Monthly Archives: May 2008

Back from the brink of extinction

Does anyone remember these?

Minidisc2


Minidiscs baby!!! I was so into my minidisc player. I got this kick ass stereo for my high school graduation (gasp) nine years ago from my grandparents.
Garage1


Ohhh also back from the brink, the attic!!! Did you remember I have an attic? I made up this drawing yesterday after walking around and measuring up there with Sciarrino.
Attic3


Bj caught us up there when he got home from work. It’s pretty big, with the option of being bigger by doing a shed dormer (facing the back yard). It would make the total space about 750 square feet. That includes this beauty:
Attic2


The dormer that is shown predominantly on the front of the house.
Front1


Oh ya baby rain fed lawn, oh so pretty (before it goes dormant for summer). Our house is really not an acre off the road, it just looks that way with the wide angle.

So we decided to bite the bullet and have plans made up. Of course that is a tiny little percentage of what it will cost to do the actual work, but with out plans it will be nearly impossible to get any kind of real estimate of the cost of the job. So plans it is. The CADMAN (awesome name, no?) is going to come back Wednesday to do full measurements of the house, the whole house. He was here today and loved our place. He said the upstairs has tons of potential, and that the house is so much bigger than it looks from the street (we get that a lot).

I don’t think I can properly describe how much I love this cottage. So many new house are so blah. No offense if you live in one, even Bj likes how new house have plugs everywhere, and big bathrooms and all of that. But to me that’s not nearly as important as beautiful old wood floors, intricate built-ins and funny shaped brick dormers. I’ve been told there are four of these houses in the neighborhood. One is directly behind us. We think they did the upstairs without adding a dormer, so it’s just one big room probably or maybe a room and a bathroom. The people behind us also turned there garage into a room, and added a kind of carport for their car. They have no awning. We found another one of the houses tonight. They have done the shed dormer, and their front door is recessed so we don’t think they have a coat closet. That house is a block away and I plan on stocking them tomorrow so that I can ask to go in and see where they put there staircase. It’s the only thing Bj and I don’t agree on right now. I think our current bedroom should become a walk through den/man room for Bj and he thinks the stairway should go in through our dining room:

Dining_room1


That makes me want to weep at the thought of loosing one of those awesome corner units. WEEP!!! I think down the road when we sell (hopefully when I’m eighty because I am so totally attached to this house) that saying three bedrooms, two baths, a den, dining, living, kitchen, and 900 square foot basement will be enough. He thinks it needs to be four bedrooms. Come on I say, someones always going to turn one of those bedrooms into a den/craft room so who care is you have to walk through it? Plus I like the idea of all the rooms/bathrooms being on one side of the house, so that if entertaining you don’t have to mix it up. I just can’t see sitting in the dinning room at Thanksgiving with a stairway jutting out one side.  Sigh it’s so hard when you know you’re right, ladies out there you hear me?

Weekend project: the garage

I meant to get this out earlier, how did Thursday get here so fast?!?!

I just went through the

This isn’t even really the before I started pulling things on to the back deck before I realized I should take a before. The whole problem with this thing is the organization "style" of the previous owners/renters. It went something like this: Oh you have something you want to hang up? Stick a nail in the wall, how about another? and another? Or you have something a little bigger how about a freaking redonkulous shelving unit made of three inch thick lumber? And support that with a wimpy 2×4 so it only looks sturdy and indestructible.

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(that would be the white shelves there, so handy at about ten inches deep). And see that board behind the bikes? Turns out it’s a piece of sheetrock. I mean what?
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We really were not utilizing this space well at all. And don’t let the wide angle fool you, the  garage is a whopping 9 feet wide, so no car will fit in there (if you want to open your doors). So I did what I always do in this situation, got out the graph paper and made a drawing to scale. With little movable piece of furniture and shelves. The result?
Garage7


Heaven. The tool chest is open because Bj was working on a project, but you get the idea. We still have a little work to do. Like finally finishing those doors in the back (but hey, at least they’re primed now). This is some serious good progress. We ripped about five hundred (okay 175) nails from the walls and took down all the hokey scrap wood shelves to make this Ikea beast:
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It’s Broder baby! I’m excited about it now, but that’s after two trips to Ikea (an hour away) because they were out of a key component (the wall supports). That is all our camping and Christmas stuff in there, and still lots of empty bins! The big space is for Bj’s backpacking gear, he just needs to hang up hooks before he drags all that up from the basement. Speaking of the basement; now that the little storage room down there is free of things that should have been out here all along I’ve been able to get my art cabinet down there and free up more space in the corner of the garage.
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That is another Ikea unit, an Antonius system of drawers. We have all our screws, nails, bungees, etc. up here now too. Also freeing up space?
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Proper use of rafters. We’re not really sure about the weight limits of our plywood shelf so right now it has old stretcher bars and canvases of mine, the chairs I’ve yet to paint, and our gigantic tent. We also stuck the old french doors that I found in the basement up there. Bj wanted to get rid of them but I just can’t do it, they are so charming and you know someday maybe we could put them somewhere.

So everything is cleaned out, the craftsman cabinet Bj inherited was a big project. He cleaned it I organized and labeled everything. The bike stand is installed (though my low step bar frame doesn’t actually fit on it, just under). Ladders are hung. We just need to make a work bench and do a few little things. Perhaps our favorite fix can be seen on that first after shot of the garage. See that basket hanging from the garage door? When I first moved in I had no mail box or slot. In old neighborhoods like this the mailman walks around and will bring mail up to your house if you have a slot. So I knew I wanted one, but the door didn’t have the right front for cutting one out. I asked my (super friendly and nice) mailman if I could put it in the garage door instead, he said no problem. So our mail has been going all over the floor in there for almost two years. We’ve tried putting baskets and bins under the slot but it always misses. I had thought of a hanging basket a while ago but never implemented it. My friends it’s genius. It’s on two cup hooks hooked into the garage door. Then I took wire clippers and made holes in the cheap target paper bin, and threaded it on the hooks. It doesn’t even need to be taken off to open the door! And then mail? Right in the bin, every time. Ahhh success.

So that was a pretty long post just about my garage but we did spend three entire days working only on that and I’m very happy to have it done. I’ll see if I can come up with something a little more creative to share soon. Oh and Bj wanted to share this:

Garage9


"Bj what are you taking pictures of?"
"The new bike rack."
"Why?"
"For your blog"

Hmm okay. Well there you go blog readers, a new bike rack. You may notice, as I did, that it only holds one bike. Not exactly picking up on the fun couple activity joint bike riding is, is he? Grrr. He said he had to test it out first. I hope another is on the way!

From an old geezer to weezer

Dudes today I took grandpa to the back and spine doctor. We’ve been to this doctor before and grandpa loves the guy (you know as much as he is able due to his um, lack of trust with the medical profession). The doctor, Dr. Heros (I know! And he really is) was in the Army and since grandpa is all about his military service, it is a match made in heaven. I love that this doctor always takes the time to actually talk to grandpa (which means he has to yell to him basically), and listen even when grandpa goes off on a tangent about getting hooked on dope (prescription drugs). Grandpa has never been hooked on prescription drugs but for some reason he lives in constant fear of it and occasionally he likes to quit everything cold turkey, which leads to pain and comments like, "just take me to the morgue." Now I’m not a huge medicine fan myself, but the things grandpa says crack me up.

Here’s grandpa on a pack of pills he returned because they made him "doopy"

Grandpa: "so where are these made, Afganistan?"

Dr. Heros: "no, it says here they are made in Canada."

Grandpa: "but they’ve got poppies in them."

Dr. Heros: "No these are made in a lab."

Grandpa: "I don’t want to get addicted to the poppies."

Dr. Heros: "I assure you sir these are on the up and up, nothing black market about these."

Grandpa: "okay now take a look at my trigger finger."

LOL I had spent the whole time in the lobby trying to convince grandpa not to bring up a recent blood test or the trigger finger to the SPINE doctor. He has this blood test showing that everything is alright like kidney function and the like. Grandpa starts laughing and says, "Can you believe this, my god damn doctor things I’m fine. Do I look fine to you?" I tried to explain that just like a bone scan wouldn’t show diabetes the blood test doesn’t show the bone problems, but grandpa would not hear that logic (that’s good logic right?). This is when I start to get ultra frustrated with the old guy. I mean we’re not trying to trick him. I don’t know if it’s his generation or what, but I would hate to live my life like that thinking everyone and their dog is out to get me.

I did get him a new wheelchair today, we had just borrowed them before. I would borrow the retirement homes to get him down to the car. Then take it back. Then drive to the doctor’s. Then go in and get one  of their chairs. Then go get him. Then park the car. Then go to the doctor’s appointment. Then go get the car. Go get him and load him in. Then go take the chair back. So ya, it will save me a few steps. And the thing weighs 45 pounds pounds compared to the million pounds some of the others feel like. And can I just rant for a minute? If you are not handicapped please don’t ever park in a handicapped space. You would not believe how many people still think it’s okay to park in one for a minute or two. But if you already need all the time you have alloted to get a handicapped person out of the car and situated in a chair or walker or whatever you don’t have time to wait for the LAZY ASS who can’t park five spaces away to run in whatever he is dropping off. If you do that I have no sympathy. NONE. You are just asking for some major bad karma. Oh and also to the lazy guy who was sitting right next to the door staring at me the whole time I was trying to get grandpa over the threshold bump while keeping the door open with one hand and holding on to my handbag? I don’t like you either, get off your ass and help your fellow man.

So I came home in a bit of a mood. Then Bj showed me this.

You know what? Everything is suddenly better.:)


edited: Bj just sent me this link to all the video used for their Pork and Beans single.