Open It!

Sometimes, the little things in life make such a difference. In this case, I am referring to a gadget named "Open It!".

I bought it last Christmas for about $10 at Home Depot. The purpose for which I bought it was to make it easier to open goodies sealed in tough plastic covers. Too often, those damned things are a bear to break open. This handy tool does a great job of slicing through them much more effectively than normal scissors.

Well, this week, I've been wrestling with installing stick and peel tiles in my closet. The stick and peel part was easy. The hard part was lining them up neatly and, toughest of all, cutting them to fit well around a large water heater.

Yup, you guessed it, Open It! was a perfect tool for this job. Wherever I had to do precision cutting of this heavy, sturdy plastic tile, Open It! was a hero. I especially appreciated it when I had to cut a slight curve. Try doing that with a straight edged cutting knife (and as safely as Open It! does).

This ends our commitment to our sponsor. Now, we return you to your regularly scheduled program. ;^)

Love seat & chair

The two final pieces of my new living room furniture arrived today. It blends in perfectly with the color scheme Mary recommended.

My neighbors' playful envy made the delivery fun. They were trying to leave when the furniture truck arrived, blocking their path. Since there were only two pieces to deliver, they waited. While they waited, they ooh'ed and ahh'ed the love seat and said playful stuff like "You shouldn't have gone to such lengths to buy us Christmas presents! Hey, why are they bringing that stuff into your place? Our condo is over here!"

Covet away, good neighbor. Just keep yer paws off! ;^)

Of course, I called Mary right away, not only to tell her how happy I was about how it all looked together but to call her a genius. Her excellent judgment hit another homerun.

Pacifica Space Saver

I spotted this little number at Bed, Bath, and Beyond while shopping for other bathroom items. Now, as you can see, it's part of my new bathroom. To the right, you can see my new brushed nickel towel holders. All at affordable prices, thanks to the many genuine virtues of capitalism. Life is so very good.

Bathroom Upgrade

Well, at long last, I've finally found some time to report on major changes to my condo's bathroom. I opted not to collect before pics. It's sufficient that those who have seen it will appreciate the contrast.

Reminder: Click a pic to see it enlarged.

Vanity First, check out this vanity. It's 36 inches wide vs. the old one's 24. For my taste, I had too much space on either side. I wanted to fill it with something attractive as well as gain drawers (none in the older one) and ample storage space to reduce counter clutter. This pic also gives you the first view of my new wallpaper. I really like this pattern. I like how it catches the light as well as blending in with the other light colors of the room.

Sink This pic is a closer look at the granite sink. It was on sale at Home Depot. It's quite a contrast to the cheap vinyl top of my previous counter top.

Wallpaper This pic shows a corner of the bathroom to highlight the new wallpaper. However, looking at it now, I realize it needs something there to set it off well. The shopping continues!

Shower This final pic is, of course, of my shower stall. Check out the tile about it. That space right under the shower nozzle was previously occupied by peeling, thin wallpaper. How the previous owner/builder thought it prudent to place wallpaper (not even wallpaper suitable to a heavy water area) directly underneath a shower nozzle escapes me. Worse, the wallpaper was affixed without first priming the drywall. Now, as you can see, tile adorns the area above the shower. Sensible and pleasing to the eye, at least to my eye. This angle also shows the kind of look Mary and I were going for in our selections—wallpaper, tile, and tub juxtaposed. The new shower nozzle and its extension have been a welcome treat. Missing here is a pic of the new nickle plated light fixture and the new towel rods. We're not done with those yet. More to follow. I can't end without thanking Mary effusively for her relentless help in every detail, including installing the wallpaper. Productivity is a major Objectivist virtue. Mary owns that virtue in spades!

Into the closet!

Before

After

Once again, Mary guided me to a nice home change. In this case, you can see the difference above—from a one dimensional board/clothes rack to a layered arrangement with a simple, affordable purchase from Lowe's.

The hard part was working in the closet's tight space, scraping the ancient popcorn nonsense off the ceiling and then finishing the painting.

With this effort completed, the bedroom is ready for the next big step—what to do with the floor. While I was keen on a laminate floor, I'm now leaning toward something like a Berber carpet for resale purposes. Still thinking about it. Stay tuned.

Buffalo burgers, splitting logs, bubbles, and more

Except for chilly evenings, the New England weather this weekend was perfect. So, outdoor activities were the order of the day.

As always, I enjoyed helping Mary with her lovely yard. Since it slopes down a slight grade, it gave me a good aerobic workout while I hauled mulch down to the back where her huge stretch of wisteria plants grow. I look forward to seeing them bloom.

Later, I had my first experience with splitting small logs. While I had heard of the simple wedge often used for this, I was not familiar with the 4-sided wedge. They funneled down into a common, blunt point, making it easy to pound it into a log with a sledgehammer. The idea is simple—just tap it into place and hammer away.

Of course, it's not just mindless action. You should be mindful of your surroundings, careful not to hurt yourself or anyone (or anything like the family cat) wandering nearby. Also, getting accurate control of a 5 pound sledghammer takes a little practice.

I ended my introduction to log splitting with a perfect strike. As the two halves of the log fell to the ground, the wedge wound up stuck like a spike into the large stump I was using as a work surface. That was cool.

At Sunday dinner, Mary and her son introduced me to buffalo burgers. They were delicious. Mary says they're better to eat because they're less fatty. Fine by me; I just enjoy how they taste.

When the wind is gentle enough, I like to break out a little toy that shoots soap bubbles by the dozens. It's a fun diversion (and pretty much all I can handle after wearing myself out with yard work).

Mary showed me one of the Durham attractions—Mica Ledges. I forgot to bring her wonderful camera. So, this pic will have to do for now. The view is much better than this pic. Mary's home is somewhere off to the pic's right.

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...

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. :^)

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.

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!