At The Weekend

Good news!  Cody has gotten a full time job!  Wal-mart called him yesterday, and he goes in for his orientation Tuesday.  They will give him some sort of letter of intent to hire, and he can show that to the apartment people in order to secure a lease.  He says he'll be moving up there probably next week.  He says that two hour commute is killing him on gas money, so he wants to move as soon as possible.  So, yay for that. 

The bad news is, if things go the way he wants them to, he won't be here to take care of the dogs while I go to Fiber Fun In The 'Sip, so I'll still have to board them.  I'd even thought about changing my hotel reservation and staying until Sunday, but that's a no-go now.  The cost of boarding them would have more than paid for one more night in the hotel.  Now that they've cut back on the overtime, I don't want to have to pay for both.  From here on out, it's going to be tight for a while.

Unless the rumors are true.  Those rumors say we may go back to working a few weekends starting next month.

See, this new plant manager that came back in January was going to make some big changes.  They were going to rearrange everything and completely change our manufacturing processes.  But when a tornado hit the Marshalltown, Iowa plant last month, everything changed.  The costs of rebuilding that one has sucked up all the funding for our changes.  They're now saying, "Maybe next year."  In a way, I'm glad, because we will still be getting overtime for one more year.



So, what else is has been going on?  Mostly this.

I've gotten most of that old thick, gloppy paint off of the bricks.  Now, for the most part, I just have to clean up the little bits left over.   I'm wondering how clean it has to be before I can prime it.  I know all the loose bits have to be off, but how much will the primer cover otherwise?  I mean, are these bricks clean enough, or do I need to scrub all that paint off?

That is the question.  I don't think that small amount of paint will be a problem, but I've never tried to paint brick before, so I don't really know.  I may prime a small area and see.

I still have to get this part behind the heater.

Then, of course, clean up and strip the base.

That should be much easier, though, since the bricks are smooth.  That's been the hardest part of cleaning the other bricks, getting it out of all those little grooves.  Sometimes I wonder if that's why the previous owner had put such thick layers of paint on.  Were they trying to smooth out the grooves?  I don't know, but that's not how you do it.

When I do the complete remodel of this area, I want to replace those bricks completely.  I'm sure a contractor can find smooth brick that are gray in color.  It'll be the closest I can afford to a stone fireplace, which is what I've always wanted.

I finally pulled that hideous plastic slip cover off the sofa, and replaced it with a slightly less hideous fabric one.

Even though I no longer have a cat to pee on it, it still needs protection from dog hair.  Thus, the slipcover.  Funny how such a simple thing seems to brighten up the whole room. Oh, and I gave it with a good spraying with Febreeze before replacing the cover.

It needed it.

Trust me on this one.

Last but not least, I finished the first of my new dishcloths. 

The yarn is Peaches and Creme, and the color is Floral Bouquet.  Not that it matters.  All that color will fade after a few washings anyway.  Just one of the things I don't like about knitting with cotton.

But it does make the best washcloths.