this old house: black friday

progress made:    all that is left to do on these is regular general cleaning (and in the case of the day after thanksgiving in the kitchen?  yeah, lots of that.)

 

no progress made yet:

need to clear out the utility closet ditto the hall, including packing away the projects obscuring the hall tree (see the dehumidifier, now in the back of the house?:)

need to clear the painting spaceand clean up, including hanging this “new” curtain and prepare that window for the new a/c that’s to go under it

  yeah,  massive general cleaning needed on the living room, including fixing up the windows and rehanging the crochet panels.  right now it looks like i’m moving out!  also need to trash the television armoire and—drumroll—the storage closet, neither of whichare visible here.  once i get that done, there will be a lot more places to put stuff…

and, finally, need to clean out the study.  there’s a closet that needs to be trashed in here, too, plus a huge amount of shredding.  rearranging wires.  but mostly general cleaning. (not even thinking about culling the books and the (3!) book armoires, only one of which is visible here..)

 

ALL the floors need cleaning.  i got a sponge-on-a-stick at the dollar store, and some spic and span to pour on the kitchen floor, to get the most egregious stuff off so i won’t stick to it (too much.)  but there’s a big refurbish due in there, which includes grout,and adhesives and such.  (ditto the bathroom, which i didn’t picture because, at about 6X6, it’s actually too small to get a picture of!  so that won’t take so long.:)

so what i need to do in the next three weekends (which includes this one) is get the general cleaning done.  then on weekends in the new year i can start those little improvements i gave up on several years ago,  like trashing closets, and grouting countertops, etc. at least everything is visible now (except the insides of the mentioned closets, which can only be reduced.)  this project has been going on since June 2009 and i can’t believe i’m finally this close at last! (of course, blowing out the ac on that july 4th weekend put a BEEEg crimp in…)  then?  there’s always the outside…

ah, the dehumidifier is beeping.  that means, in the last 24 hours, it has sucked up 17 pints (more than two gallons) of water from moisture and general humidity.  i’m hoping it will get it all evened out sometime soon, so it won’t have to run all the time…gotta go dump it in the fountain!

exhausted woman is exhausted

wow.  ded.  but i got a lot done!  i got the fiber studio trashed out (including the contents of the armoire, which is now empty ready for—wait for it—fiber!) all the design and technique books are shelved in my own willy nilly fashion.  and i moved the dehumidifier in there where it should be as amazon has already shipped the new window ac for the front of the house and it should be here by the first!

that means i’ll have to get the patio area cleared off, roundup sprayed and etc.  by this weekend.  but i think i can do that as i’m doing so well!  I also got the linen closet cleared out and spaces made for the bedding and towels etc. and the perfume vitrine!

tomorrow is thanksgiving and i must cook the bird—can i do it without brining it this once?  please?  while it’s cooking, i can work on clearing up the kitchen and the utility closet in the hall and fix up the bathroom—shouldn’t be too bad.  then on Friday do the painting space and living room, leaving saturday for whatever i can get done to the study and sunday to die.

i need to go back to home depot and get a new sprayer nozzle for the sink hose. can’t do that until friday, and of course that’s Black Friday, so i’ll have to wait till saturday.  i also discovered that my electrolux vacuum is supposed to have a filter in it! who knew?  i can get one on ebay though, so that will be okay and i hope i haven’t garmed anything up using it without one—the little i’ve used it.  stupid brooklyn 1987 guy.  googling that, i discovered there are all these youtube videos of people with my vacuum, vacuuming their carpets.  weird.

the bedroom ac has been on 75:economy all day and it hasn’t really been running at all.  it’s 82 out there, but it’s pretty comfortable in here.  every 10 minutes it wakes up and checks to see it’s still not over 75 and then goes back to sleep.  great.  the dehumidifier, otoh, has been running all day and it’s 39% humidity out there.  i set it on 50% so it really must be sucking the moisture out of that room.  good!  it’s now in the older part of the house, of course, so i had to put a 3-prong to 2-prong adapter on it which means it’s not grounded, i think.  i don’t think that‘s good, but i don't know what i can do bout it.  my computer in the study is the same way, and the ac in the bedroom, but i have those running on surge protectors.   don’t know if that makes a difference or not; I’ll pick a couple more up for the fiber studio, though, just in case.

no pictures today.  batteries ded. on the camera, too.

all this time i’m also working a bit on the green sweater.  I have picked up the stitches on the first armhole steek elebenty times before i think i got it the way it should look.  so that’s a lot of knitting and ripping, knitting and ripping…

omg, i did it!

AIR!!!  and it really wasn’t hard, and it’s sturdy and it works!  and it cost under $200 and only about $45 a year to run!

  

I feel so accomplished, i’m encouraged to buy a bigger one for the front of the house while i can take advantage of all this free shipping.  I can do this!  the only problem will be lifting it as the bigger one is over 100 lbs, but maybe i can hire the guy next door or something, just to lift it into the window.  I can use the same idea using a tile-topped iron table that’s already sitting outside that window, and put it up on bricks.  hear me roar!

all i have to do on this one  is trim the insulation and repack it around the flanges, rehang the stained glass about an inch higher, and wash the windows.  another day.  right now i must send an email to michael and randy, I DID IT!!!  AIR!!!!

ETA: I found one that’s only 75 pounds on Amazon.  Still free shipping but it’s $200 cheaper than Best Buy (different model, more like the one i have in the bedroom now, only bigger, for 640 ‘sq.)  So i can’t pay it off in 18 months but instead must pony up now on my visa card.  Ulp.  but $200 is $200.  So i bit.  Should be here by weekend after next.  Enough time to get the place cleared out for it, hmmmm? :D

i’ve been such a good girl

i actually spent two days cleaning as i said i would!  now, of course, i want off, but i think perhaps i will be able to continue around noon or so?  just like yesterday.  here are the things i want/need to get done:

• trash studio*
• trash perfume vitrine and vanity drawer*
• trash hall closets*

1. redo linen closet
2. sort bedding storage
3. redo utility closet

• install bedroom a/c*
  1. buy cinderblocks and bricks
• trash and clean kitchen*

1. grout kitchen counter
2. deal with floor
3. wash curtains

• cook turkey!*
• blood tests*
• wash curtains*

1. bathroom panel
2. painting space panel
3. living room panels

• clean and patch up bathroom

1. regrout tub surround
2. tack wallpaper border

• trash study

1. clear out closet
2. reroute wires
3. shred!

• clear out hallway

1. pack up projects

• clean wood floors
• trash painting space

1. load up dresser
2. move dehumidifier to fiber studio
3. install a/c

• clean living room

1. rehang curtains*
2. get new aspidistra

• trash storage closet and reload

1. pack up glassware

• clear off porch
• clear off patio

1. ROUNDUP base of house

• service car
• baubles for shawls

 

realistically, not all of this has to be done this week*, but i would like to get as much done now as i can.  i just hope i don’t lose my momentum!

(but i feel it leaking out again, again:)

the best laid plans…

squeak.

i never seem to do what i say i will.  mais c’est la vie.  i spent all of day two in the bedroom again, clearing out drawers, washing down surfaces.  ah well, it certainly needed doing.   i have a whole shelf empty (except for gibbon) on the bottom of the bookcase, and drawers in the vanity and dresser cleared out.  i still have all this make up that i no longer wear, but it can just stay there and be picturesque awhile longer. 

so tomorrow i must tackle the ac question at home depot.  that’s going to take up nearly all my time, i think, so that puts me behind schedule. but who’s counting?  at least my little 100’sq french/english/creole/charleston antique-crammed sanctuary is clean again.

  the view from the door, below.the sheers are down; the green velvets (hello, scarlett?) will go up when the weather demands, but apparently not this week…

the new window ac will replace the fan-in-the-chair.

some twinkly lights need replacing.

the faux door, and you can’t see the empty bookcase shelf at the bottom.

i still need to weed out the perfume vitrine above the bookcase, i forgot about that.  i guess i did do what i said i would after all, just not as much as i’d thought i would.  but i am tired now and am resting atop the bed.

thanksgiving clearance: ten days to fix my world

 

yesterday, saturday (day one),  i did the first rough pass on clearing out the bedroom.  i still need to weed out the bookcase, dresser and vanity drawers, and more of the closet but, beyond cleaning off the surfaces and rapidly passing through each of these with trashbags, i need to move on now.

tomorrow, monday (day two)  i go to home depot to purchase cinderblocks and bricks for the bedroom ac, roundup for the base of the house, and sanded grout and tile adhesive for the sink countertop and bathroom surround. that means i must first make a goodwill run to make room for haulage.

and that means i must gather up as much as i can today from the back rooms to take there, and to put out with the trash tomorrow.

so that's today, sunday day two.

bonnie blue bonnet

this took one day and came out perfectly!

i took the  day off from the green sweater, which i’m loving, having belatedly gotten into elizabeth zimmermann.  (my fall socks, once known as punkintoes but now renamed,  are knit almost entirely on tuesdays and wednesdays, while i’m at school2.)

and when i got the ez books on 40%off at knitpicks, i also got a drop spindle dvd, hoping to be able to finally get that roving i have made up and then to continue in b’town.  only six. weeks. to go…:)

meanwhile…

i think i want  to purchase this as a kit, with enough extra yarn to lengthen it appropriately.

first fall sock!

the mate is on the needles (no frost is on the pumpkins…)

it be fall

at last.  i’ve been knitting a bit recently:

a felted needle case

and a little triangle scarf out of silk garden stash

still working on finishing the chemise sleeves and got some blue cascade 220  to make a scots bonnet, dedicated some other stash cascade to some hand knit hose, and plan on completing the finishing on the summer tweed jacket i put by two years ago.  should i make a witch hat?  naaaaah.  but i seem to be stuck on accessories and such.

 

in related news, i wanted to cast on some socks, but i can’t find my yarn!! i used to have it out but put it somewhere, apparently:(

THE END OF PHASE C!

summer is over, i go back to work tomorrow, and i have effectively finished the outlined phases: digging out the fiber studio (spring) the painting space (july) and now the study (august)! i have put all the like with like and have still to arrange and load up the things that need to be put away, but at least they're in their correct vicinities and not in boxes lining the hall and iiving room, etc. now what's left is that putting away and arranging of the smaller closets and shelves (in the studio, the 2 hall closets, and my bedroom clothes closet) over the next few weeks (and labor day weekend?)

and then, when the weather cools, the next phase: clearing out the big storage closets--in the study, and the big one in the living room--so i can use them to pack away the last big things that are just stuffed in there now. thanksgiving week?

summer finale saturday :(

i needed oven mitts

so i made these yesterday and finished felting them this afternoon. no more burny holes with the batting coming out!

and last for today: tile answers needed!

i need ideas for what to do about this:

somehow, while i was storing my school boxes in the dining room, a piece of blue construction paper must have fallen out right under the skylight, and then gotten covered up by more boxes.  at any rate, it transfer printed to my saltillo/terra cotta tile floor:

that's a better isolated image of it.  i need to figure out what to use to get it off.  actually, it seems a bit fainter now than it did a few days ago when i first revealed it; since it's right under the skylight, will the same force that transferred it there eventually  make it disappear, you think?--you know how fugitive blue is, which is how it got there in the first place.  i don't want pristine tiles-- they're saltillo, after all and when i first put them in i even was hoping for the stray chicken footprint/goat hoof, but no-- and i usually relish whatever marks happen, but this purple blotch is just too...

i'm making tipper's pie!

i couldn't resist. the foolproof recipe she posted this morning looked so good i ran right out and bought what i suspect will be the end of this year's special sale blues.


what made it look so good is the tiny number of ready ingredieents called for in relation to such bounteous blueberries!
(i cut down a tad on the butter and sugar, added my own special ingredient to the sugar and egg white on top:)
o dear, look at all those blueberries i have left over. what a shame!

and the winner is:

me! mmmm, i'm eating tipper's pie!:)

this is how far i've gotten

it's all plain knitting from here up.

ty-dy

picked up the yarn for this tiered skirt while in b'town.  started it and ripped it out twice, then lost a needle for a week, then got the yarn bowl and brought it on home.  it's also going to take a very long time.  and i need to finish the skirt i'm already working on first!

teensy

it's bigger now, about 6" or so long.  it's going to take awhile.

ain't no cure for the summertime do's

well, i was in north carolina for four whole weeks, during which time i taught fiber arts, had two weeks to myself, and then took a watercolor class! it was glorious, and it even took me four more days to meander on home, mostly because i couldn't quite face it.

but face it i did, and eventually even opened up my new projects on ravelry, about which more in a subsequent post. but this post is to document what i've gotten done on the house so far, and what needs to be done (below, in bold) in the next two weeks, before i go back to school :(

today i really got a prodigious amount done, though. first, i dropped off five more boxes of books at the radio station, which i had culled from their temporary stoage in the study yesterday. then i reshelved the ones remaining (willy nilly, but organizing the things in things is another phase entirely!) and cleared away most of the detritus in the study. so we're back to this now:

turns out it will be a fine place to paint during the summer, when it's just too hot to paint here:

which is the painting space i'd carved out of the dining room a week ago, and is still my main repository for painting, but which turns into an oven on summer afternoon/evenings for the very same reason it's an ideal painting space in other seasons: the skylight.  The study, on the other hand, is darkened as old florida houses always were, and  has this:

a really lovely ceiling fan, one of only two in the house, as i replaced the one i'd put in the bedroom with a chandelier when i thought it had burned out, only to discover that it actually worked when the man took it down, but i had already bought the chandelier. still, it's a very pretty chandelier, as is the unwired one i tied to the fixture in the fiber studio, so i'm not really thinking about re-retrofitting either.

Anyway, the study will be good for taking my watercolors into to work on when the painting space becomes unbearable, and now just needs some more squaring away, and a good cleaning (dust 1/4 inch thick!)  I also ordered a shredder to arrive sometime next week, so i can turn the two decades worth of receipts presently in the study closet into excelsior to pack all the knick-nacks in the house away with, about which more later, so I think i will also clear out the study closet in this phase, to give me more storage room in this phase (even though most closets are definitely next phase!)

Once i got the study culled, i had some boxes of stuff to take back to school:

(the middle box, with no lid, is crammed with art supplies to be taken to school, while the back two are tapestry and heavy quilts that take up too much room; the front one contains knick-nacks to be packed up)

and a bunch of art stuff to go back into the studio:

This has got to happen right away (tomorrow) as the spiffy fiber studio now has got junk in it again! but! there is plenty of shelf space and empty closet space in there, so i just have to get it all put away before the whole thing disappears again!


The other thing that needs to happen is to pack away all the knitting projects currently piled on the hall tree

 as well as those hanging my my bedroom closet or in the chest of drawers, into the empty green tubs in the studio, so i can have room to unpack summer

and hang up the clothes i'll need to get ready for school again. Then i'll just need to figure out how to mask the tons of linens and such that i want but have no idea what to do with

and that will be the end of this phase.

Oh, and i don't want to spend more than two hours per day doing all this, so i can have my last two weeks of studio time, of course! So that's my to-do list.

where i was in july

pictures of the new home of my heart are here. i plan to spend every spare and possible week here forever!