Mon - July 7, 2008Finished bits and piecesArtwork, a new bookcase
Since she had more books than her wall
shelf would handle, I went looking for cheap bookcases. I found a three-shelf
one at Target. $20. I bought her brother one, too (but in espresso instead of
black.) Daughter put both of them together herself; I read the instructions
while she did hers, then she did her brother's on her own while I took him to
his cello lesson. You can see a bit of her mirror, which I redid from white to
shiny black last summer when I did her table and wall
shelf.
 Here's her Cat and Spider print, with her origami crane mobile and another corner of her mirror:  And the top of her chest of drawers, which is my old one from high school. We didn't do anything but change out the knobs, although I'd offered to paint it when I was doing her other furniture. You can see her punch-needle panda and turtle / goldfish cross-stitch with Kanji that her grandma made. The two metal Kanji plaques we got her a year ago Christmas -- the inspiration for the room as it were -- are on the wall.  Her valance, courtesy of Chicken Without a Head (aka my baby sister), roller shade shoji, and decoupaged table. Yes, Dad, that is Clyde's fanny peeking out from behind her bed.  A bit of her bed, with her two Li-Leger prints. She wanted them hung that high and that far apart. It's her bedroom...  And finally, her wall shelf with a bunch of photos and Mikado poster.  As you can see, she's more about the Oriental colors than she is the Japanese minimalism. But she loves the room, and is already pestering me to have friends over to stay overnight so she can show it off. I told her one at a time, plzkthx. *grins* Posted at 02:45 PM Home Sun - June 29, 2008Remade: the beginningThe first pix as we put her room
together
Daughter's bed used to look like
this:
 Now, it looks like this:  She's moved it to the middle of the wall opposite the door. She put her origami crane mobile on the hook where the netting used to hang:  Her roller shade and valance look like this:  She's moved her chest of drawers to where the head of her bed used to be. Lawsy, that child loves to rearrange furniture. And her bedroom door looks like this:  She hung her wall shelf on that wall to the left of the door; it's centered between where the bedroom door ends when it's open and where the closet starts. This afternoon we'll hang her artwork. I'm thinking of getting her a low bookcase (wider than it is high) because she has more manga than the poor little wall shelf can hold. Posted at 09:34 AM Home Sat - June 28, 2008Done!Painting finished
The tape is all gone, the cans and
implements removed, a big bag of junk and drop cloths in the outside trash.
Daughter is upstairs vacuuming, moving furniture, and making her bed. Then she
and her dad will put up her roller shade, curtain, and bookshelf, and we'll
decide where to put all of her art work (which reminds me -- we still need to
block and frame her punch-work panda.) And this make-over will be done,
thirteen months after it
started.
Then I will take photos. Before she trashes the place, I hope. Posted at 02:13 PM Home Fri - June 20, 2008Updates: Painting, cableThe good, the bad, the ugly
The
good: Three walls painted in
Daughter's bedroom and the window frame repaired. I have to wait until tomorrow
to sand the mud and then we'll start taping off around the window so we can
paint the fourth
wall.
The bad: The failure of the cable box to put out any signal seems to be directly correlated to using the VCR, not the weather. We don't have any cable signal for 24 hours (that's an approximation, but a pretty good one) after using the VCR. I haven't checked to see if we have the same problem after watching a DVD. I don't want to lose the cable again, especially with thunderstorms flitting through the region (or as Nail Tech's husband put it: "It's raining. It must be Friday.") So now, what do I do about the cable box? I've hidden the VCR remote for the time being, which annoys the hell out of #2-Son. You can't use t he VCR without it because somebody (glares at #2) punched the power and eject buttons on the front of the box all the way into the box and we can't get them back out. This VCR is well over 10 years old; it's the one that didn't handle the move from CA well and put out a bad color feed until the lightning strike a couple of years after we moved in that took out $2000 of other electronic equipment but fixed the VCR. Can you still buy VCRs? I'm half-thinking it's the VCR, rather than the cable box. It'd be a damnsight cheaper than replacing our videotape library with corresponding DVDs. Especially since some of the tapes are of stuff that was broadcast, and others are probably of shows that didn't get put on DVD. The ugly, part 1: The paint job. We had a roller, so I didn't buy a new one when I started painting the bedroom. Baaaaad mistake. The handle is ancient and heavy, and whatever the roller itself is made of drinks paint like the desert drinks water, then refuses to put any on the wall. Consequently the first coat was patchy as hell. I finally gave up and bought a new roller and handle, but I've ended up putting three coats on the walls (ZOMFG, two gallons for a 10' x 12' bedroom) and they're still not solid. Lucky for me, I'm using semi-gloss and it looks like a subtle form of glazing. Daughter says she's fine with it. I think it looks like crap, but I don't have to sleep in there. The ugly, part 2: That would be me. My ankles are swollen! My feet haven't looked like this for 14 years. (Broken feet don't count; they were black-and-blue, too.) I was painting for an hour and a half at a stretch, twice, yesterday, in flats, and I looked like a bloody elephant at supper time. WTF? Oh, and the two-step folding step stool I'm using to paint has some upward-pointing capped-off tubes which I keep running into every time I step off of it, so I have purple, blue, and green polka-dot bruises up and down my legs. Posted at 12:36 PM Home Wed - June 18, 2008PaintingGood weather
I got the first coat on two walls Monday
afternoon. The afternoon highs are in the low 80°s F this week; very
nice.
I had a hair appointment and #2-Son's teen autism group had a trip to the zoo yesterday, so no work other than taping the ceiling off because me painting + edging tool = FAIL, although my main problem seems to be bumping the ceiling with the roller while I'm doing the main part of the wall, not that I can't manage to cut in. Now I'll have to figure out if we still have a can of ceiling white left over from the last owners so I can try to cover up my burgundy bloops. *grimace* Today I'll get a first coat on the third wall and a second coat on all of them. Nail Tech's husband is coming over to mud the window tomorrow night; he would have come last night but #2 didn't get done at the zoo until 7 pm so I knew we wouldn't be home until late. After at least 10 years, the trim and doors need painting, although the doors may not get it because I'm just going to put her "shoji screen" back up over the bedroom door and I'm still hoping to do up a couple of sheets of craft paper to match for her closet doors and get them laminated when school starts up next fall. I've told Orchestra Director I'll still come in and work in his office even though he won't be giving Daughter private lessons any more, so I figure he can bloody well put in a laminating request for me. Posted at 09:08 AM Home Fri - June 13, 2008New artwork and a cable updateWe bought some pretties
Quick update on the cable: It was
working fine when we got up Thursday morning, and hasn't faltered since even
with it raining all day today. I guess the freeze-up Wednesday was it just
needing to reset after they replaced (for no reason that I know of) our electric
meter and dropped our power for a little
while.
Now, onto the artwork. Daughter and I found some things to go in the poster frames she already has: Li-Leger's Blossom Tapestry I and II:  and Makoto's Cat and Spider:  And she also bought a needle-punch kit:  Of course she already has her two metal kanji plaques, her crane mobile, her poster from The Mikado, and the new cross-stitch her grandmother made her:  This will be so fun to put together. We've finished taping off the room and spackling the nail and screw holes. If Nail Tech's hubby will just come mud the window frame, we can paint. Posted at 11:14 PM Home Wed - June 11, 2008Room progressThe mini-blind brackets are gone
Nail Tech's husband came over with his
killer power drill and the attachment thingumy that lets you drill out screws
from the core, and took out the two recalcitrant screws (one on each side,
natch) holding up the mini-blind brackets in the window of Daughter's bedroom.
Alas, the brackets themselves had been embedded tightly enough into the window
framing that they took away the mudding over the little metal corner strips used
for wallboard corners. Luckily it's just in the spots under the brackets, and
not whacking-huge patches.
NT's Hub has the next four days off (he muttered something about some other part of the construction crew he's working with needing to catch up -- he operates heavy road construction / excavation machinery) and says he'll come mud around the twins' schedules. Their boys are a year behind Daughter (albeit just six months younger) and both swim and play baseball competitively. Meanwhile, I'll sand down a bit over the nail / screw holes I put some spackle in earlier, and give 'em all another coat. And make Daughter help me start taping off (oy.) Posted at 08:52 PM Home The Good and the Bador, For Better and For Worse
Well, Hubs went and bought some sealer
that didn't have an expiration date sometime in the previous calendar year, and
the powder room toilet does not show signs of leaking at the
moment.
However... the cable's gone again. Posted at 08:41 PM Home Mon - June 9, 2008Cable box, sortedWe hope
The repair guy came out on a Sunday
afternoon. *Camera is amazed* When I remarked on that, he said, "I can't
really ask my guys to work on Sunday and not do it myself." The repair
boss
came out on a Sunday
afternoon.
The problem he found -- there was a hunk of WOOD where one of the cables went into the converter box! Now, since the Charter installation guy came out and installed that box himself, using Charter's cables and not the ones the Best Buy dweeb talked us into purchasing, you'd think he'd have noticed something like that. The depths of obliviousness that humanity can achieve never ceases to astound me. The repair guy could find nothing else wrong; the line was putting out a good signal and the box was giving him good numbers when he hooked it up to his equipment. But yeah, sticking a known insulator in the middle of an electrical connection could cause all sorts of odd things to happen, eh? Since he is the boss, and of course with intermittent failures one really needs to be there when it happens to diagnosis it, he gave us his own cell number to call if it happened so he could come see it himself without us going through the call center for an hour and then waiting days for an appointment. Nice guy. I hope I don't have to use that number. So far, so good. The TV was on all evening and again this morning with nary a stutter in picture or sound. Oh, bad thing number three: I think (hope) it's the powder room toilet. Occasionally it leaks through one of the bolts that holds the tank onto the seat, and it started again Saturday. You have to dry out the tank, seal the bolt again inside and out, let the sealer cure, refill the tank, and cross your fingers. We're about to refill. Posted at 11:06 AM Home Sat - June 7, 2008Dryer, sortedI hope the cable box is as easy
The nice repairman showed up about 4 pm
and sorted us right out. We'd blown a fuse. He said it wasn't because of
overheating or lint build-up, just one of those things. A $164 (parts and
labor) one of those things, apparently. Between this and the
$246 repair last August, the $200 "extended warrantee" I bought 10
months ago has been well worth it. Since I wasn't dropping a dime on the dryer
repair, I took 'em up on a $40 washing machine check-up (normally $113,
according to the call center, but who knows, really?) The guy said he'd never
seen one growl and wobble like that, but that it was working perfectly
otherwise. Even though it's 15 years old (more or less) he thinks I could quite
easily get another 15 out of it, if I don't mind that it growls like a caged
animal during the spin
cycle.
Oh, had I mentioned that our cable converter box has been on the fritz for the last two or three weeks? Pixelations, freezing of both picture and sound, and occasionally nothing but the "this station will be available momentarily" and the TV guide. OF COURSE it went out completely for game six of the Stanley Cup... The repair person is supposed to be here tomorrow afternoon. Hubs asked for and got a partial refund on this month's bill due to not having service for the better part of three weeks, but I'll believe it when the bill comes in. Oh, and seeing as it took us three tries to get the damn HD converter box and extra tier of channels in the first place, not counting all the times THEY cancelled because they didn't have a box in stock the day they were supposed to install it, I ain't holding my breath about having everything working perfectly even after tomorrow afternoon. Bad things come in threes, and I'm hoping like mad that Daughter's encounter with a local family of Branta canadensis (she recovered her shoe after lunch today) is the third. But I'm shan't be surprised if it isn't. Posted at 08:38 PM Home Fri - June 6, 2008It's doing it againI'm not likin' Kenmore so much at the
moment
(With apologies to the KSHE advertising
slogan.)
I punched the start button on the dryer this morning and nothing happened. Opened and shut the door in case it wasn't closed all the way. Nothing. Ran downstairs and checked the breaker box, 'cause #1-Son said he had to reset the cable modem this morning, which is an indication of a power-supply problem. Everything was hunky-dory, all breakers on. Pulled the damned dryer away from the wall (oof), swept out all the accumulated lint (cough), unplugged, brushed-off, and reseated the plug. Nada. Nil. The big silencio. Knowing damn well that I'd had the repairman out less than a year ago, I checked this blog for the exact date (diaries do have their uses) and phoned Sears. The service contract is still in effect. Heh. Part of the contract is that if it can't be repaired, you get a $500 credit toward a new one. I personally think we've just worn out the switch and he won't be doing more than replacing the electrical board under the control dials. Had that problem with the last dryer, too. The guy is coming out tomorrow afternoon. This time (touch wood) I won't be making trips to the laundromat in the middle of summer... Posted at 09:45 AM Home Sun - January 20, 2008My magnetic personalityWhen girlie meets geek
When we got the new fridge (or was it
when we got the new kitchen floor? -- I forget) I bundled away the gazillion
magnets covering three sides of the beast. I left enough stuff on the side to
hold the family calendar and the assorted pieces of paper containing associated
information, and my teapot and teacup magnets on the front to hold a really good
cartoon or a picture of a new great-niece or -nephew when they come along.
(It's been all boys so far. What's wrong with these
kids?)
But... we are a family of nerds. And a bit of geek humor, long-sought-after by our family, was presented to us a couple of months back. It's taken pride of place front-and-center:  Posted at 06:03 PM Home Sun - December 23, 2007One last mini-wreathFor the breakfast nook bay
The presents are purchased, the house
decorated, finals are over. While it was warm yesterday, before the front hit
last night, I gathered acorns to make one
last mini-wreath for the breakfast nook
window:
 Posted at 05:19 PM Home Sun - December 16, 2007"Pretty, pretty lights and a few miles later..."(with apologies for the geeky quote)
Our outside Christmas lighting is not as
extensive as it is some years. We usually try to put a lighted garland around
the front doors, but since the surround is a resin molding and we don't want to
put holes in it, we use the 3M Command strips. Alas, 1) they don't go up if
it's below 40° F (about 8° C) and 2) ever since we repainted the house
trim, they haven't liked sticking to the new paint. So we gave that up this
year. Because of the front flower beds and trees, we can't get a ladder close
enough to the house to do the second-story roof line so we do the garage roof,
some bushes out front, line the walk with lighted candy canes, and put electric
candles in the upstairs windows. Our Christmas tree sits in the living room
window. Also, Hubs feels using the net lights on the yew hedge is cheating, but
he had one day to get things up before the snow hit, so he went with them this
year. The results:
 Ten years ago, I would spend a couple of hours every year putting small red bows in the trees on either side of the front door so that some of our decorations would show during the daylight. But now I am 10 years older, the trees are 10 years taller, and I don't do that nonsense any more. If the wreath on the front door and the candy canes stuck in the ground aren't enough evidence of Christmas decorating in the daytime, then tough. The last few years I've put up what I call "the porch tree." It is a small, inexpensive artificial tree, strung with old lights and decorated with pine cones and little red bows. We haven't decorated it yet this year, but it still looks pretty covered in snow:   Bright and shiny bonus points to anybody besides my husband who can source the title quote. Posted at 09:31 PM Home Mon - December 3, 2007Country mini-wreathsWe changed it a bit
I was looking through Country Living
magazine and saw where they'd made a tic-tac-toe with mini-wreaths in a divided
window. And I thought, "Hey, I've got divided windows, and most of that stuff
around here!"
 So I went for a walk and gathered sticks, various-sized pine cones, and acorns. I had bigger pine cones left over from something earlier, some fake cedar from a branch of silk leaves I'd used to make decorative balls, and a couple of small grapevine wreaths so I didn't have to start round ones from scratch. I bought faux berries because the only ones around here wither and fade to black (you can see where I used real ones in the square wreath; yucky.) I could not find rose hips at any of the craft stores, and I wasn't going on a major hunt for something that was supposed to be a quick, cute thing. And I went with thin red and green ribbon to hang them, rather than hunt up fishing line (it's around here somewhere, but I dunno where...) Here are the results:       Then I had a thought: the only divided windows are on the front of my house, where they are all 1) covered with blinds and 2) all but one contain candles or a Christmas tree during the holiday season. So I decided to hang them in the family room bay windows. They don't photograph well; during the day they're back-lit and at night the flash bounces off the glass. You'll have to take my word for it that they look nice. I still need to make one (all acorns, I think) to go on the big breakfast nook bay window. Posted at 08:56 PM Home |
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Total entries in this category: Published On: Jul 07, 2008 02:55 PM |
