to plumb or not to plumb

THAT is the question i've been asking myself since i moved in. i finally decided "to plumb" was the answer. Monday night after work i got started right away on taking out the old wall sink that i hated from the moment i first looked at the house. not only was it ugly, it wasn't even level! because this was the first time i'd done anything like it, the whole project ended up taking three hours and two trips to the hardware store. but now i know how to do it and what to measure for the next time i ever decide to take on such a project. AND i'm proud of myself for having done it all on my own. and yes, in case you're wondering, it works wonderfully and no, it doesn't leak at all. :-)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

that's a glass sink sitting on a granite top, sitting on top of an espresso finish cabinet with one door that now opens to reveal the plumbing instead of the various items of personal hygiene i originally envisioned. the faucet is glass and brushed nickel and is called a waterfall faucet. it's cool. my grandmother may not like it, but i think it's cool and different and even a bit classy.

see the wall behind it? that's what the wall sink left behind for me to clean up/fix later. now that i know how to disconnect the plumbing, i can do that whenever i get ready to fix the drywall. considering the bathroom has several things i don't like about it regarding the walls, the whole thing will probably become a weekend project with me brushing my teeth in the kitchen, but that's ok. it'll be totally worth it in the end.

sweet little Harriet

is it a dog, a cat, or a baby??? seriously, sometimes i think this dog of mine is really a cat or a baby. look at her sleeping on the couch! she climbed up to the top of the cushion, but fell through a little. i guess she decided it was comfy enough, so she went to sleep. but as she slept, she fell through more and more until finally she was sleeping upside down! :-) she's a bugger to get to go to sleep sometimes, but once she does you can move her in any direction and she won't care. just like a baby!




and then there are the times when she decides she'll crawl all over you, no matter where her strong little paws land. she climbs up and over everything and jumps higher than i've ever seen any dog jump. she never moves away from your feet when you're walking. if anything she's right under foot and you better be aware of her otherwise YELP! and she even does that rubbing past your leg thing that cats do. i've even seen her stalk Ozzy, then take off running to pounce him to the ground in playfulness. and you should see her run! oh my goodness, just like a little greyhound or something. she's so fast! the other day the dogs got to running in the yard after each other. Harriet was making big circles, Ozzy running smaller ones, both running fast and furious and barking all the way. it was SUPER cute!

but what a little sweetheart she can be. she hugs your leg with her little "hands" and then looks at you with those little eyes. and she knows to get a treat she has to sit down, so as soon as ANY bag opens, her little butt hits the ground whether a treat is in store or not.

anyway.... it's been fun so far getting to know little Harriet. she has her issues, like possession aggression, or stealing, or running away. but still, she's a joy to have around, and i think Ozzy likes her enough. he's got company during the day now and is getting a little more exercise in the process. :-)

ramblings by Jenny

life continues here in Brenham. mom and i tore out the rest of the paneling in the front bedroom to reveal the extent of the termite damage. UGH! it's not pretty. pictures can't even capture the ugliness, but i'll post some later so you can sympathize with me. :-) saturday we moved my bedroom items to the other room so work can begin on fixing the front room. the plan is to drywall it, but the wood to which it would get nailed is pretty bad, so some of that might need to be replaced first. needless to say, it's a real mess, but i have some very nice manly friends from church who are going to come over on wednesday to help with that.

work continues on rotten windows, the garage, and laundry room. my part being nail hole filling, priming, painting, and hanging shelves. oh, i built a table, too, which sits between the washer and dryer to fold & sort clothes on. when i remember to take a picture of it, i'll post it. so many things!

the dogs are doing fine. Harriet got spayed and got both her rabies and city tags. she's feeling better and jingling all around. at night i take their collars off because when they move, the jingling wakes me up, and since i'm awake enough as it is, i don't need the extra help. this morning when i got out of the shower i could hear jingling. usually that's fine, but in this case not so much because i hadn't put their collars back on them yet. which means Harriet has at least one collar in her mouth. great. so i call her to come into the bathroom, which she does. when i finally made it to the bedroom, i found both collars in her bed. oh Harriet! in putting hers around her neck, i noticed part of the plastic of the clasp had been chewed off. *sigh* it still closed, but it'll need to be replaced far sooner than i had anticipated. oh well. next time the collars go UP to safety. darn puppy!

work is work. boring, but a job. the economy being what it is doesn't help the industry excel in sales. i think a lot of businesses are hurting. nothing is being talked about, at least not around me, but hopefully sales aren't TOO down. the Christmas party is coming up, which if you know me i'm super excited about (not!). nonetheless, i have a job, and i'm thankful.

in case you haven't noticed, Christmas is coming early this year. i think it'll be taking place this month instead of next. seriously! ok, if it's still in December, then WHY in the WORLD have all the stores already put their stock out by the middle of OCTOBER??? absolutely ridiculous! i tell you what, if i wasn't already a bah-humbug kinda gal, having Christmas in October would make me one! why should i even put a tree up at my house? all i have to do is go to ANY store every couple of days, and get my fill of decorations there! dragging that stuff out at home only to have to put it away a month later, please! why even bother? i wonder when the music is going to start this year? i'm so glad i've grown out of the stage of HAVING to have music on in the car or at home. Jingle Bells and Silent Night are going to drive me nuts this year. i can already tell. (for the record, i actually LIKE Christmas, i just don't like the MATERIALISM of Christmas.)

and what is with the gas prices??? one station here in town has it for $1.99 if you use a Valero card. wow! what a RELIEF, don't get me wrong! but man, why all of a sudden? because no one has any money left in their retirement funds? so now the fuel people feel sorry for us and are lowering the prices to a REASONABLE amount that people can HOPEFULLY afford? i don't know. i don't get why, i just hope it continues to decrease. we can use all the help we can get.

and now for the touchy subject, the election. though i voted for McCain, i strongly believe Obama will win and i'm ok with it. the more this country continues to stray away from the godly foundation it was built on, the sooner the end of the world will come. and like it or not, i'm ready. i'm so ready for our time on this earth to be over. i wait with eager anticipation and a blessed hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. hurry and remove us from this yucky cursed place and take us to our eternal home of perfection!!!

modern conveniences

i really do tend to take a lot of things for granted. one of which is doing laundry in the confines of a clean, indoors area. call me spoiled, that's ok. but i like what i like. :-)

when i decided to buy this house, the thought of doing laundry in my garage with my new washer & dryer sitting on blocks of wood to be level and me standing with bugs and dirt at my feet was immediately tossed out of my mind as i began imagining and planning the addition of two walls and a door to make an actual laundry room. that was over a month ago.

finally, my vision has been fulfilled...

from this:

to this:

to this:


between the washer and dryer is a nicely painted window frame (no longer yellow!) and a long space to put a shelf so i can sort and fold my clothes on it. above the washer i'll put a cabinet for the detergent and other cleaning necessities, and maybe another cabinet over the dryer with a rod below it for hanging stuff up. on the long wall opposite the appliances i'll probably hang up my broom and mop and other items of that nature. the floor is now level and tiled nicely, there's a new window that actually opens, and there's a light fixture on the ceiling. it's wonderful to have modern conveniences, and it's even better to be able to use them comfortably.

awww....

last night when i went to bed, this is what i found. this is Ozzy's bed, mind you. but Harriet has curled up to sleep there, too.



when the camera flashed, she looked up to see what was going on. who could resist this sweet little face?!


but where IS Ozzy? oh, THERE he is! under his blanket, of course. "if only this other dog would be still, i could get some sleep!"



and there she found comfort and peace, and off to dreamland we went.



but this morning it was back to playing. it sounds ferocious, but looks so loving...

it's hard to tell from the angle, but they really are the same size, only she's just got longer legs and so can move a lot faster. little Ozzy has been really patient with her, despite the fact he can't get away from her. :-) i think they're going to get along just fine.

the new and improved, and yet to be finished

here's what the windows and frame looks like today, after two full days of work. new, solid, beautiful wood, inside and out. still needs to be trimmed out, and eventually painted, but at least it's all secure and SOLID. :-)

looks can be deceiving

VERY deceiving, in fact. this is what my window looked like after the new ones got put in. looks fine, right? ah, but wait...




in the process of putting the new windows in, the guy finds some rotted wood. so my guys come along saturday and take out the new window, as well as all the wood around it.


and found this...








and this...



these lovely pieces of wood got trashed. yes, they were holding my house together, and my windows in, and shielding me from the outside world. yes, people, this very wood...

Ozzy & Harriet

when i was a kid the Disney channel was good. they played the old Mickey Mouse cartoons, the classic movies, and reruns of family-friendly shows like Ozzie & Harriet. and me being me, the avid TV watcher that i am, tuned in to see these reruns, enjoying every minute of the Nelson family antics.

when i bought my first dog i knew i'd get him a playmate eventually. and because of that, wouldn't it be fun to have corresponding names? so it should come as no surprise (to some) that i named him Ozzy. however, because of The Osbornes being so popular at the time, everyone i told his name to thought i named him after Ozzy Osborne. when it's written i guess it could be confusing, because i didn't like the way Ozzie Nelson spelled his name. i have a Y in my name so i liked it better as Ozzy.

and now, the rest of the story...

this little dog needed a home. she was a stray found by girl who had two dogs and a young baby of her own, so she brought her to the country home of an older couple. the sweet little dog kept running to the neighbors for attention, because they would let her sit on their laps on the porch and feed her treats. not that the older couple was mean to her, mind you. they were loving parents, too, but they didn't want an inside dog and don't have the energy for such a springy pup.

since i bought this house and since we put Dweezil down, Ozzy has been feeling lonely and disoriented. the subject of dogs came up at church and the lap-providing neighbors asked if i was looking for a dog. a few weeks later i went to meet this little sweetheart of fur. she immediately rolled over for a belly rub and that was that.

hence, meet Ozzy & Harriet. :-)

Harriet moves fast, so i haven't been able to get any good pictures of her sweet face yet.

steps to completion

meet Toby the cat. Toby was left by the previous owner who didn't think of him when she was preparing to move. for the first couple of weeks i was to try to catch the cat and call her to pick him up. but since i didn't even live there, that made it quite difficult. then i move in and a few days later, MEOW ... he shows up. hungry. and willing to eat dog food. for several days he would come home around 9-ish at night, meowing fiercely for food. i gave him dog food, because afterall, that's what i actually own. he ate and rubbed all over me and was thrilled to have ANY owner. now he has cat food in his belly and finds safety on the front step, not minding the dog only inches from him. Ozzy, on the other hand, is quite uncomfortable. i was making him sit still for the picture. notice his tail is tucked so much he's actually sitting on it. *L* poor Ozzy. i think deep down he WANTS to like Toby, but for some reason he's gun shy. i'm hoping he'll get over it. of course, keeping Toby around the house during the day to actually keep Ozzy company is a whole other story, or should i say an act of Congress. i guess Toby actually likes roaming during the day.





this is the laundry room, after Juan and friends taped and mudded.


and this is the laundry room after i textured and painted it.


check out the close up of the texture. they make this stuff that you actually mix with paint and roll it on. so that's what i did. the entire room could still use another coat of just paint, but i think it looks darn good for my first time at any kind of texture attempt.



this week is dedicated to flooring in that little room. i bought some tile and have a guy working on it in the evenings. so, i'm REALLY hoping that maybe as soon as next weekend i'll actually get to wash clothes in my very own washer and dryer in my new laundry room. :-)

windows and tree pictures are still to come.


meanwhile, i pulled off some more paneling in my bedroom to find some pretty bad and scary looking wood. but i'm thankful i didn't find any live termites continuing to eat it. i stopped at about three feet in either direction from the hole i made previously, so i'm just hoping i don't find bugs or even worse damage beyond that. my family still thinks i got duped and need to take some kind of legal action. i guess i'll have a consulation with a lawyer to see what action should be taken. my pessimism tends to lean toward the side of, "i bought what i paid for." *sigh*

farewell old tree

i finally found some new bedding i liked for my bed this past weekend.

and here, finally, is the termite hole. the top layer of the paneling peels off real easy, which is why it's peeled from top to bottom. the actual panel of wood takes a little more effort, which is where the hole is. when we found termites, we stopped pulling. you can kinda see in this picture the termite damage in the actual wood that makes up my house. thankfully since termites don't like light, they aren't crawling around for me to see on the surface, otherwise i don't think i could be living there right now. the hole already freaks me out a bit, but if there were visual bugs to go with it, forget about it!

the new windows are supposed to be installed today. i'm very excited about that! also, a big change happening yesterday and today is that i'm losing a bunch of trees. apparently the big tree in the front yard is rotted and needed to be taken down. and then the trees in the back yard need to be trimmed and cleaned up and some of them even removed along the back fence which are leaning and damaging the fence. so yesterday after work i pull up to my house to find my entire front yard full of tree limbs - probably 80% of that tree is now on the ground. in the back, about 1/3 of the yard is full of tree limbs from those trees. what a mess! but it'll be so much better when it's all done. though the front of the house will look strange w/o a tree, that's for sure. when it's all done i'll post before and after pictures.

the latest saga of my life

there's an actual wall there now. looks kinda weird, because it's a wall, and it wasn't there before, and now you can't see the window on the other side. funny how i got used to seeing the garage as it was even though i hardly spent any time there before the wall came. but i heard once that it only takes two weeks to make something a habit. it might look weird right now, but give it two weeks and it'll look original.

this weekend was a process, as usual. seems like i always make more work for myself. Mom says i'm like Tim Allen on the show Home Improvement. all i can say to that is, "that's probably true, but at least i haven't blown anything up yet." anyway, i decided it was time to accessorize the kitchen. all of the bottom doors and drawers didn't have any hardware, nor holes for the hardware. the upper doors did, but they were ugly (in my opinion). since the uppers already had handles, i decided to replace the handles with handles. but i really like knobs, too, so i decided all the bottom stuff could have knobs.

here's the before....

and after...

i decided the fake drawers at the sink looked neglected, so i added knobs there too. but ultimately, as i do with nearly everything, i thought about it further and decided maybe i should have put handles on the drawers and knobs on the upper doors. *sigh* i always over think everything to the point of not liking it. so now i'm looking at my kitchen liking it, but thinking i could like it a lot better. but to like it better would cause me a TON of more work.

as it turned out, my entire weekend was spent working on one WEE kitchen. and all i'd planned to do was add knobs and handles. no big deal. but the doors aren't hung evenly. and they don't close all the way. so after i spent a couple of hours adding the knobs and handles i tackled the hinge issue. and THAT is what took up the rest of my weekend.

i thought maybe it was the hinge's fault as to why the door won't close all the way. so i took the hinge off. but first i had to scrape the paint off the screws. then i got the hinge off the door and decided that the unevenness would be fixed by moving the hinge location up a little bit. ok. great idea, but it didn't work. well it did, for the unevenness, but ended up making the closing even worse. doubly worse!

i worked and worked at it, never making it better. *sigh* maybe it's the hinge. maybe the hinge is too old. or not the right kind. so off to the store i go to buy a new hinge. but now that i have the door off the cabinet and the hinge off, i might as well scrape the paint off since the paint is already ruined from the previous handle so i can repaint it and make it look new to match the new handle. went to the store and bought all the necessary supplies, came home, put the stripper on the door, opened the hinge package, looked at it up against another hanging door and decided it's not the right kind. it's flush and i need inset. i think.

it's now about 8 p.m. on saturday night, i'm in the garage scraping paint off ONE cabinet door. good grief. i got the white paint off one side of the door, but the brown paint underneath is being stubborn. after two attempts i finally decide i've had enough of this project for the day and go to bed.

the next day i took back the flush hinge and bought an inset one. i sanded the one side of the door and hung it up with the new hinge. it's ugly, but the hinges look good. :-) and, even better, it closes!!! but of course, this is ME we're talking about. the new old unpainted door with new black hinges and handle hanges beautifully and even with the other door, but it overlaps the other door, by about half an inch. well, that's because of the different hinge. solution? take the other door's hinges off and put new ones on it too, making it move to the right half an inch and all will be well with my kitchen world.

except both doors will have hinge holes on the outside that will need to be filled, the other door will need to be scraped and repainted, and the same thing will need to be done with ALL the OTHER doors. there are 10 of them, mind you. and now there are 9 matching and one oddball. of course. plus there are 8 doors on the bottom that don't match any on the top at all because they're newer and are thicker and have hidden hinges.... *sigh*

such is my life ... this from a woman who likes consistency, things that match. i think i'll scrap the entire thing and just buy new doors, ones that match the bottom ones. of course, i still have to decide if i want knobs or handles. ugh!

my little sweet pea

Dweezil Mills
April 1992 - September 2008

Dweezil lived a good life, full of barking, kissing, camping, digging, and running. he wasn't much of a player, but loved to chew. he ate beef and ice cream with much anticipation, but wouldn't go near a carrot or grape. he put up with annoying younger dogs who came to visit and even started learning how to play at the very end.

but ultimately, his little legs just wouldn't carry him much anymore. though nearly blind and very deaf, his love never failed. he still welcomed us home with happiness each day.

he was preceeded in death by his human father, Bobby. he is survived by his primary human mother, Oma; his other human mother, Jenny; his furry companion and playmate Ozzy; and many other dear human family members.

Dweezil, little sweet pea, bubba, little man, The Dweez ...... you will be missed greatly, remembered fondly, and loved dearly for as long as we live. thank you for being with us.

garage progress

a frame exists. awesome! i doubt very seriously that i'll be washing anything inside that little room by next weekend, but that's ok .... i guess. i will eventually, and that's really all that matters. this is one giant step for my little house and i will rejoice, even if it's still a couple of weeks from being finished. :-)

maybe next week i'll show you the termite hole. it's amazing to me that i keep forgetting to take a picture of the one thing that has caused me much frustration. can we say denial? hm, maybe.

the prettiness of my house

my house is so small that it's hard to capture it in pictures and do it justice. seriously. it looks a lot better in person, so i guess you'll just have to come visit me and see for yourself. nonetheless, here's the living room, dining room, and kitchen. the rest of the house is just not photogenic.

pictures

here's a basic view of the garage, a.k.a future utility room. see the window? the washer and dryer sits on either side of it. where the step up is will be a wall. you'll see, eventually. the guys are framing it today, so i'll get a picture up soon.

this is a view of the dining room. notice the trim scuffs. i really shoulda noticed those. thankfully a little paint goes a long way.

the bathroom door. again, a little paint goes a long way. apparently this room used to be baby blue. ugh!


Here is an example of nearly ALL my baseboards. some actually have shoe moulding, but even with that they look beat up and neglected.

Notice the napkin stuck in the corner of my kitchen window... yes, that's filling a hole in the glass. no, i didn't put it there. and no, i didn't notice it until after i got the keys to the house. i'm tellin ya, you'll never see all the little things during walk-throughs. just ain't gonna happen, unfortunately.

this is my bedroom as it stands now. i'd like to replace the bedding, but i haven't found anything i like yet. the headboard is sitting in the other bedroom for now, because i figure the bed will be moving around when we start working in here. this is where the termite hole is (still no picture of that), so i'll be tearing out the paneling as soon as possible. i'm also missing nightstands, but at least i know where they are! (storage, of course!)