Our friend up the street decided to wash the kitchen floor the other evening. Mind you, I have already washed it up SIX times.... started out with a scrub brush and eventually completely used up the mop with the Magic Eraser sponge on it.
So there she was on her hands and knees, and she scrubbed that thing for the seventh time... the water came up opaque brown again and again and again! I wasn't surprised but I WAS shocked, lol... I knew the floor wasn't clean yet but dayum, I thought I had gotten more dirt off it than that!! How the heck much dirt can a white floor HOLD?
After she wore out *lol* I decided that since she had not been able to completely get the dishsoap up when she scrubbed it either, I would take my new $2.50 mop from the Habitat ReStore and just do a good rinse. It started out okay (sheesh, though, there was yet MORE dirt on that floor!!)... but when I was only halfway through the mopping, the mop fell apart!! Brand new Rubbermaid mop, and the black rubberizing came off the squeeze handle--I put it back on, no big deal--but then the sponge fell off the mophead!! Mind you, the sponge ASSEMBLY didn't come out of the mop... just the sponge itself came off, and no way to put it back together. I guess you cannot use a Rubbermaid mop with hot water; it must dissolve the glue... who knew? Who knew? *sigh* So now I have to replace both mops, and I cannot find replacement heads for my scrubby mop (already looked), so I really hope the Rubbermaid mop will take a generic refill! After all, I still have the mudroom, the bathroom, and the entryway to mop.
While our friend was scrubbing the kitchen floor, I tackled more of the bathroom walls. They went from grunge to white... I was SO happy! The part of the tub I wiped down also went from grunge to white, this time not softly off-white like the walls, but sparkly shiny bright white. Now if only I could get the whatever-the-heck off the toilet lid (roofing tar?!), I would be SOOO happy! More comes off each time I scrub it, but I may just give up and use some Goof-Off on it, despite the obnoxious smell.
While the kitchen and bathroom were being scrubbed, Gryph went to work on the dining room floor with a heat gun, and scraped up a couple square feet more glue. OHHH how lovely those old oaken floors are! Before we left, he checked that burned-looking place where we thought Destructo-Tenant had tried to use a sander on the floor, and discovered to our great delight that we had misinterpreted what we were seeing.... Destructo-Tenant had actually spilled a bunch of VERY dark stain there and just wiped it around, then left it to dry!! It came up in small thick sheets (instead of the shavings we are used to getting) and the floor underneath is completely UNgrooved!! Wooohooo!!
I reserved a moving truck for Sunday the 26th. A couple of friends have offered to help us move, and we have GOT to get out of this apartment. The manager has repeatedly refused to repair or replace the smoke alarm, which is against the law; so we invoked the 14/30 day landlord non-compliance clause and gave our 30 days' notice. There's been no response so far and it makes me wonder if they are just glad to see us go, or if they haven't bothered to check the office mail slot and so haven't found it yet.... but we have to go no matter what happens because the pressure of living in this place is making me agoraphobic... it freaks me out so much knowing that they are spying on me, watching for me, trying to control me, that I cannot bring myself to leave the safety of the apartment. I even put off walking the dog, and that is SO not good.... I am once again acting like an abuse victim; I walk with my head down and I do everything I can to shrink into myself--staying under their radar--because I am always expecting a nasty explosion of verbal abuse to come my way.
This is no way to live. This is especially no way to live when we have a perfectly good house that we COULD be living in, instead.
The Inspector has been by again, and has left us a huge list of housing violations. She is coming down on the house like a ton of bricks again--no pun intended despite the falling brick wall, lol--and is holding us to higher standards than the rest of the neighborhood, but we can fight that battle next week.
One of the conditions of getting emergency repair money from the county is that we send in a copy of our deed--and the title company STILL hasn't sent it to us yet. It seems to me more important to get that taken care of first. AND That House has just dropped off the online tax rolls, so now we cannot even get free paint (which we already applied for), plus the taxes are due May 1st and we still have to appeal the valuation--it was $34,800, but of course we only paid $15,000 so it needs to be adjusted--so I think these things which we qualify for and which will get the repair process started need to be addressed before I call the Inspector.
We still have no refrigerator, and I'm not sure why. I'm hoping to run into the neighbor who offered me his old one soon.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
doggone adorable
Please forgive the blurry pic; the Self-Installing Canine Program, Module One, was running on the Steal-Mom's-Chair-and-Be-Adorable Platform the other day and I simply HAD TO take pics. She was all curled up and finally--finally!--not panting.
Here in the second pic you can see the Module is operating with the Optional Camera Flash Eye Enhancement feature.
So yesterday our friend Pixie and I were at That House, cleaning the stove (which is now in the kitchen, woohooo!) and Gryph went back to the apartment without me.
That didn't last long. The doglet insisted on finding me... it is evidently NOT OKAY for Gryph to come home without The Queen Of The Universe, lol.... Lady insisted on a walk and then *tracked me* all the way back to the house!!
Silly pup! lol!
Monday, April 6, 2009
We bought That House
So, the house is ours now, and people have been asking me for pictures. There are pics back in November but I thought I would add some that are more current.
This is the view from the dining room through to the front door. Please forgive my strangely slanted camera skills, lol.... the curtains are temporary, as all the curtains in the house will be for a while. I have this stash of sheets... *wry smile*
This is the north wall of the living room, with the (currently disconnected) gas fireplace. These glass-fronted shelves are the only built-ins left in the house, as the "window seat" is something the previous tenant built over a cold-air return register for the original furnace.
We discovered pretty quickly on that we wanted our own heat gun. Here is our preliminary effort with a borrowed heat gun; it's what convinced us that this is the way to go.
Progress on the dining room floor with the borrowed heat gun. We intend to borrow it again, and use two at once to speed the work. Mostly I am working on the house while Gryph is at work, and it's slow going because of my fibromyalgia. I lost a week, recovering from pushing too hard.
A friend passed on a tip about Imperial Cleaner, telling us that we could pour it onto the floor and it would loosen the glue. We tried it. It doesn't work. The glue comes up the same way with or without the cleaner, and neither way is as effective as the heat gun. The cleaner is highly flammable so we cannot do both; we're praying that we've let enough time go by for the petroleum distillates to evaporate so that we can use the heat gun again.
The good thing about Imperial Cleaner is that it seems to leave a lovely finish behind, one that is impervious to spilled water. We might use it after the glue is gone.
Old oak floors are so beautiful to me. I go for the country/vintage/shabby chic look when I decorate, so an old worn floor is going to fit beautifully. We're seriously considering waxing it rather than polyurethaning it... how could a brand shiny new polyurethaned floor look right under antiques/vintage furniture?
So far the nicest surprise in the yard has been flowering quince; it came from the neighbor's yard and is spreading slowly into ours. It took a LOT of searching to discover what it was and my friend upstairs is the one who finally found out for me. Evidently this particular plant doesn't fruit in the autumn, although they usually do--not the big quinces that come on fruiting quince shrubs, but small sour ones that make good marmalade--but I suspect this shrub is too early to bloom and that year after year, the late March/early April freezes kill any fruit that might have set.
So... here is the reason we could afford this house. Yikes!
We propped the next section of bricks up as best we could... if it came down, it would more than likely bring the windows with it. Luckily for us, the bricks are a veneer, just a facing, and the structural part of the wall is inside the house. Isn't that a weird way to handle concrete blocks, though? I finally figured it out... I think that the concrete is for added stability, and that it is slathered onto the interior brick wall.
Friends and I did our best to cover that interior wall with plastic, since the rains were due in. This of course was BEFORE I knew about any kind of BLIZZARD being due in, sheesh... the plastic held, thanks be!
Unfortunately, the wood bracing that loose chunk of bricks did not hold; Gryph and I fixed it a couple times before we realized the problem was the wind under the plastic. So on went my workgloves (Gryph hasn't needed them so far, but I sure do!) and we piled the bricks back in front of the plastic to keep the wind out. Gryph even restacked them in part of the wall. It's worked so far and my fingers are crossed that it will keep on working until we have the money to get plywood and do something sturdier.
When the bricks fell, the pressure shattered the basement window. We bought a piece of plexiglass to fix it but the darned sheet is two inches short *eyeroll* so we just propped it in front of the window to keep neighborhood cats out.
We must be crazy, eh? But the price of craziness is right *innocent blink* and we are so in love with this house and all her possibilities. I have two raspberry vines and a 5 lb bag of seed taters waiting in the mudroom, and all my seeds waiting here in the apartment. We have a stove on the front porch waiting for me to scrub it clean and also to get the kitchen floor clean, and a neighbor has offered us a fridge. Now we need a washer and dryer and a chance to get the place clean--I already cleaned a good part of the bathroom--and we have to replace the geysering kitchen faucet and we're good to go.
That House will be a good place to live.
This is the view from the dining room through to the front door. Please forgive my strangely slanted camera skills, lol.... the curtains are temporary, as all the curtains in the house will be for a while. I have this stash of sheets... *wry smile*
This is the north wall of the living room, with the (currently disconnected) gas fireplace. These glass-fronted shelves are the only built-ins left in the house, as the "window seat" is something the previous tenant built over a cold-air return register for the original furnace.
We discovered pretty quickly on that we wanted our own heat gun. Here is our preliminary effort with a borrowed heat gun; it's what convinced us that this is the way to go.
Progress on the dining room floor with the borrowed heat gun. We intend to borrow it again, and use two at once to speed the work. Mostly I am working on the house while Gryph is at work, and it's slow going because of my fibromyalgia. I lost a week, recovering from pushing too hard.
A friend passed on a tip about Imperial Cleaner, telling us that we could pour it onto the floor and it would loosen the glue. We tried it. It doesn't work. The glue comes up the same way with or without the cleaner, and neither way is as effective as the heat gun. The cleaner is highly flammable so we cannot do both; we're praying that we've let enough time go by for the petroleum distillates to evaporate so that we can use the heat gun again.
The good thing about Imperial Cleaner is that it seems to leave a lovely finish behind, one that is impervious to spilled water. We might use it after the glue is gone.
Old oak floors are so beautiful to me. I go for the country/vintage/shabby chic look when I decorate, so an old worn floor is going to fit beautifully. We're seriously considering waxing it rather than polyurethaning it... how could a brand shiny new polyurethaned floor look right under antiques/vintage furniture?
So far the nicest surprise in the yard has been flowering quince; it came from the neighbor's yard and is spreading slowly into ours. It took a LOT of searching to discover what it was and my friend upstairs is the one who finally found out for me. Evidently this particular plant doesn't fruit in the autumn, although they usually do--not the big quinces that come on fruiting quince shrubs, but small sour ones that make good marmalade--but I suspect this shrub is too early to bloom and that year after year, the late March/early April freezes kill any fruit that might have set.
So... here is the reason we could afford this house. Yikes!
We propped the next section of bricks up as best we could... if it came down, it would more than likely bring the windows with it. Luckily for us, the bricks are a veneer, just a facing, and the structural part of the wall is inside the house. Isn't that a weird way to handle concrete blocks, though? I finally figured it out... I think that the concrete is for added stability, and that it is slathered onto the interior brick wall.
Friends and I did our best to cover that interior wall with plastic, since the rains were due in. This of course was BEFORE I knew about any kind of BLIZZARD being due in, sheesh... the plastic held, thanks be!
Unfortunately, the wood bracing that loose chunk of bricks did not hold; Gryph and I fixed it a couple times before we realized the problem was the wind under the plastic. So on went my workgloves (Gryph hasn't needed them so far, but I sure do!) and we piled the bricks back in front of the plastic to keep the wind out. Gryph even restacked them in part of the wall. It's worked so far and my fingers are crossed that it will keep on working until we have the money to get plywood and do something sturdier.
When the bricks fell, the pressure shattered the basement window. We bought a piece of plexiglass to fix it but the darned sheet is two inches short *eyeroll* so we just propped it in front of the window to keep neighborhood cats out.
We must be crazy, eh? But the price of craziness is right *innocent blink* and we are so in love with this house and all her possibilities. I have two raspberry vines and a 5 lb bag of seed taters waiting in the mudroom, and all my seeds waiting here in the apartment. We have a stove on the front porch waiting for me to scrub it clean and also to get the kitchen floor clean, and a neighbor has offered us a fridge. Now we need a washer and dryer and a chance to get the place clean--I already cleaned a good part of the bathroom--and we have to replace the geysering kitchen faucet and we're good to go.
That House will be a good place to live.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Update
That House is still my major obsession... I have learned so much about how to buy real estate without a bank!
The owner refused to accept less than we had offered him, so the neighbor adjusted the amount of the loan she was asking for. I don't know yet whether she was approved or not but this morning she is seeing a lawyer about drawing up all the legal and financial papers. If she gets approved, we will start the title search--my fear is that there are old liens on the place--and then we go from there.
The rollercoaster has been pretty hard because I swing so wildly between "we're going to get it" and "we aren't going to get it." We keep hitting obstacles and it has me discouraged but I guess I am the only one who feels any kind of pessimism... then again, I am the only one who has so much invested in That House (emotionally, I mean) right now. Everyone else seems to be okay doing the "wait and see" routine. Me, I am planning everything from how best to refinish the floors to what color I want "my kitchen" and where to put "my vegetable garden."
This is really hard for me and I am worn out. It didn't help any that I have been sick with a cold for over a week. Yanno that old saw about a cold lasts seven days if you treat the symptoms, and a week if you don't? This cold has already dragged on for nine days and so I am a little concerned about whether I am getting a secondary infection. I'm pretty sure that part of my pessimism about whether we'll get that house is due to being at low ebb from the virus.
The owner refused to accept less than we had offered him, so the neighbor adjusted the amount of the loan she was asking for. I don't know yet whether she was approved or not but this morning she is seeing a lawyer about drawing up all the legal and financial papers. If she gets approved, we will start the title search--my fear is that there are old liens on the place--and then we go from there.
The rollercoaster has been pretty hard because I swing so wildly between "we're going to get it" and "we aren't going to get it." We keep hitting obstacles and it has me discouraged but I guess I am the only one who feels any kind of pessimism... then again, I am the only one who has so much invested in That House (emotionally, I mean) right now. Everyone else seems to be okay doing the "wait and see" routine. Me, I am planning everything from how best to refinish the floors to what color I want "my kitchen" and where to put "my vegetable garden."
This is really hard for me and I am worn out. It didn't help any that I have been sick with a cold for over a week. Yanno that old saw about a cold lasts seven days if you treat the symptoms, and a week if you don't? This cold has already dragged on for nine days and so I am a little concerned about whether I am getting a secondary infection. I'm pretty sure that part of my pessimism about whether we'll get that house is due to being at low ebb from the virus.
Monday, February 16, 2009
having trouble with Blogger this morning
So this is a test to see if it will let me post... well, I may as well put some content in it, right?
The weirdest thing is happening.... we didn't get That House; I cried on and off for a month over it. We made plans to go on. There was a big (I mean BIG) hassle and dispute with the apartment manager over our new lease here. We resolved it--although it still feels like we are under siege, so I guess it is not really RESOLVED, just...quiet--signed the thing for twelve months, and made plans to go on. I gave up on the flowerpot garden and gave the pots away to a friend who is offering me a patch of her garden. We made plans for spending the tax refund.
Dear friends have made plans to move out of state in about a year and a half. It seemed like a great idea, so we made plans to go with them.
Then Winter came in after a couple weeks of Spring, and the freeze-thaw cycle made the broken area of the brick-facing wall of That House fall down. Now the neighbor is galvanized into action, and she is trying to buy the house so that she can either rent or sell it to us.
The timing of all this is incredibly weird, yanno? It's like the more we aim for stability in our lives, the more the universe sends rollercoasters. And they're the push-me pull-you type rollercoasters, too, c'mere, go away, c'mere, go away... stay in Wichita, leave Wichita, stay in Wichita, leave Wichita....
*sigh* I really hate rollercoasters, and yet I seem unable to avoid this one. I find myself calling it "our house" again and dreaming about how I'm going to refinish the floors, what to do first for moving--it's ridiculous. Even if the neighbor (bless her heart!) can get financing, there is no telling that the owner will accept her offer. It's five thousand less than ours was, really truly a lowball price... but then, had we been able to get financing, we would have offered him the same as she is. We only offered him more as an incentive to carry the mortgage.
BUT just in case... I'm holding off on spending the tax refund... we might need that money for appliances...
The weirdest thing is happening.... we didn't get That House; I cried on and off for a month over it. We made plans to go on. There was a big (I mean BIG) hassle and dispute with the apartment manager over our new lease here. We resolved it--although it still feels like we are under siege, so I guess it is not really RESOLVED, just...quiet--signed the thing for twelve months, and made plans to go on. I gave up on the flowerpot garden and gave the pots away to a friend who is offering me a patch of her garden. We made plans for spending the tax refund.
Dear friends have made plans to move out of state in about a year and a half. It seemed like a great idea, so we made plans to go with them.
Then Winter came in after a couple weeks of Spring, and the freeze-thaw cycle made the broken area of the brick-facing wall of That House fall down. Now the neighbor is galvanized into action, and she is trying to buy the house so that she can either rent or sell it to us.
The timing of all this is incredibly weird, yanno? It's like the more we aim for stability in our lives, the more the universe sends rollercoasters. And they're the push-me pull-you type rollercoasters, too, c'mere, go away, c'mere, go away... stay in Wichita, leave Wichita, stay in Wichita, leave Wichita....
*sigh* I really hate rollercoasters, and yet I seem unable to avoid this one. I find myself calling it "our house" again and dreaming about how I'm going to refinish the floors, what to do first for moving--it's ridiculous. Even if the neighbor (bless her heart!) can get financing, there is no telling that the owner will accept her offer. It's five thousand less than ours was, really truly a lowball price... but then, had we been able to get financing, we would have offered him the same as she is. We only offered him more as an incentive to carry the mortgage.
BUT just in case... I'm holding off on spending the tax refund... we might need that money for appliances...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
We didn't get That House
....and yanno, my heart was just broken... *sigh* but life goes on and we will be okay.
Tax time is coming and we are looking at ways to make things better here in this apartment. A new bed is HIGH on the "need" list, since neither one of us can sleep the night through now for the aches and pains... time to replace that mattress, oh yes.
Something very VERY high on the "want" list is a washing machine. I never thought we could have one here but we did a little research and it's amazing--you can get a little hand-cranked washer that sits on your countertop for about $45, you can get a little electric washer that sits on your countertop for about $70... or you can get one of these....
http://www.target.com/dp/B0002KXMT4/ref=sc_qi_detailbutton?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=0BZH336RNQQGF3JQVSAK&pf_rd_p=465357931&pf_rd_i=B0002KXMT4&pf_rd_s=bottom-6&pf_rd_m=A1VC38T7YXB528&pf_rd_t=5101
It is the Haier Portable Compact Washer ($200 from Target), and it will wash and spin a 5 pound load of laundry in about fifteen minutes. It fills from and drains into your kitchen sink, and it plugs into a standard 110 outlet. I read many customer reviews and they were glowing! Several people mentioned that they no longer had to do anything but sheets and comforters at the laundromat and that's my goal. I want very much to eliminate my large laundry pile and keep us in clean fresh laundry without spending a lot of money or having to go downstairs into the dirty basement to do so.
I would have happily gotten the Wonder Wash (hand-cranked) or the Wonder Washer (plug in) but neither of them will spin the clothes; since I have carpal tunnel syndrome it's important to me that the machine do so.
Once we get the machine, I also want to get one of those folding racks for drying the clothes. Haier makes a portable electric dryer that also plugs into a standard outlet--although we do have a 220 outlet here--but it's $319 and quite honestly, clothes last longer if they are allowed to drip dry. I don't mind planning in advance and washing the day before--or maybe doing the occasional trip downstairs to dry a load of laundry.
What I am hoping is that once the constant need for quarters is alleviated, we can afford to do the sheets, towels and comforters in the big machine at the laundromat--maybe the coats and hoodies, too! Although come to think of it, the hoodies will go nicely in the Haier if I do small loads, and so will the towels. The sheets are full-sized; they might even work but they would definitely need to be dried in a dryer.
Also on the "make this place work better for us" agenda is bigger pots for the garden with better potting soil, and a grow light for inside gardening. I'm planning on getting organic fertilizer plus a row cover, some sort of shade cloth, and trellises or cages for outside--have to do it right if I want big yields.
We're also considering replacing the air conditioner with a new window unit that runs on 110 instead of 220. The unit that is here now is old and inefficient, and our apartment was hot all summer with a higher electric bill than my neighbors' upstairs. BUT the tax return will of course be limited and there is a LOT to come out of it, so I think we might try that reflective window film first. Low-e film worked for me in Phoenix very well, lowered my electric bill $15 the first month I used it and that would have been a month that normally had a $25 or so jump, so I think it probably saved me about $40 a month in a three bedroom house. If it saved me $5 or $10 a month in this small apartment I would be happy, especially since the difference it makes in comfort is very noticeable indeed! Plus, yanno, there's the added privacy factor and that matters to us, being in a corner apartment.
In the meantime, I keep looking around trying to figure out what I can do to get more space in here. Part of the problem is that the walls are plaster on concrete and there is a 1/2 inch space after the first part of the concrete; this means that there is just not enough room to open up a wall anchor (molly or toggle bolts) in the space, and that the concrete is not thick enough to support the weight of anything heavy by itself.
When you live in a small apartment and you cannot hang stuff up and out of the way, you're really crunched for space, yanno? We really have to figure this out... the apartment is too cute to go on being so cluttered.
If we have loads more money than I expect, maybe we'll even get a new computer desk, one with a hutch so that we can have our stuff up in cupboards/shelves. That's not the kind of thing that people normally throw out so I think we'll have to actually buy one... and while I have been really good at insisting on real wood furniture so far, I suspect I will have to accept knock-down furniture to get a computer desk.
We're so desperate to make better use of this space that I think I don't even mind, lol.... we'll see what happens!
Tax time is coming and we are looking at ways to make things better here in this apartment. A new bed is HIGH on the "need" list, since neither one of us can sleep the night through now for the aches and pains... time to replace that mattress, oh yes.
Something very VERY high on the "want" list is a washing machine. I never thought we could have one here but we did a little research and it's amazing--you can get a little hand-cranked washer that sits on your countertop for about $45, you can get a little electric washer that sits on your countertop for about $70... or you can get one of these....
http://www.target.com/dp/B0002KXMT4/ref=sc_qi_detailbutton?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=0BZH336RNQQGF3JQVSAK&pf_rd_p=465357931&pf_rd_i=B0002KXMT4&pf_rd_s=bottom-6&pf_rd_m=A1VC38T7YXB528&pf_rd_t=5101
It is the Haier Portable Compact Washer ($200 from Target), and it will wash and spin a 5 pound load of laundry in about fifteen minutes. It fills from and drains into your kitchen sink, and it plugs into a standard 110 outlet. I read many customer reviews and they were glowing! Several people mentioned that they no longer had to do anything but sheets and comforters at the laundromat and that's my goal. I want very much to eliminate my large laundry pile and keep us in clean fresh laundry without spending a lot of money or having to go downstairs into the dirty basement to do so.
I would have happily gotten the Wonder Wash (hand-cranked) or the Wonder Washer (plug in) but neither of them will spin the clothes; since I have carpal tunnel syndrome it's important to me that the machine do so.
Once we get the machine, I also want to get one of those folding racks for drying the clothes. Haier makes a portable electric dryer that also plugs into a standard outlet--although we do have a 220 outlet here--but it's $319 and quite honestly, clothes last longer if they are allowed to drip dry. I don't mind planning in advance and washing the day before--or maybe doing the occasional trip downstairs to dry a load of laundry.
What I am hoping is that once the constant need for quarters is alleviated, we can afford to do the sheets, towels and comforters in the big machine at the laundromat--maybe the coats and hoodies, too! Although come to think of it, the hoodies will go nicely in the Haier if I do small loads, and so will the towels. The sheets are full-sized; they might even work but they would definitely need to be dried in a dryer.
Also on the "make this place work better for us" agenda is bigger pots for the garden with better potting soil, and a grow light for inside gardening. I'm planning on getting organic fertilizer plus a row cover, some sort of shade cloth, and trellises or cages for outside--have to do it right if I want big yields.
We're also considering replacing the air conditioner with a new window unit that runs on 110 instead of 220. The unit that is here now is old and inefficient, and our apartment was hot all summer with a higher electric bill than my neighbors' upstairs. BUT the tax return will of course be limited and there is a LOT to come out of it, so I think we might try that reflective window film first. Low-e film worked for me in Phoenix very well, lowered my electric bill $15 the first month I used it and that would have been a month that normally had a $25 or so jump, so I think it probably saved me about $40 a month in a three bedroom house. If it saved me $5 or $10 a month in this small apartment I would be happy, especially since the difference it makes in comfort is very noticeable indeed! Plus, yanno, there's the added privacy factor and that matters to us, being in a corner apartment.
In the meantime, I keep looking around trying to figure out what I can do to get more space in here. Part of the problem is that the walls are plaster on concrete and there is a 1/2 inch space after the first part of the concrete; this means that there is just not enough room to open up a wall anchor (molly or toggle bolts) in the space, and that the concrete is not thick enough to support the weight of anything heavy by itself.
When you live in a small apartment and you cannot hang stuff up and out of the way, you're really crunched for space, yanno? We really have to figure this out... the apartment is too cute to go on being so cluttered.
If we have loads more money than I expect, maybe we'll even get a new computer desk, one with a hutch so that we can have our stuff up in cupboards/shelves. That's not the kind of thing that people normally throw out so I think we'll have to actually buy one... and while I have been really good at insisting on real wood furniture so far, I suspect I will have to accept knock-down furniture to get a computer desk.
We're so desperate to make better use of this space that I think I don't even mind, lol.... we'll see what happens!
Monday, January 5, 2009
I've been bad...
Sheesh... I've been forgetting to take pictures.... the whole reason this blog was started was to document what I make, lol, and here I have been making things and forgetting the camera. *eyeroll at self* I took the gingerbread boys back from The Flying Pig, replaced them with beaded feathers. Dang, I had so much fun making the beaded dangles for the feathers that I wondered if it could possibly be legal, lol!
I will try to be good and take pics of the next batch, which are already painted. If I like the looks of them--they always look different the day after, because the paint cures overnight and often gets muted--then I will bead them right away, but if not, then I will paint them some more and bead them tomorrow.
Hey, I discovered that boxes other people's holiday gifts come in make mighty handy craft caddies--cleaned off part of my friend's front porch, lol. She had all sizes and my fav was a box from a digital camera; it was long and not too tall, and made easily into two matching caddies. You shoulda seen me with all my gears turning, trying to figure out how to make one set of cuts and get two identical caddies, lol...
This is not recycling, btw... this is "upcycling." Recycling is making something into the same thing it was originally; upcycling is adding value by making it into something new and different. Certainly I think free craft caddies are pretty valuable! I may tame some of this clutter yet! *grin*
I will try to be good and take pics of the next batch, which are already painted. If I like the looks of them--they always look different the day after, because the paint cures overnight and often gets muted--then I will bead them right away, but if not, then I will paint them some more and bead them tomorrow.
Hey, I discovered that boxes other people's holiday gifts come in make mighty handy craft caddies--cleaned off part of my friend's front porch, lol. She had all sizes and my fav was a box from a digital camera; it was long and not too tall, and made easily into two matching caddies. You shoulda seen me with all my gears turning, trying to figure out how to make one set of cuts and get two identical caddies, lol...
This is not recycling, btw... this is "upcycling." Recycling is making something into the same thing it was originally; upcycling is adding value by making it into something new and different. Certainly I think free craft caddies are pretty valuable! I may tame some of this clutter yet! *grin*
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