House Made

windowrot_2
Originally uploaded by merideth.

This weekend kicked off “rotpick-fest 2005,” meaning we started pulling out our windows and picking out the rotted areas on them and their corresponding window sills. Was it fun? Sorta. I mean, there’s something entertaining about giving your windows what amounts to a big chemical peel.

And dear lord, the satisfaction of watching the paint bubble up into big soft blisters under the glare of the heat gun…dude that’s just cool. (P.S. No matter how hard you try to avoid touching the hot part of the gun…no matter how many times you run the mantra “it’s hot” through your head while working…you WILL burn yourself at least minorly, at least once…it does not reflect on your intelligence.)

We got two windows (of fourteen) started this weekend. We started with the push-out casement windows and will work our way around the house to the double-hungs. We’re gouging, sealing, epoxy sculpting, painting, rehanging, weather-stripping, and hardware repairing. It will not be a small task but I’m so anxious to have house openings that actually open as the hot weather approaches.

I’m also psyched to have the wood stripped so it can be repainted sans annoying, sloppy glops. (Are we kidding with the drippy paint? Did 3rd graders paint our trim? And our windows shut for that matter?) That’s right. We’re stripping and REPAINTING. We like the white trim. blah blah gorgeous wood…I dont want to hear about it. It brightens the place up. And turns out, frequently little budget bungalows weren’t done up in fine mahoganies and oaks but in mere paint grades. Our house is one of these. If the next h.o. wants to strip it off though, they owe us a box of krispy kremes for leaving them with substantially fewer layers of paint to slog through.

Can’t wait to play more with that heat gun. You can bend PVC with it!!!!

Strawberry – Mmmmm
Originally uploaded by erg1976.

It’s the first strawberry of the season! It was delicious.

Merideth and I walked Dixie tonight; it’s so nice to get home and have a few hours of light. The neighborhood has improved SO much even in the year-and-a-bit since we’ve lived here.

I belong to a neighborhood association yahoo group that is helpful if you’re looking for a plumber or lost your pet. There are good ideas there about how to improve the schools and get rid of noisy scooters.

But every once in awhile, a discussion starts that just tickles me. Examples:

1. Pigeons. A woman is going to Walgreen’s every day and feeding pigeons. This prompted a two-week discussion of what should be done about this. Fine the woman? Poison the pigeons? People sent warning emails about the deadly pigeons and their deadly diseases. Others sent emails in defense of the pigeon — what lovely creatures they are. I started giggling every day when I opened my email and there was more discussion of the pigeons. It finally got sent to a subcommittee to work through.

2. Drug Dealing Hot Spot. There’s a particular stretch of road that has some notorious thugs hanging around. Upon opening discussion of who to call when one sees something, etc., the idea was floated that perhaps the best way of ridding the neighborhood of gangs was to set up card tables and play gin rummy. I thought that was awesome.

Committees. Gotta love ‘em.

Patchy Lawn
Originally uploaded by erg1976.

Work on the house has slowed to the pace of growing grass. Merideth’s sister just bought a new mid-century modern house, and we’ve been distracted with this mistress. Now that our flower and vegetable gardens are officially planted, we’ve been looking at appropriate garden styles for her sister’s house that has a completely different style than our little Craftsman. It is unclear if our own abode feels neglect from the inattention, or if it’s grateful that it’s survived a few weekends without construction.

I am currently feeling a little betrayed myself by HGTV. Before we began the lawn seeding process, we saw an episode of “Designed to Sell,” which features a designer named Lisa LaPorta who helps sellers make their homes appealing for under $2,000. On this particular episode, a couple had a courtyard that was bare dirt, and two weeks before the open house. Lisa suggested they seed their lawn, which THEY CLAIM THEY DID, and two weeks later, they had a lush, beautiful patch of grass. LIES, I TELL YOU! I feel so misled by Lisa LaPorta and her smug sidekick, Clive Pearse.

Our patch of grass, shown here with model Dixie, is, well, patchy. We continue to seed according to directions, and I continue to grumble at Lisa LaPorta. Dixie doesn’t care either way, but ignores the new grass, focused instead on eating weeds that grow up under the fence. Mmmmm…weeds.

So it turns out that not every weekend is devoted to the joys of house restoration. Some weekends…some Friday mornings in fact…are devoted to cursing the kitchen faucet which can’t possibley have decided to actually, physically break and no longer turn on water. but oh yes it can. Some freakin metal piece broke off. Broke right off.

Fortunately Beth is all feeling that the underside of the kitchen sink is her domain now. So after trying to repair the hateful faucet thing only to find that, despite new cartridge, O rings, grease, and sealant, it preferred to spurt annoyingly from the base, she installed a brand new faucet and sprayer.

The current one is certainly not the final one. Not the lovely goose-necked thing we’ll install when we reno the kitchen counters and sink. But it IS a delight of basic chrome whose sprayer works beautifully, tap flows strongly, and yes, whose handle turns both on and off and AND hot and cold without one’s throwing one’s full body weight against it for torque.