Like Jersey

below freezing, but ready for outdoor entertaining

2011-10-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

The temperature dropped below freezing for the first time last night and I broke out both the window scraper and my winter coat for the first time. Today was the first day in over six months that I've worn a coat to work, previously just grabbing a scarf. So the cut off for no coat wearing is actual freezing temperatures. We will also be having the celebratory patio barbeque in the now freezing weather. By the way, we finished (almost) the patio. Projects that bridge the seasons seem like they took forever to complete, but then it was almost two months ago that we started. We started digging out for the patio in 90+ degree heat at the beginning of September and just this Sunday realized that if we didn't get the rest of the pavers set soon, they'd be covered in snow. The backyard still looks like a construction site with a giant pile of dirt/rocks, stacks of concrete from the small slab we cut out, piles of crumbled clay bricks from the old window well that we rebuilt, and pallets that need to go back to the paver company so I can get my deposit back. But, the patio surface is done. After we fill in the dirt around the perimeter and sand between the pavers, it will be even more done. Maybe that will even happen before the snow comes.

Out of town

2011-10-21T13:16:00.001-07:00

We went to Leavenworth last weekend for the end of Oktoberfest and Paul ran in the half-marathon. I didn't take a single picture - I'm horrible about taking pictures. The weather cooperated and it was cool and crisp and sunny almost the entire time. Apparently they get over 300 days of sunshine a year (compared to our 260). I wore my blue corduroy blazer and my "fancy" scarf and that kept me plenty warm even at night. We ate German food and drank beer didn't do much else. Paul bought five packages of landjägers and I found one of my new favorite teas.

As I stood browsing and waffling in the tea store, the shop assistants kept asking if I wanted help, or if they could scoop anything for me. The shop is tiny with the long wall on the side cover with two rows of large glass jars filled with tea. Every tea has a corresponding tiny glass jar for sniffing to discourage customers from opening the big jars to get a whiff. I let one of the girls give me some suggestions and she picked out a few teas for me to smell. But you don't really know until you try it. I did buy three of the teas, they sell them buy the ounce, and after a few cups, I'm looking at where to buy more of the Cream Earl Green. It's light (because it's a green tea) with a creamy texture, but not sweet and a little smokey (bergamot). The tea also has blue coneflower petals which make it pretty, I don't know if or how they affect the flavor, but they look pretty. While I was looking for more of the Cream Earl Green, I found another tea called the Dorian Grey Blend. I know it's like picking a book based on it's cover, but I have to try that too.

Dog 2.0

2011-08-02T13:29:00.001-07:00

After just 2 months, I can't imagine not choosing to take Flynn home, but why did we pick a dog who:

Licks things (like my feet, the sheets, my leg, the couch...)
Likes to sleep on his back
Has a super loud bark
Wants to lay on my lap
Has giant ears that actually hurt if you're too close when he shakes
Carries shoes around, and occasionally nibbles on them

I guess we could have done worse.

Last...

2011-07-07T15:35:00.001-07:00

Last Month...We got a new dog. Flynn. Pictures eventually.

Last Week...I finished sewing a pair of shorts with a full fly zip (i am very proud of the zipper, it was the first time ever for that technique) then wore them three times.

Last Night...I watered my yard for the first time this summer.

In the last hour...I ate a popsicle.

Cleaning products

2011-03-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

I don't use a lot of commercial cleaning products and totally jumped on the hippie bandwagon of cleaning primarily with vinegar and baking soda. I've tried the no-poo thing for a month, but it didn't work for me. Recently I've decided to try an make my own hair conditioner and lip balm and peppermint foot lotion. I haven't actually made any yet, but I have rounded up some of the harder to find ingredients. Now I just have to make a batch.

I haven't completely abandoned the cleaning isle at the grocery store however. I did discover that you can refill the foaming hand soap dispensers with any soap you like. Just dilute the soap with water. It really cuts down on how much soap you use, especially if you have anyone in your house that likes to double or triple pump. I've been using Dr. Bronner's Peppermint castile soap in the kitchen and a lavender castile soap made by Seattle Organics. It seems that you're supposed to use a 3:1 or 4:1 water to soap ratio, but I just eyeball it and probably err on the side of more water.

I saw today that Method has a new dish washing soap pump bottle. I buy the big jug of Kirkland dishwashing soap and refill an old grocery store sized bottle to keep on the counter. But the Method bottle is pretty, and the pump controls how much soap comes out. It seems crazy to pay 3.99 for a bottle of dish washing soap, but I only have to buy it once to get the pretty bottle and refill it with what ever i want. The reviews are mixed on the pump bottle, but I really want it to work. We'll see.

Lemon Cookies

2011-03-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

I saw a picture of these cookies today on Pinterest and when I tracked down the original blog post it had the recipe, in Russian.

Not in Swedish or something.

I figured between the power of Google and me, I could figure out the recipe. I haven't made these yet, but they look easy.

Warning: I used Google to translate from Russian, made some corrections and then retyped the instructions to make more sense. Use at your own risk. Many of the ingredients are still measured in grams because there is no accurate way to translate that into cups. Use a kitchen scale, it's better to bake that way anyway.

Russian Lemon Wedge Cookies (from http://liliach.livejournal.com, translated by me)

Ingredients

150g softened butter

1 egg

1 tbsp lemon zest

200g ground almonds

100g caster sugar (superfine sugar)

200g flour

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg yolk

3-4 Lemons

sugar for sprinkling

Beat butter with an egg.

Add almonds, sugar, flour and lemon juice and stir.

Shape into two rolls, about 5cm (2") each in diameter and put into the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Heat oven to 180C (350F).

Slice each log into cookies about 4 mm (1/8") and place on a baking sheet. Brush the top of each cookie with the beaten egg yolk.

Wash the lemons thoroughly under hot water and wipe with a towel. Cut into very thin slices of 1-2 mm and put one slice on the top of each cookie. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Cool and optionally sprinkle with powdered sugar.

If you like the tops of the cookies browned, the last 5 minutes of baking, put under the broiler.

Nothing to show for it

2011-03-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

I’ve been trying to take some pictures, if only to document that I do accomplish some things outside my desk job. However even those pictures languish on my camera. There is something terrible about a camera that can take hundreds of photos without a recharge or need new film. Even though I have nothing to show for it yet, I did finish a few things lately:

Rewired the antique light fixture for my sister’s house

Made homemade Nutella

Made granola

Made mustard

Made soft pretzels to go with the mustard.

The pretzels were not as awesome as I wanted them to be. The dough seems rather tough, it was difficult to knead and maybe didn’t have enough liquid. I’ll try again.

Sewed my first t-shirt with some fun gold mylar knit fabric.

I haven't finished yet (tonight - I promise) but I'm almost done sewing a khaki skirt to wear during the tradeshow in 3 weeks.

cleaning up, a little

2011-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

On monday I looked in my top desk drawer for my exacto knife and couldn't find it. I didn't look very hard because there were just too many layers of things and stuff and I couldn't see much beyond that. On tuesday or wednesday (I already forget) I couldn't find my pen. After accusing my office mates of stealing it (you know, it's one of those super special plastic Intel pens we used to have boxes of) I realized that I could just get another pen from my drawer. So I just had to clean out the entire drawer. Ultimately I found my missing pen under my desk - and - I have a clean desk drawer. Everytime I open the drawer it makes me a little happy.

I realize now that I could probably get that same happy feeling in a bigger way if I came home to a clean and tidy house, but i haven't figured out how to accomplish that yet. My chore schedule experiment was a failure and I don't know how to create the motivation to start and sustain a cleaning schedule.

This weekend is a 3-day weekend for me. I don't have any plans yet but plans are critical to my actually getting anything done.

Tasty goodness

2011-02-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

Someone brought cupcakes into work today and they were the good, homemade ones even. I had three. I didn’t mean to eat three, but I had the first one when I got my first cup of coffee this morning, and then when I went to refill my coffee cup, there were a lot left, and I had to try the other flavor. I apparently couldn’t help myself when I went in the third time and there were still cupcakes on the counter. Usually food goes so fast in this place – so are guys just afraid of the cupcakes then? Exercising my willpower, I passed up the cupcakes this last time and just filled my cup with hot water for tea. As I was walking away, I consciously told myself, “you don’t need another cupcake, you don’t even really want another cupcake, they’re not that great, you don’t need another cupcake.” But I know they’re still there, on the counter, mocking me.

I heard this story on the radio this morning before work. I have self-control, I just don’t always choose to use it.

Getting started again

2011-01-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made this for dinner. But the asian market was out of peppers and I added lightly fried tofu. It was still really good and I cooked it on super high heat and everything came out smoky and blackened. I’ll definitely try it again. I’m sure a hood fan would help though 'cause all the spicy steam made my nose burn a little.

++++++++++++++++++

It’s cliché but with the new year rolling around, I realized I’ve gotten lazy. I want to make more of an effort, be more mindful with my eating, get some of my projects done on the weekends. Part of this comes as I start to feel normal again after the 2-week scourge that made me miserable during my week off from work. I didn’t get any of my stuff done (except the overdue knitted x-mas presents) and now I’m behind. The bedroom project is two years in the making and I can’t let it stretch on forever. Especially now that my alarm clock is dying a slow death. Some mornings the alarm is 20 minutes late, others the beeps are three seconds apart (that’s actually kind of nice since I wake up on the first one). I received a new alarm clock for x-mas but it has to plug in and in the current bedroom setup there are no outlets near the bed, or even near either dresser. I am not going to start using my phone as an alarm clock. I refuse.

++++++++++++++++

I finally bought jeans that fit. It's been years since I've tried on a pair that didn't gape in the back but also didn't cling unattractively in places like my upper legs. Earlier in the fall I had high hopes for a pair of Gap jeans that were getting rave reviews, until tried them on and saw that they flattened my butt. I am not paying 65 dollars (even with 20% off) to get a flat butt. So the jeans I did buy are from Ann Taylor LOFT. I've ordered pants from LOFT in the past because they come in tall, and usually I am ultimately disappointed. The pants come, the fit, they're long and comfortable but then they stretch out. Blech.

I decided to try on jeans in one more store. I really started to feel like nothing would work. I knew I'd still have to order my pants online since no one seems to carry the talls in their store but I needed to know how they fit up top to avoid the too big in the waist and flat but problems. The pants were laughably short and fit weird around the knee, but I knew those problems would be solved with the longer size. I also needed to go down a size to more closely match my waist measurement, even though I should size up for my hip measurement. Anyway, I was surprised they fit (mostly) and that night ordered the smaller size in tall. There is something validating about putting on a piece of clothing that fits and looks good and even though we all love our bodies just the way they are, we need clothes that flatter what we've got.

I feel a little silly talking about buying jeans, but it actually made me really happy to find some that fit, finally. Now I need two pair of slacks that fit. I promised myself that I would make those but I haven’t made the time or the space in my house yet.

lack of progress update

2010-11-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

I'm really good at making lists and goals. Not as good at finishing things. I've already though of more "things I want to do this winter" but I haven't been too succesful at the items on list number one. I can't add anything new to my list because I need to be realistic. But there are all the other things that I need to do like make/repair things for christmas presents, build the monitor risers for work so I don't end up with a hunchback from slouching, patch the wall above the fireplace and scrape the bookcase doors to prepare for the living room paint job, plant the remaining bulbs in my giant outdoor pots (because I can't deal with digging anymore holes in the rocky weedy ground).

What have I been doing.

I helped prime and paint two bedrooms at my sister's house. They promised to help paint at my house after their upstairs is done.

I made a batch of these cookies. But they didn't turn out the way I hoped; they got all flat and overly browned. They still got eaten, but I do not consider them to be a success. I will try them again, but not fail this time.

It's so easy to fall back into routine and we have stopped eating at the table lately. Unless you count when company comes over and that was twice this weekend and on Friday we ate at my sister's house, so I guess we haven't been doing too bad. right.

This weekend I will hopefully rebuild the media center, plant the bulbs, do some more painting (not at my house), move the old gas grill.

Um, it's supposed to snow and rain for the rest of the week, yea!

get it to fit

2010-11-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

In March I needed a new skirt to wear for work and since most of my shopping is done online (who has time to go shopping anymore) I decided to order two different sizes of the same skirt and try them both on. My logic was that I would pick the one that fit the best and probably still do some minor alterations and return the other. When I received the skirts in the mail I tried them on and was severely dissapointed. The size 12 skirt fit okay but it was a little tight in the hips and I knew I would be overly contious of how it fit and it wasn't really very comfortable. When I tried on the size 14 the fit in the hips was great but the waist was too big by at least 2 inches. Now this is obviously not a new thing but for years I avoided the issue. I bought skirts that sit on my hips not my waist I have many pairs of pants that sag because the other size was too tight around my legs. I've been trying this new thing though - wearing clothes that fit. I've been tucking in my shirts occationally. It's taken me a long time to realize that this is okay.
I hit a breaking point. I returned both skirts to the store and decided to sew the skirt myself. I used to sew a lot but haven't done much in years.

I made the one skirt (and half finished a second) and started collecting patterns, and buying fabric and making plans for the new clothes that I would make that would fit me. I haven't actually gotten much done though. I've been busy. But I also haven't made the time. I really want to focus on proper fit and I've run into some problems executing that . Once I figure it out, I'm sure it becomes easier.

Things I'm going to do this winter

2010-11-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not doing a Christmas show this year at the theatre, I might not even be doing a winter show so I should have all sorts of evening and weekend time to get stuff done. Stuff that I always want to do, but never do. Things that I loose the motivation for every year.

Now that my sister lives close I've already asked her to help with the Christmas decorating. I will reciprocate of course and help at her house too, it's just that on my own I will only get as far as bringing the bin down from the attic and getting the tree assembled (yes it's fake - the best $5 I spent ever). That's it. Maybe I'll put the lights up because the lights are my favorite part. But now three years in a row I've been stunted in my ability to get the house in a festive mood.

1. Decorate the trees and house for Christmas (I also have two aluminum trees).

2. Make cookies & rum balls & those green marshmallow corn flake ones with the red hot candies.

3. Paint the Living Room. At least one room, maybe the dining room too.

4. Frame and hang art on walls.

5. Eat at the table. (we've actually done this 3 times this week already)

6. sew something to wear. I have so many plans, so many ideas, so much fabric...

There are so many other thing I want to do, but then my lists start being a little unrealistic and unattainable. Under promise and over deliver. If I get more done I'll be so excited! And if I don't manage to get anything done, I know that's just how my life is most days.

Running

2010-11-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

The first time I ran for 20 minutes with out stopping I didn't think I could do it. And then the next week I ran for 25 minutes. Then the next week I was supposed to run for 28 (according to my running plan) but didn't. Now I know why having a goal in place is important. After running (and walking some) the 10K two weeks ago, I don't have a "reason" to keep running. Of course I didn't start running with a goal in mind except to get through the 8 week program. I kind of reached that goal but just don't feel the motivation to keep going. I mean, now that the 8 weeks is up, what do I do now? I'm not going to just keep on with the 5 minute warm up, 30 minute run, 5 minute cool down every other day. That's boring. So I've been running less because without the pressure of reaching the imposed goal other things seem more important, like getting to work on time.

Now running

2010-09-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

I completed week three of my running plan and I'm surprised that it's still relatively easy. Not easy really, but not oh my god I'm going to die hard. And I must be improving some because I remember during week one I missed the cue to start walking again after a running interval and kept running for a whole 2.5 minutes! I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but my lungs were starting to burn by the end of that 150 seconds. Surprisingly, I survived the first day of week four without having to stop during a five minute sustained run. I'm not sure why I am so incredulous but perhaps I haven't ever been "athletic".

Although the two weekday morning "runs" are inside on a treadmill, I've been going to the trail downtown and doing two sets of the training podcast. I found two different podcasts that follow the same interval structure so it's the same but different. One has a lot of verbal cueing which can be nice so you know there is just one minute left until the end of the interval or just one more run. The other one is just music and has a series of ascending or descending beeps to indicate and increase/decrease in speed.

I have given myself a goal, or maybe more a challenge to work toward. October 10th is the local marathon. Which I will not be participating in, but I did sign up for the corresponding 10K which sounds so daunting, until you realize it's only 6.3 miles. Six is almost half of ten when you look at it that way. (But drivers in Canada can go 100km/hour which seems so much more fun.) Anyway, we have a matinee show that afternoon too and an evening rehearsal for the In Concert fundraiser so 10/10/10 will be a busy day for me.

Mild winter still equals savings

2010-09-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post this earlier in the summer. It's almost time to start heating the house again! Even with the mild winter that the west coast had this year we still managed save some money with the new 92% efficient gas furnace. I adjusted the estimated oil usage to reflect the warmer temperatures but kept the same delivery dates and called to get the current prices on those dates.

Estimated ’09-’10 cost of heating the house with oil: $632.50

Actual ’09-‘10 final natural gas bill: $336.76

Dollars saved: $295.74

Fitness or Folly?

2010-09-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to start running this month. I didn't really decide as was convinced and persuaded by Paul who has already run a half-marathon this year and is working up to a full marathon in November. I have no desire to run that far, but I would like to be able to run without that horrible burning feeling in my lungs after 3 minutes. I'm starting slow with an interval training program based on the couch to 5K method. I just finished my first week with it and will start week 2 tomorrow. Not all of the beginning programs are the same. I downloaded several different podcast versions all between 8-9 weeks long. The first week 1 program I tried has intervals of 60 sec running followed by 90 sec brisk walk. That was great. It was a little hard, but I didn't feel like I was going to die. Then decided to mix things up and try a different week 1 podcast. Apparently this one has 2 min of running followed by 3 minutes of walking. That makes a big difference. Even though over the 30 minutes I ran the same amount I really wanted to give up and quick most of the time. That feeling is not going to keep me coming back for more so I switched back to the first version for my third session of the week.
I know it should be hard, I should push myself, but if it's too much I know I won't stick with it and will probably hurt myself in the process. Hopefully week two will go as smoothly as week one.

September 1

2010-09-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

I may be woefully short on self-stiched clothes for the month, but I still plan on putting up a fight. I pulled one of my 9-year old sleeveless tops out today and paired it with a cardigan and slacks for work today. I'm not sure what I'll have to wear tomorrow, but I know I can definately get at least one weeks worth of SSS out of the clothes I do have and we'll see where it goes from there. I'm going to try and post pictures once a week of my outfits as I manage to pull them together.

Too much on my plate, nothing to show for it

2010-08-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

I had such grand plans. Three months ago I saw the post for Self-Stiched-September and thought that three months was plenty of time to start sewing and have several basics done so I could try wearing 1+ handsewn items for the entire month. Since then I have sewn one skirt, and started and failed one dress. The dress was a failure because I tried to modify the pattern significantly before figuring out the fitting issues in the original pattern. I still have the sleeves, and can salvage the circle skirt but I'm not sure I would actually wear the resulting dress. I should just chalk it up to a failure and try the pattern again the way it was intended.

So despite my intentions. I don't think I'll be ready to commit to SSS. Except I already committed myself and now I just won't be able to follow through. I have a contingency plan though. More of a modification plan. If I could make one new item a week and wear it I would be far behind the idea of wearing something everyday, but I would come out of the month having sewn four new things. And four things in a month would be impressive by my standards.

I don't know what happened to the summer. Although I felt like summer was coming to a close in June, now that it actually is I'm not sure what I did with myself during the last three months.

Watermelon

2010-06-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

In the summer at work we have barbeque lunches every other friday. Today was chicken/steak shishkabobs with pinapple and peppers with watermelon on the side. When I walked into the kitchen at work this afternoon for a glass of water I saw the rind of two or three large watermelons in the trash can, next to the compost can. Most of the compost in the office is from the coffee machine. We have a lot of coffee grounds each week. But it has been a fight to remind people that they can put things like apple cores and orange peels and radish leaves (although I admit that once, I actually pulled out a bunch of radish leaves from the compost can, washed them off and ate them for lunch!) and other food waste in the compost instead of the trash. The giant watermelon rinds in the trash just made me sad.

no yogurt this week

2010-06-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

I tried to make yogurt for the first time this weekend. It did not turn out. There are so many things that could have gone wrong. First, the expired rasberry yoplait from the mini-mart was definately not an ideal starter. I was also a little distracted while I heated the milk and first let it get too hot, then while I was cooling it to add the starter, let it get too cool. I heated it up again to 120F before I added the rasberry yoplait. Whatever happen, it didn't set and is still all liquidy. I can still use it for baking, but probably only for fruity baked goods since there is the tinge of rasberry in there still. I need to find the candy thermometer again too since I'm pretty sure the instant read thermometer I used is a little off and I had to keep checking periodically.

I did make a new cover for the dog bed though...

Trying to get a head start

2010-03-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

You know it's finally spring when Costco has the spring bulb packages for sale. Actually a mix of bulbs and dormant perrenial plants. I couldn't help myself, I had to buy some this year even though my purchase last year was a failure. The double-decker coneflowers that I planted in the front never came up. I think the plants went bad sitting inside while I waited for the weather to warm up sufficiently. Obviously I waited too long, and I think the hallway was probably too warm. I overcompensated last year by seeding regular purple cone flowers over the top of my plants and some of those did come up so I'll still have some this year. I really want some white cone flowers, and almost bought some at Costco last night, but I held off. Partially because I didn't want the other plants in the mixed selection bag, and because I have a neighbor/friend who has a really big white coneflower and said I could have some. Free plants are best. I really hope that starting this year I might have enough established plants to start offering something in trade. Everything looks so barren still, but I know it's filling out. And, I should be getting some of that third-year growth spirt on some of the plants.

It may seem crazy but one of my new plants is a seedum. Normally I wouldn't buy these because they are so easy to divide and get from someone else's yard (like my mother's) but this one is new and exciting. It's a new variety called Elsie's Gold and is really similar to the Autumn Joy, but has variegated leaves. I think I'll plant all the little plants in the package, and once they come up and look established, I'll give away half of them. I don't need 10 plants, but 5 or so will help fill in some gaps (like the one left after the plant theft of '09). I love how low maintenance they are and they're one of the few things in the front left standing after the first freeze. This winter's super early hard freeze actually did bad things to everything including the autumn joy seedum, but that is rare.

With the mild winter we have been having on the west coast - which is only fair after the 93+ of snow last year - I've already been out and pruned and started weeding the yard. There were still some frozen patches, I though they were just rocks at first, but I got a good head start. Of course when I say "I" I mean that I was out there, but had some help from my family last weekend too.

2010 Plans for the outdoors:

Font

Put in gravel pathway across front yard.

Plant more groundcover along front path and driveway.

Till parking strip, remove lots-o-rocks, replant w/ ? (the vinca vine is doing okay, but I"m impatient. If it was all filled in I think I'd be happy but there is still too much room for the weeds.

Back

Finish fence on south side of yard.

Rototill the entire back yard.

Install patio, pathway, planting beds according to plan.

Seed lawn area w/ drought tolerant no-mow grass. (You stil have to mow it 1-2 times a year to eliminate the seed heads in mid-summer.)

Plant vegetable garden.

Ambitious

Build chicken coop.

Build garden fence.

Remove concrete back steps / re orient and re build wood steps.

Build fence on n. side of yard.

Spring hasn't even started yet, but I look at my list of plans and feel overwhelmed, and behind schedule.

christmas at work

2009-12-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

This year was the third annual Christmas Sweater day at work.

Why christmas sweaters? Well I say why not. The first year Ian and I decided we should wear Christmas sweaters that year. We put it on our Outlook calendars and when December rolled around e-mailed a few other people at work inviting them to join the festivities. Last year saw an even bigger turn out, and this past Friday was our biggest success. Part of the success was due to us pressuring people to wear the extra shirts, sweaters and christmas ties that we just happen to have in the office.

My outfit this year included my $1 sequin Christmas Kitty t-shirt from the thrift store up the street from my house.

Ian created his christmas masterpiece from a deconstructed santa slipper, american flag and (not visible) a toy gun in santa's other hand - all on camo.

Dinner Chairs

2009-12-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago we had a Christmas dinner for some donors at the theatre. They bought the dinner at the auction during the opening Gala. The theme was Victorian Christmas, but all that really meant was that the house the dinner was hosted in is old, and decorated for Christmas. Oh, and that I had to wear a Victorian maid's dress to serve the dinner. I mean, the dresses haven't been used since My Fair Lady almost 5 years ago, and why not.

Before

Of course there wasn't enough to do already, so I decided to re-cover the dining room chairs before the guests arrived. I know I should have given myself more time, but I was overly optimistic. Recovering a dining chair isn't hard, but for some reason it isn't fast. First you have to remove the seat from the chair. Holding a chair upside down while supporting the seat, and removing the screws is just awkward. Last time i recovered my dining chairs (the afternoon before a family Thanksgiving dinner) I learned that it isn't a good idea to remove all the seats and then try to match the seat with each chair. They're old, the screw holes, don't all match up the same. This time I also knew I might not get them all done in time and nothing is worse than having a major donor walk in on a room of disassembled furniture.

I started by cutting the fabric for the first chair, and then using that as a template to cut the fabric for the other chairs. Then, I stapled the fabric to the first chair and reattached the seat. Luckily it looked great. The repeat on the fabric even ended up in the center of the seat - totally by accident. I removed the seat from the second chair and started attaching the fabric, and then ran out of staples. It's okay, I brought a box of extra staples. Oh, but they don't fit. Apparently the new shiny Craftsman staple gun takes different staples than my old silver Swingline. I tried not to panic as I drove home (six blocks - so ridiculous) to get more staples, different staple gun? I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had a half recovered chair and three more to go and the guests were due to arrive in 45 minutes. When I got home I realized I didn't have any other boxes of staples, I didn't know where the other staple gun was and even my crazy idea of using the staples still in the pocket of my cargo pants (from last summer when we did the roof) didn't work because they didn't fit either. This let to my last ditch idea of using the hammer stapler, you know, the one we used on the roof, last summer, to staple the tar paper down? That one. So I drive back to Michael's (the host of the dinner) and proceed to use a roofing stapler to recover two more chairs before I ran out of time.

The lights were dimmed, I'm sure people didn't even notice that two of the chairs had the old fabric and the other three the new. The good news is that Michael loved the new fabric and I promised to come back and finish the other chairs. And I just found my silver staple gun so I can use that box of extra staples to finish the job.

After

The dinner was a success, they loved the food and hopefully we can sell the next dinner for even more money. Come on people, a personal chef, waitstaff, and we did the dishes. Next project - break into Michael's house and fix his dishwasher.

Happy Birthday Selje

2009-12-09T10:20:00.001-08:00

December 6, 2009

Daily Chores (FAIL)

2009-11-25T15:52:00.001-08:00

My experiment in daily chores failed - miserably. Some of the things on my list NEVER got done. I never cleaned the sink, I never cleaned the bathtub or bathroom sink. I never mopped or washed clothes (do towels count?). I guess this plan just doesn't work for me. New plan: this month I will attempt to do the same tasks, but on the weekends. I know the theory is to do a little every day, but I just can't do that. And then on Sat/Sun when I do have a little time, I only think about the 1 "little" think I'm supposed to do. I'm not saying this will work either, but it's worth a try. During the week I will try to mitgate the clutter problem by putting things away (where is away though?) and maybe keeping up with the dishes. When we eventually get a dishwasher installed, I might just do a little dance of excitement in the kitchen during the first load of dishes.

Things I did to this week:
I did finish the installation of the new porch light. It was only about 90 minutes more of work, and probably 20 min of fruitless wrangling before I caved in and got the ladder from the garage to make the final connection of the mounting plate to the ceiling bracket. 17" pendant lights are kind of heavy and my one arm can not hold it above chest height for very long.

I cleaned off one bookshelf in the living room. The two bookshelves flanking the fireplace have been a dumping ground of papers and magazines and action figures and cabinet hardware for the last two years. I took every off, organized some magazines in cardboard holders. I figured if I waited until I got around to covering the magazine holders in nice paper or fabric it would never get done. They don't look bad the way the are, although the big dissapointment is the depth of the shelves doesn't allow me to put the magazines behind the doors - so they're on the top shelf right now. I plan on having the other side done before christmas and maybe I'll even get the doors back on! Lars, I expect you to be impressed when you see them 'cause your dissapointment was a motivating factor.

I went to Miller's Hardware and spent 22 cents to buy a screw. Somehow I lost one when I was mounting the drapes in the dining room so for over a year three windows have had drapery panels, one was blank. Except for the sad brackets (one with only 1 screw).

Garlic planting

2009-11-20T16:02:00.000-08:00

This spring when we were shopping for annual vegetable seeds I grabbed a head of garlic that was by the register. I thought I'd give it a go. Apparently around here garlic really needs to be planted in the fall (like right now) to get a head start on the growing season. That head of garlic I grabbed in the spring was planted, but wasn't doing very well when it was accidentally tilled this summer. After my experiment with this Sunset vegetable garden plan (it looked like a good idea) we're going back to raised beds in the garden. In fact they are the same raised beds I built 4 years ago. I went back to the old house and disasembled them this summer. They look so big in this backyard. I'll probably need to make new ones in a few years as these are already starting to rot out (they were made from 20+ year-old fence panels). This year we're also going to start the garlic in the fall. I don't know the exact varieties. The bulbs are purple, there are two different kinds, and they are a hardneck variety. That means we'll get the garlic scapes in the spring and I can make more of that pesto. Remember, I'm still excited that anything will grow for me.

UPDATE: I started this post a month ago, planning on getting some pictures when I planted the garlic. Well it's in, no pictures, and I still haven't found mulch for the bed which means they've probably already frozen and died. We've had several severe freezes and a few light snows. It might snow more this weekend too.

I started installing the new porch light but now it's been 2 weeks and I'm not done yet. Of course that means we've gone 2 weeks with NO porch light - and i'm one of those people who leave them on all night. For me, dark houses make an unfriendly neighborhood and that can lead to an unsafe neighborhood. I guess it's time to stop procrastinating and take that trip through the knee wall in the attic (I have to install a new junction box in the porch ceiling). I took some pictures of the porch project so maybe I'll finish and get those up this weekend.

Shopping for me

2009-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about buying something for myself like a new pair of shoes, or a new dress but I just can't decide. What about a new porch light instead! And it's on sale.

Cleaning up

2009-10-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

It is getting dark so soon already, and I'm not ready for it. We had the first hard freeze really early this year too, so it already feels like the beginning of winter. I feel like everything is in shambles and I let it get that way. I've been using my down time to do absolutely nothing. Not even laundry, or putting away the last two load of clothes from the last time I did do laundry. That might have been almost a month ago. I don't know how the time passed so quickly. Really, I do know what happened. It's what happens every year. I'm not home but a few nights a week and when I am home I relish eating real food cooked in the oven or in the stove. I do not feel like cleaning, or even picking up my clutter, doing a load of laundry or breaking down those cardboard boxes that multiply in my dining room.

I really have to get something done though. That is why I need to start the chore-a-day list again. I had one of these when I was a kid and the chores alternated between my sister and me. Funny how those same chores that your mother made you do are equally important in your own home 20 years later.

Sunday: Laundry
Monday: Clean Bathroom
Tuesday: Clean off Dining Table
Wednesday: Clean stove top & sink
Thursday: Water house plants
Friday: Sweep/Vaccum House
Saturday: Sweep/Mop Kitchen & Bathroom

I know it might be a little pathetic to see that I can't even do these chores on a semi-regular basis. And these all have to be things that take only about 20 minutes, because often I don't have much more time that that to tackle something. A lot of days the only time to get this done would be in the ~45 minutes I have between getting home from work and leaving for the theatre and I also need to take the dog for a walk and eat something in that time.

If I could keep this up for a month I would consider myself a success. If I get half of this stuff done two times in a month, I'm still pretty impressed. I had to try kind of hard to come up with 7 different little tasks and maybe things like watering the plants, cleaning the clutter off the dining table and scrubbing the stove top are laughably easy but in my house are rarely done.

Is it a sign of organization, or weakness that I'm putting these as reminders on my Outlook calendar so I remember? One month until status report.

Colour Trend

2009-10-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

It's official, the newest trendy paint color is Down Pipe (farrow & ball). It is the new go-to color for designer rooms, has been used in at least two museums for gallery space, and I like it. I know the official color of the year (according to Pantone) is Mimosa but who wants a room painted that color.

Maybe an accent piece. A chair. A lamp. A dresser. In fact it would be a great accent piece in a room painted with down pipe.

All these fancy colors though just make it harder for me to pick one and paint my rooms.

Chaos and clutter

2009-10-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

All all the "shelter" magazines are going bust and more people are turning to blogs for ideas and inspiration, it was only a matter of time I guess before an online shelter magazine appeared. Premiering today (OCT 1) Lonny is an all online magazine. Like a magazine it still has advertising and a page based layout. It won't be the same as curling up on the couch or taking a bath while reading the newest issue but I'll take it where I can get it these days. I haven't read the whole thing, in fact I've just barely gotten past the first few pages, but already I hope it sticks around. Maybe it won't be great, but maybe it needs time to find its footing.

I'm going to save the rest of the magazine until I get home and have time (saturday maybe?) to read it full screen on the television. Big!

Speaking of computers and televisions, I had grand plans, I should have been done with building the new media center by now. But alas the old compaq case was to small to fit the motherboard. Did you know that some of the "media center" cases are hundreds of dollars! Ridiculous. My plan is to find a thrift store chase that is the right size and hopefully pay very little for it. The only usable thing from the compaq machine is the case fan which will go into the now 2-year-old "regular" computer. Since I already took everything out of the compaq case, do you think the electronic recyclers would be okay with all the components in a plastic bag then secured back in the case. It just seems silly to screw everything back in. Sadly I've given myself the expansive goal of three weeks to find a new media center case (that's when my copy of Windows 7 should arrive - pre-ordered for almost 60% off) and it would just be a waste to have hundreds of dollars of computing power sitting un-assembled in the living room for want of a metal box to contain it all.

Although it is now fall, officially and weather-wise, and the theatre season has started - I have plans. I don't know what I'll get done, but I have plans. I have plans to clean out the back bedroom; plans to paint the living room, dining room, bedroom (well I guess the whole inside of the house); plans to re-arrange the vegetable garden and plant garlic before the snows come; plans to do some knitting again; plans to do something to my office space (at work, not home). I think that's plenty of plans. I like to plan. I like to think of all the possibilities and put it all together. I like to pick colors and arrange furniture and organize a space. But you wouldn't know it to look at my house. It's cluttered and plain and nothing hangs on the walls. Books are still in boxes and things don't have a home and I live with a person who's idea of cleaning up is to stash everything in a box and toss it in the back bedroom. What will it take for me to change things?

And then there were two

2009-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning I took the dog out for a walk before work and I noticed a shallow hole in my front yard. It looked like a dog had been digging in the yard (or an army of squirrels). When I looked down I saw a lot of dirt on the sidewalk and it was the good dirt, the birthday present dirt* so I kind of scraped it back to the yard best I could with my flip-flop, then continued with our morning walk.

When Yoshi and I round the block from the other direction I happened to look at the yard again and noticed that one of my plants was GONE! That hole, that's where the plant was. I had three 'Autumn Joy' Sedums in the front about 8" apart in a triangle and now, there are just two of them. First, "who steals plants from people's yards?" Really, who just pulls an entire plant up? They aren't little anymore either, about 8" across and a foot tall. Then, "Who steals 'Autumn Joy' Sedum?" It's a great plant for zone 5 (where we live) and probably a lot of other places too. It's easy to grow, easy to maintain, looks cool in the winter, and easy to propagate. Just take a shovel to the plant every few years for a whole new plant. Ask anyone with an established clump and they could give you some without disturbing their landscape. So, people give this plant away, but someone stole one from my yard.

There isn't much I can do about the thievery. Nothing else had gone missing, and I can easily replace the missing clump by dividing one of my remaining ones. But it's the principle. It's things like this that make you want to put a fence up around the front yard.

*2 years ago my parents gave my a truck load of dirt for my front yard to amend the dead soil under the compacted lawn.

What to wear?

2009-09-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

A few mornings a week I go to the gym before work and "run" (really I use one of those machines that are like an eliptical but have things you hold onto and move your arms in opposition. I don't know what it's called, and frankly, for the first six months I went there I was terrified that I would injure myself on it.) This morning after my 24 minutes on the cardio machine I went back to the locker room to shower and change and discovered that I forgot to bring...shoes. I've forgotten things before, mainly undergarments which, as gross as it is to put the sweaty bra back on after a shower, is still hidden from the general public. But with no shoes, leaves me only several options. It wasn't even like I had brought pants to wear today either where I could hide my gym shoes, sort of, but today I brought a black skirt and black/grey striped top. Just so you know, my gym shoes are white and turquoise.

I still had to shower, so I gathered up my towel and shampoo and went to shower while thinking of my options:

1) Wear my gym shoes anyway. It looks a little like the women downtown that wear suits and jogging shoes between the bus and the office, but I could carry it off.

2) Wear no shoes. I go barefoot a lot. Inside the house, around the yard, the whole time I was in college, but barefoot at work is a little iffy.

3) Go buy new shoes. The problem is that Liberty Lake is a small suburban town and that means it has two grocery stores and a Walgreen. But the Valley mall is only a few miles back on the freeway...

I finished my shower and went back to get dressed and remembered, "it's only 8am, the mall isn't open at 8am." So if I want shoes that don't say Adidas on the back Wallgreens is my only option. I even tried to think if I had any spare shoes in the car: I have my winter boots in the trunk, a pair of t-strap character shoes, and my costume boots for Pirates. I used to have a pair of ballet flats in the trunk for a long time, until I decided to take them out and wear them one day.

I finished dressing and slipped my gym shoes back on to go to the car. As I walked out I thought, "this isn't too bad, I mean they're comfortable." I drove the to Walgreens though figuring I should give it a shot. Well if you're in need of a bra, gym clothes, a fleece vest, nylons, or slippers - head on out to Walgreen. However if all you're looking for is a pair of beach thongs - you are out of luck.

Right now I'm sitting at my desk with my gym shoes slipped off and I've been padding around in my green ankle socks. Kind of a compromise between barefoot and bulky gym shoes. Maybe I should keep a back up pair of flip-flops in the trunk just in case.

Autumn

2009-08-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

We are starting to harvest the tomatoes and zucchini and even a few peppers from the garden already. Earlier this summer the one raspberry cane that survived transplanting and our heavy snow load produced a surprising number of berries and the new canes are already over 7 ft tall. I definitely need to build something to contain them for next summer and maybe prune the excess cane height to a more manageable 6ft. The thornless black berry, which looked so sad last summer, actually survived also and even has some berries coming to maturity right now. I'm glad the blackberry season is 6 weeks after the raspberry season. It makes it more manageable to harvest, eat and store the berries.

I've done little work in the garden during the summer except water and watch the yellow pear tomato plant grow to monstrous proportions. In fact my experiment of staking and tying the tomatoes(instead of using cages) this year - failed. Once the plants started setting fruit the heavy plant just pulled the ties down. I'm sure they would have pulled the flimsy wire cages down too, so next year some sort of wood tomato trellis is in order. I'd really like to build this pretty one that I found directions for, but I couldn't afford the cost, or space to build one for each tomato plant. Maybe someday I'll have one, as an accent, but build a more communal trellis system that can accommodate 6 plants at a time.

I've learned some lessons from our guerrilla garden experiment this year.
1) The hand-me-down tomato trellis has some engineering flaws that will help me build a more successful one next year. The first rung was only an inch or two off the ground so the second rung was too high to tie the plant to until it had already started creeping across the ground horizontally. Even now the tomatoes aren't tall enough to reach the third rung but have already started producing and getting heavy and our of control.
2) If we use the space again next year, I definitely have to use some sort of weed barrier/mulch because even after removing all the weeds when the plants were young, new weeds appeared and the vegetables are all much to large to effectively weed around. Some sort of climbing weed is strangling my eggplants.
3) The sun is great in the vacant lot, but it is hard to water evenly (especially without also watering the weeds). A soaker hose is a definite must next year. I just wasn't prepared this year with the proper materials - because I procrastinated - and the poor watermelon and pumpkin plants are paying for it.

My sister was visiting this week and I got to spend some time with her on Saturday (my only day off from work & the theatre). She gave me two of her handmade glass cloches for the garden because they weren't so effective in her patio garden setup. I have to figure out what I'm going to try them out on next spring. Maybe direct seeded basil? I tried to start basil inside this year, but right after our last frost date we had a week of scorching temperatures and the immature basil seedlings just fried in a day. So if I can get them started a little earlier outside, maybe they'll be stronger when the rouge weather hits.

Katie also asked about growing garlic, specifically how you get the garlic scapes. This year was the first time I've tried both onions and garlic - and both failed. I didn't water consistently, some of the onion starts got mouldy before I got around to planting them, and guess what, you are supposed to plant garlic in the fall! Well I know better this year. I did a little reading about growing garlic and found two great resources for our area (one in Hood River, and the other in Canada). First, I found that only the hardneck varieties of garlic produce garlic scapes. Softneck garlic is the kind you normally find in the grocery store. So if you want garlic scapes, plant the hardneck varieties, plus it allows you access to garlic that is harder to find. I don't know about you, but that is one of the main reasons I grow food. oh, and harvest the scapes when they've made 1-2 complete loops (but before the flower opens).

I pledge to be on top of things this fall and next spring so the new raised beds are built, cover crops are planted and garlic sown.

Fence Plan

2009-08-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

So my big plan for this weekend - besides cleaning up the house - was to get the brackets installed on the posts at the proper heights so that next weekend I could measure and cut all the 2x4s. I went to the store and picked up the brackets that I chose to use then on Sunday went outside to put them up. After measuring and running a string line I realized that the brackets all had to slide over the top of the metal pole AND the brackets were all supposed to go 4 inches below the string. I ran into a problem when I couldn't tighten the bolt in the bracket to secure it to the pole. I tried both a screw driver and pliers (just now I realized I should breakout the socket set and try that) but really that thing wouldn't budge. I could get it to un-screw, but there was no advancing the sucker. I'll go back with the wd-40 and the socket set, but it's just frustrating that something as "simple" as tightening a bolt can seem like an impossible task.

Things that happened…and didn’t

2009-08-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

Car: I was pulled over and received my first ticket (ever) for driving with overdue (very overdue) license tabs. Apparently I never updated our address on the car registration when we moved and so never got a reminder, and apparently never look at the license plate on the back of the car to notice the little MAR sticker. I got the ticket in MAY. They guy who pulled me over was rather nice, I felt stupid and maybe mentioned that I would have remembered if they sent out e-mail reminders.

I was also rear-ended on the freeway in a construction zone. I have seen more than the usual rear-end collisions in this area while the section was resurfaced. It was the usual kind of rear-end accident. Traffic was really slow, stop and go and go faster, go slower, STOP…but the girl behind me didn’t stop fast enough. She was more shaken up than me, but then her car was more of a mess than mine. I called my insurance company, just in case and I talked to her insurance company. I took the car to their recommended appraiser, although there really wasn’t serious damage, and got a quote for the repairs. Approx $745 because they can’t repair bumpers anymore, only replace them and I say “yes, go ahead and order the new bumper” to the place that did the appraisal because it isn’t like I have my own personal body shop. But then two days later I talk to the man from the other insurance company and he says, “we got the estimate, do you want to have the work done there or do you want me to send the check to you?” Oh! I didn’t know that I could just take the money and run. Like I said, the damage to the bumper was cosmetic, and what the hell, the front bumper looks worse from my 2005 winter run in with a trailer hitch in an icy intersection. I took the check, canceled the repair, and continue to drive the car with the damaged front AND rear bumper, with a ever growing crack in the windshield. Classy.

House: We have some new cabinets & a lot more counter top space in the kitchen now. The cabinets are installed, the counter is installed. There is nothing in the cabinets yet (it’s only been 3 weeks and counting) but soon. I still have some puttying and touch up painting to do on the cabinets. I also need to strip and wax the floor in the kitchen to hopefully repair the lovely scratches left from the cabinet installation. That will happen after I finish wiring the new outlet for the microwave and maybe after I run new wiring for a hood fan and countertop appliances so that someday I could install a backsplash. You know, if I wanted it all done in 2 months, I would have paid someone else to do it. But I didn’t and won’t because that shit is easy, it just takes time. Time that sometimes is otherwise occupied by watching a marathon of Burn Notice or Law and Order or something embarrassing on the Family Channel because it is 85 degrees inside my house and 100 outside the house and if I move I will be miserable. I wish it was Fall already.

Yard: The fence (posts) are in. Ok, really, that’s the hardest part (have I said that already) and the rest of the fence should be super easy to finish – 1, 2 days tops. If I could finalize the design, decide which fasteners to use to attach the supports and find a day when another person is there to help me attach 7.5’ 2x4s to the posts. Really, though, it’s almost done. The rest of the yard is doing okay, the front is filling out. I need to get a picture so we can do a before and after since last year in July it was just dirt. The sunflowers are almost blooming outside the bedroom window and the grass in the backyard is so yellow and dry that is disintegrates when I walk on it. Just the way it should. We have been watering the food gardens and the front plantings, but not the grass because then it would need to be mowed and most of it is getting ripped out anyway and I’m lazy and stingy with water. I really do want to have a nice back yard but there’s still no patio (because the fence isn’t done yet) and what was grass (not very nice grass in the first place anyway) is now dusty and crunchy and the summer is now officially over.

Theatre: I say the summer is over because auditions for the Fall season opener are today. And for me, that means the end of the summer. There will still be time to finish the fence (don’t worry) but I no longer think the patio will happen this year. Maybe I could get my gravel path in the front finished though, that would be satisfying. Both Paul and I participated in the endowment fund fundraiser, which showcased all the musicals in the coming season, last month and I sang There’s No Business Like Show Business in a floor length body-hugging sequined evening dress. Somewhere there are pictures. Tonight I will be singing When a Merry Maiden Marries (The Gondoliers) by Gilbert and Sullivan for auditions for the Pirates of Penzance. It seems like the snow will be here anyday (oh, except it's still 92 degrees outside).

...and now it's June.

2009-06-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

I’ve been spending more time outside now that the weather’s nice, although it’s been a little warmer than I prefer. Normal high temp should be 70 degrees, and we’ve been hitting 80-87 in the last week. But all the plants are in the ground for the year. I even planted all my seeds last night after work, some annuals and some perennials. I’m never confident that the seeds will come up, so it’s extra exciting when they do. The purple double coneflowers that I got from Costco this spring had a 20% survival rate. I actually surprised that the one did survive since I’d resigned myself to the complete failure of that planting. I keep thinking I should take pictures of the yard to document it’s progress, but never do. I can say there’s a lot more plants now than there was before and most seem to be doing fine. Remembering to water is important, of course. I’ve buried soaker hoses on both sides of the house and the parking strip, using a sprinkler in the front and hand watering the vegetable patch. I just got a micro irrigation kit from my mom and I’m really excited to set it up in the vegetable garden and the front yard. I’ll still have to attach the hose and set the timer, but I think the quality and coverage will be so much better. Right now I find it hard to water the corners of the yard without completely soaking the sidewalk.

I have a lot of projects I want to work on, and just found a new one today. But I need to prioritize. I started the back yard fence a month (or more) ago and I’m still not done digging all the holes. The hole are the hardest part. I expect installing the posts will only take part of a day and attaching the wood will take a day. Darn posts are taking a lot more time. The most I got done in one day was three holes and I had to quit because I was feeling faint and a little wobbly. It was the heat, not the physical exertion, but I’m still only 50% done. Other planting activities have taken priority because if I didn’t get the food garden started we wouldn’t have gotten anything before the frost comes in the fall with our short growing season. Now that the plants are in though, it’s back to the fence. Except for the projects I still need to complete to get our 50% kitchen remodel done on schedule.

The new cabinets are done and primed, but need to be painted. They’ll be installed the week of the 22nd, so everything has to be ready by then.

Paint Cabinets (2 coats paint, 2 coats poly)
Install new 20Amp outlet for microwave (we will be able to use the toaster and the microwave at the same time if we want!)
Board up doorway to create new broom closet ( I keep forgetting about this task)

Money Spent = Money Saved?

2009-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Although it’s still cold and windy outside this week with unseasonably low temperatures, the warm weather is almost here and that means the end of the heating season. Last fall we replaced our 1987 oil burning furnace with a new 92%+ efficient gas burning furnace. Of course at the time I started collecting bids heating oil as nearing $5 a gallon and I was understandably concerned about the cost to run that oil burner al winter. Then the prices dropped. Well, oil prices fluctuate – or, they do now at least. I gave myself a conservative estimate on the return on the investment or 6 years back in September and well, we’re a little behind on that. The price of heating oil dropped back to $2.29 in February and that put a damper on my speedy ROI.

However, just because we’re not “saving” as much as I planned/hoped doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good investment. We are saving money. In fact, our heating bill for the ‘08-’09 winter is around 50% of the estimated oil cost. And the price for natural gas is actually supposed to go down for next winter so maybe we’ll make up some of that momentum.

Estimated ’08-’09 cost of heating the house with oil: $896.35

Estimated ’08-‘09 final natural gas bill: $470.43

Dollars saved: $425.92!

Save on your taxes! Buy a house!

2009-04-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

Everyone told me that my tax burden would be significantly less when I bought a house. I’d be able to deduct everything and pay so much less. It didn’t quite work out that way. Maybe if we already had a bunch of things that were “itemizable” but we are apparently a household with little to deduct and came up a few hundred below the standard deduction. We were still able to deduct a portion of the real estate taxes – that was nice – and since it was all still so simple this year I took advantage of a free online preparation program and free e-file.* Really it’s a good thing that we came up short on the deductions because it means we aren’t paying a lot in interest. I mean it’s a lot, don’t get me wrong, we don’t have one of those swanky 4.8% mortgages that people can get now. But it isn’t the 14% that my parents paid. Maybe the low rates will stick around and we’ll re-finance and get a 15 year, or buy the vacant lot.

*Apparently I wasn’t paying enough attention while completing my tax preparation online because I got an email this morning with the subject “Your Federal Tax Return Hasn’t Been Filed”. What! I finished it I swear, I remember entering in my account number and routing number and “signing” the return with my new PIN, what do you mean to tell me (the day after taxes are due) that I haven’t filed? I logged back onto the web site and figured out there were three more “next” buttons to click to finish filing. Don’t you think they could have sent me an email yesterday? “Make sure and file your taxes since you obviously forgot to click Finish?” Or maybe when I closed the tab a warning popup could have asked “are you sure? You haven’t actually sent the IRS anything yet.” I know it was my fault, but it still sucks. And I’ll have to pay a fine of something between $1-$28 and if I don’t pay in a timely manner the IRS will demand 20% interest. Yay.

Cook & Clean

2009-04-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

Not so much cleaning as yard work (gardening?). I made a simple lamb stew, with very little effort this week. Before we went on the weekend hardware store trip (1pm) I threw 2 small packages of lamb stew meat (neck bones) into the crock pot with a bay leaf and covered 2/3 with water. I turned it to low and we left. This weekend was the first nice weather we've had so far this year so I felt both obligated and determined to get stuff done outside. If a fit of laziness I got nothing done on Saturday, so Sunday was my last chance. The lumber yard is closed Sundays, so we went to Lowes to peruse the fencing materials (super disappointing). I did however get one potted plant marked 1/2 off (a pink heather plant) new garden clippers that promise to stay sharp 5x's longer, a spading fork (i broke both pitch forks on the rocks in the yard already) 1 cu ft bag of compost, and some bright colored string for marking out fence levels and such. We made a trip to the new Winco (grocery store like Costco and Walmart in one) and stopped at the Tacos Tumbras to grab some tacos (real tacos, not american tacos). The last stop was the NW seed & pet for the annual seed purchases, a mix of flowers and food stuffs. I also noticed the price for bagged compost was much better here (of course it was) so I'll come back for a bunch more when we plant the vegetable plot. We still have to wait 5 weeks to plant seeds outside so maybe I can get some started inside this year.

After we returned home I was determined to get some stuff done outside because it was so nice and still so light (~4:30pm). I cut down a 10 section of our pointless wire fencing (it doesn't keep anything in or out of the yard) and made a 3' diameter compost bin. I moved the fritillary to the front yard and divided it in 2 sections in front of the clematis to hide the ugly parts and shade the roots. We also planted the heather, some purple coneflower plants I got as Costco a while back, and moved the current bushes from the back to the front.

Of course after all this, it was 7pm when I got back inside to finish dinner. I chopped up onions, carrots, potatoes and celery and sauteed the onions and celery before adding the rest of the vegetables to a big pot on the stove. After skimming the fat off the top of the crock pot and removing the bay leaf, I added the broth contents to the stove pot along with 1 can of minced tomatoes. I let this simmer for 20ish minutes to cook the carrots and potatoes. While the vegetables were cooking I scraped off the meat from the neck bones. Uh, don't do this. It's a pain in the but and the meat is mostly fatty and not worth it. IN the future I'll probably pick up some shoulder chops at the same time and chop and throw those in with the veggies to cook (and just toss the neck bones meat and all when you're done with them). After adding some salt and pepper, it was done! Because the bones simmered so long all the good collagen stuff came out and thickened the stew and gave it that buttery mouth feel.

It really was easy and I even got some more work done in the yard at the same time.

Spring Cometh...almost

2009-03-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

I did yard work 2 weekends in a row. Both times it rained. This Sunday it started snowing again. Just little bits, but after spending several hours in the rain digging dirt, moving rocks and transplanting bulbs, I wasn't going back out in the snow. So I didn't get the compost cage built yet but I have a big plastic bag full of yard waste just waiting to be composted. Last weekend I decided the grape arbors had to go. They were both falling down and really the vines were just out of control. Using only a small pair of clippers and a 2.5 lb sledge hammer (I found it faster than the hammer, which would have sufficed) I reduced everything to a pile of decrepit lattice and a separate pile of grape vine branches. I left the stumps in the ground because I don't want to completely remove the grapes, just redirect them. Hopefully the root system will use its energy to send up new suckers that I can train and control.

After spending some time in the back yard dismantling the grape arbor I realized that the roaming neighborhood dogs spend plenty of quality time in our yard over the winter. I don't remember it being as bad last year, but there was a lot of decomposing dog poo left when the snow melted. I realized that in order to keep our vegetable garden safe and "clean" the fence needs to go up now.

I've been putting off the fence project. 'Cause fences are big, and hard (well digging the holes in our rocky soil is hard) and procrastination is easy. But the fence is important and will allow us to use the back yard and grow things other than dead grass. I have plans. Plans that involve a lot of digging. Step 1: Build fence. Step 2: Plant Vegetable Garden.

We Have Laundry

2009-02-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

It took a while – over a year – but we can now do laundry in the house. I wanted everything to be in place before I bought a washer and dryer. Electrical, plumbing and venting all needed to be altered to install a working and safe laundry area. Hiring a plumber to re-do the drains was the biggest expense. It actually cost more than the washer and dryer, but after two days we have a new stand pipe with a p-trap to replace the old drum trap and a new drain extension off an existing 4” vertical drain for the upstairs bathroom. It was all the little expenses that added up to be not so little that surprised me though. $30 of stuff to vent the dryer, $50 to wire the dryer outlet, another $30 to wire the washer outlet plus new water shutoffs, and no-burst washer hoses and it was about $200 just to connect everything.

I decided to vent the dryer through a window – temporarily. The pane was already broken and it’s right above the dryer. Eventually I want to vent through the foundation wall and maybe replace the windows above the dryer since only one has hinges and can open. ( I could add hinges to the other one maybe, but 30” in-swinging casement windows in the basement seem like a hazard since they are all open at about face level – 5’.)

To install the new outlets – one for the washer and one for the dryer – I decided to run the wires through the ceiling instead of running 30’ of conduit and competing with the water supply lines for space. This meant that I had to drill a hole through each joist and pull the 12 and 10 gauge wire across the room 1 foot above my head. It took a little effort and a little help and with the additional help of the reciprocating saw we got the wires down the wall and to the new outlet locations. The lathe and plaster were already pretty damaged on that wall anyway so I’m okay with the mess I made of it. Someday I’ll take out that section and put up some nice smooth drywall. Someday…after the electrical in the rest of the house is replaced, after the water supply lines are replaced…you know, someday.

But for now I can wash the sheets, and blankets, and jeans, and t-shirts and delicates without trudging down the street and procrastinating for 6+ weeks. I’ll probably still procrastinate but at least when I get desperate I can do a load of socks and underwear.

No, No, Nanette opens tomorrow and we’ll run for 5 weekends but after that I’m taking a break - I think. I want to , but I want to do a lot of things. If I decide to stay at home for a while, I want to start getting seeds for the side of the house and the vegetable garden, pick out a rose and scrape/repaint a trellis to grow it on. I want to start work on a patio for the back yard and start the fence. Before you know it the snow will be gone and it will be spring and we can start taking real walks with Yoshi and spending time outside. Yup, I’m done with winter.

Last one down...

2009-01-28T11:46:00.000-08:00

Why is it that when I find a magazine I like it closes. First Budget Living, then Blueprint, and now Domino. So what happens now. When Budget Living closed we all just forfeited our subscriptions since it was an independent magazine. Martha gave us issues of Martha Stewart Living for the remainder of Blueprint subscriptions (and I'm getting Southern Accents? in lieu of Cottage Living). Conde Nast is a big publisher and no doubt we'll get something, but Domino was its only shelter mag (unless you count Architectural Digest which is in a totally different class).

At least there's still Sunset.

Katie, I'm sorry I keep getting you gift subscriptions to magazines mere issues before they close. I should have know this was happening when the rumors started flying.

Paying to get it done

2009-01-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

So…it snowed a lot this last month (90+ inches), I finished the one show, Paul opened another, and I started rehearsals for a third. Oh, and I hired someone for the first time to do work on the house. After the last trip to the laundry mat with the 10 loads of laundry I realized that I wasn’t making any progress on getting us our own laundry set up. It’s been over a year and I just don’t have the time (and I’m not making the time to do it either). I asked around for recommendations, called a plumber and just had him do it. Actually, I looked at the estimate and said, “That’s a lot of money, how much of that could I do myself?” I decided to have the plumber just do the drains (which involved things like busting up concrete and cutting out sections of 80+ year old cast iron pipe – I didn’t want to mess that up) and I could do the water supply myself and install the sink.

It was still a lot of money to get the drains done by the plumber. I keep having this fantasy that when I get the bill it will be lower than the estimate because they got it done so fast. Right. I bit the bullet and finally ordered a washer and dryer and before they’re delivered I have to
1) replace the water shutoffs for the washer and move them 24” to the right.
2) redo 110v outlet for the washer (currently it has exposed romex and is near the ceiling).
3) move the 220v outlet from behind the refrigerator to behind the dryer.
4) install dryer vent in wall.
Later I still need to install my $3 laundry sink w/no legs and at the minimum make sure water from the super old laundry shut offs goes into the sink and not on the floor (they’re several inches past the edge of the sink location.)

The dryer outlet is where the red star is and the washer hookups are at the blue star. I'm sorry but I can't have the washer on one side of the basement and the dryer on the other; that isn't right. The square under the blue star? That's a 18" cube of concrete just hanging out in the basement. The new utility sink will go there using the washer water supply above, and the washer will use the water supply from the old sink under the windows.

I took pictures while I tore down and busted up the old concrete sink that I’ll post later. I had this crazy idea that I’d be able to put the sink in the backyard until I figured out what to do with it. After I got it down from the stand, I couldn’t move it 3 feet. Now I have three cardboard boxes full of busted concrete in the basement waiting for incremental disposal in my trash can.

Last weekend my dad helped me install a deadbolt in the basement door for the plumbers to gain access when we weren’t home (without giving them access to the whole house) and the hardest part of the whole thing is always getting everything lined up exactly. Because if it isn’t you can’t get both screws screwed in and it is so frustrating! Trying to put it together, take it apart, find a flashlight, get one lined up but loosen it to get the other in, now you can’t get the first screw to thread – and over and over until finally, magically it works and 10 seconds later your deadbolt is installed. It isn’t like I have any sense of false security with deadbolts since we have 100+ panes of glass in the house. Really I just needed key access from the outside and a deadbolt is easier than replacing the original mortise knob/lockset. Or I could start carrying around skeleton keys.

Curious about the Booze?

2008-12-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

I wrote up a post about the potential of a new bar (tavern) in my neighborhood and the difficulties restaurants have had getting liquor permits in the past. But you have to go here to read it 'cause it's posted on the Spokane Food Blog.

Trying to pull things together

2008-11-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

So I've been wanting to replace the living room rug. It's a big rug, 8x10 and I'm not even sure I know what to look for in a rug. The point is, I found a rug that I like, I think I like? A rug that I'm second guessing myself on, but is a nice rug. It isn't girly and it's a nice neutral color. The urgency is that there are fewer than 48 left in the US (I know because the nice people at Pottery Barn can't order it for me and I have to pay the extra shipping to have it delivered to the house). But the price is right, and I can deal with the shipping cost (plus it will come right to the house and I don't have to figure out how to get an 8x10 rug in the daewoo). Do I just get the rug, do I wait for something "better"?

Rug: Braid Rug from Pottery Barn
Fabric (for drapes): Harmony (Spa) by Waverly
Sofa: Corona from Macys
Sconce: existing
Morris Chair: came with the house (needs to be recovered)
Paint: proposed color Glass Bottom Boat by Martha Stewart for Valspar

The Kitchen (as is)

2008-11-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

Although we've lived in the house a year now, the kitchen hasn't changed since we moved in. The new flooring went in a year ago and since then we've lived with the kitchen as is. Which means the cupboard doors are off since the doors had so much paint on them they didn't operate, the microwave sits on some old melamine shelves, the slide in range we bought to have a more built-in look just sits there with its unfinished sides exposed. The only functional prep space in the kitchen is actually the "custom" cupboard we built to fit first in our apartment and then retrofitted for the previous house and now it sits in front of the superfluous door that will soon be eliminated from the kitchen floor plan. There are just so many things that need to be done in the kitchen it was hard to get started. I bought a new sink and faucet last year, but can't install them until the counter tops are replaces, which can't happen until the existing lower cabinets are adjusted to accommodate a dishwasher (yea!) and of course there is always plumbing and electrical adjustments necessary for all this.

The new cabinets in the sketch above will go on the stove wall opposite the sink. There are no cabinets and no counter tops existing on that side of the room. When we moved in the stove and refrigerator were side by side in the space between two doors and the outlet for the refrigerator is located directly above the stove top (handy right?). The refrigerator was relocated to the basement and a new built-in undercounter fridge goes in the former breakfast area. I know some people couldn't live with the fridge in the basement, but it isn't very far, it doesn't hurt to have to go up and down a few stairs every day and it took up so much space (physically and visually).

The push for the kitchen right now is that my dad volunteered to make the new cabinets this week. This doesn't mean they will be done this week, but soon, and a lot sooner than they would be at the rate I was previously going. I took new measurements and designed the new cabinets to exactly match the existing ones. However the new base cabinets will have drawers instead of doors with full extension 100 lb drawer slides - so much more functional. I'm also matching the hardware to the existing but I'm a little torn over getting the really nice cast brass latches or the inexpensive pressed plated steel latches. The original latches are plated steel (and as such may need to be replaced also) so it's not like the originals were the top o' the line quality either. It's just the cost. The nice ones cost almost 5 times as much bringing the hardware cost for the upper cabinet to about $180. Uh, that's a lot right? It's all that brass that costs so much but brass doesn't rust which is nice for a kitchen.

The wood above is the countertops - american cherry butcher block. Due to cost and time they'll be coming from Lumber Liquidators and finished with Waterlox. Around the sink it will take six coats to properly protect the wood (six coats!) and four on on the other surfaces. Waterlox is a strong but renewable finish that offers more protection than mineral oil, but can be touched up, unlike polyurethanes.

So that's the plan anyway. I still have to figure out paint for the cabinets and walls, scrape and prep the cabinets (new and old), and figure out that plumbing/electrical stuff for the dishwasher (yea!). Can you tell I'm excited? I almost can't believe that we're on the way to having one room in the house "done." It's a start.

The house gets a little action

2008-10-31T15:29:00.000-07:00

The new furnace was installed yesterday but I haven't gotten a look at it yet. I know that a large part of the cost of the furnace was the installation, but do you know how nice it is to come home and it's just done? Old one hauled away new one installed, hooked up to gas, electric and thermostat and they warranty their work so I don't have to worry too much about something being done wrong. I think I could like this whole "paying other people to do work for me" thing. Next up a plumber for the laundry!

I created a table to calculate the return on our investment of a new furnace. It's a little tricky to read because oil is purchased in batches and gas is paid per month so the percentage will shrink until the next hypothetical oil delivery then shoot back up. The most accurate numbers will be at the end of each heating season. Since we have and electric hot water tank it will be easy to see exactly how much fuel the furnace is consuming. I'll update it once a month after I pay the utility bill. Even though gas/oil prices have dropped since this summer, I still believe that we will make back our money on this thing. And bonus: no more stinky petroleum smell in the basement. Actually right now it's pretty bad because they had to cut open the tank to remove it but it will dissipate and we'll have an big new storage room downstairs. Don't tell Paul, but it would be the perfect room to make beer in (dark, cool). I want to finish the floor with some self-leveling cement and add insulation (especially around the coal door since it gets pretty cold in there, maybe put in a "real" light fixture.

I did not even make this up...

2008-10-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

My horoscope today is:

Your life is a train wreck, except the train is made of cake and ice cream.

I couldn't have said it better. Except now I want cake and ice cream.

Burning oil like it's 1927!

2008-09-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

We've been having some surprising spurts of warm weather lately, today the high is supposed to reach 82, but it is definitely fall. Last week I heard the furnace kick on when I came home from work in the morning one day too. We're still operating the oil furnace and working on the last 80 gallons from the last delivery at the end of last winter. We should have more than enough oil to last us until the new furnace is installed but I'm still worried about running out. I accepted an estimate for installation of the 92% AFEU furnace and filled out my gas agreement with the utility last Friday (the 19th). The agreement with the utility company promises that they will install gas service to my house for free and I will install a gas burning furnace/water heater/insert within six months. I also had to sign that they weren't liable for any damage caused to my landscaping (don't have much), sprinkler system (don't have one), or sidewalk (I'm a little worried about this one because although the sidewalk is in poor shape, I refuse to pay some city contractor thousands to replace it). Since it's been a week + since I started the process in motion and haven't heard anything yet, I called the utility company right now and found that they, just today, logged my request for new service. Add 3-5 weeks for the service installation, 1 more week for the furnace installation and we could be into November before the new heater is in.

Once I find out when the actual installation date is, if it looks like we have plenty of oil left, I might just crank that thermostat up to 71F while I'm at home! (which, btw, is never so I guess I'll turn up the heat for Paul and Yoshi.)

Human wrongs

2008-09-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

I used to work for The City. It was my first "real" job with a salary and everything. Well, not everything 'cause it was only a 1/2 position and I didn't get any benefits. Anyway, I was the Human Rights Specialist for the city and my job was to manage the Human Rights Commission, and complaints against our Human Rights ordinance, and any internal education for other employees to promote human rights - in a nutshell. I only lasted 2 years in the job because in a budget crisis the city laid off a lot of people and I was one of them. In fact the entire Human Rights office was closed (all three of us) and folded into Human Resources. One of the big projects I worked on before I left was the proposal to extend benefits (medical and leave) to domestic partners of city employees. The mayor never had time for the proposal before his term ended, and the new mayor had no interest in promoting the issue*.

After I moved on to other jobs, the city council finally took action and passed a resolution to extend benefits to all employees but without cooperation from the unions (all city employees except the city council and 9-12 other people below to one of the 5 unions) only a few people could even take advantage of the option. Last year the Police guild voted to include the benefits extension in its new contract and finally this month the largest union (local 270) included extended benefits in their contract renegotiation. There are still city employees not included but I think after this the remaining smaller unions will follow. Below is the editorial from the paper (which I would link to, but you can only access articles if you're a subscriber) this morning. I think it sums everything up very well. It isn't very often that I can be proud of the city I live in. But I know I'm not alone.

*He was a closeted gay Republican who was eventually forced out of office by scandal.

Human wrongs
Our View: Benefits shouldn't be based on sexual orientation

September 26, 2008

Let's imagine that from the beginning governmental bodies granted partnership benefits for gay and lesbian workers. What would happen in tough budget years? Would employers target certain workers and rescind the medical coverage for family members? Of course not. Such discrimination would be so outrageous that it wouldn't even be proposed. Instead, if benefits had to be cut, it would be done across the board.

So why is it so difficult for government leaders to understand that it is wrong to balance budgets by blocking benefits based on sexual orientation?

The city of Spokane just agreed to partner benefits for the largest employee union at City Hall. We think the compensation package of salary and benefits is too generous, but the solution would be to pare it for all workers, not to discriminate. The city made the right choice in treating all workers equitably.

That isn't the decision the county made when negotiating with its largest union, Local 1553 of the Washington Council of County and City Employees. The county conceded bereavement and sick leave benefits for workers with same-sex partners but held the line on medical benefits. The county's position is to wait and see how much the new benefits cost before considering medical coverage. Presumably if they cost too much, then gay and lesbian workers will continue to be singled out as budget balancing tools.

This is plainly wrong. Equity and fairness should not be held back until tax receipts are calculated. As is, gay and lesbian workers are a bargain. If the county wanted to base these decisions solely on the bottom line, it would be smarter to discriminate against workers with children or those who are older and sicker. Basic decency would head off such budgeting myopia, but when it comes to gay and lesbian workers, it's somehow OK to penalize them.

In addition, the cost to extend the benefits isn't that great. A grand total of three people signed up when the Spokane Police Guild got partner benefits. Extending such benefits is lost in the churn of other workers getting married, divorced and having children.

County Commissioner Mark Richard opposes medical benefits for gay and lesbian workers but says the new bereavement benefits for gay and lesbian workers were "the right thing to do." Equal medical benefits are also the right thing to do and for the same reason.

He notes that marriage has value. It sure does. You can get better benefits. But that option isn't available to gay and lesbian workers. But that's not what he meant by "value." He was moralizing. Just as City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin did when she said partner benefits are against her core values.

The message to gay and lesbian workers is clear: Turn straight, get married and then – and only then – will you be eligible for the same compensation. Oh, and it would be helpful if you did that in a good budget year.

Such a position is embarrassing, but fortunately it is on the run.

Floors: Bath

2008-09-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

The one thing we did inside the house before we moved in last year was replace the floors in the bathroom and the kitchen. I knew that it was something that would never get done once we were living there. Both rooms had old vinyl flooring over the original linoleum and in the bathroom both were in super bad shape, discolored, rotting, generally yucky. The kitchen had some 50+ year old vinyl that was super heavy duty, but split and peeling up at the seams.

Paul started the task of pulling up the old flooring, which in the bathroom turned out to be rather difficult. The linoleum was rotted and crumbling so it came up in tiny pieces and the tar paper backing was glued on there tight. Like most bathrooms I've seen the floor under the toilet was in the worst shape. I knew there would be issues since there was substantial water damage, missing plaster and rotten lathe, in the basement under the bathroom. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that the sub-floor and the sub-sub-floor were both completely disintegrating as well as part of the wall in the corner. It's kind of a miracle the toilet didn't fall through the floor actually since there wasn't much support. See the drain pipe for the toilet? This picture is from before we removed most of the rotted sub-floor and wall. There just wasn't anything there. My dad helped us out with fixing the floor with bondo, a 2x8 and some chip board.

After the sub-floor was structurally sound, a layer of cement board and ceramic tile went down. We went with the octagon and dot Dal tile instead of hex tile because Paul liked it better--I think that's a good enough reason. We also used a grey grout instead of white and I like the contrast with the white field tiles and will probably do the same with the wall tiles, and it avoids the future issues of dirty looking white grout everyone complains about. It took over a week (two weeks?) to do this since we could only work Sunday-Tuesday nights or Saturday day.

We ordered the tile from a local tile shop and had excellent customer service. I know the same tile is also available at HD or Lowes but after ordering the kitchen tiles from there I'm loathe to special order anything there again.

Year 1

2008-09-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of our purchase of the house on Newark. After we bought the house last year it was still another 6 weeks until we moved in. Not becuase of renovations so much, but we just didn't have time to move. Both Paul and I were in South Pacific and with performances five days a week until the end of October it took a while to get packed and moved. We did a little work to the house before we moved in, namely the kitchen and bathroom floors. After replacing the bathroom floor in the other house while we lived there (only one bathroom in the house), I knew we should do floors before we were living there. Apparently my wisdom didn't motivate me to get the wood floors refinished in the rest of the house, which I regret because how am I going to remove all the furniture from the house for a week now?

In the first year we have:
1. Tiled the kitchen floor
2. Tiled the bathroom floor
3. Replaced the roof
4. Ripped out existing Giant junipers
5. Removed sod from front yard, parking strip, and veg garden area
6. Planted perennials in the front/side yard
7. Hung curtains in bedroom (to replace sheet in window)
8. Installed bedroom closet organizer

Things I thought we'd have done by now (still to do):
1. Rewire the house
2. Build new cabinets for the stove side of the kitchen
3. Build new counter tops for kitchen
4. Scrape/paint all cabinets in kitchen
5. Paint living room / dining room / bedroom / bathroom / other bedroom / kitchen
6. Re tile bathroom walls
7. Unpack boxes in back bedroom and attic
8. Sew living room drapes (have fabric already)
9. Have a washer/dryer

Maybe I was unrealistic about what would get done the first year. I know we could have done more. If we had spend weekends and weeknights and really pushed to get things done. But we're busy and I guess it wasn't a priority. Some things are starting to be come a priority again, like the kitchen and bathroom, but it's that time of year when I don't have a lot of time again, so we'll see.

What is better, old or new?

2008-09-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

While removing the old shingles from the house during the great re-roofing of aught eight ('08) I also started the process of removing the aluminum trim added with the last roof. I think the last roof was possibly installed in the late sixties or early seventies. I meet some resistance when I insisted the aluminum be removed with cries of, "but it's low/no maintenance. You'll never have to paint." Yeah, but it looks like aluminum trim. Metal trim will never look like wood. I walk past houses and can immediately see that the house has vinyl or aluminum siding. That sheen, the false clapboard shadows, the siding width inconsistent with the architecture of the house. It just looks fake, it looks wrong, and I don't want that on my house.

Removing all the 40-year-old aluminum trim exposed all the weathered trim with flaking peeling paint - which is why the aluminum went up in the first place. I have to re-paint the trim and soffits soon but the windows can wait. I can't take the aluminum off until I remove the aluminum storm windows, which will wait until I get new ones. Since the house is brick (tan with red accents - not white brick like I mistakenly told someone looking for my house once) I won't be changing the body color ever. No, no, no on the painted brick. The top layer of chipped paint on the trim is white. It's petty, but I don't want white trim. Everyone has white trim, it just seems so easy, so common. The bottom layer (original) paint on the trim is off-white. Okay, that's a little better. I tried thinking of other trim colors that would work like tans, and browns but that could get heavy and could be hard to match to the dirty/filthy creamy tan color of the brick. So off-white/lite cream it is.

The main trim wraps around the bottom of the roof and the soffits. One of the surprises was that the fascia board has an ogee profile (think crown molding) and the soffits are bead board. Fancy, but scraping the old paint will be a little more of a pain in the ass. Although I'll carry the cream paint to the window trim I want to do something different on the window casements - you know, the window part of the window. The house has inward swinging casement windows instead of the more common double-hung sash window. While scraping the interior of the bathroom window last weekend I hit the exterior of the window with the sander to knock off some blistering paint and noticed that under the bright green top layer was a more subtle light green paint. I'm starting to think the exterior of the house was only painted the two times - when the house was built and then again in the 40s or early 50s - and then came the aluminum.

While I hate the current green color (type "bright green" in Google image search and the first four results...that's the color of my windows right now and with 8-9 panes each that's a lot of green)I am still open to the light green option. However, originally the roof was green too. Green stained cedar shakes. While ripping off the layers of roofing we found:
1. Green shakes
2. Red diamond shaped asphalt shingles (French Method)with an embossed wave pattern
3. Green interlocking (T-lock) asphalt shingles with a large embossed wood grain pattern
4. Red (w/ black & green flecks) 3-tab shingles

If you are interested in the history of asphalt shingles, I found this engrossing article from Old House Journal.

So now that the roof is red, I'm thinking of red for the windows too. Perhaps like the persimmon shade I painted the back door (I'll get a picture of it soon.)

-------------------

I found an excerpt from The Household Painter (1923), by A. Ashmun Kelly on the Old-House Journal website with some advice on selecting house colors:

Color choices should not be made by personal preference alone.
Exterior colors should be chosen according to the style of the house.
Location of the house and the surroundings should weigh in on the decision.
In suburban settings, colors should harmonize with nearby houses, not duplicate them—cooperate, don't compete.
Large houses painted in medium to dark colors recede into the background.
Large houses painted in light colors stand apart from the background.

How to stay warm all winter with one log*

2008-09-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

I've always been a bit of an energy control freak. Given total control of the thermostat has resulted in a 65F temp while at home and 55F while sleeping or at work. I know, that's cold. I don't heat the finished attic and closed the vents in the unused back bedroom and in the kitchen since we're in there infrequently. We have a friend who demands the heat turned up if she comes to our house. Despite my strict controls over the 7-day programmable, touch-screen thermostat We still paid $945 for heating oil last year.

When we bought the house last year I had mixed feelings over the oil fired furnace. I've never had oil heat and it's not that common here on the west coast. I did a little online research and heard a lot of people touting the comfort of oil heat, the competitive price of oil vs natural gas and yet we were already seeing rising gas prices so I knew it wouldn't be cheap. I planned on replacing it (it was 20 years old) but I thought I could hold out though, for a little while. Just a few years of oil might be okay and give me time to make a decision on the next type of furnace. I didn't want to jump to the default of natural gas (the most common choice) since we do have inexpensive electric on the west coast too. None of that mattered though when I saw No. 1 heating oil prices nearing $5/gallon this summer. The price has come down some since (to around $4/gallon) but that could still cost us an additional $430 this winter and believe me, the house is never really warm.

I had a sales rep from a local heating company come to the house to do a quote last week. I wanted to know what all my options were so I could compare the price breaks between the regular, efficient, and super-efficient options. I asked around to get a ball park idea of what it might cost but I was still scared it would be more than I thought, or that I might be required to replace duct work throughout the house. So 80% efficiency is considered normal or average for a furnace and then there's a jump up to 92% efficiency which is energy efficient and if you add a variable speed fan you get another 3%. The price break from 80% to 92% is $450 and then from 92% to 95% is $1100 + $212 for a new thermostat.

I want to be super efficient. I want that variable speed fan. However, that $1300 could be better spent on other things like weather stripping, new storm windows, insulation for the attic. It would take so long to see a return on that additional cost but just moving from the ~60-70% efficient oil furnace to a 92% gas furnace, we will recoup our money in less than 6 years (and I hope that is a conservative estimate). oh, and the local utility company offers a $400 rebate for any gas furnace over 90% AFU making the price difference between the 80% and 92% so small I don't see how anyone could choose the less efficient one. Now I have to call and schedule the installation I guess.

*Carry the log upstairs and throw it out a window. Retrieve the log and repeat.
-Farmers Almanac

Bonanza*

2008-08-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

You know how some days you're all, "What! it's 4 o'clock" and realize that the work day is almost over, and then there are other days where it's, "OMG, it is only 1:32." Today is the latter. Some days there are those projects that you don't want to do, so they take even longer to do than they should, and the day feels longer than it should, so now you've wasted almost three whole days doing something you didn't want to do. Yeah. I feel all unproductive since it's taking forever on this thing at work (that I don't even care about) and haven't cleaned the house up yeat, and all those weeds sprouting in the front yard...they're still there and still growing. I did do all the laundry this weekend (even the linens) so I guess I got something done. Last weekend I installed a new doorbell but haven't taken pictures yet so I won't say too much about that since you can't see what I'm talking about.

Paul is coming home tomorrow at 5, which is why I wanted to clean the house. And by clean the house I really mean that I just want to pick up all the shoes and clean off the dining table and maybe do the dishes - nothing hard. But last night after I ate my frozen burrito and chips with salsa I just didn't want to. So, I watched Army Wives and then Mad Men on the PVR and went to bed. I keep reading advice on "how to keep your house from getting so trashed you want to burn it all" and they all say to spend 5-15 minutes everyday just picking up the clutter, throwing away the junk mail and maybe doing a few dishes. And when I do these things I'm still amazed at how big of a difference I can make in such a short time but usually I just can't make myself do it. I look at that plate and glass on the table, or that pile of junk mail, or the two pairs of shoes under the table and something inside me just goes, "Uhg, I can't." And I don't. I walk away, and then I'm embarrassed that someone might see that I live in clutterdom and can't manage to take my laundry detergent to the basement...you know, since I'm going down there anyway?

Tonight I have rehearsal again, so when I get home tonight at 9 or later I'll have to make that final decision, "do I pick everything up, or let Paul come home after 4 months to a messy house." I guess if it was clean it might give off the impression that I've kept it that way all summer, which would be a lie. But I do feel a juvenile sense of accomplishment when the house is tidy, almost how I feel when something grows in the yard like, "oh, look, I made a flower!" Ridiculous-I know. However, right now I have made lots of flowers and if I just cleaned up the shoes, vacuumed the floor and cleared off the table I could put a bunch in a vase and feel like I live like a normal person - or at least like the kind of person who cleans their house and has cut flowers.

*or, How In the Amount of Time it Took For Me to Write This I Could Have Finished Everything I'm Dreading.

100 most "popular" books

2008-08-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

I stole this quiz from Camels & Chocolate (via She Like Purple).

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

Key
1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.

***********************

1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (I read at least three of them, just haven't gotten to the rest.)
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) The Bible (Well, you know, most of it.)
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (I read this because it was on a list of banned books, which is also why I started ready Harry Potter too.)
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (I bought it once, but never read it)
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare (my parents had the actual complete book)
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (and yet I've never read the Lord of the Rings books)
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (I read this in HS and didn't really enjoy it)
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (Is it bad that the upcoming movie makes me want to read this book?)
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (I think jr. high was a little too young to read this though, I should try it again.)
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34) Emma by Jane Austen
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39) Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (I'm not sure I would ever want to read this book, except to understand why everyone loved it so much.)
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding (I re-read the entire book for the third time in one night in HS trying to find a passage referenced by my english teacher.)
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (This was my favorite book for a while)
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
69) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses by James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession by AS Byatt
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White
88) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98) Hamlet by William Shakespeare (although wasn't this already covered in the complete works?)
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (I always meant to, it was a popular book in jr. high)

Seriously I think some of the contemporary books on this list will not stand the test of time, and I can think of some other books I've read that should make the list. Of course this is the list of the 100 most popular books, not books that everyone should read. So what's my total? 49. But then some things on the list are collections, and some are individual books in a series. In addition to books I italicized, I expect I would read a number of the other books that could be considered "classics."

The Magic Hour

2008-08-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

This morning I logged in to my computer at 8:08 (on 8/8/08). What does this mean? Am I destined for a lucky day, I mean everyone seems to think there is something special about
The Summer Olympics start today in China at 8:08 pm (in Bejing time, not here obviously, in fact, I think it's already started) I've heard of at least two people (that I know) that are having c-sections or inducing labor today and I'm sure a legion of couples chose today to get married. In Chinese numerology, the number eight is related to prosperity or wealth, but do most of us really believe in that kind of superstition?
From a MSNBC article:
Along with great fortune, the number eight is the atomic number for oxygen. There are eight days of Hanukkah. The symbol for infinity takes on the shape of eight, and there used to be eight planets until Pluto was demoted.
I don't know, that seems like we're reaching a little here, I mean really? Eight planets in our galaxy is some sort of cosmic significance (and then we can't even decide exactly what constitutes a planet?). And the author is wrong anyway since there were nine planets until Pluto was demoted and NOW there are eight. So, magically the number eight is significant (more so than the number 9 apparently) an just in the last year there are officially eight planets in the solar system. Pluto will always be a planet to anyone born prior to 2000 because you can't just start thinking, "oh, yeah, Pluto is a member of the Kuiper belt."

Five Things

2008-08-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am starting my own Five Things tag because I don't have any blogger friends yet to tag me.

1) What were you doing 5 years ago?
Five years ago...I was working for the City as the Human Rights Specialist where I facilitated the Human Rights Commission (meetings, etc), took complaints, and served as a resource for the City and community. But, all this was only a 1/2 time job, so I also worked for PJALS (Peace and Action League of Spokane) and at Bethany Presbyterian Church. I was also sewing costumes for the production of Winnie the Pooh for Spokane Children's Theatre. It wasn't all big furry animal suits, 'cause those are scary. The animals all had ears and tails if appropriate, but Kanga and Roo wore matching blue print dresses with pink ruffled aprons, Eeyore wore grey chords and a big baggy blue cotton sweater (and of course had the pink ribbon on his tail), I also had a whole chorus of 5-year-old bunnies so they were outfitted in green t-shirts and khakis and bunny ear headbands with rabbit #1 and rabbit #2 in plaid button downs, sweater vests and vintage ties. I think the whole scheme worked well with a hint of 1950s inspiration. Of course I don't have any pictures, too bad.

2) What are five things on your to-do list today?
I usually don't have a to-do list, since I do the same thing most weekdays, but today:

1)Go to work

2)Send e-mail about getting quote for a new natural gas furnace to replace our oil furnace that could cost us in excess of $1500 to heat the house this winter.

3)Remember to turn the water off on the soaker hose that I left on along the house this morning and maybe get the other side of the house watered a little too.

4)Go to call backs for Oklahoma! auditions.

5)Try to go to sleep before 11pm

3) What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
I try to keep food in my desk at work so I'm not starving but I've gotten a little low lately. So I like 1) fresh fruit (what ever's in season or in the store during the winter. 2) Almonds (roasted salted ones from Costco) 3) Dried fruit (mostly goes into my oatmeal in the mornings) 4) Carrots and 5) then there's the stuff I love but try to not eat all the time (so it gets grouped into one item) like ice cream, cookies, an occasional chocolate bar, and a good stiff cocktail (not a snack you say? I disagree).

4) what are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
I don't know what the average person's priorities are for this, but most of the other blogs I've read this post on are also people renovating their old houses and in general are normal people (normal like I'm normal, so what does that me). So, if I were a billionaire (funny how a millionaire isn't sufficient anymore) I would 1) pay off my house 2) pay people to finish the big projects I'm totally dreading like electrical and refinishing the floors 3) Do something for my parents (like send them to that trip to Europe they've talked about) to pay them back for everything they've helped with over the last 12 years since I've become and "adult" 4)Set up some sort of investment retirement plan (just in case you know) and 5)give a lot of money away.
There are a lot of other things I'd do with that money too, so I guess this is just the top five things.

5) What are 5 jobs you've had (or 5 places you've lived)?
Since I've already talked about jobs, I figure I could say five places I've lived, but then I've lived in a lot more that five places. Since I've lived in 5+ cities I thought I would specialize this answer to the five places I've lived in Spokane since moving back.

1) I lived with my parents for six months after moving back to Spokane and did a little house sitting so I could finish a few classes, find a job, and pay off my $900 credit card balance which seemed really big at the time since it was the first time I carried a balance on a card (and I had no income).

2) I moved to a little basement apartment in December (2001) with a roommate (Issac) downtown. I could walk to work, movies, the theatre, the bus station, bars, grocery store. Did I mention that I didn't have a car?

3) Issac moved to Boise for grad school in March of 2003 and Paul and I had gotten involved the previous September and was practically living in my apartment already, so we both moved into a new apartment that he'd signed a lease on across the river by the Courthouse.

4) By the summer of 2005 we were both itching for a little more space and the real estate market kept going up and I started to worry that if we didn't buy soon we'd be priced out. We were in a place where we could afford a house (even though I wasn't working full time again yet after being downsized during city budget cuts) and we started looking for a house. Our budget was $70-85,000. Laughably small now, but I remember then looking at houses I loved that were $92,000 and realizing that we couldn't afford them (now those same houses are 30% more at least). We found a house that I though had potential, it was little (700 sq ft) but had a little basement, but no garage, and the kitchen layout was funky, but after our inspection we had to pull out becuase there were just too many problems. At the same time my mother found us the deal of a century for a rental. All we had to do was clean out the entire house of the previous tenant's stuff, fix everything that had been neglected over a few decades (rip out carpet, paint absolutely everything, replace floors, and clean, clean, clean) but the location was terrific, the rent was a steal, and we could get a dog, so we moved up the hill to 25th.

5)After 2 years of fixing someone else's house and wanting to do even more (but realizing it wasn't worth our time when we'd be moving soon) We started looking for a house to buy again. By this time the market was even hotter than in '05 and even though we had a higher income, we were still looking at the same houses. And some of them literally were the SAME houses back on the market 2 years later but priced 30% higher (and not any nicer than they were before). Our budget started at 100-115,000 this time and we looked at a number of houses. After finding only 2 that were even in reasonable shape (since I was looking for a fixer-upper anyway) and dismissing one because the only bathroom was downstairs next to the kitchen and there was a really weird slope to the floor, we put an offer on a house that was super, but needed a TON of work and wasn't in a great location but close to downtown, close to an emerging neighborhood and on a bus line. Again after the inspection and finding out in addition to all the work I knew about and was cool about (like re-doing all the electrical, replacing the heating system, gut and re-do both bathrooms, fixing the slope in the kitchen floor, re-doing the floors, adding insulation) the roof was also failing. Since the owners weren't willing to budge on the price, or fix the 30 year old roof that they insisted wasn't as bad as the inspector said (he had pictures though, I saw it) we had to let the house go again. And that led us to this house. Our brick bungalow that I saw online and after peeking in the windows one afternoon fell in love with. We got a walk through and made an offer that day. we paid more than the top of our budget, and we still had to replace the roof, and the electrical, and re finish the floors, and scrape paint off everything, but it is in a super neighborhood (sadly no grocery store anymore, but maybe, someday) and we love it here.

Thank You, a Lot (and things I learned)

2008-07-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone that helped with the roofing project this last week. My parents, Ken, Jenny, Peter, Tim, Steve, Larry, Kent, Ron, Katie, Chris for lending the roofing nail gun, the guy who delivered the shingles, and lastly my neighbor Ed. I need to make sure I send out personal thank you cards soon to everyone. I'm finally back to the real world this week, but there's still a little bit left to be done on the roof. Once the Hips and Ridge are done and the soffit vents installed, and then final inspection, we'll have a brand new roof.

It took longer than I thought, just like my dad said it would. He has worked tirelessly for the last 11 days and is finally taking the day off (but this afternoon will help me with getting the hips covered). We started ripping off the roof on the 4th (of July) and worked every day for 10+ hours for the next 10 days. Yesterday I came back to work but my dad and Ken spent one more day getting the majority of the remaining shingles up and the new vents for bathroom and kitchen fans.

Things I learned in the last week:

1. Looking back, I don't think we should have done it ourselves. Yes, a roof is expensive but it is also hard dirty work and no matter how much you try to learn about roofing before you start, the people who do it every day know those little tricks, and they're a lot faster.

2. My roof is complicated. I just didn't know how much more work that was going to take. A lot of houses have complicated roofs but if you're thinking of replacing your own roof you better hope you live in a rancher or any house with a simple gable roof.

3. I need a tool belt. Once you're up on a roof, it gets kind of hard to hold on to all the tools you might need up there and a pocket full of nails. The last few days I wore a pair of old cargo pants and stuffed the pockets with staples, nails, my chalk line and tried to carry a hammer but that didn't work too well. And later, a tool belt could come in handy for other household jobs like when I climb in the attic to install the bathroom fan.

4. There are people out there willing to help without expecting anything in return. My family was the biggest help during this project and obviously I couldn't have done it without their help. But it was people like my neighbor who loaned us ladders and tools and the last weekend helped unload the shingles and put them up. The guy who delivered the shingles who came before we had any felt on the top of the roof, so he helped roll out the top two rows, move the roof jacks and helped unload the 22 squares of shingles on the roof. He could have just said, "tough luck" and unloaded the shingles on their pallets in the front yard, but he didn't.

My mom took a lot of pictures this week and once I get some loaded online, I'll go into more exciting roofing detail. Right now I'm just happy we're done (almost).

It Goes (Comes?) Down Tomorrow

2008-07-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow we start ripping off the old roof. With a 30% chance of thunderstorms. At least the temperature should cool down to 85 instead of the 90+ hotness it's been all this week. This is when you start wondering, "why don't I have an air conditioner." Then you remember that there will only be two weeks this whole summer with these temps and I think air conditioners are really more trouble than their worth. Especially since I'd have to build a custom window, take off the aluminum storm/screen, and some how locate an electrical outlet within six feet. Since I don't think any of that is going to happen I sweat it out, and ponder sleeping outside someday. So the roof. It's scary, big, and I definitely hope it isn't more than we can handle. By we I'm referencing the fact that this entire project will be completed primarily by myself and my parents with some ground support by other family.

I'm trying to keep my eye on the prize. The pretty, leak-free roof at the end of this task. The roof that will take the house one step closer to charming cottage and one step farther from run-down fixer-upper. I'm not sure if I'll necessarily feel a greater sense of accomplishment as apposed to paying someone to do it, but the $5000 we'll save will go a long way toward getting some other things done. What should be next? The clothes washer plumbing (and a washer/dryer), or the cabinets for the kitchen, or the electrical, or the back yard fence.

Speaking of the back yard, the tree that I labeled as an apple tree in my drawing is actually a cherry tree. Bing maybe, but since the crows have eaten all the fruit off the tree I can't be sure.

I also recently identified one of the fruit trees on the other side of the property line as a pear tree. The tree is in sad shape, having been improperly pruned for many years, but I saw two tiny green pears on the leafy branches. I hope they last long enough to come to maturity before the birds get them.

Sometimes it's the shape that makes it

2008-06-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

When we lived in California the closest drug store the the house was the Thrifty's. When I was nine-years-old the best part of going shopping was getting ice cream at Thrifty's. See, the ice cream was different there. I think I got the same flavor every time because there wasn't anywhere else you could get chocolate malt ball ice cream. And instead of round scoops on a cone, Thrifty's ice cream was cylindrical. I don't know how they did it, but saw this ice cream scooper today that might recreate that experience for me.

The Cuisipro Ice Cream Scoop & Stack gives you that cylindrical scoop shape just like a 25 cent Thrifty's cone. I remember the scoops being bigger though when I was 10. Now if I can just find some tiny malt balls to add to chocolate ice cream.

Update********
Apparently there are other people out there who loved the same ice cream. I found this recipe to make it, however still no source for the tiny malt balls.

Emile Norman documentary

2008-06-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

I happened to catch this on PBS last night and couldn't turn it off to go to bed when I should have: Emile Norman: by his own design. You won't find much on the internet about his work beside his own website but at 90 he is still a working artist. Besides a profile of his life as an artist, the documentary is an illustration of the life he created for himself. I was stunned by his house in Big Sur, which he and his partner started building over 50 years ago. The house is a gallery of his art, and every surface has been crafted, even the harpsichord and organ cases.

Watch this documentary if you have a chance. The next time I go to San Fransisco, I'm going to take a trip to the Masonic Temple to see the huge glass mosaic commissioned in 1955.

Slow Progress

2008-06-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

I had one of those weekends where I thought about all the things I should/could do, and then did the minimum. And I thought to myself, "at least I did something!" I'm not sure I should be patting myself on the back for that, but I'm taking those small steps.

I did my laundry, which shouldn't be a big deal but since I'm still trucking down the street to the Hi-Co mart/laundry mat I tend to put it off. However I'm sure I would put it off even if I had my own washer in the basement. The benefit of the laundry mat is that I can do all three loads of wash at once. It's 38 min in the washer (neptune front loader) and only 15 min in the dryer. And since I fold everything before I leave the whole trip clocks in at about 1.5 hours. Pretty good for three loads. I even brought a book to read but part of the problem with going is the waiting area. I'm sure they thought it was a great idea to make a nice waiting area with upholstered furniture except, um, it kind of smells funny. I never thought I'd be longing for a nice vinyl chair or hard bench.

I painted the back door. Again. This time I used the second mis-tint can of paint I picked up for the second and third coats on the door. The door, which started out flat white, then painted a creepy fleshy-mauve tan, is now a glossy brick red. I like it, but I think it would be too much if I painted anything else that color. I'm leaning toward a yellow tan for the window casings and super dark green maybe for the window frames. Since painting is probably a summer 2009 project there is plenty of time to ponder and test out colors.

I looked at the mountain of dirt. I didn't do anything with it. I though about digging, but then I didn't. I can't put it off forever, and since we're starting the roof in less than 2 weeks I guess I best do something with it. Here's the yard post grass removal, pre dirt mountain.

Introducing Ryan Jr.

2008-06-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Surprise! I thought Saturday was going to be a lazy rainy day, until my dad showed up at the house with a gas-powered sod cutter.

A week or so ago my mom and I attacked the parking strip in front of the house with spades and removed 8-10 linear feet of sod. It was hot, and the dogs were antsy and I stopped every 8-10 minutes to rest or pull the dogs apart and to top it off I got sunburned in the one spot I forgot to put sunscreen - the front of my neck. I knew a gas-powered sod cutter would make short work of the lawn, but they're big, super heavy and noisy and I wasn't sure I could deal with all that. Not to mention the logistical transportation nightmare. My dad just wanted the project (at least the sod removal part) done with and after an hour of the two of us pushing and pulling the monster around the front (and the back of the back) yard we were. The next few hours my mom, dad and I carried all that sod to the side of the house and placed it dirt side up over the grass/weeds in the adjoining vacant lot. It rained the entire time and it was dirty work but look at the results. A beautiful yard of dirt!

So far that's all it is, dirt, and bad dirt at that. It just crumbled in my hands as I lifted the sod. Even though it was raining, and had been raining on and off all week, the dirt 2 inches down was bone dry. Just shows how important a long soak can be for your plants/grass. My birthday present from my parents last year was a truck full of dirt for the new yard so after that is delivered and tilled into the existing soil we should be able to fill the yard with the perennials and groundcover. Maybe I haven't mentioned how much I hate front yard lawns yet. I hate mowing something that I never use, isn't decorative, and something that requires that I water it with a sprinkler that has to be moved every few hours. I admit that I let large sections of our previous lawn turn yellow last summer because

1. Grass that isn't watered grows slower, so I mow it less.
2. I couldn't stomach leaving that water running like that.
3. I'm kind of lazy.

Lawn-alternative front yards are definitely still the minority but there are a few in my neighborhood. One in particular I have admired since before we moved in. It turned green before anyone's lawn did, it has year-round color/texture, and it doesn't have to be mowed. A number of the plants have to be cut back after their blooming season is over, or at the end of winter, but for me 10 minutes cutting tulip leaves to the ground is still better than 30 minutes pushing a mower.

I want to be dead before I have to do it again

2008-06-06T15:44:00.001-07:00

Number eight on the list of summer goals (in no particular order) is to replace the roof. The existing roof is obviously failing with missing shingles, granule loss, and signs of slipping/sagging shingles. I tried to get someone to come do a quote on doing a temporary winter fix to stop the leak (where the shingles are missing) but I couldn't get anyone to actually get out to the house and do the quote before the snow started. After that I kind of gave up and figured I'd just try and fix whatever additional damage resulted. You'd think that 3+ layers of shingles would offer superior protection from the elements - not so.

Like I mentioned, it appears that the roof has more that three existing layers of roofing material; I'm pretty positive that the original roof is still up there. In addition to the poor weather protection the current roof provides, I think the combined weight of all the shingles has got to be a bad thing for the continued structural integrity of the house. Since we got an estimate on replacing the roof on the house we didn't buy, and saw a thrice faxed copy of an estimate done for this roof, I know that the cost to rip off, re-sheet, and re-shingle can run from $8000 to over $10,000. Yikes!

Since I come from a family with a "I could do that myself better and cheaper" aesthetic, my dad has convinced me that we could replace the roof ourselves. So now that summer has come, rather quickly I might add, I am rushing to organize everything. I mailed off my permit and check to the city so we're legal and all, I found the shingles I want, and hopefully everything will fall into place for the 4th of July weekend. After a little internet research I found that laminated shingles (also known as architectural shingles) can now come with a 50 warranty. Now that's my kind of a shingle. I never want to put on another roof and if I'm 80+ when this one fails, well we'll deal with it when the time comes. I'm looking at the TAMKO Heritage Vintage shingles in green. I still have to go to the lumber yard tomorrow morning to order them, and all those other things like underlayment, iceshield (required by the city), drip edge, and a ridge vent. I'll also need to get new decking, new flashing, and vent pipes but I'll get those when we're ready to get started. I know this won't be an inexpensive project but I hope to fall short of the $10,000 mark.

Don't assume they know what they're doing

2008-05-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

We have one of those Blockbuster by mail movie accounts and I've found that it's a pretty good fit. I make a long list of movies and television shows I want to watch and Blockbuster remembers it. Instead of walking slowly along the outer wall looking at every new movie and trying to decide if I'm in the mood, but maybe there's something better around the next side, I just get one in the mail from my list...well everyone knows how this works now. However with the Blockbuster account we get two trade-ins a month which mean quick turn-around on the next one in the mail and instant gratification when you hear about that wacky new movie. I've never had a Blockbuster rental card and I've managed to have Paul around when we've traded in movies before. This month I let a movie languish on the table for over three weeks because I never felt like I was in the "right" mood to watch it. I finally decided to trade it in yesterday. I picked something from the television isle and when I went to the counter to do the exchange I mentioned that I don't have an actual card, but the account is under Paul's name.

"That's okay, can I see your drivers license?"

I hand him the license.

"The account isn't under my name, but I'm listed as an authorized user on the account."

"That's okay," he said "What's your phone number?"

"509, wait, do you want my phone number or the number of the account might be under?"

It doesn't matter he says, so I give him the whole number.

"What's your address?" And I recite my address.

"Jim Patterson?"

"No..."

"Well, you've never rented anything here."

"Yes, I have,"

"It must have been more than a year ago."

What? No, "It was about two months ago. The account is under Villabrille," I know I mentioned this before.

"oh, yeah here it is."

After this whole thing, I just want my own card so I don't have to go through this exchange again and the guy walks across the store and does some typing on another computer, tears something off the printer under the counter and puts it in the little laminated sleeve. That's right, he printed me a new card on the dot matrix printer. Even the local bakery has plastic coffee cards. Blockbuster prints them out, and part of the text is even cut off on the top of the card. Classy.

Taking it Back

2008-05-16T13:12:00.001-07:00

It seems so much bigger when you measure everything in pixels but I have a plan to take my back yard from meah, to, well, functional. I really need to get a "before" picture so you can see the state of the back right now. The ramshackle grape arbor and the falling down fence thing under the other grape vine are the only structure currently. For two years I've dreamed of a patio space. A defined outdoor room if you will where I can sit in a chair in the evening and look out on the tame and orderly backyard.

I need to fix the coloring on this rendering because it looks like a lot of grass still and there really won't be much left after the plan is executed. That whole section in the back beyond the path, that's the vegetable garden area and will have no grass, just some sort of mulchness on the ground. And under the fruit trees at the left? Also, no grass. I'm not sure what to do there except maybe some more mulch? There are a lot of spring bulbs already in the ground there (tulips, crocus, and the mystery plant #2 a little yellow flower with a green ruff that came up right after the snow melted) and I"ll leave those in place. I guess I'll have to create a border between the grass and the not grass area.

We also need to fence in the yard so it is more dog friendly. I'm going back and forth on the type of fence because I can't decide how much of a privacy fence it should be. I guess I want privacy, not only from people walking by on the street, but I don't really want to look at the weedy vacant lot all the time. But I'll loose what little sun there is back there in the afternoon and that would be especially bad for the vegetable area. So now I'm leaning toward a lattice* fence. I think it would offer some privacy from the street but still allow sun.

*and just to clarify, I mean a square lattice, not the diamond lattice that is so popular now. The ramshackle arbor and the grape fence both use square lattice so I think it would go well with the historic style of the house.

Summer Goals

2008-05-08T16:27:00.000-07:00

The first 10 house projects I want to accomplish:

1. Build closet organizer
2. Measure and get quote on kitchen cabinets
3. Hang dining room curtains
4. Hang bedroom (temporary) curtains
5. Scrape paint off existing kitchen cabinets
6. Scrape paint off bookcase doors
7. Get 2 more shelves for linen cabinet
8. Replace the roof
9. Draw electric circuit diagram for the house
10. Have plumber replace laundry drain (and maybe add sink drain)

Baby steps. Some of these are just the first step in a big project, but I want to be able to cross some things off my list sometime this year.

Fortune smiles

2008-04-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

I ate a fortune cookie today and my fortune?

"You will exceed your expectations"

What does that say about me? Do I have low expectations of myself? I'm sure it is supposed to be along the lines of "you will do great things." I mean, who doesn't want a positive fortune. It just feels a little sad to me.

Treading on Virgin Soil

2008-04-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

It isn't an easy thing, this first blog post. I don't have anything especially insightful to say, or any important project to document, because really nothing is good enough to be The First. Normally I would sit and think, and come up with nothing all that grand and then procrastinate. Because I would have to wait. Wait until that insightful or important event happened that would not only make me look good, but make me look smart, and witty and well...who am I kidding. None of that matters unless anyone but me reads this. And in order for anyone else to read this I would have to tell them where it is, which I won't until I feel that a preponderance of credible content is achieved.

So, for today I offer up the first post to the gods of jumping in with both feet. Tomorrow I'll start the manifesto.