I did a few errands this morning, then came home and started painting the trim on the front of my house. I have a huge bucket of paint and I dragged it outside, set up all my other stuff, and started painting. Well, it took a long time, because it's like 40,000 individual segments of wood sort of latticed together. So I can't just roll it; it requires a lot of brushing. Anyway, I'm out on the porch half of today, and several times, the kids from across the street come over. We're chatting, they're asking me questions, blah blah. And at one point, they're sitting on the bench I have on the porch and I'm on a step-stool, and I hear "Your feet are dirty. And cracked." "Uh, yeah. I guess they're pretty nasty." "Yep," I go back to my painting and they briefly discuss just what is skin and what is dirt. I feel a poke. "That's dirt right there."
Okay, listen, I know that in the summertime I end up with hippie feet, particularly when I've been doing a lot of outdoor work, but for goodness sake, somebody teach those kids some tact! I feel like a circus freak! I guess it's about time to soak 'em again.
We're getting closer to getting the final stuff done on the house. My cousin is here tonight doing the texturing, so tomorrow I'll finish the outside paint and cut the moulding for those rooms. Then we'll send the saw and power washer home with my dad. Then a few more things here and there. Someone's coming to pick up the bass cabinet, I'm trying to sell the stove, we have some cleaning to do. We'll install the moulding and do the painting in those rooms. The list is shrinking, though. Yay shrinking!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Ramblin' woman
Hey, y'all. It occurred to me earlier that if I actually blogged all the stuff that, during the day, I thought about blogging, this would be a MUCH busier space. When I'm bored in the car, or I'm doing some household task like the recent pressure-washing, I am always thinking about what I could write about, or thinking to myself exactly the funniest or most accurate way to describe something. But by the time I get back to my computer with some time to kill, it's gone, all gone...
Anyway, here are a few of the recent ideas that stuck out:
The mis-education of Count Mockula.
I have never in my life started a gas engine that wasn't a car. Sad, huh? I never used a lawn mower, edger, pressure-washer, or anything that involved yanking on a cord to start an engine. And it turns out, that's not something that you can just pull out of your ass when the time comes. It actually requires some experience. I had no idea how to do it. I pulled faster and slower and harder and more gently... I pushed the choke in and pulled it out, I turned the power switch on and off... I yanked and yanked and tried getting a better grip and better leverage. One time the thing even coughed at me, but it didn't turn over. FInally, as much as it kind of offended my feminist semsibilities, I had to ask the guys across the street to do it. The next morning, I had the roofers do it. And when my dad came by, I had him start it, too. Now I'm done and ready to give it back, and I've still never managed to start it on my own.
I got to see Suzanne from CUSS today, which was rad, since she lives in NY and that rather naturally means I don't see her regularly. It was a real pleasure to have brunch with her, her hubby, and two of their friends. She had been at the BlogHer convention, which reminded me that I need to add myself to that webring. Which I will. When I remember again.
The only drawback (and it was not much of one) was the drive to and from SF. I really don't mind making that drive, but traffic was pretty yucky. Then as I was leaving SF, I had to pee a little, and thought I might stop at the ferry building on the way out of town. But I was kind of on a straightaway out of town, so instead I decided to stop in Berkeley. Traffic was still ugly, so I thought I wouldn't make it to Vacaville, and maybe I'd get to kick around some of the stores I liked, too. I found parking fairly easily and walked towards the 4th street shops. This is a pretty upscale shopping district: there's a Restoration Hardware, a Z Gallerie, a Kiehl's, an Anthropologie... so I think maybe I'll be able to find a nice clean bathroom and get my shop on. I go into Cody's Books, because I know they have a restroom and I don't feel guilty using it, because I always end up buying books, too (today: "Lipstick Jihad"). There's another woman in line for the potty, so I step in behind her and start vaguely looking at the kids books. Another woman gets in line behind me and the three of us wait. And wait. And wait. We can hear flushing sounds and paper sounds, but no one is coming out! Soon, a fourth woman walks up and asks the woman behind me "can my daughter go ahead of you? She really needs to go." I hear the other woman reply "No, we've all been waiting about ten minutes." I turn around to see the little girl's potty dance, and the girl clearly has Down's Syndrome! Well, right then I decided that whatever was going on in there, either the person was never coming out or I didn't want to go in when they did come out. So I said "Well, the line's one shorter now. I give up."
I went to Peet's Coffee. There was a line of 8 people. I thought it was the coffee line at first. When I realized, I said "Dang!" The last guy in line replied "that's what I said!" So I leave. But there is NO PLACE ELSE TO GO! I wander into specialty food shops, into Sur la Table, into store after store, and there are no other bathrooms! I would ask whether rich people didn't pee, but the lines were so long that it's clear that they do! I went around the entire complex thing and ended up back at Peet's (at the end of another long line). I checked my phone a few seconds before I actually got to go in the restroom, and it was 3:17 -- exactly 45 minutes after I got to Berkeley. I'm not saying I didn't browse a tiny bit, but most of that time was looking for and waiting for a bathroom. It also took my 45 minutes to get from Berkeley to Vacaville, so as it happens, I COULD have made it to Vacaville. Incidentally, I actually cut through Restoration Hardware on the way out and saw a restroom sign in the back, but it had an "out of order" on it, too.
The other drawback is that I really only like to see people I like and whom I'd prefer to impress when I look decent, and today was not one of those days. It's my hair. My hairstylist, Monique, was busy before I went to Hawaii, and then I was busy so I didn't call, and I finally got around to calling again and her salon is closing! So she hasn't called me back yet. And in the meantime, I see myself in the mirror and start humming "here's the story... of a lovely lady... who was bringing up three very lovely girls." I'm not kidding -- I'm ready for my celebrity death match with Shirley Partridge. I'm prepared to shill for Wesson Oil. The only thing that's redeeming about my hair right now is that it's possible it's SO out-of-date that it appears retro and ironic.
See, here's where it happens. I'm sure I have stories of crazy drivers, house updates, random thoughts (probably hilarious), news... you know, the stuff the audience is begging for (my audience of three). But it's late, and the Food Network is on, and my cat needs to be fed, and I haven't entirely finished reading the Sunday paper, and I have major brain-fade all the time...
Anyway, here are a few of the recent ideas that stuck out:
The mis-education of Count Mockula.
I have never in my life started a gas engine that wasn't a car. Sad, huh? I never used a lawn mower, edger, pressure-washer, or anything that involved yanking on a cord to start an engine. And it turns out, that's not something that you can just pull out of your ass when the time comes. It actually requires some experience. I had no idea how to do it. I pulled faster and slower and harder and more gently... I pushed the choke in and pulled it out, I turned the power switch on and off... I yanked and yanked and tried getting a better grip and better leverage. One time the thing even coughed at me, but it didn't turn over. FInally, as much as it kind of offended my feminist semsibilities, I had to ask the guys across the street to do it. The next morning, I had the roofers do it. And when my dad came by, I had him start it, too. Now I'm done and ready to give it back, and I've still never managed to start it on my own.
I got to see Suzanne from CUSS today, which was rad, since she lives in NY and that rather naturally means I don't see her regularly. It was a real pleasure to have brunch with her, her hubby, and two of their friends. She had been at the BlogHer convention, which reminded me that I need to add myself to that webring. Which I will. When I remember again.
The only drawback (and it was not much of one) was the drive to and from SF. I really don't mind making that drive, but traffic was pretty yucky. Then as I was leaving SF, I had to pee a little, and thought I might stop at the ferry building on the way out of town. But I was kind of on a straightaway out of town, so instead I decided to stop in Berkeley. Traffic was still ugly, so I thought I wouldn't make it to Vacaville, and maybe I'd get to kick around some of the stores I liked, too. I found parking fairly easily and walked towards the 4th street shops. This is a pretty upscale shopping district: there's a Restoration Hardware, a Z Gallerie, a Kiehl's, an Anthropologie... so I think maybe I'll be able to find a nice clean bathroom and get my shop on. I go into Cody's Books, because I know they have a restroom and I don't feel guilty using it, because I always end up buying books, too (today: "Lipstick Jihad"). There's another woman in line for the potty, so I step in behind her and start vaguely looking at the kids books. Another woman gets in line behind me and the three of us wait. And wait. And wait. We can hear flushing sounds and paper sounds, but no one is coming out! Soon, a fourth woman walks up and asks the woman behind me "can my daughter go ahead of you? She really needs to go." I hear the other woman reply "No, we've all been waiting about ten minutes." I turn around to see the little girl's potty dance, and the girl clearly has Down's Syndrome! Well, right then I decided that whatever was going on in there, either the person was never coming out or I didn't want to go in when they did come out. So I said "Well, the line's one shorter now. I give up."
I went to Peet's Coffee. There was a line of 8 people. I thought it was the coffee line at first. When I realized, I said "Dang!" The last guy in line replied "that's what I said!" So I leave. But there is NO PLACE ELSE TO GO! I wander into specialty food shops, into Sur la Table, into store after store, and there are no other bathrooms! I would ask whether rich people didn't pee, but the lines were so long that it's clear that they do! I went around the entire complex thing and ended up back at Peet's (at the end of another long line). I checked my phone a few seconds before I actually got to go in the restroom, and it was 3:17 -- exactly 45 minutes after I got to Berkeley. I'm not saying I didn't browse a tiny bit, but most of that time was looking for and waiting for a bathroom. It also took my 45 minutes to get from Berkeley to Vacaville, so as it happens, I COULD have made it to Vacaville. Incidentally, I actually cut through Restoration Hardware on the way out and saw a restroom sign in the back, but it had an "out of order" on it, too.
The other drawback is that I really only like to see people I like and whom I'd prefer to impress when I look decent, and today was not one of those days. It's my hair. My hairstylist, Monique, was busy before I went to Hawaii, and then I was busy so I didn't call, and I finally got around to calling again and her salon is closing! So she hasn't called me back yet. And in the meantime, I see myself in the mirror and start humming "here's the story... of a lovely lady... who was bringing up three very lovely girls." I'm not kidding -- I'm ready for my celebrity death match with Shirley Partridge. I'm prepared to shill for Wesson Oil. The only thing that's redeeming about my hair right now is that it's possible it's SO out-of-date that it appears retro and ironic.
See, here's where it happens. I'm sure I have stories of crazy drivers, house updates, random thoughts (probably hilarious), news... you know, the stuff the audience is begging for (my audience of three). But it's late, and the Food Network is on, and my cat needs to be fed, and I haven't entirely finished reading the Sunday paper, and I have major brain-fade all the time...
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Orange you glad I didn't say "banana"?
You know that knock-knock joke, right? That's what my life feels like this morning -- we've now gotten about twenty wrong numbers for "Frank." One guy said "Oh, I'm sorry, you'll probably be getting a lot." I asked why, and he said Frank had signed up for some home loan thing online. So call number 21 came in just now, and the person asked for Kathy. It was kind of refreshing.
And by the way -- fuck you, Frank Wilson, for not knowing your own phone number.
And by the way -- fuck you, Frank Wilson, for not knowing your own phone number.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Summer squash
Sigh, I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just had to post this photo of a summer squash I got in my CSA box. You should see the photos I made of a carrot one year... It looked like crossed legs, so I made it a little mini-skirt and took boudoir photos. 
Sunday, July 23, 2006
It's hot
We broke a record yesterday for both the high temp (109) and the low (76). This morning at ten-ish I started getting ready for yoga, which I did attend, and it wasn't until afterwards that I was kind of proud of myself. Like, I didn't say "hey, it's 108, fuck it." I said "Hey, it's Sunday -- yoga time." Only afterwards did I also think I might be a little crazy.
I had something else I was going to blog about, but I honestly can't remember what. Something about Mr. T is passing through the back of my mind, but I don't think that's it.
Incidentally, I have a goofy picture I'll post later of a vegetable. And speaking of vegetables, I sort of resurrected Count Broccula if you're interested.
Okay, I've been trying to remember what it was I was going to say, but I can't. I'm going to go eat lunch. Bye.
I had something else I was going to blog about, but I honestly can't remember what. Something about Mr. T is passing through the back of my mind, but I don't think that's it.
Incidentally, I have a goofy picture I'll post later of a vegetable. And speaking of vegetables, I sort of resurrected Count Broccula if you're interested.
Okay, I've been trying to remember what it was I was going to say, but I can't. I'm going to go eat lunch. Bye.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Frickin' musicians, craigslist, house updates, blogging
First of all, can I just say "Ugh"? On behalf of the band, I listed a few items on Craigslist, and for a bass cabinet, keyboard amp, and keyboard, I put $150 for the price, but it the text, I said "make offer." So I've gotten a TON of e-mails, but they're all of this variety: "What make is the bass cab? What's the wattage? Could I play a bass through the keyboard amp? Can you tell me more about...?' What do you want, a goddamn bedtime story? I mean, those are all reasonable questions, but they're coming after I've already said everything I know about the stuff and even in a couple instances sent additional information by e-mail. And I've sent my address, phone number, and directions to my house (with an invitation to just play the stuff and see how it sounds if they want) to about twenty people, and NO-ONE has so much as phoned. It's starting to seem like they just want to ask questions about stuff and jerk off while reading the replies. "Oh, yes! 60 watts!" I mean, if I were asking $200 for the keyboard alone or $150 for just the bass cab, I can see wanting to follow up with additional questions about the equipment. But I'm practically giving them away, and they'd be perfect for your garage band/kid learning an instrument/musician who just likes having stuff around... It's not that damn much money. What's the bass cabinet like? It it 4 1/2 feet tall and makes the "boom" part louder. Is that what you want? Offer me $20 and it's yours.
And Craigslist in general has been the same -- I have a kayak that I haven't taken out in about 4 years, because I don't have a rack for the car or any other kayaking buddies. I checked out what the newer ones are going for (this one's old) and priced it intentionally at less than half the average. So for $150 there is a perfectly good kayak up for grabs, and although I've had several inquiries, no one actually seems at all serious. One person wants to know if it's good for beginners, if she can borrow it and take it out for a couple hours to see whether it's right for her... Another person wants to know whether it can go over rocks. Here's a direct quote from her e-mail: "would a racing kayak work well in white water? i guess any kayak would do okay in any kind of water environment, but if its really not meant to go over rocks then i guess i wouldnt be interested." She goes on to say that she's "very interested in doing business." but after I sent her back the information (that I've never taken it over more than a Class 2 rapid, but that I imagine it would be fine), I haven't heard back.
We're still in escrow. No updates there. But I did go meet the home inspector yesterday. There were a number of things that he suggested doing, but the great majority of them were no big deal. Like, pruning back a bush. The few things that were more money were, quite frankly, things we had expected. Like, he said that we need to get a roof "tune-up" to extend the life of the roof. Also, we should have an HVAC inspection, because it's about a 15 year old system and there was "minimal airflow" to the kitchen. But really, I had already adjusted to the idea that we might need a new heat/air system installed within a couple years. The SMUD loan we got to do that here was really very reasonable, and we could afford that when the time comes. He also suggested that we have an electrician come out and ground some of the three-prong outlets (something I never did here), and install a different kind of outlet (those ones with the "reset" button on them) in some other areas. Overall, though, I was nervous that there might be some "Well, you have to have the entire plumbing system replaced and there's termite damage in the walls" kind of mondo-expensive thing, but there wasn't.
Around here, we're slowly but surely getting things done. There are only a few more major items on the list. Some painting, some staging, some moving stuff around. I think our August 7 estimate for putting it on the market is very reasonable.
And finally --- is blogging dead? My friend Suzanne blogs regularly, but I make it a habit of checking all my friends' blogs every day, and every day it's the same story. Sweetie has deleted his. Monkeygirl (who is studying for the bar, so she's got a pass) hasn't blogged since April 25th. Toltec 1 hasn't blogged since last October. Gynagirl (who is, at least, more frequent) hasn't blogged in over a week. G3's last was on June 13. Drummergirl was May 30. Steve is June 6. In short, I haven't had much new to read from my friends lately! Where are you guys? At this rate, I'm going to have to phone you and arrange coffee dates! Geez.
And Craigslist in general has been the same -- I have a kayak that I haven't taken out in about 4 years, because I don't have a rack for the car or any other kayaking buddies. I checked out what the newer ones are going for (this one's old) and priced it intentionally at less than half the average. So for $150 there is a perfectly good kayak up for grabs, and although I've had several inquiries, no one actually seems at all serious. One person wants to know if it's good for beginners, if she can borrow it and take it out for a couple hours to see whether it's right for her... Another person wants to know whether it can go over rocks. Here's a direct quote from her e-mail: "would a racing kayak work well in white water? i guess any kayak would do okay in any kind of water environment, but if its really not meant to go over rocks then i guess i wouldnt be interested." She goes on to say that she's "very interested in doing business." but after I sent her back the information (that I've never taken it over more than a Class 2 rapid, but that I imagine it would be fine), I haven't heard back.
We're still in escrow. No updates there. But I did go meet the home inspector yesterday. There were a number of things that he suggested doing, but the great majority of them were no big deal. Like, pruning back a bush. The few things that were more money were, quite frankly, things we had expected. Like, he said that we need to get a roof "tune-up" to extend the life of the roof. Also, we should have an HVAC inspection, because it's about a 15 year old system and there was "minimal airflow" to the kitchen. But really, I had already adjusted to the idea that we might need a new heat/air system installed within a couple years. The SMUD loan we got to do that here was really very reasonable, and we could afford that when the time comes. He also suggested that we have an electrician come out and ground some of the three-prong outlets (something I never did here), and install a different kind of outlet (those ones with the "reset" button on them) in some other areas. Overall, though, I was nervous that there might be some "Well, you have to have the entire plumbing system replaced and there's termite damage in the walls" kind of mondo-expensive thing, but there wasn't.
Around here, we're slowly but surely getting things done. There are only a few more major items on the list. Some painting, some staging, some moving stuff around. I think our August 7 estimate for putting it on the market is very reasonable.
And finally --- is blogging dead? My friend Suzanne blogs regularly, but I make it a habit of checking all my friends' blogs every day, and every day it's the same story. Sweetie has deleted his. Monkeygirl (who is studying for the bar, so she's got a pass) hasn't blogged since April 25th. Toltec 1 hasn't blogged since last October. Gynagirl (who is, at least, more frequent) hasn't blogged in over a week. G3's last was on June 13. Drummergirl was May 30. Steve is June 6. In short, I haven't had much new to read from my friends lately! Where are you guys? At this rate, I'm going to have to phone you and arrange coffee dates! Geez.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
We got the house!
We got the house we got the house we got the house!
Oh, and... WE GOT THE HOUSE!
Yeah, dude! We were worried that they'd counter again and we'd have to go down to the office again and sign more papers and blah blah blah, but no! Our realtor just called and said "They accepted your offer and all your terms." So as of (if I've figured it right) September 1st, we're in a new home!
The hard part is this: we're putting our current place on the market around August 7. If it sells immediately, we only have a week to move. (Well, and the 30 day escrow period to pack & stuff.) If it takes more than three weeks to sell, we have to pay another mortgage payment. Not that we can't, but it is a sad waste of money, and I'd hate to see it happen. But it's very possible, as this is a slow market.
Anyway, I'm SUPER-EXCITED, if you can't tell already. YAY FOR NEW HOUSE! It's been a dream and a theory for so long, that to see it become a reality (and such a nice house in such a great neighborhood) is almost too cool to comprehend.
Wow.
Oh, and... WE GOT THE HOUSE!
Yeah, dude! We were worried that they'd counter again and we'd have to go down to the office again and sign more papers and blah blah blah, but no! Our realtor just called and said "They accepted your offer and all your terms." So as of (if I've figured it right) September 1st, we're in a new home!
The hard part is this: we're putting our current place on the market around August 7. If it sells immediately, we only have a week to move. (Well, and the 30 day escrow period to pack & stuff.) If it takes more than three weeks to sell, we have to pay another mortgage payment. Not that we can't, but it is a sad waste of money, and I'd hate to see it happen. But it's very possible, as this is a slow market.
Anyway, I'm SUPER-EXCITED, if you can't tell already. YAY FOR NEW HOUSE! It's been a dream and a theory for so long, that to see it become a reality (and such a nice house in such a great neighborhood) is almost too cool to comprehend.
Wow.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Goodbye marabou coffee table! Goodbye stained-glass inspired color!
I'm having surprisingly mixed feelings about this whole selling-buying-moving thing.
First, I'm getting rid of so many things that represent memories or times in my life. Like the marabou feather-trimmed coffee table thing I made. You couldn't pay me to have it in my living room now, but it was perfect for the super-girly pink living room that Gynagirl and I created when we lived together. And I've watched enough "Clean Sweep" type shows that I know, realistically, that you can't hang on to stuff you're not using just because it's a memory, but that doesn't make it easy.
And de-personalizing the house is awful. Every switchplate in here had Bettie Page or Wonder Woman or something on it. Every nook had an Alice in Wonderland figurine. Every surface has pictures of the two of us having fun together, or pictures of our neices and nephews and cousins. And I have had to take those all down! It almost makes me a little sick. The living room had a cobalt blue wall that I matched EXACTLY to an element of a triptych of paintings my brother gave me. Practically the whole bedroom was inspired by a piece of stained glass my father made. And the blue is already painted over and I tore most of the green bedroom wall off, to be drywalled this weekend. It's hard to imagine a house that I've lived in for four years, had two of my best girlfriends as roommates, lived in as I met, courted, and married my sweetheart... this house is going to be someone else's soon. And that's wierd.
And finally, we're doing so many things to improve this place so that it's attractive to buyers, and some of them have been surprisingly easy and created a really major change. So why the hell didn't I do it before?!?!?! That's all it took to caulk the shower, and I've been living with mildewy old caulking for FOUR YEARS?? I've painted, papered, and re-painted the panelled wall in my bedroom about four times, and it only took five minutes and a crowbar to pull that fucking panelling off? For real? That ugly-ass fan with the 70's beige lattice crap insets could be taken off, flipped over, shot with a can of spraypaint, and a new dome screwed on and it looks like that? Well god damnit!
Anyway, it's really exciting to be thinking of the (potential) new house, and I know it'll be better in a lot of ways (a LOT), but thus the mixed feelings.
First, I'm getting rid of so many things that represent memories or times in my life. Like the marabou feather-trimmed coffee table thing I made. You couldn't pay me to have it in my living room now, but it was perfect for the super-girly pink living room that Gynagirl and I created when we lived together. And I've watched enough "Clean Sweep" type shows that I know, realistically, that you can't hang on to stuff you're not using just because it's a memory, but that doesn't make it easy.
And de-personalizing the house is awful. Every switchplate in here had Bettie Page or Wonder Woman or something on it. Every nook had an Alice in Wonderland figurine. Every surface has pictures of the two of us having fun together, or pictures of our neices and nephews and cousins. And I have had to take those all down! It almost makes me a little sick. The living room had a cobalt blue wall that I matched EXACTLY to an element of a triptych of paintings my brother gave me. Practically the whole bedroom was inspired by a piece of stained glass my father made. And the blue is already painted over and I tore most of the green bedroom wall off, to be drywalled this weekend. It's hard to imagine a house that I've lived in for four years, had two of my best girlfriends as roommates, lived in as I met, courted, and married my sweetheart... this house is going to be someone else's soon. And that's wierd.
And finally, we're doing so many things to improve this place so that it's attractive to buyers, and some of them have been surprisingly easy and created a really major change. So why the hell didn't I do it before?!?!?! That's all it took to caulk the shower, and I've been living with mildewy old caulking for FOUR YEARS?? I've painted, papered, and re-painted the panelled wall in my bedroom about four times, and it only took five minutes and a crowbar to pull that fucking panelling off? For real? That ugly-ass fan with the 70's beige lattice crap insets could be taken off, flipped over, shot with a can of spraypaint, and a new dome screwed on and it looks like that? Well god damnit!
Anyway, it's really exciting to be thinking of the (potential) new house, and I know it'll be better in a lot of ways (a LOT), but thus the mixed feelings.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Whoa, things move fast!
So I went out looking at houses yesterday, and found one I really liked. Sweetie and I went back today and met our agent, and I think tomorrow morning we're going to write up an offer. Wowsers, huh?
Just because we're bidding doesn't mean we'll get it. All kinds of things can happen, including just being out-bid. And that would be fine. (Well, I'd be realyl disappointed, but I'd get over it and we'd keep looking.) But I'll tell you a little about it. First, the location is awesome. It's basically between Trader Joe's and Corti Bros. off Folsom Blvd, a very short distance from most of my favorite eateries, light rail, mom's house, and Sweetie's work. It's also close to the freeway. It would definitely make our lives a lot more walking friendly. Also, the entire time we were there, no other cars drove down the street! It was so quiet! It's not that much bigger than this place -- only 1300 sq feet -- but it has a two-car garage, the yard is nicely landscaped, the kitchen looks really workable, there's an inside laundry room, two bathrooms, a fireplace, a 2-car garage... maybe best of all is that it's not a fixer-upper. Yeah, there are things here and there that I'd probably want to do, but there's nothing that I walked in and was like "well, this is horribly ugly, and this is broken/rotten/outdated..." Nothing. There's even new paint, nice crown moulding, the fans are all new. The things that'll probably be the big investments are that in a few years it will likely need a new roof and new heat/AC. But that's in a few years, and now that we've dealt with the heat and air thing, we realize it's not that big a deal. It has two bedrooms on the south side of the house separated by a bathroom (a nice big one with a separate shower and tub). Both rooms have big closets (not walk-ins, but nevertheless bigger than we have here). The bathroom has cool old-school pink tile with maroon around the edge. The whole place has wood floors. The living room has an entertainment center thing built in, so no need to clutter up the place with a big unit. (Hehe. I said unit.) The third bedroom is panelled in real wood (not cheapo 1/4" panelling like in our place now), and has two doors, one to the hall nearest the smaller bedroom and the other to the dining area, so it'll probably be the office. It has windows that overlook the backyard. The dining area is very small, but there's also ample room in the kitchen for a table, so I might just put our table in there. The living room is a little long, so I might make it two areas -- TV watching area and fireplace sitting-and-talking area. All of this is speculative, of course -- that's IF we get it. =) I know I'm not doing a very good job of not getting my hopes up.
Anyway, I've had a good couple of days. I've gotten a lot done around the house, I got to jam with drummergirl and my uncle and his friend, the house thing looks promising... Yep, everything is great, and tomorrow I have baklava and peaberry coffee for breakfast, then we write up an offer! Tuesday I meet with our selling agent to talk about listing this place. Holy cow -- it was only two weeks ago that we were still just talking and thinking about all this stuff happening!
Wish us luck. This is a very different market than when I bought this place, so I can't really say how it will go. The first time, I wrote a bid, then it took about a week of back and forth counter-offers and running to Kinko's with faxes and whatnot. I don't know if it'll take the same time, longer... well, who knows. Que sera, sera, right?
Take care,
CM
Just because we're bidding doesn't mean we'll get it. All kinds of things can happen, including just being out-bid. And that would be fine. (Well, I'd be realyl disappointed, but I'd get over it and we'd keep looking.) But I'll tell you a little about it. First, the location is awesome. It's basically between Trader Joe's and Corti Bros. off Folsom Blvd, a very short distance from most of my favorite eateries, light rail, mom's house, and Sweetie's work. It's also close to the freeway. It would definitely make our lives a lot more walking friendly. Also, the entire time we were there, no other cars drove down the street! It was so quiet! It's not that much bigger than this place -- only 1300 sq feet -- but it has a two-car garage, the yard is nicely landscaped, the kitchen looks really workable, there's an inside laundry room, two bathrooms, a fireplace, a 2-car garage... maybe best of all is that it's not a fixer-upper. Yeah, there are things here and there that I'd probably want to do, but there's nothing that I walked in and was like "well, this is horribly ugly, and this is broken/rotten/outdated..." Nothing. There's even new paint, nice crown moulding, the fans are all new. The things that'll probably be the big investments are that in a few years it will likely need a new roof and new heat/AC. But that's in a few years, and now that we've dealt with the heat and air thing, we realize it's not that big a deal. It has two bedrooms on the south side of the house separated by a bathroom (a nice big one with a separate shower and tub). Both rooms have big closets (not walk-ins, but nevertheless bigger than we have here). The bathroom has cool old-school pink tile with maroon around the edge. The whole place has wood floors. The living room has an entertainment center thing built in, so no need to clutter up the place with a big unit. (Hehe. I said unit.) The third bedroom is panelled in real wood (not cheapo 1/4" panelling like in our place now), and has two doors, one to the hall nearest the smaller bedroom and the other to the dining area, so it'll probably be the office. It has windows that overlook the backyard. The dining area is very small, but there's also ample room in the kitchen for a table, so I might just put our table in there. The living room is a little long, so I might make it two areas -- TV watching area and fireplace sitting-and-talking area. All of this is speculative, of course -- that's IF we get it. =) I know I'm not doing a very good job of not getting my hopes up.
Anyway, I've had a good couple of days. I've gotten a lot done around the house, I got to jam with drummergirl and my uncle and his friend, the house thing looks promising... Yep, everything is great, and tomorrow I have baklava and peaberry coffee for breakfast, then we write up an offer! Tuesday I meet with our selling agent to talk about listing this place. Holy cow -- it was only two weeks ago that we were still just talking and thinking about all this stuff happening!
Wish us luck. This is a very different market than when I bought this place, so I can't really say how it will go. The first time, I wrote a bid, then it took about a week of back and forth counter-offers and running to Kinko's with faxes and whatnot. I don't know if it'll take the same time, longer... well, who knows. Que sera, sera, right?
Take care,
CM
Monday, July 10, 2006
People-watching concert notes
Man, I almost forgot the best people to people watch! Okay, so first, while Gynagirl had stepped out for a mo', I saw a CRAZY looking woman. Later we both got to see her. It was like a train wreck. Okay, she had a cowboy hat and red leather jacket and miniskirt. She had boots on. She had a bustier that really boosted her yays, as it were. Her big pointy fake yays. She had fake fried platinum tresses. But above it all was the face. Oh, god (shudder), the FACE. She appeared to have had, like, a Guatemalan face lift. She almost looked like that crazy cat lady. It was kind of like this, with higher eyebrows: 
Then there was Trent's boyfriend. This guy looked normal, if a little Whisky Tango, until NIN came on. And then he went nucking futs! Screaming, pumping his fists in the air, playing air guitar... It got so aerobic he had to take his shirt off. Gynagirl leaned over to me early on in the show and said "that guy would let Trent do him." And we were off. Oh yeah. They played "Something I can never have," and we replaced all the lyrics with ones about teabagging. Trent's boyfriend was doing this funky white-boy dance and we were singing "I still recall the taste of your sac. Bouncing on my forehead..." Then, in a beautiful confluence of people-watching, the Skank Brigade took notice of Trent's boyfriend and started sneaking up on him and dancing behind him. I think the unltimate aim was to get pictures of themselves with him (he was a spectacle, seriously), but they kept getting caught by his lighter-waving shirtless friend. They guys didn't seem to mind; I think they thought they were being flirted with, not mocked. Oh, it was good times.
Then there was Trent's boyfriend. This guy looked normal, if a little Whisky Tango, until NIN came on. And then he went nucking futs! Screaming, pumping his fists in the air, playing air guitar... It got so aerobic he had to take his shirt off. Gynagirl leaned over to me early on in the show and said "that guy would let Trent do him." And we were off. Oh yeah. They played "Something I can never have," and we replaced all the lyrics with ones about teabagging. Trent's boyfriend was doing this funky white-boy dance and we were singing "I still recall the taste of your sac. Bouncing on my forehead..." Then, in a beautiful confluence of people-watching, the Skank Brigade took notice of Trent's boyfriend and started sneaking up on him and dancing behind him. I think the unltimate aim was to get pictures of themselves with him (he was a spectacle, seriously), but they kept getting caught by his lighter-waving shirtless friend. They guys didn't seem to mind; I think they thought they were being flirted with, not mocked. Oh, it was good times.
Concert, BBQ, home improvement
So Saturday Gynagirl and I went to see Nine Inch Nails with Peaches and Bauhaus. We were supposed to have a third, but Mistress Kiki ended up being unable to go, and Monkeygirl is still studying like crazy, so it was just the two of us. The concert venue is just over 2 hours away and the concert was supposed to start at 7, so we left a few minutes before 5, thinking that concerts never start on time. More on that later. Anyway, we get there and had been wondering whether we'd be the oldest people there. As we caught the shuttle from the parking lot (really), we discovered that was absolutely not the case. The people-watching was good. Real good. We were in the ampitheatre itself just after 7:30 and Bauhaus was starting as we walked in. We actually couldn't see all that well from the lawn, but you could see the big monitors, so it was cool. I have to be honest here -- I like the idea of Bauhaus, but I don't know all that much of their music. So mostly we occasionally peered at Peter Murphy on the monitor (who, as he gets older, looks more and more like Neil Diamond and Taylor Negron.
PLUS 
Equals
Anyway, Bauhaus was good, but we were busy watching the Skank Brigade (a bunch of girls in various combinations of mesh and underwear from Frederick's), who were busy making out with each other and taking pictures of it. We also saw the world's oldest goth, wearing pigtails in magenta shot with gray, as well as a velour cape. We saw our first Mul-hawk, a mohawk on top that cascaded down the back. I also saw a really hideous mullet that looked like Bill Gates' haircut, with just 1/4 inch worth of long right down at the nape of the neck. Does that even make sense? It was like a strange tassel that could be tucked into the collar of a shirt. Creepy. Oh, there was so much more, too. One lady in bright colors who looked like my aunt, appeared to be quite drunk or high, and kept trying to make out with her boyfriend, but they were both kind of stumbling. Speaking of drunk and high, this will probably tell you how long it's been since I've been to a concert: I walked in and thought "Gee, a skunk must have sprayed in here." Not "Gee, someone's smoking pot," which would be the obvious thought.
Close to the end of the Bauhaus set, Peter Murphy starts yelling "Do you want to see some Peaches?" Well, at least Gynagirl and I were screaming "hell yes." She comes out, sings one song with Bauhaus, then goes backstage while they do "Bela Lugosi." Then they leave the stage and some set-up stuff happens. And happens. And keeps happening. And it occurs to us that it's a pretty elaborate set-up and it's getting quite late. We've either missed Peaches entirely (because she played for 25 minutes starting right at 7) or she didn't play. I still don't know, actually, but we were disappointed.
NIN was good -- they always put on an excellent show. ("Always" -- like I've seen them in the intervening years since I last saw them in '96 or so.) Interestingly, Trent has buffed up, cut his hair, and is overall way closer to the Henry Rollins standard of rock star manliness than the effeminate Morrisey-ness of it all. It's a good thing.
Okay, so new topic. I threw a little BBQ yesterday for friends. I really like entertaining, which I know is kind of dorky. I just love cooking and feel really good when I can have some friends over, feed them, chat, maybe make a little music, and provide people with a couple hours' worth of good, relaxing fun. I also like being older. I swear, when I was 20, if I had people over, there would have been hordes I didn't know, beer cans and vomit all over the backyard, spilled stuff everywhere, and it wouldn't have broken up before 3am. Last night it was pretty much all clean before we went to bed -- at 10. It's good to be old.
I'm getting ever more stuff done. I painted some fan blades today so that they are no longer dark brown with odd 70s basket-weave inlays, but plain white. I also replaced 4 of our light switchplates. I don't want to show the house with our Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Bettie Page, and naked girl switchplates, lest someone think they stay with the house. No way! So I painted 4 plain wooden ones white and installed them. I also cleaned out the rain gutters and did a little pruning. I put potting soil in a little garden area with weedy hardpan. And finally, I'm currently taking a break from scraping all the grout out of the shower area. It's a pain -- it's hard to get it all out, my hands are tired, I've put a couple scratches into the cultured marble, and it's mildewey and gross. But I'm about 75% done. I still have to clean it up and get all the sticky traces off, then bleach the crap out of it all. I also have to do around the windows, and it seems to be harder in there. My to-do list is shrinking every day. Well, if you don't count all the crap I keep adding to it!
Take care,
Mockula
PLUS Equals
Anyway, Bauhaus was good, but we were busy watching the Skank Brigade (a bunch of girls in various combinations of mesh and underwear from Frederick's), who were busy making out with each other and taking pictures of it. We also saw the world's oldest goth, wearing pigtails in magenta shot with gray, as well as a velour cape. We saw our first Mul-hawk, a mohawk on top that cascaded down the back. I also saw a really hideous mullet that looked like Bill Gates' haircut, with just 1/4 inch worth of long right down at the nape of the neck. Does that even make sense? It was like a strange tassel that could be tucked into the collar of a shirt. Creepy. Oh, there was so much more, too. One lady in bright colors who looked like my aunt, appeared to be quite drunk or high, and kept trying to make out with her boyfriend, but they were both kind of stumbling. Speaking of drunk and high, this will probably tell you how long it's been since I've been to a concert: I walked in and thought "Gee, a skunk must have sprayed in here." Not "Gee, someone's smoking pot," which would be the obvious thought.
Close to the end of the Bauhaus set, Peter Murphy starts yelling "Do you want to see some Peaches?" Well, at least Gynagirl and I were screaming "hell yes." She comes out, sings one song with Bauhaus, then goes backstage while they do "Bela Lugosi." Then they leave the stage and some set-up stuff happens. And happens. And keeps happening. And it occurs to us that it's a pretty elaborate set-up and it's getting quite late. We've either missed Peaches entirely (because she played for 25 minutes starting right at 7) or she didn't play. I still don't know, actually, but we were disappointed.
NIN was good -- they always put on an excellent show. ("Always" -- like I've seen them in the intervening years since I last saw them in '96 or so.) Interestingly, Trent has buffed up, cut his hair, and is overall way closer to the Henry Rollins standard of rock star manliness than the effeminate Morrisey-ness of it all. It's a good thing.
Okay, so new topic. I threw a little BBQ yesterday for friends. I really like entertaining, which I know is kind of dorky. I just love cooking and feel really good when I can have some friends over, feed them, chat, maybe make a little music, and provide people with a couple hours' worth of good, relaxing fun. I also like being older. I swear, when I was 20, if I had people over, there would have been hordes I didn't know, beer cans and vomit all over the backyard, spilled stuff everywhere, and it wouldn't have broken up before 3am. Last night it was pretty much all clean before we went to bed -- at 10. It's good to be old.
I'm getting ever more stuff done. I painted some fan blades today so that they are no longer dark brown with odd 70s basket-weave inlays, but plain white. I also replaced 4 of our light switchplates. I don't want to show the house with our Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Bettie Page, and naked girl switchplates, lest someone think they stay with the house. No way! So I painted 4 plain wooden ones white and installed them. I also cleaned out the rain gutters and did a little pruning. I put potting soil in a little garden area with weedy hardpan. And finally, I'm currently taking a break from scraping all the grout out of the shower area. It's a pain -- it's hard to get it all out, my hands are tired, I've put a couple scratches into the cultured marble, and it's mildewey and gross. But I'm about 75% done. I still have to clean it up and get all the sticky traces off, then bleach the crap out of it all. I also have to do around the windows, and it seems to be harder in there. My to-do list is shrinking every day. Well, if you don't count all the crap I keep adding to it!
Take care,
Mockula
Friday, July 07, 2006
Update, shmupdate
Well, hey. I haven't blogged much lately, and there are two reasons. One is that I've actually been pretty busy. I've been treating this home improvement deal like a full-time job (albeit one with ample breaks and no having to shower in the morning), which I'll tell you a bit about. Also, I just haven't had anything that major to talk about. I mean, unless you want this to be the all-home-improvement-all-the-time source, then I'm afraid you'd be bored. But, you know, that doesn't mean I'm not going to write it.
Sunday we primed the cabinets. Monday we painted the cabinets. Tuesday was second coat day. Also, on Monday evening I had e-mailed a realtor who left a letter on my door. I get these letters all the time and just junk them, but something about hers struck me. For one, there was only one typo in the whole thing (a rarity), and it had a really nice tone. Plus, she said she lived in the area, knew it well, and appreciated it. She also invited me (well, me via form letter) to the neighborhood meeting. Anyway, so I asked her some questions to see whether she lives up to what I want. I know it's stupid, but over the last several months when I've been half-heartedly looking at houses, I've developed some very picky tendencies. For example, I am much more likely to consider and remember a house if it has a flyer I can take. I like it when the flyer is in color and on nice paper. I prefer when the house is on MetroList with several pictures, not just a single one of the front of the house (or, god forbid, no picture!). Anyway, she wrote back promptly, sounded good, and asked if she could see the place Tuesday. So on Tuesday morning we ran around cleaning up -- it wasn't disgusting in here, but it has been the staging area for a number of projects lately, and the furniture wasn't really arranged in a pleasing feng shui kind of way. Sweetie went nuts cleaning up his office, even though I told him he didn't have to. I hid most of the stuff in my office and just apologized for the rest. Anyway, I liked her a lot, so she's going to be my realtor. She had several suggestions for staging the house, most of which we've added to the long to-do list. I told her I'd stay in touch, but it was going to be at least three weeks before we were ready to start showing the house.
Okay, then Wednesday I put everything back together cabinet-wise. As in, I put the hinges and drawer pulls on and put all the doors and drawers back. It looks fantastic, and bigger! That didn't take long, so I also made Wednesday a shopping day. I bought a paper towel holder for under the cabinet (to free up counter space), some space-saving bag things, moving boxes, a file cabinet, a cute little table from Cost Plus that will coordinate with my dining room table as soon as the bookcases are out of the way. I think I bought more stuff, too, but I can't even remember it all! I assembled the table, and that was that for Wednesday, pretty much.
Thursday morning I got to spend a little time with an old friend who lives out of town, and it was WONDERFUL to see her, even if it was only for a short time. She always cracks me up, and she's gorgeous and smart... Sigh. I wish she lived closer.
Thursday afternoon we dug out the old grout and caulking from the outside of the bath/shower enclosure (more of a pain in the ass than you'd expect), cleaned it out, then caulked it. There was a slight learning curve, but it wasn't that hard, and it looks a hundred times better already! It looks cleaner, and we caulked around the edge of the tub, where it looked a little rough as it met the linoleum. Now it's all fresh and clean and beautiful! (Okay, I just said caulking was beautiful. I may be TOO into this.)
Today I cleaned out the garage, which was a massive task. It's not, like, Martha Stewart organized, but it's not bad. Christmas stuff is on one shelf, gardening on another, tools on another, camping gear on another (and I really weeded out the camping stuff), and shit-I-have-to-take-back-to-school-in-the-fall on another. Paint is in its own cabinet, there is a small amount of stuff that still needs to be sorted and organized a bit more. But the clutter and dirt is WAY down.
I put a big pile of stuff in the driveway to take a picture of for Freecycle, then I realized that I couldn't really drag it all to the backyard for people to take, because my backyard has a ginormous pile of trash to take to the dump, and I'm positive someone would step on a nail and sue me. So I left it in the driveway. By the time I actually got the pictures uploaded and the message posted, the neighbors had claimed about half of it, which is fine by me. As long as it doesn't come back...
Then I came inside and assembled the file cabinet, which was a bitch. Not because it was hard (although there were 20 pages of illustrated steps), but because it was HEAVY! Thankfully, Sweetie moved it for me. Ultimately I'm going to put it in the Gyna-cave, which we're staging as a home office, but until it's cleaned out in there, I don't want to move more stuff in that will then have to be moved yet again.
Tonight we went to sushi for our pre-anniversary. We've kind of been celebrating all day, actually, since Sweetie-head canNOT resist giving me presents early. But I LOVE the presents I got. I got him new bike grips (which is lame, but he needed them), and something I'm very proud of that I can't say here because I want it to be a surprise tomorrow.
We had a lovely dinner, then ice cream at Gunthers! Not to get all mushy, but it occured to me that I am happier right now (home improvement, baby-trying, new-house-shopping stress and all) than I really ever have been in my adult life. And a super-huge part of that is how satisfied I am in my relationship. I don't think, even when I was single and really really wanted to be in a relationship, I ever realized just how great it could really be. It's so satisfying and comfortable. My best friend lives with me, sleeps by my side, talks with me, eats the food I make, shares time with me and time away, is sexy as hell... And while I'm sure there's something to be said for one of those really dramatic relationships where people are always yelling and throwing toasters, I like that we never fight, and at worst get on each other's nerves a little and then get over it. It's such an overused cliche, but I do feel like we're two puzzle pieces -- we're still separate individuals, but we fit together perfectly to become one unit. Okay, enough gushing for one night. I love you, sweetie. Happy anniversary.
Sunday we primed the cabinets. Monday we painted the cabinets. Tuesday was second coat day. Also, on Monday evening I had e-mailed a realtor who left a letter on my door. I get these letters all the time and just junk them, but something about hers struck me. For one, there was only one typo in the whole thing (a rarity), and it had a really nice tone. Plus, she said she lived in the area, knew it well, and appreciated it. She also invited me (well, me via form letter) to the neighborhood meeting. Anyway, so I asked her some questions to see whether she lives up to what I want. I know it's stupid, but over the last several months when I've been half-heartedly looking at houses, I've developed some very picky tendencies. For example, I am much more likely to consider and remember a house if it has a flyer I can take. I like it when the flyer is in color and on nice paper. I prefer when the house is on MetroList with several pictures, not just a single one of the front of the house (or, god forbid, no picture!). Anyway, she wrote back promptly, sounded good, and asked if she could see the place Tuesday. So on Tuesday morning we ran around cleaning up -- it wasn't disgusting in here, but it has been the staging area for a number of projects lately, and the furniture wasn't really arranged in a pleasing feng shui kind of way. Sweetie went nuts cleaning up his office, even though I told him he didn't have to. I hid most of the stuff in my office and just apologized for the rest. Anyway, I liked her a lot, so she's going to be my realtor. She had several suggestions for staging the house, most of which we've added to the long to-do list. I told her I'd stay in touch, but it was going to be at least three weeks before we were ready to start showing the house.
Okay, then Wednesday I put everything back together cabinet-wise. As in, I put the hinges and drawer pulls on and put all the doors and drawers back. It looks fantastic, and bigger! That didn't take long, so I also made Wednesday a shopping day. I bought a paper towel holder for under the cabinet (to free up counter space), some space-saving bag things, moving boxes, a file cabinet, a cute little table from Cost Plus that will coordinate with my dining room table as soon as the bookcases are out of the way. I think I bought more stuff, too, but I can't even remember it all! I assembled the table, and that was that for Wednesday, pretty much.
Thursday morning I got to spend a little time with an old friend who lives out of town, and it was WONDERFUL to see her, even if it was only for a short time. She always cracks me up, and she's gorgeous and smart... Sigh. I wish she lived closer.
Thursday afternoon we dug out the old grout and caulking from the outside of the bath/shower enclosure (more of a pain in the ass than you'd expect), cleaned it out, then caulked it. There was a slight learning curve, but it wasn't that hard, and it looks a hundred times better already! It looks cleaner, and we caulked around the edge of the tub, where it looked a little rough as it met the linoleum. Now it's all fresh and clean and beautiful! (Okay, I just said caulking was beautiful. I may be TOO into this.)
Today I cleaned out the garage, which was a massive task. It's not, like, Martha Stewart organized, but it's not bad. Christmas stuff is on one shelf, gardening on another, tools on another, camping gear on another (and I really weeded out the camping stuff), and shit-I-have-to-take-back-to-school-in-the-fall on another. Paint is in its own cabinet, there is a small amount of stuff that still needs to be sorted and organized a bit more. But the clutter and dirt is WAY down.
I put a big pile of stuff in the driveway to take a picture of for Freecycle, then I realized that I couldn't really drag it all to the backyard for people to take, because my backyard has a ginormous pile of trash to take to the dump, and I'm positive someone would step on a nail and sue me. So I left it in the driveway. By the time I actually got the pictures uploaded and the message posted, the neighbors had claimed about half of it, which is fine by me. As long as it doesn't come back...
Then I came inside and assembled the file cabinet, which was a bitch. Not because it was hard (although there were 20 pages of illustrated steps), but because it was HEAVY! Thankfully, Sweetie moved it for me. Ultimately I'm going to put it in the Gyna-cave, which we're staging as a home office, but until it's cleaned out in there, I don't want to move more stuff in that will then have to be moved yet again.
Tonight we went to sushi for our pre-anniversary. We've kind of been celebrating all day, actually, since Sweetie-head canNOT resist giving me presents early. But I LOVE the presents I got. I got him new bike grips (which is lame, but he needed them), and something I'm very proud of that I can't say here because I want it to be a surprise tomorrow.
We had a lovely dinner, then ice cream at Gunthers! Not to get all mushy, but it occured to me that I am happier right now (home improvement, baby-trying, new-house-shopping stress and all) than I really ever have been in my adult life. And a super-huge part of that is how satisfied I am in my relationship. I don't think, even when I was single and really really wanted to be in a relationship, I ever realized just how great it could really be. It's so satisfying and comfortable. My best friend lives with me, sleeps by my side, talks with me, eats the food I make, shares time with me and time away, is sexy as hell... And while I'm sure there's something to be said for one of those really dramatic relationships where people are always yelling and throwing toasters, I like that we never fight, and at worst get on each other's nerves a little and then get over it. It's such an overused cliche, but I do feel like we're two puzzle pieces -- we're still separate individuals, but we fit together perfectly to become one unit. Okay, enough gushing for one night. I love you, sweetie. Happy anniversary.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Speaking of home improvement...
Man, as soon as you find a better, faster, cheaper, tidier way to do one thing (in this case, priming the bathroom canbinets -- with spray primer!), you find a harder, dirtier, slower way to do something else (in this case, re-hang some closet doors.
FYI, I don't think anyone will enjoy reading this, but I'm feeling bitchy, and I earned the right to kvetch about it.
I swear, the closet dors haven't hung right since I moved in. I had my dad come over and we jury rigged them by putting a little wedge underneath one of the doors' lower bracket things to hoist it up, because the problem then was that the roller thingie wouldn't stay in the top track because it was too low. I had tried to fix it myself with no luck, and this did a temporary job. But then mom and I installed flooring in that room. Since the flooring added a little more than 1/4" of height, we thought we could use the same holes to put the screws back into. Unfortunately, one of the walls is nothing more than panelling, so thin that the old holes were near-useless, because they got stripped when we pulled the old screws out. The other wall is masonry, so it, too, was useless (the surrounding masonry crumbles into powder, so there's no chance of getting a screw back in there either.
On to today, when my to-do list says "re-hang closet doors." Easy enough, right? Two minutes -- drill the new holes, hang the doors. NO SUCH LUCK. The panelling is so weak I can't get screws to stay in it at all! I drill new holes, put new screws in, hang the door (which is, by the way, a three-part, complicated, sweaty, up and down on a stepladder process*), and go to close it (it folds) and promptly hear both the tearing of screws out of the wall and the ramming of the track device into the paper wall-cover of the front of the doors! Well, after about three more tries and the application of some anchors (and re-hanging the fricking door every time!), the right-hand door works. I hang the left-hand door (the one in the masonry) after about three tries (and three re-hangings!) and it moves smoothly in its track -- until it hits the moulding! So I get up there and shave off the moulding. What the hell, right? I've got paint. But then I try to close both the doors simultaneously, and it will not happen. They crash into each other at the bottom while the top is still gaping. I figure out that it's the left door hanging funny, so I take it off again, unscrew the peg thing on the bottom (after my experiments with Dad, we found out that you can adjust the height by screwing or unscrewing it), and re-hang it. But it's not quite right, so I have to trial-and-error it (which means re-hanging the doors every time!) about three more times. Finally, finally, they both work. And I'm a sweaty, dusty, cobwebby mess. Sheesh.
*For anyone who's interested (no one), the doors are two hinged panels each. On the top of the panel closest to the wall, there is a peg on a spring that collapses and springs back up into place. It fits into a stationary hole in the top of the doorjamb. On the panel that moves there is a springy peg with a wheel on top that fits into a track on the top of the doorjamb so that it can swing back and forth. On the bottom of the panel nearest the wall is another peg (non-springy) that anchors into a hole in a bracket on the floor. So to hang the door, you must first put the floor peg in place, then push the top peg down and slide it into its place and let it spring up, then guide the wheel into the track -- all of which would be easier if you could see what you were doing, didn't have to climb up and down a stepladder, the doors were light, and there was no contortionism involved in crawling inside the closet to see the floor peg while simultaneously lifting and setting down the (heavy) doors.
FYI, I don't think anyone will enjoy reading this, but I'm feeling bitchy, and I earned the right to kvetch about it.
I swear, the closet dors haven't hung right since I moved in. I had my dad come over and we jury rigged them by putting a little wedge underneath one of the doors' lower bracket things to hoist it up, because the problem then was that the roller thingie wouldn't stay in the top track because it was too low. I had tried to fix it myself with no luck, and this did a temporary job. But then mom and I installed flooring in that room. Since the flooring added a little more than 1/4" of height, we thought we could use the same holes to put the screws back into. Unfortunately, one of the walls is nothing more than panelling, so thin that the old holes were near-useless, because they got stripped when we pulled the old screws out. The other wall is masonry, so it, too, was useless (the surrounding masonry crumbles into powder, so there's no chance of getting a screw back in there either.
On to today, when my to-do list says "re-hang closet doors." Easy enough, right? Two minutes -- drill the new holes, hang the doors. NO SUCH LUCK. The panelling is so weak I can't get screws to stay in it at all! I drill new holes, put new screws in, hang the door (which is, by the way, a three-part, complicated, sweaty, up and down on a stepladder process*), and go to close it (it folds) and promptly hear both the tearing of screws out of the wall and the ramming of the track device into the paper wall-cover of the front of the doors! Well, after about three more tries and the application of some anchors (and re-hanging the fricking door every time!), the right-hand door works. I hang the left-hand door (the one in the masonry) after about three tries (and three re-hangings!) and it moves smoothly in its track -- until it hits the moulding! So I get up there and shave off the moulding. What the hell, right? I've got paint. But then I try to close both the doors simultaneously, and it will not happen. They crash into each other at the bottom while the top is still gaping. I figure out that it's the left door hanging funny, so I take it off again, unscrew the peg thing on the bottom (after my experiments with Dad, we found out that you can adjust the height by screwing or unscrewing it), and re-hang it. But it's not quite right, so I have to trial-and-error it (which means re-hanging the doors every time!) about three more times. Finally, finally, they both work. And I'm a sweaty, dusty, cobwebby mess. Sheesh.
*For anyone who's interested (no one), the doors are two hinged panels each. On the top of the panel closest to the wall, there is a peg on a spring that collapses and springs back up into place. It fits into a stationary hole in the top of the doorjamb. On the panel that moves there is a springy peg with a wheel on top that fits into a track on the top of the doorjamb so that it can swing back and forth. On the bottom of the panel nearest the wall is another peg (non-springy) that anchors into a hole in a bracket on the floor. So to hang the door, you must first put the floor peg in place, then push the top peg down and slide it into its place and let it spring up, then guide the wheel into the track -- all of which would be easier if you could see what you were doing, didn't have to climb up and down a stepladder, the doors were light, and there was no contortionism involved in crawling inside the closet to see the floor peg while simultaneously lifting and setting down the (heavy) doors.
Speaking of home improvement...
Man, as soon as you find a better, faster, cheaper, tidier way to do one thing (in this case, priming the bathroom canbinets -- with spray primer!), you find a harder, dirtier, slower way to do something else (in this case, re-hang some closet doors.
FYI, I don't think anyone will enjoy reading this, but I'm feeling bitchy, and I earned the right to kvetch about it.
I swear, the closet dors haven't hung right since I moved in. I had my dad come over and we jury rigged them by putting a little wedge underneath one of the doors' lower bracket things to hoist it up, because the problem then was that the roller thingie wouldn't stay in the top track because it was too low. I had tried to fix it myself with no luck, and this did a temporary job. But then mom and I installed flooring in that room. Since the flooring added a little more than 1/4" of height, we thought we could use the same holes to put the screws back into. Unfortunately, one of the walls is nothing more than panelling, so thin that the old holes were near-useless, because they got stripped when we pulled the old screws out. The other wall is masonry, so it, too, was useless (the surrounding masonry crumbles into powder, so there's no chance of getting a screw back in there either.
On to today, when my to-do list says "re-hang closet doors." Easy enough, right? Two minutes -- drill the new holes, hang the doors. NO SUCH LUCK. The panelling is so weak I can't get screws to stay in it at all! I drill new holes, put new screws in, hang the door (which is, by the way, a three-part, complicated, sweaty, up and down on a stepladder process*), and go to close it (it folds) and promptly hear both the tearing of screws out of the wall and the ramming of the track device into the paper wall-cover of the front of the doors! Well, after about three more tries and the application of some anchors (and re-hanging the fricking door every time!), the right-hand door works. I hang the left-hand door (the one in the masonry) after about three tries (and three re-hangings!) and it moves smoothly in its track -- until it hits the moulding! So I get up there and shave off the moulding. What the hell, right? I've got paint. But then I try to close both the doors simultaneously, and it will not happen. They crash into each other at the bottom while the top is still gaping. I figure out that it's the left door hanging funny, so I take it off again, unscrew the peg thing on the bottom (after my experiments with Dad, we found out that you can adjust the height by screwing or unscrewing it), and re-hang it. But it's not quite right, so I have to trial-and-error it (which means re-hanging the doors every time!) about three more times. Finally, finally, they both work. And I'm a sweaty, dusty, cobwebby mess. Sheesh.
*For anyone who's interested (no one), the doors are two hinged panels each. On the top of the panel closest to the wall, there is a peg on a spring that collapses and springs back up into place. It fits into a stationary hole in the top of the doorjamb. On the panel that moves there is a springy peg with a wheel on top that fits into a track on the top of the doorjamb so that it can swing back and forth. On the bottom of the panel nearest the wall is another peg (non-springy) that anchors into a hole in a bracket on the floor. So to hang the door, you must first put the floor peg in place, then push the top peg down and slide it into its place and let it spring up, then guide the wheel into the track -- all of which would be easier if you could see what you were doing, didn't have to climb up and down a stepladder, the doors were light, and there was no contortionism involved in crawling inside the closet to see the floor peg while simultaneously lifting and setting down the (heavy) doors.
FYI, I don't think anyone will enjoy reading this, but I'm feeling bitchy, and I earned the right to kvetch about it.
I swear, the closet dors haven't hung right since I moved in. I had my dad come over and we jury rigged them by putting a little wedge underneath one of the doors' lower bracket things to hoist it up, because the problem then was that the roller thingie wouldn't stay in the top track because it was too low. I had tried to fix it myself with no luck, and this did a temporary job. But then mom and I installed flooring in that room. Since the flooring added a little more than 1/4" of height, we thought we could use the same holes to put the screws back into. Unfortunately, one of the walls is nothing more than panelling, so thin that the old holes were near-useless, because they got stripped when we pulled the old screws out. The other wall is masonry, so it, too, was useless (the surrounding masonry crumbles into powder, so there's no chance of getting a screw back in there either.
On to today, when my to-do list says "re-hang closet doors." Easy enough, right? Two minutes -- drill the new holes, hang the doors. NO SUCH LUCK. The panelling is so weak I can't get screws to stay in it at all! I drill new holes, put new screws in, hang the door (which is, by the way, a three-part, complicated, sweaty, up and down on a stepladder process*), and go to close it (it folds) and promptly hear both the tearing of screws out of the wall and the ramming of the track device into the paper wall-cover of the front of the doors! Well, after about three more tries and the application of some anchors (and re-hanging the fricking door every time!), the right-hand door works. I hang the left-hand door (the one in the masonry) after about three tries (and three re-hangings!) and it moves smoothly in its track -- until it hits the moulding! So I get up there and shave off the moulding. What the hell, right? I've got paint. But then I try to close both the doors simultaneously, and it will not happen. They crash into each other at the bottom while the top is still gaping. I figure out that it's the left door hanging funny, so I take it off again, unscrew the peg thing on the bottom (after my experiments with Dad, we found out that you can adjust the height by screwing or unscrewing it), and re-hang it. But it's not quite right, so I have to trial-and-error it (which means re-hanging the doors every time!) about three more times. Finally, finally, they both work. And I'm a sweaty, dusty, cobwebby mess. Sheesh.
*For anyone who's interested (no one), the doors are two hinged panels each. On the top of the panel closest to the wall, there is a peg on a spring that collapses and springs back up into place. It fits into a stationary hole in the top of the doorjamb. On the panel that moves there is a springy peg with a wheel on top that fits into a track on the top of the doorjamb so that it can swing back and forth. On the bottom of the panel nearest the wall is another peg (non-springy) that anchors into a hole in a bracket on the floor. So to hang the door, you must first put the floor peg in place, then push the top peg down and slide it into its place and let it spring up, then guide the wheel into the track -- all of which would be easier if you could see what you were doing, didn't have to climb up and down a stepladder, the doors were light, and there was no contortionism involved in crawling inside the closet to see the floor peg while simultaneously lifting and setting down the (heavy) doors.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
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