Finally

I think I finally have the drip from my toilet stopped.  I ended up having to use the pliers on it anyway, even though they say not to.  I just tightened it about 1/4 turn at a time until it stopped dripping.  The little bowl I put under it to catch the drips has been dry for several hours, so I think it might be right this time.

Feeling a sense of accomplishment having done that, I decided to go ahead and start painting my cabinet.

Yes, it has doors.  I took them off to paint them separately, and to try to clean up the hinges really well.   They were gunky and tarnished.  I sprayed them with WD-40, but I might have to invest in some NevrDull. 

Now, there's a blast from my Navy days.  If you've ever had to polish a garbage can until it shone, you might be a Navy Veteran.

Anyway, I think it's going to look good when I'm done.  I'm going to let it dry overnight and see how it looks after church tomorrow.  Then I'll decide if it needs another coat of paint or not.  Just looking at it, I think it will, but we'll see after it's dried a bit more. I still need to get the door frame replaced.  James said he was going to come help me with it, but he hasn't had time.  He's busy trying to get his own house sold. 

I finally got my yarn out of that box and put into my yarn closet.

I have more yarn than this.  I'm just not sure where it is.  

Thanks to Hurricane Patricia, we are finally going to be getting some rain over the next several days.  That is good, because the entire state is under a burn ban since it's been so dry.  

Honestly, I can't even remember the last good rain we had.  Oh, we've had showers, but barely enough to settle the dust. 

Mercy drops round us are falling
But for the showers we plead.

I've Got Fire!

It's here!  My fire stick is here! 

I've got it hooked up to my TV, so I may never get out of my recliner again.  I'm wondering why I waited so long to get one.  I haven't even scratched the surface of all it can do.  The best thing is, it isn't always crashing like my old streaming device did.   The remote is also better, since it controls the stick without me having to hold my tongue just right.

I think I'm going to move my old streaming device/DVD player into the bedroom.  I've got a spare DVD player around here somewhere that I can hook up to the TV in the living room.  I just have to find it.

I got some more good news.  You see, I don't like change at all.  A couple of weeks ago, Beverly and James went to Texas.  I picked up their mail while they were gone.  When I took it over there to them, Bev and I were visiting for a bit.  She got to talking about how glad she is to be moving home, and next door to her sister, but is still going to miss the good friends she made here.  She started tearing up, and I was kind of choking up myself.  I was trying to hold it together, because it just wouldn't do for both of us to be crying.

However, as I was pulling out of her driveway heading home, the UPS man was passing by.  He saw me, and started waving.  That's when I lost it.  I bawled all the way home.  I really like my UPS man.  He always stops to chat for a moment when he delivers my packages, and he is so sweet.  Losing him was just one more change I had to deal with.

Today, when the UPS truck pulled up to deliver my Fire Stick, I waited anxiously to see who my new delivery guy would be.   When he stepped out of the truck, I was so happy to see it was my same old familiar UPS man.  I am still on his route!  I could have hugged his neck.

I probably would have if I didn't abhor human contact.  INTJ things, you know.

Speaking of the new house, this was my project for today.

It was actually just the flapper I needed to replace, but I went ahead and replaced the whole inner workings.  The bad news is, I've got a slow drip where the water line hooks into the tank.  They say not to use a wrench, but I can't get it tight enough just hand tightening it.  Probably in the morning, I'm going to unhook it and wrap the threads with some teflon tape.  Yes, I do have some teflon tape around here somewhere.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to have to use my wrench on it.   I had to use the wrench to loosen the nut, so I'm thinking whoever replaced it last used a wrench on it.

But I'm rambling now...

 Next project in the works: 

I'm going to start filling all the nail and screw holes in my paneling.  Believe me, there are a lot of them.

You know, when I bought the house, I was under the impression that an old lady lived here by herself.  My next door neighbor told me that wasn't the case at all.  Her daughter and a whole passel of kids lived here with her.  I knew she had grandkids, because I saw the toys.  I just didn't know that they all lived here.

 Be that as it may, the kids seemed to be quite destructive.   There are holes all in the paneling, and one spot that looks like it had been repeatedly struck with a hammer-like object.  Now that I'm almost finished with the bathroom, except for replacing the door frame, I'm starting to think about painting the living room.  I've chosen an off white color for the walls, and a light gray for the trim.

Farmer's Almanac is predicting a long, cold winter, and this will make a good project for these dreary winter days.  It'll also enable me to put off dealing with that horrid small bathroom for a while.  I really should get that one taken care of, though.  I just don't want to scrape all that sand off the walls. 

I also heard that there will be a shortage of pumpkins this year.  You can't tell it from our Wal-Mart.  They've got plenty of whole pumpkins.  Nevertheless, I'm stocking up on canned pumpkin, just in case. 

If it turns out we really do run out of pumpkin, I can get rich selling it on the black market.

Finally, today is my dad's 89th birthday.  I think this is one of my absolute favorite pictures of him.

It was taken in 1992 by my Aunt Martha.  That's my sister.  She'd gotten underwear for Christmas.  The expression on my daddy's face sums up his entire personality in one look.

Happy Birthday in heaven.  I still miss you. 

Over My Head

I think I might be in over my head with this bathroom door frame.

Or I might be just getting overwhelmed.  I knew there was some damage to the frame itself.  You can see here that there is quite a lot of damage at the bottom.

Then there is this.  

The more I get into fixing up this house, the more I'm realizing that the previous owners weren't quite the handyman type that they imagined themselves to be.  That looks less like actual damage and more like a half hearted, lick-at-a-snake type of repair.  It's like they just slapped an extra strip of wood in the gap created when they added the tile.

The original plan was to take all that framing off and replace it.  However, after spending so much on getting my plumbing repaired, I thought I'd just strip the old paint off and repaint it for now, the replace it all later.  I could see that the previous paint job was not very well done, so I wanted to take it all off, down to the bare wood.

Do you want to know how thick and gloppy the previous paint application was?  Do you see this nail? 

  Here is a side on view of it.

The paint was built up so much on the door frame that this nail was barely visible.  What's even worse, there was no reason for that nail to be sticking out that far.  I found my hammer, and pounded it flush with the surface of the wood. 

As the paint came off, I discovered even more shoddy workmanship. 

The little wood strip that runs down the center of the door frame -- well, there was a significant gap between that strip and the actual frame itself.  

A lot of the gap has paint stuffed into it, but it's still there.  So, now I'm back to wanting to pull it all off and replace the whole mess.  Since I want it done right, I think I'm going to have to ask for help with this. 

But First

I promised knitting photos.  Here is my sister's sock yarn blanket.

 Like I said, it might be ready by the time she has grandkids.  I put out a plea on Facebook for knitting friends to send me leftover sock yarns.  I'm sure I'll get some.  Knitters are the most generous people on the planet.  It doesn't really even have to be sock yarn.  Any machine washable fingering weight will do.  She has three boys, and I want her to be able to toss it into the machine without worrying about ruining it.  I'm not picky about fiber content, either.

This is the scarf I cast on out of Knit Picks Aloft.

I'm probably going to frog it, though.  I don't like it.  It was supposed to be something mindless to keep in the bedroom to work on while I watch TV, but the yarn is too light, and I can't really see it.  Tomorrow, I'm going to work on getting my craft stuff organized, so I'll find something else to knit in the bedroom.

The plan today was to get the framing in my main bathroom painted.  When I got to looking more closely, I noticed that the paint was cracking in the corners and around the edges of my frame.   

I got my handy dandy paint scraper out and started scraping.  It looks like there are at least three layers of paint on the frame. 

While scraping, I noticed something else.  I had noticed it before, but I just figured out what it was I had been looking at.  It seems that the previous owner put new framing around the door, only she didn't take the old framing off first.  She just slapped the new frame on top of the old.  I know it's hard to see in this picture, but yes, that is two layers of framing around that door. 

I first thought I'd just paint over it, but I decided to take all the old framing down and replace it.  I know it's a lot more work, but I want it done right.  I went ahead and bought some paint stripper, so I can get all that paint off and see exactly what it is I am working with. Then I'll go from there. 

I got some new catalogs in the mail these last couple of days.

Apparently, when you buy a house, the realtors tattle on you to all these home decor companies.  It was fun to look through the catalogs, but even with the 15% coupons included, their stuff is just a bit out of my current budget. 

Not to mention, I just don't like it. 

Slowly, But Surely

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting my house redone.

And by slowly, I mean slooooowly.  I'm not going to get into any hurry fixing up my house.  I've got plenty of time.  What I don't have is plenty of money.  I don't want to make the same mistake I did when I bought the trailer house.  I put things on my credit card, thinking I could just pay them off.  Little did I know that we would spend the next 9 years working 4 day work weeks for half the year.

Yeah, I'm still paying that card off.

I got in last night and took all the painter's tape down and hung my shower curtain back up.

Then I took a shower, but that's not important.  Unless you have to be near me at any time.  Then it becomes very important. 

I've still got some touch up work to do, then get the trim and stuff painted.  I think it's going to look really nice once I get it all done.  

In between bouts of painting, I have been knitting a little bit.  I'm mostly working on my sister's sock yarn blanket.  At this rate, it might be done in time for her to have some grandchildren.

Last night, I decided I wanted to cast on something smaller and lighter to keep in the bedroom for when I'm watching TV in there.  Since I have a TV in the bedroom now, you know.  I was thinking a simple scarf would do, so I went into the room that is going to eventually become my craft room....and I couldn't find any of my yarn.

I guess I know what this weekend's project will be.

I dug around and finally found a couple of balls of Knit Picks Aloft and cast on a simple garter stitch scarf.  It's not even long enough to bother taking a picture yet, but I assure you, as I get more settled, more photos of stuff will be forthcoming.

Finally, I got a call from the bank that the guy who bought my trailer house.  They overnighted the check to the mortgage company, but still haven't received the title.  When I got home, I called the mortgage company.  I got the message, "Congratulations, your loan has been paid in full."  Ah, that is music to my ears!

Now, I just have 29 years and 11 months to pay on this one. 

The Transformation Begins

I had the day off work today, so I started working on getting my bathrooms painted.  First, a couple of before pictures.  Kindly ignore the mess.  I'm still moving in.

Yeah, this is just a blank wall.  It'll probably end up with a cabinet or at least a towel rack on it. 

I'm thinking about removing this gigantic mirror and replacing it with a mirrored cabinet and a smaller cabinet over the toilet. In fact, I want to take it down before I paint.  I'm just afraid I'll break it if I try to do it by myself.  I need to figure out how to get that light fixture down, too. 

This is the half bath.  I have no idea why the previous owner chose this color, but there it is. 

I ran by True Value after work yesterday to buy my paint, but the paint guy had a line backed up to the door.  He seemed pretty flustered and rushed, so I decided to wait until today.

In the meantime, I started removing the wall paper border in the main bathroom.

Oh, it's lovely wallpaper.  It just doesn't fit with the seaside theme I'm going with.

I got this far before I realized I'd forgotten a vitally important fact. 

That fact being, I am short. Standing on a folding chair just wasn't going to cut it.  So when I went into town to buy my paint, I stopped by Wal-Mart and got a step ladder.  That made things a whole lot easier.

Then on to True Value to get my paint.  When the guy mixed the main color (the lighter blue in the middle), he pulled out the sample to put onto the label.  He said, "Ooo, I like that!"

Then he mixed my accent color (the darker blue at the top).  He pulled out the sample and said, "I like that even better." 

After that, I came back home and pulled the wallpaper off.  I had no idea how hard it is to remove old wallpaper.  I'm starting to understand why people just slap the new over the old.

It took most of the day, and several NCIS breaks, but I persevered and got it done.  

Now I have nice clean walls, but am too tired to paint.  You can see in the upper right corner that there was some blue paint under the white. 

I wondered if I needed to fill those in with drywall compound or something to make it smooth, but since I'm putting up another border, I won't need to.  On the other hand, if I decide to skip the border and put up molding, I'll need to smooth that out.  Hmmm, decisions, decisions...

Some good news... Cody's car broke down Wednesday night.  He thought it was the transmission.  No, that's not the good news.  The good news is, it wasn't the transmission.  It was the shifting cable. 

A whole lot cheaper fix than repairing or replacing an entire transmission.