There's a new law that goes into effect January 1, 2014 that all of us California DIYers are going to have to follow. If you do home improvements, or are even planning on hiring out any improvements after the first of the year, read this.Thanks to my Aunt Jan for making me aware of the article. I'm all for water conservation, but I guess I'll have to go full-throttle now. Expect a major bathroom overhaul post early next year, folks.
The first snow is always so celebrated. It's so beautiful. It welcomes winter, and gives us the excuse to snuggle next to a warm fire. Later on, when we've shoveled tons of heavy, Sierra Cement, things generally change. But for now, let's enjoy.
This is a blurry photo of my hair being especially Neil Gaiman-esque, but you can see the red, blotchy rosacea on my cheek.
Let’s talk about skin.
No, not, “It rubs the lotion on its skin,” type of talk.
I have rosacea. It’s triggered by stress, and since it’s close to impossible to have a stress-free existence, it’s always there. It flairs up when there are a lot of things going on, for example, the owner meeting I organize each year that possesses all aspects of my life until it’s over. That type of stress causes major flair ups.
For a long time, I was using a series of products created by Mario Badescu, and they worked pretty well. They helped the redness stay toned down, and I was content. Then, the company discontinued those products.
Since then, I’ve been hopping from skin care regime to skin care regime, hoping that something would work. I tried sea buckthorn. I tried oils. I tried almost anything that I found on the internet. Finally, I think I’ve finally found something that works for me – TriDerma Facial Redness Repair and Facial Redness Cleanser.
I use the Repair after the shower in the morning and the Cleanser right before I go to bed. I’ve found that while the cleanser dries my skin out a bit, it’s better if I don’t put any lotion on before going to sleep. The redness is much, much better. These days, my rosy cheeks are more from brisk temperatures and exercise than from rosacea.
I’m not getting compensated or anything for letting you all know about my new regime, but I thought that any of you who may also suffer from little red bumps and unhappy skin might benefit from the knowledge. I’m proof that nothing works for everyone, but this seems to be working for me, and it’s one of the many things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving.
We've come to the time of the year when we try to weatherize, as much as possible, the outside of the house to get ready for the impending snow.
This year, that meant a great deal of painting, as the new siding needed to be covered as well as the trim around the windows. (Spy that Frog Tape around the window?) I also painted our potting shelf in the same merry blue as the door. While I had varnished the piece a couple of years ago, snow had been rather harsh to it. Hopefully now it will survive many more winters to come.
Next up, we'll be screwing the deck back down and covering the chairs and benches. We're still experiencing a major dry spell, but the snow always comes, and this year, we'll be ready!
On the novel writing front, things haven't been going so well. I haven't been very well, actually. I've been sick for the first two weeks of the month, one flu following right after the first, so I haven't been in any condition to write. My brain's only been focused on lots of fluids and bed rest. My NaNoWriMo dreams may be doomed for 2013. My book is started, but I'm not even close to the 25,000 words I should be to by this point. -sigh- Well, there's always next year.
 It was a much longer saga than we were expecting, but our final piece of siding was hung yesterday.What the home inspectors thought would be an easy fix back when we were buying the house ended up being a major project, spanning three years. I typed in "siding" into my blog search bar and was amazed at just how many times I've mentioned it.Part of the reason it took so long was finances. Each board costs around $75. Then there's the timing -- it had to be done when the weather was good and on a weekend, since hanging each piece requires two people. They're heavy, four feet by nine feet of back-straining, shift a quarter-of-an-inch-to make-it-level-now-back-this-way-just-a-tiny-bit plywood. (As a now-you-know, most t1-11 siding is 4X8, but our house was built with 4X9, so that's what we used for replacement. Knowing is half the battle, after all.) Then there's life. Between extra needs at work and family illness, our weekends were often filled with other important requirements.
As I braced the final board and my Charles secured it to the house, I began to feel rather giddy.
"We did it! The final board is up. Aren't you stoked?" I cried.
"Yes. I'm happy it's up." said Charles, a tired smile spreading across his face.
And then we both breathed gigantic sighs of relief, and also probably, exhaustion. The sun sank behind the hills as my Charles finished driving in the last of the screws, and the evil dry rot, at least on this side of the house, was no more.
Sometimes, you need a little push. I've found this to be incredibly true when it comes to my creative pursuits. I give myself deadlines, but sometimes it's just so easy to allow the minutia of life get in the way of doing the things that I really enjoy.I love writing. I've been making up stories all of my life, including a few years in which I spun the tales of Frank the Ant's adventuresome existence. But because it doesn't pay the bills, my fiction is often left to molder inside of whatever random blank book I picked up when I penned the original inspiration.This time, I'm trying a different approach. Yes, I have the blank books. Yes, my life is still a demanding one of house projects and full-time work, but this time, a goal has been set for me. The goal -- 50,000 words written over a month's time. From November 1 to 30, National Novel Writing Month, I'll be putting pen to paper, typing up the second draft, and then updating my word count. Thanks to NaNoWriMo, and my friend Jon who introduced me to the website and concept, I'll be pushing myself to complete an idea I've been kicking around for awhile now. Care to join me? Just look for my handle. I bet you can guess what it is ... pixyofwhimsy.
Sometimes, even when a shut off valve looks and acts like the shut off to the water main, in reality, it isn’t. At least it’s not your shut off valve. It could be the neighbors’.
My Charles and I had been sharing our worries about completely replacing the tub surround. Since no project goes as smoothly as planned, we feared days without a working shower. Being the nerd that I am, I scoured the internet, searching for options, watching YouTube video after YouTube video.
The consensus on the ol’ web was that it HAD to be the washers.
“Well,” thought I, “it won’t hurt to take a look, and if I succeed, what a hero I shall be!”
Do you see where this is going?
The video I followed showed how to take the inner workings of the faucet apart in order to replace the worn out washers. I purchased a box of washers of all shapes and sizes, got out my wrench, swung my legs into the tub, and got to work.
There seemed to be a lot of pressure behind the faucet, but I persevered. As I unscrewed the valve, KABOOM! Water gushed out of the hole in the surround, drenching me from the waist down. My cat-like reflexes (yeah, right!) saved me from being hit by the faucet parts. I put my journalism training to full use (reporters put pirates to shame when it comes to “colorful” language) and raced outside, yelling to Charles that the water still needed to be shut off.
Charles stopped his work on the deck and ran up the stairs to the street.
“You opened the wrong box,” he yelled down the hill at me.
Evidently, our water valve is to the left of the box I had opened.
I returned to the house. The blue streak was just beginning to dissipate within the bathroom, but the water was not. My heroic effort had just flooded the room. Using every towel we own, I began the mop-up process. Then I picked up the faucet parts, laying forlornly in the bottom of the tub, and tried to figure out how to put everything back together.
None of the washers I had purchased matched the ones that had been blown out in the torrent, so I ended up putting the original stuff back in. Once I figured out how everything fit together – I may have painted the room blue a couple more times during this process – I slogged back up the stairs and driveway and turned, ahem, OUR water back on.
Once I had returned to the room of my failure and despair, I made sure the faucet and showerhead was working and discovered something rather odd – there was no drip. The leak had abated. What, what?
My theory is that the massive geyser cleared out the calcium deposits or what have you that had built up around the washers. I’m not holding my breath that the drippy faucet is completely fixed, but for now, dryness is king when the shower is not in use.
Dos and Don’ts:
Do shut off the water.
Don’t take the faucet apart until you’ve checked that the water is actually off.
Do follow the dude on the video’s instructions completely.
Don’t clean the tub right before working on the faucet. You’ll just have to clean it again, duh!
Do follow that dude on the video’s instructions. Seriously. Including the part where you take the faucet insides to the hardware store so you get the right washers.
Don’t do what I did. Of course, if I actually did manage to follow instructions completely the first time and everything worked, the world would probably explode, so don’t expect me to ever be as thorough as I should be.
Drip, drip, drip, drip drip drip, plonk.
Recently, this has been the soundtrack at our house, less soothing than the drumming of rain on the roof. And because wasting water is a cardinal sin, I collect it all and give it to the plants.
When we bought the house, the inspector pointed out that our tub surround lacked the reason for a tub -- a spout. There was a shower head, but the hardware to draw a proper bath was sadly missing. Since my Charles and I are both shower people, we shrugged our shoulders and went on with life.  I suppose that attitude wasn't good enough for our tub, and it opted to revolt. A couple of months ago, we noticed a very slow drip. We took the tub handle apart to see if we needed a new washer, to tighten the screw in the handle itself, etc. I've fixed plenty of slow drips this way in years past in places I've rented. (It wasn't nearly that simple to get rid of the drips I met in college.) This is when the maniacal bathtub spirit began to rub its tubby hands and bwa ha ha in a deep, burbling voice.When we took the handle off, we discovered that plumbing actually needed to be replaced, and that required removing our Disco Stu version of a tub surround. We'd been dreaming of something more updated since this fiberglass wonder with its amazing accents became ours, but we only have one bathroom, so it wasn't on our priority list. Usually after doing reno work, we appreciate a shower. Fixing the shower means not having a shower for however long it takes to get everything back together, and as long time readers will know, nothing is ever quick in Our Little House repairs. Since I love me a shower in the morning, here's the game plan:- We're going to buy a new surround. It's the cheapest option, and while upgrading the bathroom to a stand-alone tub would be swell, the house's value doesn't support it.
- We're going to stage everything on the deck first, so we have everything on hand and know how to put it all together before we're tub-less.
- We'll demo as quickly as possible. Since our bathroom is so very, very small, we're going to have to remove the vanity before we remove the surround. We'll need the room to maneuver, and even though we're planning on cutting the tub apart in order to get it out of the door, we won't be able to get even the pieces out with the sink in the way. This means we'll be without a shower and a sink.
Then hopefully, oh hopefully, the subfloor is sound, and we can get our modern maven of a surround installed quickly so we don't stay shower-less for long. We may even add that missing hardware -- what a concept -- a tub with a spout.
I think I should leave some sort of offering for the house gods on this one. I sure hope it goes smoothly! We'll all soon find out.
The heat came back. The smoke came back. My Charles is still working way too much. He's in bed when I leave for work. I'm in bed when he gets home. If it weren't for the fact that we work at the same place, I'd never see him in a fully conscious state. So, I'm still coming home to a dark house every day, cooking dinner for two but eating alone. When I found out he was working another fourteen hour day yesterday, I came home defeated. Then I got frustrated, so I painted this. It's called, "Lonely," and like most of my recent pieces, it's layered with textures as well as black, white, and the occasional bronze. You just can't capture it with a camera, but here it is.
We have maybe seven weekends left where outside work is doable. I'm having to shrink our to-do list dramatically. Plus, there's some inside work that has presented itself as a must-do-soon. I'll be posting about that next week.
I know, I know, I've been MIA most of the summer. Let Bananarama sum it up for you.
We had lots of plans for home improvement, but then, work happened. My Charles has been working incredibly long days ever since we got back from vacation -- in June. For those of us who aren't salaried and therefore only work 40 hours a week, there were a couple of heat waves and then some fires, so being outside wasn't an option. Instead, I stayed indoors in our dark, little house with only my dog and tons of books for company and sunk down and down and down.
Things are beginning to improve. My Charles has new people mostly trained, the weather is becoming more amiable, and I'm beginning to emerge from my funk. It's taken me awhile to emerge from the darkness, but I'm happy to be back in the light.
With emergence comes more posts. I'm feeling inspired again, so more creative things to follow. Thank you for waiting out my dark days (months). I'm glad to be back. Isn't there a pesky house we're usually working on during this time of the year? I'd better get on that.
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