house maintenance painting and concrete patches

I painted the exterior trim around the front door, garage door and sliding glass door after we moved in.  All of the trim is holding up well for the most part except the sliding glass door trim that bakes in sun a good chunk of the day.  This photo is after I did some scraping (where most of the paint just flaked off).  Most of the paint was already off in all fairness.  

 Almost all of the paint flaked off the top of the trim.  Only a little from the kick board of the door along the concrete came off.

 And then I dug out the exterior paint that we had used.  I could not get the can to open.  I used a screwdriver and nothing.  I tried to get a hammer claw end under the part of the lid I could and nada!  I ended up using a pair of pliers and prying the can open.  It took me about 10 minutes to get the can open.  I called it good enough and dipped the brush.

 I did one coat in the morning and a second in the afternoon.  I followed up with a 3rd coat the next morning and now it is back to looking the way that it should.  I am hoping that it will be much longer lasting than before since the temps were in the low 70's this time.

I also had my Papa Bear teach me how to do a concrete patch.  He showed me on our front walkway step how to mix and then patch concrete.  Our back patio step was starting to crack and break so I tackled that by myself now that I knew how.  It wasn't very hard but you had to be kind of quick so the concrete wouldn't dry (it was quick set).  I was careful to wash the tools as soon as I finished up so they would stay nice.  I am pleased with how it came out considering this was my first attempt.

new concrete under the top step where there was a huge gap/crack.  

Fixin' Things and Such

This is a huge THANK YOU to the one and only Papa Bear!  Although it would have been easier for you to just do things for Jen and I you insisted we do it ourselves after you explained or gave a little demonstration.  We did a little workin' in your basement workshop growing up and learned how to use the tools even if we didn't really want to.

 Because of your insistence that we learn to do it ourselves I sanded and painted our kitchen cabinets and added pulls to them (they didn't have any before).  I also can find a stud in the wall for hanging photos or all my Disney medals.  Added bonus for the curtain rod being level.  It took longer to hang, but all that measuring, finding and marking was worth having something beautiful to look at that I am proud to say I did all by myself.

 When the shower knob decided to crack and break on the inside I was able to replace it.  My sleeve might we a little wet, but I learned to shut the water off the next time.  I've also been able to trouble shoot if the toilet is running and can usually fix that on my own too!

 Thanks Papa Bear for all those little lessons on how to fix stuff while growing up and making me do it myself so I would remember.  We are so lucky and even better is there is still a lot for me to learn (like this winter I learned about how to change the spark plug in the snow blower--even if you did it for me since my fingers would have froze off).

cleaning house

Over break Luke and I tackled some clutter around the house in a big way.  We went through textbooks that we had hanging around and have a fairly large box to take to the bookstore to sell back (if we can).  We filled up the equivalent of 2 recycle bins with papers and such from our office and basement.  A large garbage bag of clothes also made their way to the local Goodwill store.  It feels good to get rid of stuff that we no longer need.
We kind of also had to go through our stuff since we are getting our windows replaced soon and we need to have the area near the windows cleared for the guy to do his thing.  Perfectly good excuse for cleaning up in a big way.  After the windows are installed I am going to do a big cleaning of the rooms (we are talking dusting, washing curtains and such).  A little spring cleaning and I love it.  Time to start thinking of those goals for March since I slacked off and didn't do any list of goals for February.

too early for Christmas

On my adventure to the store to pick up the clearance Halloween candy for our gingerbread house extravaganza at Thanksgiving I couldn't help but notice a lot of Christmas "stuff" out.  Getting to see Disney for the Holidays this year I am super excited and happened to see this little goodie on the end cap at Target:

 They are countdown to Christmas ornaments that you can fill with small pieces of candy or whatever.  They are metal and Cinder approved of them so they are here to stay.

 I decided to hang them in our front hall for now until I figure out where I want this Disney display to be.  The big reason I made this purchase instead of the extreme clearance after Christmas waiting was because there are 3 Dumbo ornaments.

 He is just so cute that I cannot resist.  Although I did resist the squeeze his foot and his trunk blinks to Jingle Bells and his ears flop around.  Totally not worth $25 for that stuffed animal that would get annoying fast.

The only thing really over the top Christmas about these is the snowflakes and the few with Mickey and pals that are totally holiday themed.

It Finally Happened!

We got a riding lawn mower!  We went up to Luke's dads for the weekend to celebrate his 50th birthday and throw him a mini-surprise party with just family.  He was surprised and spent forever making a wish.  If you are wondering the cake is a road with a Harley Motorcycle on it.

 When we returned from our weekend visiting his family Patty and Danny called to see if they could drop off the riding mower.  Basically furniture and such gets shuffled around the family when people get new stuff or no longer need something.  By default and many conversations we finally got the rider.

Ohhhh and ahhhh a lot at these photos cause this is the only time Luke has mowed the lawn since we acquired the mower.  I've gotten to use it 3 times since.  I like the lines that the push mower leaves much better but I love that I am not dying for air or having my eyes half swell shut from allergies when I use this. Yay riding lawn mower.

Laundry Detergent

I read my sisters blog and checked out her friend Christy's blog.  She had made her own laundry detergent.  I thought I would give it a whirl myself and found that it was really easy.  I gathered the materials:

You do need 3 bars of Fels Naptha soap and a grater.  I followed Christy's directions and then put the contents into large zip-top bags with the rest that I would scoop out of going into a plastic container with a screw top left over from peanuts.  So far the detergent works great and all the supplies were just over $20.  It makes a lot of detergent and you only need 2 "coffee scoops" for a full load of laundry.  It seems like I have barely dented what I made but I've done countless loads of laundry.  Compare the amount of laundry to what you get out of a huge $18 thing of Tide that does 78 loads and we are totally on the winning end of cost effectiveness.  I really like the clean smell it leaves on our clothes.  

Yard Work Weekend

So I started off by mowing the lawn on Friday evening so that I could enjoy the weekend and not have to worry about the lawn.  I had other yard work in mind to do as well.  My neighbor refers to me as the lawn bandit because of how I dress to mow the lawn.  The smell of fresh cut grass really bothers me and makes me wheezy and my eyes scratchy feeling.  The other weekend when it was cold I wore a sweatshirt, but the glasses, hat and bandana over a mask are must have items for me to function... as well as a shower immediately after with the clothes in the washer.

 Friday night we had a little fire on our patio.  It was our first fire of the year and a perfect evening for it.  Cinder Ella even sat in the door and watched us as we cooked marshmallows.

Saturday morning I got up and went for a run before tackling my project for the weekend... making a mini patio for our fire pit since it is rusting a little and I don't want it "staining" our nice patio.  Luke and I decided to place it near the small step area we have so that we can sit on the patio and have our fire and if we have other people over we can semi-circle in the lawn with our chairs.

 I dug up all the grass for where the patio stones would need to go.  Cinder Ella sat in the slider and watched me during most of this, while meowing and begging to come outside.  I take a break from the work and take her for a walk, where she eats a bunch of grass.  I call it a day.  On Sunday I finish my fire pit patio project.  I have to dig up some areas a little more and fill in dirt in other spots to level it as best I can.  I realize that I will likely have to pull it up in  a few spots as it settles some and re-level it by the end of summer so that it is "set" for the rest of time (hopefully).  Getting the patio stones from over near the hose I am startled for a second by this:

 Yup, that is a big, fat toad wedged in between two stones and there was one on top of him.  He is alive and I get him to hop out so that I can move him to somewhere else.

 Here is my finished project.  If that wasn't enough outside time I also sprayed the "kill everything" weed killer stuff along the edges of our gardens to that I don't have to pull up the stray strands of grass throughout the summer.  I also spray around our generator so that the weeds don't start growing there.

Yup, that is Cinder's in the slider watching me again.  She just has to be as close to me as possible at all times if she can.  I am currently battling the dandelions that have decided to crop up in the yard by digging them up (on my 3rd bag removed this season).  Any ideas on how to get rid of them welcome.

Big Splurge

This little beauty that I had in college decided to eat Hercules.  Herc is stuck in the vcr and the tv turns off after about 5 seconds of being turned on as a result.  Apparently the tv also thinks there is no tape in the vcr. 

Luke suggested to take the bag of clothes from cleaning out the closet to Goodwill and see what they had in the tv department for our guest room since ours is "broken."  We picked up this one since it is a brand name, had a remote and book with it.  

 But it gets better.  At the register we find out yellow tags are 50% off... so for $10.97 we have a new tv.  It may not be the latest and greatest but it works and is just fine for our house.

Home Organization

Having spent the week home so that I could take care of Luke I continued with organizing things around the house.  I organized the file cabinet in our office.  All of our manuals for appliances and gadgets were in a file folder.  I put them in a binder so that it would be easier to find them.

 Easier to find because I put each manual in a plastic sheet protector in the binder.

 Having organized my clothes I decided to tackle Luke's part of the closet.  It is pretty organized from the last time I sorted through his clothes for donations about 2 years ago.  Probably also helps that I put away his clothes after doing the laundry.

 I took a hanging sweater thing and put it sideways on the shelf.  I have done this on my side of the closet with my sweaters and it helps with keeping things organized and from piles overlapping and chaos.

 Here is the after... his jeans sorted by size and use.  His "work" pants for tackling yard projects or messy indoor projects are in the back corner.  Jeans he wears most often are in the front near his Bill's shirt (that was scrunched in the sweater divider with a bunch of random t-shirts.

Those random t-shirts are now folded in the drawers that you see peaking out in the back corner.  This is also where I have put his summer shorts.  The organization and cleaning out continues!  We have another bag of clothes to donate (5th bag so far this year).

Luke did What!!!

So Luke decided to sit in a chair and play a vintage video game for almost 18 hours last weekend.  Sunday morning he woke up and couldn't walk... his back, hamstrings and calves were so tight.  This lasted until Thursday when he finally decided to go to urgent care and see if something was more seriously wrong (it wasn't getting better).  I was supposed to go with my mom to Vermont for our week off from school but decided not to go since Luke was in such rough shape.  Staying home to take care of Manfriend (who at this point became zonked out with the muscle relaxers they gave him) I decided to be productive.

 I hauled up some bins from my classroom last year that I never ended up using (they were too small for papers) and organized my laundry room cleaning rags and supplies.  Large "candy" bins house my running hats and mittens (I need a lot since they get laundered constantly and I run a lot).

 Under the sink in the master bath needed an make over.  Things just sort of got tossed in all willy nilly and most of it would be better stored in the guest bathroom linen closet.

 I swapped the cleaning bin for the one in the down stairs laundry room since it was smaller.  Voila, way nicer and easy to see everything in the cupboard.  At this point I am thinking, "what else can I organize?"

 I decided to hang up our Tinkerbell light switch plate in the kitchen... and proceed to organize the junk drawer.  I know, we all have one that seems to catch all our pens, pencils and other random stuff.

 More small baskets and such from my classroom last year.  The holes are large and pens/pencils were constantly falling out so I went with ice cream pints for materials (hot glue a few stones to the bottom to weight them).

 Lastly, I decided to tackle my clothes closet.  I've had most of my clothes organized into bins that I can pull out and pick a shirt to wear.  Unfortunately the shirts usually just get tossed into the bins or hap hazardly folded.  Thunder Paws decided to supervise.

 Apparently I took a long time since she fell asleep.  Folded and placed in the bins this way I can easily find what I am looking for and no shirt gets "lost" or forgotten in the bin. Yes, I love the color green and a few of my shirts are duplicates since they are "favorites."

Here is my clothes closest (I know, it is supposed to be the linen closet).  Love that all the clothes fit in their bins now and aren't over flowing every where.  I have the other half of the closet to work on, but love how it is looking so far.

Craftastic Weekend Success!

I've always wanted a "Disney" room in our house and there are touches of Disney in all rooms (a stuffed animal on the chair, photo from Disney...).  I found these blue and white lamps at Christmas Tree Shoppe that inspired me to create an Up room in our peach bedroom.  At first I wasn't sure how I would accomplish making balloons on the wall how I envisioned them.  Searching for artwork to make for my sister Jen for her nursery I came across iron fabric on your walls.  So I headed to the craft store and picked up the materials.

 Fusible interfacing (iron it on and then peel the paper backing and then iron a second time to make it stick to the wall...or other fabric), fun and light weight fabric in a pattern (or patterns if you want to mix/match).  I picked up 2 rolls of fat 3/8ths fabric plus 6 yards of interfacing (I did not use all the 3/8ths).  Then I traced a balloon shaped template on my interfacing and cut them out.
I grabbed a piece of wrapping paper and taped it on the wall so that I could draw a basic outline of my balloons and get an idea how much space I wanted them to take up.  Then I set to work laying out the balloons and arranging them to look good.

They of course all slid and moved when I went to move it.  **If you plan to do this I would suggest you lay it out upside down and have an additional piece of fabric and interfacing so that you can iron all the pieces together and then iron the whole piece on the wall**
After they all slide I laid them out on the floor for a second time.  I taped them together with clear mailing tape and attempted to pick it up and tape it to the wall.  Huge failure on my part and frustrated I leave the room for an hour after yelling at Luke (who isn't even in the room).  He tells me I'll figure it out and it will be awesome.  According to him I have good ideas.  This time I laid a piece of wax paper over them and traced the shapes/colors.  There is no attempt at moving the whole thing.

Loving that it looks more like a hot air balloon now.  I then taped the wax paper to the wall and traced the basic outline on the wall as a guide.  I taped the wax paper one on the nearby wall to reference and hold up as needed to help in placement/moving of the pieces.  I move the cutouts piece by piece and tape as I go.

I used painters tape to put it on the wall.  Then came the tricky part...ironing this to the wall.  I started at the top since I knew as I ironed they would "flatten" slightly from their current state.  I held a few pieces with their tape missing and just tapped the tip of the iron to get them "stuck enough" for me to remove some more tape from a nearby piece.  This is the part that took the longest, removing the tape and ironing.  It shifted slightly in shape as this happened, but overall I am happy with it.  The difficulty of moving the tape as you go is why I suggest an extra piece of fabric and fusible interfacing so you can move it as a solid unit.  Probably not necessary if your pieces aren't "linked."

Luke decided he liked it up and down instead of at a slight angle on the wall, so that's what we have.  Here is the finished product on the wall... and you can see my Up lamps that inspired this whole project.  Still deciding on if and how I want to do the strings for the balloons.