Electricity

Rob and Lee were here again today to try to get a handle of all of my electrical madness. And because they are good sports and Lee has actually read my blog and knows all about it - they posed for the camera.
They left my house looking like Swiss cheese though:
Two more new holes in the ceiling of my bedroom that I've got to fix sooner rather than later. I don't want anymore squirrels in here. The results of the holes are good though. I have another circuit on the third floor, an outlet in the bathroom (which didn't have one before) and enough wire and stuff to get better lighting in there. I've just got to get to Home Depot and get some wall sconces, Lee will put 'em in and voila - bathroom finished. Then I paint in there. :)
But Lee did leave me something very curious - where did these bricks come from? Did he take them out of my walls???
I'm going to have to ask when I talk to him later this week.

Much ado about nothing

I feel so half-assed about these posts lately - like I'm trying desperately to post something for your enjoyment, anything! I got the guilt trip from my dad last time we talked, "It's such a disappointment when there's nothing new on the blog." :) I'm sorry I've been slacking lately. The truth is I've kind of run out of steam. Getting the second floor the way I wanted it was a big priority. And I worked my tush off to get it there and I'm so relieved to be done with that I'm trying to rally to either finish up the few little projects, or start on the big one. The BIG one is to get the house insulated and rented - which is really boring! But I suppose there are other things of interest.
Leah helped me move my kitchen table from storage into the second floor last weekend. It squeaked in after we took the doors off of the hinges. We. are. good.
After living with it for a week, I decided it needed to be sanded and polyurethaned. Ken made this table for my mom, so many years ago now. I think it must be at least 20? How is that possible? But it must be - we got the table when I was in high school. Well, it is time for a sprucing-up, so after consulting Toni and Ken, I sanded most of the bad scratches and the pink marker stains off, and gave it a fresh coat. This evening I gave it the second coat - and we'll see if it needs a third in the morning. I'm kind of hoping not, because I don't really want it super shiny, just shiny.
In another on-going project, I've finally finished with the first half of the sweater I'm knitting. I started on the beginning of the sleeve this morning. It's going so much faster than the body, I can't believe it. I was so hoping to be able to wear it this year, but I'm having my doubts. The sleeves will only be fast until it's time to attach them to the rest of the sweater - then it's back to 20 minutes for one row.
Just FYI - the orange cake was a hit - so I'll be making that again. The recipe is from the Feb 2009 Gourmet magazine - it should be on epicurous.com fairly soon.

Spring Teaser

It was a balmy 70° in Philadelphia today. It was so warm, I opened all the windows to warm up the house. Ha ha! The sun shone only through noon unfortunately, and then it became very overcast. But at least it didn't rain and it stayed warm until the evening. I was so desperate to do some kind of laundry - to hang things up outside - I grabbed all of the kitchen towels. Nothing is better than outside-air-dried things.
This morning I worked on preparing for the workshop I'm giving next Saturday at Moore for the Alumna. This afternoon I baked. This is an Orange Polenta Cake from Gourmet magazine. I guess that means the recipe should be on epicurious.com? Nope. I just looked. I'm too lazy to get up and get the recipe - but I'll post it if any one's interested. It's basically a caramel base with orange slices on top, then an almond/polenta/orange flower water batter on top. Tomorrow it gets a glaze. The recipe says to use orange marmalade but when I (ahem) sampled the bottom with some this afternoon - it was too sweet. So I think I will use some of my lime marmalade. Should lend the right tartness to it. The BADass (Book Arts Discussion) Group is meeting tomorrow and I asked if they would mind being guinea pigs for this recipe. If it's a hit, this will be the basis for my edible book for the Edible Book party coming up at the end of the month.
I did some more colorful cooking yesterday. I made Rotkohl (Red Cabbage) following a couple of different recipes and from what I remember of how my mom used to make it. It turned out darn good. :) Plus its extra pretty when you put it in the lime green pot Jessica gave me a few years ago. This is what I'm thinking for the color combo in my bathroom. . . don'tcha think it could work?
Red Cabbage: (must be made one day before)
1 red cabbage cut in half, sliced crosswise very fine.
1 large onion, chopped
olive oil
1 tart apple, cored, cut in quarters
3 whole cloves
3 whole allspice
1/2c red wine vinegar
1/2c water
1 T brown sugar
In a large pot put one or two table spoons olive oil, heat and add the chopped onion. Cook until soft. Add the red cabbage and lightly saute ( i was thinking of how I make collard greens - but the red cabbage doesn't really wilt the same way. . . so . . .sorry no advice there). With heat on medium, add the apple, spices, vinegar and water and stir a bit more. Cover. When the cloves become aromatic sprinkle sugar on top. Allow to simmer on low for an hour, stirring every once in a while. Turn heat off, keep covered and let sit over night. My mother always left the pot on the stove and nobody died, so that's what I did. I also don't ever remember eating the apple. That was discarded - and for heaven's sake - watch that you don't chomp into a clove or allspice - that will definitely put a damper on the experience. This is also called sweet and sour cabbage. It's not every one's taste, as kids we hated it, but, wow, today it tasted so good. :)
I also finally managed to get some larger window sills installed. Now I have some place to put plants in the kitchen.

March comes in like a Lion

Woke up Sunday morning to a light dusting of snow. It was such a nice surprise and so beautiful. That pure white layer over everything is just gorgeous. I knew it wouldn't last, so I just enjoyed it for the morning. It made my new 2nd floor so much cozier.
I worked my tush off trying to get everything organized. I had a list a mile long and only managed to get a few things crossed off. Went to bed wishing I had one more day for my weekend.
Wish granted.
Woke this morning to find about 5 inches of snow on everything and the radio blasting: Philadelphia Schools are closed! Yipee! Snow day for me! Lovely - lovely - a reprieve - another chance to get more done.
I spent most of Sunday trying to move all of my junk back into the living space. It is so beautiful in here now. Cozy rugs on everything, fantastic floors, space to move and mostly everything back where it belongs. It makes me smile just to walk through the door. I have decided to put the molding on hold for the time being and tackle some of the other things needing tackling.
Paper work for one thing:
I started weeding out my files last night, and mostly finished up this morning. In the process I finally demolished the shredder my dad gave my sister an me a few years ago. We scoffed at it at first - and then I got a ticket for my trash in Philadelphia. Hmph. So I brought it back with me and abused it for about 3 years straight putting everything through it. Time for a new one. Unfortunately I still had about 4 inches of stuff that needed to be shredded.
I took some time today, went outside and put it all in the bar-b-que.
Jacques came out to watch the proceedings - I think mainly because I was outside. He came out this morning when I was shoveling the sidewalk and was happy to come in once I was done. About half way through the day he made it clear he wanted to go out again. But once he was out on the stoop - he wasn't so thrilled. He had to think about it though, so I finally shut the door on him. He turned immediately with those shocked eyes pleading me to let him back in. I opened the door and he came running. Snow really isn't his cup of tea.
So what did Joe say?
Joe Revlock came on Friday to finish the environmental audit of my house. (He's associated with a website I haven't looked at yet, but will and then will probably post it on the blog.) And while I'm thrilled he came, it left me a bit depressed. :( There is so much to do. He was here for almost 7 hours straight and the man is full of information. So what it boils down to is:
My house is very very leaky. Cold air is coming in everywhere and therefor warm air is escaping everywhere; visualize Swiss cheese. What I have before me in terms of work is a giant cascading domino pattern. The third floor needs to be insulated and the basement needs to be insulated and foamed. The third floor cannot be insulated until I get the squirrels out, and the entire roof tightened up. The basement can't be foamed until Lee (the electrician) has come and put electricity everywhere I want it, because the foam needs to go between the where the floor and the walls meet. Electric wires should be in place before any foaming takes place.
*And you know? this foam stuff? - this can't be good for you. I know, I know, it needs to be done, but it's some synthetic stuff that magically expands??? I'm putting good money down, that this stuff is going to be lethal in 50 years. (sigh) But what am I supposed to do?
After the roof is tightened, I can blow insulation into the crawl space of the roof (12") and in the walls of the third floor. I'm pretty sure I can do this myself. You can buy the blow-in insulation at Home Depot and if you buy enough of this stuff they'll throw in the blower rental for free. Once the third floor insulation is done, I can patch the holes, paint and at the very end of the tunnel? . . . I can finally rent it out!!! This would be very good because at the end of the day when Joe was leaving, what showed up in the mail? My heating bill for February. ugh. Yeah, it was for $732. and change. I saved a whoppin' $50. - big deal. That doesn't even cover the insulation in the basement. :(
So in my baby-step fashion, I talked to Mr. El this morning and told him I needed the roof done this month. He's been saying since October he'd do it for me. So - if he doesn't, I need to find someone else. I have mixed feelings about all this. I'd like to work with him since he's my neighbor. But I'm not exactly impressed with the work he's done so far. He is working on his house at the moment, and inside it looks great - but things don't actually get 100% done. On the other hand, I really don't want to piss off my neighbor. sigh - Talk about the rock and hard place.
I also talked to Lee today. He stopped by at the end of the day and took a look at what still needed to be done. I really wanted to put all of the last of the electric stuff off a year, but you know, the insulating and lower heat payments need to happen now - so that takes care of that plan. Lee said he would be in this week to start on the last of it, but that I also need to map out the circuitry of my house. Ugh - one more thing I have to do that's not so much fun.
But back to Joe . . . he has so many great suggestions. He's been living with sustainable energy for years. Apparently he used to have a radio show on the local NPR radio station all about how to be energy efficient in one's home. I'm telling you, they need to hire him back. Especially in this political climate. That show would get major ratings. This is a guy who speaks in full paragraphs. Not in an annoying way either, but just that full of information. One of the major problems I'm having with my forced air heater, is that the humidity in the house is really really low. (I know - I can't catch a break - low humidity in winter - way to high in summer). But really, my hands were suffering in January. They were paper thin dry and very painful. I could lather them in Nivea cream and the cream would soak in in a matter of minutes as though it had never been there. Joe's solution?: Keep well watered plants in rooms, or set up a rock garden in a cookie sheet or something and keep water in it. This will evaporate in the heat - and doesn't cost energy like a humidifier. (and it's quiet too). Don't want to put plastic in the windows? Get high density insulation, cut slightly smaller than the size of the window. Wrap an inch thick of the soft squishy upholstery about the outside edge, cover the entire thing with nice fabric. When you are not in the room, just pop the insulation in the window. When in the room, or when sunlight is coming through to warm the room, take the thing out of the window. Easy to store in the summer. And his advice went on and on. He has also already researched tankless water heaters. Yeah - that's the next big upgrade in this house. My grandmother used to have a boiler in the bathroom that would instantly heat the water. Not only did it save energy because it only heated water from the boiler to the tub (a mere two feet) but you could have an entire tub full of hot water. Ah - such luxury!
Well, I think that's further down on the list. At least now it's above getting Thermopane windows. I have these visions of going to Germany to visit my Great Aunt and while I'm there, ordering some of these fabulous windows. . .

In the mean time - I have my beautiful kitchen. Someone told me that blue is the color of creativity. I think they are right - either that or I'm just so thrilled by how beautiful my kitchen is that I love to cook in it now. Here's what I made last night: (adapted from an epicurious.com recipe)
1 onion chopped
5 cloves garlic
1 chicken breast cubed
1 t. cumin
1 t. thyme
1 T olive oil
2 yams cubed
1/2c. dried cherries
3 whole cloves
1/2 t. cardamom (but I think 3 whole cardamom pods would have been better)
1 can tomato sauce.
salt and pepper to taste
Mix cumin and thyme in a bowl. Add chicken and coat with herbs. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add chicken, just browning the outsides. Add yams, cherries, spices, and tomato. Turn heat to low and simmer 30 min. I served over rice, but think it would be good with more veggies and no rice. Super super yummy.

In other news:
My support of the economy has finally paid off. I have enough bonus miles to make it to Australia. I've been invited to have a show there at a gallery near Melbourne. :) Yippee! Stay tuned for more on that!

I made a ton of phone calls today to various utilities companies - and one especially to the gas company. Turns out - they have a plan to help budget for those enormous winter bills. They average your bill out for four months, and then you pay less per month. So instead of paying that $732.- bill this month, I only owe $318. :) That's much less painful on my bank account.

These are my new coat hangers. I bought them at Cost Plus (World Market) when I was in Calif. for Christmas. Now I just need to figure out where to put them . . . and this post is mostly just for Toni.

2nd floor - the saga continues

With Jacques help (and Leah's too) I managed to move back into the second floor. Leah helped with the furniture and Jacques helped with the decision of the rug and warming up the chairs.
I bought Jacques a toy at IKEA today but he's not really excited about it. It's a pink tube that makes too much noise for comfort. I've put catnip and some other comfort spray in it, so maybe in the next few days we'll be excited about it.
It is so exciting to have things so close to how you want them. :)

Jacques's new floors

Here they are, complete with new dusty footprints and everything. Don't worry the floor was completely dry before either of us walked on it.

Isn't it lovely? That Henry Sanding Floor - he does an amazing job. Showed up at my house at 5:45 last night to finish up.
There is still a ton of work to be done (what a surprise) - so stay tuned.
Leah and I are going to my storage unit to pick up some rugs and stuff, will post again tonight.

The 2nd Fl Floors!

Henry Came yesterday, sanded them down and put the first coat of polyeurithane on them.
They look beautiful!!! Unfortunately my internet connection is on the second floor so I'll have to wait until Saturday to be able to get in there and do a proper post with pictures.
Needless to day, Jacques and I already left our dusty footprints all over the beautiful floors during our inspection.
And there may be a new problem with the bathroom. (sigh) Stay tuned.

2nd Fl. Floor

Well, we're about to do the floors. And boy do they need it.
I called Henry on Saturday and it took a little while before he knew who I was. But once he realized, I was golden. He remembered me, remembered that I'd recommended him to someone and gave me a great price on the second floor. He is coming on Wednesday to start - so I've been running around like a mad crazy person trying to get everything out of the way.
Tomorrow I teach - Wednesday night I shall buy a new refrigerator. Hopefully this weekend, I can get half of my 2nd floor put back together again, for a while at least.

I called Jeff after the tile came. He was thrilled, but can't come until the first week of March.
Jacques isn't sure what is going on. He was very helpful about claiming empty shelves, but I hope he doesn't think we are moving again. That was pretty upsetting for him.
PS: I had a dream about the aubergine ceiling in the bathroom. Somehow, I was being served tea by the lady who runs the store that sells the paper marbling stuff in Seattle. I've never met her, but in my dream she is a nice old lady with steel gray curly hair in a calico dress and white apron. As she poured me a cup of tea she told me I should paint the ceiling aubergine and then throw gold dust on the wet paint. :)

Greatest Gift

I've been threatening to do this blog post for a while now:
I love my vacuum.
My fabulous Hoover Mach 6 superdooper vacuum was given to me by Daddy and Ann when they visited last July. Ann and I spent most of our visit at Home Depot picking it out. We looked at several models and I was suspicious about this one because it was on sale - but if I remember correctly, the sales lady said it was very good and she'd buy it if it was up to her. So they bought this one for me and it has been fabulous. It has shiny green buttons on it, a multi-chamber cyclonic cleaning system, cord rewind with 28' of cord (this is way cool- you can step on a button and the cord zips back into the machine!), a HEPA filter, and brush control. I can turn the brush on and off depending on what I'm vacuuming, not only that, but I can raise and lower the brush. This has been extremely helpful because my Persian carpets are different lengths and now the longer (thicker) carpets won't bunch up when I go over them, and the shorter carpets are still clean when I'm done with them. That's the best part about this vacuum; it really sucks up a lot of dirt. I can't believe it! My rugs are a different color when I'm done with them. Brighter. And now I like to vacuum - I feel like I've accomplished something. I feel as though I have a space age contraption - it does everything but vacuum by itself. Even the tubes are clear! You can see the dirt going through them. And you don't need bags. It's got a canister that you empty into the trash! So I'm not creating any more garbage by using a bag - I love it! If you come visit - I'll let you use it. :)
I also said I'd take another picture of my tiles so here they are:

I can't really tell if this is better color or not.

Good things come in small packages

My tile came today! yippee! There it is, in four small boxes. Wow. It's so beautiful!!! Unfortunately it's late at night and dark and the flash and the 60w bulbs don't do it justice. I'll try to see if I can get better color tomorrow during the day. Needless to say the color is a lot less avocado and a lot more fluorescent - as in - my favorite color green! And the blogger image isn't as good as the photoshop image anyway.
It was a very long and somewhat productive day, finishing up at Home Depot (doin' my part for the economy, as usual) and Trader Joe's. At Home Depot I picked up a lot of paint swatches because I really need to decide what color to make the bathroom - although, I'm leaning towards plain white to set off the tiles and the wood.
Then again, doesn't that aubergine look beautiful with the green tile? (sigh) I just think that's a bit much with the blue wall and the orange hallway… oo - maybe I could make the ceiling that color?! Wow that would be something…

So, yes, I went to Home Depot today to see what I could see. I wanted:
foam for the basement(I'll explain shortly)
staples for the staple gun
molding for the second floor door
and I wanted to inform myself about fridges and washers and dryers.

Okay fine. Picked up foam and staples and went to check out the appliances. I found the fridge I want, upside down, white, with a funny freezer on the bottom. (There's a door that opens instead of a drawer.) It's smaller, only 20cu.ft. but I think that's okay - I'm actually surprised at how often my fridge is empty. I think this is a good thing - it means I'm not being to wasteful with food and I eat what I purchase. Good. While I was looking for the fridge, I found almost the same model my grandmother had! Upside down (freezer on the bottom). It's too bad it's only 10cu.ft., which works well in Germany for retired people who can go to the market everyday to pick up fresh food, but I don't think would work well for me after a while. It's still as cute as ever, and the freezer is a bit more convenient with three drawers rather than one drawer and a tray. Hmm.
I also asked about washer/dryers - and the turquoise one's I want are good. :) I might just get them. If I open a Home Depot charge card I can save 10%. This would be very good.

Now, if good things come in small packages, do bad things come in big packages?

I had someone come out and do an environmental audit of my house. After my $783.- heating bill last month - something had to be done. Lee the fabulous electrician recommended Joe - the fabulous sustainable environmentalist, who audits people's houses for a living and gives recommendations on what to do to fix things. He's also the first person who has really explained what "tightening" up a house means! I get it now. But it also makes me want to curl up on the floor and cry my eyes out. It means so much work. :(
Basically what we want is less air flow in the house. Now I know what a drafty "West Philly" house means because I have one! The house will be more efficient when I block off all the leaks of cold air into the house - which basically equals the warm air out of the house. So in addition to putting the fiberglass in the basement, I now have to use that horrible spray foam. The foam needs to go between the edge of the floor and the wall of the house. Because there is a gap in the walls that allows (even at 1") enough cold air in the basement to flow through the walls that they are cold. Thus, all of the spray foam at Home Depot. So maybe I'll get to that this weekend. But the other things that need to be done (so far) are to spray fibercell into the walls, once the spray foam is done. This can be done by poking a small hole in the wall and spraying the stuff in. Good. I also have to spray insulation into the attic crawl space. So far that's all I know. Joe has to come back next Friday to do the rest of the audit. This involves putting up a big fan and measuring the volume of the house and the difference in air flow in and out of the house. Sounds like complicated math to me. At any rate - the bottom line seams to be - I have a ton of work ahead of me to get this house tightened up so that that ridiculous heating bill comes down.

On that note. I think Jacques is cold. Poor baby. He's been very very cuddly lately, and tonight especially, sitting on my shins just didn't seem to be doing it. He decided a better spot was between me and the chair. I'm fine with this arrangement too - he's very warm.

Tile Tile Tile!

When I got home from teaching tonight, I got a message - my tile is in Philadelphia! Will make arrangements tomorrow to get it in my house. Yippee!

President's Day

Before:After:
I remember when we used to have two holidays in February - Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's Birthday. Sure do miss those days.
I decided to attack the wall facing the living room , and I am one step closer now to having the second floor finished. :) It looks nice, doesn't it?
I am posting early because I am waiting for my rice to cook. I hope it tastes as good as it smells.
Tara's President's Day Rice:
2T Avocado Oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5cloves of garlic smashed through press
1 cup rice
2cups water
2 bay leaves
1inch cinnamon stick
1t cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the avocado oil in whatever you normally cook rice in. Add onions and garlic. Saute until cooked, about 5min. Add the rice continue to saute for another 3 minutes. Add the bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Add the water. Sprinkle cumin on top of water, add salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to low and allow to simmer 20 minutes. I'm planning on adding a bit of cheese and eating this with some refried beans. I can't decide if I need to add some tomato sauce.

All in a Day's Work

Well, just in case you are wondering, I did my Michelin Man impersonation down in the basement for many hours this weekend. A full Tyvek suit, goggles, dust mask gloves - the whole nine yards, kept me mostly safe from the dirt and fiberglass. I'm three quarters of the way done, but out of staples. It was a good time to break anyway because I've finally figured out the absolute best abdominal work out: Keep your arms straight up in the air and pull fiberglass insulation over pipes, wires, joists, struts, beams and heating ducts- and then keep them up a bit longer to use a staple gun to staple the insulation to the joists. Whew - I am feeling it!
I did that for about three hours today and I can still feel all the grit that managed to fall in my eyes despite the goggles. It may be my imagination but I think it is working. The first floor isn't toasty, but at least the biting cold is less. The biting cold is the kind that no matter how warm the rest of you is (because of two layers of sweatpants, three shirts, wool sweater, scarf and hat), the tip of your nose, your cheeks, finger tips and toes all have frost bite. This was nice because I got into a show and had to take photographs on the first floor this evening.
The show is at Susan Hensel's Gallery in Minneapolis. It is titled Small, Smaller, Smallest, and I submitted this little book I made with four one-dollar bills and a scrap of lime green leather. You get a good idea of the size in the image at the top. It's a bit blurry, but at least that's not my fault because I wasn't shivering.

I finished my new hat yesterday evening before going to Mary's party. Sorry about the weird picture. I just couldn't crop or adjust this one in photoshop. The color is very yellow and I should have cropped it, but it was so artsy - I decided to leave it as it was. I've been sitting at my computer for about three hours now, I don't know why I wasn't wearing my hat!? It's so much warmer with it on!
Tomorrow I must:
Lesson Plan for Tuesday
Go to Moore to pick up stuff from last week, drop of stuff for this week
make new boxes for exchanges
pack up new boxes
sand and prime living room wall
??? Other stuff I'm surely forgetting.

What is wrong with me?

I cannot get it together today. I have been procrastinating on insulating that basement pretty seriously. Couldn't get down there yesterday for one reason or another, and today it's already 11:40 and I'm still putzing on the second floor!
I started a new hat (see above)
had breakfast
wrote checks for bills
organized some paperwork
filed some stuff
more coffee
gazed in wonder at all of the dust still on everything
vowed to clean it this weekend
started a load of laundry
packed two packages
logged into my brain all the other things I should do this weekend:
insulate basement
pack up boxes for Vamp and Tramp
lesson plan
post office
bank
Pearl for paper
Amish farmer for milk
Wine and Spirits store for Mary's anti-monogamy party tonight
And now I need to go hang up my laundry.
Then I really need to go down into that yucky basement and finish insulating the ceiling because it does really help. But, (boohoo) I don't want to go down there by myself. :( I don't even know if I can get NPR down there.
Happy Valentines Day - think of me in the dark, cold, cobwebby, dusty, lonely basement . . . woe to me. . .

Update of work from Yesterday

I couldn't' wait. As you can see in this image the floor still needs to be done, but I couldn't wait to put some of my things back and have my kitchen back in order. Imagine beautiful hardwood floors and you get the idea. I'll have to move everything again when the floors are being sanded, but in the meantime I get to have a happy kitchen.
And the work we did in the basement yesterday was not in vain!
We started stuffing insulation between the joists from the back of the house. This is underneath the first floor kitchen that I've had to shut off because it is so cold. I put plastic on the windows, hung a heavy drape over the back door, shut the heating vent and put another heavy drape over the doorway. (There's no door at this moment or it would be shut.) That room has been a little icebox from the beginning and since I don't use it that much, I thought shutting it off would help my heating bill. Nope.
This morning I went in there to do some laundry and would you believe, that room is warmer than the hallway leading up to it? This is the hallway that is heated! Now it's not toasty, but it's much warmer - which proves to me that insulating the ceiling of the basement is a good idea! Phooey on the Internet. Half of the sites said it wasn't worth it to insulate the basement.

3rd Time's the Charm

There it is, my blue wall - finally! It only took three gallons of paint to get it right. The first one the guy mixed the wrong color, the second gallon was simply not as cool as on the swatch, and the third one is just right. This photo has the flash on, so it's not quite right in the picture. The color of the wall is that beautiful ceramic cobalt blue. (Like the toilet I wanted) I still need to put one more layer of paint on, but after all the hiccups from this morning I think I'm going to sit down and watch a movie! I'm pooped.
Here's the wall in it's previous blue:
I've been looking everywhere for the right color. Cobalt blue does not seem to be in style at the moment. I thought I'd gotten the right color, and the swatch is really nice, but the color is so different when you get the whole wall painted. In the picture above you can see the old color with the new color swatch painted on top of it. Look how dusty the old color looks. The new color is so much more vibrant. Matches the fan better too! I thought I had finished the wall last night, and in night-time-light the wall looked fine. But in morning-sunshine-light it looked awful.
The plan was for Leah to help me insulate the basement today. I was going to pick her up from Home Depot to help me get insulation. I figured I could run a few errands before picking her up. Nothin' doin'. So we had to do them afterwards. Fine. Got home looked at the wall Leah agreed the new blue we picked up at Home Depot would be better. (Did I mention that the only color close to what I wanted was the Ralph Lauren paint - which is the most expensive paint in the store? Figures).
We trotted down to the basement and began. That plan was to shove insulation between the joists and everything else in the basement to try to do something about the heat on the first floor. After about an hour and a half of basement dirt falling into our eyes, fiberglass dust flying around (yes we were wearing masks, gloves and eye protection - sort of) we decided to have lunch to see if we were even doing this right. You'd think I would have looked into this ahead of time. Everything Leah read on the internet said to keep the kraft paper towards the wall? This didn't seem logical. Half the pages said, "Insulate!" The other half said "Don't bother".
We called Toni - Home Depot and Nicole, (in that order) and asked them. Nicole had the most confident answers so we decided to do it her way. BUT - she said you can't shove insulation in, that it functions best when it can lie completely flat. Well, that's not how mine is. Part of the problem is that my joists are closer together than standard sized stuff is in a house. So I may have to cut things down to size to get it in there. Then her next piece of advice is to use Tyvek to also help buffer and keep things up where they belong. I was hoping not to have to. And as usual, the quick and easy job I thought it was going to be has exploded into a major project. Ugh. When will I learn? We were feeling itchy from the fiberglass, (we really need tyvek suits), so we decided to call it a day. I think the fates are telling me to take a break finish one project and regroup. There are ten billion things I could be doing, but I think I need to just sit down with my feet up, admiring my blue wall, watch a movie and knit something. Then I can make a new list of all the things I have to do.

PS: I'm sorry about this post - I don't seem to be able to edit at this time. I hope it all makes sense. :)

Kitchen walls primed

All the walls are primed! I was going to be super woman and keep painting - then I remembered that I need to lug a 5 gallon container of paint up here and I caved. I painted pretty much all day so I think I did quite well. There were a few more things that needed spackling - those will be dry on Friday, and I'm not really sure how to proceed with the painting anyway. I think the best plan in to paint everything else white - and then paint the blue wall. But I need to mull that one over in my mind. I was told by several people to add color to the primer for the blue wall, thus the lavender wall at the moment. It's not bad - not great, but not bad.
I also had to refit the heating grate in the kitchen. I've almost got it. It fit better when it had plaster to hang onto. While I was working with it, I noticed some of the paint flaking off, so I took the utility knife and started scraping. I think I'll keep at it a while, see if it will be beautiful without paint. If not - I'll paint it blue.
While I was working on getting the grate to fit, I peered down the heating duct.
Eew.
There had to be about 120 years of heating dust in there. yuck. So I grabbed the shop vac and sucked out most of it, but there was still some in there. I was wishing I had some amazing round brush that would clean it all out when who appeared and took care of the situation? Why my faithful sidekick, Jacques. He hopped right in there and was half way down when he panicked and backed up right quick-like. Out he popped all grey from the extra dust I wasn't able to get with the vac. Thanks Jacques!
A few more shots of the beautiful weather. Icicles hanging off of the eaves. They grew over the day because the sun melted the snow which dripped, but it was cold enough for the water to re-freeze. There was also a soft wind and it would blow the powdery snow from the roof making it look as though someone had thrown a handful of silver glitter into the air. Every snowflake shimmered and sparkled in the sunlight.

Snow Day - again!

NPR said at 6am "Philadelphia public schools are closed" Woohoo! So I shut the radio off, turned over and slept for another three hours.
But look how beautiful it is.
I love the seasons of my back yard. The snow is thick and powdery. Mr. El and his helper had already shoveled in front of my house so I didn't have to do that. I need to pick up some more salt this weekend though. . .
One thing I've wanted to see from the moment I moved in is snow on the tree. I love snow on evergreens. The cedar trees by the museum last night were heavy with snow, just gorgeous.
It will be 27° today so the snow will last a bit. It's soft and powdery, like a down blanket thrown over the entire neighborhood.
Jacques, of course had to inspect things, forgetting that he doesn't like the snow. He did widdle on my porch and left me a nice little yellow pile of scraped-up snow.
He followed me to the shed to see what I was up to - telling me all the while how much he didn't like the snow on his paws and making the dogs absolutely nuts.
Aren't they cute? That's Girlie in the middle with her cute ears.
In a complete non-sequitur: I am thrilled that Daschle stepped aside. I was feeling a bit down with that scandal and thought, well, here we go again - nothing's going to change. I'm so glad that it is.
Painting the kitchen today - stay tuned.

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days, where despite a lot of hiccups, it was actually a really great day? It was supposed to snow all night last night and we should have been snowed in by this morning. This would have meant a snow day for me. But alas, upon waking up, there was barely a dusting on the ground. So off to work I went
There we had a meeting to discuss a fundraiser for HSP that I can't talk much more about because it was a confidential meeting. But needless to say - we were laughing at some of the ideas because otherwise we'd be crying. Oi.
Upon ordering lunch from my usual place, she added fries to my chicken melt - that I really didn't want, but took anyway because she'd already charged me for them, and they were cooked, and I knew I could convince Leah to eat the other half.
At lunch EVERYBODY had those blasted Girl Scout cookies - handing them out - and I managed resist.
It started snowing at about 1:30.
Got to school around 2:30 and realized I hadn't prepped some important things. There is something to be said for being a pack rat and saving unused items. I had enough stuff in my office to wing it without my students being the wiser.
My advanced class was stellar - there were tons of, "I love this!" Despite the fact that I didn't really teach them anything. I said, "here - read this" and "here's some paper, make a tunnel book." And we sat for three hours and they did! They are my rock star class.
My Book Box class (basic class) surprised me by rising to the occasion when a fire was lit under the behinds. We finished their course books, and a multi purpose box, and despite the fact that it was 9:20 and class was over and I said they could leave, not one of them left without finishing their box. I am quite pleasantly surprised. This is not what usually happens and definitely not what I expected from this class. I had to stay until about 9:50 until the last two were finished.
It took 20 minutes to get home in a cab because there is now at least six inches of snow on the ground.
On the way home, I passed such views; heavy snow on bare branches, kids sledding down the Art Museum steps, snow on fences and steps, on sidewalks, and another bunch of kids (grown up one's by the looks of them) making and enormous snowman in the park.
I made a martini to wind down and despite the fact that I ran out of gin, it still tasted good.
It was a good day.Dare I hope for a snow day tomorrow?

Super Bowl Sunday

I had promised Miss Mary that I would watch the Superbowl with her back in ??? October?
Miss Mary is Mr. El's wife and we get along just fine. SO - while I was looking forward to spending the evening with her, I was also stressed about how much work needed to be done in the ol' abode. For one thing - winterizing needed to be done. I spent most of today putting plastic up on the windows of the first floor. I'd also bought upholstery fabric (a really great green) from JoMar for about $4/yard, and I put heavy drapes up to help insulate the first floor. This is where the thermometer is - and I'm hoping to drop that insane heating bill! I think I still need to do the bathroom but it's not as drafty as the front rooms.
It was warm today too - about 40° - and I did a bunch of laundry and dried it outside. However, now I'm freezing. Bedtime soon - I've got two quilts and a down comforter - that should do the trick.
I promised pics of the pantry by daylight so here it is:
Too bad I didn't have time to work on this more. I'll do some more tomorrow - come hell or high water. I did prime behind the sink and stove area - but that's about it.
I have to say I am really thrilled with my choice in turquoise. It looks especially stunning around my daffodils from Trader Joe's which opened nicely today.
Don't miss little Jacques' inspection on the bottom shelf. How cute is that?

Back to the Superbowl - I've never watched this in my life. But I went over to Miss Mary's to see what we could see - me, her mom, and another neighbor - Miss Joy. Joy works at my bank - go figure? She was so nice, I'm looking forward to being friends with her. She lives a few doors up from me, I've met her daughter more since she's friends with Miss Mary's granddaughter. It's always great to hang out with Miss Mary. She is an incredibly nice person and we seem to have really bonded. I'm sorry I had to leave the Superbowl early - it was nice hanging out with her. But I didn't see much of the game - at anyrate…