golden things.
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Moor Doors
Here's a submission from Rachel, who seems to be going along the same color lines I am (with substantially neater PS results...).
We see that the original The Color Purple was included in the lower right hand corner. Her bleu is a better choice though. I am intrigued, however, by the green.
Hmm. Must ruminate.
We see that the original The Color Purple was included in the lower right hand corner. Her bleu is a better choice though. I am intrigued, however, by the green.
Hmm. Must ruminate.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Door Wars
We decided to change the color on the front door. I was a bit sad about losing the "house with the purple door" identifier, but I wanted something more...More. And, I got it.
Original color:
So far this week, it's been two colors (chromosity has not been adjusted to compensate for dark skies at time of photo shoot, but this is pretty much it).
Color A:
HOLY CRAP! You can see this from outer space! This is almost the exact color of a door I saw on a charming cottage with the same color stonework in France. Why does it look like it's threatening me?
Color B:
AIEEE! This is even screamier than the first (you can see the previous color where I haven't completely trimmed out the door). It matches the flag, but is still visible from Pluto.
Okay, it's your turn. Here's a collage of possible colors, courtesy of some sloppy Photoshopping. Clock in.
Keep the following in mind:
A. J. likes red, but there are already 5 red doors on our street. There are many black ones also.
B. I think I'm in France or Italy
C. There is an extreme likelihood that J. will want to paint the trim the same color as the door, and early Photoshopping experiments have shown that to be a VERY bad idea, even though he thinks it "pops". Too much HGTV.
Discuss.
BONUS:
Here is the (messy) blank door template if you'd like to try your own colors.
Original color:
So far this week, it's been two colors (chromosity has not been adjusted to compensate for dark skies at time of photo shoot, but this is pretty much it).
Color A:
HOLY CRAP! You can see this from outer space! This is almost the exact color of a door I saw on a charming cottage with the same color stonework in France. Why does it look like it's threatening me?
Color B:
AIEEE! This is even screamier than the first (you can see the previous color where I haven't completely trimmed out the door). It matches the flag, but is still visible from Pluto.
Okay, it's your turn. Here's a collage of possible colors, courtesy of some sloppy Photoshopping. Clock in.
Keep the following in mind:
A. J. likes red, but there are already 5 red doors on our street. There are many black ones also.
B. I think I'm in France or Italy
C. There is an extreme likelihood that J. will want to paint the trim the same color as the door, and early Photoshopping experiments have shown that to be a VERY bad idea, even though he thinks it "pops". Too much HGTV.
Discuss.
BONUS:
Here is the (messy) blank door template if you'd like to try your own colors.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
WV Hills
Oh look darling....where are we? 
What is better than a lovely drive in the country? Shady lanes, wide rolling fields, and even a turkey-spotting.
Oh gag, what is that smell??
Darn it, we're still at the landfill!
I swear HTS has to have the prettiest landfill ever. You can almost imagine you're far away, out in the country, if it wasn't for the fact that under all this beauty is several hundred feet of garbage, and what I am convinced is several billion cubic meters of methane, waiting to blow Guyandotte sky-high.
But there are landfill surprises...what is this? Do you see what I see? Someone had ditched an entire flower bed full of irises!
MINE! Free plants! Hooray!
I can't wait until next spring to see what color my garbage flowers are!
What is better than a lovely drive in the country? Shady lanes, wide rolling fields, and even a turkey-spotting.
Oh gag, what is that smell??
Darn it, we're still at the landfill!
I swear HTS has to have the prettiest landfill ever. You can almost imagine you're far away, out in the country, if it wasn't for the fact that under all this beauty is several hundred feet of garbage, and what I am convinced is several billion cubic meters of methane, waiting to blow Guyandotte sky-high.
But there are landfill surprises...what is this? Do you see what I see? Someone had ditched an entire flower bed full of irises!
MINE! Free plants! Hooray!
I can't wait until next spring to see what color my garbage flowers are!
Something's Missing!
Where did it go?
The forest fairies came and took it.
Oh no, wait, that was us. Five days, three parents, and seven trips to the dump, hauling stupid sticks and limbs in 80 degree weather.
Death to trees.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
...and I helped!
I've painted the living room and dining rooms recently, and I'm working on the trim this week. It's going to be a yellow-creamy white, very much like the white that was already here. But it will be clean.
Trimwork is so BORING! It's times like this I'm glad I don't have crown moulding.
No, not really. I wish I had crown moulding.
Before: WHITE!
After: BLUE! GREEN! GREENISH-BLUE!
And, what fun is a little painting without an assistant?
Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. You know exactly where you've been.
Trimwork is so BORING! It's times like this I'm glad I don't have crown moulding.
No, not really. I wish I had crown moulding.
Before: WHITE!
After: BLUE! GREEN! GREENISH-BLUE!
And, what fun is a little painting without an assistant?
Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. You know exactly where you've been.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Staycation
J and I have taken this week off to work on some of the thousands of projects around the house...things that are just too big, too scary, or too overwhelming to attempt to finish in a series of evenings.
So far, we've accomplished sleeping until at least ten and starting the dinner/cocktail hour at about 5pm. Between that, some other things are actually getting done.
For one, we've finished the kitchen floor. When we moved in, it was covered in a delightful faux-parquet vinyl floor. Mmm. Fake wood.
It is now covered in a delightful matte fake stone.
This floor was truly trying labor. DO NOT, no matter how nice They say it's going to look, attempt to lay down this stuff on a diagonal. We'd have been finished in two hours (and not ten months) if we'd not done that.
I keep you posted as the week progresses, and we'll see what happens when two lazy people try to buckle down.
So far, we've accomplished sleeping until at least ten and starting the dinner/cocktail hour at about 5pm. Between that, some other things are actually getting done.
For one, we've finished the kitchen floor. When we moved in, it was covered in a delightful faux-parquet vinyl floor. Mmm. Fake wood.
It is now covered in a delightful matte fake stone.
This floor was truly trying labor. DO NOT, no matter how nice They say it's going to look, attempt to lay down this stuff on a diagonal. We'd have been finished in two hours (and not ten months) if we'd not done that.
I keep you posted as the week progresses, and we'll see what happens when two lazy people try to buckle down.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Internet Porn
...and by "porn", I mean house porn. You know, paying for it. Shopping.
I spend a horrendous amount of time on the internet. Time that probably should be spent stripping paint from hardware or finishing the kitchen floor is taken up with cyber-stalking coveted items on shopping sites and obsessing about the color degradation of my ancient monitor misrepresenting a certain lampshade color. In my mind, I have furnished this entire house 6 times. In reality, we are still sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
Below are a few of my favorite shopping/dreaming sites, whether I actually buy anything from them or not. Actually, I probably spend the most money at the Home Decorators outlet, as I have gotten some really high-quality, wool rugs there for not much money (compared to the POS I bought a Lowe's that was expensive and turned out to be crappy).
Of course, there's the Pottery Barn catalog, along with Ballard Designs, Home Decorators (as well as their outlet) and Restoration Hardware. I have also had a lot of luck with Lamps Plus and Overstock.com (I have spent actual money on these sites). Off the beaten path, we can find Grandin Road, and, for you castle dwellers, Design Toscano. For modernists, we have Room and Board and Design Within Reach (HAH!). And, if you are ridiculously endowed with cash, we have Source Perrier and WS Home.
Home Decorators and their outlet always have a coupon running for $10 off a $5o purchase. You can easily find the code online through a Google search, or just sign up for a catalog, which will come with a coupon. There's one in the mail all the time.
Of course, don't shop ANYWHERE online until you have signed up at Ebates. When you register (free) and then enter sites through their portal, you can get like 3% and up cash back on your purchases. Each purchase is registered to their site, and every three months or so they send you a check. I make out like a bandit at Xmas, and then ususally get back around $15 per check, depending on how much I shopped. Since I usually order house checks, cat meds, lighting, hotel rooms and food online, I always see who is going to hook me up with the biggest discount and use them (well, not always, but usually). It's totally worth it, and you have nothing to lose if you never use it.
If you want to check it out, use this link:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=FDKIXw6AN9M5r%2FLHCatT1A%3D%3D
(FULL DISCLOSURE: IF YOU USE THIS LINK, SIGN UP AND THEN BUY SOMETHING, I WILL MAKE $5.00. MAYBE $10 THIS MONTH. MY EMAIL ADDY IS SARADEEL@GMAIL.COM. DO IT. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. YOU ARE GETTING VERY SLEEPY.)
The most I've ever gotten back was about $23 for around $250.00 spent at four different stores; your results may vary. But really...it can really help you rationalize some purchases. Sometimes that cash back covers the shipping. Sometimes, it will bring the price in below another web site. There's all sorts of reasons to use it. Mainly because I GET $5.00 when you sign up.
Really, it's SHOPPING! I wouldn't steer you wrong.
I spend a horrendous amount of time on the internet. Time that probably should be spent stripping paint from hardware or finishing the kitchen floor is taken up with cyber-stalking coveted items on shopping sites and obsessing about the color degradation of my ancient monitor misrepresenting a certain lampshade color. In my mind, I have furnished this entire house 6 times. In reality, we are still sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
Below are a few of my favorite shopping/dreaming sites, whether I actually buy anything from them or not. Actually, I probably spend the most money at the Home Decorators outlet, as I have gotten some really high-quality, wool rugs there for not much money (compared to the POS I bought a Lowe's that was expensive and turned out to be crappy).
Of course, there's the Pottery Barn catalog, along with Ballard Designs, Home Decorators (as well as their outlet) and Restoration Hardware. I have also had a lot of luck with Lamps Plus and Overstock.com (I have spent actual money on these sites). Off the beaten path, we can find Grandin Road, and, for you castle dwellers, Design Toscano. For modernists, we have Room and Board and Design Within Reach (HAH!). And, if you are ridiculously endowed with cash, we have Source Perrier and WS Home.
Home Decorators and their outlet always have a coupon running for $10 off a $5o purchase. You can easily find the code online through a Google search, or just sign up for a catalog, which will come with a coupon. There's one in the mail all the time.
Of course, don't shop ANYWHERE online until you have signed up at Ebates. When you register (free) and then enter sites through their portal, you can get like 3% and up cash back on your purchases. Each purchase is registered to their site, and every three months or so they send you a check. I make out like a bandit at Xmas, and then ususally get back around $15 per check, depending on how much I shopped. Since I usually order house checks, cat meds, lighting, hotel rooms and food online, I always see who is going to hook me up with the biggest discount and use them (well, not always, but usually). It's totally worth it, and you have nothing to lose if you never use it.
If you want to check it out, use this link:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=FDKIXw6AN9M5r%2FLHCatT1A%3D%3D
(FULL DISCLOSURE: IF YOU USE THIS LINK, SIGN UP AND THEN BUY SOMETHING, I WILL MAKE $5.00. MAYBE $10 THIS MONTH. MY EMAIL ADDY IS SARADEEL@GMAIL.COM. DO IT. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. YOU ARE GETTING VERY SLEEPY.)
The most I've ever gotten back was about $23 for around $250.00 spent at four different stores; your results may vary. But really...it can really help you rationalize some purchases. Sometimes that cash back covers the shipping. Sometimes, it will bring the price in below another web site. There's all sorts of reasons to use it. Mainly because I GET $5.00 when you sign up.
Really, it's SHOPPING! I wouldn't steer you wrong.
What are you looking at??
I am totally addicted to pretty, shiny publications that have photos of homes I can only hope to someday own. Most of the mags I am lucky to get strip covered from work, so I'm not paying for nearly as many as I was. But it's still pretty bad.This is what I'm reading:
House Beautiful (or, House Pitiful, as it's known around here) I totally love this, as their decorating makes sense to me.
Veranda Something which to aspire. When I am re-born into some family who owns Trump Tower.
Traditional Home--did you ever think an ex-heavy metal rocker would embrace anything "traditional"? Quite possibly the bible of my decorating taste.
Vanity Fair--in English and Italian (but in Italian just for the pictures).
Southern Living--good planting advice, but too much frou-frou otherwise.
Southern Lady--completely out of control, unless you are an ex-deb or pageant mother. Obscene fun.
Fresh Home--A new publication that has a lot of fixy-crafty-makey-things that I will never, ever do. But J. seems to enjoy the technicality of it all and it was in bathroom rotation for a couple of weeks. Plus, it has lots of pretty pictures of attractive, thin people living in homes you might actually be able to live in. I try to imagine myself as one of these folks by age 50.
Room and Board catalog--really modern stuff, but some good ideas.
And of course, stupid Pottery Barn. Even though their world is SO not real, it's so carefully and calculatedly constructed it's irresistible. I almost WANT to pay $15 for wooden soda crates I could steal down in the West End from the defunct Coca-Cola bottling plant.
On special occasions, I like to pick up Architectural Digest, or anything else that costs more than about $4.99 an issue. I also really like foreign home mags, but lately our bookstore has quit carrying the good ones, and I am not paying $12.00 in this recessionary climate for subpar, pan-oceanic fantasies. Oh, there is still English Country Home, which is like the "Playboy" of home porn for me...totally lusty but very tastefully done. Especially when they have articles like, "How to Make your 18th Century Home Liveable" followed by 6 pages of restored wallpaper and boot scrapers and such. I can't even tame a cottage from the 1930's. My hat is off to the intrepid Britons.
And, R.I.P. to Cottage Living, which folded this year. I guess my patronage wasn't enough to keep them in business. I miss it already.
All this looking is very helpful for shopping and dreaming. I rip out my favorite pages, articles and pictures and keep them all in a huge expandable folder, organised by room or function. Then when I see something in a store or online, I can think--does this really fit the look and feel I'm going for? I've found it really helpful in deciding what it is I really like...since I can look at a room with a stainless steel sofa and think "awesome" and then see a chair with cabbage rose fabric and weep from the beauty of it all. Tearing out pictures has really helped my define to myself what kinds of objects I want to live among. When I start looking through the folder, I see themes emerging. It's all quite scientific.
Then I just go buy something nutty out of pure love anyway.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Dee-light-ful
If you have been to our home, you are well aware of the treacherous path you must take up the tipsy steps along the driveway, to the cratered slate walk, then up the narrow steps to the porch. If you are the homeowner, now add "try to fit key into door with no light source other than that annoying streetlight I wish would disappear".
We had a porch light, but it only worked intermittently--we would replace a bulb and it would burn out in 2 or 3 days. We'd put in a new bulb (we tried several kinds) but it would mysteriously quit working again. This was getting frustrating, as we had to get the ladder out to change bulbs, and pretty soon we just gave up and started cursing the darkness. I also thought that, while charming, the existing fixture was too small for Miss 43's stately face. It just kind of...disappeared into the front of the house.
I have been on a mission to replace the light. I'd been all over the online places and finally decided in the spirit of just getting it done NOW, something from Lowe's would suffice. J. and I picked out something very large and vaguely English cottage-looking.
In an act of installation and balance that involved two ladders, some angry wasps and a number of screwdrivers, we removed the fixture. Almost immediately I regretted doing so, as from the weight and quality of the fixture I realized this was probably Miss 43's original light.
It's extremely heavy, looks like aged copper, and had that cloth-wrapped wiring that screams "OLD"! But, I had to keep reminding myself, it doesn't work, you sentimental donut!
J. climbed to install the bracket for the light. And of course, it didn't fit. The screws were too short to reach past the stonework. We don't have the right screws, and it's 6pm on Sunday, when everything closes. J. wraps the wiring, shoves it into the hole, and leaves for work in Columbus.
We spend most of the week with this:
Later that week, J comes home. We have to get metric bolts and there's a moment at Home Depot where the head-shaking they-don't-make-screws-that-size talk begins. I want to kill someone, but that's usual. We wind up going with two bolts. Back out come the two ladders (but not the wasps). We finally get the new light installed, and it's...well, it's BRIGHT!
I guarantee if you come to our house, not only will you be able to find your way up the steps and to the door, but you can probably arrive from outer space and know which house is ours. It lights up the Beer-varian Flag like a beacon for weary warriors .
I'm going to figure out why the little green cottage light doesn't work, and hopefully install it on the back of the house, where there is an obviously not-original light hanging. I won't feel one bit sentimental getting rid of it.
We had a porch light, but it only worked intermittently--we would replace a bulb and it would burn out in 2 or 3 days. We'd put in a new bulb (we tried several kinds) but it would mysteriously quit working again. This was getting frustrating, as we had to get the ladder out to change bulbs, and pretty soon we just gave up and started cursing the darkness. I also thought that, while charming, the existing fixture was too small for Miss 43's stately face. It just kind of...disappeared into the front of the house.
I have been on a mission to replace the light. I'd been all over the online places and finally decided in the spirit of just getting it done NOW, something from Lowe's would suffice. J. and I picked out something very large and vaguely English cottage-looking.
In an act of installation and balance that involved two ladders, some angry wasps and a number of screwdrivers, we removed the fixture. Almost immediately I regretted doing so, as from the weight and quality of the fixture I realized this was probably Miss 43's original light.
It's extremely heavy, looks like aged copper, and had that cloth-wrapped wiring that screams "OLD"! But, I had to keep reminding myself, it doesn't work, you sentimental donut!
J. climbed to install the bracket for the light. And of course, it didn't fit. The screws were too short to reach past the stonework. We don't have the right screws, and it's 6pm on Sunday, when everything closes. J. wraps the wiring, shoves it into the hole, and leaves for work in Columbus.
We spend most of the week with this:
Later that week, J comes home. We have to get metric bolts and there's a moment at Home Depot where the head-shaking they-don't-make-screws-that-size talk begins. I want to kill someone, but that's usual. We wind up going with two bolts. Back out come the two ladders (but not the wasps). We finally get the new light installed, and it's...well, it's BRIGHT!
I guarantee if you come to our house, not only will you be able to find your way up the steps and to the door, but you can probably arrive from outer space and know which house is ours. It lights up the Beer-varian Flag like a beacon for weary warriors .
I'm going to figure out why the little green cottage light doesn't work, and hopefully install it on the back of the house, where there is an obviously not-original light hanging. I won't feel one bit sentimental getting rid of it.
...and I will call him...
Scraggles!
Scraggles came to me free from the remnants of an Earth Day celebration at the University. Some students had a booth set up with a ton of plants and bushes. I'm not sure of the purpose, unless it was to show plants and bushes to people who have never before seen a plant or a bush. If they were trying to sell them, they failed miserably. At the end of the day, there were still a ton of plants and bushes and so they gave them away. I grabbed this guy, a shrubbery that I will now call Scraggles. I moved him into a new terracotta pot, and hopefully he will grow more gratefully than those two lousy bums I planted at 314 last year. They gave up and died after a couple of months.
If you think it's odd I've named a shrub, perhaps someday Jeffrey will introduce you to Bob Marley, the Boston fern.
Scraggles came to me free from the remnants of an Earth Day celebration at the University. Some students had a booth set up with a ton of plants and bushes. I'm not sure of the purpose, unless it was to show plants and bushes to people who have never before seen a plant or a bush. If they were trying to sell them, they failed miserably. At the end of the day, there were still a ton of plants and bushes and so they gave them away. I grabbed this guy, a shrubbery that I will now call Scraggles. I moved him into a new terracotta pot, and hopefully he will grow more gratefully than those two lousy bums I planted at 314 last year. They gave up and died after a couple of months.
If you think it's odd I've named a shrub, perhaps someday Jeffrey will introduce you to Bob Marley, the Boston fern.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Spring sprang sprung
One of the pleasures of our yard is watching all the mystery plants appear in the spring. All the preceding owners have left their mark on every part of the yard, and every week there is a little surprise when the next generation of species appear. Currently appearing in the yard:
Purple phlox (to match the door)...
Miss Lavender, who I am thrilled lived through the winter...
The bloodwort...
Some jonquils...These guys...
and the party crasher, who invited himself in this winter and hasn't yet left.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Killing Time
Jeffrey was supposed to bring home a whole bunch of pictures I had surreptitiously loaded onto his work camera so I could amuse myself and elucidate re: the house, this evening. But he went straight to the House of Gaming and didn't bring home the jump drive, which has resulted in me using "stock" photos.
So, I amused myself by uploading a crapload of house photos to the flickr thread. Enjoy.
BONUS: Here's a picture of a sleepy kitten in a basket to make up for lack of a real post.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
es gibt Biere hier!!!
After having visited the Hofbrauhaus in Cincinnati on a couple of trips, we decided that 43 needed a stately flag to enhance her beauty and to let people know "There is beer here!!" To the left is a picture of our newly acquired flag pole and Napoleonic Bavarian flag. The neighbors have not commented to date. We will of course change it out on West Virginia day, July 4th and Bastille day. At $6.00/flag on http://www.buyaflagyouhippy.com/ we may change it out weekly.
ciao,
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Welcome to the Dollhouse.
I'm in the process of moving the blog over from our Yahoo Group...it's just too hard to post stuff there and some people don't like joining groups, so there. No commitment here.
But there should be commitment. To the house. To this place we have chosen to call Home.
We should be committed.
-s.
But there should be commitment. To the house. To this place we have chosen to call Home.
We should be committed.
-s.
Originally posted 4-13-08
Sara and I started re-doing the kitchen this afternoon Sunday 04-13-08. We found an inspirational photo from a catalogue and have bought the supplies for the interim fix before the grand retiling etc. Will try to put up some pics as we progress. For those of you in the local
area we will be having a HGTV day at the old house. We have nearly completed all of the fixes and painting etc. at the old house once complete and ready to go on the market we would like you all to come over have a walk through and give us criticism. There will be champaigne and merrymaking also. I will keep you all posted. My boss came over with some divining rods and walked around my yard trying to find my footer drains. Interesting looks from the neighbors. we
located several pipes but are not sure which are for the footer drains or if there are any footer drains. We may have to dig to china yet.
Originally posted 3-13-08
Dr. Deel has been digging and glueing like man posessed, posesed, possessed, possesed, they really need spell-check on this site. We replace all of the downspout plumbing on the east side of the house. I will be digging up the west side this week. Saturday is a big landfill run to clean out the garage which has become a catch-all for anything removed from the house. We cleaned out the stone chimney out back and had dinner, chicken finger and veggie patties, by the fire last night.
I believe next year for Marshall U away games I am going to have tailgate parties in the screened in porch, which is wired for cable, and the fire pit. I was mistaken about the way the water was entering the house it is still coming from the Southeast corner. Promise I will
get some new pics uploaded.
Originally posted 3-08-09
After removing the subfloor from the basement in the future wargaming room I am now able to determine where the water is coming from.Sara and I came home Friday night to find about 5 gallons of water, I know because I mopped it up, in the utility room and the wargame room, from
now on referred to as the MEN'S ROOM (MR). Water is infiltrating from the eastern side of the house somewhere between the MR and the Laundry room and seeping out from under Northeast corner and migrating into the southwest corner. For those of you who are not hydrologist the first
rule of hydrology is that water runs down hill. Dr. Deel and I will be excavating approximately three (3) feet below ground surface (b.g.s.) as soon as the weather permits and re-installing a drainage system.
Upon completion of the new drainage I will be able to fully inhabit my lair and begin decorating with many stuffed animal heads, my uncle IS a taxidermist.
now on referred to as the MEN'S ROOM (MR). Water is infiltrating from the eastern side of the house somewhere between the MR and the Laundry room and seeping out from under Northeast corner and migrating into the southwest corner. For those of you who are not hydrologist the first
rule of hydrology is that water runs down hill. Dr. Deel and I will be excavating approximately three (3) feet below ground surface (b.g.s.) as soon as the weather permits and re-installing a drainage system.
Upon completion of the new drainage I will be able to fully inhabit my lair and begin decorating with many stuffed animal heads, my uncle IS a taxidermist.
Originally posted 3-06-08
We have magic cats. Foster has been able to get in the crawl space by the furnace approximately 8 ft from the ground. Bindi Spears and Foster both have managed to get hidden within the far reaches of the attic when the cable guy was running lines.
Originally posted 3-5-08
Last Saturday my father came down and we took out the whirpool dishwasher and installed our new Kitchen Aid, stainless steel dishwasher, thank you, tax rebate. We ran phone throughout the house, which is what is allowing me to type this post, DSL and ran cable
throughout the house into the rooms I am allowed to have cable television in. I tore all of the cable off of the side of the house began tearing down the rotted wooden child's playset in our back yard and cleaned out the stone fireplace next to the garage. It was almost 70 degrees here saturday so I took advantage of the lovely weather to do some out-o-doors work. Today I took off work and my father and I removed the old kenmore dishwasher from the old house and installed the whirpool from this house, we went to Lowes and bought a whirpool stove to match and took it back to the old house, we also made several trips to the landfill to dispose of the subfloor that I and Dr. Deel have torn out of the basement, will post new pics in a couple of days.
Finally I have began scrapping the old paint off of the concrete floor in the basement it took about an hour to scrape a 2X2 ft. section WOW.
throughout the house into the rooms I am allowed to have cable television in. I tore all of the cable off of the side of the house began tearing down the rotted wooden child's playset in our back yard and cleaned out the stone fireplace next to the garage. It was almost 70 degrees here saturday so I took advantage of the lovely weather to do some out-o-doors work. Today I took off work and my father and I removed the old kenmore dishwasher from the old house and installed the whirpool from this house, we went to Lowes and bought a whirpool stove to match and took it back to the old house, we also made several trips to the landfill to dispose of the subfloor that I and Dr. Deel have torn out of the basement, will post new pics in a couple of days.
Finally I have began scrapping the old paint off of the concrete floor in the basement it took about an hour to scrape a 2X2 ft. section WOW.
Originally posted 3-04-2008
thanks to everyone that has signed up. i can pretty much guarantee there will be a lot of noise at first, but then as the budget dwindles and everyday boredom ensues, you'll stop getting all these messages. so just lie back and enjoy it. Think of England or something.
we're nearing the end of the first week of actually living here, and we've accomplished much and little at the same time!
susan and j's mom and i painted the common areas not-white before we moved in. now they're just a little less white...having chosen a color that's nearly indistinguishable from off-white, i feel good about my neutrality.
then there was also the matter of getting the furnace converted back to natural gas from the propane the crazy ex-owner had installed (did i include a picture of the giant green tank out back???).
that went well. but he had also converted the water heater...the gas guy pretty much just said "forget it" so we bought a new one (much debate about whether it should be a tankless model, but the operating budget and a single-toothed pessimist at Home Depot helped make that decision).
the entire Man-Room floor was ripped out. mold everywhere. much spraying of bleach and water and there's still some down there, but the rest will have to be dealt with later with the ripping of walls and such. a project for a no-snow period. it smells like a cave. the cats disappear down there for hours. i hope they do not evolve into some kind of pale, see-through blind animals.
so then there was the fact the phone lines didn't work. we still have the 4 hole plugs from the...uh...stone age. and the tv cable had been run directly through the stone facade for each outlet, creating a bunch of holes in the stone and making ugly on the side of the house. thanks to the help of j's dad, an ex-telephone do-it-all guy, my dad, and a creative cable man, all of those issues were fixed. there are still holes, but now we have cable and phone everywhere, and we can fill the holes...later.
so the dishwasher at 314 Davis crapped out, we decided to buy a new one for this house and put the one here over there. it's a nice little Whirlpool model that makes a hideous grinding death noise but really gets things clean.
that lead to a level of perverted consumerism from which i'm still not sure i have recovered. we started out at the scratch-and-dent place in Proctorville, but you know...if i'm paying $700 for something that has a giant "ding" in the front of it, i want it to be new. so we went to Sears and after much debate and rationalization, which may not have been so "rational" after all, spent most of Dubya's anticipated refund on a....KitchenAid Stainless Steel Ferrari.
I may perish. It does wine glasses (of which i use many!) and has a special drawer for knives and such (of which we have many), and has a special pot scrubber thing so i don't have to do any work (of which i do little). it also grinds up food bits, which is good, since the current plumbing is too poor to install a real fooderator in the sink right now. i'm assuming that it is also going to learn to vacuum the entire house and feed the cats while we're out of town.
i have done a million tiny things, like replace the wooden (oh, ack!) toilet seat, buy a new shower rod (chrome!, to match the vintage doorknob plate!) and curtain (www.arcsandangles.com...just like the ones they have at the Greenbriar!) and line all the drawers and shelves in the kitchen. You know, the basic stuff.
my parents have helped clean up the leafy yard, dig around for drainage issues, pack things still at the old house, paint at the old house, move things to and fro, and a million other things that we can't take care of in a timely fashion because of work. my dad and j's dad did a spectacular job of replacing the exposed vents from the water heater and the furnace into our crawl space and taping up some heat-leaking gaps. my dad has also helped hang the bedroom door that i had to move from an upstairs closet, replace the closet door that we found in the garage, and re-wire some light switches that went up and down but turned nothing on or off.
madness, i tell you.
i have never seen a house that someone was previously living in that was so unlivable. i mean, this guys wife was a DOCTOR, fer chrissakes. did they just live without heat and the phone, breathing mold spores, heating an empty attic, and with 8 inches of black hair in the drain (different story)?
now all i can do is go to bed. there's a ton of work left at 314, which has to go on the market in April, and i got nothing done over the weekend because it was my weekend to work, and j's been on a gaming orgy since saturday night, so you can see how this could just collapse and go nowhere fast. there's laundry to fold, and that damn motion sensor light out the window behind me keeps coming on and is telling me our new resident feral cat is stalking the yard or some crackhead is going to try to steal some copper tubing from my A/C, which i won't find out until summer.
we're nearing the end of the first week of actually living here, and we've accomplished much and little at the same time!
susan and j's mom and i painted the common areas not-white before we moved in. now they're just a little less white...having chosen a color that's nearly indistinguishable from off-white, i feel good about my neutrality.
then there was also the matter of getting the furnace converted back to natural gas from the propane the crazy ex-owner had installed (did i include a picture of the giant green tank out back???).
that went well. but he had also converted the water heater...the gas guy pretty much just said "forget it" so we bought a new one (much debate about whether it should be a tankless model, but the operating budget and a single-toothed pessimist at Home Depot helped make that decision).
the entire Man-Room floor was ripped out. mold everywhere. much spraying of bleach and water and there's still some down there, but the rest will have to be dealt with later with the ripping of walls and such. a project for a no-snow period. it smells like a cave. the cats disappear down there for hours. i hope they do not evolve into some kind of pale, see-through blind animals.
so then there was the fact the phone lines didn't work. we still have the 4 hole plugs from the...uh...stone age. and the tv cable had been run directly through the stone facade for each outlet, creating a bunch of holes in the stone and making ugly on the side of the house. thanks to the help of j's dad, an ex-telephone do-it-all guy, my dad, and a creative cable man, all of those issues were fixed. there are still holes, but now we have cable and phone everywhere, and we can fill the holes...later.
so the dishwasher at 314 Davis crapped out, we decided to buy a new one for this house and put the one here over there. it's a nice little Whirlpool model that makes a hideous grinding death noise but really gets things clean.
that lead to a level of perverted consumerism from which i'm still not sure i have recovered. we started out at the scratch-and-dent place in Proctorville, but you know...if i'm paying $700 for something that has a giant "ding" in the front of it, i want it to be new. so we went to Sears and after much debate and rationalization, which may not have been so "rational" after all, spent most of Dubya's anticipated refund on a....KitchenAid Stainless Steel Ferrari.
I may perish. It does wine glasses (of which i use many!) and has a special drawer for knives and such (of which we have many), and has a special pot scrubber thing so i don't have to do any work (of which i do little). it also grinds up food bits, which is good, since the current plumbing is too poor to install a real fooderator in the sink right now. i'm assuming that it is also going to learn to vacuum the entire house and feed the cats while we're out of town.i have done a million tiny things, like replace the wooden (oh, ack!) toilet seat, buy a new shower rod (chrome!, to match the vintage doorknob plate!) and curtain (www.arcsandangles.com...just like the ones they have at the Greenbriar!) and line all the drawers and shelves in the kitchen. You know, the basic stuff.
my parents have helped clean up the leafy yard, dig around for drainage issues, pack things still at the old house, paint at the old house, move things to and fro, and a million other things that we can't take care of in a timely fashion because of work. my dad and j's dad did a spectacular job of replacing the exposed vents from the water heater and the furnace into our crawl space and taping up some heat-leaking gaps. my dad has also helped hang the bedroom door that i had to move from an upstairs closet, replace the closet door that we found in the garage, and re-wire some light switches that went up and down but turned nothing on or off.
madness, i tell you.
i have never seen a house that someone was previously living in that was so unlivable. i mean, this guys wife was a DOCTOR, fer chrissakes. did they just live without heat and the phone, breathing mold spores, heating an empty attic, and with 8 inches of black hair in the drain (different story)?
now all i can do is go to bed. there's a ton of work left at 314, which has to go on the market in April, and i got nothing done over the weekend because it was my weekend to work, and j's been on a gaming orgy since saturday night, so you can see how this could just collapse and go nowhere fast. there's laundry to fold, and that damn motion sensor light out the window behind me keeps coming on and is telling me our new resident feral cat is stalking the yard or some crackhead is going to try to steal some copper tubing from my A/C, which i won't find out until summer.
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