Prosthetically Hip

Is there any part of me that isn’t tired?

July 24, 2010 8:45pm

Right now, there may be something vibrant, but I don’t know what. Today has been quite the long day after an equally long week. I got up around 8 this morning, and have been non-stop until now working on and around the house. We’re hosting a going-away party for a friend and co-worker of Bea’s tomorrow, and nothing gets you into gear to get things done like having a party.

Bea’s been busy on and off with rollerderby things today, so I called in Jason as a trusty set of hands – in exchange he got some cash, a ticket to the derby game, a cold beer, a shower to save a trip back to Jefferson, and a handful of levels of Dr. Mario.

A list of, but not limited to, things accomplished today:

• Installed and painted missing board in fence
• Installed and painted an additional 6′ of fence
• Spread anti-mosquito pellets and sprayed insecticide on the jungle next door
• Finished installing baseboards
• Patched a hole up by the ceiling
• Cleaned! Organized!
• Re-installed lights on back porch
• Moved and did a prelim cleaning of the old clawfoot tub
• Installed on the wall old iron bars for a window as a pot rack
• Rounded up weeds
• Cut hole in a baseboard for the dryer vent
• Dog-escape-proofed the back fence (mostly for the neighbor’s small dogs)
• Cleaned the trim of the ceiling of the back porch (DIRTY!)
• Kicked ass
• Took names
• Drank beer (ongoing)

Bea took what should be an awesome picture of me balanced on the top of the fence spraying down the neighbor’s yard, but apparently didn’t send it to me to show you here. Maybe tomorrow.

There’s more cleanup/organizing/etc for tomorrow and some painting, but overall things are looking much better.

And the only thing I wanted to do today – to watch the new episode of Eureka (with Whil Wheaton) – didn’t happen and probably won’t. It’s ready to go, but Bea’d probably yell at me for it.

Organizzle Fo Shizzle

July 12, 2010 9:26pm

If there’s any one thing (and there’s not) that’s holding us back from that “done” feeling for the house, it’s the back room. The back room, by itself (~17′ x ~34′), is just about as big as Bea’s old house and more problematic. It’s been de-junked, gutted, there’s been leaks upon leaks, the flooring has been completely replaced, and at this point I’d say we’re coming to the final leg of the race. While we’re almost there, we are /so/ tired.

There are in my opinion two final hurdles, presented in the order that I think they should be completed. The first is the trim and baseboards. They need to be painted THEN installed (we went with high gloss paint – very thick and runny). The setback is that I just am not a fan of painting, and this process takes up a lot of room. I guess if I just set it up tomorrow, we can knock the painting out tomorrow night and install them Wednesday. Then comes the install, and I guess I’m just overly paranoid about cutting sections too short.

The second part is organizing. The back room is a mess, but compared to what we inherited, it’s a goddamn neatfreaks paradise.

A mere glimpse of what we inherited (you should click through the set):

 
Now (without picture prep tidying):

 
So, it would appear that Sears is having a pretty rad sale. I want to put in a workbench against the section of wall between the washer/dryer/sink and the bikes – supported by drawers/toolchests on the edges and a wall brace or two in the middle. Anyways, I got two sets. I was on the fence as to whether I should get a second 7 drawer, but I figured it’s the same as buying the 5 drawer at full price and getting the 7 for free, and we’d still probably put it to good use.

I can go pick them up tomorrow, so I reckon I’ll do that and just stick them somewhere else ’till they’re ready to go in. I’m really looking forward to not only getting my tools good and organized, but finding and filling in the gaps.

Hooray for organization.