Thursday, April 26, 2007

Backyard

In New England this spring, the first half of April was colder than the first half of January. However, when the weather finally broke, it did so bigtime. With that, Mary and I went to work on the spring clean-up needed for her backyard.

I took some time out from those chores to take these pics.

Ahhhhhh....
First, we start with Meowfi (sp?), one of Mary's cats. This guy weighs over 30 pounds! You can't see his girth from this angle but it's there.

Here are some views from Mary's porch.

I'll end for now with two pics of a colorful hammock. First, the color.

Finally, the cashing-in...

Monday, April 9, 2007

Renovations 4


Well, M, here are some progress pics you requested. Please note: something is amiss with my digital camera. It's literally spotty—showing spots where none exist in my freshly painted bedroom.

This first pic shows the green blinds coordinated with my new comforter. I've studiously avoided the carpeting. Though it's nicely revitalized, it's part of what will eventually be gone.

Next, check out this before pic. It's a nasty water stain from a roof and outer wall leak (now repaired). And check out those blinds. Spartan, at best.









Fortunately, some primer and sealer patched it up perfectly. Check out the results.



Though it may not seem like much from these pics, the improvement, with just this much, is huge for me. I'm happy with it. And, of course, I'm just getting warmed up. :^)

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Renovations 3

I forgot to add that Mary helped me replace my ancient vertical blinds with homier tab-top blinds. They're a nice shade of green to compliment the new wall paint and my bed linens.

Things are moving along nicely. Next target—clearing the bedroom closets and scrubbing the ceiling and the walls before applying primer to them. I may stop at the primer/sealer. It's not like I'll be seeing the closet walls all the time.

Renovations 2

Though I'll be replacing my carpeting with laminate flooring, I agreed with Mary to rent a Rug Doctor (RD). It'll be a while before I can arrange all the details for the big change. In the meantime, her assumption was that a lot of dirt would have built up in the carpet in spite of my vacuuming.

Sure enough, the RD sucked up loads of dirt! As I poured each bucket down the drain, my conviction to switch to laminate flooring deepened all the more.

Apart from that, I'm now a convert to the effectiveness of tools like the RD when the choice is made to keep a carpet.

If you haven't used this yet, be prepared to be at this for a while. Unlike vacuuming a carpet with a normal dry vacuum, this one requires you to pull it backwards...slowly. Then, you roll it forward (in neutral) to start a new row of cleaning.

Also, be prepared to stop often to empty the basin into which the dirt from the carpet has been dumped. It washed down the bathtub drain with no problem.

The payoff is worth it—a revitalized carpet! Plus, check out this price—a little over $20! Gosh, I feel a little emotional right now. Capitalism at its finest. I'm a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The peanut is neither a pea nor a nut. Discuss.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Renovations

Condo renovations are underway! Mary recommended before and after pics but I chose not to. I'll just post some nice pics toward the end.

We've started with my bedroom. The most dramatic change, as far as painting, is already done. I didn't realize how much it needed a paint job until everything was out of the room. Then, when I saw the contrast of the white primer against the old paint, especially the area above the heater...yikes!

But, I'm a little ahead of myself. The stumbling block had been the damned, late 80s popcorn ceiling. Usually, the stuff is difficult to remove. Fortunately, we found that the crud was so old and brittle, it just scraped right off with a putty knife. Nice.

So, we cleared the bedroom ceiling of the mess, applied primer and then the fresh coat of paint.

Check this out—the paint started off as a light shade of purple and then, as it dried, changed to white! Purpose: Make it simple to see where you left off. How cool is that!?

For the walls, I chose a very light shade of green. Without anything in the room, it looks like a light yellow. I'm not describing this well. I'll get some pics posted later. For now, suffice to say that the color struck me as having the quality of a chameleon, blending in well with a wide range of color.

Mary is both my muse and my cattle prod for this project. She's a welcome force!

Next, the carpet will be replaced with laminate flooring. Among other factors and Mary's reasoning, this site influenced my thinking. I'll use area rugs as needed.

As part of that, I'm gutting my closets, rethinking everything, even wardrobe.

Long story short, the redesign of my bedroom is serving as a model for the rest of my home.

Change is good!