Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Ummm...

I left hubby alone with a chainsaw and this is what I came home to: (yes, that is him making a rare appearane in a picture)And there it is being hauled away. It is now sitting by the barn. And we are going to plant a new tree there in the spring, James just hated the cedar tree so much he decided it needed to go.

We are looking into having it cut into rough planks because I really don't want to waste all that cedar. I say rough planks because this past weekend I found out that we have use of a planer and band saw! They're not ours, they actually belong to James brother, but they're brand new still in the boxes and we have full permission to use them! If we can get find some place to rough cut them then we can plane them ourselves and save a lot of money.

Quick update

I have successfully stripped for the first time! The mirror is finally done! Well, almost done. It still needs to be stained but the worst part is over and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I chose Minwax Red Mahogany stain which is a dark reddish stain like I had planned to use all along. And I'm hoping to get it stained this weekend. I would do it sooner but I have a huge test I have to study for and some cleaning that needs to be done before I can do it.

We've also been getting ready for winter since the temp has already dropped to freezing at night here. We removed the a/c unit from the bedroom and laid it to rest in the garage for the winter, and James put a new filter in the furnace last night because we finally had to start using it, and we put a heater in the laundry room to keep the pipes from freezing since the room is not insulated.

I found the material to make the curtains for the living room on clearance at WalMart for $1 a yard! It's actually pretty good material, but I wanted cheap because I know I'll have to make more before too long. One of the joys of having a lab that feels the window is his and anything covering it must be removed. Which is the reason why there are no curtains there right now...he tore them off the widow. Along with the curtain rod.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Termite Inspection and Dining Room Progress

We had our annual termite inspection yeasterday and it went well. No activity, sprayed for other bugs (spiders, crickets, ants, etc) and it was all under $100! When we were under the house last fall we found evidence of previous termite damage in one area. It wasn't anything really bad as far as termite damage goes, but we were curious as to how long ago it had happened so when I made the appointment I asked them. They had no idea and said that there was no record of it in the account history so it had to be before the account became active. So the next obvious question was...What year would that have been? 1946! Our house has had continuous termite inspections since 1946 with no record of activity and the person I talked to said that it was one of their oldest accounts! He also said that since there is no record that it had to have happened before 1946 so it's really nothing to worry about. That makes me feel better.

The dining room is still slowly coming along. A lot of ceiling tiles have been removed from the house and most of the nails are out. Bought patching plaster today to fill the nail holes so I'll be starting on that soon. Hopefully next week. Still have to wait for James to sand the glue off the wall before I can really do anything with that wall. New deadline to have it all done is Christmas since I have to work Thanksgiving Day.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Stupid Computer

I tried to make some changes on my layout and I'm not sure if it was a Blogger problem or computer problem, but some thing doesn't like me. See the way the page looks? It's not suppossed to be like that. The blogroll is supposed to be towards the bottom, and it's not complete...it only listed a few of the sites I entered. And I can't move it or delete it, so I'm going to have to figure out something to do about it. I really wanted to add the blogroll so I don't have to sit here and try to remember the names of all my favorite blogs while houseblogs.net is down. So expect more changes soon, because it's not going to look like this for long.

In house news it's something like baby steps. A little bit everyday, but not a whole lot at one time. Especially since I now have to rewash all the clothes that were in the laundry room. They have that nasty dead mouse smell so they're all getting a good dousing of Tide, Febreeze Laundry, and Clorox 2. And I finally decided on paint colors for the dining room. I think. For now anyway. Now I just have to find the time to get to Lowes and get the patching plaster so I can fix the 100's of nail holes in the walls and ceiling. But, I no longer have a Thankgiving deadline, it's now Christmas since I have to work Thanksgiving.