I'm up! Ready for a new day. Last night after my last post I kind of pooped out on myself. Ds2 asked me for a haircut, so I took a while and did that, then I went to bed.
So I'm gearing myself up right now to go outside and milk. I hope the flies aren't too bad yet. I made the mistake yesterday morning of leaving the door open while I milked and a lot of them got in the house. We have a screened in porch, but no screen on the back door itself, so a lot of flies were able to come in. The front door has no screen to speak of since it basically flaps in the wind. During the times of flies, we usually react by milking early, early in the morning, like before the sun even rises. The flies are asleep during that time. It is no fun milking while the flies are heavy and swarming. Refresh your memory by viewing these previous "fly" entries: The flies, the flies!!! and The Flies Part II.
I can't believe what a mess the living room is again. This rearranging and cleaning stuff sure can make big messes.
My sinuses were totally clogged during the night and my mouth kept drying out. I HATE when that happens. It is so very uncomfortable. The wound on my foot seems to be doing okay.
Okay, so off the computer I go. After I get back in from milking and doing chores, I believe I'll do a quick tidy up on the kitchen, which should only take five minutes or so. Ds2 started his cooking show taping last night. From what little I heard and saw, he seems to be a psycho cook that screams at inanimate objects and then immediately speaks calmly to the camera. He's making Thanksgiving dinner for dh's first meal home with us. I asked him about his progress last night during the night. He's cut up all the vegetables, onions, garlic, celery. I don't think he peeled the potatoes though so I will make a point to do that today, along with everything I have planned. After I tidy up the kitchen, and eat breakfast, I will tackle the living room. Then I think I'll put up the Christmas lights and decorations. Maybe. It's obvious that prioritizing my list has become very important. We HAVE a carpet cleaner, I so wish I could fit that in.
Until later.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
One More Day To Go
Labels: Home Improvement
Saturday, March 24, 2007
More Cleaning
Labels: Home Improvement
Okay, from 6:06 to 8:33pm I've worked feverishly without ceasing.
I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, washed a load of dishes, this morning's milk pail and the milk strainer, wiped off the stove, cleaned those bowl things under the burners, cleaned under the burners and replaced the aluminum foil. Ds2 pulled the stove out to replace the two screws that had fallen out of the one knob. While the stove was out, I asked him to sweep the debris out. He vacuumed, I then mopped under the stove and cleaned both sides of the counters which usually I can't get to, and were pretty dirty. I wiped and bleached the counter top on the left side of the sink. Cleaned and shined the sink. There were water deposits on my new faucet, which were easily removed with white vinegar, salt and a little scrub brush.
I also cried while on the phone with my mother, who was also crying. I called her around 8pm to see if she was going to be able to come out, and she told me she hadn't talked to her husband yet and then she told me she really felt nervous driving such a long distance all by herself. So I told her to bring him along and we would plant him in front of the television. But my mom's husband is a very stressful person to deal with, and ds2 heard me talking about it with her and he started getting stressed out. I need him to cook, so I can clean tomorrow. It won't help me to have my mother here to help me clean, if ds2 is in his room avoiding jerk stepgrandfather.
So I told my mom it wasn't going to work out, and then I wanted to get off the phone. And I knew it, she called back within 10 minutes, crying. So then I was crying.
But I have more to do. My feet are hurting. I think I need to take a look at my foot and maybe soak it again. I'm very hungry. I should probably go to bed soon. At least my bed is cleared off. Maybe chocolate milk for dinner again...
Until next time.
Master Bedroom Take 2
Labels: Home Improvement, LJ
AGH!!! 5:38pm by my computer and the whole house is an even bigger wreck!!! My mom says she is planning to come over tomorrow and help us clean and by my figures I have about four more hours left to clean tonight before I drop over from exhaustion.
More AGH!! It is now 5:56m by my computer. Spent the last 18 minutes futzing around with photos. Okay, in this first one you can see the shelving unit to the left -- that comes from the living room, so there is a big empty spot in the living room. I WISH that big empty space could be left there, but no, there's a big puppy that needs his own bed. ROTFLOL. I know dh is going to laugh really hard over this, and maybe even think it's a joke.
Here's why I can't leave that big space. I mean, I GUESS we COULD make LJ sleep on the floor, but he gets so COLD at night. LOL. Between Vicious at the head of the bed, and him under the covers, lying on his back stretched out like a human... ;-)
So now here's the bedroom with the twin bed in there, alongside the queen bed. Wall to wall bed almost!!! ;-)
Here's the shelving unit crammed with my stuff. There is still more to find homes for. I can't even walk into my bathroom right now. I sure hope my mom does come over tomorrow and can help us out.
I've also washed and put away three loads of clothes (so far - there's more to go).
I have to go out and throw hay and fill water buckets. Probably only the goats' water buckets. My foot is still sore. I will probably soak it again. I am already very tired. 6:06pm now. I'm also going to start crossing out things on the list I made earlier.
Until later.
Master Bedroom Cleanup
Labels: FlyLady, Home Improvement
Ds2 just asked me isn't it weird how we are posting all these pictures of our dirty house, like we're incriminating ourselves... hmmm...
So I've been working a couple of hours. I'm actually feeling pretty tired. My sinuses are messed up today, very swollen and hard to breathe through my nose. So really the last thing I need to be doing is cleaning out my messy bedroom.
Crazy Aunt Purl gave a little tip about using Photoshop and suggests a thin line around the photo makes it look more professional, so I'm going to try it out.
Please still be my friend. And here goes. One before picture and one in progress picture. Looks like someone's really messy storage unit, eh? Maybe once I have it cleaned up, with FlyLady's help I can keep it cleaned up. If you look carefully, behind the blue trash can (which wasn't in there prior to starting the clean up), there is a blue chair that I used to sit in and watch television. The chair broke down and started getting covered with everything but the kitchen sink. Also, in the second picture, the cupboards are going outside into the shed. Too bad anything like this becomes a haven for mice.
I did find several books I've been "keeping an eye out for". 
I think I may nap for a while.
Until later.
The End is Near
Labels: Home Improvement
Dh will be home in less than 48 hours! We are working like ants trying to get things completed.
I have been so busy for days, no time to blog. Last night I sewed curtains to cover the pantry area, the curtain I've been meaning to finish for the kitchen under the sink area, and I made slipcovers for three Christmas themed pillows that I've had for several years. Got them from Target on a 90% off sale, I think I paid $0.75 for each one. Now they finally can be put to good use all year long, thanks to my wonderful, wonderful sewing machine that I dearly love!!! THANK YOU MOM!! (She not only bought it for me, but paid to have it cleaned!) OH, by the way, the slipcovers were made from the living room curtain material, so the pillows on the couch match the curtains.
Yesterday I found another twin bed for $50.00. This one is to go in dh and my room, since our puppy has grown to be such a large dog, we are giving him his own bed. (That's only so we can sleep in our own bed together, lol!). I know, I know!! We are some of those weird dog people now.
Here's the list of things I want to do between today and tomorrow:
Remove kitchen cobwebs(Yay for Webster!)- Clean living room fan blades and glass covers
Bring dh's new dresser in, place dh's clothing in the dresserReplace the screen on the front door screen- Move brown dresser into ds2's room and his dresser back into master bedroom
- Replace the kitchen drawer pulls (can't remember where I put them for safekeeping!)
Clean master bedroom;remove cupboards and chair(only halfway done on the master bedroom cleaning)Bring twin bed in and set it upMake sure coffee maker worksand install under kitchen cupboard- Hang Christmas lights and decorations
- Wash living room windows on the outside
- Clean vehicle out, inside and out
Sweep and mop kitchen floor- Clean all three refrigerators;
Old Fridge,New Fridge,Dairy Fridge Clean main bathroom shower and tidy up the rest of the roomHang shower curtain in main bathroom- Clean master bathroom
- And last but not least... clean the carpet? Yeah.
Orange - Completed by 8:31pm Saturday
Green - Completed by 4:00pm Sunday
But I'd better get off the computer so I can get started. I'm milking in the morning now. It rained hard on Thursday and continued to rain into the night so I didn't milk. The girls had to wait 36 hours. I also stabbed my foot on the pitchfork this morning. AND I had my tennis shoes on, but the pitchfork tine stabbed through the meshing on my tennis shoes.
I soaked my foot in hot water with epsom salts and tea tree oil for about half an hour. I didn't even realize I was injured for about ten minutes. My foot kept ACHING and ACHING. But I kept on doing chores and finally it occurred to me to wonder if my foot was bleeding. I sat down to check and there was a two inch wide round circle of blood stained on my sock. I went in the house, put some tea tree oil on the wound and a bandage and changed my sock. Finished with chores and while I was filling the chicken water buckets I stepped on one, tipping the water INTO my shoe. The shoe with the injured foot, mind you! So I came in soon after and did the foot soaking.
Now to find something to eat. My first goal is to tackle the master bedroom.
Until next time. Or shall I say, until later.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Living Room Wall Photos
Labels: Home Improvement
Running out of steam... had to go through the dusty, dusty shed to find our family photos. I cannot remember where or if our wedding pictures made it through the past few years. I did find several small images of us posing after the ceremony. There are numbers on the back... I wonder how many years professional photographers keep the negatives? Okay, here's my progress so far today. Framed pictures on the wall!
Once more, a "before" picture for comparison. Wow. Big difference!! I am so excited, but kind of stressed, yet again, because time is running short for the house makeover. Dh will be arriving home next Monday.
Here's another angle of the living room.
Now I must go finish the job I was working on before I got sidetracked with taking photos of the beautiful wall of photos... fixing the washing machine.
Until next time.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Living Room Makeover Part I
Labels: Home Improvement
I started just after 6am. Here is the (obviously, LOL) before picture:
This is the table that the television sits on. It was in pretty bad shape, so I lightly sanded it and painted it with the accent wall color. I should have taken an after picture, but you can kind of see it in the previous picture.
My ear is better. I'm really tired right now and my throat is feeling sore again. I had to go into town and buy hay and also went to the thrift store again and picked up a chest of drawers for $20.00. Then I went to Ace Hardware, and then to the feedstore and back home.
Until next time.
Friday, March 16, 2007
New Couch
Labels: Home Improvement, My Faith, Sick
I found the perfect couch today. I was going to wait until the 24th and go into the "big city" where the Goodwill's would be having their 50% off sale. But I decided instead to take our big truck with me into the little town where we do our grocery shopping, and check out the thrift stores to see what they had.
First off, I decided to buy a bookcase which was marked $31.25. Pressboard, but I thought it was an okay price. I should have pictures of it tomorrow, if everything goes as planned. When I got up to the register I saw a sign behind the cashier that said, "All Children's Clothing $0.75 each. Everything Else 50% Off". So I asked the cashier if *everything* was 50% off. She said it was. So my bookcase only cost me $15.63! I also bought two more frames, they were $1.13 and $1.37. They had shades of blue.
There was a couch there that I liked for the shape. See, I'd already decided color shouldn't affect my choice, since I could make a slip cover, hopefully for not too much. But this couch was $174.95. Too much, even at 50% off. I looked at a few more couches, each one more and more expensive. I contemplated purchasing the one for $174.95, but started looking around some more and found a couch for $99.95. It had shades of blue and was very pretty and clean looking. I took some measurements on it and called home to consult with ds2 and we decided to go for it. So it ended up costing $49.97. After I saw this pretty one, I decided the other one was going to require several hours of time making a slipcover, plus it was dirty looking.
After I paid for the bookcase and frames, I paid for the couch. I wasn't done yet though. I went looking around again and found a nice chair, that cost me $7.47. I initially purchased it to go with the new couch, since the colors are similar, but I may end up giving it to ds1, we'll see. I bought three more frames that I liked. I'm going to put pictures with frames in shades of blue and gold all over the accent wall. I can't wait to see how it looks!
While the man was loading up my furniture, I saw a VHS cabinet that I wanted, cost $6.63.
I decided to go home and unload, then change back to my Pathfinder. I love my little SUV. It has air conditioning and a wonderful stereo system. The big truck has neither, and it was getting pretty hot out today.
So I switched vehicles and took off again. I still had to buy groceries and run errands. On my way back, I decided to see if the lamp and end table I'd liked were still at the store. They were! The lamp was $4.25, complete with lampshade. The end table was $7.13. Then I drove back to Lowe's and bought a Minwax Wood Finish Stain Marker. $4.98. Once I got home, I spiffed up the end table with the stain marker, and shined the glass. It is a handsome looking end table, and the wood matches the wood pieces on the couch. Oh, and the lamp is blue, too!
All in all, a good day, full of blessings! The really cool thing is I asked the lady at the thrift store how often they have 50% off sales and she said not very often. I asked her if they had them at certain times and she said they never know when, the main office just calls them and tells them to do the sale. So I felt like God heard my prayers asking for a couch to match the livingroom colors, and he sent me looking on the 50% off sale day!
I hope to have some wonderful before and after pictures tomorrow and Sunday. I'm concentrating on the livingroom this weekend.
My right ear is now involved in this illness. It feels funny... clogged and like I might be getting an ear infection. I had ds2 put 3 drops of warm olive oil with garlic into my ear, hoping to stave off an infection. I also took 15 drops of grapefruit seed extract. I have been taking echinachea, vitamin C, and extra cod liver oil (Vitamin A). I'm also trying to get enough (more) sleep. My tonsils are less inflamed, but I did feel feverish today while running all over the place... Tomorrow I do have to leave the house to purchase hay and chicken feed, but I should then get to be home for the rest of the weekend.
Until next time.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Living Room Paint Job
Labels: Home Improvement
Here's the living room before:
And after the paint job:
I don't feel well. My tonsils are still swollen and what do I decide to do with my day? Of the dozens of things I SHOULD have done, I decide to PAINT. How did that happen? Well, I was watering the goats and I walked past these buckets of paint and I wondered what colors were in the buckets. So I found one that looked dark green. I brought it up to the porch and when I finally got the lid pried off the bucket, I realized it was the grey-blue paint I'd bought years ago... and even used in the last home we lived in. I thought it would look sharp to paint just the one living room wall. I did paint the entire wall, top to bottom, side to side. Here's the desk side of the living room. Click here to see a before picture of the desk area. The difference is quite striking!
OH, and the old couch is gone. Those outdoor chairs are going to have to suffice until I can find a new (second hand) couch to fit in that spot. I am also planning to put pictures up in that wall area by the front door. What I really want to put there are some of dh's and my wedding photos, and some of the boys when they were babies. But
I think it looks really sharp. I just wish I'd chosen to spend my time doing something else today. And now what am I doing? Blogging, and I feel exhausted. I guess I'm going to lie down for half an hour, then get up and milk.
Until next time.
Relapse
Labels: blah blah blah, goats, Home Improvement, knitting, My Faith, Sick, Song of the Day
I'm sick again!! I seem to recall at least two people telling me I should be extra careful with myself in couple of weeks after being sick because it would come back on me again. Well, on Thursday evening my throat started feeling sore, this time my tonsils felt swollen. I began taking my "get well" stuff, to include echinachea/goldenseal, vitamin C, vitamin B, cod liver oil, and whatever else seemed logical. I have also taken some L-Lysine because I know it helps with healing mucous membranes. Speaking of mucous... I've also had to take that Guaifenesin stuff. It's supposed to help the mucous thin out. I don't know if I'm having more trouble for having used this stuff, but it seems like I've needed it every day. I'm also fully on my asthma meds (Flovent *and* Albuterol).
But so many things have happened in the past week. First off, dh will be back home with us in two weeks, we are all so happy that he will be back with us. It is hard to fill the shoes of another person who does a major portion of the household, yard and critter responsibilities!
Our air conditioner stopped working about a month ago. I discovered we should have something called a low ambient cooling kit on our unit since we run it year round, no matter how cold it is outside. Dh has mentioned it is "hard" on the unit to run during the winter, but I don't remember him ever mentioning the low ambient kit as a solution... anyway... we finally got the house cleaned up enough to feel comfortable having a guy come out.
About that... the first guy I called verbally attacked me during the conversation. First off, he charges $85.00 for a checkup on the system, and $65 per pound of freon. I'd called another place a week earlier and they charge $55 and $12 per pound of freon. I knew the $65/# was very expensive. After I got the information I needed I said I'd have to give him a call back. He then says to me, "You've already called twice before, are you going to have me come out and fix your AC or not?" I was flabbergasted and responded with, "Excuse me?" As the conversation went on, he demanded to know if I was working with another shop. Finally he seemed satisfied that I wasn't someone out to get him and he said, "Okay, I just wanted to make sure you weren't doing recon for another company." Whew. It was so distressing to me once I got off the phone I started crying a little bit. Wishing we could just wait until dh gets back home so he could take care of this for us.
Then I called the other guy who advertises in our local newspaper. He said he charges $59.95 and $28/# for freon. He was much nicer. We were still going to try to wait until dh got home, but then it got up into the high eighties and was nearly 90°F in the house. It was making all of us cranky, especially ds2. So I talked him into calling the guy out on Friday morning. He came out, and he was a really nice person. We ended up talking a bit, and come to find out his wife leads a church in town. We want to start attending church, and we might try this one out. We went by the church on Friday late afternoon and the daughter was there. She is probably 18 or 19 and getting ready to attend college. So back to the AC. It was kind of weird because he didn't actually fix the unit. I'd mentioned that dh can repair AC units, but he doesn't have the gauges, etc. So this guy says he would be happy to let dh use his tools. Dh doesn't understand why the guy would do that... but I think he was just trying to be nice and give us a break. So he ended up putting FIVE pounds of freon into our unit. From what I understand... if you need less than a pound in a year's time, that's almost normal. But five pounds? That means you have a leak. The guy told me there were two ways to find the leak, but it was expensive. So I guess because I didn't say "find the leak" he didn't want to charge us as much money as it would cost. He also thinks it still might be the inside coil is dirty, deep down in the coils and he told me about a cleaning solution that I could get from Home Depot, which he says is about $4.00 a can. But he charges $120 to do the cleaning, so he told me how to do it. It ended up being $8.xx per can, and he said to buy one for each side of the coil. We haven't tried cleaning it yet.
What was happening with our unit is the inside coils were freezing over, which was in turn causing the unit to run and run and run and run and in spite of running constantly the temperature in the house was staying the same. That's a very bad sign. Air conditioners are very costly, running into the thousands to replace. Most people don't understand all the care that goes into them and wonder why they break so often. It's because air conditioners need regular attention. We have been using these cheapy filters and I wanted to buy something that was washable and found these on the Internet. When I first saw them, they were $70 each and they recommend you buy two. I asked dh about it, and I'm glad I waited! Sheesh!! I was looking around at Walmart yesterday and found they have washable, reusable filters for under $4.00!!!! I bought two, so we can let one soak and be thoroughly cleaned and have a clean, dry one to put in.
Ds2 asked me when I was going to start doing a "Song of the Day". I guess I will start, but his SOTD is one for every single day that he posts. I don't see being able to keep up with one song every single day. So today's "Song of the Day" is tobyMac's Lose My Soul from the Portable Sounds album.
As a surprise for me on Wednesday, ds2 switched out my toilet for my new one. Unfortunately, it is flushing veeerrrryyyyy slowly. You can see here in the photo to the left how very close the water is rising to the top of the rim. We have done a bit of troubleshooting, but this might be one of those things that wait until dh returns. It could be a number of things wrong. Ds2 says the back part of the toilet foot is sitting on carpet, which could cause the carpet to be unbalanced, which could cause a slow flush. Or there could be something in the toilet pipes, which is causing a bit of a clog. The holes under the rim could be clogged, although I poked through each and every one of them with a nail. Anyway, lots of things we could try, but we haven't had the time or energy.
Ds2 has been cooking like a mad fiend all week long. He made himself a daily menu and stuck to it, really liked the idea and the ease - no stress each day "What's for dinner?" so he's asked me to generate a meal plan each week. AGH. Like I need one more thing to do. I figure if we have four week's worth of meal plans we can just do them over and over and over again. Right?
Let's see, he's made Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo ala Alton Brown. He also made my version of Posole, made with chicken instead of beef. The first time we had it was with a good friend, 
I believe it was her birthday and her neighbor made the dish for her, which was one of her favorites. That version was made with beef, but I prefer mine made with chicken breasts He's also made a very expensive, rich, but tasty Salmon with Cream Cheese Dip. Pineapple Upside Down Muffins, which brings me to another thing that happened this week. Ds2 cut his thumb pretty bad. I'll spare you the closeup, gory pics he took with the cut laid wide open. You can trust me, it was GROSS looking. He cut it with a serrated-edged knife whilst trying to open a jar of maraschino cherries. I was out milking and I heard this, "Raaahhhh!" sound from the porch. I thought... "Is he trying to scare me? What was that about?" He disappeared right away, and I put the girl away I was done milking and got the next one out. Then he comes to the porch again and yells, "Come see all the blood!" GREAT! I left the goat on the stand and went inside to see what was going on. He tells me he cut his thumb to the bone. He was letting it just bleed all over the place, so I asked him to rinse it so I could see how bad it was. I really don't think they do stitches in fingers or thumbs, so I told him I didn't think a visit to the ER was necessary. I had him rinse it, checked it out and then had him hold a paper towel to it. He said he wasn't feeling so good, so I had him sit down so he wouldn't faint on me. He was pale looking by that time. We got the bleeding to stop and I went back out and finished milking. When I came back in, I immersed the bucket of milk into the chilling bucket and did a bit of Internet research. I then took a trip to town for butterfly bandages, steri-strips and other assorted bandaging items, plus some finger cots (a small condom-type covering to place on your finger if you need to wash dishes and don't want the cut to get wet or exposed to bacteria while cooking).
I got my sister's birthday gift sent off to her in time to reach her on her birthday! I took a clock and made a new face for it, using a picture of her children when they were younger. A picture from four years ago. She loved it, and she cried when she saw it. She has it in her kitchen. I'm so happy she likes her gift.
On the knitting front... I've actually made a bit of progress on the newest baby sweater. I started out last week with a goal to knit for 30 minutes each evening, but that was really far too much relaxation time spent on knitting, for it was cutting into sleep time after all the chores were completed. I did get another few inches completed though. It takes me about 15 minutes to complete one inch. So it will be slow going on this one, but at least I'm staying with it. I have felt so crappy I haven't even had the strength to knit. Ugh.
I heard that a young lady who helps with blood draws for goats was in town yesterday. I asked to see if she could squeeze me in. Thank God, she never called. I do want to get all the goats tested again for CAE. The only little girl that we sold last year has come up positive for CAE. But the gal who owns her, had a lot of babies from that time period show positive for CAE. She called to let me know, and ask me if I wanted the little girl back. I told her we didn't. It is too hard to deal with. I'm pretty sure our herd is negative, as we keep a closed herd and the only doe we've brought in from was a CAE-free herd. However, we haven't tested for 2-3 years now. And this disease can pop up unexpectedly. Your does might be clean one year and positive the next, simply because immune systems are weaker and they succumb to the virus. At least, this is what I've heard.
On the FlyLady front. I've done NOTHING. I have been too tired, and sick. I have not even shined my sink in probably two weeks now. I have continued keeping ds1's room clean, and today is the day we clean his room again. I still feel tired this morning, and don't want to get any worse so I am not sure what all I'll get done today. Ds2 asked me yesterday, "Why do you put so much pressure on yourself to get things done? Why not take it easy?" Well, easy to say my dear son. He knows how much work it takes to keep this place going.
Let's see, anything else... oh yes. Yesterday I went to a rummage sale. I got a few things there.
Coffeemaker for dh. It's a Black and Decker Spacesaver model, $5. Hope it works! His old one leaks and make a black mess on the counter. There are eight of the glasses, $2.00 for the set. The Crockette was $1.00. The two necklaces and two bracelets were a quarter each. Both necklaces look well made and ds2 saw 14kt on the serpentine necklace. (I wonder if they are worth anything!?) There is a 14kt on the heart necklace, that one cost $0.75. There is a pair of hoop earrings that look like 14kt. I've been wanting a pair of hoops, but haven't wanted to pay the price for them. These were $1.00. My ears will be able to tell, since I can't wear anything less than 14kt or my ears start itching and turning red. A brand new, never been used Windows keyboard for $2. Always good to have a spare on hand. Two Reader's Digest magazines for ds2 which the lady let me have for free. I spent $16, or maybe $14... what else did I get? Hmmm... I think a couple of things were left out in the car.
Well, I think that about catches me up for now. So many more things happened, like on Friday it was so hot that the critters drank up all their water and when we got home after being gone for six hours their buckets were turned over and bone dry. Now we have to get either more water buckets in the pens or start filling them every single day. And now it's time to throw hay.
Until next time.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Livingroom Curtains Finished!
Labels: Home Improvement
The top valance is done. The old valance measured about 185 inches. My material was 60 inches wide, so I went with 180 inches.
The new blinds and the new curtains are complete and in place! This project took me about 6 hours total. The blind hooks were already in place, but I had to replace the ones on the left side because they were old and cracked when I tried to tighten them.
And here's what the curtains look like closed. I think I may need to buy another layer of thicker material and attach it to the back of the curtains to protect them from sun damage. It won't take too many days of hot summer sunshine bearing on the windows, even with blinds in place, before this material will fade.
Total cost for this project:8 yards materials $8.00
2 curtain rods $1.94
2 - 29" blinds $7.94
Tax $1.54
Total $19.42
Until next time.
Friday, March 02, 2007
The Baby In The Baby Sweater
Labels: crocheting, Home Improvement
My sis loves the baby sweater for her little one. She sent me an email today, with pictures. What a cute little boy.
I did finally start on the new baby sweater that I'm knitting. I have about 1 1/2" done so far.
I also am up very late tonight, because I started on my living room redecorating project. I bought a "Webster" from the local Ace Hardware. They are regularly $8.99, but on sale this month for $4.99. I came home last night and took down all the living room cobwebs. We had an overabundance, and I don't think anyone has removed cobwebs since we moved in here about five years ago. Seriously. Hubby loves the Daddy-Long-Leg spiders, actually going so far as to stun flies and toss them up into the spider webs. I don't mind spiders, but these cobwebs were so dusty and filthy no self-respecting spider would ever dare to call them home. So they are now removed.
So the project I started on tonight... replacing the sad looking living room window covering. Yes, that is a mattress pad. ROTFLOL.
The valance at the top is filthy, covered with dust and cobwebs. There is only one blind, and it's filthy and dusty as well.
When we moved in here, we invested in window tint and tinted all the windows in an attempt to keep our place a bit cooler. It did help quite a bit.
Anyway, I found some really pretty navy blue material at $1/yard from Walmart, which I'm going to make into curtains. I completed the top valance tonight, but I will wait to share pictures tomorrow, when I'm finished with the rest of the curtains, and have the new blinds in place.
On the list for this weekend is the boys' bathroom. I don't think there will be any before pictures... it's really a raging mess... I am hoping ds2 will help me replace the toilet. I've also bought a towel rack, toilet paper holder set from Walmart, cost only $8.97 which is going in their bathroom, too. I also bought a fuzzy toilet seat cover and the little carpet that goes in front of the toilet on the floor. I can't wait to see how different it looks. Maybe I'll take some before pictures, which don't show too much of the mess.
Well, it's now almost 10:30pm and I'm exhausted, so I have to get into bed. I think I'll have some Ovaltine.
Until next time.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Labels: Home Improvement
I got some more work done on ds1's room today. Finally felt well enough to proceed with the redecorating I've been doing for him in there. I still want to paint his room and I'm thinking of getting the paint matched to the cream color of his bedding, with some of the darker maroon for the door frame. Maybe.
Here is a laundry list of what we did in his room today:
Changed the door handle to one with a keyed lock, and just a round knob. Our cat Tiger knows how to open this type door knob, so ds1 had resorted to piling bricks against the inside of his door to prevent the cat coming into his room. He has one lone rat in there (in a cage) so he doesn't want the cats in his room. Since his room has a lot of mice activity, obviously the cats want in there.
The door stop was just hanging by what I don't know. So I tacked 
that firmly into place. I also put down a threshold. That involved locating the hack saw, no small feat... but I did find it, and hack-sawed the threshold down to 28 inches. Since the door stop goes all the way down to the floor, I had two choices. Either cut a little square into the aluminum threshold (lots of hack-sawing) or use the hacksaw to take out the bottom of the door stops. I opted to remove the bottom 5/8" of the door stops. I have an arrow pointing to the door stop in the picture to the right.
The threshold just barely fit under the door stops, so I had to tap it into place with the hammer. I tucked the carpet in his room under the threshold. I know this threshold isn't the kind one should use in between a bedroom and hallway... but it was the least expensive one ($10) and I needed one that was wide enough. It looks so sharp now!
Then we stripped his bed and got his bedding into the washing machine. We changed the litter pan on his rat's cage. Thanks to ds2 that was an incredibly easy and simple job. When we did the major cleaning on ds1's bedroom, ds2 put a garbage bag around the litter pan. What a great idea. I'm so glad he did that. I followed his example and replaced the bag. I changed out his blinds. I bought new ones from Lowe's, they were only $3.97. It's easier to replace them than try to clean them!
Next I went to work on the curtain idea I'd had. Ds1 doesn't use the flat sheet on his bed and his bed is too low to the ground for the bed skirting to work. So I took the skirt off the bed skirting and made a valance curtain. Then I took the flat sheet and used the decorative section which is supposed to go at the top of the bed near the pillows, as the bottom design for the curtain. A friend of mine recently commented on how much easier it was to sew when she ironed her seams. 
Since the material needed ironing, I decided to try that little tip. Wow. It really made a big difference.
Now the invention part... well, I didn't have any curtain rods. So I went out and got the baling wire. I don't know how anyone can live without baling wire. It's even better than duct tape!!
I put two screws in the wall. One for the valance curtain, the other one for the lower curtains. Then I bent the end of the baling wire and fed it through the top of the curtain. Hooked the wire to one screw then the other. Voila! I had to put a screw in the middle at the top because the curtains were sagging, but the extra screw took care of the problem. Ds2 was helping me by this time, and had put in several of the screws. I had him put two more near to the middle so I could put up the window sashes (I think they are called sashes - the piece of material that you use to draw back the curtains).
OH, and I figured out how to use my sewing machine's button holer. It is a Greist Automatic Buttonholer. Anyway, pretty nifty tool.
Now to start cleaning up the living room. We haven't done the "House Blessing" in three weeks! What a disaster area!
Until next time.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Room Makeover
Labels: FlyLady, Home Improvement
Yesterday ds2 and I tackled ds1's room. Dh and I removed the carpet several months ago, and we never got it replaced as planned. Yesterday, I couldn't take it another minute. I made up my mind I was getting flooring down for him one way or another. Initially I was thinking linoleum since carpet can so easily be dirtied, but since the subfloor was now dirty and stained, it wasn't going to be easy or cheap. I considered buying sheets of particle board and laying a new subfloor, but that would take more time and money. Then laying the linoleum tiles one at a time. I started thinking carpet, even without padding underneath would be better than just subflooring. Anyway, ds2 got that laid. It cost $75.00 from Home Depot. Not bad! I also bought ds1 a new set of bedding, and a new rat cage.
He always gets mad at whoever tries to clean his room - because he thinks he does an appropriate job. But he does not, so we have to help him stay on top of it. In the past few weeks I'd fallen short on that responsibility, so things had gotten a bit out of hand in his room.
But now it's all pretty and nice. He was very thrilled at his nice new room. His room is getting added to the FlyLady routine.
Until next time.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
My First Buttonhole!
Labels: Home Improvement
Okay, actually maybe this wasn't my very first buttonhole EVER, maybe my first buttonhole was for my very first sewing project, a skirt. There I am, 10 years old in 1973. Not sure what the goofy look on my face was all about.
ANYWAY... so I worked a bit more on the curtains this morning. Anything to procrastinate and keep from working on the bookkeeping. I really have to get to it this weekend... or... maybe only the 1 hour's worth of bookkeeping needs to be done. But I really need to stop procrastinating in case my job decides to allow me to work one more day a week. Really could use the money!
I decided I definitely needed sashes to be able to tie back the curtains. Also, the top valance bar was hung lopsided (I futzed with the picture so it wouldn't look crooked). Probably because the curtains aren't perfect is the reason I couldn't sleep last night. I finally slept until 8:30am. I think I'll make myself a kefir shake this morning for breakfast. I digress. I rehung the bar but now I see that my curtains are lopsided, too.
Back to the title: Buttonholes. I feel like I got a lot of machine for $65. There is a setting to make automatic buttonholes. I guess this is standard issue for sewing machines, but it sure wasn't back when I was in my twenties. It feels like a stretch to follow the sewing machine manual because they are using all these terms that don't mean anything to me like, "the front bar tack will be sewn first, " and "attach buttonhole foot and push the outside frame back until the sliding insert is in the front."
HUH?
But I muddled my way through and say, making buttonholes is pretty fun!!
So here are the sashes themselves. Pretty simple. I had two squares leftover after I cut the panels for the bottom of the curtains, so I cut the squares in half, sewed them together, folded them lengthwise and sewed down the edge. Reversed the sash, then sewed the end together. Then sewed in the buttonhole and I also don't have a seam ripper tool, so I used a box cutter to cut the material. Now I see that I forgot the last step. Reinforcing the buttonhole with a Straight Stitch. I'd better do that. We seem to be hard on things in this household.
I decided against those cup holder things to hold the sashes. As I just said, we seem to be hard on things in this house. They would be pulling out of the wall within weeks, so I just used a long drywall screw.
Here's another picture of the curtains now, complete with sashes. See how you can see under the sink area? That is what the other set of curtains is for. I'm also going to paint underneath the top cupboards - the area that is white will become turquoise, as will the white alongside the window. But not this weekend. 
And, I've decided! I want this to replace my old falling apart dish drainer (besides it is pine green and the drainer thing on the bottom is clear:
It sells for $29.99 from Target via Amazon.com. Amazon wants almost $40 after shipping and tax. I don't know if I want to spend THAT much, but I *do* have gift certificates worth that much left. Although I am tempted to buy a stainless steel dish drainer. They have one at Amazon also, for $50. Probably the shipping will be high. But it would last longer than these Rubbermaid ones seem to do. I have replaced mine twice since we've lived here, about four years.
Until next time.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Ooooh, Lookee What I Made!!
Labels: Home Improvement
I'm so excited, I'm so happy with my results!! Look, here is the new aqua colored paint and the old curtain. Ick, nasty, ugly aqua, yes?
I got the paint from Home Depot. Five gallons of "OOPS" paint for $15. Someone's paint that got made into the wrong color. I actually bought it because my dh was building a new shed, so we could turn the "milking shed" and into an actual milking parlor. The paint looks like a very soft green color, like Crayola crayon seagreen. But once it dries, it becomes more of an aqua color. At any rate, how can I shine my sink every day, when the curtains are so ugly?
So today I became obsessed with replacing the curtains. I found out quickly that Walmart has about two choices for kitchen curtains, the one in the picture, and another one with other colors that don't match my paint...
I went to one Walmart and perused the one dollar per yard shelf. Like for an hour. I didn't have a paint chip, and was going by memory. I know what I envision the color to be, and what the color actually is when I see it again are not the same color. I asked ds2 to take a picture with his cell phone and send me a picture. Oh... he couldn't find his cell phone. Then he finally remembered it was in his pants and his pants were soaking in the washer!!! Agh!!! Hopefully his cell phone will dry out!!
Anyway, so I looked and looked and looked and looked. Nothing seemed like it would be the right color. Finally I made myself stop looking (and wasting time) and did the rest of my shopping. I had to go to the next small town to make a pickup, and there was a Walmart there. These are the only two stores with fabric in them unless I want to drive 50 miles, so that's why I went to Walmart instead of JoAnn's or Michael's.
At the next Walmart, the choices were even slimmer. Ugh. Nothing but ugly material for $1/yard. I couldn't even find anything that caught my eye for $2/yard.
By now, I'd asked ds2 to take a picture of the window sill with the digital camera and email it to my phone. It was a dismal picture, the green looked almost white, so it was absolutely no help at all.
On the way back to the first town, it struck me finally that I had my employer's digital camera in my purse, with pictures of the window sill!! When I got back to the first Walmart, I had a brainstorm. I went to the Kodak photomaker machine - which I've NEVER used before - inserted the SD card and within a minute I had a picture printed out of the window sill!! It took longer to pay for the photo, than it did to make the dang thing. The guy behind the counter said they have to scan the picture, put it into an envelope and then ring me up. Maybe they think people will try to print out pornographic photos or something and so they scan every photo that goes out so they can bust them? Or maybe they think the photo will be a professional one, with copyrights (again with more busting)?
Back to fabrics. I started looking again. By this time, I'd given up on the idea that I'd be making two sets of curtains for $4 (I'd figured I would need 4 yards and was trying to buy $1/yard material). I was ready to accept the fact that my material would cost no more than $2/yard. I found some material that I liked, but it was so pretty I figured it was in the wrong area. I was right. It was $3.96/yard. So I gave up on that one. I finally asked the ladies if they would help me find something. They were really trying to help me. One lady kept finding turquoise colors that I just didn't like. One material looked like something I'd make pajamas out of, not kitchen curtains. Another was too "sissy" - my guys would refuse to cook again if I put that in the kitchen. Another was turquoise camouflage, ugh. She found material after material, and I didn't like them. She was so cool, because I apologized for being so picky and she told me, "Oh no, you HAVE to like it. This is going to be in your kitchen, so you need to REALLY like it."
Finally I hit upon the idea of taking the first material I'd seen that I liked, and making a valance at top, just a straight piece, and then the bottom sections would be a matching cream color, with a straight panel across the bottom of the valance color.
Can you see the adorable nursing calf?
Now, remember the picture I had developed? The color in the photo matched the blue in this fabric PERFECTLY. I thought the contrast would be beautiful. I also love that I could bring some more colors into the kitchen, like granny apple green, and barn red, and maybe even some cow things.
My next problem was that I was planning to sew all this by hand. Yes, the whole time I was searching for material (at least THREE hours), in the back of my mind I was realizing that I probably wasn't going to have enough time this weekend to sew curtains by hand. I began entertaining the thought of buying a cheap sewing machine, even though money is *tight*, and can't afford to buy even a cheap sewing machine.
But by now, I'm committed to putting in these new curtains. And I have been wanting a sewing machine for YEARS. So, I bit the bullet and bought the cheapest Walmart special available. A Brother Machine, $65.00. Can you believe you can buy a sewing machine for only SIXTY-FIVE dollars?
Also, my fabric ended up costing SIXTEEN dollars, not FOUR, and not EIGHT. OUCH. BUT, I love it, and I've spent most of my life buying the cheapest thing possible, just to save a dollar and in the last few years I'm getting really sick of getting ugly stuff just 'cause it's cheap. I had a major fit of guilt once I left the parking lot, and called my mom. My dear mother, who enabled me by saying she wanted to buy me something nice for Christmas and could she give me the $65 to pay for the sewing machine? So I was able to get over the guilt fairly easily.
I had to feed the goats and milk once I got home. And then process the milk. I'm at a place in my cycle where I'm just in a mood, real cranky, alternating with feeling depressed. I was hungry, but wasn't about to take the time to cook. I had CURTAINS TO MAKE!!
So I had a plan formulated in my mind, and set about making it happen. But first, I had to figure out the sewing machine. THAT took me longer than making the curtains! When I finally got the bobbin filled, the thread threaded, and started sewing, it was 8:25. I was done with my curtains by 9:35pm! I made two valance pieces at the top, and two panels at the bottom.
I bought enough material to make an extra set of matching curtains for under the sink, where I removed the doors since the one had fallen off and the pressboard was damaged, making it impossible to put the one door back on. So I decided to just remove them altogether.
Now I MUST get into bed. I have a big day tomorrow. Two big things on my TODO list. Hoof trims and then end of year accounting for the little business for whom I bookkeep. (Will I ever figure out how to say that correctly?)
OH, did you want to see the finished product? By the way, the photo I had printed out does NOT match the window sill in person. But the fabric still works to make the paint color look nice, instead of ugly.
Until next time.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Fix Your Sink
Labels: FlyLady, Home Improvement
Okay, not quite a FlyLady suggestion, but when your sink sucks as much as mine did, it's hardly worth shining the darn thing. So I did the only thing I could do. Changed out the faucet. I ended up driving to the nearest Lowe's (25 miles away). Because we live in a manufactured home...
...you can't just buy any faucet and hook it up. I won't go into detail about all the details... what I ended up doing was buying a faucet which I didn't like. I've been really, really wanting a hi-rise faucet. I was sure it would make washing the half gallon jars and milk buckets easier. The one I ended up buying had one handle, like the last one. The reason I bought another one with one handle is because the salesclerk told me that was my only choice. He said if I was using a one handled faucet already, then that meant my sink had only two holes. He said I'd need a sink with three holes in order to use a two handled faucet. I don't know how many holes are in the sink so I believed him when he told me mine had only two holes (since my original faucet had only one handle). I know this is probably really confusing.
See, the hi-rise faucets with two handles were cheaper than the hi-rise faucets with only one handle. For example, I could get a one handled regular faucet for $42 or a two handled hi-rise faucet for $48. Or if I wanted a hi-rise faucet with two handles, it would be more like $60. I was willing to deal with two handles for the hi-rise spout.
So I bought the faucet, then got out to the truck and looked in the box. Also called home to see if ds2 could look and see how many holes were in the sink. As I looked at the faucet again, I realized that it was going to need THREE holes in the sink to hook up correctly. Within minutes, ds2 confirmed for me that the sink has three holes, plus one more for the soap dispenser. I also decided to replace the drains. The old ones were plastic. One was white, one was grey. I bought stainless steel replacements. They were $6.95 each. They are beautiful, commercial grade and the stopper fits in their so perfectly and they match!! For years we have had to use a flat lid type "stopper" instead of the kind you put into the hole.
The last faucet had a sprayer, which was nice for the couple weeks that it actually worked. This would have also increased the price of the faucet, if I wanted a sprayer, so I decided that wasn't important either. The hi-rise feature of the spout was the most important thing!
Once I realized that the salesclerk had given me incorrect information, I decided to go back into the store and talk to the older man who worked in that area. He said the younger man had given me wrong information, and thanked me for telling him because he needed to know that the younger man didn't know that, so he could teach him.
I ended up buying the two handled hi-rise faucet that I'd wanted in the first place. I kept the other one and took both home. As I suspected, ds2 liked the hi-rise faucet better. So we tried to hook it up. Only because we live in a manufactured home it wasn't possible. See, our plumbing is made of this specialty stuff called Quest. The fittings don't always work with regular plumbing replacement.
This time I took the old faucet with me, so I could show the guy at Lowe's exactly what I needed to make things hook up. I wasn't able to talk to the same guy, he was off for the day 20 minutes before I got back to the store, but he told me to look for another guy wearing shorts and who was bald. Paul was his name. I found him and explained my problem, and sharing that we lived in a manufactured home. At first he said they didn't have anything that would work. At that point, I pointed out that the faucet I was holding in my hand had been purchased from Walmart less than a year ago, and was not original to the manufactured home. 
Sometimes people hear "manufactured home" and they won't go on from there. I was very patient and asked him if there wasn't something I could use, with a connector piece or something. So finally he started to think outside the box and found a solution for me. It cost just under $9 for the new connection pieces. I needed two "Reinforced PVC Faucet Connectors" 1/2" FIP Inlet x 1/2" FIP Outlet 20 inches (iow, both ends were female). I didn't need 20" but apparently that's the only size this particular connector comes in, at least from Lowe's. I also needed two nipples, both ends male.
Then back home again. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and I was experiencing low blood sugar and was feeling shaky and very grumpy. Ds2 was helping me. Note to self: When you set out on a home improvement project, don't assume you have all the necessary items, even when you see them before your eyes. For example, the plumber's putty... we almost didn't have enough, and it was almost too hard to work with. Had it been any harder, we'd have been in trouble. The other thing was teflon tape. I found a container of it, under the sink. When ds2 opened it to wrap the threads, there was only a few tangled threads left on the roll.
Thank goodness we had more out in the toolboxes. Whew. I was not interested in another trip into town to finish this project!! I would have had no choice though, since we don't have a turnoff under the kitchen sink! We have to turn off the water to the entire house. Dh told me he hasn't had a chance to hook up a turn off valve.
Finally, ds2 and I got the sink puttied, screwed together and back in place.
Next I got the sink clips that we'd bought a few weeks ago. The final step. Secure the sink into place. Sorry it wouldn't be that simple! The ones were bought were for a different kind of sink. I don't know where to get the ones we need. I might need to go to someplace that specializes in plumbing supplies, like Evergreen. Because Home Depot only had one type of sink clips. They won't work for our sink, because our sink doesn't have a rim around the bottom for the sink clips to hook onto.
Anyway, we finally got the whole thing back together. I washed milk buckets tonight and jars and some other dishes and it was really great to have so much room to work, instead of having to try fitting everything under the sink faucet.
Later on FlyLady insisted I clean the kitchen, so to humor her and myself, I washed one sinkful of dishes, and shined my sink. I know that I'm supposed to take it slow getting started with FL, and I'm sure she's assuming my kitchen is clean except for the dinner dishes. Not hardly. It was WONDERFUL washing dishes with the hi-rise faucet! Seriously! Usually I'm having to hold things so low under the faucet to rinse them.
Today I plan to work some more on that kitchen sink. My next goal is to take down that filthy kitchen curtain and wash it. The window sill needs washing, and so does the window. I also want to clean under the sink again. Most of the stuff under there previously was garbage. Oh, the cabinet doors in front of the sink... one fell off a few months ago. I don't even know where it's at. I removed the other one altogether, plus the framing. I think I will look into buying a matching kitchen curtain to just cover the under sink area, instead of trying to put the cabinet doors back on. My kitchen is sort of falling apart. At least three drawers are hard to open and close.
Until next time.
