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. 

Bevo

Bevo XIV died peacefully in his sleep last night after a brief battle with bovine leukemia.

Reveille sent her condolences.

As did Mike. 

Fair winds and following seas, old friend. 

Hook 'Em

Happy Birthday

Happy 22nd birthday, Cody!

Long Day

It all started way too early this morning, when we had to go into work at 5:30 for Code of Conduct classes. 

Personally, I think it should be a violation of the Code of Conduct to conduct conduct classes before the sun comes up. 

After that, we had our annual benefits meeting, about our insurance and stuff, followed by a full 8 hour day of work.  Needless to say, I'm a bit tuckered, so this post will be short, and most likely incomprehensible. 

Then, I get home to find out that Bevo XIV, the University of Texas mascot, has been diagnosed with bovine leukemia virus. 

 He will be retired immediately, and will live out the rest of his life on his ranch.  The search for Bevo XV will begin immediately, but it is unlikely he will be found and trained before the start of next season.
 

Rest easy, old friend.

We have the watch. 

When Things Don't Go As Planned

Yeah, I had plans for the weekend. 

I'd planned on stripping the paint from my bathroom door frame.  That was going to be my big project.  I was going to strip the old paint, sand the frames down, and repaint them until I could afford to replace them.  Alas, try as I might, I couldn't get the can of stripper open.  Even after hacking the plastic child proof ring from the cap, it still wouldn't come loose.

I have some pliers somewhere.  I looked all over the house for them, but I couldn't find them. I thought I'd left them at work.  No problem.  I'd just check when I went back this morning.  But after searching my locker and my tool bag, the aforementioned pliers were nowhere to be found.  Thus, paint has not gotten stripped.  I'm sure they will turn up eventually, but for now, I'll just have to live with what I've got. 

The other plan for the weekend was to get my yarn/craft closet organized.  This is as far as I got. 

 
I got my shelving units out of the shed and set them up in the closet, but haven't gotten my yarn put into it.  I sat all weekend thinking, "I have so much I need to be doing", and I didn't do any of it.  All I did was sit in front of the TV.  I guess I just needed a break. 

The entire weekend wasn't a total loss, though.  I got the snake heaters all plugged in, so they are ready for chilly weather.  I browsed some used cars on Auto Trader and True Car websites.  I found some possibilities for a new vehicle for me.  I'm going to try to go look at some later this week. 

And I found a bedroom knitting project.

This is a scarf I started years and years ago from some yarn which was leftover after knitting one of my nephews a sweater.  I'd gotten this far when I realized that I would never finish this scarf. 

I was going to wind the yarn into a cake, but I can't find my ball winder.  Sigh...So, I just started knitting from the end of this scarf.  Once it gets long enough, I'll show you what I'm knitting.

As if that weren't enough, I get to work this morning, and have the Happy Birthday song stuck in my head all day.  Then I get home and they were working on the Cable, so no TV or internet.  Tomorrow, I have to be at work at 5:30 for Code of Conduct classes and insurance meetings. 

I think I'm going to throw in the towel on this day. 

Good night.

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. 

A Chill In The Air

There was definitely a nip in the air these last couple of mornings.  This morning, I was seriously tempted to start a little fire in my wood heater, but I was afraid it would make the house too hot.  So I just put on some flannel pants and my moccasins and drank some hot chocolate.

Yesterday, I got up and painted my bathroom.  I put two coats on, and I think that will be enough.

After church today, I got in there and touched up a few spots.  I'll be touching up for a few days here before I take the painter's tape down.  Next step will be to paint the cabinet and the door frame.  Then I'll have to decide which molding I want to put up, and whether I want it in the dark blue, too.  Plus, I want to add at least two cabinets -- one mirrored and one plain. 

Since it was so chilly these last couple of days, I finally drug out the fall decorations and started putting them out. 

Yes, that was a little bit of vernacular there.  I haven't quite given up my grammar nazi position yet.  In fact, I was mentally correcting the pastor's grammar during the sermon this morning.  I probably ought not do that, huh? 

Anyway, I mostly stuck stuff on nails that were already in the walls in my living room.  Before I paint, though, I'm going to pull all those nails out and repair the holes.  That means that next year, I'm actually going to have to think about where I want stuff.  Yeesh...I'm not good at decorating. 

Other than that, I put some stuff on my mantle. 

I moved that plant after I took the photo, and yes, that hideous green will be going away eventually.  I really, really wonder about the previous owner's tastes in color and decor. 

This was the only other stuff I put out this year.  I decided it was enough.

Good news, I found someone who wants all this concrete.  She is going to put it into her dog kennels to get them up out of the mud.  She and her husband came got some of it this afternoon, but she didn't realize how big some of the pieces are.  She is going to have to find a truck and some men to help her, but she is going to come get the rest of it.

Now, if I could just get Rylea to stop digging canyons in my back yard, we'll be all set to do some landscaping come spring. 

I Have Plumbing!

The plumber finally showed up today.  Of course, the delay wasn't his, but the ones who had to give him authorization to dig up my yard.  He told me they gave him all sorts of problems.   First they told him he couldn't dig without someone there with him to make sure he didn't hit any underground stuff.

He told them that there wasn't anything near where he was going to dig, and didn't they see where his flags were?  Oh, OK, you can dig there...About 900 phone calls and many arguments later, he finally got authorization to do my plumbing work.

Daniel made it out to the house about 1:00 this afternoon.  First thing he had to do was tear up my patio.  My poor patio...

He tried to move it in one piece, but he couldn't.  It started buckling on him, so he just had to break it up.  He had this big old backhoe thing that he used to dig my yard up.  Naturally, it made noise.  A lot of noise, which freaked poor Rylea out.

This is where she ended up. 

Looking very nervous...I had to get her down, and she ain't light.  That's a 60 lb dog in my windowsill.  It wasn't easy, but I got her down, and she hid in my recliner. 

I couldn't bear to move her again, so I let her stay until Daniel was done and gone.

Once he got my yard all dug up, he was able to see what the problem was.

Back when all these houses were built, they were all on a septic system.  Sometime later, they were added to the municipal sewer system, but a lot of the houses still have old septic tanks in the back yards.  Mine did, and what had happened was the septic tank had collapsed and the sewer pipes had fallen into the old hole.  That put stress on them, causing them to break.

He replaced all the pipe from the back of the house to the fence, then used pieces of my patio to fill in the hole where the septic tank used to be.  Once he was done, he put all the dirt back into place and smoothed it all out. 

The dirt will settle, especially after it rains a few times, so I'll have to add more dirt and have it smoothed out.  I was going to have some work done on that yard anyway.

Another thing he did was to remove that tall cleanout that was in the middle of the yard and put a smaller one in.  This one is closer to the house and level with the ground, so I can hide it under a bush.

Now, I can get on with what I was doing.  I got my master bathroom all taped up and drop clothed and I'm ready to paint.

That will be my big project for tomorrow.

That, and finding someone to haul off all that concrete in my back yard...

Not Good

Yesterday when I got home from work, I called the plumber.  He was out on another call, but his wife said he'd come as soon as he could.  I waited and waited, and finally called Beverly and asked if I could come take a shower at her house. 

Today,  the plumber's wife called and said he was on his way.  He got to the house, and I showed him where I thought the problem was.  He poked around a bit, and the news is not good. 

Let me tell you, plumbing has gotten a lot more sophisticated these days.  The plumber -- I'll call him Daniel, mainly because that's his name -- has this little camera on a cable.  He was able to run it through my sewer pipes and see -- literally see -- what the problem is.  He also has this other detector thing.  He can run the camera into my pipes and use the detector thing, which kind of looks like a metal detector, to find it.  He holds that over the ground and it beeps.  It has a digital screen which shows exactly where the camera is and how deep it is. 

That's the cool part.  The not so cool part is, when he ran that camera down my pipes, he could see that my pipes were cracked for several feet.  Then there was one spot where it had completely broken. The broken spot was letting dirt fall into the pipe, and when mixed with the sewage, made mud.  That's what was clogging up my pipes. 

The even less cool part is that the broken spot is right under my patio.  He's going to try to shift my concrete slab over, but isn't sure he can do it without breaking it.  I told him not to worry about it if he can't save it.  I'll get someone to repour me a bit.  Or I may buy one of those molds and make my own with QuickCrete. 

Anyway, Daniel has to call that number to check for underground gas/phone/etc lines, which can take up to 48 hours.  He said he was going to make an emergency request so that they will have it done in 24 hours.  He doesn't think anything will be buried where he needs to dig, but he still has to make that call and get an authorization.  It's like a law or something. 

He cleared the mud out of the pipes, so I can at least flush now, but I'm still taking baths at my cousin's house for the next couple of days.  I told him when he's ready to start, just come on out, even if I'm at work.  He shouldn't need to get inside the house, but Bev and James have a key if for some reason he does. 

Then Daniel told me a story of how he went to fix a lady's shower.  She wasn't going to be home, but said she'd leave the back door unlocked for him.  He went into the house and began working on the shower, when a guy came walking down the hall.  Daniel introduced himself and told the guy why he was there.  They guy said to go ahead, so Daniel fixed the shower and didn't think about it until later.  That's when he found out the guy was robbing the house!

He had to go give a statement and describe the guy.  Yes, they caught him, but it was just weird. 

Tomorrow, I'll have to call the realtor's office.  She had told me something about some homeowner's insurance that the seller is supposed to buy.  If anything goes wrong with the house within so many days, they have to pay to have it fixed.  Since this isn't something that happened overnight, and I've only been in the house a month, it should be covered by that warranty. 

Frankly, with all this going on, I haven't even thought about painting.  I'll get to it, but first things first. 

Almost Ready

I'm almost ready to paint my bathroom, but not quite. 

 I stayed up late last night to watch the SuperHarvestBloodMoonTotalLunarEclipse, so I'm a little tuckered today.  It was cloudy, so I watched a feed on Space.com.  I tried to watch the feed on NASA, but it kept crashing.  I guess so many people were watching it that we broke them.  That would make for some interesting water cooler conversation.

"What did you do this weekend?"

"I took the family on a picnic."

"I watched football."

"I went camping." 

"I broke NASA."

Even though it was mostly cloudy here, I did run outside when totality began.  The clouds thinned just enough that I could see the moon, but not clearly.  Still I can say that I saw it. 

Right after work today, I commandeered James and his trailer, and we cleaned out my rental storage unit.  I was sitting there yesterday watching football and suddenly realized it was almost the end of the month.  If I could clean the thing out before Thursday, I wouldn't have to pay another month's rental on it. 

I texted James and asked if he would be busy this afternoon.  I thought between his trailer, truck bed, and the back of my Jimmy, we could get it all moved to my shed in one trip.  Sure enough, that's all it took. 

Speaking of, James and Beverly already have someone coming to look at their house tomorrow evening.  I gave James a spare key to my shed, just in case he needed to stick some junk in there while I was at work. 

Once we were done with that, I sanded down my bathroom walls.  I found two more small spots that I needed to scrape and patch, but I think they are about as good as they are going to get.  I might be able to start painting tomorrow. 

Then disaster struck. 

OK, it wasn't really a disaster, but it sounds so much more dramatic when you say it that way.  When I took my bath, I noticed water oozing out from the base of my toilet, and my bathtub wasn't draining.  Oh, great.  Now instead of painting, I get to call a plumber.  But maybe not.

After much plunging and swearing, the bathtub eventually drained.  After The Big Bang Theory, I ran some more water into it, and that time it seemed to drain just fine. I got brave and washed the towels I'd used to clean up the water that had run all over my bathroom floor.  The washing machine drained with no problem.  Nothing backed up or anything. 

However, neither of my toilets are flushing, so the clog is definitely on that side of the house. I may need to see if someone has a snake to clear the sewer lines out.  I'll need to replace the gasket at the base of the toilet in the front bathroom, too, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

It'll be good practice for when I take the toilet out of the small bathroom to fix the walls behind it.    

One Thing After Another

Today was supposed to be my day off.  I was supposed to be able to sleep in, right?  Right?

So what do I do?  I wake up at 4:00 AM and can't get back to sleep.  After tossing and turning for an hour, I got up and started working on my bathroom.  I thought that if I got all that joint compound sanded smooth, then I could start painting as soon as I got home from church.

Alas, it was not to be.

The first thing I did was to take that huge mirror down.
 

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  I had a brief moment of panic when after taking the screws out, the mirror was still stuck to the walls.  I thought maybe they had glued it to the wall, but they didn't.

The thing was, the last time the previous owner painted, they didn't take the mirror down.  They just painted around it.  Some of the paint got between the mirror and the wall and acted as an adhesive.    No problem.  It just took a little prying with my putty knife to loosen it, then it came down easily enough.  I didn't even break it.

I got the mirror safely stored in the spare bedroom, and patched the screw holes, removing the drywall screw anchors in the process.  At this point, I'm still thinking I can start painting after church, but then I looked here.  See that ridge? 

That's what happens when you don't take stuff off of your walls when you paint.  I had to scrape that all off and put more joint compound there to smooth it out.  Sigh...

And that's not all!  Looky here:

That's what I found when I took the shower curtain rod down.  And there's one on the other side, too. 

Yippee.  Because I just love spreading that joint compound.

It's been a long process, but I've just about got those walls where I want them to be.  I'll give them a good sanding tomorrow when I get home and see how they look after that.  Maybe I can start painting Tuesday or Wednesday.

As I was taking my shower this morning, I looked up at my walls, and decided I didn't really want to put another wallpaper border up.  I think I'll just put some molding up.  I think I might buy a prettier light fixture, too.  The one she had up there just isn't that nice. 

I really, really need to go to Lowe's, but I don't trust my Jimmy to make even that short of a trip any more.  That means, next project -- car shopping!

And you get to go along for that ride, too. 

Ride-- get it? 

Never mind. 

Sore Hands

My hands are so sore from peeling that wallpaper off, but I must carry on.

I blogged yesterday about the little flecks of paint I'd peeled off with said wallpaper.  Well, I went back into the bathroom and got to looking.  I found several spots like this.

This was from the previous owner's last paint job.  This is what it looks like if you don't fix the peeled paint before you repaint.  It shows up like a dimple or scar on the wall.  So, after work, I ran back into town and bought some joint compound, a putty knife, and a sanding block.

I patched all these little nicks and a few nail holes.  After letting the joint compound dry for several hours, I sanded it and touched up any spots I'd missed before.  I'll let it dry overnight, then sand it again after church tomorrow.  Then I'll finally be ready to paint.

Another thing I discovered is that the small bathroom, the one that is that hideous green...well, she textured the walls before painting it.  It looks like they threw a bunch of sand against the wall and the back of the door and painted over it.  I'm going to have to figure out how to get that off.  I don't like it.  I may have to borrow James' belt sander and see if that will take it off.  I hope I don't end up having to replace all the drywall.  Sigh...

I know it's a lot of work, but dang it, it's my house and I want it done the way I want it.  The lady that owned the house before seemed really sweet, but I wonder about her taste in home decor.  I really do. 

One thing about moving that isn't so much fun is updating all my addresses -- including my e-mail addresses.  When I went to update my Wal-mart account, somehow I ended up typing my e-mail address in wrong.  That's the only thing I can think of.  I tried my old e-mail address.  I tried my new one.  I tried my alternate.  None of them worked.  I finally had to call customer service.  I explained what happened, and the guy reset my e-mail address on my account.  Then I had to reset my password, and I was finally able to sign in.

That may not seem like a big deal, but I had $65 built up in my savings catcher.  I know it's not a lot of money, but it's $65 more than I would have had if I didn't use the savings catcher.

More good news, I'd been having a lot of trouble with my Cable One internet dropping out.  Someone posted in one of our local Facebook groups that they are rebuilding the entire system.  While mine was causing so much trouble was when they were rebuilding this area.  I haven't had it drop since they got finished.  Yay!

Now I'm wondering what other sites I put the wrong info into.  Better go check them.

By the way, I have inspired one of my coworkers.  She was going to hire someone to paint her house, but she said, "If Becky can do it herself, then so can I."  She can save herself a few dollars that way.

I feel so proud.  

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.