House Made

Jebus! I hate splinters and I have one million tiny ones in my hands right now. It’s an expected by-product of wood-themed house projects and I’m in the middle of sanding and installing both window trim and front porch pieces. Consequently, I’m constantly getting splinters. Beth is a master at getting them out. In fact, we recently decided that it might be her superpower. But while I can handle nail, staple, sander, hammer, etc. inflicted wounds, I am a complete wuss when the needle/tweezers come near my fingers/hands. I flinch. I jerk. I whimper.

So today I discovered that what I thought was a hangnail was actually another freakin splinter. As I’m at work where there is no Beth, I had to find a solution and getting a co-worker to help was NOT on the menu. I have not cultivated my bad-ass designer rep only to destroy it in five minutes of splinter-removal weakness.

SO! I looked on the web and found this:

When your child gets a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, then pull it off.  Scotch tape removes most splinters splinters painlessly and easily.

Genius! It worked like a charm. The key is to pull at the angle the splinter went in of course. If I’d had duct tape, I think it would have worked even better thanks to its super-strong-stickiness. And, as an added tip for deep splinters, I found this:

Removing splinters is no problem if you apply Ora-Gel to the affected area first.

I’m so trying it.

backyard after garden
Originally uploaded by merideth.

…just to have the yard
that looks all cute,
and let’s me cook
a chocolate s’more.  (Dadalada!)

Yes this version of the Proclaimer’s song has been in my head all weekend. And while the photo doesn’t really capture the full amazing beauty of it, the back yard looks AWESOME!!

We took Gladys (officially agreed-upon truck name) to the rock yard for her first hard-core work run. We loaded up 500 lbs of “chocolate cobbles,” took them home, and carried them up two flights of stairs and a big-ass hill into the backyard where we dug out a border and made the fire pit surround. It’s maddening that the photo does not capture its awesomeness accurately.

We had s’mores as an appetizer before our bbq chicken dinner last night. Heaven.

The before shot:

shrinky dink keychain
Originally uploaded by merideth.

…it is now officially dispelled. Yes. I made a keychain for the truck out of shrinky dinks. It’s a tiny sketch I did of the truck. On shrink plastic.

It is awesome. I embrace my dorkiness. All the best people are dorks.

Yes, I know the “Ford” is backwards. The photo looked better if I flipped the plastic over.

chair
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Arts and Crafts Chicago:Who went to it? Who bought stuff? Who came home with great ideas? Jocelyn? Jeannie and Aaron? others? Come on, I know someone out there has a tale to tell!

truck
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Well now my life has two of five things necessary to the quintessential country song (as per David Allen Coe): a momma and now…a TRUCK. Not just any truck, a freakin cool old truck! It’s a 1980 Ford F-100 stepside with an ‘84 F150 straight 6 engine. Look at it. Feel its awesomeness. Yes it has some quirks. But mostly it’s just cool.

Here is its list of chores:
go to home depot
go to ace hardware
go the nursery
go to the rockyard
go to ikea
go to the dump
go to the Alameda Flea market
go to the lumber yard
go to the stucco company
go to the salvage yard
go to riccochet (large item consignment store)
and whatever else I can think of

Truck will be busy. I think I will name him Henry. Or possibly Floyd.

hammock
Originally uploaded by merideth.

This is my new favorite place in the entire house. This is what backyards were made for. The beloved hammock. Sigh.

We started getting the hammock in LAST summer. But alas, substandard concrete and waterlogged ground kept the posts from curing properly in their footings, making them useless in supporting any weight. It was tragic really.

But the problem has been remedied. Beth dug out the offending concrete, repoured and reset the post. Everything is firm and secure and will hold at least me (successfully tested) and I really don’t care about anything above and beyond that.

   
mower0002 
Originally uploaded by merideth.

So it turns out that restoring a house sometimes involves regular ole suburban-style maintenance chores. Who knew? One of those chores is mowing the 20×20 patch of grass in the backyard so that the dog doesnt live in a mini-serengeti.

Up until now, we’ve made due with the eco-friendly, Wally Cleaver-style rotary mower. It makes this great swishy cutting noise as it clips the blades. Well, it used to make that sound. Then, I don’t know if you heard, we had a lot of rain this year. And that rain turned our scrabbly grass into thick, hearty turf that laughs at the Wally Cleaver mower as it glides harmlessly over its stiff green blades.

Solution: tiny gas-powered mower. If your mowing needs not demanding, ie you have a small decorative patch or perhaps a parking strip that’s grass and that’s all, I totally recommend this mower from Ace. It cuts a nice little path, has an old-school rip cord just like we all grew up with, and it was the absolute most inexpensive (non electric, as I know I’d run over the cord) one I could find. In other words: perfect.

And look how happy the dog is with it.

 
salvage chairs
Originally uploaded by merideth.

So I know we have a craftsman house. But you see, stylistically, my heart lies squarely in that modern(e) zone between deco and mid-century. Low profiles? Yes! Industrial influences? Yes! Stylized form? Yes! Arranging stuff like that in our 20s cottage makes for a super-eclectic decorating style, but oh how I love it. Love it all! Built-ins + Barcelona chairs = heaven!

So today we hit the jackpot! A matched set of mid century arm chairs. Not only are they covered in a non-hideous fabric but they are in great shape structurally. They’re tight and comfy. Now for the super-happy-funtime part: We got them at the salvage yard. For $65/each. Yep. We put them in the living room, I steam cleaned them and now they’re good as n…well, as good 50 years old.

I’m so psyched I barely know what to do.

Well so it’s about damn time, isn’t it? I’ve owned this url for two years, but only now have I managed to switch things over. So now here we are at www.house-made.com. What’s new? Well the scroll problem is fixed. The comments should be fixed. And soon, all the posts will be categorized and searchable. Good times.

 I have yet to update my RSS feeds and email notification, so if you subscribe to those, hang tight. I’ll get it done soon.

 In the meantime, YAY! Working blog!!

belt sander bite
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Actually, it kind of looks like this bite mark I got when I was about ten and a horse bit me on the shoulder.

But really, this is the first construction-related injury EVER. Not too bad really as a. I didn’t cut anything off and b. no trip to the emergency room.

I still have no idea how I did it. Somehow I got my arm all twisted up in the churning belt sander. Dont worry belt sander, I still love you. You’re still my favorite sander. You just need more training: No biting. NO BITING!