anniemiz

In His Spare Time

Kevin's been working very hard on painting the dining room.  The house is about 85-90 years old and the dining room walls are the original plaster with decades of paint over it.  Flaky, garish paint.  Kevin scraped and sanded until either he hit plaster or the paint stopped flaking off.  If he's said it once, he's said it 42 times: 'Prep work is crucial to a good paint job.'

Down to the nub:

With a coat of primer:

Once again we enlisted the help of our neighbor, Sandy, to choose colors for us.  Let's see if I can remember the color numbers and find them online.  Hmm hmm hmm....

Okay, I think I can link you to the colors.  Go here to look at Benjamin Moore's paint chips.  Choose 'Historical Colors' from the drop down menu.  IIRC, the walls will be Georgian Brick HC-50 and the trim will be Peale Green HC-121.  Dark!  I think of the new colors as the old colors, just much darker.  I do tend to go too light when choosing paint colors.

The Benjamin Moore website also has this thing where you can play with colors in different kinds of rooms.  Huh.  Maybe I should have done that before buying the paint.  I just did it and I like it.  Whew!

He'll paint the living room, which is off of the dining room, next in the same colors.  We got some light fixtures for those rooms and the foyer (the rooms all run together).  After painting, we'll get the floors refinished.  At least, we hope we can get them refinished.  They're not in great shape and there are some fixes that are much more practical than attractive (e.g., small pieces of floorboard that were inserted for a fix, but inserted perpendicular to the original floorboards).  It's an oak floor, but it is not the original floor.  The original pine floor is underneath; you can see its underside from the basement.  I don't know what kind of condition it's in on the floor side.  I don't mind that the floor's imperfect, unlevel and kinda funky in spots.  I like old houses precisely bc they look lived in and not just by us, but by lots of people before us with their own stories.  So yeah, get the floors done.  Then we can get dining room furniture!  And we'll be able to sit down at a nice table!  And have more than two people over for dinner!

We bought my mom a glider at Snyder's Furniture in PA; we'll probably pick it up next week.  That was a task, finding an unupholstered glider.  Saint Bridget insisted that she does not like upholstery and wanted the plainest chair possible.  It's hard to tell how much of that is actual personal preference and how much is martyrdom and wishing to save us money.  Aargh.

Anyway, when we were there we looked at their dining room stuff, liked it and might get our stuff there.  I like the Mission style furniture.  One thing that annoys me about dining room chairs with arms is when the arms don't reach the end of the seat.  Most uncomfortable if one wants to sit and yammer on for hours after dinner with their friends.  I think they have a lot of other stuff there that's not on the website.

Seeing as I'm becoming the domestic diva, what with my forays into cooking and knitting, I'm considering making the curtains for the dining and living rooms myself.  Nothing fancy, just panel curtains that can be hung on rings with 3/4 lace sheers underneath.  I basically want the same style curtains for almost every room.  E.g., we have curtains similar to these in the Mens' Room, hung on brass rods like these, using rings like these, and 3/4 length lace sheers like these.  The 3/4 length is so that the cats can sit in the windows without having/getting to fuss with the sheers.  We think of everything.  You know, it might have been easier to find a picture.  Let's see what we can find.

Okay, here we go; this was taken shortly after Kevin repainted Slimmie's room.

Let's just take a moment to remember our dear boy, Slim.

Mwah!

Why bother making curtains?  Well, for one thing, about half of our windows have radiators under them.  Most curtains that I can buy are too long (even if only by a few inches as you can see in the above picture) and end up bunching up on top of the radiator or behind it.  Unattractive.  I also don't like the idea of the fabric in contact with radiators.  If they're just panels, I should be able to handle that, although I would like to line them with insulating and/or blackout material.  Of course, I will consult with Sandy next door wrt fabric selection.

Thanks for all your hard work, Kev!

You Say You Want A Resolution

So.  I usually make New Year's resolutions, but I was having probs settling on some for this year.  Now, for me, resolutions are not necessarily big, goal-oriented, personal-achievement type things.  They could be, but usually they're not.  Resolutions tend to be smaller projects, backburner type projects.  Things I'd really like to finally get done, not things that I'm actively trying to get done first and foremost.  So I've settled on at least one resolution: to remodel the living room.

This made it onto the resolution list bc I was sitting in the living room the other day and thought that I'd sit in it more if it were more user friendly.  As it stands now, the cats use the room a lot more than we do.  We've paid more attention to other parts of the house and we are pleased with those results, but I think it's high time we got more use out of our living room.  I'm considering tacking the dining room onto the living room project bc they're next to each other and need a lot of the same stuff done, but I'm holding off on that for now.  It might be less efficient, but it might be better to work on and totally complete one room at a time.

For my planning purposes, and possibly your entertainment purposes, here's what I've got so far for re: what needs to be done in the living room (* = the dining room needs it, too).

• electrical
  • overhead light installed, including wiring for the light (there's no overhead light in there now); maybe w/a fan
  • replace one OH light switch w/a dimmer switch; add one by the other side of the room*
  • ground and add outlets*
• ceiling
  • replaster*
  • paint*
• walls
  • fix cracks in plaster and wherever electrical work was done
  • repaint
  • the dining room needs a bit more work done on the walls: take down walls; insulate; sheetrock; plaster; retrim; paint; I'd like to lose one of the closets in the dining room, so there'd be a bit of work in that space
• fireplace
  • check firebox for holes
  • fix brickface
  • fix lose stones in the hearth
  • paint hearth
• floors
  • refinish
  • retrim as needed
• windows
  • unjam the windows between the living room and the porch so we can actually open them
• decorate
  • curtains: fixtures and curtains*
  • make mirror above fireplace smaller and replace frame w/something not so ugly
  • move the piano to another spot in the room
  • either get slipcovers made or buy new furniture
  • add some lighting besides the OH light
  • move the recliner outta there
  • replace coffee tables
  • put up new/other pix and/or maybe reframe old ones w/nicer frames

Now, I'm sure there's stuff I've forgotten, but this is a pretty good list to start.  The stuff to definitely outsource is: electric, plaster, floor, firebox check, fixing the fireplace brickface, redoing the mirror and/or picture framing, and slipcovers.  I kinda look forward to painting bc it's sorta relaxing.  Kevin keeps reminding me that while painting is easy, it's the preparation that makes it easy, and preparation isn't all that relaxing.  I know, I know, but, as always, I ask, how hard could it be?

The Men's Room

Some before and after pictures of Kevin's den, aka The Men's Room.  The goal was to remodel the room into a cozy, inviting place for Kevin to enjoy manly pursuits, e.g., drinking beer, wine, port; eating beef jerky, pepperoni sticks, mozzarella and prosciutto rolls, pizza, smoked nuts, chips, pretzels, chocolates; watching movies, football, baseball, basketball, occasionally bowling and poker; reading the newspaper; doing the daily Sudoku puzzle and the occasional crossword puzzle; maintaining his stamp, coin and map collections; bonding with the male cats, Nosey and Smudge; and, I'm sure, a few other male occupations of mysterious nature.

The room used to be the former owner's daughter's bedroom.  It was painted light yellow with white trim.  The carpet was yellow shag.

Pic #1: One corner wall after taking down a nasty wall of dark brown corkboard squares and preparing the surface for paint.  Kevin would like to have a large corkboard, but the one that was there was falling off the wall and just too dark and nasty.

Pic #2: The closet door.  There's some text on the door that reads, 'This room was painted by The Lyd [I think the daughter's name was Lydia] with the help of Scott Lambertus March 1979'.  Groovy.

Pic #3: The room is not quite finished, but it is very functional.  Here's Kevin enjoying his new manly chairs.   These chairs do rock.  I know bc I'm sitting in one right now, despite the fact that I'm not a man.  In fact, after I do a few things on the PC, I'm gonna call Dolly - another non-male - in here and we females are gonna take a nap together in this comfy chair.

I think it turned out quite nicely and I'm glad Kevin's got a nice den in which to relax.  He's thinking he'll eventually get a flat screen tv and reorient the chairs so they fit the room a little better.  The bathroom's right across the hall.  It may get to a point where he'll never need to leave this room.

Next we'll focus on the first floor.  Not the kitchen, though, bc that'll be a big undertaking.  There's not much we want to change about the living room and dining room (the foyer's fine).  I think it's all cosmetic stuff: paint the ceiling, walls and trim; maybe put different stonework on the fireplace front.  There is a little electrical work that needs to be done.  I think these rooms still have the original knob-and-tube wiring.  They need light fixtures, too.

We also want to finish the remodeling we started a few years ago in the former attic; it's now our room, bath, etc.  It's mostly cosmetic stuff that's left to do: picking out some fixtures, mirrors, furniture, etc.

We also want to eventually have some shelves put into the library on the second floor so we could actually, like, use it as a library.  That used to be a bedroom, but we opened up one wall so now it's an open room. 

At some point, we'll fix up the pc room - which is next to The Men's Room - into my room.  It'll be my counterpart to Kevin's den.  My den, I guess it would be.

And at some other point, we'll tackle the kitchen.  Man, that kitchen is fugly.  It's decorated in what I call 'Burger King brown'.  It was probably last done in the early 1970s.  It will be very nice to redo the kitchen in a lighter, more airy, more inviting vein.

Yeah, so, there are just a few things we want to do here and there!

The Withered Arm

I haven't really felt like posting for a couple of days because I've been kinda cranky.  I feel like I'm working on stuff, but I have nothing to show for it.  It's not true, it just feels that way.  E.g., so I study math for the GRE, but all I have to show for it is the workbooks I go through.  It's not something you can put your hands on or see in plain sight.  So I'm kinda miffed about that.  I also had a coupla things on my mind and was crankin' out about that.

So this weekend I decided to get busy.  Dagnabit, I was gonna get some stuff done!  In addition to some miscellaneous household stuff, I did a ton of yard work.  I was bound and determined to learn how to use the weed whacker.  For some time I've wanted to edge the front yard where I planted a bunch of moss roses.  So Kevin got me started (there's not much to it) and he then went off to do errands.  I was having trouble advancing the line, so I started weeding until he got back and could show me how to do the line thingie.

Oy, did I weed.  I weeded by my flowers and then I started on the area between the sidewalk and the street.  I never really worked on that spot and I certainly never weeded it because I never would have attempted it again.  I estimate that that area consisted of 87% weeds, 7% grass, 3% unknown, 2% small trees and 1% (possibly) leafy lettuce.   But, in the spirit of getting things done, I was now bound and determined to weed the stuffing out of that strip.  Half of it gets a lot of shade, so grass wasn't growing there, but weeds were.  So that half is just dirt now; I manually pulled everything up.  The other half is 50% grass/50% dirt. I'm not too sure what to do with it.  I won't plant anything now because it's too hot.  Maybe I'll plant some perennial greenery in that whole strip in the fall.

Then I whacked.  My performance, although lacking in straight lines, was at least enthusiastic.  I whacked a few things that one doesn't usually whack, but my main fear was that I would whack myself in the leg. I can honestly say that no animals, people or even a single flower were harmed in the whacking of my front lawn.

Then I mulched.  When I planted the moss roses, I didn't put down enough mulch.  So I mulched all ninety-six of those suckers, trying to get enough mulch down without burying them.  Then I watered and fertilized all the flowers.

I called it a day at this point.  I'm not a tidy gardener, so I entered the shower with dirt everywhere: on my face, down my socks,  down my gloves, in my hair and in a few surprising places that will be left unspecified.  I looked like a 7-year old kid who'd been out in the playground all day, complete with dirt in the creases of my neck.  It was glorious.

So far, so good.  By the time I went to sleep, my left arm was feeling kinda funky.  I had a tingly kinda soreness almost all the way up my arm.  It felt weaker than the right.  Now, I knew nothing major was wrong, but it was rather uncomfortable and I was unable to sleep normally.  So I took my withered arm downstairs to the library, ensconced myself in one of Kevin's super-comfy new chairs, propped my arm up on a folded towel, settled Dolly on my lap, popped a coupla Tylenol and eventually fell asleep.

At about 5 a.m., Smudgie woke me up howling about something or other.  He occasionally gives out a few of his fat meows during the night, so I didn't do anything until he kept on meowing.  I went to see what was the problem - maybe he was facing off with an outdoor cat through the window - but nothing like that was wrong.  The emergency appeared to be that he and Clara were hungry and wanted to eat right then.  I caved.  At this point I was up and just stayed up.

My arm wasn't feeling any better, so I tried Advil.  That did help.  I do recall hearing or reading somewhere that Tylenol and Advil are better for different things e.g., maybe Tylenol is better for headaches and Advil is better for body aches.  That was my experience, at least; I don't know if that's true in general.

I took it a bit easier today.  I weeded a section I overlooked yesterday.  I watered all ninety-six moss roses and the baskets.  I do water them by hand.  I make a bunch of trips with the watering can.  Every morning, usually first thing when it's cooler and quiet, usually in my pyjamas.  It's kinduva peaceful morning ritual.  I swept up the crud that got blown around during yesterday's whacking.  There had been a chance of rain last night and I was kinda hoping that would happen and take care of all that stuff, but no such luck.  Then I did your usual household tasks: a bunch of laundry, change the kitty litters, etc.  I almost settled in for an hour or so of ironing, but decided to leave that be for now and just call it another day.

Although I no longer feel like I've been getting nothing done, I am soooooo exhausted!  It's only about 10 p.m. right now and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.  I wanted to include some photos of the flowers - the baskets are doing well and the moss roses are finally growing and thriving - but I'm too snoozy to click the few times necessary to upload a coupla photos.  Goodnight!

A Summer Plan

So, what to do this summer?  I found myself without a plan recently.  (BTW, I ended up getting an A in that class...although I'm not sure how...there must have been quite a curve on the final exam and/or the overall course grades.  No matter how it happened; it was a very pleasant surprise.)  Now, so far I've got the following:

Re: school:

• Study for the GREs, esp. the stinkin' math section.  Kevin found a few good workbooks for me and I do get most of the questions right, but it takes me forever to do the questions...and I can't be taking forever to answer questions.  It seems like it's been so long since I had to solve any kind of math problem, I really have to think about what to do to answer the questions in the workbooks.  Ya know, one thing I wonder about is that in my corporate life, I did very well with data manipulation and stuff like that...but I stink at regular old math.  How is that?
• Produce a draft writing sample...uh, this item sounds all too familiar.
• Do any summer reading there might be for the fall PoR seminar.

At home:

• Replace 4 basement windows...this item sounds familiar, too.  I meant to replace the 6 of them last summer, but only got 2 in and I still have to paint the trim on them.  By the time I finished getting them in - with much help from Kevin - it was too cold to be outside painting.  It was kinda fun learning how to use a miter saw, nail gun (I think that's  my favorite implement so far), sander, etc.
• Paint the living room and dining room.
• Purge the house of all the extraneous, useless, unused stuff that's accumulated and just lying around the house!
• Plant some annuals.
• Set up the guest room, which is empty of furniture and just has a pile of miscellaneous stuff in it.
• Plump up Dolly.

And I've got some ideas for having myself a good summer, personal-wise, so it won't be all work and no play.  If I've thought it once, I've thought it a thousand times: I get so much more done if I have a schedule and stick to it.  So that will be key to getting the above stuff done.