Archive for house
Nesting
I’ve been in a nesting mood lately. I’ve been finishing up projects and starting new ones. I’ve been in the mood to cook and bake.
This is my favorite project that I’ve finished lately. The fabrics are all pink and many have pink ribbons as well for breast cancer awareness. My grandmother died when I was eleven from breast cancer and that has had a big effect on my life-though probably not as much as it should.
Today dad and I are going to fix some holes in the house. There is one in the kitchen where the electric comes into the house. In the craft room the floor boards along one wall are just gone-when I ripped up the carpet in there, you could see that there had been water damage, but the floor was never fixed. Those two things weren’t a huge issue when it was warm, but it is thirty three degrees right now. I’m also going to have him take the air conditioner out of the window. Finally if we get to it, we might insulate and drywall the utility room. There is so much to be done to this house, and I can picture it being great, but I don’t have the time or the money to do it all now.
Winter Is Coming
I think if I spent half as much time on my blog as I do reading others’ blogs, this could be something great, but instead I spend hours upon hours looking at the posts and pictures that everyone else makes.
I find that I take so few pictures of actually interesting things though. I used to, but now…I have pictures that could be titled ‘What the windows look like when the rotting wood was removed’ (see fig. 1), ‘This is what it looks like when you stick the camera in the cistern, and what on earth is that brick wall for?’ (see fig. 2), and ‘This is what the door looked like when I took off the old lock’ (see fig. 3). But do people really want to see those things? I mean, I would if they then told me how they fixed it (which I also have pictures of!) so maybe there are other people out there as crazy as I am?
I do make pretty things sometimes though, and one day the things in those pictures will be pretty (well maybe not the cistern).
I spent all of Saturday and Sunday working on the house. Working on the front windows to get them winter-ready and I painted outside things (windows that didn’t have rotten trim) that needed painted. I also replaced the handle and lock on the back door (so now it had two locks that have keys! and! I don’t have to knee the door at the point the lock is to get it to lock) which makes me really happy.
I have a whole list of things that need done before winter such as insulate around the windows; insulate and drywall the exterior walls in the utility room; insulate around the circuit box in the kitchen; insulate the incoming water supply to the house; paint the eaves of the house; fix the craft room floor; mortar the fireplace closed; mortar the outside foundation; insulate the inside foundation; install gutters on the backside of the house and stain/seal the fence. I don’t know when I will find the time to do all of those things, but it needs done. September is already booked.
I enjoy this sort of work to a degree-it is satisfying work-when you are done, you feel like you’ve accomplished something and you can see that you have accomplished something. I don’t plan to do this forever. There will be a day when things are finished enough that I don’t spend every weekend fixing, painting, going to Lowe’s or halfway wondering what kind of a money pit I have gotten myself into. I do realize that it is a house and there will always, always be something to do, but I also imagine there will be a point where those things could be put off for a weekend and I could do something else instead-something I really enjoy.
In the words of George R.R. Martin though-Winter Is Coming.
Things
I’ve been thinking a lot about material ‘things’ lately. When I moved out of my rental house I got rid of a lot of junk. I either donated it or just threw it away. I decided that I needed to seriously simplify the things in my life. I am not the best housekeeper in the world and I’ll be the first to admit that. I like to believe if I were home more often I’d be better, but I’m not so sure.
In my new house I’ve done a good job of keeping the bedroom sparse and picked up and I’ve even managed to keep the dog hair off the floor for the most part. (Thanks to this sweeper Mom and Dad got me that can be used on hardwood floors.) That room has been limited to just what is needed there…no clutter.
I’ve done pretty good with the living room too…though it feels too sparse…it has no decorations yet-or at least not cohesive decorations. There are odds and ends things that were in my last living room, but they really don’t fit the scale of the new room. This house has 10.5′ ceilings.
The craft room is the one room that I planned to have ‘stuff’. Art is a big part of my life and art has many accessories. Long term I plan to make built in cabinets for all that ‘stuff’ though.
The bathroom is making do until I remodel it this fall.
The last three rooms are driving me crazy though-kitchen, dining room and mud/laundry room.
The kitchen and mudroom are just getting by. The kitchen has some semblance of order when the dishes are done-but for a person who likes to cook and loves kitchen accessories, two feet of countertop and one drawer just don’t cut it. I can’t fix that until next year. It will be an expensive project. The mudroom will be fixed before winter, but right now it has no electric, no walls and a hole in the floor. (There technially are walls, but they are the exterior sheeting and the studs on one side and the original wooden siding to the house on the interior).
The dining room could be put together though…there’s just all this ‘stuff’. The dining room is where I drop my bags/purse after work, where I sit in the evenings to use the computer, the table where random stuff sits… All of it has a place it could be put and yes, I could try to not put it there as a dropping off point, but I’m not very good at that.
Some of it I am noticing is this ‘stuff’ I’m trying to weed out of my life. On my desk there are little notepads that I brought home from work because I didn’t use them there, so I don’t know why I would use them here? I have six glass globes (for candles or flowers) sitting on the library table that I use as a buffet table. I don’t think I even have places to put six of them, so why do I keep them?
I think there is a lot of worth in having few things that you really love, compared to many things that don’t matter to you. I’m becoming a lot better at that, but obviously I still need to work at it.
I really think this needs pictures…
I don’t like posting without photos, but my camera cord is lost somewhere that is in the mess that is my living room which is also storage for everything that should be in the craft room…so I’ll post a picture of my house.
You can find more pictures here.
In past news (obviously per the previous picture)…my house did finally close (April 15th) and my parents and I spent a couple weeks refinishing the hardwood floors before I moved in. The construction workers did all their bit and they did a wonderful job.
Once I find my camera cord I will post pictures of my -new- craft room. The paneling/red carpet/dungeony feel has been replaced with wood floors (that will be stripped this fall to match the rest of the house) and clean, bright white walls and ceiling. I do feel bad that the first room I painted in a house I own has white walls. It’s so boring, but also has no glaring reflections onto what you are working on.
There will be a quote painted on the wall and maybe a graphic of some sort, but I haven’t decided what quote yet.
I’m sort of doing something new at work…IT. That’s good, but I have the feeling it is going to put me back on a five day work week…which isn’t good. I had to go in today for a few hours to get something working.
Pincushions & Cameras
Two totally unrelated things.
For Christmas I received a Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS camera (in pink!). It is a 14 mega pixel point and shoot camera. I’ve been pretty happy with it so far, but I’ve not yet printed anything off of it either. It came with a $55 voucher to kodakgallery.com for non-prints merchandise.
It has a ‘stitch’ feature to take panoramic pictures. My last Kodak camera did not have that feature, but I’ve been having fun playing with it:
This is a picture of my parents’ living room. In person it doesn’t look nearly this large…or fish-eyed.
Tonight I decided to make a pincushion. I ended up with this. The base is a paper mache-box painted a creamy color. The house and yard are made out of felt with embroidered accents. I’m listing it for sale in my Etsy store.
Tomorrow I’m going to make cards with my mom and contractor #2 is coming to look at the house. I don’t want to write about what contractor #1 said until I talk to this guy tomorrow. *crosses fingers that he has nicer things to say*
A New Year
So I don’t think I did too badly on my goals for the past year.
•I managed to decorate for all the holidays I have decorations for.
•Instead of finishing my dollhouse I started another, but the first is mostly covered in bricks, so that’s a plus.
•Blogging well…I was aiming for once a week, but I only managed 31 posts…21 short. Let’s chalk it up to life changes and move on…
What’s going on now:
•I’m now single after four and a half years. That’s not what or where I planned to be at all, but maybe it is for the best?
•I’m in the process of buying this:
Not the greatest looking house in the world but it will be -my- house. Plus I’m getting a home renovation loan, so that should help. The seller has accepted my offer and I signed a ton of paperwork at the bank today. Finding contractors to fix it is my next step.
•Gurney and Paul are still mine. The cat was never an issue, but I would’ve fought for this had I needed to:
•I spent the last month of 2008 in and out of doctor’s offices and the hospital due to a spider bite. If you’re not queasy you can click here. I’m warning you, they’re gross pictures. I am now released from the wound center at the hospital though and I’m told it should look normal again within six months.
For the future year:
•I’m going to try and blog, I really am.
•I want to create more things. I wasn’t so hot in the crafting sense last year. If I get this house though, I will have a permanent crafting room.
•Gurney will have a yard for the first time ever. He should be happy.
•Paul will have a house that is not on a highway, so he can go outside. He should be happy.
•I need to get serious about my diet and menus and start doing weekend cooking again. Weekend cooking=less stopping on the way home for something. I have also, for the most part, cut High Fructose Corn Syrup out of my diet. I’ve lost almost ten pounds by doing that alone.
I’m heading to bed now, but Happy New Year to anyone who reads this.
Salad For Dinner…
I tried out my new salad spinner tonight. It isn’t the best quality, but it was $5.99. It is one of the smaller ones, perfect for me.
The tomatoes are from the garden. There are ton of romas to be picked. I cannot decide whether to make salsa or tomato sauce. (I think mom is wanting salsa and I am wanting tomato sauce.)
My kitchen has managed to stay clean for two days now. I’ve been making a point of not dropping stuff on the table when I come home, but actually putting it away. What an idea. *grin* I’ve also washed the dishes as I’ve used them.
My house will be clean and simple one day. Really.
Hey Look…
It’s a halfway better looking template…
And I know I have ignored this blog for the past month and a half…maybe more…but life happens sometimes. I am trying to simplify everything in my life though so I have more time to do the things I want to do, rather than the things that just need done.
My new policy is that if I have some bit of clutter that I move around from place to place, and it doesn’t really have a place of its own, then it goes into a box to be donated. There is still clutter around, but it is mainly doll house and miniatures supplies/items/works in progress. I’ve even managed to kill off quite a few houseplants (odd for me) so there aren’t even as many of those to keep watered.
Ryan is coming home for a week, the first week of September. I am also taking a week off then.
Today Mom and I redid part of the kitchen. The landlady didn’t want the paneling painted, but I did get rid of the country blue wallpaper.
This is what my kitchen looks like now:
At least the side with the sink. The opposite wall has the refrigerator, microwave and a metal shelf with lots of glass jars and colored bowls on it. And that curtain material? It took -months- for me to find it, but I absolutely love it. Retro in muted colors. The painting you can sorta see over the stove is one I did in college, it is ribbon candy, I just never took it down after Christmas. The flowers are fresh cut zinnias.
Now I just need to get the rest of my house that clean…
As for this template, the blue text needs to go away. And those smiley faces…I assume those are new with the theme I was redoing, but they have to go. I’ll get to it soon. Really. I try anyway.
Just some stuff…
Saturday Mom and I finished painting a baby nursery. The designs were taken from a Pottery Barn Kids quilt. We added touches of ‘ceiling’ glitter to the clouds and bugs.
Meijer had these giant dog biscuits and I had to get some just for the novelty. After I took the pictures I gave Gurney one of them and went to the living room. I had forgotten about the other being on the edge of the table and a bit later heard a thump from the kitchen. Gurney doesn’t often steal things from tables and counters, but when he does normally he eats it to quick to get it taken away (like bacon). I took the bone from him though til the next morning.
I talked to Tana this morning (one of my cousins) and she wants to do stuff together on Saturday. She wants to go yard-saling in the morning and scrapbook the rest of the day. I won’t be scrapbooking, probably working on stuff for a festival I agreed to do in November. On the subject of yard sales…Mom and I went to one on Saturday and I think the lady just wanted to get rid of stuff. For $10 I got a solid oak coffee table and end table of the mission style. She threw in a wooden box that mom wanted and a new set of oil pastels for free. The tables had some water damage (discoloration) about an inch up the legs, but no matter as I don’t like light oak anyway. I sanded them down and painted them black. They are drying in pieces in the dining room right now. This weekend I will polyurethane them. When I was telling Ryan that they had ‘these oak tables for $5 apiece’ he commented, “And you had to buy them didn’t you?” Of course I did and he knows that perfectly well.
He will be coming home at the end of October and that makes me very happy. It also makes me happy that the new GI Bill will most likely pass, that will make life easier once he is home on the monetary front.
Did I mention?
I am going to change my theme a bit. For headers I am going to try to rely on photography, I like the look better. I’m going to get rid of the title/subject line as many times I sit here pondering what to put in it. It will be replaced by a larger date. Also, I wasn’t aware that the theme doesn’t display right in Internet Explorer (at least the version my parents are using). I also need to put in the ‘go back’ and ‘go forward’ links. I’m not sure that will get done this week, but hopefully this weekend at least.
On Saturday, Dad, Mom and I went to Findlay Market in Cincinnati. The farmer’s market is open now. I bought a some plants there-six lettuce plants, basil, cilantro, oregano, thyme, some hens and chickens and notably a mimosa tree. I have nowhere to plant this tree, but I am going to try and keep it in a pot till I have a place I can plant
it. Sometimes it is raised as a houseplant in climates like Ohio’s, but I’ve read that it is a finicky plant. I’ve wanted one for a long time as they are so interesting. Their stalks of leaves are normally spread out, until you poke them, then they fold up like a venus flytrap. In the actual market I bought some peppers, grapes, a fryer chicken and an apple scone. Here is an example of what the mimosa does:
Sunday we had a grill out for Father’s Day at my aunt’s house. That was a pretty good time, but in the 15-30 minutes I sat out by the pool I ended up getting sun burnt.
For Father’s Day I made my dad a stuffed teddy bear. While that might sound strange, in actuality it is pretty sentimental. He ‘had’ this pair of cowboy boots from when he was still a bachelor. They were made of eel skin and honestly, they were falling to pieces-but he still wanted to keep them. Mom and he were cleaning out the storage closet a couple weeks ago though and he decided to get rid of them. Mom kept them without him knowing though and gave them to me. Dad was very happy with the result.
Today Mom and I went to go draw a mural on a nursery wall (Mom will be painting it this week while I’m at work). After that I made a Lowe’s and Wal-Mart run while Mom and Kaylee waited in the car. Afterwards we all came back here and Mom helped me get the house clean-really and truly clean. I have a few things left to put away, and the sewing room is my job, but all the ‘seen’ parts of the house are spic and span. We had fun figuring out how the new slipcovers actually fit the furniture.
Ryan was talking about coming home over the July Fourth weekend, but come to find out he has a blood drive that weekend. It’s looking like I might not get to see him until October. That’s a long time-a month short of a year in fact. But we’ll handle it.
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