Of Mice and Mold

Howdy there.  How was your holiday weekend?  Lovely, I hope.  As for me and mine, we just kept up the crazy pace at the Taj, but we did get a lot done.  Now I just need a holiday from my holiday!
Today, we finished the demo on the master bath.  Well, we left what remains of the floor, but other than that, we took everything down.  There ended up being more mold than we'd thought, but now that we have a new roof, we should be good to go.  The damaged bits are going bye-bye and everything got a nice bleach bath in the meantime, cuz Mama don't "do" mold!

We also had to hack the old shower into bits and haul it out in pieces.  Underneath the shower "seat" we found a 2-foot-high pile of....leaves.  Dry, old leaves and twigs.  No sign of any critters having made that a nest, but it was definitely a strange discovery.  I'd rather find a stash of gold coins or an unknown Rembrandt, but no, I get leaves.

Sigh.

Grandmother (Shawn's mom) was Tank-sitting today, but he was not feeling it, so we ended up with a Very Helpful Boy on our hands.  I'm embarrassed to say, the kid handles a hammer better than I do.  I gave him one to bang on the floor with and he was a natural.  Darn those child labor laws!

After working, we cleaned up enough to be passable and went over to my sister the Farm Maven's for another WONDERFUL home-cooked meal.  Last night it was salmon croquettes (for Shawn) and homemade mac-n-cheese (for me), with home grown and home canned green beans and sauteed squash and onions.  Tonight we had roast beef with veggies, plus biscuits and gravy and vanilla ice cream with home made fudge sauce for dessert.  I am still so full I could die, but what a way to go! 

I admire the Farm Maven's culinary abilities, but I do not share them.  I'd probably like to cook if someone else cleaned up and went to the store for me.  Since that's not going to happen, though, I am not much of a chef.  I'm going to have to do better, though, because we really should be eating healthier than we are.  Just thinking about it makes me tired, though.  I TOTALLY understand how TV dinners came into existence.

Anyway, we did get a good bit accomplished this trip.  We're looking to leave Mayberry tomorrow after lunch, but we'll be back next weekend to celebrate Tank's 3rd birthday with family.  Hard to believe my little dude will be three!  Or, as he says it, "thee." 

Well, without further ado-be-doo, I'm attaching a few photos of the Taj in its current state.

Here is the master bath BEFORE:

Weird shower seat

Right-hand vanity with view of washer and dryer

And here it is NOW:

Where the right-hand vanity was

Where the washer and dryer were.

And, just because you've been so nice and asked so politely, here's a pic of the leaves under the shower:

You're welcome.

Well, you have a great rest of your weekend and I will be back here soon!

You Better Knock-Knock-Knock on Wood

(but not too hard, because the wood is probably water damaged or full of termites)


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That sound you hear is me, beating my head against the wall.

It's been a long day at the Taj, my friends.  And by "long day," of course, I mean, "holycrapwhathaveIdonethisisthedumbestideaEVER."

For starters, we arrived last night to a Taj without electricity.  Ever the hopeless romantic, I assumed that meant that the Really Nice Electrician had killed the power to get started.  So, I wandered around with a weak flashlight and saw....nothing.

No electrical work.

We had intended to drag some junk down to the street for trash pickup this morning, but we didn't have enough light to do it and things were too dangerous with Tank running around anyway...there are nails, sharp broken boards and who knows what else, just waiting to kill us all.

This morning we learned that the City of Mayberry had cut off the power for non-payment.  Despite the fact that we signed up for automatic bill pay through Wells Fargo.  Apparently, their slogan of "Together, We'll Go Far" doesn't extend as far as Mayberry.  So, we had to go to the city utility office and pay $25 to get the power back on.  I'd like to mention that Shawn was having a duck fit the WHOLE time...so, THAT was fun.  Thank the Lord I just happened to have my checkbook with me.  I don't use checks at all anymore, but the City of Mayberry only takes cash and checks...no credit.  So, I dutifully wrote out the check for twenty-five-stinkin'-dollars while Shawn developed an ulcer.

Later, we got busy tearing out the @(#*%^ shower that tried to kill me on the last trip.  Behind the fiberglass shower we found a TON of mold.  Hooray.  Because we love mold and were SO hoping we'd find some.  The walls were already coming down to the studs, but I am still not happy with the mold situation.  We'll have to do everything cautiously, with the special masks and LOTS of bleach.

After those fiascos, we decided to do a dry-fit of the fabulous new-to-us pedestal sink, only to learn that it DOES NOT FIT.  The door opens into the bathroom and there isn't enough clearance.  The door won't open because the edge of the BEAUTFUL sink is in the way.  I could have cried. 

This was one of those days when nothing goes right.  We did get a good bit done late in the day, but it was a series of frustrations first.

Oh, well.  The Really Nice Electrician is coming next week, we hope, and from that point on, maybe the Taj will begin to get BETTER instead of just WORSE.

So far, it's a bust, but tomorrow is another day and I am sure things will look brighter.
Hope your day went better...

New bookcase

It started simply, as most things that turn into huge productions do.

I wanted a long, low bookshelf to replace the two hulking bookcases in our living room at Gilligan's Island.  I looked online at least weekly to see if anything was available in our price range.  Occasionally, I would find "just the thing" but it would be over $200 and that's just not in the budget, especially not to replace perfectly functional items with new ones.

Then, day before yesterday, Shawn and I went to Office Depot to pick up some things for my work.  We decided to just cruise through their office furniture selection and saw almost exactly what I was looking for!  And it was on sale for $84.  That's doable, right? 

My intent was to put a low bookcase in back of the loveseat and leave the loveseat "floating" in the center of the room.  Once we got the bookcase assembled, though, Shawn suggested putting it in a corner by the fireplace and pushing the sofa against the far wall.  Our living room is SO small, this really seemed the better choice.  We'd been living with just a rabbit trail between the loveseat and the old bookcases and that was part of why I was so sick of them.  Here's a shot of the old, white bookcases, taken as we were taking stuff off them:

From the other side of the room:

We had crammed a big chair and ottoman into the corner by the fireplace:

Anyway, it was better than the original set-up of this room, when we didn't use it at all and had an antique (very uncomfortable) sofa in there, but it wasn't going to set the woods on fire.  We had begun to use the living room more, which was great.  Our house isn't big enough to have unused rooms in it, so incorporating the living room into our lives made a big difference.  But it still didn't work very well and we didn't use it too often.

So, last night at midnight, we finally finished moving EVERY STINKING PIECE OF FURNITURE in the room and this is what we ended up with (ignore the dust!):

New bookcase, in the corner where the chair & ottoman used to be.

Loveseat, chair & ottoman on the wall where the old shelves were.

View from the den.  Me likey.  You?

(Don't) Come On, Irene

Whew!  Looks like Hurricane Irene has decided to hit land farther up the coast, so we are staying put on Gilligan's Island and so far have just had some pop-up thunderstorms and wind.  I do not envy the people north of us, who are battening down the hatches and hoping for the best.

What with both my part-time jobs trying to get all full-time on me this week, I'm feeling over stretched, so it didn't take much convincing from Shawn for me to stay here and just wait til next weekend to go to the Taj.  Next weekend being Labor Day, Shawn is off and we can accomplish more anyway.  That's the theory, at least. 

Oh....remember the cool sink I scored off The Craig?  Well, it had this leetle old hard-water stain in the bowl, next to the drain.  Hmmm, I thought, a little Magic Eraser will take that right off.

Not.

Magic Eraser and C-4, maybe, but otherwise that stuff was NOT coming off.  I tried everything I could think of.  I went online and tried all the suggestions (lemon juice, white vinegar, Borax, bleach, mild abrasives).  You name it, I tried it.  And....nothing.

I thought we'd just wasted $60 on a sink that would always look dirty.  And that was sooooo not gonna happen!

So, I went medieval on that bad boy.  I got my handy dandy flat-head screwdriver and convinced the hard water scales to move on down the line.  Now, I'm not necessarily recommending that you go after your porcelain bathroom fixtures with metal blades, but it worked for me.  If you do have some serious calcium deposits and decide to try it, just remember to be gentle and use the blade at a low angle...you don't want to stab at it and scratch the surface.

Anyway, it's not the Martha Stewart-approved method, but who has the time to forumlate their own hard water stain remover and package it attractively in a repurposed gunny sack?  Not me.

Well, that's the latest.  Sad that a little stain removal is the only Taj-related progress to report.  But, the Fall 2011 Ikea catalog arrived today, so there's hope yet!


Off to drool over cheap, breakable goods with a Scandinavian flair....

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Um...that's a song, if you weren't alive in the 80's.

Anyway.

I'm just sitting here, watching "Barnyard" with the Tankster and plotting my return to Mayberry, possibly this weekend.  I'm anxious to get a little more done on the bathroom demo before the electrician needs to get in there.  And as an added bonus, I might be escaping Hurricane Irene.  Always a plus when you can avoid getting creamed by wind and water.

Oh, yeah, I have other news, too.  We scored a Kohler pedestal sink off Craig's List for $60.  These things are over $300 for the basin and the pedestal, so it was a great deal!  Here's a pic off The Internets of the same sink:

Cute, yeah?

I'm really excited about this find, since we knew we wanted to go back with a pedestal sink in the hallway bath, but DEFINITELY not the aqua sea-shell sink that was in there!

Now, we just need a 40-inch stove, a refrigerator, lots of drywall, paint, and an entire master bath.....guess I'll be spending a lot of time Craig-in'.

Until later....

Whirlwind Tour of Everywhere

Back at Gilligan's Island tonight, after a very LONG day.

Tank and I left Mayberry at 9:00 this morning, picked up our baby friend from the caring home parents, then all of us made the trek back to the coast.  I took the little one to meet her new parents at their hotel.  It goes without saying that there is now a very happy, brand-new family in the world tonight!

After a brief detour at home, it was back to pick up the baby's birthmom and then a two-hour visit between the families.  The visit went really well, with everyone feeling very positive and a lot of love and respect between the parties.

Now, I'm finally home and halfway watching the Braves game that Shawn very thoughtfully recorded for me.


While in Mayberry, I decided to demo the master bath.  Cue the maniacal laughter, because boy, was THAT ever a joke!   I managed to get both sinks disconnected and out, along with one vanity, but the other vanity and the shower defeated me.  I figured out why when I saw the three-inch nails that the doggone things were attached with!  Holy cow...I was in there, just whaling away with a sledge hammer and it WAS NOT happening.  I'm really tired and my arms are sore, sore, sore.  And the most annoying part of all is that I wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.  Oh, well.  Rome wasn't built in a day and apparently the Taj isn't going to be remodeled in a day, either.

Here's a few photos, so you can share in the magic.  Or madness.

Partially demo'd second vanity

First vanity removed and cabinet demo underway

Overkill much??

Debris pile.  And a cheap fan because...damn.  It's hot.

News. I Has It.

Long time, no blog, eh?

I'm still at Gilligan's Island, but I believe I will be heading back to the Taj briefly this weekend.  The baby that was placed for adoption has a family now and they will be traveling from their home state late Saturday night.  I'll go pick up the baby on Sunday and bring her back down this way to meet her adoptive mom and dad and also to spend time with her birth mom before she leaves for a while.  This adoption will be an open arrangement, so this is not goodbye for birth mom and baby.

In other news, we finally figured out a layout for the master bath.  It's not perfect, but given the many issues with the space, its a successful option.  We'll still have a laundry room in the master bath, but by stacking the washer and dryer, we'll keep precious floor space and avoid the bath being all crammed up together.  Shawn didn't really want to stack the w/d, worrying that i would be a negative for potential buyers when we sell the house down the road.  My solution was to spend yet MORE money and get a nice, front loading set that could be stacked.  That way, we won't be saddled with an apartment-sized set of appliances forever.  Again, not the most perfect solution ever, but pretty much the best one available, given the limitations of the space.

The Very Nice Electrician called and said he is about a week away from starting on the Taj.  We'd had to wait to call him until we had a plan for the bathroom...didn't want to end up with outlets behind the shower!  So, his work will be next, then the plumbing, then framing and drywall.  And one of these days, we'll have a HOUSE!  How 'bout that?!

Well, I'd better get up and get busy.  Work has been extremely demanding this week and no relief is in sight.  Better go make the money that I'm spending on the Taj, right?