Puzzling

It is a puzzling time of the year.  The evenings get dark early.  Although, truthfully, I could work on a puzzle anytime of the year.  Crossword, jigsaw, Sudoku.

 

Jigsaw puzzles require more planning.  I have to have a plan where to lock the puzzle away so no cat teeth can taste the pieces.  No room, except for the garage, is truly cat free.  Pepper will walk on the puzzle board and sniff each piece until she finds the one that she likes best. Then she will carefully pick up a piece between her teeth, jump down off the board, and find a place to hid her piece. 

 

In the process of cleaning out storage, I found all of my jigsaw puzzles.  Boxes and boxes of puzzles.  One box contains 10 puzzles, individually wrapped, that I purchased years ago at a garage sale and never attempted.  Life just got busy and something else was funner.  Not that life's not busy now, but it's nice to have a hobby that is not connected to an electronic device.  And to have a hobby I can do sitting next to Walt Kowalski watching an electronic device.

 

I opened the box of 10 puzzles and just picked one.  Flowers.  Windows.  Lots of colors.  This one doesn't look too difficult. 

 

 

 
WRONG.  All those flowers look alike. The window parts were easy.  Walt Kowalski was sorting through the pieces as I was locking them together.

Then it got hard.  Flowers and flowers and flowers and flowers. I had more than enough done, you could see the picture.  No harm in quitting.  Nobody will ever know. 

I couldn't do it.  I came this far I was determined to finish and not throw it on the train tracks with a growing pile of other things. (Black iron that won't fit together properly, toilets that don't flush correctly, flashlights that blink off when you need them most.)

With a little help one evening, I rallied and kept at it.  Then the next morning I finished.  The flowers were so similar I had to organize the pieces into left and right pieces and up and down pieces.

With fanfare, I finished.  I started a new puzzle last night.  I'm glutton for punishment. 

Finished Floors

Floors with Finesse.

It was a weekend full of floors.  Here's the back bedroom of the little house...now called The Bungalow.  (Thanks Pap!)

Walt Kowalski working the floors around the doors and into the closet.  

 
Here is the front bedroom before.  This room must have been an addition to the house.  It didn't have the old hardwood floors like the other rooms. 

 

Befores and afters make it look like it happened in a blink of an eye.


And the day ended with a beautiful sunset.
        

Cavities and Cabinets

When my oldest niece was 4 or 5 she had an appointment to see the dentist for a regular check-up.  It wasn't her first visit, but probably only her second or third.  When she returned she proclaimed, "I have no cabinets!"

"Wonderful! What about cavities?"
"I don't have any of those either."

J

I, however, have lots of cabinets.

 
Walt Kowalski and I planned out the kitchen for the little house mathematically on paper.  Using the home improvement store's website, we could select color, dimensions, and quantity available.  We even went to the store to look at the cabinets to approve.  We approved. 

AND I had a coupon. 

That rarely happens at the home improvement store. The goal then became to get as much as possible in one order to use the coupon.

We had a plan. They had all the cabinets available.  We had a coupon and a day off.

What we didn't plan for was the weather.  Rain.  Knowing we would have to leave the tailgate down, we decided to wait an additional day for better weather. 

It was slightly better weather the next day. The crowd at the store was slightly worse.  We ran into holiday improvement time.  This is the time of year when people realize they have company coming in a few weeks and want to make improvements NOW.  These aren't the usual people we meet at the store. They are pushy and have plans that are more important than everybody else's plans.

Mmmmmmmkay.  Sure.  May I have an extra shot of patience with my vitamins this morning? Thank You. 

We got tot he store, found two very helpful sales associates, one with a buggy to lower cabinets from the top shelf.  As we are selecting the cabinets we start to find many, many empty shelves. the same shelves that were full two days ago.

"Yeah, we had a contractor in yesterday that about 37 cabinets."

ARGH!!!

"But we are scheduled to get more of these unfinished cabinets next week."

That was great, except my coupon expired this week. 

It worked out anyway.  We got all but two cabinets on our list, which was all that would fit in the truck. 

I have several stains in my collection.  Gunstock is the color we used on the bar and ceiling in the game room.  Cherry is the color of the doors at the Cat Ranch. Walnut is color of the trim at House #1. Cedar is the color of Mom Kowalski's swing.

None of those were what I wanted. 

Golden Pecan is the newest color in my stain collection. It is just right.



Just a hint of color and it is a warm tone to match the floor and offset the dark countertop. 
 

Left is the unfinished color.  Right is the finished Golden Pecan.  (Without a coat of sealant.)

New Holidays

Sunday Walt Kowalski cleaned off the kitchen table.  It was clean for approximately 3.28 seconds before a cat jumped up on it.  Yesterday I cleaned off the kitchen counters.  That lasted 5.47 seconds.  Same with the floor.  There was a tumbleweed when I returned home.

And. So. Many. Papers.

Which made me think there should be a few new holidays on the calendar.

Holidays such as:

- No Dirty Clothes Day

This would be the day when all hampers are empty and all dirty clothes are washed. (This is a very rare holiday at the Cat Ranch.)


- No Dirty Dishes in the Sink Day

Similar to the previous holiday. Also a rare holiday in our house.


- Clean Kitchen Table/Counters Day
- No Lost Keys/Phone/Glasses/Shoes/Bills/Remote Day
- All Floors Swept and Mopped Day
- Got Everything on the Grocery List Day

Some days:

- Remembered the Grocery List Day

Both rare occurrences in our house. 


There would be specific holidays for families with children, such as:

- Homework Without Tears Day
- Baths and Bedtime Without Meltdowns Day
- A Day Without Sibling Bickering

Although I hear that just a hour would be considered a celebration.


There would be some holidays that would work for both families with and without children.

- Remembered Everything Before Leaving Day (Homework/Instrument/Uniform/Lunches/Gym Clothes)
- Everybody Liked Dinner Day
- Everybody Agreed on the Same Movie Day

I like celebrating small victories.  I take all suggestions for new holidays.  What are some you celebrate in your house?

Step Stain

It was a beautiful autumn day yesterday.  The sun was warm and the breeze was just right.  I still needed my jacket, but not a coat.

A very nice, but very talkative, man from the gas company came to turn on the gas in both houses.  Now we can have heat and from the looks of the weather forecast, we are going to need it on Friday and Saturday.  Boo hiss.

The list of things I have to do inside the little house is long.  I have lots of projects started, few finished.  With the weather so nice I did the obvious thing...started another project.

The little house has a front door and side door.  Both have a small set of wooden steps.  Both sets of steps have been neglected. 

 
They aren't dangerous, they are weathered.  I should have brought my power washer to clean first, but I didn't.  A fresh coat of stain will have to do.

And it did.  You can see the before and after on the treads that weren't completed.

The stain on the steps dried to the touch quickly in the evening sun, but needed to cure for several hours. With new kitchen tile and new living room laminate, I didn't want to risk walking on them and tracking stain foot steps inside.

I didn't want a visiting 4-year-old to walk up the wet steps and into the house.

I got a strap out of Walt Kowalski's truck and tied it between the two end posts at a 4-year-old height.  Too high to climb over, too tricky to crawl under.  Perfect.

What I didn't predict was the visiting 14-year-old lifting the 4-year-old over the strap, onto the steps and stepping over the strap, too. 

ARGH!

Luckily I locked the door.  They had to knock before entering onto the new tile.  Shoes were removed and the new floors were safe.

I can live with steps with footprints outside.  They will get a new coat of stain in the spring.

We also turned the corner of the living room, down the hall, with the laminate. 

We have one row left to install.  It requires long, straight, lengthwise cuts to multiple pieces.  That requires fresh, non-tired minds and more daylight.  We had neither. 

Tomorrow is another day.

Floor Realizations

I had a realization this morning. 

As I was standing in line with several 6 foot customers at the home improvement store at 7:15am, I realized that not only was I the only woman customer at the store at that hour, but all of the clerks were male, too.  I know many women work at the store, but at that hour on this day, the numbers were not in my favor.  This 5 foot lady with a ponytail on her head holding two chip brushes and a can of stain got several sideways glances, for sure. 

It was fine by me. 

I left the male-dominated computer industry and jumped feet first into the male-dominated remolding/construction industry. Trailblazer? Doubtful. Typical?  Definitely.

Along with the kitchen floor, we also started on the living room this weekend.

The living room had become our work zone.

 
The old hardwood was in poor condition.  Along with many years of spilled paint, there was staples from carpet padding, tack track, random nails, and loose floor boards.

We installed a thin layer of plywood to even the playing field.

 
The laminate goes down fast.

 
What an improvement.

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Mudder

Mud.  Mudder. Not Mother. 

Walt Kowalski and I are a powerful team.  The things we can accomplish together in a single weekend are...exhausting. 

We had a long weekend planned.  The weather wasn't the best. Luckily, inside work was planned, not cutting down trees. 

The kitchen floor was the goal.  The old floor was carpeted and the floor boards underneath were rotting from sink leaks.  We removed the carpet, repaired the floor, installed a cement board base, and are ready for tile.  It is sturdy and durable.

 

 

Mud, mud, mud. Tile, tile, tile.
 

 
With two of us working together, it goes fast. We install as many full tiles as possible first, let the floor set overnight, then return the next day to finish all the cut pieces. 

Measuring and cutting all of the edge pieces takes the same amount of time as laying all of the full center tiles.

Being cold makes for a long day.  The heat isn't on yet.  The water is on, but it's cold water. Working on your knees, on a cold floor, with cold, wet mud all day makes you...cold. And tired.

 

It looks nice. The heat will be turned on later this week.  (If you don't pay the bill, they turn it off right away.  When you want a new connection turned on, it takes a week. *sigh*)