House Made

Dragonfly Wings Shade
Originally uploaded by erg1976.

Merideth thinks I might have an eBay “problem.” I believe it’s more of a “setback.” I have a bit of a competitive side (not so much allowed to play board games with people we like), and when I’m really after an item on everyone’s favorite auction site, I will sit, refreshing with anxiety, until the final outcome.

I lost for the first time on eBay recently, and it bothered me for DAYS. But my “setback” has paid off! I found two beautiful light fixtures for the bedrooms (one pictured). I don’t have them in hand yet, but soon…very soon.

I hope they’re as good as pictured, as I have been grounded from eBay.

No work will be commencing at House Made this weekend so don’t bother checking. Why, you ask? Because it’s Gay Pride Weekend and we will be too busy for working!!

Celebrate from your places by grabbing yourself a pretty drink and making catty remarks about the horrible design choices of the poor schlubs who think they have good taste on “Sell This House.”

We’ll see you when we get back. In the mean time, I leave you with this:

Y-M-C-A! It’s fun to stay at the Yyyyyyyyy-M-C-A-ay!

That’s what it took to build the second half of the fence. And now I hobble downhill with a little mantra of “ow. ow. ow. ow.” Still to come: the final gate and the arbor. Stay tuned for photos.

tiny purple potatoes
Originally uploaded by merideth.

So the second best reason for blowing off work on the house (getting married holds the no. 1 spot, Mindy & Teague) is having company. We had Beth’s mom with us for the weekend, so we took the opportunity to lay off the projects and sit around. Oh sittin around. It feels so….weird.

Slacking has wound us up for next weekend though and it looks like we might finally get started on the double-hung windows.  The window book recommended by Jeanne finally arrived (Amazon just lost its mind over that one and became incapable of getting the thing in the mail).

In vegetable news, Beth pulled out a couple of the potato plants that were crowding my tomatoes (NOTHING may threaten the tomatoes, oh no, nothing) and they had the cutest little spuds attached. Yes, they are purple. Yes, that is a bottle cap. The potatoes are small. Small. So now I’m all excited for the rest of them to grow and get big. Big. I have great plans for purple french fries. Dude, that’s just cool.

behold the mighty auger
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Well it’s not a wall we’re putting up, but a big ole fence just the same. This fence is not complex in design. It does not have recessed panels in the mission style. It does not have horizontal planking in a subtle nod to the modern. It is, in fact, a simple redwood fence, built by us, to do two jobs: (1) To hold in the dog and (2) to hide the garbage cans. So far, at holding in the dog it is an unqualified success.

We spent the weekend tearing down the rotted portion of the existing fence, digging all postholes, anchoring corners and gate-holder holes with cement, planting poles, hanging rails, skinning the first 35 feet, and building one gate. It is a simple, sturdy, and VERY pink new fence.

Still to come is the remaining 35 feet of railing and skinning, one gate, and one lovely arbor. It is this portion that will hide the garbage cans. Oh, and yes I will be staining the whole shebang as I do not care for the pink of natural redwood. Where am I, Miami? No.

Things I love:
1. The new skil cordless drill/driver with two batteries that take only one hour each to recharge.
2. The AUGER!! Rent it.
3. The striped hammock from Pottery Barn.
4. Beth’s new non-janky gate.
5. The fence portion that no longer relies on a tomato cage to stay closed.

Things I do NOT love:
1. The varying pink and salmon color of the redwood planks.
2. The fact that Home Depot told us we needed twice as many heavy ass bags of concrete as we actually did, forcing us to load/unload them TWICE.
3. That the hammock poles dug 3 feet into the ground and sunk in concrete STILL came out of the ground (oh yes, it will be remedied).
4. The bruise on my back from where I fell onto a pile of lumber.

“I am mad, MAD with power!” These were Beth’s words as she got in the car after her final day of electrician class on Sunday. In two 8-hour sessions, she learned, from a licensed electrician instructor, how to fix, update, alter, install, and expand services. And in which cases to just say “screw it” and move on.

So on the ride home she sums up her new knowledge on everything from the physics of electricity and why birds dont get electrocuted when they land on wires, to how we can start adding things to our 100 amp service. 100 amps is apparently standard and we should have it. Insert record screeching noise here. “Honey,” I say, “I’m pretty sure we dont have 100 amps as that was one of the things our inspector noted on our initial house inspection.” Sure enough, we get home, check the breaker box and we have 60. 60 amps! Turns out you can run all of modern life’s appliances, power tools and computers on 60 amps, but you can’t expand to add new lighting, outdoor sockets, low voltage landscape lighting, etc.

So Beth will have to wait to put her new awesomeness into action until we get an electrican to change out our circuit box and the utility company to feed us more power. But once that’s done, look out little house! Super Sparky and her faithful assistant Circuit Girl are on the case!

Added bonus: Beth’s instructor supplied her with professional grade tools including a type of lineman’s pliers that can’t be had from regular hardware stores. Nice.