On the Needles 4-5…

I started a new project the other day in anticipation of having a couple of days to do nothing much more than sit and knit…

 

Multnomah is another free shawl pattern from Ravelry.

I love Ravelry!

 

 

 

I am using Nuble from Araucania which is a fingering weight yarn of wool & silk.  Love the earthy colors.

Be sure and check out what others are knitting on this week at Judy L’s Patchwork Times. 

Why so much extra time to knit?  Because we are making dust around here for a couple days… Noise and dust!

Now I’ll tell you that my standard operating procedure for dust is – “Don’t write in it!”  It’s just way easier to ignore if you don’t see it… hey – you know I’m right.

But this dust yesterday… well not only could I see it but I could feel it, hear it being made, and taste it.  They were jack-hammering a hole in my basement and digging a big hole along the side of my house.  I even opened the windows and put the fans in blowing out… Thank goodness it was almost warm out.

We’ve had a very minor issue with water in one corner of the basement when it rains really hard during the wet season.  Because we have a stone foundation as well as a stone house we figured it was better to deal with it before it becomes a foundation problem.

 

They dug along the side of the house – nearest isn’t as deep as that part of the house (laundry room) is set on a slab so the footer only goes 3-4’ deep – beyond that is the part that is deeper that matches up with the basement wall.  This will all be cleaned – cemented over (parged is the technical term) – then coated and a layer of some sorta film is applied. 

 

 

 

 

Here in the basement you can see the corner wall that has moisture issues.  The door way on the right use to lead to stairs up into the laundry room which is the room set on a slab.

 

 

 

 

Those stairs are now gone as they were rotting out at the bottom from the moisture.  The bottoms 3 or 4 stairs were easy to remove… they had to work hard on all the others.

The wall behind the stairs is sloped.

 

 

 

 

 

They jackhammered the cement  to make a channel to catch any water.  The walls will have all the damaged areas removed and then everything will be parged and a sump pump put in that hole in the corner.  My husband will rebuild stairs after the sump pump and drain system is finished. 

You know for a house that was built in 1856 and completely renovated in the late 40’s (which is when the original dirt basement would have been dug out more and cemented in) – she’s not doing too bad.

Working and Making Work...

Did I tell y'all I've been buying plants?

I've had a wonderful time checking out the local farm stands and greenhouses.

But before I can plant these.... I have to clear out weeds...

This is the driveway side of the house.

I have lots of weeds!

 

 

Lots and lots of weeds...

 

 

 

And a few small stumps too...

 

This digging stuff is hard work!

I had to work real hard to get this loose...

 

 

 

It had one root that really gave me a hard time...

 

Yes... I found out that that's not really a root.

 

 

 

 

I figured it out when I lifted it up with the shovel and it pulled up over to the electrical box... ooops! 

Bad news is that I did nick through to the copper wire - Good News is that the Arc Fault Circuit Breaker tripped and cut off the power... .

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a temporary repair so that I can put the power back on... this outlet powers the pond.   The Engineer will fix this next weekend... and hopefully make it so that I can't dig it up again.

He made me feel so guilty...

I hadn't really intended to hurt him...

I gave them all fair warning...

I told them all to get outta my way...

I even tried to distract them...

He just didn't get the hint...

... and again I'll say I hadn't intended to hurt him...

much less KILL him.

I swiped at him with the end of the paint roller to get him away from where I was working... I guess I had an awkward hold onto it and hit him a little harder then I intended... I just wanted him to go away.

... but did he really have to fall over on his back and kick his little legs up into the air... my goodness - the drama involved.

I felt so guilty... damn bug!

Got Paint?

I sure do...

And this is just the first haul from Friday morning - 16 gallons and 2 quarts - all the paint we need to paint the rooms on the second floor and the kitchen... I went back on Sunday to get the stuff for the first floor - 5 gallons of primer, 7 gallons of wall paint and 2 gallons of trim.  Oh and I had already picked up the bathroom paint - so that was another gallon and a quart, oh and 2 previous gallons of primer... 

Let me see - that adds up to... 33.75 GALLONS of paint...

 

Don't ya just love the names they have for paints?  And with the 'color matching' gizmo they have I can collect paint chips from everywhere and get The Home Depot to make it up in Behr paint.  Here's what I've got picked out...

 

• Chickery Chick (yellow) for the kitchen walls above the white & black tiles and a pretty Happy Blue for trim (can't find the paint chip so I'm calling it Happy Blue)
• Blush Beige (med. pink) for the walls in the guest room #1, Timber Trail (MmmMmmm chocolate!) for the trim
• Big Chill (lt. blue) for the walls in the office/guest room #2, Federal Blue (dark) and Blue Waltz (med.) for the trim & bookcase
• Golden Pond (med. brown) will be the trim in the hall and all the hall side of the doors will be Timber Trail with Golden Marguerites (yep... golden) for the accent
• Fennel (lt. green) will be in the Master Bedroom and Dressing Room with Greenscape  (dark) for the trim
• Swiss Coffee (one of those many shades of white) will be splashed about the walls in the stairway, living room, entry and part of the dining room.  Golden Pond (med. brown) will be the trim throughout - similar to what is already on the trim, just a tiny bit darker.  Although I am pondering using the Timber Trail (chocolate) on the deep window sills in the living room - haven't decided yet.
• Polar Bear is the white for the bathroom above the white and black tiles... I may at some point put some color on the trim in there... but right now I'm happy with clean and fresh white!

And do you remember the blue walls and built in cabinet in the dining room... yeah that awful pastel blue.  In this picture you can also see my then freshly sanded floors...  they have been stained and finished since and they are pretty!  But the blue still stunk... LOL

• Fennel (light green) for the two walls and Basil (med. green) for the cabinet and trim.  The rest of the walls will be the Swiss Coffee as they lead into the stairway and living room.  And yes - I'm sure some will look at the green and feel the same way I did about the pastel blue... but I happen to like the green better and I'm all about making me happy.

I know - it sure sounds like A LOT OF COLOR... but The Engineer has been giving me a hard time for years about painting things 'different shades of white'.  So this will fix him make him happy... and I'm happy about the colors too... they are all earthy and warm.

What's the sense in having all this paint and not having a helper?

My sister Darlin' spent several days here over the weekend.  I had already primed this guest room and she's getting the pink on... and then we moved furniture from one place to the other and we she primed the office/guest room on Tuesday before she left.

 

 

 

As you can see I have lots of things started - but not much completely done. 

The bathroom needs to be finished - it's high on my to do get it done list.

I wasn't able to paint in the shower area because you can't get the paint wet for 24 hours... and that's hard to do with 3 people living here.  Now that The Engineer is out of town for the day and Darlin' is back home I can finish the painting in the shower area and make do without a shower at the end of the day...

I'll just go jump in the pool... aaaah!

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

Well no, not really swallowed - but pretty close!  I spat it out - EeWwww!

I was working in the bathroom peeling icky caulk outta joints and crevices and scrapping drywall wall mud offa the walls (whacky repair job by previous owners).  I had taken my cup of coffee with me and stuck a loosely balled up paper towel in the top to keep dust from settling in it.  I hadn't however thought about flies... being all clever and such (we have lots of OPEN windows while we are working on the house to improve air flow).  I bet he was surprised when he landed in coffee after wiggling into that crevice... not as surprised as I was when I took a swig of coffee... did I say EeWwww?

I wonder... Can you OD on mouthwash??

My how times flies...

when you are buying a house, cleaning, moving, cleaning, buying new appliances, cleaning, calling contractors, cleaning, talking with contractors, cleaning the rental unit, returning equipment to Comcast, cleaning, hiring contractors, cleaning... oh and then of course there's all the silly things we need to be doing like eating and sleeping and washing clothes and of course all those cleaning cloths we've been using.

There is no easy or quick way to tell y'all about the adventures the past month - so for now I'll just say the Stone House is ours! 

We love it - which is good because although she was beautifully built and renovated in the past - she has not been cared for properly the past few years and is a bit dirty behind the ears.  Nothing we can't handle with some good old fashion elbow grease which we have been slinging around here with abandon (oh and a boatload of money would help too).

I'll be back when I'm not so darn busy, and dirty, and sweaty, and tired...

I'm looking forward to sharing my new Old House with ya!

 

Can't drag my feet anymore...

If I continue to drag my feet about finishing up this house I'm gonna have to see an orthopedic doctor!

I really do have to get all these little things finished up so that I can focus on the few remaining big things - like the basement.

The basement work is at the other end of the tunnel. I can't work on the basement because it's got stuff still in it... like all the stuff that belongs upstairs. Hmmm - guess I should explain for those who don't know - I'm in the process of getting this house ready to sell so that we can move.

The wood floors were refinished this summer - a process that requires that you move everything out of those areas. Since every room in my house (except my bathrooms) has hardwood floors - it meant everything had to go. So we threw away, packed away (in two PODS), gave away and finally stuffed away all our stuff. What we were keeping to put back in the house went into either the closets, bathrooms, front porch, basement or garage.

Now I can't bring all that stuff back upstairs until all the other work is done - like the painting. And it seems like we are painting everywhere... well it doesn't seem like we are - we ARE painting everywhere. At least one if not all of the walls, ceiling, and/or trim in each room is getting whacked with a brush or roller. My arm will only do so much painting at a time - I'm probably just being a weenie about the whole thing... a numb hand isn't a big deal is it? If my left hand weren't so clumsy and uncoordinated it would be more help...

So I'm at the point of tying up loose ends this week... finish a few more touch up things (oh and the kitchen ceiling) and then move the paint containers downstairs and start moving the house stuff upstairs.

This week I need to call the realtor... see where the market is these days and get this show on the road.

You are spending too much time painting if...

you have to vacuum the drop cloths!

Well it didn't help that I went away for several days last week, I work at the quilt shop on the weekends and I'm sure I could find a few more excuses... but the end result (especially with 2 house cats) is that when I finally get back to painting - I have to vacuum first. The big drop cloths sorta stay put but the vacuum plays havoc with the 'pre-taped plastic drop cloths' that are all around the edges - I have to cut the suction power way back or they get sucked up.

Actually the cats have been more of an issue with the plastic - they are having a grand time running and sliding around - so I'm always resticking them in place as I move around the room.

I had set Friday as my 'finish by' date but I'm not sure if that's going to pan out. I made the mistake of having a cup of coffee last night... so I was up late and slept late as well.