Saturday, July 28, 2007

Woohoo!

We took a ride for breakfast this morning -- left about 7:15 and rode up to the farmer's market at Winter Park. It's really an upscale market; after all, it's Winter Park! Lots of yard plants for sale, as well as generic bromeliads and orchids, the kind you see at the Home Depot garden center. What we like are the food vendors. We had stuffed croissants and coffee, and then a nice ride back home. We are getting more comfortable riding together. The good thing about early morning rides is that the temps are pleasant, the sun is out and there is no rain yet, and traffic has not ramped up for the day.

This morning I put a second coat of white on two doors at the back of the hallway, and also a second coat on three louvered closet doors...which was the end of my painting for the summer! There may well be some touch-up after all is back, but that hardly counts. I re-installed the kitchen pantry door this afternoon, so the kitchen is finished. I borrowed a neighbor friend's pickup this afternoon and picked up the flooring from Lowe's. I drove home in a rain shower, but it's only a mile. We dried the boxes off and left them spread out on the floor just to make sure that the cardboard dried. I don't think any of the boards got wet. I expect that the floor will be in and the stuff moved back by the end of Wednesday, barring any unexpected challenges...

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Kitchen Completed

I finished the white trim (2 coats!) in the kitchen today. Except for the louvered closet door to the pantry, we're done with the kitchen. I put the ceiling picture in so you could see the contrast between the yellowed, tired ceiling and the new white. Painting this popcorn textured ceiling wasn't too bad. I just went slow and loaded on the paint. We used 4 1/2 gallons on the kitchen and great room ceiling and it took me a 1 1/2 days...truly, a pain in the neck!
We put the mineral red accent color on three walls -- the front window wall of the kitchen, the small wall next to the front door, and the high panel in the great room on the interior wall. The rest of the walls are covered in a color called parchment paper. With the white of the ceiling, it gives a bright, airy feel to the great room. I put in new wood plantation blinds in the two great room windows, and installed an under cupboard 18 inch light in the kitchen, in the corner between the stove and sink.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Pop Quiz

Sharpen your pencils (figuratively speaking), boys & girls. Even though it's summer your education is still of paramount importance. Enter your educated guesseses and I'll let you know...sooner or later...if you were correct.
1. What is the popcorn ceiling texture stuff made out of?
2. What is xeriscape and where did it come from?
3. What central Florida city had pea-sized hail yesterday?
4. What is hotter than riding a motorcycle in July in Florida at 9 AM?

So, take your best shot and let me know...

Monday, July 16, 2007

Waiting for Sunset

After supper we moved most of the furniture out of the great room so I could paint the ceiling tomorrow.
It got interesting trying to stuff large pieces of furniture into two bedrooms and an office.
We had the distinct feeling -- after cramming a couple of chairs, an extra lamp, the TV, and my laptop into our bedroom -- that we had seen rooms like this before. Somewhere...

Angry

I was working on the yard this afternoon, cutting grass and trimming bushes. I spent some time in the back yard and when I came back to the front to clean up, I noticed that my power washer was gone. I keep it close to the front of the garage, near the door along the wall. The hose that connects the spray wand with the pump is still hanging on its hook farther in the garage. So I made a report to our Neighborhood Watch and the Orlando Police Department. This machine was less than 3 years old, a Sears Craftsman 3.5 hp power washer. I can't remember when I saw it last...not the kind of thing I use every week. We keep our garage door shut. Someone came by and grabbed our washer right out of the garage. Brazen move. I am angry, upset, and hoping that the degenerate who ripped us off wakes up at night with sweats and nameless fears, is smitten by guilt, and has a conversion experience. God will judge. If, by some unlikely chance, the police catch the thief, I will prosecute.

Office Redo

Another week, another room...We moved back into the completed room this morning. This project was an enjoyable challenge. An 8 ft ceiling made painting the popcorn texture reasonable and the Arabian Sand color covered the light blue walls in one coat. I did put two coats on the white trim -- apparently the previous trim was either not bright white or it had dulled. The 135 square feet of floor made the ceramic tile job one of the "easier" tiling projects we have done. I also bought a pair of non-marking knee pads, which really helped! We laid all of the whole tiles, and then I rented a wet saw and we cut the perimeter pieces. Finally, we mixed the last of the thin set cement and set the pieces. That was a long day, but not a back breaker. We had a morning meeting at school so we started around 1 PM, took a break for supper, and were done with the clean-up by 10:15 PM. We waited two days and then did the grouting. (Lesson learned: Start with the recommended amount of water and slowly add a little of the thin set or grout, stir it in completely, and then add more. This bit by bit process keeps the mortar or grout from getting dry lumps.) After three days we sealed the grout with two coats of sealer. The colors of the room seem to have warmed it and really complement our Southwest mementos. We were able to squeeze our 2-drawer file cabinet into the closet by moving the shelves up 4 inches. Gotta love those movable shelf tracks!
We have the colors for the kitchen / great room picked out, as well as the flooring for the great room. I think we'll pull up the carpet tonight so we can get it out for the trash pickup tomorrow. The popcorn ceiling will be a challenge again, but I did buy some fluffier roller covers. We'll see if that helps. Only about 1/3 of the ceiling is really high; it does slope down quickly, so I should be able to reach most of it from the floor with my roller extension. The interesting logistical problem will be where to put the furniture while the ceiling gets painted!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Rolling Along

At church this morning, Wycliffe friends of ours gave a brief synopsis of their next assignment. They will be leaving in January for southern China. To highlight the diversity of China's languages, Steve said that two people next to each other on a train might be reading the same article in the same newspaper and still not be able to converse with each other. I said to Gayle that the same thing could be said for people in the Southern United States! The paper today was full of the stories of the NASCAR Pepsi 400 at Daytona Beach. One picture showed a man playing "Redneck Horseshoes" -- the shoes were cut down toilet seats and the targets were traffic cones. I guess it's safer than lawn darts...


We finished painting our bedroom; used the same colors as the bathroom, ivory and blue-green. There were several challenges to this room also. The ceiling is 16 ft at the peak, so to cover the dreaded popcorn texture, I was on an 8 ft step ladder with a 6 ft roller extension. I had to cover the ceiling fan with tape and paper to keep the paint splatters and "popcorn rain" off. One coat of ceiling white, heavily applied, was all it took. Thankfully! We did need to do two coats on the walls -- the yellow in the ivory mandated that. We finished everything except the baseboards by Friday afternoon. I then cleaned the carpet; thank you, Bissell brother! On Saturday morning, I installed the new plantation blinds (I was glad to see the mini-blinds go!) and painted the baseboards. I painted the louvered closet doors in the garage -- had the garage ceiling fan on. It was mid-90's yesterday and no afternoon rainstorm. Not to complain though; this past week we had about 5.5 inches of rain.

Next target is the office. We have the paint and ceramic tile for the floor. The tile should make the transition from the garage to the house much easier for cleaning.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Philosophy Question

Why do closets look so large when they're empty? Why does it feel good to organize stuff? And how in the world did we get so much stuff? I was thinking deep thoughts as GB and I painted our closet this morning...We don't have a huge master closet, but Tim and I lived in a room together that was just 2.5 times larger than our closet! We had a number of holes and one small shelf that we removed, so there was some spackling - 2 coats for a couple of larger holes. The ceiling was a medium popcorn texture; hateful stuff! I'm going to do the bedroom ceiling tomorrow afternoon, and I shudder to think what will happen with that *&%$##@ popcorn stuff. (*crummy) We'll have to move all of the furniture out and completely cover the floor. After the ceiling white is on, the walls and trim should be a cake walk. We're using the same colors as the bathroom - ivory for most of the walls and trim, and the blue/green for the wall panel above the closet. I think we can be done by Saturday.

We had a blinger of a thunderstorm this afternoon -- we're finally getting into the summer cycle of AM blue sky and PM showers. We had 5 inches of rain in less than 2 hours! I think the tree frogs thought they had died and gone to heaven! Ominous weather news: the first tropical wave of the year was on the weather report tonight. Too much dry air near it so it won't do much, but that's the first of many. And, the water temps in the Gulf and in the Atlantic / near east side of Florida are warm...
We're planning on a breakfast ride tomorrow morning. The idea is to do the outdoors stuff before traffic and heat get too stiff and be back home before the rains begin again. Should be fun! Hope the rains stop before the fireworks are scheduled to go off tomorrow night. :)