Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

Saturday, SR and I painted. Dunno if I like the color or not. It's better than what was there (the previous paint color was very very pale, and wasn't well done anyway), but the jury is out as to whether we actually like it. We'll wait till the new floor gets down and we get things back up on the wall as that will change the view.

I'm planning a victorian-ish outfit (ostensibly for a wedding in September, but it will also be useful for other things). The sticking point is that I only have a 72"x 66" piece of the fabric I want to use for the skirt (I bought all they had!), and getting a full or full length skirt out of that will be tricky. I may just go with a shorter skirt, and steampunk it up a bit.

I'm gaining on the basement re-sort -- cleared another two shelves and a crate last week. Progress will probably slow, as I really should get to actual work (not just planning) on that outfit. I also have plans for a early-1960's dressy dress as an FCB costume, to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

The flooring is expected in the warehouse sometime in the next couple of weeks. Then we can schedule an installation date. We have a certain amount of work to be done just before they come out -- I want to remove a badly placed floor vent, so we'll need to patch the floor there. (We'll also need to remove the ductwork in the basement, but that doesn't need to be done before the floor goes down.) I expect that we'll have to do some subfloor repair in front of the dishwasher (there've been a few leaks, just before and shortly after we put the new one in), and perhaps a bit where the old cat waterer was(which was not as fully contained as one might wish). We also need to check the floor in the hall where the cats sprayed for a while during the settling phase.

The kitchen walls are now painted -- I probably could have gotten away with buying just a quart of paint -- when I did the math, I neglected to account for the 60% of wall that is covered by cabinets. Ah well, there's a laundry room and a basement stair to paint.... The accent wall in the dining room matches the one in the living room -- I did get just a quart for that one, as it's only 6 feet long.

The laminate samples are beginning to show up -- I ordered larger samples from the manufacturers, after doing a first pass using the teeny samples from the lumberyard. Still waiting on the cabinetry/countertop quotes, but they did say "up to two weeks", as they're down to one designer for the summer, and their shops are busy too.

And then we all ran away for the weekend! Musecon was fun. I really need to remember to set alarms so I'd remember to go to things I wanted to, but.... Did watch the blacksmithing, and spent quite a bit of time watching the saris and lenghees and kurtas and salwar khameez at the Indian weddings. DB was a guest/volunteer at the Kaboom! on Saturday night -- fun with liquid nitrogen!

(or maybe we're just finding the ducks?) Whatever.

Yesterday, the kids and I (heh. "kids" 18 & 23) went into town, and visited the lumberyard and the flooring store. The lumberyard is now preparing a couple of quotes for a kitchen cabinet and a new countertop for the island, and the flooring store is preparing a quote for the kitchen & dining room. (The floor in the laundry room is getting replaced, too, but that's going to be good sheet vinyl.)

Also yesterday, taking advantage of the lovely weather, J went up on the roof and replaced the sheathing and the shingles on the porch roof -- it was just tacked on (not very well) to the house roof, and 20 years ago we'd pulled it away a bit while we were putting the posts in, and the roof was sagging and leaking. The shingles don't quite match, but the entire roof is going to be replaced sometime in the next five years anyway.

I finally finished weeding the strawberries, and filled up the cart with weeds and trimmings from the E flowerbed (the one that looks like an English cottage garden). I hear that the chicken broil decorating committee may be stopping by to cut flowers on Saturday morning. It's possible that all they'll get is Queen Anne's Lace, as there's mostly buds and greenery in the gardens right now.

The counting of the froggies is nine!

more fireflies. Lots of fireworks and firecrackers. The lake association just north of us scheduled their Independence Day fireworks for tonight, and a lot of neighbors decided that today would be a great day for firecrackers and 'domestic' fireworks.

The kids and I got the living room painted today. It's a very interesting color (Valspar's "Navajo Horizon") and it changes a lot as the light changes. Tomorrow I need to finish emptying the shelves and tables, and move them. While they've scheduled two days for the job, I suspect that both rooms will be worked on Monday, so I need to have the furniture down to bare minimum tomorrow evening, so that it's easier to move.

Ji stunned a bird this morning, but it flew off while he was being all proud of himself.

I am stiff and creaky and my toes hurt. I suspect it may be worse tomorrow evening, and Monday morning will be unpleasant.

The den is very bright now. The new door is a Pella slider with blinds between the glass. As a sliding door, there's more window than there was on the old french door, and the Pella blinds completely retract, which the old ones didn't. J is still doing finish work on it -- it's a little bit bigger than the old one on the outside, so it needs all new molding.

I got chomped on by ants yesterday while I was planting. Little hill ants bite. There may have been two kinds, as I've got two kinds of bite on my knees/shins.

And Anna-kitteh is currently cowering behind the sofa. She got herself caught in a plastic shopping bag, and panicked through the house with it. She went to ground behind the sofa, which is a far better place than behind the washing machine, which is where Gizmo went 15 years ago when he did that....

And now we're off to get DB's summer haircut. exciting, no?