February 25, 2012

That's right. We just got back from the doctor and heard that little 160 bpm heart pumping away in our 2-inch tyke. We are in for a treat and super excited.

Spring Projects

Our friend's brother, Brad Schroth, died last August and we have recently been blessed to inherit his dining room set:

Here it is in our front room. We like it a lot. The walls just look so nehked! So I've been hunting for THE decor to dress them up a little--make it look like a put-together room. My neighbor is re-working her basement and had this picture sitting around and very thoughtfully asked me if I would like it:

That's me holding the camera crooked, I promise. I admit I was a little apprehensive with the darkness of the boats being a little too gloomy; but, for a dining room, I think the "darkness" keeps it a little more formal-ly. Thank you, Daphne. She also gave us her mother's old croquet set which we are very excited to use.

In case you were wondering, our attic is still in shambles. My energy has been re-devoted to the outdoors for the spring/summer/fall and our yards look kinda crappy, but they have improved in some ways. For instance: I moved a shade-loving Mountain Laurel from the front of the house (hot afternoon sun) to the north side, along the driveway. We've dug up several Hosta from an undesirable location and distributed them around the neighborhood, along with some Red Hot Poker (Knifophia), chives, and Joe Pie Weed. 

Mark took on the most horrifying part of our garden one day, the black berry, kiwi, and ivy vine patch. The battle is not over, but he got a good start.

Everything on the ground behind him used to go up to about chest level. It's at least not giving me nightmares anymore.

That garden got a couple more spats of attention that week. I pulled out all the un-fruitful, overgrown raspberries. They are still there, just under control now. The final project I grumbled through was the removal of the bog garden (a bog is a land of saturated mud; things like cat tails and irises grow well in them). I like bogs, but not in my vegetable garden. That just doesn't work for me. I decided that I was going to pull out all of the plants and build the area up to ground level; and, what cheaper way to do that than to make it into a compost pile area?!

Here's me post-bog makeover. I love the previous owners dearly, but did a lot of cursing over the course of those 3 hours, as they had used a plastic tarp under the mud to line the bog. It was still holding pretty strong, and I had to dig it out of the mud! *not cool* I'm glad it's done now, though. I've got a great compost pile going: newspaper, grass, fruit & veggie scraps...blessedly nice potential.

The rest of the summer will be spent working as a counselor for the county's summer camp programs. With week one almost finished, I'm exhausted, but super happy to be busy; and, this camp makes me want kids more than ever. Just as soon as we feel better about Mark's occupation...

Mr. Fix-it

Mark had spring break from school last week. It was VERY needed, since he leaves the house by 6:30 every morning and Monday through Thursday nights does not get home until 10:45. Of course, he went to bed earlier, napped, and got to play on the computer during the week; but, he also got some really great handy man things done. He said it felt so good to accomplish things for US... as in, not because it was an assignment for school or work.

What started it all: our bathroom sink. I used the pipe to hoist myself out of the bathtub once (and never again) this past December and the threaded area where the pipes screw together broke, or ripped...but anyway, we couldn't use that sink--the water would drip onto the floor. Remember we have 2 other bathrooms, so it wasn't a huge deal for us. I was not strong enough to move the rest of the pipe out, but Mark was. So when he finally had more than a Saturday to pretend to replenish his strength, he got in there and removed the old pipe and voila! New and Improved.

Well, that felt so good, Mark proceeded to fix more things. This includes the antenna on top of the car. (we also hadn't been able to use our radio since fall because of a collision with the antenna and the bottom panel of the garage door (both broke). It was early, Mark was tired...

Here's a picture of the fixed antenna. It's sealed with the use of a caulking gun. Kind of laughable, I know. But thanks to Mark keeping a soldering gun handy, he was able to sit on the car and fix the wires back together. What a stud!

Next up: I asked Mark if he'd give the attic wiring situation a "college try" since I can't get a hold of Dom yet. He worked mightily for several hours on that dang thing. It's just that the wires aren't adding up. Don't know what needs to be done. He did get it down to what DOESN'T connect to the light switch.

I'm so proud of him. Such an accomplished fellah. We are really looking forward to when school is over on October 13th. Associates out of the way, and then Bachelors program doesn't start till later. Good luck, Mark. At least I hope your Autumn will be restful and productive.

Touched by Tesla

Mark is the one smart enough to come up with this title. I apologize if it gives away the ending...

What with the weather perking back up and my becoming a pampered chef consultant and busy weekends, I've been (often) purposely avoiding my attic. It's dirty, right? Well, yesterday seemed just right for installing the lights. I needed to wash my hair before dance class, so crawling through this:

 It actually seemed somewhat reasonable; it looks much bigger than it is. I had to crawl to the back to grab the lighting wire I had shoved through a small hole. The blurry stuff at the top of the picture is shouldn't-be-loose, hanging bits of insulation.What's on the other side of the wire?

This. It's burnt insulation from the previous light fixture. It breaks apart and falls on your face with great ease.

And after 2 hours of figuring out how to hold this thing in place (balance it on my head) while I screw & hammer into the 4 suspension locations, this recessed lighting can is in place--essentially and hopefully for good. Hammering is not a forte of mine. Then again, neither is seeing through filthy safety glasses.

At one point, I had dropped a screw and had only one point secured of the 4 required to be able to let go. ok...I have a 5 1/2 foot wingspan and I need to be able to bend down and pick up that screw while still holding up the fixture. The one bit of metal that was secured to the ceiling ripped apart on its way down to the ground. I decided then and there to keep several nails and screws in my pocket for this project; and then I dropped the hammer. RRRRRRR!

Never ever ever did I think I would feel relieved to see this:

The outlet box where the light switch goes.
That's a lot of wires! I'm usually pretty good at putting wire configurations back together if I have a good recollection of what the box previously looked like. I wasn't far off. All the white needed to go together, the two outlet blacks needed to go together, the ground wires attach to each other, and the lighting black wires get pigtailed to the light switch. Sure. Can do! The breaker switch labeled "ATTIC VENT FAX" was off, so I was ready to go. This goes here, those over there... uh huh... now I just need to grab all these white ones and put them together in the little red twisty-cap thing.

AAAH! OUCH! WOAH!

My body completed the circuit and my shoulder and my teeth with metal fillings felt it. Apparently, the proper breaker to switch was that which was labeled "Dining Room." Hm... That's on the other side of the house. It should be labeled "Living Room, Entry Way, Attic."

Could this have been avoided? Absolutely. My dad has this nifty electric-field-detector-thingy that looks like a giant crayon. All you have to do is hold it up to an outlet and it beeps and flashes if there's power there. I'm a huge fan of it and have used it several times, but I couldn't find it and didn't want to wait. Woops. I don't think I"ll ever do any electrical work without it ever again. In fact, I think I'm going to buy myself one. That would be wise.

But wait: the situation got worse! 

 After Mark helped me find the "Dining Room" switch, we celebrated by flipping the light switch at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the attic. The very light switch which acts as a regulation standard second connection to the outlet box up in the attic which I had just operated on. Just a fun little ON, OFF to show that it works. Well, I did not know that light switches are part dragon. Apparently it "arked." The switch actually blew fire as it started flipping up and down by itself.

Here is the "Outlet of Fire" and that shiny stuff just north west of the tip of the screw driver is, from what we could figure, Mercury. I really hope this is going to be a quick fix of simply replacing the light switch. But of course, I can't help but wonder, "How much is this incident going to cost?"

What did I do wrong here? Something about both switches being set to ON or something. I really should get a professional to help me this time around. But I'm not paying anyone. Heck no! I can do this! trial and error, baby. Or education by error, anyway. (Dad's business partner, Dom, said he'd check out my lighting if I wanted. He's out of town this week, but I'll be chatting with him soon.)

The other project with this lighting has to do with the light bulb holding structure within the can. It is currently hanging freely. It's supposed to be secured. I need to figure out how.

Cool Trivial Fact Mark Taught Me:

Thomas Edison showed people the "dangers" of Nikola Tesla's electricity by electrocuting them. As amazing as Tesla's method is, I think it's safe to say that's why Edison won the popularity contest...beside the fact that Tesla went crazy.

Down with the old...

 

This girl

had a very productive week. Can you see what I did? Here I am tearing out those ceiling tiles. I believe they went up with the house in 1948 and they were holey, and drawn on, and I'm glad they're gone. Even with the mask, I still had black boogers. Before I attacked that, however, I removed the wallpaper:

I really didn't want to score the wallpaper, so first I peeled of the top layer, which wasn't terribly hard. I think it only took 2 or 3 hours.

Then I took 8-ish hours to peel off the adhesive layer. I soaked each section in a 3:1 water/fabric softener solution, then it really wasn't that bad to scrape off.

Oreo did her best to help me. It was nice to have her company.

The biggest threats were on this darn south wall. That's black mold alright. Yup. My dad gave me some amazing industry-strength mold killer and some Kiltz to get rid of it. And the other problem presented itself at about 10pm on Friday night. I was up there, finishing tearing down the tiles and came across a large number of dead wasps caught in the spider webs between the insulation and tiles. I asked Mark to come up stairs and keep me company while I finished up and together we pulled and yanked at the tiles till the very end. We found about 12 little dried up mud nests within our ceiling. ew. creepy. At least now we know why we were finding 1 or 2 wasps a week just chilling in the attic and what we can do to prevent it this and all following summers.

So now the attic is naked. The carpet, of course, will be staying down until I'm finished painting the walls and ceiling. Then I'll remove it and paint the floor boards (carefully).

My plans for this week include installing new insulation-contact recessed lighting cans, consider installing a third one, for better lighting and more electrical practice, and put up as much of the dry wall as I can. Since it's just me most of the time, I don't really know how much of that will get done. Poor Mark's always at work or school. Then in 2 weeks, I'll get all the mudding done and change out all the electrical outlets the previous owners  painted over.

I've got my work cut out for me but I'm having fun. I feel empowered with every accomplishment. I'm already laughing at it now, but as I was finishing up my last little bit of wallpaper removal, I started talking to myself about being so good, I could probably build my own house. Yeah...no.

Make Myself Make it Happen

Tomorrow, I have a job interview for a different position in the metroparks. It's only three miles from home and only from late March to September/October. Doable, I'd say. We'll see how it goes.

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If you've been through the "virtual tour" of our house, you may recall our shabby attic.

These stairs I can work with. In fact, I'll work around them.

this is the closet. It's what's to the right when you come up the stairs. Holey cow.

And here's the essential whole of the attic. not terrible looking, I guess, but  not cohesive.

I am repulsed by it. I know that if I get rid of that wallpaper and remove the carpet and patch up the walls, I'll be happy with it. But I don't want to! It's not like I can't handle a rotten project: I spent a large part of January in the basement stripping and sanding our bedroom door so I didn't have to look at the teal anymore (May I add that the teal is ironically the SAME teal as the outside of the house. That's right. There was still paint left over so, "Hey, let's use this outdoor paint on these beautiful doors!"). That was a nightmare project and since I absolutely loved removing wallpaper from my room in high school, I guess that my mind is on a one-nightmare-a-season track and that's why I'm stuck in a rut and not just yet very willing to attack this attic which I loath so much.

I need to make this change happen. I just don't want to. Not at all. Yuck. Eww. Gross.
Anyone dying for a really tough service project?

Amazing Cupcakes

I love magazines. I love going through each one I get and cutting out any great recipes, articles about cleaning a certain part of the house or organizing a party or budgeting... I was cruising the pages of January's bon appetit and came accross a recipe from Society Bakery in Dallas, Texas, for these S'mores Cupcakes. YOW! they're awesome--especially if you love bon fires for the sake of roasting marshmallows, as I do.

Now these beauties are fantastic, but not without a price: they take forever to make: the cake part is a basic muffin mix, essentially, but 3/4 of the flour has been replaced with graham cracker crumbs. After baking, you have to let them cool completely, then dig out a hole from the top, squeeze marshmallow creme into hole, cover with not-hot ganache...by then it's been 3 hours. My favorite part is topping each one with a hand-roasted, homemade marshmallow, lovingly created by me. I definately owe some to people, such as Laura, because it was her birthday yesterday. Sorry, I'm a slacker. But I'll get it done, hopefully by August (happy half birthday?). If you'd like the recipe, click here. Even with all the time they take, let me tell you they are SO worth it.