In Time for Christmas

I've been playing with some gift related stuff over at "Zazzle" and came up with a few new items that would be perfect for the single guy or gal in your family! Here is a preview!
I wonder what Freud would have to say about this?

So many women Hat
by

wgnetwork

Get this custom hat
at Zazzle

Natural Progression

I guess it was inevitable really. After finishing umpteen doors, hundreds of feet of trim and molding and a crap load of windows I couldn't be happy. There had to be a void that needed to be filled. I mean, after all it has been several months since I held a heat gun in my hand or whiffed the aroma of shellac. What could I do to fill the void? There had to be something staring me in the face that I was missing. Then I realized that there was! About 4 years ago Deborah stripped the paint off an old chest of drawers then stored it in the garage where it has sat ever since. Every time I get in the car I would see it and say "One day I'm gonna finish that thing." Well that day (week) finally came. Since Elizabeth's grandparents have been sick for the last two weeks I haven't been able to get them to play the role of toddler sitter while I work on the "Crack House" so I was itching for a project that I could complete during the day while Elizabeth played in the front room. She played with her Barbies, ponies, puppies,crayons, did a jigsaw puzzle, chased the cats up and down the stairs (wait, she promised she would stop doing that), recited a score of nursery rhymes, read a couple of books and begged me to give her some Halloween candy. All this within a 15 minute time frame! Then I would get to play Candy land a dozen times followed by Saggy Baggy's Circle of Friends, Feed the Kitty, and the Dr Seuss Green Eggs and Ham Game until Elizabeth won and a couple more times until she won again, before being allowed to continue working on the chest of drawers.
It didn't need much in the way of stripping. The edges and corners of all the panels needed some attention and the mirror and arch needed to be stripped but that was it. It did need some sanding and of course a pass over with alcohol to remove some of the original shellac. Anyway, after much sanding, at least three coats of shellac and two coats of wax polish I present the chest of drawers which has been moved to the second bedroom where there is no room for it, just like there was no room for the stuff that it displaced and that will be hidden within its drawers.



I did get to do some work at the house on Sunday though. The back splash for the sink has been ground, polished, installed, grouted and slurried. All in the same day! Here is the current picture. That plumbing on the corner is a prototype for some side lights. Those plastic tubes on each side of the water valves will be replaced with copper that will hide the electric cable that supplies the side lights. Stay tuned for more, later!

Spreading the Love

I finally did something that I should have done a long time ago. I have added links from this site to many of the ones that link to me. So, if you are reading this and have a link to this site check and see if I have found you out and added a link back. There are some 30ish new links below the one to HouseBlogs.net on the right side of the page. If I missed you, let me know and I can add you. If you are reading this and haven't updated your blog in a while (and you know who you all are) you might want to do that too!

It's All About the Money!

Like many other HouseBloggers out there we entered the Remodelling My Space blog competition in the hopes of winning some cold hard cash that we could use to help offset the cost of supplies (after paying taxes of course!) In order to move closer to completion of the "Old Crack House", which will soon be a seven year long project, I had hoped that we had a chance of winning the popularity contest portion for $1000.00. However, after getting an unlucky amount of votes in six months while others accumulated mounds of votes in minutes I realized that being popular was futile! Who needs to be popular anyway? Now the competition is over and the judges are off doing their thing this week and results will be posted in a week or so, but in the meantime I got this message from the site owner;

To kick off the Christmas season, we're going to have a little mini-contest that will end on Sunday night (December 2, 2007) at midnight....
Here is the contest criteria:
$100 will go to the blog who writes the most creative post about our 'Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas' pictures on this page (link to this page required):
http://www.remodelingmyspace.com/christmas-decoration-ideas/christmas-trees/pictures-decorated-christmas-tree-themes.htm
You know how much we love creativity, so be very creative with your post (no hints)!
Once completed and posted, send me an email with a link to your post, so it can be reviewed. Post must be entered by midnight Sunday December 2, 2007.
Judging will take place Monday and will be announced on The ideaBlog on Monday evening - we'll also send you an announcement.
Judge will be: my Mom. :) (Isn't Christmas about family?)
Who's up for a little Christmas tree decorating?!

So, since this may be my last chance at some $$$ for a while I have carefully thought about what I needs to be told.

There are a lot of people out there who will do crazy things for $100.00. In fact, I have been told that there is one particular woman on Third Ave who will do ANYTHING for $100.00. So if I win this I plan on going to seek her out, give her the money and get her to paint my house! Anyway, I digress.

I checked out that link about Christmas Trees and I realized a few things.
The first thing I realized is that people who have Christmas trees are loosely followers of one particular religious group. I doubt that devout Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Druids, Atheists or worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster would decorate their homes with Christmas trees.
The second thing I realized is that people who are contestants in the Remodelling My Space competition who got the same email message as me would have to believe in Christmas trees and be willing to put one in their own house before they would give up a link on their blog (and lose blogshare value). That means that some people may not bother to post anything and try to win a measly $100.00 especially if their blog share value would plummet from the added link. So maybe I actually have a chance!
The third thing I realized is that I really didn't have anything else to write about this weekend and most importantly ............ besides the fact that I am out of beer, I am now fully confident that with that $100.00, a couple of cases of beer and the help of that woman on Third Ave I can produce a thing of beauty like this

from my Christmas tree.

An Idea to Pass Along.

When we went on that home tour in Southpark a while back I took a couple more photos that I didn't show you. No they aren't pictures that will make you say "wow" or "That is really special". They aren't pictures of designer rooms or exotic appliances, room colors or light fixtures. They were pictures of baseboard molding. Here they are





Of course now you may be saying "Why didn't I think of that?" or "That is so simple it is brilliant!" I may do this in our dining room. Sure makes doing corners a lot easier!

Another (Drastic) Change in the Plan. With Update!

It is really great doing everything yourself because you can change your mind about stuff and it doesn't cost any money for extra labor! For example, our tiny powder room under the stairs. It turns out that I am not going to be able to attach a faucet to the wall because I only have 1 inch of space in the wall for the plumbing attachments and that won't do. Besides, the neck of claw foot tub faucet that I planned to use extends too far over the sink. So we are sort of back to the original plan but I am adding a twist. Why? Because I can.

Let me make it very clear that I had no intentions to do what I am going to do but I think I can pull it off and make this room look classy at the same time. Remember, it is just a bathroom.
The concrete sink is made, polished and installed. It still needs a topical sealer to give it a wet look but I have to wait a couple of weeks before I can do that because the concrete has to fully cure. I am very pleased with my sink. So much so that I poured a 4 inch high back splash Saturday and two 1/4 inch thick side tiles that I hope will survive the mold breaking and polishing process.

I trimmed out the alcove that the sink sits in after painting it a completely different color and will hopefully get the molding painted later this afternoon. I have made the plumbing apparatus and installed the mirror that I had hanging in the bathroom at our resident house. You read that correctly, I MADE the plumbing apparatus. It is in place but not installed because the back splash has to be installed over some of it.

Those lovely women at House Made eluded to this a couple of weeks back and I didn't pay any attention to it then but when we ran into the problem with the faucet all bets were off. In fact I became inspired after somehow winding up on this site and now I am going to make my own side lights for the mirror and a really cool ceiling fixture using some plumbing parts, some wood, antique style bulbs and some funky decorative wiring. When I make my lighting I will be sure to make an extra set and sell it on Ebay to see if there is a market for it. Anyway, as of today, THIS was the view from the toilet! (It is a composite made from two photographs in case you think my walls are bowed)



Can you see where this is going? All I need now is a few funky Victorian patent designs to hang on the wall and a couple of etched brass clockwork switch plates. I'll also need to make a toilet tank cover that looks like riveted iron and be sure to put a few Jules Verne novels on it!

*UPDATE*

Here is a close up picture of the sink for all those people who want to try this for themselves.



Here is a picture that may help you realize just how small this space is. You will notice that I did get the molding painted......

A Little Goodwill....

You would think that by now EVERYONE has a George Foreman grill. If you don't then you certainly don't have to wait until the latest model is released. You don't have to wait for the infomercials to start up again either. Just go to Goodwill



where, for $3.00 each you can buy one or even a dozen, and if you like to collect things, you can buy one of every model and style made! I know you all need ANOTHER kitchen appliance on your limited counter top space. If these things were easy to clean then people might actually use them more than once.

Elizabeth likes these thrift stores because we can get 79 cent Barbies. They never come with clothes though. Can somebody tell me why that is?

We saw a book but I just couldn't justify spending the $1.00 to buy it. It was a "Better Homes and Gardens" publication about kitchen design. It was dated 1972. Lots of wood panelling, linoleum and formica. It was pretty scary. It was too early for the trend of carpet in the kitchen though. Urgh! I need to go wash my hands....