Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Phew! A 3 day weekend of progress!

New wiring on South/East walls
Alrighty, well what a weekend it's been! Happy belated Memorial day ya'll!
Had an electrician come on Saturday and completely re-wire the craft room/office. Added some more receptacles (outlets) as well.


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Friday, May 27, 2011

Lighting Dilemma

Well, the craft room is gutted. The electrician is coming this weekend to pull all new wiring and add some new receptacles and update the hallway lighting as well since it's accessible right now. Then I can pull the AV cables, put in some blocking (to support heavy shelves, future flat screen etc), insulate the walls and begin to close them up.

While I've been at a stand still for that room.. I am beginning the kitchen upgrades. I've begun to strip the wallpaper off the walls in that room. This week hasn't provided a lot of time to work, so I'm very much looking forward to the 3 day weekend!
Kitchen during pre-bought walk through
I plan to update the counter tops, possibly the cabinet hardware, paint the walls, update flooring and replace the hideous light fixture..

Ok the light fixture isn't THAT bad.. However! It's a circular fluorescent bulb, and the fixture cover broke (or at least is missing) and the wattage is only 22 watts which amounts to a regular 75w bulb.. Clearly not enough light-- and it's cool white which leaves you having that "exam room" feel to it.. BLAH! My dilemma is a) I haven't found anything I like to replace it and b)my ceiling is only 8' so if I get a chandelier type fixture it can be no more that 18" H and mounted right up against the ceiling.. It needs to provide ample light too since it's my only source other that two windows that face East and South.... Ho hum.

Open to any suggestions for fixtures......

My Evenings: Beer and wallpaper stripping. It's a hard knock life. =)

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Demo continues

Demo has continued on the soon to be craft room. I've been very busy with other things so it's hard to find time to pick up the mallet and go to town---without it being 10pm at night.. I doubt my neighbors would like that very much. Anyways! Insulation and supplies are taking up my living room:


I can't wait to get the house in some type of order!!
This was found behind the second wall I took down-- can't tell what it is?? Well it's a whole lot of mouse poop.. I can't figure out where they came in... but it all seems old and when I'm done with the room they won't ever be back.


This is the second wall complete.. The window made it a heck of a lot harder to take down the paneling.. Mostly in part because I refused to take apart the whole window casing. Finally all the paneling on this wall was removed.

Last night I did wall 3. It came down by far the easiest. Maybe after 2 other walls I'm becoming an expert on taking this crap down. However.. I discovered a semi-rotted sole or "bottom" plate.. The wall shares with the closet the furnace is in-- which had a piss poor installation and caused condensation to leak back ONTO the furnace itself and the floor surrounding.. Hence-- when I get a new furnace the whole closet area will have to be demoed and redone I'm sure.. As for now.. this little area will be reinforced and that'll be that. It's still sound enough where it's not going anywhere.




 Whatever you do: Don't try this at home kids! =) Demo is serious business.
I've been called "Rambette" vs Rambo... or "Bobbi Villa".. hahahaha! Hope to have the walls closed up in the new couple of weeks.
 Let the work continue!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Their back!

Fleas that is.. I've been battling what seems like a never ending battle for a couple weeks now. Finally I think we (dogs and me) are on the mend. All pups had two baths in two weeks, the exterminator has been out to bomb and spray the house for a second time, I've become a vacuuming fool. MPG all had a fair bit of fleas combed out the other night in the bath. Each dog took an hour to bathe. I've treated the yard with spray, granules and diatomaceous earth. A big part of the problem is the yard has very sandy soil which fleas LOVE! I've put down cedar mulch in the primary area the dogs lay, with the intent to put down more this weekend in other areas.

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Friday, May 13, 2011

Craft room continues

Last night was my Mecca trip to Lowe's for supplies. I hope I got everything I need. Borrowed my friend Aaron's pick up truck and off I went.



9 sheets of drywall
3 packages of insulation--some asked why I'm insulating all the walls.. Well for one, they are all soon to be open and two, it'll help with sound.
Picked up mud, screws, tape, knives, 2 new doors, and mulch to finish out the yard near the compost bins.

Needless to say it was a successful trip even if a little over budget. Thankfully I had a 10% off coupon which helped some.



I talked to a coworker this morning and he's going to hook me up with AV cables etc for infrastructure for a future small flat screen in that room.

Movies, music and crafting?!? What could get better??

The wall where all that stuff is going will be the last wall I'll do. I'll get the AV cables stubbed up and run through some PVC pipe.. It pays to work for an AV company!

An electrician is going to come out and add a few more receptacles and make sure everything is A-Okay before walls get closed up.

The more I think about it, the more excited I become! Now if only I could nail down a color scheme!!
This is the proposed layout.. with revisions being made. haha! A designers work is never done!

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Demolition begins!!

Last night I started the task of removing the wood paneling in my "soon to be craft room".
Pardon the quality of the pictures--- my camera took a swim in the washing machine this past week-- so I'm relying on my phone....


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Critter control

So, some many recall that when I first moved in one of the bedrooms had a efficiency stack washer and dryer in the closet.



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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New Addition!

No no.. not to the house, but to the family. (And no I did not have a baby!)

April 30th I was picking up 3 girls I watch and noticed a dog very close to their house limping and starving. I lured the dog to my truck per frosted flakes (there ggrrrreat!) I noticed she was a female pup and that her foot was hurt. After some time and letting her trust me to get close enough, I loaded her into my truck (with the human 3 girls) and off to the vet we went.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Completed compost bins

Last night I completed my 3 bin compost system. They were made using wooden pallets I got from my awesome friend Aaron. He kindly delivered them in batches from his work.(Thanks Aaron!)

The biggest challenge was finding pallets roughly the same size and that had the same slat spacing... After that hurdle, the next was figuring out how in the world to lay them out so hinges worked for the doors..

Finally they got assembled and filled with great composting materials.. And at last the 20+ refuge bags are finally cleared from the side of the house!

Up next it'll be prepping for Bokashi composting! I know what your thinking.."Bo---what?" Its called bo-ka-she and is a Japanese method to compost. It allows meat, bones, dairy, etc to go in. Essentially you can compost ANYTHING using this method.

It's an anaerobic method which basically is the absence of oxygen vs traditional composting which is aerobic.

I'll write more about it once I'm embarking on that journey.

Here are the pictures of the completed bins!



This was the pallets beginning to be laid out.


Completed bins when "doors" are shut.


Filled bins! Lots of leaves, grass clippings, fireplace ash, and coffee grounds from Starbucks and dryer lint.


Bins are just south of the veggie garden.. The area is still work in progress.

What ya think?

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