Sunday Snippets: Trans Lives Matter

We need to pay attention the virulent and rampant transphobic bills in the US. We need to speak out and denounce it.

Our 25 favorite photos from the 2023 Iditarod ceremonial start

5 Texas women denied abortions sue the state, saying the bans put them in danger

How (and why) this man plans to live underwater for 100 days

No One Tells You the Full Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth

Long COVID Now Looks like a Neurological Disease, Helping Doctors to Focus Treatments

At Home with Poet Kate Baer

Girls in Texas could get birth control at federal clinics — until a dad sued

The Ghosts in My Home

That Really Happened

Big Feelings

Texas man sues ex-wife's friends for allegedly helping her get abortion pills

On 3/11/20, WHO declared a pandemic. These quotes and photos recall that historic time

Adventures in Homeownership: Laundry Room Woes

Our laundry was slated for a revamp this summer because about two months after we bought the house, the washing machine sounded like a freight train every time it ran. And then it started leaking. We had to buy a tray to put under it and then it was leaking so bad that I had to drain the tray fully after every cycle.

Tres annoying.

Then when I got back after my massive work conference, I was doing laundry while working from home when I hear a clunk. Puzzled, I walk to the laundry room and see smoke pouring out the back of the machine.

When we took it apart, we were greeted with this:

Turns out, a seal had busted (which had also housed ball bearings) so the machine was off kilter, hence the noise and water just dripped slowly onto the motor, frying it.

There was no use fixing it, with that much water damage (I'm honestly surprised it lasted this long), so we scooted out to pick up a new one. Literally.

Yes, that is a 1986 hatchback carrying a washing machine on the roof.

Our oldest cat was also a fan of the new metal box.

Another reason we wanted to redo our laundry room. All the leaking/overfill from the tray soaked under the tiles. (And for some godforsaken reason, previous occupants put a strip of shag carpeting. In a laundry room.)

But now, we have a new washing machine (finally succumbed the HE revolution, but bonus of that, since we saved all the paperwork, we get to include that with taxes next year since it's an Energy Star appliance). And it plays a little tune when it's done! And there is no center agitator, so my bras are safe again!

Adventures in Homeownership: Jewelry

When the cold reaches butt puckering levels outside, you begin to go a little stir crazy inside. And by inside, I mean inside the house, I was already nuts to begin with!

So I had already made changes to part of my nightstand area and while it was pretty, the gold blended in too much with the wood frame.

So I got blue!

Much with the pretty.

Yay sparkles!

Upgrading to blue is also one of the changes that I had wanted to make to our bedroom overall. In the next few weeks, we are:

-repainting the ceiling

-hanging a wall of our hats

-putting up new art

-finish painting the baseboards

-replacing our bed frame, mattress and pillows

-re-hanging our curtains

I'm very excited to see how it all turns out!

Adventures in Homeownership: Bedroom Closet

We painted our bedroom when we first bought our house, but never paid much attention to the closet. It is long and narrow and not really conducive to clothes displaying nicely.

I was planning on doing a bunch of touch up painting this weekend (bathroom ceiling since I ran out of paint when I did the massive cleaning in July), baseboards, doors (painted a gagging shade of beige-which why in the hell when the rest of door frame is white?) and door frames, when I figured, why not throw the closet in there as well? I was following in the footsteps of Erin Boyle (and if you aren't reading her blog, you should be) in terms of white paint solving a lot.

Husband's clothes still hanging, in the before stage. Also, an older before picture.

   

Once all the clothes were out.

Expressing hatred for this type of hanging. I don't know who got the bulk discount for this type, but we can't spit without hitting them in this house and we've already gotten rid of a ton.

I apparently have a very serious face when spackling.

All spackled and sanded and ready to go!

Freshly painted and vacuumed!

With shelves! That I had to hang while balancing one on my head and one on my shoulder.

I'm actually happy to look into our closet now. Not happy that I was sidetracked by my continuing dysfunctional washing machine and clogged pipes...but I did get this done at least. Along with all of the baseboards and four doors painted. Win!

Adventures in Homeownership: Round Up Edition

With the weather sidling most of our plans, we did some serious puttering around the house:

Fixed my rug (more here)

I started (finally) using Ebates and once you make your first purchase, you get a free Target giftcard.

Displayed our new oil candle, a gift from friends.

Re-arranged nightstand area. 

Close up

Husband made a custom paint stirrer for the drill. He's inventive like that.

Adventures in Homeownership: Cabinets Aren't Supposed to Stay on the Walls, Right?

Apparently, I'm determined to rip most of the cabinets off the kitchen walls. They work better as kitty hideouts anyway.

(Midnight inspecting things)

I wanted to open up the kitchen area more over the large countertop because before I removed cabinets next to and over the fridge, I felt like I was in a hobbit hole every time I stepped into the kitchen.

(cabinet on the wall)

(Husband helping to remove things that may crash upon our heads once we attempt to wrench cabinet off the wall)

(Naked wall! Avert your eyes!)

(Fresh paint!)

(All pretty again!)

I can't wait till I can take down the cabinets over the sink....open shelves....mmmmm

Adventures in Homeownership: Raining means pouring. All the time.

I had talked about the tale of the fridges here and here but then a few days ago, we discovered that the dishwasher wasn't fully emptying the water after a cycle was run. We drained the water and cleaned around the bottom and then ran it again. Seemed to work fine until the very last part of the cycle, when a clicking noise started and the water refused to drain again.

So the husband started taking apart the dishwasher (one lovely benefit of owning your own home, don't have to wait for the dumbasses at Lighthouse at Twin Lakes to take five days to fix stuff...we can do it ourselves) and realized that the water line that connected the dishwasher to the sink was copper. A very stupid idea as we soon discovered. After husband moved it, to further work on the dishwasher, he leaned in under the sink and suddenly I hear loud cursing. The pipe burst.

We were able to shut it off partially and then we did a temporary fix (god bless zip ties), but we have to fix the pipe first (which should have been flex pipe to start with) and then buy a new dishwasher. The problem, from what we can deduce, would be the same cost to fix as a new dishwasher. And as an added bonus, under the sink, they put crappy drywall instead of something a bit more solid so now that is completely busted up and the insulation has mold on it. So I have to fix that too.

And so, as best described by Ichabod Crane:

Adventures in Homeownership: Almost 2014!

2013 was a year of so many ups and downs, not least of which was me attending a funeral on Jan. 4th and then finding out four days before Christmas that my grandfather passed. Let's try to avoid that for 2014, mmkay universe?

Did a major book purge (more on clutter busting in the new year...) and am now waiting for bookcases. Every time we make plans to go to the lumber yard for wood for said bookcases, something else happens.

We have new things in the kitchen! Including an awesome print, another shelf for storage and a new fridge, courtesy of my chiropractor (of all places). I had mentioned our fridge woes and then he mentioned having an extra one. So we scored a fairly new fridge for $100. It works and it's even a bright white to match the rest of the kitchen, unlike the awful beige the older one was.

We have more seating! Got the loveseat from friends who were combining households and had things to spare. (I also got a paper mache toucan that the cat side-eyed when I brought it inside.) The cat has claimed the top closest to the window, all the better for stray cat and bird watching.

 I added a mirror and purged my bedside table.

I whittled down my jewelry (notice a trend?) and have hung everything up so as to fit in this cute frame. The only pieces not up there are two sets of stud earrings.

The Tale of the Fridge

When we first looked at our now house, there was a fridge in the kitchen. With some foreclosures, sometimes appliances, carpets, parts of walls can be missing. (To be fair, the previous occupants flung mug-fulls of coffee all over the carpet and blinds, so there's that.) I made the sincere mistake of opening said fridge upon the first walk through and realize there was stuff inside.

This house had been sitting vacant for two & a half years.

Yeah.

I was ready to chuck it and then bleach myself afterwards, but my mother took it upon herself to bleach/clean/drop an atom bomb to the fridge and thus, it was usable when we moved in. It had it's quirks, like the time I put a bottle of Grey Goose in the freezer, took it out a day later to have a shot and realized the bottle was completely frozen solid. But it worked for the most part.

Until Halloween.

That is the coils behind the freezer shelves. The temp regulator or whatever witchcraft makes the temperature even is broken. The freezer gets too cold and shuts down, and that cuts off the cold air to the fridge.

The husband got it to work for a time, but it still shuts off every now and then. We were manually turning it on and off and I was ready to pitch it off a cliff. I still am. But we are also borrowing a mini fridge and can fit a surprising amount of food in it.

And honestly? I like it better. It means I have to use it or lose and I don't end up buying unnecessary items at the store. Bread and our water pitcher don't need to be refrigerated, so that saves space too.

Ever since I read The Zero Waste Home, it's inspired me to purge our possessions. And even beyond that, rethink how I use stuff. Perfect example: I have a cute sundress that I'm wearing tomorrow. No, the cold has not driven me insane (give me until February). I'm wearing a shirt over the dress and pairing it with my boots. For the past year or so, even before I read the book, I had been slowly eliminating a lot of my clothes. If it didn't fit me darn near perfect or didn't have at least two functions or wasn't properly made, out it went. I donated enough clothes that I was able to get rid of the extra wardrobe we bought last year. The husband and I can even share a closet.

I also have a mantra when I'm out shopping. If I don't have a purpose for it or if I have something similar at home, I don't buy it. We have so much excess in our lives, especially around the holidays. I enjoy less. Less means less to clean, organize, heat, cool, etc.

Now, how to get a fridge out of the kitchen when both doorways are smaller than the fridge itself.....

(from the day after settlement, ginormous ugly fridge to the left)

Welcome to the wildlife in my backyard

We were first made aware of Mortimer's presence when our realtor arrived on inspection day and sent us a picture of his furry behind sitting next to our porch.

We figured he would hightail once people started inhabiting the house and we ended up ignoring him for the most part. But when I would set food out for the stray cats in our neighborhood, I realized I was feeding the darned groundhog. We thought he was a gopher at first, hence his name (Goucher, represent!) but he is definitely a groundhog and a very intrusive one at that. He harasses the rest of the critters in our backyard, will leap up onto tables if I try to set food out and generally make a nusiance out of himself. He is also, completely uncaring of us. The hubs came home early the one day and found the furry varmint stretched out on his back, sunning his stomach. No amount of yelling would get him to move and he only lazily got up after the hubs walked outside.

This morning, however, it went to another level. I was leaving the house at around 7:30 and decided to be fancy today and so was wearing three inch heels. I was halfway to my car when Mortimer tore around the corner of the house and dove under the porch. I have no idea what scared him, but I know that I almost redecorated the gutters with my head.

As cute and furry as he is, he needs to go. I don't want to kill him, but does anyone know of a good groundhog sanctuary where I might send him? My in laws have a live trap that we are going to borrow so I just need to send him to a place where he will be happier and not scaring the bejesus out of me before eight am.

 

You can see him at the edge of the table, beelining for the cat food.