Today Scott tiled most of the walls surrounding the tub. Before he actually added any tile though, he temporarily installed some support boards so that he could lay the 2nd row first. I asked him about why he did it that way and he said because most bathtubs aren’t level and he wants as many of the tiles as possible to be level. Huh. See? THIS is why I hired someone ELSE to tile my bathroom and not try to do it myself (which I did entertain). He knows all the tricks! I’m SURE if I would’ve done it, I would have found out the hard way.

He got the listello in there and left some room for 2 corner shelves…

And here’s how it’s looking! (Ignore the duct tape and prop-up sticks on the corner shelves…)

I really like how it’s turning out! It looks better than I imaged it would.

Scott – days 3 & 4

2009-02-06T20:15:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Scott was only here for a couple of hours and he put up 4 pieces of cement board. Today he finished installing all the cement board for the tub.

He cut a piece of USB board and put it over my tub in preparation for installing the ceiling tile.

He’s never been asked to put floor tile on a ceiling before and he wasn’t confident at all that they’d stay up there. He tried talking me out of it a couple of months ago, but the people I bought the tile from said they do it all the time, so I asked him to at least try.

And he did! When he put up the first one we both stared at it for a long time, waiting for it to fall. Thankfully, it never did.

He set up his wet saw outside. I felt bad for him. It was frigid cold today.

He left at around 2:30 pm after he finished installing all the ceiling tile. So far, so good. None of them have fallen down.

I got my shower curtain and window curtains today! I put the curtains up tonight and I’m very happy with them. The shade of purple is perfect!

I couldn’t help myself!

2009-02-05T10:25:00.001-05:00

lol

Scott – day 2

2009-02-04T20:45:00.002-05:00

Scott gutted the drywall around the tub today. It took him hours! I watched him do all of it (I sat on the floor and he talked about his 3 boys, how he and his wife are in classes to adopt a little girl, about his house, his youth, lots of stuff). It took hours to get the drywall off because there was SO MUCH glue! He was here between 4 and 5 hours. He’s going to cut the cement board at his home tonight and install it tomorrow. I’m hoping he also installs the full pieces of ceiling and floor tile tomorrow. I know that they’ll be at least one night where I don’t have a toilet. Hopefully, he won’t do that part on Friday and leave me peeing in the snow all weekend.

More bathroom work

2009-02-04T08:54:00.001-05:00

I finished removing all the silicone from around the tub last night and removed the vinyl underlayment stuff.

OMG, that stuff is NASTY. Very splintery.

Since it was put down before the cabinets were installed, I had cut it out from under them. That part was a pain. Thankfully, I had a cutting wheel attachment for my Dremel and was able to do it kinda neatly. My Dremel: good for much so much more than cleaning beads!

Once I got that crap out, I then had pull out or pound down all the staples…

I was up until 3 am getting my bathroom as prepared for the tile as possible.

Scott will have to do deal with the stuff from around the toilet. Or I will, but he’s gotta pull it.

The snow situation is good. There’s only an inch or so on the ground and it’s definitely driveable/parkable. (Unlike you folks in NC or KY, 1-2 inches of snow is NOTHING here in PA! Wussies.)

Right now, I’m just waiting for Scott to get here. It should be within the hour.

Sweet story

2009-02-03T19:28:00.001-05:00

Fruits of my shopping labor

2009-02-03T14:08:00.003-05:00

Since removing the baseboard and vinyl floor took a lot less time than I thought it would, I had time to do some more bathroom gutting. I took out 3 of the 5 pieces of the tub surround:

Plumbing is NOT my thing, so I don’t mess with it -- EVER. Kevin said he was going to prep the bathroom for the tile, but that never happened… Anyway, I did what I could.

About 45 minutes ago Scott called and said he’ll be here to start the tile work within the hour. Usually, workmen type people call the day before, but whatever. I didn’t have any real plans for today other than maybe a little bead making and taking it easy after 2 days of shopping.

Speaking of shopping, I got a lot accomplished Sunday and Monday shopping-wise! One of my goals was to make my new broom closet more organized/personalized. I bought a hanger type gadget for my broom and mop:

And a row of hooks (I think it’s supposed to be a coat rack) to hang stuff on. This picture shows a vacant hanger, but I have since put my fly swatter right there. Use your imagination… lol. Finally, I bought and installed a hook for my 8-foot extension cord (always handy).

The step stool I already had. I used to keep it in the basement, but now it lives in my kitchen. So, that closet is a lot more functional, imo.

I found the PERFECT bin for my knives! Now I can rummage around in my utensil drawer without worrying about being stabbed.

I bought a bin for under the sink. It’s basically to keep stuff from falling over and spilling and soiling the bottom of the cabinet.

And then I bought and installed this thing. I found it in the bathroom section at Target. It originally had suction cups, but they didn’t work AT ALL. I hated to screw into my brand new cabinet but my old cabinets had one of these and I liked it. It keeps all my cleaning brushes easily accessible, but out of sight.

In my old kitchen I had 7 drawers and one of those drawers I used as a junk drawer. My new kitchen has a grand total of 3 drawers. I hate to dedicate one entirely to JUNK! So, I compromised. I bought a bin that I can put into one of the drawers. The rule for this drawer is that no “junk” can overspill into the rest of the drawer. If it does, it means I need to clean it out. I’ll probably store hand towels in the rest of the drawer.

While I was out and about I bought a container for my Dremel bits! I used to keep all my Dremel stuff in a Ziploc baggie, but I decided to upgrade because my Dremel has become one of my handiest tools. In fact, I used the buffing wheel to remove the silicone residue from my tub. Anyway, my Dremel is really important and I think the bits that go with it deserve better than a plastic baggie!

I bought chair pads for my kitchen chairs…

While I was out shopping I kept a look out for pictures/wall art/home décor kind of stuff. None of my walls have any pictures or décor of any kind and now that the interior of my house is nearly complete, I really want to start making my house more “homey”. I’m not ready yet to deal with the large open walls. I probably should buy furniture first! I did, however, find some pictures/decorations for some of the smaller walls and spaces I have around the house. Here are a couple wall plaques I found for the kitchen:

I also found some pretties for the bathroom. The primary problem with my bathroom décor-wise is that it lacks color. The walls are ivory, the counter top is ivory and all the tile I bought is ivory. It's just so BLAH! I need to fix it. With that in mind, I found some fancy hand towels that match the color scheme for this room (purple, ivory and green). The old hand towels I had, although nice, had too mich ivory in them. So, I found some green ones and ANY color I can add to this room is a good thing! I bought a new soap dispenser. It's hard to see, but it has a greenish tint to it. Finally, I put together a candle “thingy” for the open counter space. (I put a candle on the toilet last spring. I guess for me, when in doubt PUT A CANLDE ON IT! Lol.)

Here’s a close up of the new more colorful bathroom pretties!

I bought the candle, glass bowl and potpourri at Michael’s and imo this is the COOLEST potpourri!

I found some pictures for one of the walls in the bathroom...

And a close-up!

After 2 days of looking, I could NOT find a purple shower curtain I liked. I did, however, find one online. I also bought the curtains to match. So, that green valance on the window will soon be replaced by purple curtains! I’m not quite sure how I’m going to install them. The bathroom window is FUNKY. Hopefully, I’ll figure something out and hide the funkiness of it. Here’s a picture of the curtains and the shower curtain I ordered (from JCPenny, in case any of you are wondering). I didn’t buy the ultra fancy shower curtain (as shown). I bought the less frilly panel type, but in the same shade of purple. I know me and I know those pull backs things would be a major pita. I hope the color is right, if it isn’t, OH WELL. They’re GOING UP. I’m really committed to purple curtains in this room and these were the best I could find.

There’s a small wall right outside the bathroom door that’s in my office (it’s the wall that hides the heating/cooling duct to my bedroom). I found a couple pictures for this spot (more flower plaques).

The last picture I bought and put up is one I almost don’t want to show you. It’s just SO PATHETIC! It’s a tiny wall with one skinny little picture on it. It’s very UNdramatic. All I can say, is at least I’m finally decorating my house and it’s a start! This area is in my living room. The little table is probably where I’ll eventually put a small television. It’s pretty much the only space for a TV in the living room. Yeah anyway, DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

And a close up…

Just a little pretty something that’s there now that wasn’t there before.

So, that’s it. That was 2 days worth of shopping. I have such a long way to go to be finished. I’ll keep working on it…

Scott has now come and gone. He came basically to see the job again and figure out what materials he’ll need. While he was here is removed the last bit of the tub surround. He said that the wood stuff (I forget what it’s called) that’s on the floor now WILL need to come up. It’s not because tile can’t be laid over it, but because he doesn’t want to add any more height to the floor than is absolutely necessary. He plans start the bathroom tile job tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I need to remove the rest of the silicone from around the tub and rip out that wood paneling floor stuff. Good times.

Kevin Carter photo

2009-02-03T00:32:00.002-05:00

I saw this on the Internet a few days ago and it haunts me...

Bathroom work

2009-01-31T12:41:00.007-05:00

During the time when Kevin was here he pulled out a tool and said, “You see this? THIS is the perfect tool for removing woodwork!” Then he went on to explain how it’s really a painter’s tool and how it’s “supposed” to be used in painting and how he doesn’t use it for painting at all but for removing woodwork. I’m not really sure why he told me all this, but I’m so glad he did! One day when I was out and about last week I bought one. Here’s the tool:

He was so right about this tool! It’s perfect for removing woodwork! It has a very thin edge yet is very sturdy and takes a lot of torque without bending. In comparison, a flat bar is thick and causes all kinds of damage. So, if any of you ever have to remove woodwork, I totally endorse the use of this tool!

I had all the baseboards out of my bathroom in less than 20 minutes and I didn’t damage a single one OR the wall.

I removed the bathroom door (easy…) and then started ripping the floor out. It was WAY easier than I thought it would be. I think it was because the vinyl floor was still pliable and came off in big sheets instead of breaking off in little bits, which I’ve dealt with before.

The subfloor in the bathroom is plywood, but there’s a thin sheet of something else nailed over it (it’s made of wood and is the thickness of wood paneling), which was installed when the vinyl floor was. Since I really don’t think it will have to be removed before the tile is laid, I left it alone.

After ripping off the vinyl floor, I was left with a VERY sticky floor. Nasty! To deal with that, I dumped and swept around a bunch of baking soda. I figure the floor is gonna collect dirt anyway it might as well be white dirt! It worked out good. It’s no longer sticky. (From the picture it looks like there’s loose baking soda on the floor, but there isn’t. I swept up the excess.) Now, all I have to do is remove all the nails from the baseboard I pulled out, clean ‘em up and put them in my bedroom until I can put them back. The whole project took less than 2 hours. I’m so happy! I really thought it would be a lot more work.

Oh, I didn’t mess with the floor around the toilet, btw. I’ve got ONE toilet in the house and there’s no way I’m messing with it!

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 8

2009-01-30T19:49:00.002-05:00

Kevin arrived today before 9 am and shortly thereafter the countertop people arrived!

I was glad to see all my (very labor-intensive) parking space being used! UNfortunately, it wasn’t quite big enough to allow the ramp to be lowered on the countertop truck, so Kevin had to park in my neighbor’s driveway…

They brought my new sink in (Yup, ya’ll are going to get a blow-by-blow account of today’s activities!):

The first piece of countertop to be brought in was the corner piece.

Next they brought in the main piece.

It took 3 men to muscle that thing into place!

Then they started working on the 4-inch backsplash. They cut it on-site – in the cold and snow. Good times.

Then they started sealing it and stuff…

While all this is going on in the kitchen, Kevin removed the bathroom shower door:

The countertop installation took about 2 hours. After the countertop was put in Kevin ate his lunch and then installed the kitchen faucet and drain. Here’s what my kitchen looks like right now:

Yeah, not bad! The backsplash still needs to be tiled and the kitchen table and chairs moved in, but that’s it. My kitchen is 100% functional. It’s not done, but everything WORKS. It’s been a very long 9 months!

Kevin said that he spoke with Scott and said that he could probably start installing the tile next week. He’ll be in touch, I guess.

Eventually, Kevin completely removed the shower door:

I spent several hours today removing an ASS LOAD of silicone from the edge of the tub:

I’m about half way finished. I’m SO GLAD that I have a steel tub because it means that I can use paint thinner to loosen up the silicone. If I had a plastic tub, the paint thinner would dissolve it (Been there, done that. Paint thinner EATS threw plastic!). Even with paint thinner though it’s a real PITA. Yeah so, I’ve been working on that…

Sometime today Kevin also put in the filler piece above the fridge:

All and all, I’m very happy with everything! There were only 2 problems with the kitchen. The first is that the cabinet garage sits about an eighth of an inch above the countertop:

To fix it, I gave Kevin some wood molding to hide it. I got the molding from the cabinets Vern had delivered that were later sent back. In the places he didn’t put the molding he simply added tinted silicone. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good color match and I’m going to try and find a better match somewhere. Anyway, it’s not horrible. I just think it could be better:

The second hiccup is the kitchen sink drain leaks. It’s not a large leak, but it leaks. Kevin knew this before he left today and will be back to fix it (probably when he sets the toilet after Scott has tiled the bathroom floor). It’s a pita to fix, I guess. It leaks on a glue joint, which means Kevin will need to cut that part completely out and redo it with new plumbing bits. OH WELL. I don’t want my brand new kitchen sink to leak water into my brand new cabinets!

I don’t know if Kevin plans to demo the bathroom or if Scott is going to do it (He’s always real vague whenever I bring up the tile!). I’ve decided to do what I can tomorrow (remove the baseboards and as much of the vinyl floor as I can). The faster I can get workmen in and out of my house the better. If I can speed up the process, I will!

I really need to go shopping now too. I no longer have a shower door and I don’t have a shower curtain or rod either. So yeah, that amounts to nothing. No showers for me until I get my butt out the door and go shopping! Shopping for a shower curtain is like shopping for curtains – it’s HARD! I know what I want, I just need to go out and find it and I don’t like shopping so the “finding it” part is a real drag. If I don’t find it (solid purple in just the right shade!), I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Buy a cheapie from Wal-Mart, I guess, until I find the right one. ::sigh:: There’s a bunch of other stuff I need too like a stool to keep in the kitchen full-time. I can’t reach anything past the first shelf in all my cabinets, which – you know – really SUX! I need a bin to keep cleaning supplies in under the sink. I need to find some kind of gadget to mount inside the cabinet door under the kitchen sink to hold cleaning brushes. I need some hooks for the broom closet to hang stuff on. I need a cake pan (or something similar) for my knives to contain them in the utility drawer, etc. etc. Lots of “stuff”.

Tonight I plan to continue removing the silicone from the tub. Tomorrow, I’ll demo what I can from the bathroom and on Sunday I’ll go shopping. Yup, that’s the plan! ttyl

Too much snow

2009-01-29T15:32:00.002-05:00

Here’s the view from my sunroom last night!

The mountains of snow around my house are getting bigger everyday! Sux…

I went out this afternoon to shovel my roof and took some pictures of all the snow around here. YES, I said I was going to shovel the roof yesterday, but I was too wiped out to do it.

You can barely see my car from my neighbor’s driveway because of all the snow!

Shoveling now not only involves moving the snow but having to throw it up over my head! My back is so sore today (I had to shovel 3 times yesterday). Here’s a picture of my snow wall:

And the mountain of snow by the mailbox is just as bad!

In order to access the side of my house to scrape the roof off, I had to shovel out a little alley way:

And because I wimped out yesterday and let the snow sit on my roof for too long, I now have ice dams.

It’s still snowing, unfortunately. It’s a “dusting” but it still pisses me off. There’s just TOO much of it. The snow makers need to KNOCK IT OFF!

I guess it CAN be kinda pretty…

Drying my gloves out. lol

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 7

2009-01-28T19:18:00.001-05:00

Kevin was here for only an hour and a half today. He moved the fridge into the kitchen, adjusted a few cabinet doors and took a lot of his tools home.

On Friday, my countertop will be installed! Wha-whoooooo! I’ll have a fully functional kitchen by this weekend!

Kevin won’t be here tomorrow. There is very little left for him to do. I asked him about Scott, the tile guy, and he STILL hasn’t called him yet. I have at least 3-4 days worth of tile work to be done. ::sigh::. I don’t want him to forget about it. The tile work was not in the contract so he could, technically, leave me to deal with it after this Friday. I hope that doesn’t happen, but it could.

Okay well, I gotta go. I’m hungry and I need to shovel AGAIN (plus rake the roof off). This current storm is a real bitch. I think it dumped 10-12 inches. The good news is that it’s not supposed to snow again after tonight and could actually start melting by Sunday (sunny and 36 degrees – fingers crossed!). I really hope some of this melts! I’d say there’s at least 2 to 3 feet out there now on flat ground (knee deep at least when I rake off the roof). My snow wall is as tall as ever and it’s SO much work tossing the snow over it. OMG.

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 6

2009-01-28T18:46:00.003-05:00

Kevin worked on the crown molding yesterday.

I guess he felt confident that the countertop will go in okay. (I hope so!). Here’s the 3-inch crown above the cabinets all installed:

And the fancy business above the sink:

The crown molding that went around the room was much, much smaller than the honk’n stuff above the cabinets. He had to do some serious farting around to get the 2 of them to come together in a nice way. He did good, imo!

There was only one slight issue with the crown molding. The trim around the light above the pantry…

Yeah. Kinda close. He had to trim it. No biggie. It's just another quirky thing that tends to happen around my house A LOT.

My area got some SERIOUS snow today. OMG. I shoveled twice before noon and it will definitely need done again before I go to bed. I guess we’re supposed to get 8 inches by the end of today and at the rate it keeps falling, I think we might actually get it (UNFORTUNATELY).

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 5

2009-01-27T10:46:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Kevin worked on molding –- the cabinet toe-kicks, the baseboard and the crown molding in the office and living room.

Here he is installing the cabinet toe-kicks:

Ohhh, awwww!

And he finished putting in all the baseboard in the kitchen:

Next he started adding the crown molding in the living room and office.

Here’s a picture of his bad-ass miter saw. Much better than mine!

All finished! The crown molding definitely added a finished appearance to the rooms. I LOVE it! What impressed me the most was that Kevin didn’t miter the inner corners, he actually coped them! They fit together like puzzle pieces. On such small molding is a real pita, but he did it.

Kevin also set up the dishwasher to work temporarily (by sticking the dishwasher’s drain tube down the kitchen sink drain). So, all evening I did load after load until all my dishes were clean!

This is the first time my kitchen has given me anything but grief, work, inconvenience or cost me money. All my pots, pans, dishes and flatware are sparkling clean and I didn’t have to work too hard to get them that way. I LOVE that thing!

So that was great. As each load finished I started filling up my cabinets!

and pantry…

I LOVE the vertical dividers in the cabinets above the fridge. It’s actually USABLE space! [A feature I wouldn’t have had in the kitchen Vern planned for me.]

And the skinny cabinet with shelves is also great – I wouldn’t have this either had I stayed with Vern.

Today, I think Kevin plans to add the crown molding in the kitchen. He may not finish it though because the counter isn’t installed yet. If the countertop is thicker or thinner than what he expects it to be, he’ll need to adjust the upper cabinets to accommodate for it.

He isn’t here yet and it’s almost 11 am, which isn’t unusual for him. He’s been working 5-6 hour days. There really isn’t a whole lot left for him to do until the countertop is ready. He might start prepping the bathroom for the tile. Not sure. I asked again about Scott and Kevin still hasn’t called him yet. Hopefully, Scott’s schedule is open and he can put the tile in as soon as Kevin is ready for him, which should be really soon.

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 4

2009-01-23T10:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Kevin got the clay pipe to PVC pipe situation worked out.

He used a special cement/sealer for clay pipes plus a PCV fitting of some kind. He’d never had to deal with a clay pipe before and of course I was no help either. He pulled threw though and figured it out. In my unprofessional opinion, it looks okay/should work.

He also added shut off valves to the hot and cold water that supply the kitchen sink. He didn’t need to add them. It was a bonus!

Most of the plumbing is done. It won’t be 100% done until the sink is installed. What turned out really good was that where the pipes came up from the basement was in the far left corner of the cabinet. It really maximizes the usable space under there. Another bonus!

The dishwasher now has water, but the drain isn’t hooked up yet because the sink needs to be installed first. The dishwasher now has electrically too. Because I changed the location of the dishwasher to the left side of the sink instead of the right side, the wire that Vern installed for it was too short. It was an easy fix though. All Kevin had to do was add a junction box and a 4-foot wire.

You see that?? Kevin actually put the lid back on the junction box. Vern never bothered. If Vern messed with a junction box, he never took the time to put it all back together again. I’ve looked for the caps and never found them. I guess he chucked ‘em. Lazy-ass.

The last task Kevin did before he left was add the hardware to all the cabinets…

Nothing too fancy. Kinda simple, brass, and symmetrical.

Kevin won’t be working at my house today. Before he left yesterday I asked about Scott, the tile guy, and Kevin said he’d call him. I guess he hasn’t worked out an exact plan yet for that aspect of the project.

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 3

2009-01-22T07:11:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Kevin finished installing all the cabinets. Yee-haw! My new pantry is HUGE. It’s great! That thing is going to add SO much storage to my kitchen.

The right side wall is extremely off level. At first glance, it’s not extremely obvious however it doesn’t take too long to notice it either. Kevin had to add a really funky filler piece right there! Oh well. My bathroom vanity is on the opposite side of that wall and Vern had to plane off a good hunk of it to get it in there. My guess is that that wall is as off level as the basement stairwell wall is.

The countertop guy did his thing yesterday. He put a bunch of stickers all over the place and took digital photos. I guess that’s all it takes for the computer to know what to do. Amazing. I saw my new kitchen sink – briefly. The countertop guy took it with him. I should have a sink and a countertop in 1 to 2 weeks. Can’t wait.

Yesterday, Kevin also installed the microwave and the stove. I can COOK now!! He also put the dishwasher in its place, but there’s no water to it yet. Hopefully, he finishes the plumbing today. I would guess that some of the crown molding or baseboard would go in today too. Aside from the tile work, there isn’t much else left to do. I don’t know what the status is on Scott, the tile guy. I’ll ask about that today.

Here’s what my kitchen looks like at the end of day 3:

All the hardware for the cabinets need installed yet. I guess he could do that today too. All and all, things are really progressing! Very happy.

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 2

2009-01-21T05:19:00.002-05:00

Before Kevin arrived yesterday morning Agway came by to refill my propane tanks. Normally, they just stop in front of my house but this time I actually had parking for them! It’s so nice to see all my shoveling paying off. For the past 3 weeks, I’ve been shoveling for NOTHING or at least it felt that way. So yeah, I was glad to see the propane guys parked there this morning!

Kevin worked for about 4 hours yesterday. His number one priority was to get all the cabinets into their final positions so that a countertop template could be made, which is supposed to happen later today.

He really struggled with the wall that the window is on. It’s unlevel vertically and horizontally and on top of that it’s all wavy. Remember this?? This is a picture I took in October when I was trimming that window with woodwork.

Oh yeah. I completely empathized with his plight! He said, “This is enough to make a preacher swear!” lol. Yup. A real pita. The countertop will have to be just as wavy as the wall is, I guess. Well, whatever. At least it’s not my problem.

On the agenda today is to install the last 3 cabinets: the cabinet above where the microwave will be and the pantry cabinets.

The countertop template will be made today and he’ll probably do some plumbing too. The plumbing is actually one of the more challenging aspects of the job. The gray water for the kitchen sink will need to be drained into a clay pipe. So, Kevin will need to find a way to connect either a stainless steel or PVC pipe into a clay pipe. The clay pipe can’t be replaced easily (it would involve excavation – with backhoes and all) so he’ll need to figure it out. Again, I’m glad I’m not the one that has to deal with the problem!

Kitchen remodeling – Kevin day 1

2009-01-19T19:10:00.002-05:00

Soon after I woke up this morning (around 10:30 am) I get a phone call from Patty. She said Kevin would be here within an hour. I was shocked! I really didn’t think he’d start today. I’m so happy. YES, let’s get this thing DONE!

All my shoveling paid off!!!

I do need to knock the snow wall down a foot (if possible). It’s VERY hard to see oncoming traffic, which I hadn’t considered until I left my house this afternoon to Wal-Mart. I’ll do what I can after I’m done here.

Anyway! Kevin did a lot of measuring…

and thinking…

After measuring and thinking, he'd commit to actually screwing the cabinet into place.

I don’t want him to know I’m taking pictures, so don’t be surprised to see a lot of Kevin’s backside. Lol.

He was here for 5 hours and got quite a lot accomplished!

I don’t think I could have picked a better fella for the job! He plays contemporary Christian music on his radio, talks about all the church activates he’s involved with, how much he enjoys singing with his wife and playing his trumpet. :) No ego, no beer-drinking. SO NICE.

Well, gotta run! I need to shovel, plus get to bed early so that I can be up and ready by 8 am.

My mom: the Masseuse

2009-01-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

Congrats, mom!!!!!!!!

And he did it AGAIN!

2009-01-18T15:50:00.009-05:00

Same story as Wednesday…

I just can’t believe Calvin doesn’t see just how much work his plowing is creating for me! HOW can he NOT see it!!???

Every time he plows it gets exponentially worse. The snow wall is now taller than I am.

I moved my car right up to the wall. There’s NO WAY now that he can plow more snow up to it (well, unless he maneuvers his truck around my car and shoves snow in front of it).

Knowing how eager he seems to be lately with helping me with snow removal, he could very easily build up another snow wall on the opposite side or make more work for me in other areas. See the thing is, is that there’s now JUST enough room for 3 cars. Any plowing he does ruins it. All he’s doing is pushing up snow around the edges, which I then I have shovel out. It SUX and I’m absolutely amazed he hasn’t noticed this.

I suppose if he ONLY pushed the snow forward, it might be okay. If he did do that he'd need to really ram his truck. My car is a lot smaller than a full sized pickup truck. Calvin could easily make my parking space too short for a full sized "man" car.

In the summer, I whine about the mowing (and the neighbors…). In the winter, I whine about the snow (and the neighbors…). ::sigh::

I guess this is just a situation I’ll just have to deal with. Totally sucks!! Oh, I know what ya’ll are thinking! That all I have to do is keep the whole area shoveled so that there isn’t any snow for him to plow. The thing is is that it will snow 6 inches overnight and Calvin will plow at the crack of dawn the next morning. I will NOT set my alarm for 5 AM just to shovel snow. That is just NOT gonna happen!

Patty never called me on Friday so I guess Kevin won’t be here tomorrow. Soon, I’m sure. Hopefully, this week. I want a functioning kitchen SO BADLY (my diet is horrendous and has been for MONTHS) plus now all my problems with the snow. This is all part and parcel of why I HATE remolding my house. It’s never “exciting” or “fun”. NEVER.

Mailboxes. lol

Snow wall

2009-01-14T16:03:00.004-05:00

Since I know it’s likely that Kevin and Scott will be working on my house soon, I’ve been quite diligent about shoveling. My driveway is extremely short so in order for me to accommodate enough parking for 2 full sized pickup trucks, I pretty much need to shovel out a good portion of my front yard. I’ve been doing that as needed all month. A few days ago my neighbor Calvin must have seen my shoveling efforts and decided to help me out by pushing as much snow as he could out from behind my car. Unfortunately, by doing that he pushed the snow directly into the area I’ve been trying to keep clear. ARGH. He was just trying to be helpful and I appreciate that however he made my shoveling efforts MUCH more difficult. I removed the snow that he plowed. It was MUCHO work, btw – heavy, compacted snow. I thought that by keeping my driveway and a large space next to it clear of snow that he would pass my house by OR that he would notice that I had to remove a lot of the snow he pushed into that area and wouldn’t plow me out again. That was a few days ago. This morning I woke up and see that he plowed AGAIN. OMG it is SOOOOOOO much worse this time! It didn’t even snow that much. I can’t believe he didn’t notice how much work he created for me the last time he plowed. I’m not mad because I know he was just trying to be helpful, but I’m not happy AT ALL. In fact, I’m kinda sickened by how much work now is in front of me.

This morning…

Okay granted, it doesn’t look that bad BUT there’s now not enough room for 3 cars…

Even to move that snow wall back a foot is MUCHO work. Chest high, people. CHEST HIGH!

I have no idea where all that snow came from either. It didn’t snow THAT much since I last shoveled. A few inches, maybe?

There is ZERO chance this snow will melt any time soon. Here’s the 5-day forecast for my area:

Although I haven’t heard anything from Kevin since he delivered my cabinets, I know he’ll be here soon. If not this week, then surely next week. That snow wall MUST be moved.

2+ hours later…

My arms and abs are all shaky now. I will most definitely be sore tomorrow. I DO NOT want to move that snow wall again. Twice is more than enough! I don’t want to call Calvin nor do I want to leave him a nasty-gram or anything like that (I don’t like confrontation!). I did notice him out and about while I was shoveling…

I hope he saw me out there removing all the snow that he plowed this morning. PLEASE! I’m not optimistic about it though cuz he didn’t notice it the last time I did it. To his defense, I suppose, it is only a matter of a couple feet. It's just SO MUCH more work for me to remove those 2 or so feet than it is for me to remove a few inches of freshly fallen snow from many, many feet. Anyway, to discourage any more plowing any time soon I moved my car…

Right smack in the middle! Certainly, he’ll get the hint NOW no? OH I HOPE SO!!!

And one more picture! Just cuz it was SO much work. Oooooooh Aaaaaaaa!

In other news, Mag’s ass is a lot better!

That red spot there is where her anal gland ruptured (and is NOT the opening of the gland, as I first thought). It was all pink and swollen when I first saw it, but looks much better now! The vet gave me/her enough antibiotics for 28 days. Seems a bit excessive, imo. The bottle had 14 pills but I’m only supposed to give her a half a pill a day (you know, so that’s 28 days worth). Personally, I think that whoever put the pills in the bottle didn’t account for that. Same is true for her pain meds. I was given 5 tablets – ¼ of a pill twice a day for 7-10 days. Five pills given as prescribed would be 20 days worth – twice as long as recommended. Me thinks someone made a mistake. Don’t worry! I’ll keep giving her all her meds until both bottles are gone. I’m just say’n…

Patty (Kevin’s wife) just called. Kevin’s been sick (very bad cold plus a kidney stone) and won’t be here this week, but plans to start the job on Monday. Yee-Haw!!

When I grow up…

2009-01-10T17:50:00.000-05:00

LOL!

Update on Mag

2009-01-09T18:01:00.006-05:00

I took Mag to the vet this morning. It turns out that her anal glad RUPTURED! I couldn’t believe it! She never complained or acted like she was in any kind of pain whatsoever, which the vet told me today wasn't unusual. The only indication she gave me that something was going on was she started licking her tail and butt area excessively last night. Poor thing. He gave her an antibiotic shot and a pain shot directly into her gland plus gave me a bottle each of antibiotics and pain medication. It should clear up within the next few days.

I told the vet about how I changed her food and he didn’t seem to think that was the cause. I told him that the last time I expressed her was in November and he didn’t seem concerned about that either. I asked how often I should express it now that she has a history of this problem and he said once a month, which is totally doable.

Maggie didn’t eat anything yesterday and she hasn’t eaten anything today either. Little stinker. I asked the vet about her skinniness and all he said was “she is what she is”. He gave her a body score of 5 (ideal). Whatever, dude! I still think she’s too skinny! I’ve decided to go back to the dry food only diet -- this anal sac thing coinciding with a change in diet is too much of a coincidence, imo. Any trade off I might have gotten weight-wise, isn’t worth it. She didn’t eat significantly more of the softened stuff than the dry food anyway.

So, everything is back to normal-ish tonight. I’m all caught up on my sleep (I didn’t sleep much last night) and Mags is going to be okay, etc. Thank goodness! K, I’m off to make beads! ttyl

ps... Maggie finally ate something! Not a lot, but some while I was writing this. Wha-who!

All the time I spend grooming her paid off too, which was nice to hear. The vet's first notation was about her excellent teeth. :)

My Mags has an infection!

2009-01-08T20:32:00.001-05:00

Tonight I noticed that my little dog Maggie was licking her butt a lot so I checked it out. Her anus did NOT look normal! The left side looked puffy. I expressed her anal glands. I got a little plus some blood – NOT good. I shave all around that area and I see the opening of her anal glad – something I’ve never seen before. I immediately felt sick! Mag’s anal glad is infected. I called the vet and made an appointment for tomorrow morning.

About 2 weeks ago I changed Maggie’s diet. I started adding soft food to her dry food in an effort to get her to eat more. I can feel every bone in her body and I’d like to see her a little heavier. I did some research online and read that soft food can contribute to anal glad problems because the resulting stool is too soft to express the fluid naturally. ::sigh:: I didn’t know that. I guess the soft food is OUT. I’d rather have a skinny dog than a dog prone to anal sac problems.

I’m stressed. I know this is a common problem in small dogs and it’s not serious, but I’m stressed nonetheless. I had planned on making beads tonight, but that’s out. I don’t feel like it. Instead I’m giving Mags a full work-up. The last thing I need to hear is a lecture by the vet telling me that her ears are too furry or her teeth aren’t clean enough.

She doesn’t seem to be too uncomfortable right now. She’s taking all the combing, clipping, and plucking okay so far. I could take a picture of her infected gland, but I’ll spare you! Instead, here is a picture of my Mags taking a little break from grooming.

Neither of my dogs have ever had this problem. I express their anal glands as part of their maintenance (usually when I give them a bath – every 6 to 8 weeks or longer. I don’t really keep track.). Now that I know Mags is prone to infection, I’ll definitely be squeezing her asshole on a regular basis – like once a week. I hope the vet can express her infected glad manually and won’t have to lance it. I guess I’ll find out…

Cutting Bubble Wrap

2009-01-06T11:47:00.002-05:00

I know it’s been a week since I’ve updated my blog. What can I say? There's absolutely nothing interesting happening in my life right now. I’ve spent the week hanging out at the house and making beads and that’s pretty much it.

I haven’t heard anything from Kevin. All the cabinets he brought over last week are exactly where he left them – sitting hither and thither all over my kitchen.

I noticed several weeks ago that I was running low on bubble wrap…

I hate running completely out so I decided to get that job taken care of this morning. I go to the basement and drag out my double roll of bubble wrap…

And sit on the floor and start cutting it…

I’m ALWAYS glad to see the end of the roll! This is one aspect of my job that I really don't care to do.

And the closet is now restocked with ready to use bubble wrap!

So, yeah. That’s it. Cutting bubble wrap was the most interesting thing I could think of to talk about. Please. Contain your excitement. Lol.

New cabinets

2008-12-30T18:15:00.002-05:00

The dogs loved the farty chicken I made! I haven’t touched the slop since I initially sampled it. I have more chicken to make and I hope to do better next time. I bought and made another roast beef and I’m currently eating that.

Yesterday afternoon Kevin from Tussey Mountain Custom Kitchen called me and asked if he could deliver my cabinets today. Of course, I said YES! I surreptitiously took a picture of the guys unloading them from my bedroom window. :)

And here they are!!

Kevin will be back to install them in a week to a week and a half (knowing how house project can be however, I’m thinking 2 weeks). I guess they need to acclimate to the heat and humidity of my house before they can be installed, which is why he wanted them in my house now. I'm so happy to see PROGRESS. Finally.

Meat Soup

2008-12-25T14:22:00.002-05:00

The recipe called for chicken, 1 can of broccoli cheese soup, 1 cup of milk and 1 bag of frozen broccoli. I set the crock-pot to cook for 6 hours and added the frozen broccoli 4 hours in. Well, the broccoli almost completely liquefied and the chicken completely fell apart. What I got in the end was this…

It’s meat soup that kinda smells like a fart. I’ll refrigerate it and maybe try making sandwiches from it, but I’m not too optimistic about it (there are lots of broccoli chunks I couldn't get out...). I think the crock-pot would be fine for making creamed chicken or other type of thick-sauced chicken to be put over something else like biscuits or pasta, but not for making stand-alone chicken (which is what I was expecting). Live and learn, I guess.

New eyeglasses

2008-12-23T16:53:00.004-05:00

Check ‘em out!!

New glasses are always nice. What’s really great about these glasses though is that they only cost me $24.00 (including shipping)! The last time I got glasses (almost 6 years ago) they cost me around $150.

No optometrist will make glasses with a prescription older than 2 years. I’ve always HATED that! I want to be the one to tell the doctor when I need a new prescription and not the other way around. They are MY eyes after all plus it’s MY money. My prescription hasn’t changed since I was a teenager so this “2 year rule” thing really pisses me off. Anyway, I’ve been putting off getting new glasses because I don’t want to pay for some eye doctor to write me a new prescription that’s pretty much exactly as my old one. He or she never writes it out EXACTLY the same. It’s like he or she wants to feel like they’re doing something so they change it (in the words of my last eye doctor he “tweaked it”) a little. Any kind of “tweak” that does NOTHING to improve my vision just pisses me off! My flameworking glasses have a certain prescription and getting a new prescription would make switching from my regular glasses to my lampworking glasses a bit sickening. I’ve even requested that if my vision hasn’t changed since my last prescription, please leave it alone. They never do. PISSES ME OFF. So anyway, I've needed new glasses for a while but going in to get a new prescription was keeping me from doing it.

I saw a post on LE about someone needing glasses and someone mentioned Zenni Optical (http://www.zennioptical.com/). OMG! Full prescription glasses for as low as 8 bucks! I knew my prescription, figured out my pupillary distance and ordered a pair right then and there! I got them today and I couldn’t be happier with them! It took 2.5 weeks to get them, which isn’t bad considering that they’re made in China, shipped to CA and then shipped to me in PA. I can’t wait to order another pair! I’ve never in my life had 2 pairs of eyeglasses at the same time (or prescription sunglasses!). SO EXCITING! At their prices, several pairs are cheaper than any single pair I could get locally. Plus not having to deal with an eye doctor is GREAT! It’s all good.

The biggest difference between my old glasses and my new glasses is size. My new glasses are much smaller.

Smaller is fine by me. The more they disappear on my face the better!

Okay, I'm off to pick out another pair of glasses. YIPPEEE!!!

Leftovers are…

2008-12-23T12:52:00.001-05:00

a beautiful thing. Beats a peanut butter sandwich hands down!!

Success!!!

2008-12-22T16:13:00.000-05:00

Eating good tonight!!

Roast Beef

2008-12-22T10:08:00.000-05:00

I bought a crock-pot yesterday and a hunk of beef I think is roast beef (I have no idea! I’ve never made it before…). I chopped up some onion, added some water and added the beef. I turned the pot on for 6 hours. Hopefully, I’ll have roast beef for diner tonight (fingers crossed!). I have literally been either eating peanut butter or chicken nugget sandwiches for 6 months and all I’ve been thinking about lately is REAL food – cooked food. This better work cuz I can’t stand my current diet much longer.

Poor Molls!

2008-12-19T17:45:00.001-05:00

Basement stairwell is DONE

2008-12-19T16:10:00.001-05:00

I finished the basement stairwell yesterday morning. Here are the before and after pictures!

The fault in the wall is only slightly noticeable now.

I think it turned out good. I’m so glad to be finally finished! I’m not going to start another house project until my kitchen and bathroom are done. Still no news from Kevin…

Cabinet refacing is DONE!

2008-12-17T09:30:00.003-05:00

Okay here they are!!

And the before & after:

They look a lot better, imo. I learned a lot through the whole process. The hardest part, believe it or not, was installing the new hinges. The large independent doors were okay, but the 4 smaller ones were HARD. They were hard because they meet in the middle EXACTLY. I installed the hinges over and over – one set of doors overlapped while the others were a half inch apart. If that wasn’t enough, sometimes the inner lip of the door wouldn’t clear the frame and so wouldn’t close at all. It was all very stressful! After 2 days of farting with them, I finally got them to the point where they worked good and looked okay. They aren’t perfect but they’re good enough. They look better now than they did and they function correctly, so I’m happy.

I started the basement stairwell project yesterday. I might finish today, but probably not (these kinds of things take MUCH longer than I think they will!). I don’t want to show you any pictures of the stairwell yet cuz that would ruin the wow-factor of the “after”. The big parts are done and now I need to finish the details.

This morning when I went to put my mail out, I saw something I’ve never seen before.

YES, I’ve seen snow on my car before, but never a sheet of snow that literally looks like a blanket! Check out the draping and wrinkles and stuff! It looks like a blanket made of diamonds.

NO progress on my kitchen yet. At this point, I’m kinda losing hope that it will be done by Christmas. ::SIGH:: Easter for sure!

Cabinets & basement stairwell projects AGAIN

2008-12-11T11:12:00.002-05:00

Five down and one to go! The last cabinet door will be ready for the next stage of refacing on Saturday. FINALLY.

Remember this nasty corner in my basement stairwell?

I started working on that. The first thing I did was remove excess wood. I used my wood-cutting Dremel bit for that. I quickly realized that there was a nail right there.

So, I used my Dremel to cut it out (I used a metal cutting bit). I got it as flush as I could…

Then I cut the piece of oak plywood to fit that spot…

I decided to use my Black & Decker NaviGator saw to cut the plywood. I really, REALLY hate using the circular saw!

Using the NaviGator saw is a lot more work, I will admit. BUT I’m a lot more comfortable with it and so that’s what I used.

Since the NaviGator saw worked okay for the plywood, I decided to make all my cuts with it. I cut up one of my 8-foot boards next. I then used my wood-cutting Dremel bit to round out the edges…

And it all worked out okay!! Here’s a side-by-side with one of Vern’s boards.

And an end shot. The only difference between the 2 boards is that mine isn’t quite as consistent and the only way I can see it is if I hold the board right up to my eyeball and look down the length of it. Once it’s on the wall NO ONE will notice, I’m sure. It worked out good!

There was a lot of sanding involved because of the Gator saw. Thank goodness I only had 6 pieces to make. NOT fun, but doable.

I made all 6 AND I only used one of the two boards I bought. I didn’t mess up, nothing went to waste, etc. Everything went as planned!

Before I stained and put polyurethane on them, I decided to cut them to fit their respective spots first. I did one at a time. I removed one piece and then cut the new piece to duplicate it exactly and then I double-checked to make sure everything was okay.

I get to the last one and…

A piece that I didn’t plan on replacing SPLIT! I was careful, too!! ::SIGH:: What happened was these two boards were stuck together at the miter joint. They weren’t glued, but they were tightly fit together and came out together. That happened with the one of the other pieces I took out too, but I just nailed it back in. No problem. I don’t know if there was a split in this piece to begin with or what. No idea. REALLY SUCKED. So, I did end up having to use the second board I bought. The whole process of making these boards took a day and a half, btw. MUCHO work! I put stain on them last night…

And today, I’m putting on the polyurethane. I’m also adding a couple additional coats to the plywood – to make it all shiny and new.

Molls was up to the same antics. If I ever left some sawdust on the floor, she lapped up as much of it as possible before I returned!

She’s a pistol, I tell ya!

I’m hoping my hinges come either today or tomorrow. If I do get the hinges before this weekend, I should be able to finally finish the cabinet refacing project this weekend! I can’t wait to be done. My basement is a mess. There’s not just a lot of stuff laying around, but now it’s covered in a thin (and not so thin) layer of sawdust. Check out my twisties!!

I know, I should have covered them up (it didn’t occur to me until it was too late.). I can’t cover up everything and everything down there now is dusty and it drives me NUTS. I still have lots more cutting to do (crown molding for the cabinets and the paneling and molding for the basement stairwell). I probably won’t be done for at least another week. hhhhhhhh

This is just so sweet!!!

2008-12-06T17:46:00.000-05:00

Hinge situation

2008-12-05T18:39:00.002-05:00

UPS just delivered my hinge and the verdict is…….SUCCESS! I’m so glad too, cuz it was these hinges or bust.

Open…

Closed…

YAY!!

More of the same, but a little farther along

2008-12-05T16:44:00.002-05:00

More of the same, but a little farther along

Work is still in progress. I finally finished cutting the overhang on all that crown molding.

My goodness was that a lot of work! AND zero fun. I’m so glad to be done with that. It’s all stained, polyurathaned and ready to go. It’s not too thick, it’s all flat (ish!). Hopefully, it looks okay on the doors.

So far, I’ve glued the paneling to 2 of the 6 cabinet doors. I did the bigger ones first.

Gluing the paneling to the cabinet doors is VERY stressful. The paneling slides all over the place because it takes a while for the glue to hold and it takes A LOT of weight to hold the paneling down (MUCH more than thought would be necessary). So, the panel is sliding all over the place with glue leaking out the edges. I’m wiping up the glue, moving the panel back into position plus adding weight. The whole process takes about 40 minutes. The directions on the bottle says it takes 24 hours for the glue to dry. To be safe, I’m giving each door 48 hours. (I used jars of frit for weight, in case you were wondering).

Let’s see….I finished staining and polyurathaning the RC stop…

I’ve been thinking about the RC stop being used as baseboard. I’ve decided not to use it that way. It would be fine if I was installing it along a straight wall, but I’m not. The tile and cement board raised the landing up by about a half-inch. The RC stop is and inch and three eighths wide. A half inch is a lot to take away from a board that skinny…

I’ve tried cutting boards like that and it never ends well! Baseboard is more substantial (3 inches, I think) and I feel a lot more comfortable cutting it.

So, I went back to Wilson’s and bought baseboard for this area. I stained it today and I’ll start coating it with the poly tomorrow.

I’m making progress, but it’s slow! Earlier this week I went looking for the 2 and a half-inch boards I’ll need to replace the wood that was damaged from the hinges from my cabinet doors. I quickly found out that Vern made them and they aren’t something I can buy myself. ::SIGH:: They’re not only an nonstandard width, but the edges are also nice and rounded….

Well, this just sux! I’m going to have to make them myself from regular oak boards. MAN. So, I need 16 feet of 2.5 inch boards. A 5.5 inch wide board that is 8 foot long would be enough but JUST enough.

I don’t have a lot of experience with woodworking, but I do have enough experience to know what I’m getting into here. One board would give me a near ZERO margin of error and I just don’t need that kind of pressure! Using the circular saw plus rounding out all the edges by hand without making a single mistake. Um, NO. So, I bought 2 boards.

I thought about NOT rounding the edges thinking it might not look that bad, but unfortunately I’m replacing a piece of wood that completes a frame. I can’t leave one flat sided with the other 2 rounded.

My bedroom is a MESS. So, please excuse it! All my kitchen “stuff” is up there.

Okay so the edges on the boards have to be rounded. I bought a wood cutting bit for my Dremel and all I can say about that is I *hope* it works. I’ll let you know!

The 2 oak boards I bought are sitting in the middle of my living room. I am NOT looking forward to ripping them. My plan is to keep walking by them until absolutely need them to complete the cabinet door project.

So, I have the cabinet door refacing project and the basement stairwell project on-going. I’ve decided to not use the RC stop as baseboard, but I don’t want to let it go unused either. I’ll use some of it to trim out the bottom part (2 and a half pieces with 6 pieces in total to use). I’ve been thinking about how else I could use it and I’ve come up with a brilliant plan for it!

Here’s what my basement stairwell looks like:

See the right-hand side wall there? It has a one-inch “step” to it. Vern built this wall when he rebuilt the first floor staircase 5 years ago. The original wall wasn’t level, so he made it level. It looks fine on the kitchen side and the first level staircase went in fine, etc. The only problem with this wall is that it’s funky on this side. And it’s not off by just a little bit either! It’s a full inch off.

So, what I’ve decided to do it cover up all that funkiness with paneling. :) The same kind of paneling I used for the cabinet doors. Kinda like this!

I’ll build up the wall a little so I have something to nail the paneling into and although the funkiness of the wall will still be there, the paneling will make it a lot less obvious. That’s the plan, anyway. I ordered the paneling today and I hope to get it next week.

ANYWAY, back to the RC stop. I can use it to trim out the top. It’s not fancy…

But I think it’s gonna look just fine!

So, that’s where I am today with the cabinet doors and basement stairwell projects. I haven’t heard anything from Kevin about my kitchen. This week would have been the absolute soonest that he could have installed my cabinets. If my cabinets aren’t made, they should be by the end of next week. After that it’s all about Kevin’s schedule. Soon, people. SOON!

On-going house projects…

2008-11-30T14:50:00.001-05:00

Kevin from Tussey Mountain and Scott the tile guy came by earlier this week. The purpose of the visit was for Scott to get an idea of the job. I showed him the picture that I drew and his first comment was, “So, you want it on a 45.” I said, “yup!” lol. Somehow I knew he’d whine about it! It wasn’t serious whining, thank goodness. Then he said something about how he’d have to charge me for his time as opposed to per square foot, which is standard for laying tile (being a floor person you’d think he’d have a standard rate for laying tile on a 45, but whatever…). He then proceeded to tell me how he wasn’t sure that floor tile could be put on the ceiling. He said he’d never done it before. He told me how concerned he was of it falling down before the mortar set, etc. because of the weight. Kevin, during this whole time, is agreeing with him. ::sigh:: The lady who I bought the tile from didn’t seem at all concerned about it, which is why I bought it. We talked about other tile options and he said he’d make some phone calls to see what could be done and would get back to me.

My overall impression of Scott was positive. He seemed easy-going and he listened to me. He wasn’t arrogant. He fully admitted that just because he’d never put floor tile on a ceiling doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, etc.

Kevin wasn’t able to tell me when he’d be able to start putting my kitchen together, but he did say that he was almost done with his current project and then he has one more project to do before mine (an unheated lake cottage). I have no idea how long the cottage job will take, but just knowing that I’m NEXT IN LINE is good news. I’m getting really tired of eating sandwiches, cheese and yogurt!

Okay so as soon as the guys left, I called Meadville Floors. I wanted to know all about how floor tile can be put on the ceiling. I talked to Clay, the guy who installs the tile, and he told me he does it all the time without any problems whatsoever. He told me how he does it, what mortar he uses, etc. I wrote it all down. When Scott and I were talking I told him I’d be willing to buy more wall tile for the tub ceiling, but after talking with Clay I’ve decided to stick with the floor tile on a 45 up there.

Scott called me back on Wednesday. He told me he called Meadville Floors and found out that they don’t make square tile in the design I picked out. He said he could cut the 12x12 floor tile into 6x6. I then told him that I also called Meadville Floors and talked with Clay and was told that putting the 12x12 floor tile on the ceiling was possible and how it was done, what was used, etc. It was then that Scott also said he talked with Clay and was given the same information. I said I really wanted him to try to get the 12x12s on the ceiling on a 45 as I originally planned. He said he would try and that he’d put a piece of plywood over the tub in case the tiles start falling down. I told him I would call him when I heard from Kevin.

So, that’s the story on the tile. It’s iffy whether the 12x12s will stay up on the ceiling (according to Scott and Kevin), but he’s gonna try at my request. He didn’t give me an estimate for the job and I was really hoping for one. I don’t know how the money thing is going to work with Scott, but Kevin trusts him and so I do too. I have a good idea how much tile people charge, so he better be in the ballpark!

My days lately consist of making beads and working on one of the various “in-progress” house projects I have going on. I finished putting the polyurethane on the paneling for the cabinet doors for my bedroom. They turned out really good – nice and smooth and not too shiny. I definitely like the satin better than the semi-gloss.

I put the pieces where they’re supposed to go, but without the doors to give myself an idea of what they’ll look like.

With the paneling all cut, stained, polyed and ready to go I started working on the crown molding next. The plan I had in mind for the crown molding consisted of 2 pieces…

At Wilson’s Building Supply the 2 pieces fit together perfectly. I planned to glue the 2 pieces together and then glue the whole business to the doors. The little bit of overhang would outline the outside of each door. It was gonna look good.

Well, when I got the pieces home they DIDN’T fit nicely together at all!!

Plan A is out of the question! The RC Stop (the plan looking piece) is OUT. Well, I don’t want to waste all that crown molding I bought, so I’ve been cutting off the overhang…

It’s A LOT of work, people! Once I saw off a chunk, it’s not always flush. I then use a chisel and flatten it out as best I can.

I bought 48 feet of the stuff. I’m about half way through it now. It’s not something that I can rush through, unfortunately. If I let myself cut the wood when I’m at all tired, I mess up the angle and end spending way too much time with the chisel. I can cut about 10 inches at a time and then I have to take a break. A wimpy sawing arm, I guess.

Here are the hinges that are currently on these cabinet doors:

I absolutely hate them! They’re ugly and they look cheap to me. I want hidden hinges. When I removed the hinges I noticed a problem…

Lovely, isn’t it? The screws that held the old hinges either split the wood or otherwise messed it up. If I want inside mounted hinges, I’m going to have to replace all that wood. When the doors are put back on some of that nastiness will be covered up but I don’t like it. I’ve decided to replace all affected wood (about 16 feet). This week I plan to go back to Wilson’s and get a couple 8 footers and fix ‘em.

Anyway, back to the hinges. I bought one pair of inside mounted hinges from Home Depot a couple weeks ago. I decided today to see how they work, how to install them, etc. I don’t know much about hinges, so I bought a pair that “looked right.”

I guess they sit inside the door like this…

And when I take ‘em upstairs to see how I could put ‘em in, there’s nothing to mount them on! I’d have to add a strip of wood into each cabinet.

I took the hinge to my bathroom cabinets just to see how they “should” be installed and I run into the same problem…

Okay, so these hinges are just NOT right. I don’t quite understand how they’d work either. They only swing out one way and it seems like that flat piece is backwards or something.

Vern seemed to have made these doors specifically for the hinges he put on them!

But I don’t want them! ::SIGH:: Hinges, it seems, are NOT as simple as I previously thought. I did some hinge and door hardware research (omg BORING) and finally found some hinges I think will work. Here they are:

Interesting looking suckers aren’t they? BUT in the item description it said, “works on 3/8” inset with 3/8” lip” and I’m pretty sure that describes my cabinet doors!

Here’s how the hinge looks installed…

Well, I’m pretty sure these hinges will work, but I’m not 100% sure. Since they aren’t cheap ($6 per hinge) I only bought one ($7 bucks to ship ONE hinge. Money sucking bastards…). I don’t want to plunk down $72 plus shipping on hinges that I’m not absolutely positive will work. And you know what the real pisser is? Screws are NOT included! I have to buy them separately – 10 screws PER hinge! OMG. I’m hoping to buy the screws at Home Depot – you know, CHEAP.

I’ve crunched the numbers and each door will end up costing $40 in materials to complete. Forty bucks isn’t terrible (a third of that is just for the hinges) but the time involved is disgusting! I hope I really REALLY like the end result. We’ll see…

So, the hinge situation is pending.

I’ve been thinking about the 48 feet of RC Stop that I bought for the cabinet doors that I’m now not going to use. I can’t return them because I had them custom cut to 8 feet (standard is 7 feet – for doors). So, I have all this wood that needs to be used somehow (you know, cuz I’m thrifty). I’m thinking I might use it on my basement stairwell…

I could put one along the top (kinda like a baseboard):

And another piece underneath…

You know, to cover up the less than appealing drywall edges…

It will also hide the cracked tile grout. I had the landing on the staircase tiled and that particular spot flexes quite a bit. The grout WILL crack no matter what. Molding will cover that right up!

So, I think it’s a good idea. I just hope it looks okay in the end. RC stop is NOT baseboard and it might look odd. I don’t know. It’s oak and I’ll stain and poly it. I’ll give it a go and find out!

Okay so if I’m going to finish the basement stairwell, I might as well finish all of it. I went to Home Depot and bought this:

This single piece of wood cost – get ready – 20 dollars!!! I couldn’t believe it. Somebody, somewhere is making very good money. MAN! It’s not even the right color. I plan to strip it and restain it. Anyway, it’s an oak threshold. I cut off a hunk and here’s where it’s gonna go:

Well, I can’t just nail it into the tile and I don’t want to glue it. I have a piece of oak plywood that was supposed to be a shelf in my office closet. The closet is the way I want it, so it’s scrap right now.

It’s the perfect thickness to support the threshold.

All I have to do is cut a piece and nail it in there!

Of course, it’s not going to be easy. One corner is REALLY funky…

And the surface that I’ll be nailing this piece of wood onto isn’t level…

Yeah, it’s gonna be a bitch. I’ll work on it though. Woodwork does cover up a multitude of sins and is worth it in the end.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I’m in the middle of LOTS of house projects and not a single one of them is close to being done. Having to cut the overhang on all that crown molding is what is really hanging me up right now. 10 inches at a time…24 feet to go…. I guess I better get back at it.

Tile haul and clean up

2008-11-24T19:15:00.004-05:00

The tile I ordered for the bathroom came in last week and I decided to pick it up today. So, I put my rubber boots on and headed out (I never dress to impress…).

It was cold, rainy and gray today – in a word, DREARY.

I ordered my tile from Meadville Floors. It’s where I went to find out the cost of the tile and grout Vern used in my kitchen. The lady there was so nice and helpful – and she knew I wasn’t there to buy anything. She helped me out anyway. GREAT lady! So, I went back to her. She makes money with every sale and she deserved it! It’s a little store…

I drove out back…

and Marla helped me pack my car!

I thought about where I wanted to store all this tile and decided under my kitchen table would be the most out-of-the-way spot I have for it. Only problem is is that there’s tons of crap under it!

So, before I unloaded my car I cleared out all that stuff from under the table…

I didn't want to get my house all muddy so I unloaded all the tile in the sunroom first.

THEN I started bringing it inside. This stuff was heavy, btw. One box of floor tile weighs 43 pounds (YES, I did weigh one!). Well, I wasn't gonna just pack ‘em all under the table without checking it all out first! The first box I opened was the listello. Ohhhh, ahhhh!!!

The shelves…

The bullnose pieces (not very exciting)…

And just because I could, I opened one of the floor tile boxes and laid it out on the floor just to give myself an idea of what it’s gonna look like.

After checking it all out, I got it all under the table.

Some time during all this tile activity Patty calls (the wife of the man who’s going to finish my kitchen). She asks if tomorrow morning is a good time to have the tile guy come out and look at the job. I said fine. Tomorrow IS fine, however my house is a mess and there’s nowhere for another car to park!

So I shovel out enough space for 2 cars. I don’t know if Kevin and this Scott dude are driving separately or what, so I made enough space for 2 cars just in case. It was raining, cold, muddy -- NASTY. The snow was all slushy... I got it done though! It will be worth it. I'm getting realy tired of having no kitchen so whatever I have to do, I'll do!

On the upside though, the ice dam on my roof isn’t getting any bigger. Hopefully, by the end of the week it will be completely gone.

After shoveling out my front yard, I got to work on cleaning up my house. My kitchen still had my cabinet doors all over the floor. I was going to pick up the house yesterday, but the roof thing took up all my time. Anyway, the kitchen is completely cleared out now!

Well, almost. Gotta put my broom and pan somewhere!

Finally, I got around to putting one coat of polyurethane on the cabinet door paneling.

And then the day ran out. I'm tired and kinda sore. I’m really looking forward to going to bed tonight. ttyl

OHH! I almost forgot! I also took a picture of the cutes little doggies you'll ever see! Just because they were sitting there looking ever so adorable.

Thanksgiving diner 2008

2008-11-24T11:24:00.002-05:00

Before I go to my aunt Jane’s house for Thanksgiving diner, I make a stop to my sister Kitty’s house. I had some things of hers I wanted to return plus pick up some dark ivory, a computer fan, etc. We had some “business” to attend to, I guess. Lol. I sat at her kitchen table while she made lasagna (that I usually make but couldn’t this year)…

and my nephew, Ryan, was at the computer making digital snow flakes.

I didn’t stay at Kitty’s long. After I left her house I made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to buy satin polyurethane (I don’t’ like the shiny stuff I bought!) and CVS.

This year I was responsible for drinks, chocolate and a non-bake cheesecake (no kitchen required!).

Thanksgiving was good. Lots of food and conversation.

I think my nephew, Ryan, is giving me his “death stare”. Lol.

Eventually, it came time for a group photograph. My uncle John took this picture so I’m in this one:

Well, I wanted to take pictures too! I get in front of the group and I must have done something (or not done something) because everyone started waving their hands at me.

Here’s MY group shot of everyone!

Then I told everybody to do something crazy! Lol

I took a few more….

I figured since as long as they were going to stay in front of me that I might as well keep taking pictures!

Well, the troops started getting restless!

At first it was funny…

And then they all started to walk away!

After a while, I got no respect at all!

And then we had desert and went home. All and all, everyone had a good time!