Friday, September 17, 2010

Cleaning Glitch in Clean Land!!

The cleaning and refurbishing bug has hit a wall. What can I say?? Something is wrong with the stain I applied to the floor day before yesterday. It still isn't dry! What can the matter be? Who knows?? Surely it will dry eventually and let me slather on the other stuff that's supposed to make it hard and impervious to slops, spills, hammers and other domestic tools dropped by accident!

And did I mention that we inadverdantly cut the TV cable in two? What nut bag ran it under the carpet like that anyway? (Just call me Nutbag.) And we were so proud of remembering to get new blades for the box cutter to cut the carpet with.

It took a quick but necessary trip into town to Radio Shack to sustain my TV addiction.

The Radio Shack guy spent a good deal of time explaining how the ends were to be bared, poked in to the little brass gizmos and crimped with an ingenious hand tool which he loaned me. I only messed up one end and I thought that was pretty good for someone as unmechanical as myself but the fact remains that BOTH ends had to be workable.

However my mother didn't raise any dummies so I finally figured it out and with only a yard and a half of duct tape, the connection is working perfectly!

I would write more but I need to start working at getting the Red Walnut (whoever saw a red walnut?) stain off the bottom of my feet.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming and I have the cleanup-paint-up, fix-up bug.

Don't ask me why. I never get the Spring Cleaning thing but this time of year I have an urgent need to not spend a long winter in dismal dirt and disaray.. (I love alliteration.)

Last week Brian and I tore up and drug out the old carpet.

That left us looking at 100 year old oak floors. There were three options. Lay new carpet. (I can't afford it.) Hire someone to lovingly refinish the old wood (I can't afford it) and freeze our butts off this winter, ...or compromise. Well I compromised. We are staining the old floor a deep red something or other kind of imitation wood juice and covering it with polyurethane stuff.

We will still freeze our butts off this winter but we will do it beautifully as the floor is a great surprise! It really looks good if I do say so! And the old woodwork matches so closely that it just needs a light rub of stain to pull it all together. I am so pleased with us.. I hope I will remember all this exuberance this January.

I am tired of the living room. I did it in the old Lizzy Borden colors..(mustardy yellow walls to go with the dark 100-year-old woodwork)thinking it was just sooo Victorian, as is the house, but Lizzy has had her day and the mustardy yellow walls suck!!@

Besides that nobody extant understood when I said it was the "Lizzy Bordon style". So a nice, calm cream-white stuff is going on the walls.

Can't wait to get it done.