Location, location, location

A few days ago when I walked out the front door and a robin fluttered up right in front of me, leaving a trail of sticks and garden scraps, I noticed he/she was building a nest. Right in my rose bush. Right outside my front door!! Not the quiet, peaceful place I would have chosen, though the rose bush is lovely. Today I peeked into the nest and saw she's laid eggs in there. We're going to have baby birdies right outside my door!

In the meantime, every time my housemate gets home from work, the robin flutters out of the nest practically into her face and makes her jump.



I'm just hoping this robin is smart enough to avoid the dogs in the backyard... they are much too quick, even for you winged creatures. For the sake of your babies, AVOID THE BACKYARD!

What have we learned today?

I don't know whether to count today as a minimal success or a complete failure. A few things I've learned:

-- Paint sprayers are finicky. They do make a beautiful, smooth coat of paint, but they are finicky and will randomly spit out paint in drops instead of that nice smooth spray finish. Grrr. Have a mini roller around to smooth them out before they dry.
-- Be careful about giving that extension cord a good tug to get enough room to go where you need to-- it may jump across and mark your freshly painted doors.
-- Though it was a nice idea to have shorter grass under the subfloor painting boards, it was actually a horribly idea on a windy-ish day. The wind keeps blowing grass flecks onto my newly painted doors. Grrr. Good thing this is just the primer which needs to be lightly sanded anyway.
-- A brief 10 minute rain shower can seriously rain on your parade. There they were, doors freshly painted, drying in the breeze... and then the clouds gathered and it started to sprinkle...ahhhh. I covered the doors with plastic which managed to be fine over the doors that had dried a bit, and totally made a mess with the doors that were still very freshly painted. Oh well. Again, this is just the primer and will need to be lightly sanded to remove 1. Cord marks 2. Paint drops 3. Grass flecks 4. plastic marks. So much for a forecast for a perfect day!

-- The project is much simpler when you lock the dogs inside as soon as the paint comes out (which I did because Suze kept dropping her ball in front of me, no matter what else I was doing, duh.)

To sum up... I have primed nearly all (meaning 4 are still drying and will be done in a few minutes) of both sides of all the doors in minimal time. The paint sprayer was both a great help and a great pain in the tush. Maybe someday when I'm a more experienced paint sprayer user, I'll have better luck (tomorrow perhaps?). I have learned a lot. I have apologized to the Almighty God for my discontent over that stinking rain shower. I am enjoying the day off in spite of all of that. And loving spring, most definitely loving spring.

The insanity continues...

I'm taking a couple days off work to regain a little sanity and ultimately to paint some cabinet doors (that have been waiting about six months!!!)

It is a gorgeous day, which means I can do the smelly and messy paint spraying outside. I've never used a paint sprayer and am a bit nervous about getting these doors right. I need to just take a deep breathe and plunge in.

Also, how on earth have my dogs killed two birds in two weeks??? These don't look like baby birds either. Is it just me, or do birds have WINGS and should really be able to escape two black dogs WITHOUT wings. Sigh. The massacre continues. I picked up that second bird, mowed half of the yard (so I've got a mowed surface and some old subfloor to paint on)... wish me luck. Stay tuned (or avoid this blog)-- I'm sure I'll be overdoing it on updates (and probably some whining too). In the meantime, I'm thrilled for a couple days off, the gorgeous weather, spring, and we shall see about this paint sprayer...

One last tiny thing

So... at midnight, as I was finally heading to bed the night of the fridge repair, I looked at the old motor sitting on the counter, and noticed a rubber gasket that appears to hold the fan blade in place (which I thought seemed a little wobbly in the new installation). Darn. I bet I was supposed to move that little rubber part to the new motor since it didn't come with one (this is why repair projects are better done before 11 pm). The next morning I came down, things seemed to be okay, but I was skeptical. When I got home from work, clearly the cold air wasn't circulating in the freezer and the fridge was too warm. Sigh. So I pulled it back apart, added the gasket, put it back together (a 20 minute project this time) and sure enough, the freezer is cold like it should be, the fridge is cool as it should be. No project is ever as simple as it should be... but still, the $50 part and not a new fridge. Still feeling good about that.

Maintenance Man Envy... again...

So a couple weeks ago the fridge started making this horribly loud squealing / screaming sound. Dang. It was in the middle of installing the floor, I just simply didn't have time to deal. So I went on repairclinic.com where I always figure out what is wrong with my appliances and figured out which part I needed... the evaporator fan. Hmmm. $50 and a few days later, the part arrived... and then sat on my counter for nearly two weeks, because the squealing had mysteriously stopped. I kept checking and things were cold... very cold in fact. Oddly the ice maker had stopped making ice cubes and instead made one huge ice dam in the freezer. Hmmm. Definitely time to replace the evaporator fan (which had apparently stopped working altogether).

Tonight was the night. I emptied the freezer, tossing some lost unidentifiable chunks from the far corners of the freezer, then unplugged it and headed out for a walk with the dogs and the homie. Lovely. Just lovely. Have I mentioned how much I love spring?

Back home again, the towels were soaked through and everything except that huge ice dam was pretty well defrosted. So we ate dinner. And waited. And changed towels and dumped pans of water. And waited some more. Finally, when it was 8:30 pm and I still couldn't even access the freezer because of that ice dam, I pulled out the hair dryer. And dried. and dried. and dried. and dried. It was a really big, really thick ice dam.

Finally I melted enough to remove the ice cube bin, enough to chunk off some additional pieces of ice, and eventually access the back panel. Six screws later, there was the fan motor to replace, I made the easy snap on connections, tested it (yay, fan spinning and not squealing) and reattached the back. So simple. Basically, once I could access the back panel, it was a 20 minute job. All the defrosting, and cleaning, and deicing... yeah, that took me the entire evening. Not to mention drying the floor (the towels upon towels that were necessary), moving the fridge, reloading all the food... sigh. It's done. We'll see in the morning if everything gets cold as it should- I am way to tired to sit here and babysit the fridge.

And yes, today was one of those days where I envy all of you with maintenance men... I could have used one today to be sure.

But optimistically, I bought a $50 part and not a $800 fridge. Could be worse. Though sometimes I think it is a curse to be handy (or to think you're handy).

A Friday edition of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

- Spring, glorious spring!

- Letters in the mail from my nephew

- I’m taking a few days off next week to work on painting those cabinet doors

- A new Godson on the way (pray for a smooth delivery and for all the adoption details to work out)

- Softball – doing a low key spring league of our own making, it’s awesome to be out and playing again

- Dreaming about Long Lake with my extended fam a lot lately- I can almost pretend it is coming right up!

- After being really spotty about exercising, I have an accountability buddy and so far I have exercised every day this week. Haven't started dropping sizes or anything, but I'm on the right track.

- Biking with the pups... we just love it. One of these days I'm going to make a video of the 5 minutes between me saying "Wanna go for a ride?" and actually hooking them to the bike and leaving. It's hilarious and involves a lot of jumping, howling with joy, prancing, singing, and howling some more.

The Bad:

- Trim: installing trim, cutting trim, miscutting trim, pretty much everything about trim

- The projects that never end

- The refrigerator that really needs a new evaporator fan (heck, I even have it sitting on my counter, uninstalled)

- No sense of accomplishments or marks of progress at work

- Brain turning to mush

- My mom has pneumonia -pray for a speedy recovery for her.

The Ugly:

- HAHAHAHA! I can’t say my kitchen floor anymore!!! HURRAY!

- The gardens… they really need weeding, renovation, repairs, and planting

- The dead bird in the yard that I forgot to clean up last night

- People looking up my home number to call me about work… really really ugly (just ask my housemate, who gets to hear my ranting every time it happens)

Answered Prayer

Sometimes I forget to acknowledge the many times and may ways God answers my prayers. It seems like He listens better when I pray for other people- leaving my prayers for myself or my own situation either unanswered or answered in ways I have a hard time seeing them. I am trying to be more aware of answered prayer and ways that God is working in my life and the lives of people I love every day.

This week:

- Friends sold their house!! Yay! They live a couple blocks over from me but need a bigger spot for their family. As you know, selling real estate in Michigan isn’t exactly easy right now. Every day as I drive out to work and pass their street and every night when I pass it to come home, I’ve been praying for them to sell the house. And look! God answers prayer! The house is sold! Hurray!

- Some friends who have been trying to adopt are getting very close to getting a new baby! The baby is due in a couple weeks and the details are all coming together. God is good!

- I have a great housemate who is fun to live with! After my last stressful housemate situation, where it became very clear, very fast, that though we were both good people with good intentions, we were a terrible fit for living together. I prayed hard for the right person, and things at home are good and peaceful and fun (which is especially a blessing when some other things in life are particularly difficult).

- I asked Jesus very specifically to close the door to a situation if it wasn’t what He wanted for me. And just a couple days later, the door went slamming shut. Of course, I was very disappointed and that wasn’t the answer I thought I wanted… but He gave me clarity and clearly closed the door for me.

See, God is faithful. And sometimes in the midst of His faithfulness, the answer is “no” and sometimes the answer is “not now” and sometimes the answer is unclear—but it doesn’t mean He isn’t listening. (Yes, this post is written for me.)

Overheard...

Overheard in the lobby today:
Lady 1: Oooh hi, I love your new haircut (to lady 2).
Lady 2: It's a lot shorter this time, too short I thought, but now it's growing in nicely.
They chat about where they get their hair cut and find it's at the same place.
Lady 1: I used to always get mine cut so it was shorter around the ears and the bangs and then longer in back. That was great, it was never in my way, or nothing. I loved that cut. Had it for years.
Lady 2: Isn't it great to find a cut that just works for you? Why did you change it?
Lady 1: Well, my son was getting married and he thought I should have one of them fancy up-do's which wasn't gonna work with how it was. So I grew it out for that.

Did you just hear what I did? Lady 1 recounting the joys of her mullet???? :) Awesome.

Dirt Therapy

After a rather disappointing Monday and a crummy Tuesday, Karen came over tonight and we split plants and got dirty. Sigh of contentment. Somehow I can work hard all day, and see no progress (especially in a job where there are no major landmarks, projects, marks of progress). Then I can come home, put on bum clothes, get out my magical shovel, and make things happen. Not to mention doing a project in the dirt with a good friend, I mean, I really don't think it gets better than that. My love languages are Quality Time and Acts of Service, but particularly Quality Time in the form of working on something together. Tonight hit the spot. We split and dug up plants from my yard, then headed to Karen's to plant, yay! I am blessed. Thanks Karen for taking time for the perfect evening for me anyway :)

Gross but victorious

I pulled apart the garbage disposal and was able to fix it. Interesting note: Garbage disposal smells like vomit-- particularly when it stopped working a couple days ago and has been holding gunk and gunky water. Gross. When I took the bucket of nasty water and rags away, I came back to find that Maggie had cleaned the gunk off the floor. More gross.

But the good news- it works! and the new outlet, that I originally was worried was not wired correctly, is working great- it was the jammed garbage disposal that was the problem. Whew.

Seriously annoyed

So a momentary rant about my current job...
I am the office administrator, I'm at work all week, answering calls and emails and certainly doing my best to serve the parish and the many parishioners. However, I am ready to scream at the number of calls I get on my home phone regarding work. Just because my phone number is findable does NOT mean I am happy to get work calls at home!! I am not available 24/7. I do not want to get calls from people who have just one more question they deem so important it is worth interrupting my weekend for... or do they even consider that at all? Are people that insensitive? Okay, the answer is yes, people are that insensitive. To give them a little consideration, people probably just don't think- it doesn't occur to them how insensitive and invasive it feels to have people randomly calling on the weekends... people probably assume that since I do go to Mass where I work that it will be just convenient to stop me in the lobby and ask me to email that form, or call that person, or blah blah blah. They don't think for one second that maybe I was just going to Mass, that I'd like 5 minutes peace, that I am not going to remember the 8th random thing someone asks me for on my way through the crowd of people to the door...

Nope, I'm pretty sure people don't realize. But I really wish I could help them get a clue... here it is, plain and simple: If you have a work question, call me at WORK! If I am home, I am not at work and do not want your work questions!!! Grrr.

One of my favorite quotes that seems very applicable: "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

Okay, I'm done ranting. Trying to take a deep breath and move on...

Saturday at the Homestead

Right. Let's just cross off the title, no actual Saturday at the homestead. I slept in some this morning- heavenly. Ran an errand or two. Made it home to check account balances and some online stuff. Then getting dressed and heading out to see Wicked with my sister, Grandma and two of my aunts. My mom should be going, but she's home in bed with pneumonia -- so I am happily taking her place and trying to not think about the fridge (needs a new evaporator fan), the garbage disposal (just this morning started smoking), and the trim that still is not installed. Sigh. Maybe tonight, after the show. Maybe...

Happy Saturday friends!

Done done done done

I hesitate to use the word "done" just yet, because there's always more to do (caulk the edges, add quarter round trim everywhere, put transitions between the other flooring in the doorways)... but... the floor itself is DONE!!! Yay! Tonight's helpers for that last little bit of floor included Karen, Emmet, Leslie and I.

I did the subflooring adjustments in the doorway to the living room and it only took another hour or two to finish the last bit of flooring and the landing. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP friends!! I am so happy.

Also, I slept in this morning (working on #1 goal- recover). Have made zero progress on the painting of the cabinet doors... sigh... maybe tomorrow. Today I only made one trip to Lowes to fix (correctly) the plug under the cabinet- I'd tried to use the wire Aco had available, not sure if it was going to work or not. It didn't. So I went to Lowes and funnily enough, when you use the correct wire, it works. So now the plug under the sink is new and safe. Yay, we won't discuss how long it took all told, or how many trips to hardware stores... Emmet recut the beadboard and he and Leslie installed the rest of if on the backsides of the cupboards. I got a cupboard door for $2 at the Habitat for Humanity Restore which I will paint and put in that opening there to use the wasted cupboard space- I think it will be the new home for the crockpot, waffle iron, and other seldom used appliances. Excellent. The beadboard just needs a coat of paint and trim around the edges and it will be set!


That's all for now folks. Tomorrow I'm really hoping to at least prep the doors for painting, drill holes for new hardware, and clean up the flooring mess from all over the house. We shall see... the end of break draws near (sadness). I need another week...

Day 4

Today is the day we worked all morning / afternoon and by late afternoon, it hardly looked like we got anywhere. Well, I made an Aco run. And then Emmet made an Aco / Tractor Supply run... and later I made a Lowes run... and finally another Aco run. Apparently it was a four-trip sort of day.

We decided to remove the rest of the wood paneling from the backside of the cabinets in order to install the white beadboard. And I want a door to access the wasted cabinet space next to the dishwasher and sink. Then we yanked out the disgusting under sink linoleum, and I decided to just get some of those stick on tiles to replace it.

Then I decided I really should replace that plug under the sink- it's installed in a stupid spot- directly under the piping and the metal outlet box and parts of the actual outlet are corroded and nasty- not to mention it isn't safe to be there- it should be a ground fault interrupting plug. Sigh. I should just do this right huh? So we pulled it out and I got the outlet and the new stick on tiles at Aco, but we couldn't get the outlet box until the Lowes trip. We also spent quite awhile at Brendan's house using his table saw to cut the beadboard. Em installed the tile and then had to leave... and I made that trip to Lowes to get the right electrical box. Then came home and second guessed myself again and decided to really do it right, so Leslie and I ran to Aco for the wire to move the outlet.

Nick arrived after work and we started in on the floor again! Orsi came by and shared her laminate flooring wisdom and helped with a few rows. Donal was the designated jigsaw man, and Leslie and Lindsey worked on installing beadboard.

We got nearly done with the floor- just another row in one area, two in another area, and a doorway to navigate. But I need to make some subfloor changes in the doorway first. Anyway, after we left off the flooring for the night, Donal and I moved the stove back- and Donal reconnected it in the back (not an easy job!). Then Donal left and Leslie and I moved the fridge back. Yayayayay!!


Here's how it looks so far:



I love it!! Love love love it. Thank you SOOOO much to all the helpers! Couldn't have done it without you!

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Emmet was over in the morning and we spent about 6 hours removing staples from the floor. Apparently whoever secured the subfloor to the older floor thought the more staples the better, and it took us forever to get all the staples out. Under the stove, I counted over 100 staples! (Seriously, where did they think this floor was going?) I ended up getting fencing pliers (a farmer's tool, in case you can't tell) which made the job go much faster for me (Emmet wasn't enough of a farmer to master the farmer's tool - he stuck with the pry bar, hammer, and pliers). Farmer's tool or no, I was glad to be finally done with all of those blasted staples (and now I have the farmer's fencing pliers next time I need to do any fencing).

Emmet also somehow got behind the stove, turned off the gas, and disconnected the stove so we could move that into the living room and out of the way for the new floor.

Nick, Jen, and Sarah and Donal came for dinner and post dinner flooring. We put down the underlayment and started on the laminate flooring.

Installing the laminate isn't a quick or simple task, especially when working around cabinets, stove piping, doorways, and more... but thanks to Nick's floor expertise (he put in a similar floor with his dad last year) and Donal and Leslie's expert cutting skillz, we did get a good start.

Tonight we'll go round two and hopefully run into less snags than we had last night. In the meantime, the part of the new floor that is in is AWESOME, love it! Can't wait for the rest to be done...

Floors upon floors

Day 2 - Woke up and left the house by 8:15 to get to Lowes for some magical linoleum removal tool. Found the tool and arrived home minutes after my brother Emmet showed up to help. We scraped more linoleum... the tool didn't really work so well, the floor was glued too much... But Emmet and I scraped for one...

two...



three hours...


We made some good progress before I had to jump in the shower and meet some friends for a late lunch. And Em had to go home and get ready for his real job. By the time I had a late and long lunch with some friends, and stopped for coffee, and made it home it was 5 pm. I did some putzy stuff and then the homie got home and we started the evening's tasks... As I was ripping out linoleum, and then started soaking the adhesive off (and realizing how awful scraping all the adhesive off was gonna be), I realized the edges of the subfloor were in really bad shape. Dang it. I then considered the floor is too high and maybe if I pull up the subfloor I'll find the plywood, which I can lay the laminate right on top of.

So I started ripping up the subfloor... and found more linoleum (which answers why the basement stairs look the way they do).


Naturally this complicated things... involved some google searching, a call to my dad, a call to Nick (to find out What Would Ralph Do - Nick's dad Ralph is a home improvement genius married to a very detail oriented woman- if Ralph does it, he does it right). The new plan: Rip up the subfloor and install the laminate over the old linoleum (Ralph did it!). So Leslie and I spent the evening ripping up subfloor... moving the refrigerator, and ripping up more floor. Sadly we didn't know how bad the subfloor was before all the linoleum removal, but I was glad we figured it out then and not later (once we'd finished all of the top layer of linoleum all the way).

The only real hitch was the stove- I think in order to shut off the gas, I have to stand on my head behind the stove to turn off the valve and disconnect it... and considering my vertigo, I don't think that's gonna work, I'm waiting for Emmet tomorrow. We'll move the stove and remove all those staples in the floor, clear some work space, and then Nick and Jen are coming to get me started on laying the laminate flooring tomorrow evening.

Easter Break

Day one of break is over... recovery was underway... I slept, I drank coffee, I sat down to eat lunch on the patio, it was an amazingly slow morning / early afternoon. And then I ran some errands, scoped out the habitat for humanity restore (but it didn't have what I wanted), went to Lowes and bought the new flooring for the kitchen, managed to fit it into my Honda Accord, and made it home exhausted. Had dinner, played some ball, gloried in the gorgeous spring...



And then (the music gets dramatic)... the homie and I started the kitchen floor removal. I was hoping against hope it would be simple- remove the quarter round trim and roll up the hideous floor. But it was not so... it went more like this:

1. Run to Aco to get pry bar while homie moves things off the floor. I love Aco. And that it is only a mile from my house.
2. Remove quarter round trim- fast and easy
3. 8 pm. Begin removing linoleum... learn that it is all glued, and by glued I mean well glued to the floor... Pour wine...


9 pm: third friend joined us. She was by far faster than both of us... and jumped right in to visit and help... (and refused to have photographs taken). Refill wine glasses. Continue chipping away horrid linoleum...

10 pm: Still going... pull out band-aids and apply to growing blisters. Crack jokes about this awesome floor. Keep chipping away...

11 pm: Quitting time. Still a little over half a floor to go... hmmm. Maybe I should revise my goals for the week... and schedule more recovery time...

But no worries, Maggie spent a lot of time licking the exposed adhesive clean. I'm sure that's a good sign... (Please God, let old linoleum shavings settle better than fresh wabbit did...)

Easter Break

So... after working over 80 hours last week with prep for a week off in the office, then all the Triduum set up, take down, liturgies, Living Stations of the Cross, etc., I get this week off (thank God!)

The Plan:
Naturally I have dozens of projects I want to tackle, but I am trying to limit myself so it's relatively achievable. I have three goals:

1. Recover
2. Paint the kitchen cabinet doors (and reinstall)
3. Replace the kitchen floor

Today has been recovery day. I slept in late (and the cold I started getting over the weekend seems to be clearing up as of a full night's sleep). Then I drank some coffee, checked email, facebook, chatted with an overseas friend, and finally got up to drink more coffee. Ate lunch on the patio sitting down and enjoying the beautiful spring day-- started contemplating yard projects that need to happen. Discarded thoughts of yard work and started my to do list for the week. And now it's 2:30 pm and I haven't accomplished anything except some recovery. And some researching cabinet spray painting techniques. And drinking some coffee. And just doing a lot of nothing- which is truly glorious after the last few weeks. Moving on to list making and trying to dig out floor measurements so I remember how much flooring to buy.

My plan is to run some errands this afternoon, pull out my paint supplies, and get ready for the actual painting... stay tuned...

Happy Spring! (again and again and again)

Eeek... the forsythia is blooming today... and the crocuses are pretty well done and the Chionodoxa (yes, I had to look up the name) are blooming. And the daffodils. And the hyacinths (note to self: plant more daffodils and hyacinths, you need more of them around). Happy Spring!!


And now before bed, I need to sew a couple sashes for tomorrow's Living Stations of the Cross.

Happy Triduum.

Guess what we did today?

Oh yeah! I pulled out the old bike and we took it for a spin!!! It was sooo great to be out in the warm weather (expecting mid-seventies this afternoon), having some time this morning (after working a lot this week and will be working around the clock all weekend). Anyway, great way to start a very busy day. Here's some of us, happy as can be after a nice fast two mile ride (and yes, I'm grinning the same way and drooling from the other side of the camera)...


Have I mentioned how much I LOVE spring???