Editor’s note: This is the abridged version of my blog entries from the 2003 Blogathon. Sponsored by friends, I wrote a post every half hour for twenty-four hours in order to raise money for The Global Fund for Women. It is a stream of consciousness set of musings about the house I was fixing up.

Tuesday, June 04, 2002

This is the home of my project for this year’s Blogathon. The plan is to post all of my ideas for things I’d like to fix up at my 102-year-old house. Should keep me busy for at least 24 hours, if not longer. I’ll be blogging for charity *and* nailing ideas down for the house in one fell swoop!

The cause that I’ve chosen is The Global Fund for Women.

The Global Fund for Women, an international network of women and men committed to a world of equality and social justice, advocates for and defends women’s human rights by making grants to support women’s groups around the world.

Saturday, July 27, 2002

Good morning! I’m awake and I’m ready to get started on the Blogathon! I have a kitchen timer to carry around the house with me so I don’t miss any posts, and I purchased a wide variety of caffeine beverages to get me through the night. (Including a can of Whoop Ass for drastic moments)

Thanks again to Mom, Dad, Amber, Todd and Missy – my wonderful sponsors!!!

I purchased the house as a “fixer-upper” during the summer of 2001. It was built in 1900.

posted @ 5:54 AM

One of most recent projects in the house was to repaint the bedroom. The wallpaper was coming down, and the stuff that wasn’t coming down was dingy as all get out, so down it came! (up to 4 layers, too!) It is now a very soothing “sand” color with a “whip” ceiling.

Early on in the whole house project I discovered Devine Color paint and I was hooked on the excellent color palette, so all the rooms in the house are being painted with Devine.

posted @ 6:23 AM

From December 2001 to March 2002, I remodeled the bathroom. I replaced the over-sized vanity and the cheezy plastic tiles that fell off the walls every time we got in the shower. I redid the tiles in the shower, had a new door built for the medicine cabinet, and repainted everything. Anything to get rid of that floral wallpaper! I had to completely redo the walls under the plastic tile because the plaster was nearly disintegrated. I also got some vintage bawdy pictures to frame for the walls – adds a fun whimsical touch.

posted @ 6:51 AM

I can’t take any credit for replacing the patio covering outside of paying for it, but it was one of those things that really needed to get done. Since I don’t know the first thing about roofing, I hired the job out. On most other projects I did a majority of the work, with the exception of the plumbing, electricity, and some of the wall work in the bathroom.

This patio covering was completed last week while I was on vacation. The roof for the detached garage was replaced and the solid wood patio roof was removed and replaced with a wood grid covered by clear panels. I figure this will be useful in that it will let light in, but it will also provide shelter when it rains but we still want to eat outside. Sort of kicking myself for not choosing smoke colored panels instead of clear, but the end effect is still really nice.

posted @ 7:28 AM

The kitchen was the first project that I tackled in the house. The original wallpaper was a cream, pink and blue “heartland” pattern, which did not with the white enamel cabinets and the fire engine red counter tops. The color I eventually settled on was “Sangria” (Devine again) with “Whip” as the color for the ceiling, cabinets, and paneling.

One of the more interesting moments in this project is when I was cleaning the ceiling above the stove. There was *so much grease* there that I was actually able to write the word “dirty” in the grime. It made for a great picture. Eventually I’d like to redo the floor and put in a black and white checker linoleum floor, but there are plenty of other projects that need to be tackled before I get that underway.

posted @ 7:56 AM

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I got a wild idea that I should try to get the dining room repainted for the holiday meal.

After removing three layers of wallpaper, I was astonished to discover that the color the dining room walls had originally been painted was almost the exact same color that we had just painted in the kitchen! Unfortunately, it took three coats of primer to cover the red. The final color was a harvest gold-color whose official name I don’t remember right now. The trim still needs some work, though, and I’d like to replace the ceiling fan with something a little less “Little House on the Prairie”.

The paint dried a mere 12 hours before everyone started arriving, but Thanksgiving went off without a hitch! Dinner was really tasty, too.

posted @ 8:23 AM

I definitely need to find stuff to hang on the walls in the dining room. I bought some wall sconces to put in there, but I haven’t gotten them up yet. I keep buying stuff for projects but don’t take into account that I need to make the time to finish all the projects I’ve already started.

posted @ 8:49 AM

I need to get some curtains for the dining room. I’m not sure what color they should be, though. There used to be some off-white heavy duty drapes from Sears hanging in there, but they weren’t really my style. The same drapes are in the living room as well. Right now the only window covering in the dining room are the vintage venetian blinds that came with the house. Maybe something sheer and off-white with bits of gold embroiderery. I like dark purple, too, but I think that might be a bit overbearing.

posted @ 9:22 AM

I’ve been taking as many pictures as possible during the renovation of the house so I can see a before and after effect. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

posted @ 9:48 AM

I almost bought an armoire for the “mud room” to serve as a linen closet (I don’t have one) but decided at the last minute that I could probably find a better one if I looked hard enough. I’m thinking about checking some of the unfinished furniture shops in the area as they may have more of what I’m looking for, either for an entertainment center for the living room or for a cabinet that can function as a linen closet. Entertainment center-wise, we need something substantial since we have lots of different types of media players and the last one we had didn’t come close to holding all of our peripherals.

Back to the linen closet dilemma, I will also check out the Rebuilding Center for a set of cabinets that I can build into the mud room.

posted @ 10:31 AM

The Rebuilding Center is like a thrift shop for re-modelers — If a contractor or a homeowner have usable materials either left over from a project or that they are removing from a building, they donate it to the RC, where re-modelers like me are able to pick up really sweet materials for very little money while supporting a non-profit organization.

I bought the pedestal sink in my bathroom from the RC, as well as all the tiles that I used to cover the big wooden wire spool in my backyard.

There are a few other places in town where you can get “reclaimed” items for your house like Hippo Hardware and Rejuvenation Hardware, but those places are for profit and a bit more expensive than the RC. Rule of thumb for me is to check the RC first when I’m looking for something.

posted @ 10:51 AM

Wondering if I should I learn how to refinish my hardwood floors or hire the job out? Sometime soon, although most likely after I’ve finished repainting the book room and the living room, the floors are going to need to be redone. They’re showing some wear and are in general overall need of some love.

One of the cool things about the hardwood floors in my house is that they supposedly used to be the gymnasium floor for one of the local schools, although I don’t know which one. The flooring in the book room closet supports this legend because some of the pieces in there show basketball court markings.

I like the idea of refinishing the floors myself, but the idea of moving out all of the furniture, masking off all the other rooms, then sanding and refinishing the floors sounds like a pretty daunting task and one that may be best left to professionals. I also wouldn’t want to mess up the floors.

An alternate idea is that they have no-sand floor refinishing kits. That would solve the masking problem, although not the furniture one. I’m considering it, although I think the floors may need heavier treatment than the no-sand solution would provide.

posted @ 11:22 AM

When the foreman of the crew that fixed my garage roof and rebuilt my patio came over the other day for the final inspection of the work they did, we had an interesting conversation about the best ways to remove wallpaper. He is a big fan of the steamer method, while I get the best results with the Paper Tiger, Dif Concentrate and a good scraping utensil.

One thing I’ve learned with this house – I’m never going to buy a house with wallpaper AGAIN. I’ve already pulled down so much wallpaper, and I still have two rooms that need to have the wallpaper removed. One of those is the living room, which is the largest room in the house. I’m gathering my strength to tackle that project.

posted @ 11:47 AM

I think it’s amusing that I bought a house with a garage specifically because I wanted space to be able to refinish furniture. Unfortunately, I didn’t consider time in that equation. Fixing up the house itself is taking so much time that I have no time to refinish the pieces of furniture I purchased to refinish.

I have a dresser, a buffet, a dining table, and a set of chairs that need refinishing.

posted @ 12:24 PM

A few doors down from me lives the daughter of the woman who owned my house for about 40 years. Another couple owned it from ’99 – ’01, but they didn’t do much work to the house. I’ve talked to her a few times about the work that her mother had done to the house, but I wasn’t able to get as much information as I would have liked.

I had a yard sale a couple months ago and they came by. I was telling her and her husband about the work I had done in the bathroom when she broke in with, “But my mother redid that bathroom all by herself!” I let her know that the wallpaper and the plastic tiles were already coming down on their own when I redid the bathroom, and that the way her mother had done the tiles in the shower was not adequate to keep it moisture proof, so it needed work.

She still wasn’t very happy about it, but there’s not much she can do considering that I’m the owner of the house now.

Next half hour: The previous occupants of my house and their reaction to the way I redid the kitchen.

posted @ 12:57 PM

My relationship with the couple who previously owned my house has ranged from awkward to plain out rocky. Part of this is because I bought this house from them out of bankruptcy and when they filed for the bankruptcy they neglected to file some necessary papers in a timely manner to allow the house to be sold. This postponed the closing of my house for a month, but no one discovered that the papers needed filing until **20 minutes** before my appointment to sign all of the closing papers. By this point my apartment had already been re-rented and I had to make some emergency arrangements for a place to live until the house was actually able to close.

There were a few other goofy things going on at that time, but needless to say I was pretty pissed off at them for not doing all the things that they were supposed to do in order to to sell the house.

Another strange thing is that their cat still thinks that my house is home, so whenever he gets let out he travels over a mile and across a busy thoroughfare to get to my house. This has led to many calls from them asking me if I’ve seen their cat. One of these times was right after I finished the kitchen. (See pictures several posts below.) She came in to get her cat, and I handed him over in my kitchen. After she picked up the cat she did a slow 360 to see all the changes I’d made. She was speechless for a bit, then managed to say, “Well, it’s really bright.”

posted @ 1:30 PM

Back to the woman who lives a couple of doors down. When I first met her she expressed dismay about the previous owners of my house since they sort of let the yard go after they moved in.

Because they moved out three or four months before I took possession of the house, the yard was neglected even more during that time. It’s been an uphill battle since then to try to get the yard back into shape. I’ve been working with a landscape guy and putting in as much time as possible on the weekends to clean it up, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. The weeds are rampant and the grass is patchy. When I treated it for weeds a few weeks ago I was afraid I’d be getting rid of the entire yard since there was an overwhelming ratio of weeds to grass.

I am seriously thinking about getting rid of all of the grass and putting in some sort of ornamental lower maintenance garden. I need to start reading some books on landscape design. (In my copious amounts of spare time!!!!) It would be nice if I could start on that project next spring.

posted @ 1:54 PM

Another thing that I’d like to do in the backyard is install a fountain. Nothing fancy, just something peaceful and meditative that might have a few fish in it that hopefully the cats of the neighborhood won’t eat. There’s an old BBQ pit-type-thing in a corner of the yard that might transform into a waterfall pretty well, but in the meantime I’m using it as a planter.

posted @ 2:17 PM

In the front yard, I need to find a good plant to go next to the rhododendron. My front porch also needs to be repainted. There is a black metal railing along the perimeter that I’d like to hang planter boxes from once I find the right planter boxes to hang. I’ve thought about putting a porch swing there but I’m not quite sure how we would find the right place to hang it through the aluminum siding.

I’d also like to build some raised cedar beds to go in the side yard next to the driveway. Strawberries do well in this region and I would love to have several beds of nothing but strawberry plants. I already have a whiskey barrel of strawberry plants that have done pretty well this year, but I would enjoy more.

posted @ 2:41 PM

One of my “distant future” projects is to finish my basement. Currently it is a dirt basement, but I’ve been told that a couple of thousand dollars will transform it into a concrete basement. Once we get to that point, I’d like to have another bathroom in there and possibly a guest bedroom.

posted @ 3:08 PM

I think that the stairs to my basement used to go through where my fridge currently sits. The space for my fridge is built into the wall with a cabinet above it and a pantry to its right, but if you look at the base it sits on the wood there is much newer than any of the other wood. The concrete around the stairs suggests that you would walk down stairs where the fridge currently sits, hit a landing, then continue on to the basement. Currently to get to my basement you go through a door to the left of my fridge, through the mudroom, and through another door down the the basement. I suspect that a previous owner wanted more space in the kitchen, so they built the fridge into the wall, changed a porch into the mudroom and changed the position of the stairs.

There’s some unused space behind the fridge nook that is accessible from the basement stairs that I would like to finish off and turn into a wine rack.

posted @ 3:37 PM

One of the interesting things about the location of my house is that it is situated right next to a convenience store. While it is very convenient for when I want a soda or a snack, it is also a pain because people tend to litter in its vicinity and a lot of it blows into my front yard. I’ve planted a lot of arborvitae at that end of my yard, so that as they mature they will form a natural screen my yard and the store. It’s going to take a while, though.

The building that the convenience store is in houses two business, and the other business is a seafood distributor. There was a period of about a month where they were a) having difficulty with their ventilation system; b) weren’t taking all of the correct steps in the disposal of the seafood waste and c) having difficulty with their waste removal company making timely pickups of their rubbish and as a consequence my backyard smelled akin to Fisherman’s Wharf. This was not a good thing. The other bad thing about this is that whenever the owner was there I was at work, and they did not have their business space labeled with the name of their business so I didn’t know who to name when I called the health department to complain about the smell. One morning the owner got there early and I was running late to work so I had an opportunity to introduce myself and let him know that I was very unhappy about the smells that his business was unleashing on the neighborhood. Took another week or so, but the smells cleared up and I was able to go outside my house without a ventilation mask again.

posted @ 4:09 PM

My other “distant future” project is to redo the attic. It’s going to be interesting because the only way to get to my attic is through a door in my bathroom. I think that originally the access to the attic was through a ceiling panel in the closet of the book room, and someone decided they wanted a staircase and the easiest way to do that was to transform the storage closet in the bathroom into a staircase upstairs since trying to build stairs through the book room closet would be next to impossible since you would run into the chimney. As it it, the staircase off the bathroom is pretty steep and ends just before you get to the chimney. There is no landing at the top so it is an awkward step left or right to get into the attic.

posted @ 4:48 PM

The attic is the room where the previous owners put their kids. This makes me a bit nervous because under the boards we think there is asbestos peeking out. Kids + Asbestos = A Very Bad Thing. We put boards down as a temporary solution so that the asbestos would not be disturbed. Eventually we are going to nail boards over all of the linoleum to make an even surface and put new flooring in there. (Possibly linoleum again!)

The current linoleum, by the way, is that cool full room stuff that looks like a rug. Unfortunately, the linoleum is too uneven to keep in there. Bummer.

posted @ 5:12 PM

I’m hoping that eventually the attic can be transformed into an arts area where I can paint, sew, and work on random projects. It’s currently being used as storage until we get the rest of downstairs finished.

The walls are currently covered with this strange “not too different from cardboard” stuff that is bowing and just looks really tacky. I need to pull all of that down, put in new insulation, get more electrical outlets installed and have the rest updated, then drywall the whole room and paint it. Still trying to decide what color it should be up there. If I get *really* ambitious, I’d like to have skylights installed since the only natural light in there comes from a tiny window at the west side of the room.

posted @ 5:40 PM

The attic area is divided into two rooms. The second room, which is on the east side of the house, is completely unfinished. (I guess you could call the other room finished.) The door that separates the two is technically a door but it’s more like a piece of plywood on hinges with a wood bar latch.

In order to finish the second room, the floor will need to be reinforced because the attic area was not originally intended as living space and there are no supporting walls on the first floor under that room. (The second room is positioned above my living room, which is the largest room in the house.) It also looks like someone once stored something pretty heavy up there as the floor bows. Fortunately we can’t see any evidence of this in the living room ceiling.

posted @ 6:11 PM

There are two uses that we’ve come up with for this second room in the attic. The first (and easiest) would be to clean it out and let my boyfriend put a model train set in there. This would not require a reinforcing of the floor because the track would be attached to the rafters. The other possibility for this room is to reinforce the floor, install drywall and use it as a guest bedroom. The catch to this is that the only way to get here is through the bathroom, and the only way to get to the bathroom is to go through the master bedroom, which would make for a potentially awkward guest bedroom.

One of the ways we’ve been talking about working around it is to put an additional door to the stairwell in the den. This would offer an alternate both to upstairs and to the bathroom. The space will be a bit cramped, but it might make the house a bit easier to navigate.

posted @ 6:38 PM

On to the den. This room has yet to be painted. In fact, it only got unpacked a couple of months ago and we’ve been living here for almost a year. It’s still not completely unpacked, although I finally got a bunch of my books unpacked and on a set of bookshelves in there because I was going crazy on my bus commute not having anything to read.

My computer has been at one end of the living room since it was unpacked, and originally I was going to make my office upstairs, but eventually I decided that the den would double as my office.

posted @ 7:08 PM

Speaking of not being unpacked, we spent the first month or two living pretty much completely out of boxes because I was so preoccupied with getting the kitchen painted. We hired movers to move us out of the storage unit we had to rent because of the house closing snafu (see other post) and when they moved us in we had them completely fill our living room with our boxes and stuff. Storage unit-style, if you will.

posted @ 7:36 PM

Another thing that we’ve talked about doing with the upstairs room where the floor needs reinforcing is just completely taking it out, making the ceiling in the living much higher and leaving the one bedroom upstairs as a loft. My “completely dreaming” plan for this would leave a half wall on the east side of the attic so you could see into the living room from upstairs, and there would be a spiral staircase from the living room to get upstairs to the loft. If we did this, then I could remove the staircase from the bathroom that goes upstairs and change that space back into a much-needed closet.

Drawbacks to this plan is that it would probably cost a ridiculous amount of money, I’m not sure if it would really work since I haven’t measured the space yet, and that it might be considered over-improvement for the neighborhood. If I decide that I’m going to live here for longer than 5 years I might do it, but the original plan for this house was to fix it up, sell it, and buy a larger house closer to downtown.

posted @ 8:05 PM

I am a pinball junkie (especially for Medieval Madness) and I’d really love to buy a pinball machine for the house. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyplace to put it unless we make it the focus of the living room or finish the basement off downstairs.

posted @ 8:34 PM

Back to reality… Once I can round up the money for it (probably spring) the electricity in the house needs updating. There aren’t enough outlets in each of the rooms and only a handful of them are grounded. Luckily one of the ones that is grounded is the one that the computer is plugged into. The house inspector didn’t find any problems with the electrical when he went through the house, but I know having the electrical completely updated and to code will add value to the house.

posted @ 8:58 PM

The light on the ceiling fan in the den worked when we went on the final inspection of then house but stopped working shortly after we moved in. The chain on it is stuck. I could probably fix it myself if I took the thing apart but I haven’t gotten around to it quite yet.

posted @ 9:22 PM

When I was remodeling the bathroom, one of the things that I really wanted to fix was where the toilet was placed. When it was installed, it was put in a place where if you wanted to sit regularly on the toilet you pretty much had to put your feet in the bathtub, especially if you’re tall. I wanted to rotate it 90 degrees so a person sitting on the throne had more legroom, so this is one of the requests I made of the plumber when I brought him in to redo all of the plumbing in the bathroom.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the floor joist under the bathroom is in a really awkward spot so in order to rotate the placement of the toilet we’d have to move a ton of other essential stuff in the basement such as waste pipes, heating ducts, and electrical wiring. Total cost for this project would have been several thousand dollars. I thought about it for a while, and figured that I could do much more useful things with several thousand dollars than make it so people could sit really comfortably on my toilet.

posted @ 9:53 PM

The plumber who came out to work on my bathroom I would not hire again. He was quite the sexist pig, which really pissed me off. My boyfriend happened to be home when he was going over some of the plumbing details, and the plumber directed *all* of his comments to him instead of me, and I’m the person who hired him and I’m the person who holds the purse strings. The house is completely in my name.

Eventually, my boyfriend got frustrated with him and told him, “Gee, I don’t know why you’re telling me all of this. She’s the one who’s doing all of the remodeling around here.” I could have kissed him for that.

When I wrote him his check, I called him on his attitude towards me. Even when we had talked and my boyfriend wasn’t around, he still persisted in making comments like, “Your husband this…” and “Your husband that…” (Husband! What husband???) He did a lot of backpedaling after that, but I still wouldn’t hire him again.

posted @ 10:25 PM

After that experience, I considered making all work persons that I hire in the future sign a statement acknowledging the following:

1. Jennifer owns the house.

2. Because Jennifer owns the house and pays for all of the renovation work, Jennifer make the decisions about the work that is going to be done in the house.

3. All questions and comments about the work in the house are to be directed to Jennifer, and not to any person you assume is in charge only because they are male.

4. There will be no references to “husbands doing the work” for Jennifer.

5. Disregarding the above statements will result in immediate expulsion from the job site WITHOUT PAY.

posted @ 10:51 PM

When Dad came for Thanksgiving and before we officially started work on the bathroom, we checked out the wiring on the light fixture in the bathroom. Whoever installed it neglected to put a junction box in first so the wires were just sticking through the lathe and plaster. Can we say, “Fire Hazard,” boys and girls?

We made a run down to Home Depot, picked up a new fixture and got it installed.

posted @ 11:21 PM

The bathroom looks so much nicer now than it did when we moved in. The one thing that I would still really like to do in there (besides rotate the toilet!) is to get a ventilation fan in there. There is a window, but because steam rises it doesn’t really provide adequate ventilation. Besides, keeping the window open in the winter gets awfully chilly. Take that from someone who was remodeling the bathroom in the winter and had to leave the window open while she was painting, as well as when the tiles were being set in the shower.

posted @ 11:49 PM

Sunday, July 28, 2002

Fans! Fans! Fans! Fans! Fans! I’d also like to get a ceiling fan in the kitchen since the smoke detector is pretty close to the stove and tends to go off whenever I try to fry anything. Funny that I have a ceiling fan in the book room and the dining room but not one in the kitchen or my bedroom.

The fan in my dining room has Rocky and Bullwinkle cord pulls. :^)

posted @ 12:11 AM

Fans??? We don’t need no stinking fans. What we need is AIR CONDITIONING! It was much hotter than usual this week here in Portland and when I’d come from work the house would be absolutely stifling. Even getting those small window-based units would be useful.

On any of the windows except the bedroom it might get a bit difficult to put them in, though, since there are security bars on all of the windows. The bedrooms have release mechanisms for the bars.

posted @ 12:37 AM

The security bars are a bit of a dilemma. On one side, I get a discount on my home owner’s insurance because I have them. On the other side, I’m not sure if it’s better for thieves not to be able to get in than it is for me to potentially not be able to get out in the event of a fire. As I’ve mentioned before, the bedroom windows do have release mechanisms. I’m the only person on my block who has them.

I’ve tried to look into what would be involved to get them removed but so far I haven’t found a company that specializes in the removal of burglar bars – only companies that install them.

posted @ 1:05 AM

Security! How much do you need? Last fall I installed a motion sensitive light for my driveway, but I don’t use it all the time because I suspect that the light may bother my next door neighbors even though they have never complained about it.

Now that the patio roof has been redone in my backyard, I need to start thinking about getting a light installed out there as well. In the meantime I’m going to use my icicle lights and string them up around the perimeter of the patio. Should be awfully pretty.

posted @ 1:33 AM

As it gets later into the night and I’m getting more punchy, I’m experiencing my fantasies again of having the abilities of a master carpenter. I could make my own furniture! I would love to have a custom-made Mission style bed. I’d like to build a bureau/cabinet into the wall of my bedroom to make maximum use of limited space. Build cabinets for the north side of my kitchen! Built-in shelves for the art room upstairs! A shelving unit along the south side of my living room that takes up the entire wall!

One can dream, can’t she?

posted @ 2:02 AM

When I get around to removing the wallpaper in the living room, it’s going to be painted a nice shade of sage green. I bought some paint in this color to use as a highlight in the bedroom, but got to a point where I liked the way it looked without it, so I had a extra gallon of the sage paint. The decision was then made that the living room would be done in that color, as I really love the color.

Still haven’t decided what color the den is going to be.

posted @ 2:25 AM

After pulling down all of the wallpaper in several of the rooms, I’ve discovered rather large round patch holes that suggest that there used to be wood stoves or similar installed in my house. (Unfortunately, I can’t find any pictures of them.) There’s also this strange fan above the door between the kitchen and my bedroom that doesn’t work and I’m not sure exactly what sort of ventilation function it was supposed to serve. Perhaps to waft the smell of breakfast cooking into the bedroom to be used as a wake-up call?

posted @ 2:52 AM

The gutters around my garage need replacing. They’re falling apart physically and consequently “falling down on the job.” One of the downspouts actually rusted right through! It’s probably a pretty simple thing to fix so I should look into it. Maybe I should check the big Homeowners Guidebook to see if there are any suggestions on fixing gutter systems.

posted @ 3:15 AM

The backyard also needs a natural screen from the businesses next door. For some reason just beyond my wood fence they have a chain link fence with some barbed wire at the top. It’s in disrepair, but it is barbed wire nonetheless. Haven’t figured out what reason they needed the barbed wire for when the fence doesn’t encompass the perimeter of the property. I’m sure as hell not going to try to climb it, especially when I could walk around and visit the businesses without tearing my clothing or injuring myself.

I have a line of giant sunflower plants on the north side of my yard to provide a screen. They are approaching maturity and they are very pretty.

posted @ 3:29 AM

Fortunately, the border between my property and the businesses next door has a bit more than fence. From the front of my house to the back of my house along the border there is a cinder block wall with a 3 foot clearance between the wall and my house. We are going to put potted bamboo in front of all of the windows and run some soaker hoses in there to water them so it looks like I have a bamboo forest outside my house.

posted @ 3:52 AM

Wow! Just found the notebook I started when we first moved into the house and abandoned around December. In it are scattered shopping lists for hardware stores, fabric stores, home furnishing specialists. Project wish lists. Sketches for projects.

I’m very proud to say that except for getting the house completely rewired and purchasing a birdbath, I’ve done everything that was listed on my wish lists in my notebook. Definitely gives me a sense of accomplishment.

This post might have also worked as my final post, but I’m pretty close to the finish and I wanted to give myself some encouragement.

posted @ 4:12 AM

Funny story time. I was really sleepy when I went shopping for the fabric for the curtains in my kitchen. (Can anyone else relate?) I picked out the pattern, looked at it and did some calculations in my notebook to figure out how much fabric I needed. I did just fine on it, but forgot one step at the end. Converting feet into yards.

I went home with 15 yards of red and white fabric when in reality I only needed 5 yards. The amount of fabric I had purchased didn’t strike me as odd until after I got home and started to wake up a bit. Essentially, I had purchased enough fabric for to stretch the fabric from the front door to the door of the mudroom. When I got to my friend’s house so she could help me sew the curtains, I told her the story and we both had a pretty good laugh over it.

posted @ 4:37 AM

Back to the master carpenter bit. Would like to build shallow drawers in my pantry so I can pull each shelf out to see its contents. Went looking for these but none of the pre-built ones fit my pantry so would need to custom build them.

posted @ 5:14 AM

One of the reasons I wanted a house in the first place is that I was tired of living in rentals with plain white walls. I’ve definitely compensated for that in my house with bright, cheerful colors. Not everything has turned out the way I thought it would, but it’s been an excellent experience for me. I’ve learned how to do many DIY projects and have gotten much better at negotiating for services I’d like to have done to my house but do not have the experience to do myself, such as plumbing.

Hopefully in the next year I’ll be able to complete many of the projects I’ve talked about here over the last 24 hours. Wish me luck!

posted @ 5:38 AM

I made it! Good night all!

posted @ 5:59 AM