Time Thief

the last goodbye

2008-08-19T10:15:00.003-05:00

Before I start posting any "new" kitchen stuff, thought I would share these lovely nuggets before we say goodbye.

The original lino - black with goldish swoops. I seriously considered replacing with something similar.

Evidence that the trim was painted brownish-pink at some point.

And was once accompanied by a lovely shade of green. :)

Yet another "safe" wiring upgrade.

Original wallpaper. I found this behind the trim also, so it seems pretty sure this was the original, builder installed stuff.

Some old carpet. Can you imagine this with the wallpaper above?!!??!

Ugh. So glad it's gone.

legendary injuries

2008-08-17T12:14:00.002-05:00

I am a klutz. I often hurt myself when remodeling (or doing anything). It's not uncommon to find a large bruise, cut, or scrape and have absolutely no idea where it came from. But sometimes....sometimes the injuries are so graphic and odd they fall into the category of 'those injuries you'll never forget'. I've sustained a few of them at the Time Thief.

- The time I cut my leg open when removing steel siding from the house (within the first 45 minutes of starting the project).
- The time my "free" plumber BF dripped hot solder on my arm (more my fault than his).
- The time the end of a pencil punctured my torso.

I still have the scars from all of these things. Yesterday, I added a new one to the list. And this one is just plain odd. I'm not even sure how it happened. But I do know that it happened within 30 minutes of starting work. There must be something about digging into a new project that causes me to attack rather than think.

I was using a drill, it slipped and the drill bit went THROUGH my hand. Not just into the skin. I've had that happen before. It hurt, but no big deal. I can't even find the scar from that. This thing went in and came out the other side. I have the holes to prove it. Luckily it was on the fleshy part under the pinky so I doubt there'll be any long-term damage. But it was just so odd and even took me a while to realize it came out the other side. The drill bit still worked fine after I wiped off the human tissue. :)

Fortunately (knock wood) there has been no saw blade-to-skin contact nor any serious nail gun injuries. I'll try to keep it that way. Be safe out there, kids.

de-nailed

2008-07-23T22:11:00.003-05:00

When I demoed the bedroom next to the kitchen that I thought was going to become part of the kitchen.... wait. Did you follow that? Didn't think so. How about a visual aid.

I know it's messy. Leave me alone, I was working! You're standing in the kitchen. See the towels in the middle of the floor? Those are shoved into a big hole so the cats didn't feel the need to jump down to the basement. Everything past that was the the old bedroom.

When I tore all this up I also pulled up the hardwood in the bedroom area. It would be replaced with whatever kitchen flooring I decided on, right? riiiiiigggghhhttt.

Besides, the elderly POs had installed a (leaky) washing machine in that room and a large section of the floor had deteriorated (hence the towel-plugged hole). I salvaged what I could with plans to use it in the nature room.

Well, the wall between the bedroom and kitchen was put back and the bedroom will remain a bedroom of some sort. Who knows what sort of flooring I'll want to put in there when the time comes. Since the nature room floor will be in direct contact with existing flooring in the dining room, seems like a good idea to use the salvaged stuff there as planned anyway.

In theory, it's Red Oak. Oh, wait, I have proof. See:

But who knows...because I also found a few of these.

I'm a dummy and can't tell the difference based on the grain alone. Maybe some tags just got switched up. Maybe it's a mix. I'm not losing sleep over it.

Regardless, I didn't notice when it was installed in the bedroom. Hopefully I won't notice when it's installed in the nature room. Before I can re-use this flooring, I need to remove the nails. Wheeee!

I don't remember who it was, but someone in houseblogger land gave me the idea to get a pair of these things for easy nail pulling. (Thanks unknown houseblogger!) They called them bull-nose pliers. I found no such thing at the store. The looks of these seemed to match that name the best so I picked them.

Technically, these are concrete nippers. And hoooo-boy, are they strong! You have to apply the correct balance of pull and pressure otherwise they'll bite right through the nail. Overall, they get the job done with fairly little effort. The key is to plan ahead so you only do a little bit of flooring at a time. Avoids those pesky blisters that way.

There is something oddly zenlike about this process. Stand on upside-down board with angled nails pointing towards you, clamp down close to wood, apply slight pressure and rock the face of the pliers towards you. And swooooop the nail is pulled through from the back. My extreme type-A-ness loooooves seeing visible progress on something that has a definitive end. Yes!

Here are the first of the de-nailed boards laid out. I know I don't have enough for the whole room. They'll be semi-dry-fitted which will help me estimate how much more I need to find. I'm much too lazy to calculate it based on the stacks in the basement.

Back to pulling nails....

walls are nice

2008-07-17T10:08:00.010-05:00

Okay, so I think it's been about five months now since I promised kitchen drywall shots. No? It just feels like it? Alright then.

Drywall guy was teh awesome. I didn't even check his references or anything. Went with my gut and it paid off. Wish I had found him before any of the other clowns I've allowed to touch my walls. (That includes the ex-BF who insisted on doing the drywall himself on the 2nd floor. I refused to help as I think drywall should ALWAYS be hired out.)

Here are the scraps being loaded into his truck simply because I like how he neatly stacked everything:

And now, walls. WALLS!

The nature room has walls after a year of living with insulation-colored wallpaper! Yay! Oh, and check out the fake-cathedral ceiling. Gonna look nifty with some paint and trim....

This shot was taken from the area I expect to spend most of my time someday. Lounging on a sofa, staring at the range. The 2x post will eventually be wrapped and trimmed to look all regal and column-like.

Here is the opposite direction of the last shot. The pass-through was previously a door. I needed the cabinet and counter space, but I wanted to keep the view open and catch as much light as possible. Upper cabinets are overrated anyway, so I just made enough room for a lower. The baking center will go here so I can stare out the window and contemplate life.

If you come over to do my dishes for me, this will be your perspective. I will be very appreciative and bake you some cookies. I hate doing dishes.

The temporary kitchen is now in the....kitchen. Well, it was in this shot. Guess it isn't now. But we'll talk about that another day.

Here is the long view from the dining room. Note that the horizontal plane of each room division is on the same level. This was not by accident. I framed in the plumbing-pipe between the kitchen and dining room to end up at the same height as that between the dining room and living room (original, not shown here). Drywall guy even had to use 1/4" drywall on the underside to get everything to line up.

Then I shimmed out the bottom of the beam between dining room and nature room, as well as the pass-through, so everything lines up. It's one of those things you wouldn't notice unless everything ended up at slightly different heights. Then it would look all janky and troubling. Believe me, they were ALL at different levels. It means I lost some "ceiling" height, but I think it's worth it.

I am contemplating changing the bottom of the pass-through. The original plan was to extend the countertop over it so I would have a larger workspace. I may raise it to be horizontally even with the bottom of the kitchen window. The proportions may be more pleasing and it would also probably save some $$ on countertop. Still simmering on that one, so we shall see.

The back bedroom (which I demoed because I thought I was going to enlarge the kitchen) is hardly worth mentioning since I'm not working on it nor do I plan to work on it until the distant future. Here it is anyway. It is totally cat domain until the kitchen cabs are installed and I finish their secret passageway to the basement. Oh yes. There will be a secret passageway.

This was an average-sized post-war closet. It is now a closet for a very skinny man. Not really. I'm going to turn this into a shelving area. The rest of the closet was given over to the kitchen footprint.

Of course, everything still pretty much looks like this. Oh, I've been doing things and if I am not lazy, you will read about these wonderful things. But, still, the fact remains that it looks pretty much the same as this. But with more junk strewn about.

Based on the original time estimate from cabinet guy, I'm thinking they'll be ready in the next week or so. I just ordered the kitchen floor last week and I really want to put it down before cabs so I don't lose any counter height. Will it happen? Which will arrive first? Stay tuned....

You like me! You really like me!

2008-07-08T12:56:00.003-05:00

Let's face it, I'm not blogular. Yes, a new word I made up. A BLOGGER who posts REGULARLY with interesting, fun to read content = POPULAR. Hmmmmm...maybe I didn't make that up and it has a different meaning entirely. Anyway, it's not me. I lack the time to post regularly, let alone make it all very fun and interesting to read. It's okay. I'm fine with it. Even though I have the innate need for everyone's approval, priorities are what they are.

But even the anti-blogular among us can get tagged! I was tagged by This Damn House, so here goes. I'm not going to pass it along though. Since I am not blogular I am also the last person on earth to get this tag. Maybe if my Mom starts blogging about her racing exploits, I could tag her.

Relatives, you may skip this post.....

What was I doing ten years ago? I was living in a little 1904 cottage in Lawrence, Kansas. Could show you a picture, but I have no idea where my photo albums are in the current remodeling upheaval. I was working at Sprint in Kansas City and driving over an hour each way to work. 1998 was probably when I was in the office on the Plaza. Sooooooo fun.

Five snacks I enjoy. Chocolate, ice cream, chocolate, fruit, chocolate.

Five things on my to do list.
* Order flooring for the kitchen. I could cross this off if the guy would just call me back to take my money!
* Figure out birthday gift for the boy. Less than a week to go! EEK!
* Pull more nails from salvaged hardwood.
* Order range hood insert
* Grocery store

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire.
I would not work for a salary. That's it. Lots of other things would go along with it, but that's the key to making the rest happen. Too obvious?

Five jobs I’ve had. (Not very diverse I'm afraid. I had to stretch to get five.)
* Fast food (Wendy's for a week and Lion's Choice for a summer)
* Retail hag (Toy Chest, Toys R Us, Auto Zone)
* Mainframe computer operator (snoozzzzzzzzzze-fest)
* Programmer/Software Engineer/all-around techno geek
* My volunteer time spent baling paper so the city of Kirksville could still recycle it? Does that count? No? Okay, then we will call my current position 'Consultant/Technical Architect' and that counts as separate from the techno geek positions

Five of my bad habits. (Seriously? This could go on for days... I'll limit it to the ones I'll publicly admit.)
* Impatience
* Assuming that if I know something, everyone else must also (eg. I'm not a good teacher)
* Defensive when my knowledge or abilities are questioned
* Eating all but the last chip, last spoonful, etc.
* Ridiculous overuse of commas

Five places I’ve lived. (Again, not very diverse)
* St. Louis-area (yes, NV, my first 26 years were on the other side of the metro from you)
* Kirksville, MO
* Lawrence, KS
* Kansas City-area
Sorry, don't have 5 that are different enough.

Wow, that does not read as nice or interesting. Maybe I should follow the example of that lady who was on Oprah yesterday and write my eulogy today...spice things up a bit.

cat outta the bag

2008-06-30T08:50:00.003-05:00

I have a bunch of pics queued up and tales to tell, just no time to blog. So, a quick interruption in the kitchen progress for this update.....For about 8 hours per day, I fight my way out of the TimeThief's clutches to earn money to feed her. The super-secret project I've been working on has finally been revealed here.

And before you ask, no, I haven't met Bono yet.

Edited to add:
More links. Yipee! (really just bookmarks for myself)
Interview with Dave J
CNet Australia
MacWorld UK

Reason #23

2008-06-20T17:26:00.003-05:00

....why I'm not bringing plastic storage back into my kitchen -- observe lunch fresh out of the microwave:

Okay, that's not entirely true. I'll probably continue to use the plastic I have, but that's been dwindling as things get destroyed. In its place, I like to use the glass storage/cooking dishes I nabbed at my grandma's estate sale. I'm sure there's a name for them, but I don't know what that would be.

I also try to re-use as many glass food containers as I can (think wide-mouth, squat salsa jar). They're great for small bits of leftovers or storing an appropriately sized small meal. Since I can't recycle glass at the curb, they're kind of a pain to deal with otherwise.

Thinking about these for bulk food storage because they're so dern cute!

Are your lights boring?

2008-06-16T22:48:00.002-05:00

So I'm working on a mood board for the whole kitchen / dining room / nature room area...mostly so I can pick out light fixtures that don't completely clash in tone and feeling. Anyway, browsing around and I see this:

I seriously thought somebody was playing a little joke. Who does that? But that really is the name of the line. Someone at George Kovacs has a sense of humor.

kitchen of yester.....month?

2008-06-06T15:51:00.003-05:00

I don't seem to have a lot of pictures of the whole kitchen demo process. But you know what that looks like right? Lots of cloudy picture bits. This demo did have a bit of a twist though. Next to the kitchen is a small bedroom. A bedroom with probably the best light in the entire house. So, naturally, you'd want to sacrifice the bedroom and enlarge the kitchen, right? So that's what I did. Tore it all out. Salvaged as much of the floor as I could. Because, well, this is what the floor looked like when I moved in:

Yuck!

Then after it was all opened up.....it just wouldn't work. All sorts of jogs in the wall (that I knew were there beforehand) made it impossible to come up with an efficient layout. And it was like destination nowhere. It would not have helped the flow of the house. So, I put the wall back. Which was good because some of the rafters were all rotten and saggy and this gave me the chance to reinforce things. And I changed the bedroom closet into more of a "shelving area" so I can have a corner in the kitchen.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, THE LIST. When confronted with a daunting task, I make even more granular lists. This one was after the major kitchen demo was finished. I had to do some things in order to open up the space. Scary things. So I listed them out step-by-step like I like to do. (List on recycled envelope sitting atop dishwasher I managed to sell on craigslist for 30 bucks!)

Speaking of craigslist....the day I demoed the kitchen I took a break for lunch and listed the old range in the "free" section. It was gone less than two hours later. Yay, craigslist!!!

Anyway, look, less walls:

With pipe feature! There is also an added joist or two which you probably can't see here. But believe me, I know it's there because I had to cut all kinds of pipes to put them in. Then I got the flu. And the bathroom nearest my fevered bedroom was out of service. :( Walking down stairs to pee with a 102 degree fever is not fun.

After the size of my swollen brain returned to normal, I brought in my favorite not-free plumbers. They spent about 9 hours here and they hate my plumbing. Especially when leaks appeared in areas they hadn't touched. I did some work after they left and it looked like this (from the dining room side):

But wait! No peeking!! Here we are, back at those kitchen-related-but-not-really-kitchen related things.

This pic of the dining room is from last December.

(Wow, I'm glad this big kitchen thing gives me the chance to repaint everything. I never did like these colors; especially not together.) Anyway....

A temporary wall was built by my occasionally :) helpful boyfriend and sometimes free plumber.

I rented three of these about 2 hours before the rental place closed. Two of them worked. Note to self: always get extras. But aren't they cute?

These little guys were used to jack up the wall/ceiling so it was actually level all the way across. (Even though the ex messed with this wall once before, the sag had only been lifted halfway.)

All level and the first header in. The boy was very excited at this point. He'd never lifted a wall before. He was on build duty, I was on the saw.

Viola!

With all the kitchen junk strewn about, it's kind of hard to figure out what's going on. Come back soon and I'll have drywall shots!!!!

One final note....since the kitchen was opened up, I took the opportunity to add another light in the hallway. It's an odd shape and there was always a dark hole in the back. Thank goodness for the consistency of the Rejuvenation catalog. Aren't they cute? (Hmmm...maybe I should be less sloppy about the trim paint if it's going to show up in pictures.)

kitchen of yesteryear

2008-06-03T11:54:00.004-05:00

Please, don't be afraid. Come on in and I'll show you around the kitchen.

I dug this photo out of the archives. It's REALLY old, but it's the closest to a true before without digging up paper photos and scanning them. Items of note: door on the right leads to the basement, making a total of 4 doors in this less than 8x14 kitchen. The dining room is on the other side of the wall you're looking at. Every time I would visit open houses in the neighborhood, they were opened up and I loved them so much more. I was ready to sell my junk house and move in. Bet you can guess where this is going to go....

But wait! What are those tools there? Oh, those are there to replace the cast iron plumbing pipe in the wall.

That's right...when we (the ex and I) were redoing the upstairs bath, he re-plumbed for the bathroom, but put the pipes in the EXACT same place. When I suggested, "you know what we should do....", my comment was met with a resounding NO. What the plumber says goes, so new pipes, but new pipes still in my way.

Door on the right leads to the dining room; door on the left leads to the recently re-built nature room.

Look! There's a bunch of vents there, too. The one on the right I even helped install to provide the bathroom above with lovely fresh air. Oh, Look! The door to the basement is gone! Someone must've moved that.

Here is the view out the kitchen window. The dividing rail falls right at my line of sight. Annoyed the freakin' hell outta me! Stoop or tip-toes, stoop or tip-toes. Argh! Yes, that's snow on the ground. I started the kitchen demo in January. You got a problem with that?

Here's that sink wall in all it's yellow Laminate glory.

Here I was in the midst of a last-minute pot of soup before I ripped everything out. Note that I get a tiny kitchen and I don't even get the corner! The wall there is for a closet in the bedroom next door.

Oh, you like my filthy stove? Want to see a head-on shot?

You want a cooking light like mine, don't you? I have three in the basement you can have.

Continuing around the room, here is where the fridge had stood. Clearly, I was really ready to demo.

And here we are, full circle back to where we started.

In case you missed it, we have my favorite ceiling coating in here, too.

And a final word. Heed my warning yee all. Do NOT put carpet in a kitchen or it will look like this under your fridge.

The one where I tease you some more

2008-05-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

You want to see kitchen stuff, don't you? You've almost earned it, but not quite. You'll have to endure one more post of random stuff that doesn't seem related to the kitchen, but it really is.

Because, you see, when you remodel a kitchen, it can't be contained to just one room. Oh, no. IT has to invade the entire house. Or maybe it's just that a few of these projects were hanging around or in progress anyway. If I lump them into "I'm redoing my kitchen" then I get more empathetic looks. Realistically, it's a mixture of both.

If you came to my house and saw this:

you might think, "Why are there three switches right in the middle of the wall?" Or may be you wouldn't. I don't know. For the 5 or so years since I wired these up, no one has said anything. They actually make a little more sense now that my temporary kitchen is setup right underneath them. Maybe you'd be more concerned about the blanket shoved into the hole in the wall to keep the cold out.

Either way, they (the switches) make a little more sense when you see this. Tada, a fuzzy picture:

I can now get to my car when it's raining without getting wet. Yee-haw! In general, I'm a big fan of detached garages where you will always get wet if you go out to your car during a rainstorm. They open up a whole other wall for windows in a home. They're keen. If, however, you HAVE an attached garage, I'm a firm believer in being able to get into it via some portal other than the 8x7 foot door on the front. Now I can. And I must say it is pretty darn nice despite the pain it was to install (move vent, move wires for said switches, move ceiling joist in garage, work with ridiculously out of plumb framing, freezing freezing cold, and on and on...). It has changed how I use the house though and I'm getting used to that.

This is a TruStile door, so it matches the original door profiles exactly. But, being mostly MDF, this one is very, very heavy. I couldn't lift the whole shebang on my own, so I had to take it out of the jamb to install. Then there was so much finagling involved with the opening, that the jamb (of course) got out of square making the actual door install more difficult. (sigh) But it's in. It shuts tight. Nearly perfect spacing all the way around the jamb. We'll see what happens when it gets humid.

As far as I can tell, none of the 1.5 story houses in da 'hood had doors to their garages. But all of the single-story versions did, where the door opened through the tiniest kitchens you ever did see. Makes no sense. It was all part of JC Nichols' grand plans to make suburbia a success and force neighbors outside to socialize. Not a bad plan, I guess. Many times pre-garage door, the only time I saw my neighbor to the north was when we were both moving from car to house.

Nichols did at least one thing right -- on the streets in North/South direction, he ALWAYS put the garage on the north side of the house. More sun, less cold. It's a good thing. Since I'm on a Nichols thread, here's some trivia: he used to drive his car around the neighborhoods he built to ensure things we neat and tidy and that all garage doors were closed. What was up with that guy and garage doors?! How do I know this useless tidbit? I read about it in here:

It's the history of Prairie Village!! It traces all the way back to early settlers then to the family who gradually sold off their land so JC Nichols could create yet another empire. Guess I shouldn't complain too much; it's my humble little home now. It's very cool to look through all the old photos showing the same houses, but with tiny, tiny trees. See the little shop in the top middle pic? That's my local hardware store where I walk down for caulk and lightbulbs in a pinch.

I'd been interested in getting one of these books for a while. The ex had bought one shortly after he moved out and was feeling some love for the old neighborhood. He finally realized it was stupid for him to keep it and gave it to me. It will stay with the house.

Well, waddya know? I've gone on and on and haven't touched any of the other kitchen-related-non-kitchen-but-still-kitchen-related projects. You do know that anticipation is always better than the real thing, right? Wait here with bated breath.

pot me up

2008-04-21T10:10:00.006-05:00

I've been having "decision issues" on the silliest thing....pots for the front stoop. Anybody wanna help me out?

Hmmmm....I don't seem to have a recent pic of the front of the house.

Oh! I know!

Lookee, Google street view to the rescue! You can't really see it here, but there is an "open iron" basket that's been sitting out there for a while. While I do love it, it doesn't have to stay there. I think something casual (eg. a grouping of odd-numbered items) would be best. And it should have a cottagey-feel without being too cutesy. (That touch of modern I'm eternally searching for...)

I found some bluish-grey stripey pots at a garden center this weekend, but just wasn't sure. Maybe they would look something like this:

Hmmm....not as blue as that though. They were more subdued in tone.

I've had hankering for some zinc. Might look something like this:

It's been tough to find zinc in this country though. Hey, here are some faux zinc at Target. What about these? I'm not wild about the shape...quite a bit modern, cottagey not so much....but they are different. Hmmm...I just noticed the sizes. A bit small I fear.

I nearly bought some terra-cotta pots with applied "zinc" diamonds this weekend. I do like the cottagey idea of terra cotta, but the brick I veneered to the stoop is very close to terra cotta in color.

Ho hum. Hem haw. Anyone? I do believe the kitchen-remodel-process has broken my decision-making abilities.

I won! I won!

2008-04-15T22:22:00.006-05:00

All because I pledged my love for my Milwaukee Heavy Duty Right Angle Drill (shown here in its usual accompanying pile of dust)

(The ex found this at a pawn shop. It is awesomeness. )

....and because the random number gods blessed me, look what I won!

You can read backwards, can't you? Thanks, DIYDiva!

Since I'm here, here's the scoop on the nature room. I loaded some boards into the truCk:

Drove home very slowly.

(sorry, no picture of that)

And I've started putting them on the ceiling:

They will eventually be painted white. Skinnier would've been better, but these were cheap and it's good 'nuff. (Must fix that insulation in the center.)

Next time, kitchen stuff. Promise.

cold

2008-03-07T13:29:00.004-06:00

Daylight savings time starts this weekend. It's snowing.

So, here are some pretty (valentine's) flowers. (No, they don't still look like this! :) I'm just slow.)

In the house for five minutes and I think they already had renovation dust on the leaves.

nature room, the next

2008-03-07T12:35:00.007-06:00

The web-nazis where my brother works block flickr, so I'll have to go back to blogger-hosted images (sigh). (They block flickr, but not blogger??? Who does that??!) Anyway.....

Window holes cut and ready to go. Note the meticulous scalpel cuts. Yeah, that wasn't me.

Windows in! Are the screens in or not? I can't tell. I got the "tru-scene" screens and lemme tell ya - worth every penny. They really do disappear if you're more than two feet away from the window.

Small problem with the windows. They kinda forgot to put on the extension jambs.

Yes, that's Pella tape on an Andersen window. Deal with it.

To the outside, how about if we try flashing this time? Maybe it won't rot away as quickly.

Some trim work in place. Takes me a looooooong time to do trim.

In order to finish the trim, I had to get new drip edge. (The old stuff got pretty beat up in the demo.) I had previously installed this fancy vented drip edge to provide roof ventilation for houses with no overhang. Called the ex to find out where he got the stuff. I hoofed it over to the roofing supplier but they had none in my color. :( I got some of the closest color (and handily fit the 9-ft long pieces in my car thankyouverymuch) and some spray paint.

Not bad, eh? It is going to be on the roof, mostly covered by shingles.

I was looking at these pics the other day and realized I had nothing more "finished" of the outside, so I popped out and took a couple as it is now.

If I had it to do over, I would lower the windows by just a smidge. I was concerned about them being too low (glazing within 18" of a finished floor must be tempered) so I erred on the side of safety.

I'm planning on another rain barrel with some hose extensions and evergreens to "hide" the utility area. Oh, and cleaning up the mess, too.

Back inside, I had to rebuild the floor. (Remember, this used to be a porch.) I decided it might be fun to try making it line up with the existing floor and, for giggles, how 'bout we make it LEVEL? Crazy, I know. The door in the old room never opened up all the way because it was swinging "uphill". So I built a little platform with angled joists and insulated like so:

Foam, pink, fiberglass. Not at all green, but this is Kansas. Do you have ANY idea how difficult it can be?

Electrical? check

Insulation? check

Rebuild the ceiling? check (trust me; you'll see it later because if it turns out in the end, I will be dern proud)

And this is pretty much what it looks like now

Except a lot more crowded since half the kitchen is also in there now. It will get drywall at the same time as the kitchen.

nature room

2008-02-17T23:25:00.005-06:00

I've received some questions about the nature room lately, so I thought I'd finally get around to posting about it. The nature room is technically referred to as a 'sunroom' on real estate documents. I re-named it because it actually wasn't very sunny. It was originally a screened-in porch and was (poorly) enclosed sometime in the 60's. The years had taken their toll and it was all kinds of rotten by the time I got here.

Pictures of the "before" and start of re-building follow. There are lots of pictures of rotten wood. I can't help myself. I'm compulsive about documenting and sharing pictures of rot.

Ehhhh....you know what? I'm lazy. Here's a teaser.

Check out the rest in the Flickr set here.

Today's lessons

2008-02-03T19:56:00.001-06:00

I've been at this whole remodeling thing for like 5 bajillion years. You'd think I already know everything. Ha!

Working on the kitchen today. Yeah, so I've been a little remiss in keeping things current. Didn't I tell you? I'm working on the kitchen.

Anyway, back to the things I learned today.

1- You can unweld PVC joints if you really want to. Yes, I said unweld. Not 'unjoin' or 'disjoin' or any of the other things I tried before I realized Google liked 'unweld' the best.

I cut the thing all wrong and could've saved myself a lot of work if I'd done things right the first time, but I didn't fulfill the required 'staring at shit' prep time. So, I had a pipe attached to an elbow fitting and wanted to remove the pipe while keeping the fitting in place. Here's what worked:

Use a PVC wire saw to cut the pipe right at the edge of the fitting. (You can make a wire saw at home if you want (or even use twine), but it was worth the 5 bucks in time saved.) After cutting the piece away, you're staring into the hub of the fitting that still has a ring of the old pipe left in it. Grab your favorite rotary tool. Make several vertical cuts through the perimeter of the pipe; just deep enough to almost cut all the way through the piece of trash pipe (NOT the hub of the fitting). Wish I bothered to get the camera earlier so this would make more sense. You'll end up with something that looks like a comb? or a piecrust? a ribbed something-or-other? You know....material -- gap -- material -- gap -- and so on.

After you have several gouges around the perimeter, grab your favorite flat-head screwdriver or chisel. I liked the flat-ness of the screwdriver better, but I was in a tight spot and the small chisel was easier to maneuver. You just have to be careful that you are aiming at the trash piece and not digging into the hub of the fitting.

Now, hammer away. The trash bit should break off in small pieces. Try to aim it away from the pipe so they fly out rather than down the pipe. And be ready to move your face away when it does fly out. This is a drain line, after all.

Don't listen to the people who say to heat up the fitting. That just makes things bendy.

Number 2 thing I learned today: Never, never, EVER use liquid nails unless you are absolutely, positively sure it won't be YOU who'll have to take it apart some day. Oy! Punishment for a job well done, I guess.

More things learned (and with pictures!) to come soon.

remember when things were green?

2008-01-11T18:31:00.000-06:00

I was sooo seriously busy with work and the house the last half of 2007, there's no way a post was going to happen. I didn't even have time to keep up on reading blogs, let alone maintain one. At one point, I was about 40 pages behind on the houseblogs blogroll. Ouch. Since I am an obsessive, type-A, completest (redundant much?) I worked my way through most of them over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Anyway, I want credit for my accomplishments. In addition to the major house project I made headway on (details to come), I also renovated my traffic island.

The public works crews already sucked up one of the shrubs when they were doing leaf clean-up. I'll definitely be out there again in the spring to re-plant. Hope I can remember the plant variety!

Yeah, it looks pretty pathetic and tiny now, but I expect great things in three years.

Also took time to go on a few garden tours. This place was really nice. There was a covered patio area at the bottom of this waterfall with much too comfy seats. I lingered for far too long enjoying this view.

bread, take 2

2008-01-11T18:25:00.000-06:00

The second whole wheat attempt went much better, thanks to this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Honey-Whole-Wheat-Bread/Detail.aspx No pics, because it's just about gone. :)

The only thing I still need to change is to NOT put the machine on the ground while it bakes. Since I stomp around the house like a Clydesdale, this bread "fell" in the last 20 minutes or so. Still good though.

Besides, I tried putting it on the dining room table and it made the table shake like crazy. It'll be a long time before I have anywhere stable to place it....

mmmm.....bread

2008-01-02T12:05:00.000-06:00

Totally random post here....but my brother got me a breadmaker for xmas. Hard to believe, but I actually asked for one. I lost one in the 'separation' and occasionally get the craving. However, I never get the craving to knead and babysit the dough myself. Solution = breadmaker.

Apparently, much research was done to pick the correct one, so I had to give it a whirl. For the first loaf, I went with wheat which is always a bit tricky. I used the recipe that came with the machine and it seemed a little odd to me but what do I know. The bread ended up being pretty dense, but okay tasting. Next time: french bread.

Tada, collapsed bread:

Then, when I figured out that the bottom (where the paddle goes) is actually the top:

xmas decor

2007-12-06T09:58:00.000-06:00

Since it's snowing out, thought I'd post this year's xmas decorations. I hope to start ripping up more things around here soon, so no tree this year.

The topiaries are rosemary plants. mmmmmmm......

Went nuts with the chandy, but it's OK....it's too small anyway and this makes it seem bigger. Maybe I'll leave it up all year long. Okay, okay, I'll stick to my plan of using this somewhere else and replacing it with as-yet-to-be-determined-something.

Yep, that's it. Oh, except for the empty wreath holder hanging on the front door. Haven't even had time to put up any lights outside.

While we're here in the dining room looking at the chandy, would you like to see the new craigslist table? (mom?) Thought so. I had been hunting for something like this table here.

This is a CL table also, but I just found it listed last night. :( Isn't it pretty? I'd mix up the chairs, but the table (wa)is spot on. Sortof. Although I love the looks, a harvest-style table wouldn't really work very well in the space.

I had started to admit that to myself when I saw the posting for my table on CL. I had never seen anything like it in my search, it was the PERFECT size, and I liked the lines overall, so I snagged it.

The man who was selling it (as part of his mother's estate) was very sweet and teared up when he delivered the half that wouldn't fit in my car.

When I bought it, I assumed I would paint some of it...maybe the chairs or just the table legs or both or ??? Only time will tell. I liked the vertical lines on the chairs, but when they're all there together, it's a bit much. I might sew some "shrugs" for the side chairs. There are two others and two leaves stored away.

Please ignore the clutter.....and the attack kitty.....and the fact that I need to re-cover the seats....and that I still need a rug....

Chair removed so you can see the lines of the table legs. It's kind of a shame that this is hidden away most of the time. Maybe a chair-less dining room? Just drag them out as needed? :)

It's much more mid-century that I usually shoot for, but it seems destined for the space. As Tim G says we'll just have to "make it work". It definitely invalidates the chandy, so yet another reason that has got to go.

Which one are you, V or E?

2007-11-30T23:48:00.000-06:00

Me? I'm a voyeur, not an exhibitionist. That means I spend countless hours reading blogs rather than posting to my own.

Eons ago, I promised Mindy I would post pics of the finished stairs. Now it seems that I will soon need advice from houseblogger land, so I thought I would catch everyone up with what's been going on at the Time Thief. Without further ado.........I give you The Stairs:

Viewing from the office. I was messing with my camera's settings. I think this was taken in "Museum" mode, so the colors are a bit funny.

The half-newel. There is a pocket door behind this wall, so I had to get creative with attaching it. The newel extends below the floor and attaches to the framing. Up top, I hollowed out a large rectangle from the back side. I then slid that over a wedge I had mounted to the wall with anchors. A few finish nails through the side into the wedge makes everything sturdy.

The railing. I used "Wipe On Poly" for all the dark-stained wood. It provides protection to the wood, but you can still feel the grain under your hands as you grab on. Very nice effect that I hadn't expected.

Big mama newel. Attached to the framing with bolts and screws. The floor in the hallway (where I was standing) was pre-finished. The stair treads and bullnose along the edge of the stairs, I stained to match. Not 100% perfect, but pretty close. The "not matching" part makes it seem older than it is. That's my story anyway.

Lighting. The Rejuvenation fixtures cast kind of a weird shadow that has caused me to re-consider my original plans for art up here....as evidenced by the blank walls.

Trying angles. I joined these pieces with epoxy rather than screws and dowels.....as recommended by some magazine in the archives. I think it was 'Family Handyman'.

The different wood colors...I take it some people are bothered by that?? I like it. If I were to change anything, it would be to lighten the treads/add more yellow, but since that would involve refinishing the floors in the entire house, that ain't gonna happen.

Quin says, "What are you doing now, woman?! I am not amused."

Frightening ascent....made slightly less frightening by the new handrail.

Finishing everything off by framing in the wall with trim was tedious. I think it looks kinda cool though.

Glamour shot.

I use the handrail ALLL the time now. Whoda thunk? I'm really not sure how I got along all those years without it. Here's to fall-free stairs!

New Dishwasher Detergent

2007-07-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

For a few years now, I've been trying out "green" cleaning products as I use up the old stuff. Overall, I've been very pleased. It's nice not getting a headache after cleaning. (Duh...I never made the connection until after I'd switched.)

I use several things from Method. Yes, their products are all about marketing and I could probably make similar solutions in my kitchen, but I've been pretty happy with their products and I like the nifty smells. The one area that hasn't been so lucky is dishwashing detergent. I couldn't even finish the bottle of Seventh Generation liquid dish detergent. It now lives in the bathroom to be used when I flush the whirlpool tub (not often).

I happened to be at Whole Paycheck a few weeks back and found myself in the cleaning products aisle. I took a gander to see if they had anything different and decided to try ECOVER. I am so impressed! It seems to work even BETTER than good-ole Cascade and they have some pretty ingenious packaging. Yes, it costs more, but I'm just trying to do my part.

Maybe I'll try out their laundry detergent next. I'm still a Tide girl, having had bad luck finding an alternative that can get out stains in a cold water wash. Or maybe I should just get a supply of bibs so I stop spilling food on myself.

i heart craigslist

2007-07-12T21:36:00.000-05:00

I've always been a casual craigslist user, mainly when I needed to get rid of something I bought for the house that didn't work out. Now, I am totally addicted. Did you know they have a 'materials' category now? I think that's new. I spend no less than 30 minutes a day on there now.

Anyway........ last week, I got rid of some old storm windows, storm door and a 'Madison'-style exterior door. I also found a dining set I thought I needed to have. So I sold my "old" one (yes, the one I bought less than two years ago) on craigslist to some very cool people. I have some other construction projects going on around here (that I need to update you all on) that will significantly change the "feel" of the dining room and the old set just isn't going to jive with the new direction. I'm still on the fence about the dining table I found. It has a broken foot and a not-so-great paint job. I'm thinking I'll pass on it. So, there's just lots of extra space in the dining room now which will be helpful for the time being.

But, today, I found a conference table for the office-I-never-work-in AND scored these super cool chairs

They're almost as gorgeous in person. I have a thing for diamonds, stars, and Xs so I HAD to have them. As you can probably tell from this seller's pic, the place was full of stuff for sale. I looked around while he helped another craigslister load a beautiful crib into his car. Browsing around, I found a good-as-new (!!!) Ballard Designs (drool) wall organizer. "How much?" "Eh, 10 bucks." Yeeeeeee!!

I just looked it up. It's this one: wall pocket. Yes, the $70 one. My first (and probably only) BD item! I'm not even sure where it's going, but I don't care!

I interrupted my final tasks on the stairs to post this (love to procrastinate those last steps -- no pun intended!), so I should have the stair wrap-up posted soon.

no, they're not finished yet

2007-06-06T22:46:00.000-05:00

No, the stairs aren't finished yet. Get off my back. I've been busy. With this:

New group workspace. Some people call it an office. I have no idea why I'm taking such an interest in painting, furnishing the place since I will still do most of my work at home. But look how much _better_ the door on the right looks. It's the sickness in me that needs to care.

And this:

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my car, aka tomCat or the truCk.

Moved garden and built rectangular raised beds. I liked the idea of the organically-shaped thing I had going before, but I need the order imposed by this geometry. These are pivotal to the new garden plan that will be implemented someday in my lifetime.

I was hoping to apply the "smother with cardboard and leaves" technique to kill weeds in the future beds. It doesn't look like it will work since all the weeds here are runners. If I smother them in one spot, they go get sun somewhere else and continue to grow anyway.

The herbs don't have enough space and didn't turn out quite right. This will do for now. I will intersperse them with "regular" plants when the time comes.

The beds aren't as "raised" as they should be since this is a slope. The top is nearly buried while the bottom sits slightly above regular grade. And I should've made underground trenches for irrigation. Grrrr... (shoulda, woulda, coulda, it's too late)

Oh, and then there's this:

Nice, huh?

But really, I've been progressing on the stairs as much as I can during the week. Which isn't much. And then there was the whole stain debacle I caused just two nights ago. I don't want to think about it, let alone type it out.

But I will share these coolio things that I was happy to discover several months ago. They're stain samples! All stain maker people should get with the program on this one.

Oh, AND I finally coughed up the dough for Toast, so I've been burning lots of TiVo-ish things. Yay, technology!

stairway to heaven

2007-04-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm sure that title has been used before. It's not really that heavenly up here anyway. Let's view it from the second floor and change the title to "stairway of the damned".

This post has been a long-time-coming. Mainly because the topical project has been taking SO LONG.....and it covers so little square footage. I won't say it's of low impact though. What is 'it'?

It's the stairs. Or, more precisely, the stair railing, balustrade, finish trim, and staining/painting of the steps themselves. I think I started it in late February/early March and still, I toil daily. Late last week (when I started this post) I thought I might be finished by the end of April. Not gonna happen. Maybe by the first weekend in May.

A search for ideas led me to this pic. I loved it immediately. It's pretty much in line with the ideas I already had, but seeing it in "real life" helped solidify my direction.

Someday I will learn that these high-contrast looks I'm always drawn to aren't good for my psyche, but whatever....

Here's is what caused visitors to fear a plunge to their death:

This shot is several years old, but it gives you an idea of the fear. Yes, I'm aware they're not current code-compliant. My advice along those lines fell on deaf ears. Besides, it's way better than what was there before.

Meda is also fearful of the edge

The stairs were mostly constructed by the ex. He should be awfully glad he didn't have to finish them. First, note the slope change and obvious change in direction of the stairs. Getting the handrail to match was a real head-scratcher. I was bummed that those parts showed up first. I was hoping to put that off until last because I was dreading it so much. It turns out that may have been the easiest bit.

The paper taped to the wall is a picture of the plumbing which services the bath on the other side. I kinda wanted to make sure I didn't screw any rail brackets through any pipes. It's a good thing.

I have no idea why this floor was sooo "sealed" up. Lots of interesting jigsawing and chiseling involved so I could mortise and bolt the newels into the framing.

Yes, I cleaned and patched it all up. I was anxious to get my newels stabilized!

Luckily, I realized just in time that I should probably install the new lights before I put in the railing so I could get to them without a dramatic balancing act.

oooooooo....pretty....Rejuvenation

(just turn your head...you're lucky to be getting any pics)

Note to self: You are very messy with stain. Take precautions.

That's all I have on the camera for now. I'll save the rest for the big reveal. It's not far from the dreamy pic. At least the view from the office to the hall keeps getting better. It's a nice change after so many years.

what to do with those old toilets

2007-04-11T09:27:00.000-05:00

How cool is this: http://www.thegreenguide.com/blog/freshfinds/794

The yearly large item trash pickup is coming up this month. I have two toilets to haul out to the curb. I hope one of the scavengers picks them up before the trash guys get a chance.

An update post is cooking. Promise.

Guest Improving

2006-10-09T22:24:00.000-05:00

Most of the work I did this weekend was not on my house...... A friend recently gave birth to twin boys. She and her family moved in to a new house two days(!!) before she went into the hospital. They used to live near me in the Village, but when they found they would be growing from 3 to 5 overnight, they knew they had to find a bigger place. She was crushed at the realization that, due to budget, they would have to buy a new-construction house.

She is learning to like it, but knew from day one that some painting would be in order. Every single wall and much of the trim is cream-colored. She lovingly refers to it as 'Johnson County Beige'. Johnson county is the McMansion capitol of the KC area.

I'm always looking for the opportunity for people to "ooooh" and "aaaaaahhh" over my ability to cut-in with zero blue tape. I like the ego boost. So, we knocked out one room this weekend and also selected a color for the nursery.

Blogger won't let me upload the photos. :( It was beige, now it's blue.

Speaking of blue....The Bluetones have returned(!!!!) and there is a new album out today in the UK! Pay big bucks for the import, or get it on iTunes. (Goddess bless Apple.) I randomly picked up an album of theirs in Galway during a driving trip of Ireland. If you ever go to Ireland, you MUST go to Galway. When I returned home, the disc played constantly for 6 months. I finally let other CDs in the changer play occasionally, but their disc did not leave my car for at least 2 years. TWO YEARS!! They craft fabulous brit-pop songs with lyrics that long to dance on your tongue.

An appropriate snippet from the new album:

In the shadow of these black suburban hills
Dreamt by architects who've given up their will
There's an emptiness that never can be filled

The House Is Theirs!....by just a hair

2006-10-04T23:01:00.000-05:00

Expand your horizons and cruise on over to WaiterRant. Most of you housebloggers will likely enjoy reading about this dead man's final good deed.

Aging of the housing stock

2006-10-01T23:15:00.000-05:00

NPR ran this story last week about tear-downs in Chicago and it reminded me of a post I've been meaning to write.

Here in Perfect Village, we've seen the same thing as told in the NPR story. People building gigantic bohemoths that do nothing for the neighborhood. Sometimes they are teardowns replaced with well-designed (by McMansion standards) palaces. Sometimes they look like an apartment building was dropped on top of a poor, unassuming Cape. In either case, they tend to be BIG.

It has gotten so out of hand that the Village recently modified the permit process. Residents now must submit a full site plan and construction documents for any project that includes creating new structures or adding on to existing. They've also added new lot coverage and height guidelines. Somehow, the city managed to halt the construction of one out-of-control home until after they could enact the new rules. Good idea I suppose, but it complicates my plans to build a garden shed. Site plan? Drawn to scale? From me? I don't think so.

Anyway......with an eye towards helping the post-war housing stock grow old gracefully, the Mid-America Regional Council has published an Idea Book to help owners in "First Suburbs" update their homes to modern standards.

Now, I can't say whether they present good ideas or not. MARC charges for their book. This is something I don't understand at all. If their mission is education and beautification, shouldn't they make it easy to access? From what I can see, similar organizations across the country provide their plan books free-of-charge via web download. (See the 'Plan Books from Other Communities' section here you lucky Minnesotans.)

I can only hope that their suggestions allow for updating the homes while remaining true to some of the neighborhood roots. Unfortunately, that probably comes down to the execution and you can't publish a plan book for that. Whilst my internal debate about what to do with The Kitchen rages on, I'll keep my $10 (on principle) and stick to trolling the open houses for more remodeling ideas.

Way to Shop!

2006-09-21T23:39:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, Macy's recently decided to re-brand all of their stores under the Macy's name.....or maybe you haven't. As a Project Runway addict, I noticed. And as a What Not To Wear* brainwashee, I got excited about it.

Things are no different here in the Village.

The Jones Store up the street was re-branded over the past month. The workers stealthily hung large, white 'the jones store' banners over the new Macy's signs as they went up. But I knew what was under there. Because I'm so smart. Or maybe it was because they only covered the large signs on the sides of the building. The small doorside Macy's signs were there for all to see.

I've never understood this building's mix of beige stone and brick with the mosaic tile wall. I guess it's a mid-century thing.

Regardless, I think the new Macy's sign looks ultra cool against the tile.

I'm curious if the re-brand will trickle down to the inventory. I stopped in last week and it looks like it's still pretty much the same stuff. But imagine.....an endless supply of Frango mints just a short walk away!

* Yes, I would've linked to the BBC show, but it seems Trinny and Sus are gone. Boo-hoo!

ewwww!

2006-09-11T13:05:00.000-05:00

Look at what they are doing on the side of my house!

Noooo, stop it! We don't need more of you in the world!

And, of course, leave it to the internet to make this occurence fascinating, yet even more revolting. I mean, seriously, you're just a wandering slug with two sets of reproductive organs. Then you innocently "do the deed" only to end up castrated in the end! I'm not a guy or anything, but I bet that hurts.

When the going gets tough, the unmotivated lie down

2006-09-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

Long ago in a land far away, I started remodeling my first floor bathroom. Once I finally got started, I set the arbitrary deadline of the beginning of June. I knew there would be people visiting and having two bathrooms would be A Good Thing. It soon became apparent that it just wasn't going to happen. So, I revised my goal. To have a toilet installed and working by then. Really, this was sort of a necessity because who wants to stumble around in the middle of the night when:

* You have to pee
* You're in a sleep-induced stupor
* You're in a strange house
* The closest bathroom is up a set of steep, winding stairs and through a room where someone else is sleeping.

I actually made this deadline! Yay! The fact that I had to remove and re-install the toilet the morning of my guests' arrival is not important. I still made the deadline and even got the seat mostly installed about an hour before anyone showed up. Yay me!

Then, something happened. I didn't have a looming deadline. There was nothing pushing me to keep going. There was nothing to barrel me through the frustrating moments. The cats didn't care if it was finished or not, so they were more than happy to lounge all over me, preventing me from getting any work done.

Yeah, that was A Bad Thing.

So, last weekend when the towel bars arrived and I finished painting the siding patch on the exterior, I could finally call it "done". Only 3 months after I completed the toilet install. Only a few of you out there have any idea how wonderful it was to check 'finish bathroom' off the list. (You know who you are.) Here are some lowlights and one highlight (the end).

First, the exterior. The patch was tedious and time-consuming, but didn't take too much brain power. Here is the closest thing to a "before", but it's really a during.

Because who am I kidding, this is the real "before":

And now:

No one will ever know.

Now, back inside.... A while back I blabbered on and on about having trouble cutting the mitres for the shelf rail pieces to fit in the corner. It's all about the angles. I figured that out in short-order after I conferred with my mom's hubby to validate my suspicions. (Yes, my mom's hubby would be my step-dad, but since they didn't get married until I was nearly finished with college, it just doesn't fit.) Anyway... soon after they left, I tried out making some wedges to set the pieces on as I drove them through the tile saw.

Wow! It worked! Just a little filing on the edges to get the gap looking closer to even.

Mom's hubby also pointed out that I'm an idiot because I installed all but the corner pieces, thereby making it impossible to put the corners in. Like so:

Now, he was much nicer than that, but he didn't need to be. I removed one tile from each end to fit them in. Fortunately, I only destroyed one tile, and I had a couple of extra pieces.

Problem 1 solved. Now I only had 587 plumbing issues to deal with. I'll only bore you with a couple.

Ummm...something's not right here. I considered cutting it down, but worried that I might screw up the threads, causing leaks later on. I decided to just get a new one.

Around every corner, something tried to stop me.
* Problems with the doorknob.
* Difficulty getting the tub drain/waste installed (you try to do that without a helper).
* Leaking shower valve.
* Trouble getting the sink drain to seal.
* Leakage in the pop-up drain assembly.

I'd say about half was due to my own stupidity, the other half was just par for the course. What nearly stopped me completely was when I went to install the tub fixture. I popped off the "stubs" the plumber had left and placed the pipe for the fixture into the wall. "Uhhhh...it doesn't fit. Why doesn't it fit?! Why are the plumbing gods trying to keeellll me??!!!"

After I had resigned to tearing up the tile and wall, but before I actually did anything about it (laziness can be good), the ex stopped by to get some empty boxes. He pointed out that the fixture was threaded on both the outside and inside. All I had to do was get a fitting to convert the female to a male and voila!, it worked. That little episode restored my faith created a tiny bit of new motivation.

Finally, finally things started to cooperate. The wainscotting hadn't been turning out how I'd imagined and I continued to consider tearing it out. But with the addition of shower curtain and towels, the tide turned and I started to love it. Fabric makes everything better! Bask in the glow:

The "gallery" -- This is the bargain of the bath. These $1.29 frames from Joann wrap the prints I got in Ireland just perfectly.

I thought this style of toilet would be cool because I hate cleaning nooks and crannies. I'm not sure it's worth it and the footprint in this tiny room is a bit too much. Works great, though!

The trash can is some sort of enamelware bucket from Germany that I found on eBay. It was the first purchase for the bathroom and the last thing to go in place.

Fin

i hate plumbing i hate plumbing i hate plumbing

2006-07-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

Really, I do. At least I no longer fear it. But I hate it more than ever. I can't bear to describe the details. Instead, I bring you pictures of destruction.

Below are shots of a mall in a neighboring city. I have to drive through said city to get to Lowe's for, you know, more plumbing crap. It's a nice little township with a semi-quaint downtown strip full of thrift stores and antique shops. The strip is also home to the best plumbing supply house in the state, but sadly, they aren't always open when I need them. They're also a little intimidating at times because I'm a girl and they don't deal with many of us.

This run-down mall is the punctuation mark on the end of the downtown strip. When it was new, I'm sure it was an exclamation point. Recently, it's become a big, sad question mark. It was constructed some time in the 1980's. (Who says the US is a disposable society? It lasted a good 20 years! (note sarcasm))

It's being torn down now to make way for one of those multipurpose "destination" places with shops, restaurants, condos, etc. that are all the rage these days. I'm sure that trend will last at least 30 years. I gotta give the residents some credit though....they fought Wal-Mart who wanted to put a SuperCenter in the space. There's already one a mile up the road, right next to Lowe's. Are they crazy?

Anyway, I was over that way last week driving by a side of the mall I don't usually drive by. I've been surveying the demo for the past few weeks, but I was so blown away by this image, I brought my camera on the next trip to Lowe's and took a detour for some photos. Enough blabbering -- on to the pics.

This is the one that really got me. It looks like the mall is puking debris. You gotta click it for the large view.

I didn't notice until I was reviewing the shots -- there's a smashed car there in the foreground! There used to be a two-level garage in that area, hence the "floating" doors.

Another to show a little bit of scale.

It's just sad, really. I hope, hope, hope at least some of that is being recycled. Doubtful.

plant sale!

2006-06-23T14:41:00.000-05:00

Larry's Nursery has started their annual close-out sale markdowns. I just happened to be over that way yesterday and drove by to check. I also just happened to have my checkbook, which I never have with me. (They don't take plastic.)

I got a full flat of various perennials in 4-inch pots for just over 30 bucks. Good deal if you ask me! My flat was filled mostly with ferns and other shade lovers for a full shade garden I plan on installing this fall. I will temporarily put those in some large tubs-o-dirt until the space is ready.

The others may or may not go in their "final" homes. (Plants in my garden rarely make one stop and stay there.) I may just plop them in the half-empty veggie bed until fall. It all depends on how much I want to procrastinate finishing the bathroom this weekend.

Markdowns continue until everything is gone, so I will probably go back for more in a few days. For the locals - Larry's Nursery is in the Walgreens parking lot across from the new Lowe's in Roeland Park.

Blue Blood

2006-05-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

Since I'm in the home stretch on the bathroom, I've been making approximately 2.5 trips to Lowe's per day. (As an aside, I was given an HD gift card last week, so I went there a couple of times. I can't believe I used to be Orange only. After 3 weeks as a Lowe's shopper, the HD stores just seem horrible!)

The Prairie Village Art Show and neighborhood garage sale is this weekend, so I'll be trying to pawn some of my junk and not-so-junk off on unsuspecting visitors. I'm super short on time for this week so while I was at Lowe's getting shut-off valves, I trekked over to the area where they have 'Garage Sale' signs to look for price stickers. All they had was a package with pre-printed prices. I figured this will have to do, grabbed a package, but still wandered through the aisle as if blank stickers would magically appear behind some forgotten box.

The friendly Lowe's employee who was stocking shelves asked if I needed any help. I showed him the package of pre-printed stickers. "I would love it if you guys had these without prices on them".

Friendly Lowe's guy -- "No, I don't think so. They just reset this section last week, so if we did, it would be right here."

He walks closer to me.

FLG -- "You'd probably have to go to Home D.." Erm.

Pause. I smile at him and offer, "Office Depot?"

FLG -- "Office Max. You'd probably have to go there to find those."

Me -- "You were going to say Home Depot, weren't you?"

FLG(grimacing) -- "Ssssshhhh."

Me -- "Don't worry. I don't bleed orange anymore. I only bleed blue since you guys opened this store."

FLG -- "That's good, then this will just be our little secret."

FLG -- "What's that other place called?"

I straightened him out on the various office supply stores.

FLG -- "Office Depot! That's it. That's what I meant."

(What makes this even funnier to me is I often have the same name confusion with those two. Now that I don't go to HD anymore, maybe that will clear up. )

Me -- "Don't worry your secret is safe with me."

FLG -- "Thanks."

FLG(returning to his stocking duties) -- "You just made my day"

Ahh, glad to be of service, nice Lowe's guy. I worked retail for 8 years. Be nice to your retail workers. They need a little excitement in their day and sometimes it's just a nice little exchange like this to do the trick. I know people complain a lot about the lack of help they get from HD and Lowe's employees. Get over it. They're retail workers. They're not trained nor paid enough to know everything you want to know. (Complete neglect and incompetence are a whole different story.) The ones that do seem to know what they're talking about.....trust me, you probably don't want to know them in real life. They're total a$$holes.

Who says I have no taste?

2006-05-23T19:37:00.000-05:00

Well, me mostly. My taste tends to run towards the extreme. I have no problem admitting to the fact that most people would find the environments I create slightly annoying, if not repulsive. No beige rooms here. Except the 'Chocolate Froth' in the hallway that I love, love, love. Don't get me wrong. I totally understand the pleasing nature of beige and its ability to stand the test of time. I'm just not into it. I'm even attracted to houses in the neighborhood that are a nice shade of beige, white trim, and black accents, but it'll never be me.

Anyway, I cruised over to the This Old House website the other day during toilet installation research. This will be the first one I've ever really installed by myself and wanted a refresher course. And whaddya know....the feature story that popped up on their home page was an article about bold interiors.

Say what you will about the This Old House enterprise these days, but I bet most people agree that their stylists/designers usually do a pretty good job. The picture at the lead of this article is almost exactly the two colors I have going on in the dining room and living room. They are adjoining rooms similar to the photo and even I will admit that the two colors back-to-back is a little much. I have plans to hang a nice drape in the one corner of the rooms where the colors actually butt up against each other as camouflage.

I've even been thinking of repainting the living room lately, but who needs a new project, right? With my color scheme being "approved" by the TOH empire, I feel validated. :)

Wait...what day is it? I think I missed one...

2006-05-22T00:52:00.000-05:00

How do you know when to call it a day? When you do something like this....

Yeah, that's supposed to be a rectangle cutout for the medicine cabinet. I sorta forgot that I didn't put blocking in for the top and bottom of the cabinet because I wanted to keep my options open. As I inched closer to the light, I kept thinking, "Shouldn't this thing be stopping soon? DOH!" Dummy. Can't even get the place finished without having to fix something already. This is a time when power tools are bad. They let you do things faster than you can think about it. That was Friday night at about 11 and I knew I was done for the night.

I got up early and went to the farmer's market on Saturday. My purpose was twofold: 1) get there while some gettin' was good and 2) minimize weekend-morning-lounge tendencies by getting out and getting started with the day. I have a lot to do in the next two weeks and there's no time for slacking!

I hardly ever go to the farmer's market and that's a bad thing. These strawberries tasted even better than they look. Fresh strawberries are sorely missed around here. Where I grew up, there were strawberry patches everywhere. There were even two farms just up the street from one of my suburban abodes. I don't know if it's a Kansas thing or a Kansas City thing, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a pick-your-own patch around here. I had really forgotten how much better fresh berries are until I bit into the first one of these yummies.

(Why yes, I love my yellow laminate counters. Thank you for noticing. And the blue/mauve spotted wallpaper? That's my favorite!)

The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur. I know there were Garlic Dill Steamed Potatoes. I know there were a couple of trips to Lowe's and rental of their "To-Go" truck. Their rental process is more of a pain than the Depot, but the truck has a way-cool side gate on the bed. A Lowe's recently opened less than 3 miles from the Time Thief, so I've switched hemmoraging from Orange to Blue. It was time.

There was also a lot of cursing at the tile saw, way too much thinset, and the super-exciting task of finally digging the old wax seal out from on/under the toilet flange. It's best not to think about these types things while doing them.

I now know for sure that I could never install tile for a living. I'm waaaay to slow. My mom says it's probably because I'm trying to be too perfect, but that is definitely not the case. It is far from perfect. My hope is that, at minimum, it doesn't look DIY. I've been in houses where you could just _tell_ it was someone's weekend project and to me, that would be failure.

Drooooooool. I like it even more than I thought I would. The blue is a little strong, so I'm going to try some paint chemistry for the final coat. At first I was bummed that the white of the pinwheels was different than the white of the field tile, but now I like it. It lets the pinwheels stand out more.

If only the corner pieces of the shelf rail were finished, then I'd be ecstatic. I'm having a very tough time getting the miter to come out right. My first couple of cuts were way off. I switched to some spare wood trim pieces for more tests to make sure what I thought I was doing was the right thing. The wood trim fit perfectly on the first try, but I've got it the easy with with wood. I just went to the miter/chop saw, slid the blade to 45, held the trim upright, and cut. Wish I could do that with the ceramic tile.

Okay, so I tried to think logically. The tile saw is just an upside-down chop saw with a fixed blade. So, angle the tile instead of the blade and it should be fine. Nope. Still WRONG. I think I've realized that the problem is I don't have 90 degrees anywhere.

I know I should have pictures to demonstrate this, but I'll try to explain. The blade isn't large enough to cut through the whole piece at once. I have to do one cut right-side-up and finish it upside-down. I had been setting the piece on the saw oriented 90-degrees to the table. But, when it's on the wall, the top and bottom are not 90-degrees to the wall. There's a slight tilt to the top and bottom. I think if I replicate this angle, then the cut will work out. Must be time to make a jig.

I've just been slicing off bits of the same two tiles, so I haven't wasted much yet, but I only have a couple of spares. I'm getting to the nail-biting phase. I'm going to let the ideas simmer for a while and come back to it. I've already wasted far too much precious time on these 4 pieces. They'll get some attention again after there's a functioning toilet and sink.

bathroom progress

2006-05-18T15:43:00.000-05:00

The bathroom is progressing along slowly. I'm having guests the first weekend in June, so I've got a deadline to work towards. I usually do well with deadlines.

All ripped out. The old wall-hung sink support clearly indicates this sink was tested.

Behind the wall were hundreds of razor blades. At least, I think that's what they are....left over from back in the day when medicine cabinets had a little slot in the bottom for you to drop your used blades. Where did they think they went?!

When I first saw it, I thought the wood had just rotted away into shreds. I had to get closer and take off my dusty goggles to see what was really going on.

Cool.

Old plumbing. The plumber said the "dirty arm" going from the lav to the main stack practically fell apart when he went to remove it.

The dust storm from removing this stuff was horrendous. I even broke down and put on a mask. I never wear a mask. Yes, I'm that stupid.

Typical in-wall open splice. This hadn't been live in years.

I mentioned before that I thought the top of the glass block window was originally a slider. This chain indicates that it was a tilt-out hopper instead.

Ahh...my nemesis.

Fixed and boarded-up, awaiting new window. I don't have a good pic as proof of the repaired studs. Trust me. It ain't going nowhere.

New copper, thanks to friendly plumber guy

All new tub/shower lines

The shower riser was leaking ever so slightly. One or two drips in 24 hours, but we all know what that adds up to over time. I fixed it myself instead of calling the plumber back. With the exception of the glob I dripped up at the top, I don't think my joints look any worse than the plumber's.

Ready for drywall....drywall boxes replaced with hard shell boxes and all wires secured; insulated for sound; plastic-ed and taped for vapor.

Ta-da! (Yes, the new shower arm is super-high to accomodate my ultra-tall brother.)

With new window. Which I had to re-frame TWICE because the 'people' called the Monday after I framed it the first time to tell me they couldn't order a unit as short as I had specified, even though they were able to enter it into the ordering system two weeks prior. grrrrrr.

And now with a coat of color.

Trying some tile layout options

With editorial from Meda

I will admit now (if you haven't figured it out already) that this bathroom is totally stolen from houseinprogress and Brickman House. Why risk making your own mistakes when you can copy the successes of others. ;) Stay tuned for more plagiarism....

How to not have a good time (or, How I spent my evening)

2006-05-08T18:04:00.000-05:00

I searched hi-and-low on the internets and local big boxes for a suitable medicine cabinet. Sure, the ones at Rejuvenation are gee-or-geeeous, but they're so large! Same with the ones at Van Dyke's.

This is a very tiny bathroom folks, and the 7 1/2 foot ceilings only add to the effect. I could have just gone with a plain-old mirror (easy to find lots of options), but how fun is that? Besides, small = exploit all available storage possibilities = I wanted an inset medicine cabinet, dammit! And I did not want to re-frame the wall to get something to fit.

There was this one at Pottery Barn that looked pretty good. Froogle found that for me. Then I decided to check Restoration Hardware which I never do anymore because they're so pricey. Well, yes, they are still pricey, but they had a near perfect solution.

I debated between the two for a while, then finally went for the one from RH since it was slightly smaller. During checkout, I saw it was on backorder until June. Hmmm.... okay, I'll risk it. There were no inset dimensions listed, but I ordered it anyway. A couple of emails later to customer service, and they sent me the inset dimensions once I threatened cancelling my order. And then, whaddya know! Luck, luck, luck, I got shipping notification on the cabinet just a few days later! It was going to be here more than a month earlier than expected!

And so it did arrive. And it was good. I might repaint it because the finish feels a little laminate-y, but it was everything I expected. Now to the fun part and the point of this post. When I emailed customer service, they replied that the inset width was 14.5 inches. Perfect! Should fit exactly within studs 16" on center! Trouble is, the studs aren't exactly 16 on center. I was short by about 1/4 of an inch. Ever the optimist (or just lazy), I tried to test fit the cabinet anyway. Not even close. Did I mention that I didn't want to re-frame the wall? Yeah, I thought so.

So, I got out the trusty planer. I shaved down both studs until I gained my 1/4 inch. What a dusty, cloudy mess. Before you think too highly of me, I should mention it is a power planer. No way I'm doing that by hand. I'm not that crazy. And it was way easier than re-framing the wall.

It sure is a lucky thing the cabinet showed up early because, of course, the studs aren't perfectly plumb. Had the cabinet not been here yet for me to test, I would've trusted a tape measure to enlarge the opening, then had all sorts of fits later after everything was closed in when the almost-square cabinet wouldn't fit into my very-not-square opening.

So, anyway, if you really want to not have a good time, spend an hour or so planing down the sides of some studs. Really, it will deliver.

Blue Vinyl

2006-05-06T11:30:00.000-05:00

A fellow houseblogger's post (I'm sorry I don't remember who it was!) a while back tipped me off to the movie Blue Vinyl. What a great flick! Makes you think and is quite entertaining. I was feeling pretty good about myself, curled up on the couch in my living room wrapped in James Hardie siding. Until I realized I should've made a better attempt at recycling the steel siding I removed...especially since steel is apparently in high demand now.

The movie has another associated website with more anti-PVC info and green building resources.

Hotel being parted out

2006-05-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

Hotel selling off all furniture and fixtures to make way for the new: http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/video/9156993/detail.html.

"The sale starts Thursday at 10 a.m. and will continue for two weeks. The sale hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

....

Because of a large turnout, only 50 customers will be allowed on the property at the same time."

bathroom tour

2006-04-16T19:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks for everyone's plumbing input. I decided to go with plumber #2. The fact that he did provide a detailed written estimate and that he had recently done a very similar job just a few blocks away clinched the deal. He's asking a reasonable price and letting him do it instead of doing it myself means I will be able to sleep at night, not wondering if the pipes in the wall are going to explode. As we all know, knowing how to do something isn't always enough. Some things take finesse and experience and I'm not willing to gain that experience on the pipes inside my walls. Now, I just hope plumber #1 doesn't call wondering when I want him to start. (I am so bad at rejecting people.)

Since I called for your advice, I will take you on a tour of my skanky bathroom.

Here is the before in all its beauty. The small bag over the top part of the window is covering an old ventilation fan. It was disconnected long ago and sent quite a strong breeze through the place because there was no damper. Not a good thing when you're taking a shower on a cold winter morning. The design on the bag is a post-911 american pride thing, so that gives you some idea of how long it's been like this. The large black trash bag was my attempt to keep water from going behind the wall and raining all over the basement. It took me a while to get to that point and I wish I'd done it sooner because it was about 90% effective. My other method of shoving caulk all over the grout lines didn't do much at all. I knew it was temporary so I was just smearing it all over everything. In any event, it didn't work very well.

Here is the window from the outside so you see what I mean about the fan. Judging by other houses in the neighborhood, I was guessing the plywood section was originally a slider window, but I found evidence to the contrary as you'll see when I get to the demo pics. When I re-sided, I just put 1 inch trim all the way around for easier removal later.

Here are the lovely original faucets. (That's not sarcasm, I actually like these.) This was back in the day when Kohler meant quality, I guess. I used all Kohler in the master bath and have not been happy. There will be no more Kohler in this bathroom.

Here is the drum trap in the basement, under the tub.

And here is the bucket that catches the rusty water from the drum trap. ewww.

Here is the fabulous sink, complete with 'Do not use' post-it note. I am a female of average height, and the top of this sink comes to just above my knees.

Be sure to note the pointless mold-experiment "ledge" that was built between the vanity and tub. Betcha can't guess how it was attached.

Only a select few get to see inside the vanity cabinet. Aren't you lucky?

Here is where various medicine cabinets used to be. The "current" wall paper is some funky early-80's stuff that's like thin canvas. I couldn't even hammer through the stuff. The older, funky paper must've gone very well with the light blue paint I found on the trim. Oh, note the towel sticking out of the wall...That's where the old outlet was, a mere two inches from the shower tile. I moved that when I re-wired the first floor eons ago.

The tub is staying. There's no reason to get rid of it and it will look fabulous after it's re-finished. I like its funky curves. It's like mid-century designers thought about tubs the same way they thought about cars.

This toilet couldn't be any more broken. Really. The seat is broken. It doesn't flush right. It leaks. I guess if it didn't hold any water at all it would be more broken. That's the only way. And check out the nice, crusty vent. That is a supreme location on a cold winter day. You just have to time it right so you're there when the furnace kicks on.

Nice shot of years of toilet leakage and the original pinwheel tile. I'm conflicted about the tile. I love it, but I don't like the grout color. The tile itself is a little worn, but it could probably be workable. I certainly don't want to remove it all. It's probably sitting on two inches of mortar. Plumber #1 had a brilliant suggestion and that was to just tile over it. The toilet flange would just need to be raised, and then when someone comes along in 30 more years, they will be thrilled to find the original tile underneath! However, if I were to put down new tile, I would probably just put down more pinwheels. So, I'm investigating the option of coloring the grout.

Here is a close-up of some of the worst tile. Anybody have an opinion or tried this grout colorant stuff? They say it can last 10-15 years, so that's not too bad as a stopgap. I think I'd go insane if I attempted to saw out all those grout lines.

Finally, you know it has to be there. You know you wanna look up......

Glitter and popcorn and sparkles, oh my! I added the fan when I re-wired and obviously didn't care about being too careful with the drywall saw.

I have much more to share, but this will have to be all for now. The kitties and work need my attention.

Advice PLEEEAAAASSEE!!!

2006-04-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

(I'm in a bit of a whiney mood, so skip to the end if you just want to know what I need advice about.)

I have started redoing the first floor bath. There are tons of exciting pics to share, but work is kickin' my butt, so I'll have to post those later. Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, it's just me these days. The one thing the ex brought to the table, home-improvement-wise, was plumbing skills. I was the sole electrician, painter, insulator, sander, etc. and contributed my fair share on all things siding and framing related. The one thing I really steered clear of was plumbing. I may have helped with a few PVC pipes here and there, but me and the solder were not on speaking terms. Like Gary, I hate plumbing. I'll take it further than that though. I fear plumbing. I have nightmares about it. I'm totally serious.

As a general rule, I am very much a "I can do it all by myself, I don't need any help from you" kind of person. That's probably worse than usual right now. So, I was insistent on re-doing the bath with no outside help other than drywall. (Because, really, it's just silly not to outsource that....Are you listening Nick?) To prove a point and to move forward with gutting the bathroom, I set out to install shutoffs in the basement.

My first attempt totally failed. The main shutoff doesn't exactly work, so the water never really stopped. I consulted the ex and found out all the fancy steps I had to do to get the water to stop flowing. (Hmmmm....maybe I should just get the main shutoff replaced, eh?) Anyway, overwhelming fear led me to the quite logical conclusion that I didn't have to go through all the effort to install shutoffs. I could just cut and cap the lines! Brilliant! This calmed me down a little. The first pipe seemed to go pretty well, even though I felt like I was having to torch the thing for waaaaaay too long. Second one went the same except my first attempt didn't achieve a solid seal all the way around. I cut it again and re-soldered in a spot where I had better access. Turned all the water back on....success!!! No leaks! But I did walk around the entire weekend worried that any minute the water pressure was going to send the caps shooting across the basement and water would flood the whole place. I almost turned the main off before I left to run some errands. I didn't let the fear win.

Ok, so there are no leaks, but I'm pretty sure my soldering job would not get a passing grade. That and all the stress this ordeal caused me (along with the fact that I have some nasty drains I don't want to deal with) led me to the conclusion that I should probably hire a plumber.

Got the name of a guy one of my clients used and she absolutely raved about him. She even mentioned, "He's not the cheapest, but he does really good work." Okay, "not the cheapest" is fine with me as long as he's also not the most expensive. Called him to come over for an estimate and he seemed like a decent guy. He called me later that day with an estimate that was about double what I expected in a worst-case scenario. WOW!

I thought I should get a second opinion just to make sure he wasn't trying to screw me. The second guy I found on Angie's List (I know, I know!!!). He has nothing but rave reviews. He also seemed like a decent guy. His workday lasted longer than expected, but he still made time to stop by around 6:30 last night to check things out. He dropped off a detailed written estimate this morning and it is less than HALF of the first guy's estimate.

There are a few minor differences in the work they said they would perform. The first guy's estimate included replacing the closet elbow and setting all the fixtures. The second guy pointed out that if there are no problems with the toilet, there's no reason to replace the elbow now because there is full access in the basement if it needed to be done in the future. He also noted that setting the fixtures would be an extra cost. Either way, I'm sure I could do that part myself.

Wah! What do I do? Which do I pick? I certainly like the price of the second guy better. Some things concern me about the first guy: He's not very busy right now and could start immediately. That's great, but why isn't he busy? Is it just bad marketing or is there some "real" reason? If he's hurting for work, did he bump up the estimate because he needs to put food on the table? Oy!

I'm afraid to pick someone I _don't_ have a personal recommendation for over someone that I _do_, but geez! One of the first things the second guy said to me was, "the outside looks real nice". That means a lot after all the time and effort spent on residing the place. And it means he notices the details. Or maybe he just knows how to woo a customer. ;)

I'd love to hear your opinions.

ch-ch-ch-changes

2006-04-07T09:46:00.000-05:00

I am officially single again. (Okay, so it's actually been a few weeks, but I've been slow on the blogging.) Now, I'm not saying this to invite the blogosphere into my personal dramas. Rather, it is so you will understand why I have painted the office. Again. After less than a year of inhabitation.

As we all know, when you're doing anything non-solo, there are compromises involved. I made compromises on the Time Thief that I am still not happy with. Some of those would be too time-consuming or costly to change at this point (eg. the crappy new Evil Orange entry door; the master bathroom tile). Other things are easier to modify. The office paint color is just the ticket for spiritual cleansing.

The original color was picked solely by the ex, and not only is it not my thing, it was HORRIBLY bright. I never turned on the overhead light because that just made the intensity too much to take. It could be easily argued that the new color is more intense, but it was picked by me, so I'm happy with it.

(yes, it's messy. i work here...cut me a little slack, people.)

When working some late evenings last summer, this room took on a feel similar to a teenaged-bedroom. iTunes blaring and working away on some "homework", I felt refreshingly juvenile, in a good sorta way. (Don't we all still feel like we're 17 to some degree?) So, I thought I'd go with that theme....even so far as to put up a band poster. I'm lacking in "big" wall art and they were just in storage anyway, so it works out well. (I did the grown-up thing and got a super-cheap frame at World Market.)

I continued the "color block" thing that was going on by adding one more white wall (the ceiling) into the mix. That also helps the overhead light do its job since it is reflecting off of white instead of color.

(the fan was another compromise, but it works and I don't look at it much, so it's staying)

I was mid-paint when my Mom came to visit and she caught this lovely shot for comparison.

Welcome to the treehouse....my office.

The Gullibility Wars

2006-04-01T10:34:00.000-06:00

Being gullible has its advantages....like never-ending fun on a day like today.

I knew right away that Slashdot was a joke. But it took a second to know this wasn't real. And I would've totally believed this post at House St. Clair if she hadn't fessed up.

Cleaning up pays

2006-03-26T12:49:00.000-06:00

Literally.

After nearly four years in the house, I was able to _finally_ unpack most of the boxes in the basement. Over the past few weeks I've organized every one of my possessions, which means I've touched every single item approximately 2.47 times. Anyway, just last night, while organizing some photos, I came across some cash. And I don't mean $5 you forgot you left in an old purse. Oh, no. This was a LOT.

So, now I'm left with a quandry.

Let's say, hypothetically, you "find" several hundred dollars. Do you:

A - Buy yourself a new iPod because your old one is so near death that it doesn't even get you halfway through your daily workout.

or

B - Pay the bills -- namely the traffic ticket you just had to get "fixed" and the HELOC which is getting a little too close to the limit to allow for restful sleep.

What to do, what to do.....

Upcoming Furniture Trends

2006-01-15T23:52:00.000-06:00

I have a knack for these things....predicting upcoming trends. You see, I get an idea of exactly what I want, then go out to find it. This is a blessing and a curse. It makes trips through stores incredibly quick, but also incredibly frustrating because I so rarely find something that matches the picture in my head.

When I was a young teen (before I went "goth"), it was clothes. I'd get an idea for what I thought was a cool outfit, then try to find it in a store. I never found it. I hadn't the skills nor resources to actually make things myself. Was it a case of bad taste or was I just ahead of my time? I'll never tell, but I _can_ track back to at least two trends I did actually start.

Anyway, now that I am all home-obsessed, the distinct ideas I get revolve around home-related things....light fixtures, paint colors, fabric, furniture, etc. Until I start to design and build these things myself, distinct ideas are very bad. I won't even BEGIN to tell you how many light fixtures I've looked at (and rejected) for the hallway. It's embarrassing. For the past few weeks, I have been searching mainly for two things in the furniture realm:

1) Round or oval table, 18"-ish inches tall and 24 - 30"-ish in diameter, in a dark wood tone with clean lines and (in a perfect world) some sort of storage potential

Nada. Zip. Zilch. I found a gorgeous, near perfect match at a consignment shop I frequent, but it is nearly 40" in diameter. I tried to stretch the living room layout to get it to fit, but no can do. A few weeks ago I found one at a flea market that was just about perfect, but it had no storage. I passed it up because I wasn't ready to settle. When I was ready, I went back and (of course) it was gone. It was the best table they had in their stinky furniture basement, so I really didn't expect it to be there. I finally settled late last week and got another table at the consignment shop -- correct size, but I'm not wild about the finish, there's no storage, and the lines could be cleaner. It will do....for now anyway.

2) Round, pedestal dining table, with one or more leaves, in a dark wood finish with clean lines. (Can you tell I like round. And sometimes dark wood. And sometimes clean lines. I'm usually so much more eccentric in my preferences. )

This one has also been much more difficult than I expected. Why is a round dining table such an odd thing? Don't people understand that it allows you to cram more bodies around the table in less space? And where am I gonna play Texas Hold 'Em if I don't have a round table? But what's the point if there are legs all in the way? This one is pretty close, but it doesn't have a leaf and as-is it's a little large for the space. (But I'm sooo drooling over that pedestal.) Then there are all the nice, shiny, affordable mahogany ones at the antique malls, but I want ROUND dammit!

Since I've basically given up on this one as well (and ready to settle), I headed out to the evil den of drive-thru furniture shopping today after I finished priming the hall and all 7, yes SEVEN, door casings. Remember what I said about being able to get through a store quickly when you know what you want? I cruised that ENTIRE store in less than an hour and a half looking for lamps, dining sets, a better living room table, fancy TVs, rugs, etc., etc. Seriously, look at it. It's huge. And nearly every parking space was full since it was a Sunday afternoon and they have a financing deal going on. I got through the whole thing whilst weaving around Sunday-afternoon-walkers. Ugh.

Was it worth it? Well, I settled on a dining set, so I guess it was. It's not round, but the corners are sorta rounded. It's kind of a pedestal - with built-in cat shelf. It is dark with clean lines, but not entirely wood (I'm sure it's at least partially veneers over MDF.) It's main selling points were the cat shelf and low, low price. I didn't get the matching cabinet thingy. I wasn't impressed with the drawer/door function (to be expected at this price point, I guess). Plus, I'd rather have something that isn't so tall....more like a standard sideboard. I'm vacillating on this one though. I wonder that if I don't get it, I will be doomed to be encircled in the sideboard search that will never end. I just know I will make an attempt to mix my two favorite furniture styles (clean lined (including modern) and 20's era/cottagey) that will end in massive failure. If I get this one now, it could probably be delivered with the table and I'd get more bang for my buck on the delivery charge. What to do, what to do.....

And so, to the point. Since I have settled on both tables, I'm sure the "perfect" thing will start popping up all over, just to spite me. I predict that very soon there will be a resurgence in popularity of round, pedestal dining tables and round occasional tables at cocktail table height, with end table diameter.

(While I'm here blogging about furniture....what's the deal with IKEA? I don't get it. Maybe it's just because I've never lived in a city that had a store.)

siding - year(s) in review

2005-12-13T18:06:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I know I said I was doing the 'siding is finished' happy dance a while back, but now it is absolutely, positively, 100% done. Really, I mean it.

Days above 35 degrees (suitable for painting) have been hard to come by. When they started showing up this past weekend, there was all the snow to melt through before I could stand outside and paint without feeling like I was enduring some sort of ancient water torture. I endured minimal water torture Sunday evening to get the second coat of trim paint on. First coat of body paint yesterday and second coat today. I was slightly late for a meeting this afternoon because of my painting quest, but no way in hell was I not going to get it finished today. Rain/snow for tonight and temps barely above 30 degrees for the foreseeable meteorological future.

So, with the monster project behind me, I have to say I really love James Hardie siding. It takes paint like a dream and just looks so nice. Would I ever do it again? Absolutely. As a DIY project? Likely not. It's such grueling, labor intensive work and the effort seems to outweigh the feeling of satisfaction. Or maybe it's just that the process takes so long, you forget where you came from. The DIY route cost about 1/3 of what it normally would, but it would probably be worth it to get a second job for a year instead and pay someone to install it.

Wish I had a nice little montage of pics to show like Fixer Upper, but alas, I have a ton of work (you know, the kind that pays the bills) to do between now and tomorrow afternoon. Just look at the post a few back where I pretended I was finished with the siding. That will give you some idea. :)

(Doh! I was in such a hurry to get to that meeting that I forgot to re-attach the cable and phone lines to the house. My impatience is going to make such a liar out of me.....)

celeb sighting in winter wonderland

2005-12-08T21:06:00.000-06:00

This evening, I decided to take a walk to look for nice scenes of snow and lights. It's been so cold lately that I've been neglecting my walks/runs and was feeling desperate to be outside. So what if it's only 5 degrees, right?

I'm pretty proud of the people on my block this time around. Only the renters and the public works department neglected to clear their sidewalks. There is a creek behind my house and two pedestrian bridges....one on each end of the block. Since PW was off clearing roads or something instead of pedestrian paths, my neighbor to the north even cleared half of one of the bridges. Way to go usually-lazy-neighbors! Once I got beyond my block it was much more hit and miss, so it was a short trip.

I took my camera and snapped some pics along the way. I've just about given up on this thing....the exposure time is so long that it's nearly impossible for me to get a non-blurry pic. That said, proceed at your own risk.

the house

After my short trip around the block, I decided to head to the village shops for some pics of the lights.

village flower company

village clocktower - this time i kind of like the swirlies caused by my shaky pic

Right around now, I was really starting to freeze. For some reason the fingers on my right hand were really biting. So I started to rush towards the market where I could warm up before heading back home. Fingers stinging and toes numbing due to a mis-aligned sock and what do I see? St. Nicklaus crossing the street. No joke, right there. I said hello, but forgot I even had my camera since I was in such a hurry.

I took a walk around the market (even the freezer section felt warm) until my fingers thawed and headed back out. There was my buddy St. Nick again, crossing the street in the other direction. He happily obliged when I asked if I could take his picture.

A few more on the way back home.

promenade

boar sculpture

fountain on the promenade

EDIT: Public Works must've read my post. :) They've got their fancy snow-clearing machine out on the other side of the creek. They somehow managed to drive it off the sidewalk and it's now stuck. At least they're trying.

big snow and thanks

2005-12-08T16:25:00.000-06:00

Thanks to House In Progress for the tip on honeycomb shades. I've always steered away from them for whatever reason, but HiP's post about it convinced me to give them a try.

The reasons I love them:
- They actually fit in my super-un-deep windows and they don't stick out too far. In some cases, I only had like 5/8" for an inside mount.
- They almost completely disappear when opened.
- In all stages of open-ness, they're very minimalist. These are the functional covers to keep from airing my bid-ness to the world. Pretty was not the goal, so I love that they don't have a lot of presence.
- I find them to be a better choice than blinds because I hate how blinds collect dust on the slats.
- They really do help block cold air. Contrary to mainstream beliefs, new windows leak cold air, too. A full week of highs below 20 degrees has proven that.
- Even when closed, the non-room-darkening versions provide a nice glow of light.

The reasons I don't love them: Expensive. But this is not unique to honeycomb shades. Somebody's making a lot of money on window coverings. That's why I usually make my own. Wait for a sale. I ended up getting Bali brand on sale through American because Bali was one of the few brands that offered a three-on-one headrail for my living room bay. Without the sale price, they can be found cheaper elsewhere.

All of the "finished" rooms (yes, I know I'm behind on finished room posts...) are now adorned in white honeycomb fabric, to be later adorned with "pretty" window ornamentation as time allows. I took a pic to post, but it's so unexciting I decided to skip it.

Instead, I will share a photo of the big snow. I think this is the most I've seen from one storm since moving to KC....about 8 inches here.

recycled-plastic birdie home

doing the 'siding is finished' happy dance

2005-11-30T11:26:00.000-06:00

Dance, dance, dance!! Can you feel it? That's some big-time relief and excitement.

Here it is in all its completed glory. Looks better than the neighbor's vinyl, doncha think?

Okay, so I still have some painting to do, but that's cake. Assuming I can get a few days above 35 degrees with no precip. A bit of a stretch this time of year, especially since this is on the west side of the house. And since it'll barely be warm enough to apply the paint, they recommend 24 hours dry time between coats. Luckily my schedule is pretty flexible. I'm watching weather forecasts like a hawk so I can get out there as soon as it breaks 35. I'm really anxious to get the trim painted because then I can call the gutter guys. Anyway....

Also got the garage cleaned out enough to put a car in there! It's a miracle.....sortof. The car still sits outside because my nasty garage door has a broken spring and tends to jump off the track. I lack the finesse to open it on my own. (Yes, I know it does not look nice with the trash sitting in front of it, but that's the point...I can't get in! Work with me, people.)

It will remain unused until I can find someone to put in a new garage door that is not the generic four-panel "colonial" thing that HD sells. A guy down the street who is a contractor by trade mentioned years ago (not kidding) that he could help me out when I was ready. Said he had a whole catalog with garage doors and he could get me one that looked like the original (much more in scale with the house). I feel a bit silly about it at this point, but I do know the name of his business, so I might have to call him up and ask for a little help.

And for good measure, here are some pics from my trip through the woods and over the lakes for turkey-day.

halfway there, thanks to the fairies

2005-11-22T17:56:00.000-06:00

Yes, Ry, new wood had to go up. And it does indeed suck.

I was too busy/forgot to take actual progress pics, so you'll have to trust me. A couple of studs were replaced/sistered/dutchman-ed and a portion of the soleplate had to be replaced as well. The framing was rotted and very, very wet. Yet another argument against cover-it-all-up-style siding. It was evident from caulked holes in the steel siding that the electrical service had likely fallen off the house one or more times.

It was never really attached to the house, just the siding. This led to all kinds of opportunities for water to get behind the steel and be trapped there with nothing to do but eat the wood.

Anyway, framing fixed, new insulation in the open bays, new plywood, and new window on Saturday. Surprisingly, I didn't run out of daylight, but it started raining on me. I cleaned everything up, then it stopped raining. (sigh) At that point, I lacked the motivation to dig everything back out, so I just grabbed the tar paper and started papering. I'm all out of Tyvek and I'm not going to go spend 100 bucks on a roll for this one little wall. Paper probably does a better job anyway. I put up as much as I could without making my ladder bigger, and it looked like this Saturday evening/Sunday morning.

Greg's fairies had visited overnight and ripped some of the trim for me, so all I had to do before siding could start on Sunday was cut the cornerboards to length. (Seriously....I don't remember cutting the trim for the window at all, but all the pieces were there, in correct widths and lengths, and already primed.)

The corner boards were a bit of a pain, mainly because the housewrap/paper that wraps around the corners has had one side flapping in the breeze/rain/snow since the adjoining wall was put up. Many staples, coaxing, and curse words later.....Cornerboards...check. Window trim....check. Many tubes of caulk....check. Then the siding began and it now looks like this.

Just another few hours and it will all be installed. Yay! Wednesday is supposed to be nice, as is Saturday (nice meaning high above 40) so I'm trying to coordinate my holiday schedule with my helper's schedule to see when it can be finished.

holes in the house

2005-11-19T00:25:00.000-06:00

It's getting cold, so you know what that means....

It's dumpster season!

Seriously, why is it that I'm always heading outside to work on something when it's cold? Gotta tough it out one last time to finally get the siding finished up. I got the dumpster to take the siding debris along with a lot of miscellaneous crap that tends to pile up from projects. I may even get a garage back soon.

I knew before I started that this last wall was going to be in pretty bad shape, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.

On the bright side, I didn't have to strip as many shingles as I normally would, since some had actually disintegrated.

The black stuff in the middle? That's the back of the kraft paper on the insulation. No wonder that room is so cold.

<<<INSECT WARNING>>>

I also found a nice ant colony living in the wood above the window.

I sprayed them with some poison and will let them marinate overnight. Just gotta love the <plop><crack>....<plop><crack> raining sound of ants falling to their deaths. Ugh. So disgusting.

pass pass pass pass pass

2005-11-16T12:43:00.000-06:00

Yay! Electrical service has been replaced, inspected, and approved. The new/month-old HVAC was inspected and signed off also.

nice and neat

officiality

new fancy furnace

intake/exhaust pipes

yes, it's HUUUUUGE, but quiet

The electricians trampled some plants but I'll overlook it since the guys were outside working in a snowstorm and it's D.O.N.E. Clearly, the other three guys I tried didn't know what they were doing, and these guys did. I don't have a pic of the breaker box "before" because posting it would be a liability. :) That corner of the basement has been a tangled mass of spliced-in wiring the entire time (4+ years) I've lived here. The basement seems like twice as big now since you don't have to navigate the jungle.

sad, old meter

the last wall for siding! the holes demonstrate where the old meter was (just barely) attached. no, that piece of siding at the top didn't come loose as a result of the electrical work. it's been like that since day one.

like a work of art!

Oh, and the electrician witnessed Quin make another mouse-kill attempt. She was only given the opportunity to stun it. It was discovered lying on the floor with a wet leg while she watched from the stairs above, waiting for it to move. It was re-located to the compost pile. I'm sure it will be back to entertain her again soon.

will it ever end?

2005-11-15T08:19:00.000-06:00

After several years (I'm not kidding!) of trying to get my electrical service upgraded/moved so I can finish the siding, so I can get new gutters, so I can get a new garage door, so I can get the new furnace inspected, so I can .... (you get the idea), there is finally someone lined up to do the job tomorrow (after having to postpone today because of a promise he made to someone else), and this is the forecast:

Rain / Snow / Wind 44°/24°

(sigh....)

And now blogger is down for network maintenance, so I don't even get to vent to the blogosphere. I used to think I was lucky. Maybe it was just a series of flukes.

===============

OMG! They just showed up! I'm off to find wi-fi hotspots for working. Fingers-crossed!

mouse in the house

2005-11-11T01:51:00.000-06:00

The cats have earned their keep for the year. Yesterday while doing laundry, I noticed some kitty sick. I kneeled down to investigate if it was just hairball or other, then I saw some more. I moved in the direction of the second spot and I noticed the furry little guy lying in sort of a corner between a trash can and an old broken-down laundry basket. Fortunately, my cats are kinda wimpy, so he wasn't torn to bits or anything. He looked like he could've died of natural causes until you looked close enough to see a couple of puncture wounds around his neck.

I'm conflicted about mice....they're pests that carry disease and can destroy property, but they're also so dang cute. That said, I don't want to take up residence with any, so the cats were adequately praised. I think it was probably Quin that did the deed. Meda would've brought it upstairs to show me. Quin has been spending more time in the basement than usual, and ran up to me meowing when I was investigating. She rarely talks, so I figure this was the best Lassie impression she could pull off. Way to go, kitties!

Delayed Post-Chicago wrap-up

2005-09-29T14:44:00.000-05:00

Okay, so this has absolutely nothing to do with houses of any sort, but since HouseBlogs grew out of Chicago, it's getting posted here. Besides, it's my blog and I can write what I want to. (sung to the tune of "It's My Party") It feels a bit like old news, but I had to get through the required travel illness, then catch up on work-work and house-work that fell behind during the trip and illness recovery.

I finally had a fun trip to Chicago. The Lakeview area is quite lovely. (Thanks again, Jocelyn. You have no idea how much having that little bit of information helped.) I was able to walk to and from the Metro from my hotel and felt absolutely safe. The hotel was a nice mix of aged charm and modern convenience. The weather was beautiful. Everyone I came in contact with was very pleasant, including the security people at the airport. The Metro is an awesome venue. (Alli - Tell Jason he can move there now and I will come visit.) I didn't feel too out of place with all the hipster kids and a "little boy" even attempted to hit on me. ;) Overall: Yay, Chicago!!

This time, I did observe things with more of an architecture-oriented eye and this was really the first time I've spent much time observing a Chicago "neighborhood". As an outsider, it's actually quite funny to see all the houses made of brick. I know they're all brick and I know why they're all brick, of course, but it never struck me before. Maybe I just need to get out more. ;)

Mr. Gardener's performance, though far too short, was amazing. He says he'll be back 'round in a few months with a full band, so I guess I should start saving up for another trip.

I stuck around for BRMC partially hoping that they would lure Mark back on stage to do a Ride cover, but also because, by all accounts, I should love this band. They consistently name Ride (Mr. Gardener's previous band) as one of their major influences.

I've known _of_ them since their start, but just never sought them out so I didn't know much about their sound.

I get it now...I totally do. Magnificent.

Since returning, I've bought their first and third albums and can listen to nothing else. I have a little longer before I get too old for this stuff, right?

** To avoid a lawsuit - the BRMC shots were nicked from the BRMC website posted by other show attendees.

=========================

PostScript: Program your Tivo now for Letterman on October 12th when BRMC will be performing. Okay, I'll shutup now.

Chicagoland ... I'm comin' to see ya

2005-09-18T01:07:00.000-05:00

I haven't the time nor money to spare, but I love this man. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the ones we love.

It's just a quick trip - arrive around 4:30 Tuesday and leave 10:30-ish on Wednesday. I haven't figured out hotel, so if any of you Chicagoans can give me a tip on what would be close to the Metro, I would appreciate it. I'm leaning towards Hotel Indigo. Oh, and if you're bored on Tuesday night and want to see a fabulous show, please join me! :)

sigh of relief

2005-09-07T12:16:00.000-05:00

As I reported earlier, floor guys started yesterday. I hired a family-owned business because not only were they the cheapest bid, but when I met with the owner for the estimate, he seemed very detail-oriented and a little high-strung, like me. :) His company is basically him and 1 - 2 guys that do the work. I was surprised when 2 guys showed up and the owner wasn't one of them. He arrived a little later, stayed to do some of the more difficult tasks, then left for another job.

I think Guy #2 was a recent hire due to increasing work volume. The way they chat, they seem to be getting to know him still. Guy #1 is probably the main helper, and I refer to him as "Frat Boy" behind his back because that's what he looks like. (Apologies to the Greek readers -- I'm biased.)

After their first pass at sanding, Frat Boy asked if I wanted to pick out a color. I explained (as I had told the owner when he did the estimate) that I want to match the work I already did in the front bedroom. This was basically impossible, according to Frat Boy. Ummmm....I know it's not impossible, because, look: I did it. Here's my leftover stain and everything. Looks just like your can. He gave me all sorts of reasons and excuses, blah, blah, blah. The fact of the matter is, it can be done, but perhaps not the way they "normally" do it. I am not a confrontational person AT ALL. I run from it. But I stood my ground and we left it as they would just finish the final sanding then in the morning, the owner would be there to discuss options.

When they were set to leave, I asked if he had talked to the owner yet and reminded him that if they were willing to comp me on the price, I would stain it myself overnight. Frat Boy just responded with "[the owner] will talk to you in the morning. We'll be here around 10." He was clearly pissed about having to deal with a bitchy customer. He had the same look and mumbled speech pattern I became accustomed to using back in my days of retail.

Later I realized that he had spoken to the owner about it because I had a message on my answering machine to call him. Gave him a call and he gave me some of the same excuses and reasons, but also offered up some options. When I hung up, I was pretty confident that we'd be able to work something out, but I still fretted about it all night long. Since I'm soooo non-confrontational, I have to psyche myself up for the moments that I may need to be. I would've been ready if it came down to it, but I also had to endure all that fretting.

When the doorbell rang this morning, it was the owner and Guy #2. I guess Frat Boy got a reprieve from the difficult customer. Well, staining has now started, and I think it's a pretty good match. Here's where the sigh of relief comes in. ......ahhhhh......

He made a pretty big deviation from his normal processes to get what I want and I think it's going to look pretty good. I will wait until I see the finished product to sing his praises, but when pushed, he made the extra effort. (It probably doesn't hurt that he knows I found him via Angie's List.)

I guess the real lesson here is that even if you're hiring work out, it really pays to be educated about what's going on and what your options are. Had I not done all the research, etc. involved with finishing one room myself, I would've accepted their excuses at face value. After all "they're the experts". Trust what you know and educate yourself enough to know that your beliefs are on solid ground.

Now that the stain is going on, they're blowing through it, and I'm starting to feel a little...uh...elevated. :)

lather, rinse, repeat

2005-09-06T10:45:00.000-05:00

Sand, fill, prime, fill, sand, paint, fill, paint, paint, paint again, fill, paint. Been working on trim, etc., mainly in the living room. Tedious and slow.

Floor guys started today, so I guess that means I get a few days off since I won't be able to walk in my work area. Post-sanding, they found three boards that were termite-damaged enough to warrant replacement. (sigh)

I feel bad for the poor sap who's strapped to the edge sander. I hate those things. In addition to all the edges, he's got two tiny closets and the odd-shaped "hallway" to do. I think he's an apprentice, so he's paying his dues. Let's hope he knows how to not cause swirl marks.

One cat is MIA. She's good at hiding, though, so I'm not too worried yet. If she doesn't magically appear as soon as the noisy strangers go away, I'll start the outside search.

N.O. updates from the field

2005-09-04T23:17:00.000-05:00

I just found this link, courtesy of Brickman House, that's providing ongoing updates of the state of things in New Orleans. Thought I'd share in case others here are interested. I've stopped watching the news, but I can't remove myself completely from what's going on down there.

SpamFighters (no relation to Foo)

2005-09-03T00:23:00.000-05:00

I've enabled word verification on comments to stop the spammers. Please forgive the inconvenience and I urge other blogspotters to do the same.

For the house history fans...

2005-09-02T23:36:00.000-05:00

I have now enacted a moratorium on news coverage in my home. I have been watching way too much CNN. There is only so much you can take before you need to get on with things or you risk paralyzing your own life. There's a nice discussion going on here about how dwelling on all the tragedies of the world will simply make a person ineffectual. I've done what I can from here. Carrying on....

The "heart" of the burb I live in is essentially made up of post-war houses. There are the "cape-cod-style" tract homes like mine that were constructed by a big developer in the Kansas City area. There are also a bunch of what I've heard described as "California-style contemporary" that were probably constructed in the mid-50's. Interestingly, when I did a search for listings online, I had trouble finding an example of exactly what I'm talking about. The style must be more popular than I realized. The listings located here, here, and here are in the same genre.

I never understood where this style came from. It seemed out of place. Today I may have found a clue. Read about the interesting history of a neighborhood house here. What's even more interesting to me is the house's nemesis developer may very likely have been the man responsible for my house (and, one could argue, responsible for suburban sprawl)!

During my search for contemporaries, I found this pricey little number that is available and looks like it could be a Goff or Goff-knockoff. None of these places are my style, but as a fellow house voyeur, I still find them interesting.

tick, tick, tick

2005-08-21T23:32:00.000-05:00

A whole lot of painfully slow progress going on at the time thief (which translates to no exciting pictures). It's mainly due to my unnecessary, nightmarish foray into paint stripping. Tangent - I just googled 'nightmarish' to make sure there wasn't an 'e' in there and the third hit led me here. Eeeeek! This brings a whole new dimension to my "problem" with seeing animals "in transit" on the highway.

Anyway, back to the house-stuff. The stripping nightmare is a self-inflicted, unnecessary side-trip because:
1) I'm painting the mess in the end as I know it was painted to begin with. I just wanted to clean up some of the gloppies. Did you know hardboard and MDF were around in the late 40's? Yep, they were because the center of the cabinet doors on my living room built-ins are made out of hardboard and one side of one built-in is MDF. (? why just one side is beyond my comprehension) I was betting on just cheap pine, but I guess they were super modern around here.

2) I stupidly tried to use CitrusStrip because I hadn't the patience to wait for Peel Away, which I know will work. I ordered PeelAway last Wednesday after my initial defeat and am anxiously awaiting its arrival in the hopes that it will save me. Based on a recent post over at This Decrepit Victorian House, I may be in luck.

While the mantle/fireplace surround are currently a scraggly mess, the built-ins are nearly ready for paint and the brick portion of the fireplace surround is about 2/3 of the way there. I've considered tiling the brick portion, but wanted to give stripping a shot just to see what it looked like. After two applications of CitrusStrip and lots of steel wool, I have been able to strip most of the bricks. They're left with a bit of a white haze when I'm done which I actually like better than the true clean brick, so I'm leaving it at that. If I happen to find the "perfect" vintage tiles sometime in the future, I may go that route. This has worked because the bricks only had 2 - 3 coats of paint versus the 8-or-so coats on the mantle and built-ins. How does such a young house get so many layers of paint on its trim?! I know the last time it was painted was in 1979, so it only took about 30 years to get most of the 8 layers. Lots of trendy residents, I guess, as opposed to my original theory that it lived at least part of its life as a rental.

It appears the ugly "fake brick" hearth is original. I have suspicions that it may be one big slab of fakeness. Don't even want to deal with that right now, so I think I will paint it and maybe give it a faux finish. So much for installing some nice tile! Complaining about stripping some brick and in the same post discussing painting different "brick"? Yeah, I'm crazy like that. They don't even come close to matching nor harmonizing, and trust me, the hearth is tres ugly.

Two separate companies are coming over tomorrow to look at the floors for refinishing. One well-known outfit and another that I think is just one guy and his wife who runs the phones out of their home. A third company gave me a price over the phone last week of $3/sq. ft. Just curious - how does that compare in your neighborhoods?

Oh! A final tangent - ordered PeelAway from VanDyke's. The order confirmation informed me that they are somehow in cahoots with Cabela's. This led me to the realization that there is also a Van Dyke's Taxidermy company. Okay, I'm not cool with that. But where else am I gonna get my Peel Away fix??!! And now everyone knows what an animal-loving freak I am, if you didn't already.

Oh, my aching neck!!

2005-08-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

Today I did touch-up sanding in the LR and DR, wiped down both ceilings plus (nasty) walls in the LR, then primed and painted both ceilings. Ugh! I hate ceilings. Rather, my neck and shoulders hate ceilings. Also managed to shower off all the paint splatters and make a supplies run. I'm hoping to get primer and one coat of paint on the LR walls tomorrow.

I'm having trouble picking a paint color because this room is practically a blank slate. I don't have a "vision" for what I want yet, and I have no furniture to start from. The upholstery on the couch and chair that will go back in the room are in bad enough shape that I will probably slipcover them. Most everything else, I gave to freecycle a couple of weeks ago.

So, the cats have been trying to help me out

Meda made a selection, but it was little to neon for me.

I picked up a gallon of color tonight. That should get me through one coat, and if I don't like it, it'll just be an expensive coat of tinted primer.

Now it's time for a muscle-relaxing beverage.

happy dance

2005-08-11T12:39:00.000-05:00

Alright gang, it _can_ be done. I've had a positive experience with a contractor! Can you believe it?! The drywall work is finished.

- Started on Tuesday, worked from 8 - 3:30 with no lunch break. Finished the first two coats, despite having a run-in with the "octopus of death" that is my circuit panel.
- Returned at 8 am Wednesday for the final coat which took approximately 2 hours. He had been double-booked that day, so he had to skedaddle in the middle of it, but he came back as promised.
- When I returned from my 7am (ugh!) meeting this morning, the sanding was finished and he was vacuuming the carpet, even though I told him not to worry about it since it's getting chucked soon.

The final sale for time and materials was at the top end of the "office estimate", but below his "field estimate". That included the "extra" work he did. You see, I wanted the unfinished walls done, but all the other walls had various holes from moving electrical outlets, etc. that I was going to take care of. As he said it, "I'm here. It needs to be done. I've got a pan of mud that's going to go in the trash because I need to re-mix. I may as well throw it on the wall." He even ventured off into the hallway to work on a "person falling through ceiling" patch. He wasn't as thorough on those spots, but he got me more than half-way there.

Check out how much tapering he did on the butt joints! This should look pretty dang good after paint.

There are a couple of minor flaws I noticed after he left. I could call him back in to fix, but they're small enough that I'll probably just do them myself. I wasn't surprised to find a few things. Heck, I could spend days on end doing "final touch-ups". In the sea of dust, it's easy to miss a few things.

be careful out there, people

2005-08-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

Roof Collapse Injures 4 Construction Workers

quick contractor update

2005-08-09T08:17:00.000-05:00

To all the people who posted warnings on my last post: I hear ya. Been there, done that. That's why I've been so anxious about bringing someone in to do this work. The three things I've outsourced prior to now have ranged from sub-par to absolute nightmare. DIY isn't totally about saving money - it's about getting things done well. And, I too, have not been so impressed with Angie's List. Seems like a whole lotta hype to me.

I would've loved to just call someone in who was recommended, but it seems there is no such thing for drywall. A friend and I have both been working our networks because we both need work done. Between the two of us, we're still searching.

Anyway -- the Case Handyman guy pulled up outside around 7:50 this morning. I think he just sat in his van for 10 minutes because he knows I'm not a morning person. :) As soon as Good Morning America started to go to their 8:00 commercial, the doorbell rang. He's already on his second sheet of 1/4" in the dining room. I won't do the happy dance just yet, but I do have some good feelings.

guest room: check

2005-08-08T19:29:00.000-05:00

For the watchers out there, the guest room is "completed". (Alli - I put the rug there for your benefit. :)

Okay, well, except for the closet doors. And the door itself. When I get to the hallway, I will do all the doors, assembly-line style.

And another shot simply because I love these dang daisies I get at Whole Foods.

All of the living room furniture has been temporarily moved into the guest room while transformation happens in there. The couch had to go in through the window. Not fun. One caladium was smooshed in the process. The cats are totally confused and upset about lack of carpet-lounging. And this (though blurry) is the most awesome vacuum ever. It has an attachment with a comb on it that totally attacks cat hair like nothing else.

I inherited it via my step-dad (I think) and once gave it back because I was going to be cool and get a fancy schmancy new vacuum. I begged to have this thing back and will never give it up.

contractor jitters

2005-08-08T18:27:00.000-05:00

It's kind of like first-date jitters...what's he going to say? What's he going to do? Will I like him? Let us hope that this turns out better than most first dates.

I'm outsourcing mudding of the living room ceiling, dining room ceiling, and one wall in the dining room. The living room ceiling had been completely removed and replaced with new wallboard following my failure to win the battle of the gold glitter due to the fact that the ceiling was wallpapered, then glittered. (Congrats if you read that entire sentence and didn't get dizzy.)

The dining room ceiling was de-glittered, but it is very rough and stained from water damage. It will get a layer of 1/4" drywall first, then tape and mud.

The wall in the dining room was previously torn out to jack up the ceiling. It went up about 3/4 of an inch. It didn't entirely fix the sag, but it's better, I guess.

The effort I've gone through just to get someone to say they'll do the job is unimagineable, unless of course, you're a houseblogger who's gone through the same thing.

- I started with Angie's List. Found a big name there that I recognized and gave them a call. The nice lady that answered informed me that they specialize in new construction, but she would pass along my info in case one of the guys wanted the work on the side. No one called, of course.

- Overall, I'd feel better about going with a little guy, but worry about doing that without a personal reference. But, that's what Angie's List is for, right? The first match on the list was an independent guy who lives in the neighborhood. I also thought it was cool because he has a functioning website where you can submit requests. So, I did. We spoke the next day and he seemed ambitious. He came over and looked at the place, while talking my ear off about anything and everything. He said he would have a bid to me later that week. The bid never appeared. During our talk, I figured out exactly where he lives. He's on my less-traveled walk route, but I made a point to take the route that week. I'm now feeling okay that he won't be doing the work. (Oooohhhhh, that house.) In addition, I had passed his info on to a friend before I dealt with him. She actually did get a quote and it was astronomical.

- So, time for the phone book. I called up my local "Drywall Doctor" and a woman with a lovely British accent took all my information, then said she would call back with an estimate. How cool is that?! You can estimate the job over the phone? N.e.a.t.o. She promptly called back and gave me an estimate that was about twice what I had guessed it should be. I asked the question anyway -- and found out their lead time is usually 3 - 4 weeks. ick.

- Next stop - Service Magic. I didn't have any luck there when I was trying to find someone to tape/mud upstairs, so I didn't hold out hope. I immediately got a call from one company who qualifies as a "little guy". Their quick response gave me hope and a little bit of fear at the same time. How desperate can they be? We set up an appt for them to come out and check it out at 4pm the next day. 4pm came and went and they weren't here. I had to leave around 5. When I was driving back towards the house around 6pm, I managed to see a truck pulling out of my driveway. Five minutes later, they called and left a message on my machine stating "We tried to come take a look at the job, but you weren't available." Oh, really? Hmmm...maybe that's because you were TWO HOURS LATE!! You must not want the job.

- The same day that I had talked to the company above, another "little guy" called and said he was just finishing up a job, but he would contact me later in the week to setup a time to take a look. I never heard from him again.

If I have nothing on which to base my opinion of your quality of work, what do I do? I have to base it on your level of professionalism when you deal with me. If you can't even get that right, I certainly don't think you'd be able to perform to the level I expect. I am, of sorts, an independent consultant in the computer software biz. Would I expect to get any clients if I behaved this way?! Absolutely not.

Finally, the last match on my Service Magic request was Case Handyman Services. I'm hesitant about these kinds of outfits, because I figure they can't give you the kind of customized service that a little guy could. Well, I didn't really have an option at this point. And, hey, if they're good enough for Oprah, then maybe they're good enough for me.

A lady from Case had called me, but I sat on it for a few days. When I did call her back, she already had the estimate worked up (about half of the other phone estimate I got) and told me she could have someone here later that week!! Wowsa! I told her I would call her back because I wasn't sure my schedule would be ready for it that quickly. I called back the next day and left a voicemail. She didn't return my call and I started to get a little nervous. "There's no turning back now", I thought and gave her another call. She was expecting me and told me she hadn't called back yet because she was waiting to see if she could line up a particular guy for the job. She said she'd call back by 1 with the exact dates. She called back at 11:30 with the name of the guy and said he'd be here Tuesday(tomorrow) and Wednesday. Prompt is a word these people understand.

The guy scheduled to do the work called today and asked if he could stop by and check out the dining room ceiling so he'd know what supplies he would need in the morning. Is it just me or is everyone getting good feelings? He came over as promised and we talked for a while. He wasn't at all bothered by Meda wrapping her tail around his legs and seems very professional. He explained all the details of what he would do and when as he could have some scheduling conflicts Wednesday, but promised it will be done by the end of the week regardless. He also explained that there's a 2-year warranty on all the work he does. If, when I go to paint it, I find any flaws I can't live with, I give them a call and they come out and fix it with no questions asked.

Am I dreaming? Stay tuned to find out if my dreamboat has arrived.

Frankenstein's step-Granddaughter, perhaps?

2005-08-01T23:20:00.000-05:00

While not nearly as impressive as the Frankenstein Hutch, I've been working on a furniture project of my own.

I have an "old" (old in the sense of broke-down and tired, not in years of life) particle board armoire-type cabinet that I had been using in the first floor bedroom. It didn't make the cut to be moved upstairs to the new bedroom. I figured I would just leave it in the guest room to store blankets, sewing supplies, etc. Of course I knew that would mean giving it a coat of paint. I believe it has changed colors at every new home. My odd little brain assumed I would just paint it white. It is shabby, so why not shoot for shabby-chic, no?

At the same time, I've started to have a hankering for a piece of black furniture. It does seem to be the latest trend and the marketers have been dangling black case goods in my face at every chance. It's all over the Pottery Barn and HDC catalogs. I've even seen a lot of it popping up at antique malls where the dealers have taken an insignificant piece, given it a nice black finish, and voila -- instant class. It's just too much for an ex-goth-wannabe to resist. I think the tipping point was when I went over to a co-worker's house for a meeting a few weeks back. I had to sit right next to a big 'ole black sideboard. It taunted me the entire time.

I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized I should paint this cabinet black. So, a couple weeks ago while in the HD, I picked up some black paint. I've been wavering a lot between HD and Sherwin Williams. Neither one has my loyalty. I used SW on the exterior, HD upstairs, SW on the guest room walls, HD on the rest of the guest room...... Given my desire to cut HD out of my life as much as possible, I haven't figured out why I keep going back there for paint. It must be the convenience factor.

Anyway, I normally head straight for the Behr chips. Glidden seems cheap to me and Ralph Lauren paint? Don't get me started -- I think the idea is absurd. However, I entered into this color selection with an open mind because I wanted to get the shade just right. I scanned all the chips for the one I thought was closest to the pieces I've drooled over the most. And wouldn't ya know -- it was a Ralph Lauren chip! Reluctantly, I had the RL paint mixed, and I'm glad I did. After this painting experience, I think I'll start with RL paint from now on! I love the finished sheen and it smoothes out really well.

The black turned out exactly as I envisioned. A few new glass knobs (on sale...didn't have the patience to wait for a salvage find) and hinges make it (almost) complete. There used to be a piece of wood inside that braced it for strength and filled in the gap between the doors and the top drawer. It broke in two long ago and I finally removed the pieces. I think I need to replace it so you can't see the inside when the doors are closed.

The inside of the cabinet has always been very dark. I considered painting it white, then realized I should take the opportunity to use up some "reject" paint. I used 'Celery Ice' for the first coat, but it was a little too neon. Next I tried 'Honeysuckle White' and am happy with that. The bottom drawer was so plain (and still is) so I changed the single, center pull to two pulls.

If I'd have known I would like the end result so much, I would've taken "before" shots. Got re-use out of some junk and fulfilled my desire to spend money on something I'll probably hate in 5 years. Not a bad project.

naked wood

2005-07-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

Work has been kickin' my butt lately, so the precious few minutes I take each day to _not_ work, I spend exercising (in an attempt to maintain my sanity) or working on the house instead of blogging about it. Oh, then there is all that time I "waste" reading houseblogs, but who's counting.

So, let's catch up...

Here was the guest room just before I left for the lake over 4th of July weekend:

primer white

I actually had to put two coats of Kilz on the walls. Never had to do that before.

Here it was mid-late last week after one coat of paint:

And another to display the variation in color that light, digital cameras, and our lovely computer monitors cause:

Split the difference and that's the real color. A little bird described the color as, "It looks like a pair of green khakis that you bought at jcrew and wore over and over again until the color was all faded out." Perfect! Warm and cozy like a favorite pair of pants.

Now on to my junior-high-joke-of-a-subject. Armed with some helpful articles from Hometime and the Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association, I set out to tackle the floor. I have no idea why refinishing the floors intimidated me so much. I suppose it's because I was imagining clouds and clouds of dust for days. That wasn't the case at all! I was all geared up when I started: fan running in the window, double layers of sheets outside the door, goggles, mask, earplugs, everything. I even put on real shoes which, for me, means business. The only safety equipment I used through the whole process was the earplugs (oh, and the shoes). The rest seemed unnecessary because there was hardly any dust with the drum sander.

Before:

During:

My buddy the drum sander. I managed to break it during the first cut. No big deal, just that the switch stopped working, so I had to plug/unplug to start and stop the thing. (shrug) The piece of advice everyone mentions with the drum sander is to make sure you're moving when lowering or lifting the drum. I had no problem with it at first, but on the third cut I had trouble at the walls when I switched directions and it started making small ruts. They weren't major at all and I was able to smooth them out, but I don't know why I had problems with the final, it being the finest grain and all. I was probably just getting tired.

All done (with full bag of sawdust) and ready to go back to the evil orange! Now, on the dust front, the edge sander is a different story from the drum sander. It _did_ kick up quite a lot of dust, and I don't like that thing at all. I'd read that you're not supposed to apply pressure because it will cause swirl marks that are difficult to remove, but I felt like I had to apply half my body weight just to get the thing to go where I wanted it to go. It wanted to run all over the place. So, I was applying pressure, and yes, it did create swirl marks, that yes, are hard to get out. I realized how bad they would look in the end when I was testing out stain in the closet and passed over one. Ewww! I basically ended up re-sanding the entire perimeter by hand and still didn't get them all, but I tried.

And now:

ooooohhh, aaaaaahhh. preeeeettty. I couldn't figure out how to do the last strip of floor other than apply small block, wait, wipe, back up, repeat... and I didn't want to do that for fear of creating splotchy bits, so I'll just go back and do the last strip tomorrow. That will also give me a chance to touch up some light areas. I haven't decided on exactly what I will put on after the stain, but it seems most everything recommends buffing after stain and between coats of poly, etc. Have you other floor refinishers done this step? I hate to rent the silly thing for two days and have it sit idle most of the time, but I'm also not going to run it back and forth to the store. Let me know what you think if you've been there.

So far, this is the most rewarding project I've done in a loooooong time. Can't wait til it's done!

MIT too

2005-07-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the cool link, Road to Amherst. I love being a statistic. You should too.

weekend wrap-up

2005-06-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

It's "molting" time for the sycamore trees here in perfect village.

The trees were busy shedding their bark, but what did I do this weekend? Replaced the switches that control lights in the hall/stairs. Sounds like nothing, but that's two lines in three locations. Six switches in all! ugh. To make matters worse, I pulled the wires "backwards" in two of the boxes (meaning wires for the switch that should go on the left entered the box on the right and vice-versa) so I had to work the wires a bit to get them installed on the "right" sides.

So what the heck was I replacing? I had installed some "regular" three-way dimmers while waiting on a parts order. I replaced them with "smart dimmers" that can dim the lights from any location. They're pretty pricey, but after living with "regulars" for two weeks, I think they're definitely worth it. Hated having to go downstairs to adjust the light level.

Lots of other miscellaneous tasks: Fixed a switch in the bedroom that wasn't quite right. oops. Worked on more sanding, priming, painting of closet doors. One is installed, another coat of paint still needed on the second. Did a little sewing (yeah, I do it all) on a bedroom window treatment. I stupidly used some fusible tape along the bottom edge and it had started to pull apart. I also now have a hook in the new bathroom on which to hang my robe (yay!) and the guest room is ready for sanding/final touch-up coat of compound.

I spent way too much time playing out in the garden today. Why? It is the time for: squash vine borer patrol. I've had problems with them every year at this house. Grrrrr! I noticed the telltale signs when I was out watering the other day

as well as some other unknown invaders

I went out to try to identify the little leaf-eaters and work on evicting the borers, when I noticed a strange little wasp. My first reaction was to be afraid of it like I usually am of wasps, but then I watched it for moment. It started flying around the monster pumpkin vine. Then it would land on the vine and appear to (ahem) hump the vine. A-ha! I ran inside for a quick Google search and confirmed that it was the mama squash vine borer moth depositing her eggs! Grabbed the camera and went outside to go to work. Unfortunately, mama never showed back up to have her picture taken and meet her death. Maybe another day.

Once the borers have made their home in a vine, there are a couple of things you can do to try to save the plant, both of which are extremely difficult and time consuming.

1) Inject the vines with a solution of BT using a syringe
2) Cut open the vine and extract the worm (ewww)

In either case, the plant's "wounds" should be covered with dirt to encourage new root development. I used a combination of methods depending on the plant. I went
through this effort last year with mixed results. My own fault for taking a "wait-and-see" approach again this year. Won't make the same mistake again.

Ordinarly, I don't like to split the vine because it's hard to know where the borer(s) will be found. However, in a couple of the vines, the BT injections made the little buggers start to travel and poke their head out of their entrance sites to see what was going on. That made it easy to yank them out.

I even got a movie of this little guy. It isn't in focus (due to the angle, I couldn't exactly watch what I was filming), but you can see him moving around in there.

As I was injecting the vines, I also saw quite a few of mama's eggs, so I got rid of as many of those as I could find.

Nature is so cool.

origin of name

2005-06-22T23:22:00.000-05:00

When I decided to create a new blog and started to think of a name, Time Thief just popped into my head for some reason. It seemed appropriate. Turns out it wasn't spontaneous genius or anything. Buried deep inside my brain was memory of the song "Time Thief" by the Pale Saints which popped up last week when I was listening to iTunes on random. Searched out the lyrics today. Here's a section that kind of applies, no?

the money's falling through the wall again

it lives inside this house
it lives in one of us
time thief's coming
don't you realise?

round and round and round we go
the words are breezing and there's always
one more clue to comprehend
it'll take you and jump into your head

it's inside this house
it lives in one of us
time thief's coming
don't you realise?

some "after" teasers

2005-06-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

So the time arrived when I was ready to post some "after" shots. And I started to feel kind of weird about it. I mean -- transmitting images of my bedroom for all the Internet to see -- freaks me out a little. Especially since I know there were readers of my last blog that I don't exactly want seeing that kind of thing. What if they found the newest incarnation? (Don't worry - if you're wondering if you're "one of them", then you're probably not.) In order to appease my followers, I've taken some abstract "what the hell is that?" shots. Hopefully that will satisfy. Read on....

(Disclaimer - I just got a new camera and haven't exactly figured out the best way to use it. Everything keeps coming out blurry. Since these are supposed to be abstract, I'll just say "I meant to do that".)

I love the practicality of ceiling fans, especially since I try to limit use of the A/C as much as possible. Must be because of the "nature girl" inside me.

Wacky shot of a built-in. The room is looking much more blue than reality.

Gratuitous cat shot - Meda and friends

Another gratuitous cat shot - Meda and her friend "legs"

Door from office to bath. The "Home Depot" orange color was not chosen by me, but I think I'm okay with it. As you can see, some walls were painted white to highlight the funky angles. The color orange is supposed to stimulate thought, so it's perfect for an office. The only problem with it is it gives the impression that I'm a huge fan of the Despot, which I am NOT.

You'll notice a lot of incongruity in different rooms' colors. I know that bothers some people, but not me. I think you should use color in specific rooms to affect how you would like to feel in that room. One of the coolest houses I ever saw was an old four-square on a Christmas tour of old homes in Lawrence, KS. All the rooms in the house were painted bold, bright colors. They all came together in the kitchen, where the walls had a white base with a sort of "finger paint" effect using all the other colors in the house. I thought it was so fun and interesting. I remember that house when I think of all the wacky colors going on here.

The color in the bath is off, but it's just going to have to stay that way for a while. It was a major pain to paint in and around all the funky wall goings-ons in there, so it's staying that way....at least until round one is finished.

Meda checking out the shower

Cool two-part flusher on the toilet. Little one in the front for pee-pee, larger one in back for other stuff.

Quin finds a home in the bathroom sink. "I will eat you, then pee on your carpet." Yes, Quin, and that is why there will soon be no more carpet.

on to the next....

2005-06-21T21:42:00.000-05:00

Things upstairs are pretty much wrapped up. There are a few little things that are waiting on purchases, etc., but it's totally liveable.

the closet doors i messed up and made too short (doh!) have been re-built and are being sanded

Next in the batting order: HVAC replacement and redoing the "guest" room that was formerly the bedroom. Why the guest room first on the first floor? Because it should be the quickest hit and will be the "getaway" where I will move the living room while the rest of the first floor will be going through it's super-dusty phase. HVAC because it's terribly outdated and the condenser(?) now leaks water all over the basement floor when the A/C runs. It also helps that I know people who will install for free and sell me the unit at cost. :) So, I need advice from the housebloggers....

First - any advice or experience with Lennox versus Trane for a traditional two-part HVAC system? From what I've read so far, they're both reputable brands and there isn't much difference between them, but I'd love to hear your story if you have one.

Second - I've read postings around houseblogs.net and others that how easy or difficult it is to refinish wood floors depends on the sander. What should I look for there?

Patching the walls/ceiling has started and should be done within the week. yay!

no more termites! (like the mint green vinyl next door?)

popcorn, cottage cheese, or salsa?

2005-04-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

Kasmira over at Cininnati Cape Cod has submitted for our consideration - a proposal to keep the popcorn ceilings. I'm pretty sure her post was triggered by the re-appearance of my blog.

I was fortunate at my last house which still had its original plaster finish in all rooms but the kitchen. Not so at this one. Not a plaster wall to be found and textured ceilings in every room. The low ceilings made the pointy edges of the droopy cottage cheese feel as if it could suffocate you. (I bought the neighborhood, not the house.)

At only 7.5 feet high, the ceiling glitter is decidedly un-diamond-like. In fact, the glitter is gold. It looks more like they stuck on sparkles from a child's craft set as an afterthought than anything that could have been incorporated into the texturizer. They only used the glitter in certain rooms. Maybe they couldn't find enough children to steal craft sets from.

Thanks for the health warning, Kasmira, but most of it is long gone. If you're in the mood for a freak show, I should dig up those pics and re-post them. Did I mention the texture on the living room ceiling had wallpaper underneath? (!) The remaining cottage cheese ceilings have holes all over them and will be completely removed and re-drywalled at some point in the future.

Four day wrap-up

2005-04-17T23:28:00.000-05:00

Where does the time go? That's what makes the name of this blog so appropriate. Each Sunday evening, that's what I'm left wondering.

Thursday was my last day at the corporate gig (yays! all 'round), so some of the work gang and I met up at a midtown watering hole after work. By the time I got home, I'd had one too many to have the required motivation or motor skills to do anything on the house. So I worked on my taxes instead. Judicious choice? Probably not.

I spent my day off Friday finishing and filing taxes, waxing the car, and started painting the trim in the bedroom. I know some of you are fretting. My step-dad is one of those people. "Bare wood should never be painted," he'd say. I disagree. I love the look of crisp white trim against colored walls. It makes me giddy. There is nothing historic nor interesting here to worry about covering up. There will not be someone here in 30++++ years wishing they had a silent paint remover. So, RELAX. Will post some pics in the next day or two of the finished office in all its white-trim-glory.

Most of Saturday was spent on a trek for a desk. Up until now (and, well, even now in fact), my "desk" has been a Scandinavian-style dining table shoved up against the wall of what should be the dining room. Now that the proper office is completed, I get to spend some fun money! Right? Maybe not. First stop was Nebraska Furniture Mart. Hmmm. What can I say? Well, um, it's really big. That's about it.

Made rounds of the city looking at various places with no luck. Not only am I picky on the function and style, the space I have available is right in the middle of "standard" desk lengths. 48" will easily fit, but I don't think it will be big enough. 60" will be too long. Should I have shopped for desks before building walls? Perhaps.

On the way to stop for some yummy Chinese food at Bolings, I remembered I had seen a desk online that would do just fine. I had held off buying it because of the price, but after looking around, it seemed like a bargain. Plus, it's dimensions are perfect for the available space. Ordered that as soon as I returned home. Hopefully it will be here in a couple of days since it only has to travel the width of Missouri.

I also did some painting on Saturday. Managed to get the first coat of paint finished on all trim/woodwork in the bedroom.

Sunday brought more trim painting. It never ends! Finished the door, built-in "cavities", and the windows.....which meant I got to clean, clean, clean the windows and put in the screens! It's amazing what difference it makes to simply clean all the dust and grime away. The cats are thrilled that the dust is clearing away and happily go upstairs to perch on the sills of the open windows.

I'm baaaack

2005-04-13T23:41:00.000-05:00

Well, friends, it seems I've resurrected posting on the house progress. For those of you who have been around for a while, you may have seen/heard from me as kimmatt.com. This is the latest incarnation of the blog. I'm not the type to ever be very settled. Perhaps I'll stop moving this thing around someday. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyway, reasons for the return are many-fold:

- People keep asking me, "Are you done yet?"
- There is now actual visible progress that people might be interested in.
- Such simple things seem to take soooo much time. (It went so much faster at my old place!) Maybe posting what I'm doing everyday will help me (or a reader) figure out a way to speed things along.
- I really HAVE been working on the house literally every day for the past several months (with the exception of sick days). No more slacker nights off.
- I hang out on HouseBlogs.net a LOT, so I will feel less like a stalker if I'm posting as well.
- I'm thinking my new job (starting Monday!) will allow more time for such luxuries as blogging.

Given that, tonight I:

attempted to finish sanding the trim/woodwork in the bedroom. All I had left was the dormer window and the built-ins. I worked for a couple of hours and managed to get the dormer window sanded, both built-in "cavities", and got started on the built-in doors and shelves. Despite not finishing, I'm definitely liking the '3X' sandpaper that I bought this time. It really does work much faster.

There is a nasty side-effect of so much sanding, other than loads of sawdust in my lungs. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night because my hands were so dry! Without returning to full consciousness, I wrung my hands, rolled over, rubbed in two pumps of lotion, and went right back to sleep. I hope that doesn't happen again tonight. I've already slathered twice and will try for twice more before my head hits the pillow.