More insulation

Well, I finally got the 5 or so bags of insulation saved from redoing the Family Room ceiling out of the Furnace Room and back in the attic. Since there was only a small access door I carried the bags up one by one. It was quite interesting since I was doing this by myself so there was no one to hand me the bags. I made several trips up and down the ladder, to and from the shelf in our bedroom closet and through the small door.

I first had to basically clear everything out of the closet so I didn't get insulation stuck in everything. I also blocked off the door to the bedroom since we have 2 curious dogs, I didn't want them coming to find out what I was doing and get insulation stuck in their paws, I know it can be itchy for humans, I didn't want to find out what reaction they would have. So I was also careful to not walk through the rest of the house anymore than I needed so I didn't track the insulation myself out of the room where the dogs could yet find it.

Then I "suited up". I put a bandanna on my head to keep the insulation from getting stuck in my hair, and of course safety glasses and dust mask. I wasn't wearing gloves when I took the above photo, but I did wear gloves when I went up. For me the insulation itself isn't a problem, the sap, cobwebs, and layers of dust that are up there are. I learned from previous trips up into the attic, that dust does not like me. It only takes a minute before my nose is running or I have to sneeze. So I was as careful as I could to stir as little dust as I could.

While up there, I grabbed a measuring tape and measured the vents on the sides of our house. Sometime soon we hope to redo the siding because part of this project will be to open the exterior facing wall in our bedroom where we had termites and repair the damage. Also, whoever previously sided the house...sided over these vents. So I snapped the picture to know what shape they even were and crawled my way over to measure them so we will know what size to get.

Patching a Small Hole

So, when we were first running electrical and what not before we had even moved into the house, while drilling looking for that wonderful space between the drywall and studs...we missed. The hole was basically not noticed since it was up at the ceiling and almost right when you walked in the bathroom so we weren't in any hurry to patch it.

Over this past weekend I had the chance to start patching it. First I cleared the loose debris from the hole and made sure the wall and ceiling around the hole were clean. I then took some spackling I found at Meijer on one of my grocery runs and filled the hole. I used a plastic putty knife and found I much prefer the metal putty knives. I found I didn't have the right edge to get the spackling in the sharp corner.

I still need to sand smooth, and will find where we hid the metal puddy knives from ourselves and go over it one more time to try and clean it up a bit more. Then, hopefully sometime in the summer of 2015 when we redo our main bathroom, this will get a fresh coat of paint.

Tis the Season of Giving!

It's that time of year again. Time to find gifts for family and friends in stores packed to bursting with people and "great deals". Time for spreading ourselves thin with all this giving. Don't forget to take at least a few minutes everyday for you. If we keep giving to others and forget about ourselves we get worn out, stressed, tired, and can become a bunch of grinches. Here are 5 suggestions to help you unwind from all the activity and take some you time.

1. Yoga/Meditation: Yoga and meditation are known for helping reduce stress. Personally I prefer meditation over Yoga, some of the poses in Yoga and transitions make me light headed.
2. Work on a Personal Project: What do you enjoy doing? Knitting, woodworking, or something else? Take time to do something you've always wanted to do, or try. Maybe you do needlepoint but haven't had time. Take a short amount of time, maybe only 15-30 minutes a day just to focus on this one project. Don't think about all the shopping you have to do yet, or that the house isn't clean.
3. Go for a Walk: Take some time outside. Breathe the cool, fresh air. Just don't forget to bundle up and keep hydrated. 
4. Enjoy a Night In: Take some time just you and your significant other. Snuggle up in front of the TV with your favorite movie and some fresh popped pop-corn.
5. Exercise: You can go to the gym or have fun at home with some exercise videos, there are many to choose from. My personal favorite is anything kickboxing.

May this season find you well, and may you forever find happiness!

Leaves be Gone!

Well, last weekend and this weekend Jeff and I had fun removing the leaves from our yard.

I mentioned to my Dad a few weeks ago that I was thinking about getting a mulcher as we typically use over 20 yard bags each year. They are not the easiest things to keep open and fill. So he let us borrow theirs to try it out. We still ended up resorting to the lawn mower for most of the pick up, but did use the blower on the mulcher to clear out spaces like the patio, and used the mulcher to get along the fence line where the lawn mower could not really get the leaves.

We also used the mulcher where the lawn mower missed either because of existing holes or uneven ground from our dogs digging in the yard...again. We haven't decided for sure but I'm not sure it would be worth a mulcher for us. A broom and rake work just as well to clear off the porch or get along the fence line. So, will we be getting a leaf mulcher? I'll let you know what we decide.

New Doorknob on our Bathroom Door

I went to the store today and bought a new doorknob. Why just a doorknob when we are not redoing the bathroom for at least another year? Because you can not close the door fully and hope to leave the bathroom without a fight. The doorknob would stick and would not fully turn so you'd be stuck turning it right and left until it finally gave up and let you out.

So our existing doorknob saw it's final minutes coming... 

...and couldn't help but put up one more fight. The existing doorknob had a cover to keep the screws hidden and I'm sure made it look nice when it was first installed. Now, this just made removing it a pain because we couldn't get at the screws with a screwdriver. (Later I found a tool that could have helped at this stage.) I had to call Jeff in as his nickname when it comes to DIY is Mr. Destructo. You want it taken apart, Jeff will get it apart in seconds. Even my Dad believes in this name as last summer Jeff helped him take the pool in my parents deck apart - the kids were grown and moved out and they didn't really use it so they had decided to get rid of it. It took Jeff and my Dad maybe an hour including clean up. The part that took the longest was carefully removing the liner as there was still water in it that the pump could not get to and remove.

So, Mr. Destructo had at the doorknob and in minutes, there was a hole in the door, but the hole I had been looking for.

I took a damp paper towel to the hole to try and clean up the black dust that had gathered in the hole and then washed my hands as it had gotten on me from trying to take the doorknob off.

 The picture above right best shows the color I chose - brushed nickel. And below is the tool that could have helped take the original knob off and helped put the new one on. I found it when I went through our tool box for a phillips screwdriver to put the new doorknob in because I had a flat screwdriver for the removal of the original doorknob. It allowed me to get into the tight area between the knob and the, well what I'll call the guard of the knob - that part that goes against the door.

I already tested the knob after telling Jeff that if he heard me screaming he should break down the door. Thankfully that wasn't necessary. So if anyone needs to use the restroom while over at our house, feel free to shut the door fully and completely, and not worry about getting stuck in the bathroom.

Vacation is Over

Before we went on vacation we had our French Doors installed. They had to make some adjustments to the opening, so we have some paint touch ups but we already have some touch ups to do elsewhere in the room so, no biggy. I think the doors look really sweet. Here they are from the inside:

 

And here they are from the outside:

 We didn't have much time to enjoy them before taking a vacation up to my parents cottage. As part of our tradition in puzzling, I finished the puzzle that was in progress.

I started another one but didn't get very far. We'll have to see if we can make it up to finish or as I was having sooo much fun trying to figure out the border of the puzzle, will it be put back in the box before it's finished?

We went fishing but only caught Pike, Jeff caught three and I caught two. When we were tying up the boat, our dogs decided to take a swim. One minute they are sitting at the end of the dock, we're putting stuff back under seats, I look back to the dock at the same time Jeff calls for AJ. Where was AJ? Swimming to the end of the dock and starting to come around the boat. We get him back to land when Lucky starts going under the boat (it's a pontoon boat). So Jeff took them back and got them settled at the cottage while I continued covering the boat and then he came back to help me finish and take the rest of the items we had brought (tackle box, fishing poles, etc.) back to the cottage.

The dogs had a great time while we fished, they were going between Jeff and me wondering what the flip flopping things were that we were bringing out of the water are and who was going to bring the next one to the boat. They used up so much energy that we decided to take the next day easy, I think the dogs enjoyed themselves though. They certainly made themselves comfortable.

 

We did come home unexpectedly as AJ got sick. So we did not have a chance to go swimming or take the boat out again so that we could go fishing and I could try to catch up to Jeff's fish count, but it was a great and much needed vacation none the less. Unfortunately it's back to the office for me tomorrow. I'm almost looking forward to it...almost.

More Weeding

So, this weekend had 2 major projects. One was for my fiance's work. They are participating in a company volleyball tournament tomorrow. They were going to have shirts professionally made but...that fell through. Instead, they ordered the shirts and then Jeff and I for the first time in our lives, figured out iron on numbers and fabric markers. I ironed on all the numbers, then we stenciled on the names for each shirt. It was a learning experience.

The other project was weeding the garden. Since we still haven't finalized our garden layout and what plants we would like, I haven't been too concerned with keeping up the garden. But the tall grasses and trees that have started to grow have gotten a little out of hand. So, my goal is each week to fill our 32 gallon trash can that we use for compost. This week I had no problem doing so. I first weeded the smallest flower bed we have on the side of our house which faces the main road in and out of the neighborhood. This filled the can 3/4 of the way. Then, I got busy finishing what my mother started along the fence.

The fence looks nice now. And since I did this, I was able to leave the white flowers that in the yard are weeds but a few were working their way up the fence and I realized I liked how it looked.

After weeding though, I think I need to look at garden centers and nurseries for some vine plants. The white flowers are few and far between. I think right now we have one tall one, and two or three that are only a few spaces up so you can't even tell they are there. So I've added more plants to the list of decisions that need to be made.