Miscellaneous Ramblings

This post is somthing of a catch-all. I haven't been very diligent about updating in the past 2 or 3 months, so this is an attempt to bring the blog up to speed...

When we bought the Prairie Box, the previous owners left some things behind. Nothing like House in Progress... All of the stuff our POs left was potentially useful. We were a bit mysified by the amount of mouse bait they had out. There were little D-Con poison pellets in each of the upstairs closet, scattered around on the insulation in the attic, and all over the basement. After seeing this, we got a little anxious. What kind of house did we buy? Are there poisoned mice inside the walls? And over a year later, we still had yet to see so much as a little mouse turd. So, to prevent poisoned mice from finding their way into the walls, and to keep Kitty from poisioning herself, the mouse poison in accessible places was thrown away.

And then, two days ago, Shayne went down into the basement and found a dead mouse. Who needs poision when you have a cat? :) I have to say I'm impressed. Kitty has never been much of a hunter, and until we moved out here, she was kept indoor except when under strict supervision. Now, Kitty goes out just about every morning. She turned up a month or so ago with a dead bird, which was a first for her. And now the mouse. Go figure. 12 years old, and she finally learns how to hunt! Now maybe Shayne won't crab as much about her being useless...!

A month or so ago, I found another former heat vent. This one is in the kitchen, under/behind the stove. In the past, the kitchen cabinets only took up 2 walls. When they covered the 3rd wall with cabinets and appliances, they also covered up the heat vent. I found it by accident when I took off the panel on the bottom of the stove to vacuum underneath it. It's covered by a piece of galvanized sheeting and duct tape. No wonder this house is heated and cooled so unevenly. It's missing about 3 or 4 vents... Also under the stove was a look at some ancient tile or linoleum, which they carpeted right over. Nice. I'd rip up the carpet, but Shayne would probably kill me... The picture also shows a lovely circular hole that is cut through the floor. No clue what might have been there.

Step One: Remove Head From Sphincter

As much as I don't like to admit it, I think I've been somewhat depressed lately. I can come up with all of the excuses that I want, but the point is that all I've been doing is moping around for the past few months wishing that the house was perfect and didn't need any work. There's been some sporadic activity (I got the basement storage area cleaned and organized, we attacked and reformed a few flower beds in the yard, I reorganized the kitchen, etc), but I've really lost track of where I'm going. This morning, I looked at the living room and thought, "I really like this room. It gets great light all day, year-round, and the floors are beautiful. Why am I not working on finishing it?" And I coulnd't come up with a better answer than laziness and an odd lack of motivation. Maybe I thought if I ignored it long enough, it would finish itself...?


So, I'm finally pulling my head out of my ass. Remember this picture?

That's where I need to be.

Friday morning, Shayne and I are going to go to Lowe's to find a stain for the living room woodwork. The amber shellac looked WAY too orange, and even the garnet isn't the color I want. I'm still going to use shellac, but as a finish coat over the stain. I'm trying to match it to the inside of the closet door in the front bedroom, but if I can get close, I'll be happy.

I need to have the living room done by Christmas. I promised myself I could decorate this year. All I need to do is stain/shellac the trim and put it back up. Not a big project. Not a difficult project. Not even a time consuming one.

I think I need a cheerleader. Or maybe a Marine drill instructor...

Emergency Preparedness

I had to take a little time off from both the house and the blog. For reasons both personal and professional, I've been extremely stressed lately. I haven't made much progress on anything, and I figured that it would be better to take a break than to get burned out.

Another source of stress has been very personal. About 3 weeks ago, Shayne fractured his C6 vertebrae in a fall. It was just a hairline crack, but he has to wear a neck brace for up to 8 weeks. The doctor said that the brace is basically a preventative measure against further damage, and at the last check-up the doc said Shayne's healing fast, but he's restricted to "light duty" at work until released by the doctor. Because the department he works for is so small, there isn't much as far as light duty. In the meantime, he's taken up dispatching and has begun training and taking classes. Thankfully this keeps his paycheck coming in, and we don't have to worry about depleting our savings. God has been very good to us, and I appreciate the prayers and support from all our family and friends.

All of this has gotten me thinking about what would have happened to us if Shayne hadn't been able to work. Or what would happen if I couldn't work. We have a savings account, but it wouldn't last forever. It wouldn't even cover a major repair on the house if there was a big problem or a disaster of some sort. I'm sure we have enough in the pantry and freezer to get us through a week, but we'd be SOL if the power was out. Our well pump wouldn't function, and we'd have no water besides what's in the tanks and hot water heater.

After talking with Shayne, we've decided to set aside an area under the stairs and dedicate it to an emergency preparedness kit. Some guides recommend having a 1 year supply of food, but we're not going to go that far. I'd feel more than comfortable with about a month's supply of canned goods and pouched, canned, or freeze-dried meat; staples like flour, sugar, and salt; extra water; first aid supplies and extra batteries; and a way to stay warm and dry. Some of these things I already have due to my backpacking habit. I have a stove that runs on denatured alcohol, and sleeping bags and tents that could keep us warm and sheltered in sub-zero conditions. I have a water filter, and we're close enough to the lake that I could conceivably use it as our water source. I even have a little heater that runs on 16 oz propane cylinders. The food and batteries are something I'll have to work on...

A part of me feels a little paranoid for even thinking about this, but my complacent attitude wouldn't help us much if there was a bad blizzard and we were snowed in for any length of time. Or if one of us was out of work and we couldn't afford to buy groceries... In any case, I'd rather err on the side of paranoia, considering the alternative.

Here are a few links that I've found to be helpful:
Emergency Essentials
The American Red Cross
The Prepared Pantry

I'll keep you all updated as this project progresses...

Still plugging away

I've made some progress on the living room woodwork (finally), and it should be all stripped and sanded by next week. We might even get the shellac on and get everything nailed back up. We'll see... Once everything is back in place, I'll put the final coat or two of shellac on the floor and wax it. Then I'll sit back and enjoy having a finished room for about 2.6 seconds before I start tearing up something else. *sigh* I really just can't leave well enough alone.

As an interim project while we're saving up for the bathroom or kitchen remodel (still haven't decided which will be first), I'm going to repaint the psychotically bright yellow and green front bedroom something a little more, umm, subdued. Like sage green with cream woodwork. Or maybe I'll get brave and strip it, too, even though it wasn't in our plan. Either way, that room is easy, since the walls and ceiling have already been repaired and are free of wallpaper and tiles.

If we're still broke after that, we can move on to the office. The work in there is less superficial, but still inexpensive. Same with the master bedroom. It seems there will always be plenty to do...

Then again, maybe not

Just when I thought I had the next year in home improvement all laid out, we started talking again about remodeling the bathroom next instead of the dining room. Why would we do this? For starters, we HATE the bathroom. It's functional, it's clean, it's not falling apart, and it's even fairly aesthetically pleasing. It even has plenty of storage. However, it is easily our least favorite room in the house, beating out the torn up office for that honor. We don't really have a good reason for disliking the bathroom, other than that everything but the floor tile and sink cabinet is half-assed and/or cheap. We even had a nicer bathtub in our rental hovel...

So, for the sake of being able to take a bath again, and have an oasis in the chaos, we're seriously thinking about doing the bathroom.

Due to it being the only full bathroom in the house, the plumbing to the bathtub can't be disconnected for very long. We can shower at work if we have to, but it would be better if it didn't come to that. At least not for any length of time. Of course, we also don't know jack about plumbing. I can install a water filter, and Shayne can unclog a drain, but that's about the limit to our experience. We're going to have to hire this one out.

It's looking like every fixture in the room will be moved. I can't say that I'm thrilled with that, but the current layout sucks and doesn't leave us with much useable floor space. By moving the fixtures, it will open up the room and make it feel larger than it does now. It might also cause problems, since the long wall is an outside wall... Below are the current and expected floor plans. The boxes next to the tub and sink are ceiling-height cabinets.

We've got the basics figured out for the materials: beadboard wainscot, subway tile shower surround, 1" hex tile floor, pedestal sink, and a cast iron drop-in tub. I really wanted a clawfoot tub, but Shayne's dimensions apparently aren't standard enough for a standard tub. 14" of water in a 5' tub means that almost all of him will be out of the water, making a bath rather pointless. Kohler's Tea-for-Two tub is the deepest (19.5" of water at the overflow!) cast iron tub I can find that is under 6' long, so I'm hoping to find one of them on sale...!