Offline for a bit

I'm having the computer worked on and may be off line for a few days.  Be patient and we'll show you more updates. 

Shout Out to California Family and Friends!

Miss ya'll very much!

Anyone want to get rich?  We discovered something odd that they sell here - pine needles for gardens and mulching.

Pine needles.  The things we would struggle to get off roofs and out of gutters and raked up in yards in CA and then burned.

They sell them here.  $15 for a bale.  ** blink **

Cleaning

In anticipation of being gone part of next week, I've been focusing on cleaning so Ma won't have to worry about anything.  Yesterday was deep cleaning the rugs (can I say again that I hate carpet.  I like rugs, I don't like carpeting).

I might get to putting recent beadwork projects on material and hanging them today.  Maybe not.

Paint, Paint, and more Paint

I've been working in the basement/garage with masonry sealing paint.  Slow going but very necessary in this climate.

The caulk we're using is DAP

the masonry paint is Dry-Lock

paint for the other projects came from Home Depot (Glidden) and Hobby Lobby

We only used the headboard of the bedstead set we got for Mom's bed.  The bottom half we painted flat black and I worked on the grape leaves, grapes and vine design and made it look MUCH better.  We took a bench that we've used as a bench or coffee table over the years and gave it a fresh coat of paint and combined the two for a bench on the porch.

Birthday wishes

A shout out to my sister, Jackie.  Her birthday was yesterday (no, I didn't forget, I just didn't post here yesterday).  She'll be joining us soon (which means I'll go back and help drive here).

The worst wall in the basement has been caulked and I've started with the masonry sealant paint (Dry-lock) and have two rows and part of the foundation/floor done.

Taking a break today - my pain is higher than usual and we have to pay attention to the signals from the body.

Second Verse same as the first

Today I focused on caulking the basement walls in prep for painting with masonry paint that will help seal dampness and water out.  My fingertips hurt and are all red!  Now to wait for the caulking to dry and we'll paint the worst of the walls and then I'll caulk and paint the other walls as we get to them.  Considering the basement and two car garage comprise a lot of wall space!

I finished the touch-up paint in Mom's bathroom.  Now to take the razorblades to a small number of paint mishaps and the number of mishaps from the previous owners and hang her cabinet.

Progress!

Item for the Day

caulking the basement/garage

that required getting more caulking and a caulking gun (which box did we pack ours in?) - then putting in my earbuds with my MP3 and setting to it.

3 hours later and I'm not quite done with one wall (the worst one with seepage) and the tips of my fingers hurt!  Why?  Because those are the best for spreading the caulking after spreading a line - those plastic gizmos that are supposed to make it easy don't work over uneven surfaces like masonry or bathroom tiles.

Still have a bit more to do in the morning and then we'll paint the wall with masonry sealant paint - the good stuff.

Another item on the list

The never ending list of things to do:

Unpack (may never totally happen)

clean carpets (ongoing)

paint bedrooms (still have to do Jackie's)

yard work (never ending)

paint hallway and bathrooms (did Mom's)

repair gutters

repair bulkhead over garage

handrail on the back porch

replace boards in the eaves

paint the porch and back porch

install pulley system

get bookshelves (might be ongoing for awhile)

caulk bathrooms

replace toilet seats

caulk basement/garage

paint with sealant paint

replace broken furniture/fix broken furniture (we hate ABF U-Pack)

Get cats checked out and neutered or spayed 

DMV changes

house insurance

and on and on

Photos

That shows the repair to the bulkhead and the downspout extenders

front of the house - gutters tacked up.  Have to dig out the garden area and weed whack

our new handrail (yes, the outside of the house wood trim and steps needs painted)

remember the rusted out full sized head and foot bedposts?  The headboard one is behind Mom's bed as would be normal.  This one, the shorter footboard will be on the porch behind a bench used for sitting.

I painted them flat black and then did the painting on the grapes, leaves, stems and "vines"

House Repairs

To get insurance on the house we had the gutters tacked back up properly and cleaned out.  We also had three boards in the eaves replaced and painted.  A pane in a window replaced. 

Sunday we the handyman put a second coat put on the boards in the eaves and a new handrail put up off the porch.  The bulkhead over the garage was repaired with new boards and top of the line caulking.

We put extenders or diversion thingys on all the downspouts off the gutters. I also got the front yard mowed (need to do the sides and the back)

We also figured out that we're exhausted and have been for a long time.  We've been going almost non-stop for four months (packing and preparing to move, the trip here, house repairs when we got here, unpacking bare minimum of stuff, more repairs, lots of running around) = we're tired.

We've taken the last couple of days to rest, doing nothing but the dishes and some hobby things and one trip to the grocery store.  We're probably going to take tomorrow off as well.  We've taken a day here, a day there but it hasn't been enough.  We've needed several days in a row.

pictures to follow

More and More

Managed to get the front yard mowed today.  If it doesn't rain tomorrow I'll tackle the sides of the house.  We need to replace a couple of boards and caulk them over the garage and put up a hand rail off the porch.  Hopefully the minor repairs will slow down soon (we've already tackled the big ticket items). 

in other words = tired!

Handyman stuff and finishing details

We had a handyman replace the broken window pane (2 stories up) and the three boards in the soffett (eaves boards) that needed replacing.  He also cleaned the gutters and tacked them up where they were sagging.  Looking a lot better and the little things make a lot of difference.

Inside I finished the painting in Mom's bathroom (except one small section), covered the hole where a medicine cabinet had once gone and hung a mirror.  We'll hang her cabinet tomorrow along with the mirror in her room.  She's working on her curtains - sewing them and adding a band on the bottom.

We got a pane of plexiglass and had it cut to size and that is now over the collage I worked up for my desk.

The box will be a writing box that actually will hold my laptop and accessories when not in use.  I want to do some SP stuff to it and make it fancy and fanciful.

My bookcase with SOME of my paperbacks.  The goggles need some work but I think they're cool and a great start along with the pith helmet.  Very Victorian traveler/adventurer motif.

Desktop project

I decided that the top of my desk is too plain and more "mid-century" than "prior century".  I opted for a collage of pictures that are timeless and fit into a Victorian and/or SP style.  I printed out the drawings, aged them with tea bags, got some scrapbook paper, trimmed that as I wanted, ripped the drawings around the edges and did collage paste stuff all over it.

To age paper with tea bags I consulted the Instructables website http://www.instructables.com/

I brewed some tea, let it cool and then took a tea bag for each page and rubbed the wet tea bag all over the page.  Hand dabbed the page dry, placed it on a towel, covered with a towel and weighted it down with heavy books.  I didn't have to repeat the process, thankfully.

Prelim - deciding if the drawings work together with the paper.

up close and personal - the drawings are: British Parliament, an early motorbike, ancient map of Egypt

Ancient map of Egypt, a cheetah, a map of London rail circa 1890s

London rail, a cheetah, an airship, a clock

I plan on working up a rectangle of copper pipes for the edges as a type of paperweight, splash of color and SP styling.

Slight Setbacks

The harp on my lamp isn't secured very well (someone has worked the lamp to death before I got it) and the wires don't come out (which makes no sense).  So, I need to sit down with it and work at securing the thing a little better.  I love the lamp and love the beadwork that Mom did on the lampshade.

Its somewhat funny - no one that knows me can believe that I'm doing Victorian touches in a room of mine.  Wait until the copper touches are worked up. :)

We need to extend the rain gutter downspouts a little further from the house and foundation and get the gutters cleaned out and secure.  Then we paint the basement/garage walls with masonry sealer and that should help with the dampness in the basement and one wall in the garage.

Does anyone know if Georgia actually requires a handrail off a porch with three steps and three steps only?

revamped lamp

I got a candlestick style lamp from a thrift store for $3.00.  It was a reddish brown with brownish accents, bent holder for the harp and no lampshade or cap thing.

I spray painted it flat black and did the accents in antique copper

We found a lampshade and harp and Mom sewed some amber colored beads on the lampshade

so I have a lamp that is tall enough to read and do crafts by at night and fits in with my neo-Victorian interests.

The lampshade came from an outlet store (along with the harp).  The cap thing came from Lowes.

The spray paint was from Home Depot and the accent paint from Hobby Lobby

the beads were some we had.

looking out from our porch