PAYDAY!

Hot Dog, I have money in the bank again!!! My first act of fiscal irresponsibility was to purchase curtains from Urban Outfitters. I've been eyeing them for months, and I really-really-really want them. I was only going to buy panels for the bedroom window, but if I spent $28 more I'd qualify for free shipping, so naturally went ahead and bought panels for the French doors as well. I'm a sucker for free shipping.



Concrete work progressing -- I have a sander, and plan to spend Saturday sanding, and Sunday mopping, and Monday painting. Yippie!!!

Reviews: Best of Trading Spaces and Changing Rooms

New (to me) DVDs from Netflix arrived in the mail this week.

Best of Trading Spaces was fair but a little disappointing. The DVD had several reveals in two categories -- Love It and Hate It. The "love it" reveals were new to me, but the "Hate It" reveals were right off the "Trading Spaces: They Hated It" DVD. Very disappointing. I thought I would be getting something new, and instead I got another re-hash.

Aside from the reveals the DVD featured several small "Meet the Cast" segments, and segments on homeowners who stole the show. The DVD also had extended project videos from four projects, and a bloopers segment. All were watchable, but I often felt I was missing something --

LIKE AN EPISODE!!!!!

I'd much rather see entire episodes from start to finish. I wish TLC could get this through their heads!

"Changing Rooms: Trust Me I'm A Designer" is a best-of DVD for the British show that served as the model for Trading Spaces. Like the Trading Spaces DVD, this DVD featured a "meet the cast" segment, selected reveals, and bloopers. Overall I found this DVD more watchable, partially because I'm not familiar with the show (which makes the "meet the cast" feature a welcome addition instead of a space-wasting bonus) but also because I think the British designers often out-perform the Trading Spaces designers.

I especially enjoyed seeing the carryovers from the British show to the American show. Ty and Handy Any could be obnoxious brothers. I wonder if Doug decided to wear leather pants on his own, or was it the producer's 'suggestion' after seeing Laurence "Cuffs" Llewelyn-Bowen in action? And could Paige and Carol be any more alike?

Once again, though entire EPISODES would be appreciated!

Concrete Finished -- Sorta

OK, I've finished the patching. Now I have to wait 24 hours, and then I can sand. And then I get to mop again. And again. And again. And with the degreaser. And with the abraser. And again with plain water. Lucky me.

Maybe on Friday I'll finally be able to lay some paint.

Dad let me borrow his brand-new laser level, which should make it much easier to mark off the squares.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is progress, even if it's slow. After all, look at how much my legs are killing me! Only progress makes people this sore.

Concrete Repair

I've given up on mopping, at least for now, and have gone on to concrete repair. It's a suprisingly difficult job, mainly due to my weight. It's very hard for me to work on my knees, which is what this job really requires. Instead I'm working bent over double, which is also not easy for me. So far I've just filled in the cracks with liquid stuff from a squirt bottle, which sounds easy except the cracks really aren't all that wide, so the liquid stuff just sits on top of the cracks instead of going inside. So I have to wipe everything down with my hands, breaking the water tension. The stuff goes into the cracks then, but it doesn't totally fill the cracks -- my gloves have absorbed some of the solution or something.

I think I'll have to make at least two passes with the stuff. Plus I don't want a seam of this stuff on top of the crack, so I might have to do some sanding. I doubt it, tough -- my hands are doing a pretty good job.

Next I'll have to fill the bigger holes, the ones made when we took up the little boards the carpet was attached to. Those are too big for the squirt-bottle stuff -- I have to use a different concoction for that. And I still have nails in the floor in places, so I'll have to take those out first. It will probably be Sunday evening (if then) before the first coat of paint goes down.

I felt horrible this morning, so I spent most of the day sleeping. I had a dream about my Haywood-Wakefield sofa, and dreamed the perfect upholstery for it. Scary, huh? It's to be powder blue with metallic shapes. Very simple. Now I have to figure out how to make the upholstery, since I'm never going to find exactly what I want.

No Popping the Corn

The popcorn ceiling is staying. Turns out that popcorn ceilings installedprior to 1979 can contain asbestos. I just don't feel up to dealing with the mess. Also, removing the ceiling is a huge job, much more than I'm willing to take on at this point.

As a result I will not be painting the ceiling. The squares wouldn't look straight over popcorn, and I'm too broke and too lazy to deal with the aftermath.

Bought the paint for the floor, though, which I hope to start painting tomorrow morning.

Bathroom Blues

Spent part of the afternoon mopping (yes, still) and then took Mom to dinner. After dinner we went to 75% Off Books where I picked up a book with the PERFECT ceiling for the bedroom, if I can only knock off enough of those stupid popcorn things. I'm really in love with it -- big squares painted on the ceiling, and Halogen track lighting running all around the squares.



Photo from Kid's Rooms by Jennifer Levy.

Also bought a silly astrology kit. I don't really believe in astrology, but it's fun to pretend I do, and even more fun to let it shine some light in my life when I can't find any other lightbulbs.

The kit contains a bunch of stickers, three "wheels" sort of like game spinners, and a number of other fantastical items. This is going to sound crazy, but the kit has inspired me. I want to make my bathroom into a fortune-telling temple.

Can't you see it? LARGE gold molding around the edges of the room, a sunburst design on the toilet seat, fringed bath curtains, incense burners and candles, a dark ceiling with mystic designs painted on it in silver, mystic bathroom tiles and rugs, and best of all, the entire room wallpapered with mystic stuff from books and magazines. I even have a lot of cutouts from magazines I've been collecting.

I know this is completely corny, but I want to have one space where corny has full reign. At least I do now.

Plus I like the whole harem decorating approach, but didn't want a full room of it. Hiding it in the bathroom (a private space if ever there was one) makes more of a statement than cramming it in the living room would!

(later)

OK, the fortune-telling bathroom is wearing thin already, but that ceiling!

It's so perfect on so many levels. If I tried something like that I could paint on molding instead of having to spend money. I could also possibly disguise that area over the bathroom with the bad ceiling patch. And I could continue the squares motif into the bathroom, and run smaller squares off the ceiling and down the wall by the toilet. Now that's a neat idea. OK, this is seriously under my skin. Maybe I need to hold off on the floor for a few days while this percolates. (No sense in painting the floor until after I've dripped ceiling paint all over it!)

I think, if I do this, that I'm going to try to do it without telling anyone in the family. Just wow 'em with the finished results. Except that I'll have to tell Dad, so I can get an estimate from his friend Frank on a Halogen system like the one in the book.

Sooooooo cool.

ShopGirl

Spending a spare hour Net-browsing while waiting for my classes to start. Newest mouthwatering find is a bedspread from edgemodern.com. It's called swoop, and is part of their new bedding collection. Lots of nice, primo stuff!



JCPenny's is having a free shipping sale, effective through 11/15. The code is 4AASEP49. They still have the fabulous-o platform bed I want. Since the shipping is free it sounds like it might be worth the risk. I really wanted a darker wood, but I do love this style.



Then again, I really wanted something a tad more traditional so it wouldn't clash too much with the 40s vanity. Then again, I'm all about clash. I think I'll wait until the 15th and then decide if I can afford and want the bed.

I Love My Job

Today one of my favorite students, an 84-year-old Indian gentleman, told me he saw money flying from my back. I didn't ask for an explanation -- it was too wonderfully cryptic a gift to open.

To-Do List

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In a Bad Place

I took a nap this afternoon after my second Swiffer pass on the concrete floor, and woke up with a horrible headache that is still with me, after two Tylenol, two hours, and dinner. This is the third time in three months this has happened, and it's starting to worry me. I think it has to do with how I'm sleeping, so tomorrow I'm going to buy a new pillow and see if that helps.

I just don't want to work. That floor is maybe a four-hour job, if a person did it in one pass. I've lengthened it out to about ten hours so far, and I'm not anywhere close to finished.

This has been a very difficult couple of days. Usually I'm very happy with my life, but for some reason I've decided all this d-i-y stuff would be easier if I had someone around to fully participate -- like a live-in boyfriend or even (gasp) a husband.

I've had great help, and I'm not knocking it. My parents have been wonderful, and so have my sisters, but they're doing it more because they care about me than because they care what the house looks like. Oh, Mom has a morbid curiosity about how I'm going to pick completely wrong colors, but she would be happier if she could just shop with me, and then occasionally drop by to see what I've accomplished. I can't believe she gets much joy out of cleaning someone else's home.

And I know how totally stupid I'm being. Having a man in the house would actually be more difficult than being alone. I'd have to compromise on all the furniture and paint colors, and probably work in the morning instead of at 2:00 AM, and bitch to his face and behind his back because he can't do something exactly precisely perfectly the way I would have done it, if I could indeed do plumbing or electrical work. (I mean really -- do I have to draw him a picture???)

Obviously I was not made to be married, and I can't understand why I'm suddenly thinking it would be a good idea. All the paint stripper fumes must be going to my head.

I think I'm just a little lonely right now. I'd like to have someone to talk to while I Swiffer. This mood will pass, as it always has before, and I'll swing back to treasuring the silence of my television-less house, instead of staring off into space wishing I could hear a human voice.

And eventually, too, I'll get that damn floor cleaned.

A lizard photographed through the living room window. Small reminder that I don't really live alone.

Groundwork

Preparing the bedroom floor for painting is a lot more work than I had anticipated --

• Sweep once


• Swiffer wet once, maybe twice


• Wet mop w/ Simple Green until water is clear


• Mop w/ conctere cleaner


• Mop w/ etcher


• Mop w/ water

And once all of THAT is finished I have to repair the concrete!! Then, finally, I can paint.

Mission Accomplished

I've moved my bedroom into the living room. It only took me, what, seven hours? I can't believe how slowly I'm moving. At least I'm ready to mop tomorrow.

Look at how cool my Bertoia bench looks near the fireplace. It is so completely kicking!!! I just have to get rid of the straight-from-Country-Living table behind it, and then everything will be, uh, copasetic.

Trading Spaces

Watched the first of the NetFlix Trading Spaces DVDs -- Trading Spaces: They Hated It. While I enjoyed the DVD I can see why most reviewers on amazon.com were disappointed. It contained two full-length episodes, not-so-great bonus footage. The "bonus" was a small collection of unhappy reveals from several televised episodes, including the reveals from the two full-length episodes on the CD! Not one ounce of new material anywhere on the DVD.

Since I don't have cable I haven't seen any of the episodes, so I enjoyed the DVD. I especially liked Doug Wilson's bedroom design in the Maryland Village Green episode. It's such a bold design!! Not something a pack rat like me needs -- I'd clutter it too much -- but it's sooooo fabulous!



I've been working on the living room again, trying to pack away R's dishes so I can move my bedroom furniture into the living room. Once that is finished (hopefully late tonight) I'll be ready to mop then paint the bedroom floor. From what I've read mopping is an ordeal -- it takes two or three days to dry. Then again, I doubt the people who wrote the Internet article I read are from Texas!! If I open the French doors and turn off the air conditioning it shouldn't take more than two hours to dry. I'll have to time it.

New Books

Ate lunch with Mom and Charlotte before heading off to work. They liked the designs for my kitchen. Charlotte liked the full-face Plexiglas cabinets. I hate to admit this, but I can't remember which one Mom liked best

After lunch we stopped in Half-Price books for a few minutes. I bought four new titles.

Complete Construction Cabinets and Countertops by Charles Self was my must expensive purchase, weighing in at $19.95. I think it will be a worthwhile book, though. The author wrote the book for woodworkers who want to open their own cabinetry shop. It's full of inside information, including directions on how to make cabinets. I'd like to save money by making my own doors, so I'll be paying a lot of attention to this one.

Next I picked up Stewart & Sally Walton's Fabulous Home Makeovers. It's really a crafts book, and I hardly ever pick those up. I'm still not sure why I grabbed this one, except that the price was right ($10) and the book has 100 projects. Surely I can find two or three I like.

Harmonious Interiors by Ann McArdle was also $10. I bought it because a kitchen caught my eye, but now that I've looked more I wish I had left it on the shelf. It was published in 2000, but looks dated already. It has a chapter on Feng Shui, which is entertaining if nothing else.

My last purchase is a book I've been fighting against buying for several months, but something in me said if I could buy a craft book I could certainly afford a nice midcentury book. So I am now the proud owner of Collecting Modern by David Rago and John Sollo. Beautiful pictures! The book is more about midcentury ceramics than about furniture, but every home needs some ceramics, right?

Kitchen Designs

Spent a few hours this evening knocking out ideas for the way-in-the-future kitchen redesign. I'm playing with two colors, continuing the aqua color I'm planning on painting the living room. Some of the cabinets will be painted wood, others might have plexiglass or frosted glass -- something to keep the mess from showing through!

The refrigerator designs are (right now) copied from rugs and wallpaper. Once I get ready to paint I'll make my own design.

Here is what I have so far, click the thumbnails to see the larger images.

Yet More Garbage

Tonight I'm throwing out another six bags of garbage. Most of it belongs to R. Today Mom and I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets, throwing away more unedible food and a few plastic dishes. The dishes are stacked in the living room, waiting for me to box them for the garage sale. Once that is finished I have to SCRUB the cabinets and put in new shelf liners. Eventually I'll get new cabinet doors, but not until this spring when I can afford it.

Later this afternoon I cleaned out most of the bathroom. I still have to clean out the vanity, which is CHOCKED with stuff, but the place already feels better.

Six bags down, and about twenty to go!!!!!!

Notes for Linda

Sites that sell bedknobs -- House of Antique Hardware and Van Dyke's Restorers. Northland Restoration has 'em in two sizes.

Home Companion: "The only thing I know for sure abut the creative process is . . . . "
Scott Eirinberg, co-founder The Land of Nod: "That the most creative people I have ever met dressed the least creatively."

New Finds & New Plans

Went to an estate sale and bought four groovy mirrors with geometric designs screened on the surface in black. They're ultra-cheap dime store pieces, but they'll be fun in the hallway. I paid $6 per mirror.

It's cool enough to start cleaning out the garage. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take a table out of the garage and place it in the living room so I can start planning the next garage sale. I need to start indoors by removing all her belongings from the two remaining closets and from the kitchen. I'm hoping to finish indoors on Monday, then start on the garage itself. Maybe if I work on it a little each day I can finish by mid-October.

New Rugs?

Today I've been considering rugs for the living room floor. My goals are to get something contemporary, highly durable, pretty, and very cheap.

I originally thought I would get one of the new rugs made from outdoor fabric, but the patterns aren't all that great, and it's more expensive than I thought it would be.

Then I thought about a floorcloth, but the cloth alone would set me back about $80 for at 8x10" piece.

Finally, Home Cheap Home to the rescue again. I must be a little dense -- they have great ideas, but I always have trouble translating their cool tips into my house. For example, take the "zebra" rug made from a vinyl flooring remnant. I loved it, but I was focused on the cool shape of the rug, instead of the things should have been focusing on -- durability and price.

This evening, though, I've come to my senses and realized I can have this cheap coolness in a plain, practical square.

Home Cheap Home didn't give very good directions, so I'm trying to figure out a method before engaging in madness. Here is what I have so far:

1. Buy remnant at least 1' bigger than needed.
2. Lay out flat.
3. Clean with TSP.
4. Paint base coat -- preferably oops latex paint
5. After drying mark off square using watercolor pencil.
6. Nail vinyl on wall in garage
7. Project design on tile
8. Trace design with watercolor pencil
9. Remove tile from wall
10. Paint design w/ acrylic paint
11. After drying coat with sealer (whatever Home Cheap Home used!)
12. Dry!

Sounds like a plan. All I need now is a sofa so I can figure out what colors to paint everything. And a good design. Guess it's time to open Corel.

DVD Decorating

I'm probably the only person on the planet that isn't aware of this, but there are several Trading Spaces DVDs out there. Netflix has them all, along with Trust Me I'm a Designer and Ground Force. Guess what I'll be watching next week?

What Not To Wear

Watched several back-to-back episodes of "What Not To Wear" last week. Becca said we should nominate each other for the show. I looked at her and said "But we don't look as bad as those people!"

So help me, a hush fell over the room. Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear everyone was biting their tounge.

Becca, of course, looks fabulous, especially with her new blonde hair. So if there was a hush it was directed at me.

As a result I've spent a lot of time this week wondering what the cast would say if they saw my wardrobe. Ouch. I do OK when I wear my suits and other dry-clean-only stuff, but my washable wardrobe truly sucks. And since I can't afford the dry cleaner's right now I'm suffering in fashion hell.

• The sports bras have got to go. Sure, they're comfortable, but they creep into view when I don't want them to, like right now when I'm wearing a tiger-print bra under a purple tie-dyed shirt. (And to complete the picture I'm wearing the shirt over a six-gore black crepe skirt. Ugh. Thank goodness it's my day off.)
• That tired denim skirt has got to be trashed. It just doesn't work at all. It rides up and up and up until it's under my rib cage. How charming.
• Every shirt with any kind of stain or spot has got to be trashed. Ditto skirts and dresses with "small" holes. Must throw away some lime green shirts, which I have too many of anyway. I can't wear T-Shirts all my life! And that knit raspberry dress I bought this summer is in PIECES. Let it go!
• Shoes need serious help. I need NAVY shoes, and GRAY shoes (dark and light) and a pair of low-heeled black pumps. I keep wearing the same damn shoes day after day after day because they're comfortable. It's getting more than old.
• Hair -- OK, I'm sick of my hair, but I'm always sick of my hair. People constantly tell me they love my hair, and I have to agree it's very healthy and shiny, and has nice color if you like red. I'm not so sure of the cut, though. And what is it with the HEAVY headache-inducing silver barette things I wear every single godforesaken day? Isn't that old by now? It's been my look for well over a year!! I asked my friends for an honest opinion this summer and they told me I'd be crazy to change my hair, but it's driving me right up the wall. (Nothing new there, but still . . . )
• Makeup. Why can't I spend a measly five minutes on makeup each day? What is the rush?

So I think I'm going to take a shower and at least trim my hair, then grab a few trash bags and throw out half my wardrobe. I'm going to have to replace everything over the next few months. How fun.

(later)

Yeah, right. Replace it with what? On whose charge card? Must call doctor and get reality shot.

Knobby Situation

Which knob is best for my 60s bookcase/desk? I just can't decide, especially after looking at a couple of thousand (literally) online. The green knob is from Hardware Hut (huge selection) the other from Umbra (small refined selection). Since I only need three knobs price really doesn't matter much. Yeah, I could save eight bucks, but really, I blow that much every week on soft drinks.

Blogging Blues

Been fighting Blogger all evening when I should be doing other things. Weird things are happening. Before uploading photos I resize them to 500px wide, which is under the column width for the blog template I selected. Somehow, though, the pictures all turn into 624px giants! That in itself isn't so bad, except it forces the navigation down to the bottom of the page, where it isn't doing anyone much good.

WHAT IS BLOGGER DOING??!!?? I ran a quick search in Google and couldn't find anything on it, and I don't have time to check anything more in-depth.

For now I'm living with one of their pre-CSS templates, which are the only ones that don't choke on images. (And yes, I checked ALL of the templates.)

I guess this is an opportunity, right? I need my own template, right?

I need to mess with a template when I have students who continue to have FTP issues, right?

Lazy Labor Day

Very lazy weekend. I did finish most of the stripping in the entry, and only have a few touch-up places to go before I'm ready for the big time -- the kitchen.

Spent a small fortune at Home Depot, especially in light of how little money I have. I didn't want to put ugly white or black socket covers over the outlets, but paintables were $7.00 and up. Being my resourceful self I bought the cheapie plastic ones, sanded them, and painted then with latex paint to match the walls. Trouble is that the paint didn't go on smoothly, and I strongly suspect the damn things will be impossible to clean once they get dirty. I'm going to live with them for now (since they're screwed in place) but I'll probably have to do something drastic with them in a few months. Wonder if I could buy clear ones, and paint the insides? I know people make their own to sell at Arts & Crafts shows. They must have a source I don't know about!

Dad re-attached the bedroom doors, and I've replaced all the doorknobs. The metallic paint job looks very nice.

Still trying to find replacement hardware for the French door. I just don't like anything I see. Must check Liz's Antique Hardware.

(later)

What a disappointment. I had expected more after reading about them in Home Cheap Home. The actual store might be nice, but the website sucks. Only a few products, several of which I can find at Lowe's or Home Depot. I mean, Schalge doorknobs? Get real. Guess I'll wait until Friday when Mom and I go to Elliott's Hardware.

Also very disappointed with modernseed, a modern store for children's things. I was hoping for something new, but nooooooo. They disappoint with the Offi child's line (Target has it) and BluDot furniture, and Angela Adams rugs. Oh, and Candeloo lights. Nothing I haven't seen in a million grown-up modern stores. OK, they did have some Wallart Candy I haven't seen, and also some nice sets of blocks, but nothing that unusual. Nothing new enough to make we whip out a credit card. (That is, if I had any money.)

Modernseed did make me think about a collection I've been wanting to start for a while -- cool blocks. I thought it would be fun to collect and display interesting sets of building blocks and child's construction sets. I thought I could start with Zolo and Bonz, then work my way to other sets. I could put them on my coffee table and trade them out on a regular basis. It would be a fun way to add a kinetic touch to the room. Maybe. I have to think about this -- do I really have spare money to spend on block sets?

Stripping Again

Since I can't afford to do anything until next month I've returned to a semi-abandoned project -- stripping the paint off the tiles in the entryway and kitchen. Yes, back to the toxic orange gunk and the SMELL permeating the house. I still have four bottles of stripper, though, so I can work on this without spending a dime. And since it's time-consuming (30 minutes soak time, minimum) it might take until the end of the month.

On the plus side I think the school owes me about $5K from the Spring semester. I'm not totally sure yet, since I'm so bad with math, but it looks that way. I need to double-check all my contracts and then email Patsy for a second opinion. If they do owe me I could have the money as early as next week.

I felt I was accumulating too much furniture too quickly so I pulled back and re-examined. I *do* have too much. Waaaaaaaaaay too much. I'm afraid I'll have to resort to the "furniture-against-the-walls" technique, loosing the ability to show off any of my stuff. Of course I could also sell stuff off. I'm thinking of putting the terrific Arts & Crafts library table I inherited up for auction. It just doesn't fit my style, and I think I could get quite a bit for it.

I'll have to finish moving out Rachel, then move myself in, and then have a reality check.

Bad Finances

I had a horrible day yesterday when I checked my bank balance. I was expecting a normal paycheck, but instead I only had a week's pay. It seems full-timers aren't paid in equal lump sums the way adjuncts are paid. I have enough money for the house payment and maybe two other bills, and then I'm living off my overdraft again. It was all very dishartening. I had so many things I wanted to do, and now I can't afford any of them.

This morning, though, I looked at the sun hitting the Sausillito tiles in the empty living room and smiled. It's going to be difficult month, but the house is it'll be worth it. This is a teriffic house.