Shower Gift

My stepbrother and his fiancée received a whole bunch of candy-apple red Kitchenaid appliances (mixers, blenders, etc), so I made a pair of hand towels and felted potholders to match:

I like them. :) (The fiancée seemed to like them too.)

The buttons are from my stash (I actually found my main button stash in the mountain of boxes!)... I had a choice of matching buttons that didn't work as well, or buttons that went well with the grey yarn. Since they won't both be out at the same time, I went for the latter. (Apparently I was silly for pointing that out at the shower. Whoops.)

House Update

Both closet doors are up! I was able to get the second one up one evening last week by adjusting the nut at the bottom. I have no idea how I was able to get it down but not back up.

Yesterday I was at a wedding shower for my step-sister-in-law-to-be, and then a friend came over for a visit-while-I-work. In the morning I made a list of things I could do while we visited. When I reached the bottom of the pad of paper, I decided I could stop adding things to the list, even if there were more things I could be doing. ;) The list I came up with:
• water plants
• make burritos (I assemble my own frozen burritos)
• weed
• wash walls
• tidy kitchen (I didn't have time on Friday to clean up after making a dish for a potluck Friday evening.)
• sort bathroom (dad still has stuff there)
• sort toyroom (brother's stuff)
• vacuum
• drawer corners (I bought replacements for the missing ones in the kitchen)
• caulk tub
• bedroom floor (I still need to use fantastic around three of the edges)
• office, sort (brother's stuff), take out carpet pieces
• alter pants
• tie up black raspberries
• put CFL bulbs in chandelier
Of course, what I *actually* did didn't quite match items on the list, but I at least got stuff done:
• water plants (yay, they won't die this week!)
• tidy kitchen (does it count if I then got it dirty again cooking dinner for the two of us?)
• swept and mopped kitchen floor (it *needed* doing... however, I didn't get the bit on the other side of the "bar", because I was also doing laundry, and that's where the laundry was piled)
• laundry
• installed toggle screws for towel bar in bathroom
• swept and mopped bedroom floor (but didn't fantastic the edges)
• swept and mopped bathroom floor
So, only two of those items were actually on the list, and one was immediately undone (I was waiting for the dishwasher to finish the previous day's dishes, I'll get to that this morning), but everything needed doing.

One day when mom was over cleaning, she said "with all the time I'm spending cleaning, you better *keep* this place clean!" Mom, I cleaned! I'm trying! ;)

My friend lives near a Home Depot, so I stopped by to pick up a few things when I dropped her off. However, it turns out it closes at 8 on Saturday, and it was 9:30 when I arrived. Dang!

The list for today is more manageable than yesterday's list, but I suspect I still won't get everything done:
• extract sewing machine (it's behind the mountain of boxes, although I have a goat trail mostly there)
• alter pants
• Home Depot
• sort bathroom (dad will be here tomorrow)
• move my stuff away from dad's stuff (dad has movers coming tomorrow to get some big items)
Wish me luck!

Misc.

1. Sour cheery tree:
• The cherries are starting to ripen. (A few are ripe, most are not.)
• I ate one. Feels like my cherry allergy is currently active. (Sometimes I can get away with it.)
• I'm not sure I'm all that motivated to find out what's damaging the cherries, if I can't eat them anyway, and I already have way too much to do around here.

2. Dinner:
I impressed myself by cooking a dinner that involved four things, all of which finished cooking at close enough times that it was all hot (but not overcooked) when I sat down to eat.

However, either a full cob of corn currently exceeds my tolerance, or there was too much butter in the meal (corn & mushrooms), or both. The smells from the two pans I have to hand wash (and didn't last night) are not helping my stomach feel any better.

3. Some house progress has been made. I have one out of two closet doors back up:

(The second door is being stubborn.) Three of four vertical seams have been recaulked in the tub:

(You'd think it would be logical to do all at once... it probably is. However, I keep getting distracted by other tasks around the house. Like sweeping the part of the porch entryway that isn't full of junk. Or cooking dinner. Or taking showers.)

4. Awesome mom does it again: she came over and scrubbed my bedroom floor with Fantastic.

Most of the ¡underlay! is gone! (I'm calling it "good enough".)

Clapotis

I knit a sock yarn clapotis scarf for my mom:

(She can sometimes be a bit of a ham. ;) ) I managed to miss mother's day *and* her birthday... but I gave it to her now anyway.

Ironic: I put blocking wires (stainless steel welding rods) on my Christmas/birthday wishlist a number of years ago, once I found affordable options. (Again, ironically, the stainless steel welding rods ended up coming to the same price as KnitPicks blocking wires... oh well... at least they weren't $60, or whatever the previous options I knew about were.) Either last Christmas or the Christmas before, I finally received a set, but then didn't finish something that needed blocking wires again until this clapotis. However, due to the move I couldn't *find* the dang things... until, of course, *after* I blocked and gave the scarf to my mom. *sigh*

Mom likes it. :) (And she will have it to wear in the fall, which she wouldn't, if I had waited until Christmas.)

Unpacking

Hmmm... it's raining. Must be time to unpack the box of coats and shoes.

Hi hat! Good to see you again! Missed you!

Coat! Rain boots! Yay! (Of course, no good place to *put* anything from that box, since I no longer have a hall closet...)

House Update

Not much to update today. Is it procrastinating to avoid working on house stuff by working on a shower gift? (Shower is in a week and a half.) If so, I was bad tonight.

However, this morning after my shower, I packed a paste of borax and water into the gap between the tub and shower surround:

(I'll remove the excess when I caulk, and stuff left behind inside the crack will be a mildew preventative.) Borax is a curious substance: too much water, and it completely dissolves; too little, and it forms hard rocks. There is a narrow range of "just right" to make a paste.

Public service announcement: borax is slippery. I had noticed this in an academic sort of way previously, but my brain didn't put two and two together until I was lying horizontal in the tub this morning. (Chalk up a few more moving-in bruises.)

Another house mystery: why are there four (from a quick glance, may be more hiding) shower heads in the cabinet beside the shower? One is identical to the one in use, two match each other, and the fourth is that inexpensive one traditionally found in rentals. I can see there being one (say, if my brother replaced the shower head without asking dad, and didn't want to throw out the one that had been there), but *four*? What are they doing there? Are they functional, or broken? I'm pretty sure they've all at least been used, which probably means that most are broken. (If they're broken, why weren't they thrown out? If they were kept for parts, that would only explain the one that matches the one currently in use.)

Speaking of house mysteries, I finally remembered to have a close look at the transition between the kitchen and dining room floors, where there's a height difference.

Looks like a plywood base with two layers of linoleum on top. For a better look at the two layers of linoleum, we need only look at the back stairs:

The orange stuff on the treads is what my mom put down when I was a kid (I'm pretty sure I vaguely remember the kitchen being redone), and the older stuff is on the risers.

The plywood subfloor must have been installed properly, because there's no "wear along the edges" that you get when linoleum is installed on an uneven subfloor. (We have that wear at the cabin, and the two linoleum floors in the bedrooms here were definitely *not* put on top of plywood subfloors.)

While working on the shower present, I watched another Holmes on Homes. Take-away lesson: kitchen cupboards should be installed on *top* of the flooring that covers the whole kitchen, since appliances depend on the standard height to fit under the counter top. Since I'm not planning on re-doing the cabinets (mom designed some pretty great ones), that pretty much limits my flooring options to another thin layer of linoleum. (Not that I was really thinking of other options... and the orange stuff is in remarkably good condition for being ~30 years old. It's just... orange.)

Well, time to stop procrastinating going to bed.

Bathroom Update

Well, I didn't get as far as removing the remains of the old caulking, but I did get the bathroom walls and ceiling washed. (First with soapy water then clean water, both with a mop, then with borax water by hand with a rag.)

The photos don't really show the mildew, so I'll just post one before shot:

You'll have to take my word that it's covered in mildew.

Here's another reason why the tub needs replacing:

Whenever I look at that, I wonder who was shedding all over the edge of the tub. However, for some reason, the tub has bubbled there, and the black lines are cracks. (If you're redoing damaged wallboard and replacing the surround anyway, that's the time to do the tub too, if it needs it. It needs it.)

Dad thought I should keep the shower doors. Ew:

(And that doesn't show the mildew on the other side!)

Goodbye, shower doors!

Yeah, they haven't left completely yet... I need to work slowly with father. For example, with the doors, it went something like this:

Stage one: introduce the idea.
Me: I want to take down the shower doors, and use a shower curtain.
Dad: They're good quality shower doors, they're the same as the ones I put in my new house.
Me: They're mildewy and corroded.
Dad: You can clean the corrosion off with an SOS pad.
Me: (changes the subject.)

Stage two: give the idea time to sink in.

Stage three: state the idea more strongly.
Me: I want to take down the shower doors, and use a shower curtain.
Dad: They're good quality shower doors, they're the same as the ones I put in my new house.
Me: They're mildewy and corroded.
Dad: You can clean the corrosion off with an SOS pad.
Me: Dad, I *WANT* to use a shower curtain. I can put them somewhere for now in case I change my mind.
Dad: okay

Step four: remove the doors. (A bunch of rusted ball bearings fell out... no wonder they weren't sliding any more!)

Step five (not yet): dispose of the doors.

After washing (etc) the walls:

Again, you'll have to take my word for it... they're better. Not perfect, but better.

Maybe I'll manage the caulk tomorrow evening.

(The shower afterward was soooooo nice!)

Also accomplished today:
• emptied out a laundry basket full of misc food into cupboards.
• shifted the last few items out of two boxes which are now labelled "dad" and "thrift store".

It's nowhere near the list of things I was hoping to get done today, but it's better than nothing.

How does today's to-do list keep getting longer, rather than shorter?

To do list so far:

• clear kitchen counters (put away rest of kitchen stuff... figure out "away")
• make bread
• borax bathroom (website suggestion... if that doesn't work, will bleach next weekend)
• caulk tub
• use fantastic on bedroom floor (still have to get rid of stuck-on underlay)
• sort linen closet (usable vs fabric/rag... dad left stuff behind) then put my linens in

Working on the bathroom right now. (Plan: Get at least some parts caulked, then do kitchen stuff for an hour, then shower... since cleaning the bathroom will get me all gross.)

So far: removed everything (not in cupboards) from the bathroom, removed shower doors (left up side and bottom rail... bottom rail is preventing leaks at the moment, so I want to leave it there until I've finished and tested my caulking job), and swiffered the walls, ceiling, and floor. I'm taking a short break before washing with soap (to remove any grime that will come off that way) and then borax (no rinse... stays up to prevent mold).

Will post photos later.

I got a slow start today... slept late, then worked on a shower present while watching The Best of Holmes on Homes. (That show is a lot scarier when you've got a house to maintain and upgrade!)

Somehow, I suspect I won't make it through my to-do list tonight.

Cool...

When I was at Home Depot last night, I stumbled across a display for Fasäde Decorative Thermoplastic Panels. They looked interesting, and I have a room with no ceiling, so I grabbed a pamphlet. To get a better idea, tonight I went to check out their website. I noticed they had a sample order form. I was curious how much the samples cost, so I went to check it out. There was no price (or place to enter credit card #) on the first page, so I thought I'd fill out the form, and see what it would cost on the second page. The second page was a "thank you, your information has been sent" page! Looks like I might get three samples (I picked three different colours, three different styles) to try out for free! Cool! I've been thinking that something like a pressed-tin ceiling would be cool in the room. Granted, this is plastic, not tin, but hopefully it's also cheaper. (I took a photo that I thought included the prices of the panels, but now it looks like those are the prices of the ...edging? I'll have to check the next time I'm in.)

Today: Stairmaster

No, not one of those machines, the old fashioned "get from one floor to another" type. And not for the purpose of exercise, but running back and forth to and from the circuit breaker. Today I switched the motion detector light switches in the kitchen and hall to regular and three-way switches.

First up, kitchen. Before:

Okay, this one actually did have a light switch plate to begin with, but I forgot to take a photo when it was on, and was too lazy to put it back on for the sake of a blog photo. However, I wanted to switch from "almond" to white, and so had to buy a new light switch plate anyway. (Finding the filler for the middle was a challenge for some reason... both the lady in the orange apron and I did quite a bit of searching before we managed to locate it... and it was ridiculously expensive compared to the other parts!)

Circuit breaker panel and subpanel:

Look at all that labelling! This shouldn't be too hard... uh... why does none of them say "kitchen light"? Flip, run, flip, flip, run, flip, flip, run... you get the picture. Final discovery: it's on the subpanel, on the same breaker as the basement lights. Given the state of the basement (goat trails between junk, and virtually no natural light), this was not an optimal situation. (Note, I actually made this discovery yesterday, and picked up a flashlight (can't find any of mine) when I was shopping last night.)

In progress:

(WTF are all the wires back there for?)

Finished:

Ahhhh! A light that stays on when I want it on, and goes off when I want it off!

Next up, front hall. (Also not marked on the panels... it's one of the breakers on the right hand side of the sub panel, but I'm not sure which... I just threw the whole side each time, to save myself a few trips up and down the stairs.) Before, main floor: ...apparently I'm bad at remembering the before shots. Before, second floor:

In progress, main floor:

Oooo! Colour coded wires!

Uh... not so fast... turns out the colours weren't so helpful. After two unsuccessful attempts at wiring this pair of switches (more stairs and flipping of breakers), I googled the internet for some diagnostic tips.

I found this excellent set of instructions by John Nelson (thank you, John Nelson!!!):

If you'd rather troubleshoot than experiment, then get out your voltmeter or circuit tester.

1. Shut off the breaker.
2. Remove both switches and separate all three wires in both boxes.
3. Turn the breaker back on.
4. Conduct six tests for voltage, one between each of the six wires and the known ground. Hopefully, exactly one will test hot. This is the "common" wire for that switch. The other two wires are the travellers.
5. Shut off the breaker again.
6. Now add the switch to the box that had the hot wire, connecting the hot wire to the common (usually colored black) screw on the three way switch. Connect the two travellers to the other two brass screws.
7. Turn on the breaker again.
8. Now go to the other box and test all three wires for hot. Hopefully again only one will be hot. This wire is one of the two travellers.
9. Go to the first switch and flip it to the other position.
10. Go back to the box and test the remaining two wires. Again, one will be hot. This is the other traveller. The remaining wire that did not test hot with either position of the switch is the common.
11. Shut off the breaker.
12. Connect up the other switch, connecting the common that you found to the common terminal on the switch, and connecting the two travellers to the two brass screws.

Worked like a charm!

I decided to mark the wires for future reference. Since I didn't have any colour-coded electrical tape, I used nail polish. The hot wire is downstairs, and I coloured it with Mabelline Colorama "plum sparkle" (not a colour I like on me, but a colour that came closest to "hot" that I had.) Upstairs, the two carrier wires are now colour-coded with Revlon "copper penny" (also a colour I decided I didn't like), and then, after I determined the two carrier wires, I dabbed some more "plum sparkle" on the common wire. (Hopefully having nail polish on the wires isn't a big no-no.) Colour coded wires on the second floor:


After, second floor:

After, main floor:

(I need to figure out how to get a light switch plate that will fit this combination of switches... that thing in the centre is bigger than the standard "decora" hole.