kareid

Remodeling

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:08:58 GMT

frolain and I are trying to remodel the downstairs bathroom and replace the floor in the downstairs kitchen. If any of you remember it, the downstairs bathroom is the one with the square pink standing shower stall that doesn't fit the space, so that water hits the floor when it's running without a carefully rigged shower curtain, the rough 2x4s that were used as a frame for the door, the stained floor, and other general not-right. The downstairs kitchen floor is pink and "white" linoleum from a decade I'm not sure of. We thought it was black and white when we first bought the house until two moppings with bleach water revealed it was pink and white (matching the then-pink walls.)

We've had a contractor in to give us a quote on labor for replacing the kitchen floor with tile and doing the bathroom work, and have another one scheduled. We also went to start looking at tile. This is where the real problem comes in. The tile places we've seen so far seem to want to exclusively sell natural-ish colors, things I sort of think of as mediterranean tones, in large, 12" tiles for floor tile. They'll branch out a bit into 12" marble for baths. Or into tiny hexagonal tile if you're going for the antique style (we're not.) 12" marble would look ridiculous in this closet-sized bathroom. We'll probably manage to find something reasonable in this color palate for the kitchen, but I think we're going to have to compromise a lot more than I'd hoped for the bathroom. This is really frustrating me, as I feel like we can't be the only people who don't want to do our bathroom in marble or antique tile.

On a different note, I called my dad last night, to find that he and my sister were feeding a baby goat in the house. They'd brought it in because they were worried about it making it through its first few days in the cold. Apparently one of the goats had triplets but lost them due to the cold in the barn. My sister describes baby goats as being a lot like puppies.

Kitchen and bathroom work

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:51:20 GMT

SJ helped me rip out the extra cabinet in the downstairs kitchen last week, where we found this delightful green linoleum tile on the wall. We also discovered the kitchen was wallpapered under the pink paint. Who knew?

I've scheduled one contractor to come over and talk to us about the work on the kitchen and bath next week. We want to have the kitchen floor redone (finally, getting rid of the white and pink linoleum) and something close but not quite a complete remodel of the bath. I don't think the downstairs bath will ever be great because there just isn't enough space, but we can do better than the current shower and sink. There's going to be a lot of running around looking at tiles, sinks and such in our future though.

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:18:56 GMT

It is a very strange fall. On wed, I had raspberries straight from the bush. They were good too. The blue bearded iris is trying to bloom again. SJ and I cut all the other irises back for iris borer control, but let this one keep its leaves so that it doesn't use all its energy on the flower. I felt strange cutting so many strong leaves but, it's Thanksgiving, and we've already had at least one hard frost.

Today, the wind actually ripped my butterfly bush out of the ground. It's lying in the driveway. This is a 7-8 ft tall bush which has been in that spot a few years. If the wind is down tomorrow, I'll try to put it back in the ground, stake it down, and cut it back a lot. I didn't want to try today, as it seemed the wind would just tear it out again. No idea if it will handle this okay, or if it's pretty much dead now. Luckily, these bushes grow fast and are easy to find, so it's not a huge loss if it doesn't make it.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:24:30 GMT

Off to Maine to be not-in-Boston for a few days. Hopefully this will be nice.

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:48:09 GMT

Things I did not want, but got anyway (a partial list): Iris borers. I feel like the yard is a losing battle this week, with the squirrels (I don't know what it is, but I'm blaming squirrels) digging up both established plants and vegetable seedlings, the return of fungus infections, everything stressed from the heat and dry, and now nasty insects. And I get to deal with it all in hot, sweaty weather with plenty of mosquitoes.

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:52:11 GMT

Zoe caught a bird yesterday. I was working on the big veggie bed (which is sadly pathetic this year, the last of the zucchinis just died, and I'm trying to figure out what to plant in its large, empty place) when I heard her walk by behind me, peeping. I thought that was a rather odd sound for her to make, and looked over to see that she had a large, reddish bird in her mouth. Looked pretty satisfied too, and had no intention of giving it to me. She took it over to the pear tree, and set it down, at which point I picked her up, and dumped her in the house. She was pretty annoyed and spent the next while staring at me through the door, meowing constantly. The bird was gone by the time I got back a few minutes later. While I didn't get a great look at it, since it was upside down and in Zoe's mouth most of the time, I think it was the female from the local cardinal pair, so I'm not particularly pleased that Zoe beat it up. Why couldn't she beat up a pigeon or a starling or something else nasty? I am curious to see if this was one-time luck, or if she's learned a new trick and there will be more birds.

Ivy followed this up with a good impression of freaking out at seeing my shovel lying on the lawn, which I later figured out was freaking out at seeing the skunk hiding under the hosta. For once, freaking out over something reasonable.

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:57:30 GMT

I found something in my yard that seems to like the current weather: the bamboo. It's finally hit its growth stage. (It does all its growth for the year as one spurt over a few days.) The new canes are at least a foot taller than the old ones on most of the plants. Yay for it finally settling in, I'd been worried that it wasn't doing well, and this is better. It makes sense that it would like this weather too, as it's supposed to like a lot of watering.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:46:57 GMT

Yesterday was the deadline to nominate gardens for the 2010 Somerville Garden Club garden tour. I went on the 2008 tour, and had been interested in being part of a future tour, but was being somewhat angsty about it, and only found out about the 2010 tour yesterday. Yes, on the due date. I was convinced to sent in a nomination last night anyway (you can nominate yourself) despite feeling kind of weird about the self-promotion, and kind of weird that they will definitely get it after the deadline. I don't know how strict they're likely to be about the due date, and it'll only be a day or so late. The worst that can happen is they'll ignore it, right? Which is no worse than not having sent one in.

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:03:40 GMT

Zoe-cat is doing better, yay. She's been eating food for almost a week now, and we've been letting her outside again. She lost about a pound, which, when you're a 9lb cat, is quite a bit. I don't know if/when she'll get the weight back. She looks kind of sadly skinny right before her back legs now. We don't really know what was wrong, some people have been guessing food poisoning from something she ate outside.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:43:32 GMT

Zoe-cat hasn't been eating. She threw up in several places Monday? (not certain due to the out of town) night, and no one is sure they've seen her eat since. She definitely has not eaten in a day, as we put the food dish away so we'd know who was eating. We tried giving her wet food last night, which she happily licked up the juice from, then threw up an hour later. So, off to the vet she went today. Vet can't find anything wrong with her, other than being dehydrated (not an unlikely consequence of not eating for a few days.) Hopefully she will just be fine in a few days.

Gears

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:35:15 GMT

All the rain has kept me inside, and made me finally get back around to the gear mural project. Here are the first ones I put on the wall. I'm not entirely happy with the reverse one. The spray paint is nice and bright, but the positive image jumps out at me and it's in the dull background color of the wall. I think I'll take a hand brush and some bright paint of some kind and try to make the positive image more interesting. I'm also being amused by realizing how ridiculous it is for a control-freak perfectionist like me to be doing an art project with spray paint.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:23:54 GMT

Just got back from my first Baitcon last night. I loved the feel of the forest it was in, and liked the chance to relax and hang out with people, though it took me a day to figure stuff out and start doing so. Lots of little wildlife in the forest: tiny bright lizards, snakes, huge moths, birds, little brown toads. The birds were so loud the first morning I had trouble sleeping. I didn't manage to explore the whole area, and would like to at some point. Also drums, silks, ice cream, hammocks, and a neat swing. Going to work this morning after three plus days of not really being inside is going to be a shock.

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:18:04 GMT

Latest yard project, building a step-stone path around the pear tree. I like the effect from a distance, but the hard work of leveling out the rocks so they don't tip when you step on them is still to come. We did put in the stones at the sort of 'landing' where the path meets the one around the veggie bed, so that the thyme there can start to grow in.
I haven't been able to get a good picture of it from a distance, but the shadows and the way the path disappears behind the tree draws you in nicely and make you want to see where it goes. Or at least me.

We've started letting Ivy out as well, because she whined so much, (I know, giving in to the whiny cat sets a great precedent doesn't it?) and I saw her climbing the elm tree for the first time today. She's catching up with Zoe in crazy level!

Sat, 30 May 2009 21:52:57 GMT

Tried Zing Pizza today (in Porter, near the Dunkin Donuts) I was quite impressed. We tried 'fiddlehead on the roof' and 'blue october', both were tasty, neither had a tomato sauce. A little spendy for pizza slices, but large ones.

They had compost, recycle and dishes but no trash, and the mantle over their fireplace was covered in hotsauces. The fireplace itself contained what looked like a hubbard squash.

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:33:37 GMT

Kendall-ish people: I want to try out this friendly toast place and see if it is any good. Would other people be interested in getting lunch there sometime next week? Probably wed.

Mon, 25 May 2009 14:06:24 GMT

Pictures from my garden over the past month, including the bench we assembled a month or two ago. I'm hoping it will weather to match the beds it's next to. It's an excellent place to sit in the morning and drink tea or read, but gets too hot and sunny later on. I'm trying to pick another spot for a chair which will be cool all day long, in the last weedy corner of the yard. We got 353lbs of rock this weekend to complete the stepping stone path through that corner, but I'm still not sure what the rest of the design will look like.

I got this laurel on saturday and am still very happy about it. I've been looking for a small evergreen to fill that spot for months, and this should do well there.

I've been spending lots of time outside, many weekend days doing a mix of garden work and just reading when I'm tired out. I don't get as sick outside, so it's a nice place to be.

Sun, 24 May 2009 23:32:12 GMT

My dad's prizewinning chicken, for those who were interested. The forehead is part of the chicken, not the costume.

Fri, 22 May 2009 01:28:32 GMT

My dad dressed up one of his chickens and entered him in a pet costume contest as a Klingon. And won third place. I ... don't have any words for this. The article in the local paper mentions him in passing.

Sun, 17 May 2009 23:43:01 GMT

Random thing that amused me...we got work done on the downstairs kitchen. Specifically, we got the countertops and kitchen faucet replaced, a cabinet with a light under it added over the sink, the large cabinet that was four inches higher on the left rehung, and a dishwasher added. The unexpected side-effect of the new dishwasher is that we stopped having enough dishes to fill the upstairs dishwasher before we ran out of some random thing we need (most often bowls.) We wound up going to Ikea and getting a new, larger set of dishes for upstairs. I wonder what we'll discover we need for the new dishes.

We're also getting the basement stairs replaced, both the bulkhead and the interior stairs. There was more rot and damage than expected and things are taking longer, so getting to the basement right now is a choice between walking outside and going back in again through the bulkhead and jumping down about 4-5 missing steps.

British Columbia

Sat, 09 May 2009 02:50:25 GMT

As I mentioned earlier, frolain and I went to the pacific northwest last month. We went to several cities over about a week and a half along with SJ.

We started in Portland, where we met with my sister (SJ) and visited various family members. We went to many of my favorite Portland spots, including the International Rose Test Gardens, and Saturday Market. I learned that they're moving the market across the street into Waterfront Park. Not really sure how I feel about that; though the overhang they're building will be nicer and newer, it'll lack the 'under a bridge, in a parking lot' flavor, and be windier. We also saw this sign.

Next we took a train to Seattle, and from there to Vancouver. The train was beautiful. In places it was so close to the ocean that the rails must have been on the beach. This doesn't do it justice, but should show you I'm not exaggerating. We saw herons, ducks, and all kinds of other water birds on the way. I would recommend the train for anyone traveling to Vancouver or Seattle from Oregon.

In Vancouver, we visited the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and the city park next to it. Vancouver has a reasonably sized chinatown; we even got vegetarian dimsum. Being engineers, we all had to go look at the steam powered clock, which chimes the hours with four steam whistles. It's powered off city steam which heats the surrounding buildings, but despite the style was only built in the 1970s.

The next day we visited Stanley Park. I particularly liked the totem poles. I've never been a big fan of native american art, but I saw several examples I really liked on this trip. The park also contains the aquarium, which has beluga whales. The three whales on display were a grandmother, mother, and baby. The baby spent most of its time chasing a seagull that kept landing on the water in their tank. The grandmother was very pregnant; she's going to have another calf in 1-2 months and they have a 14-16 month gestation.

Our last day, we visited Granville Island. Somewhat touristy, but some neat markets and shops as well. We took a tour of the Granville Island brewery. Generally, we tried a lot of local beers in British Columbia. There was an older dog waiting for his owner outside one shop, next to a stuffed frog. When she came outside, he picked up his frog and trotted off with her. For some reason this was really cute.

From there we took a ferry to Victoria. The bus from the ferry dropped us off in the middle of downtown, where we walked out into a protest march or strike by the paramedics. We walked quietly through that to our hotel, then went back downtown to the Bug Zoo. Downtown Victoria feels like a summer tourist town, but I liked it anyway. The inner harbor area with the Empress hotel, the parliament buildings, and the harbor walkway was lovely. We got sunburnt sitting next to the harbor and reading.

We took a city bus out to the Buchart gardens. I had heard that they're famous, but was underwhelmed. The style was very Victorian, massed plantings of a single annual which would be dug up and replaced several times a year. That style made the gardens feel very shallow, as though you could take in an entire bed at a glance and be bored with it. There wasn't anything more interesting to see if you looked closer, nor did things change gradually over time. I did like the plantings they put on top of their trashcans. (Faint praise, I know.)

One thing we were foiled at was getting afternoon tea. We tried several places but were unable to find one that had a chef in and sounded like it could deal with vegetarian food. We did see Darth Vader playing the fiddle.

Sunday evening, we took the Victoria Clipper back to Seattle. It's a crowded passenger-only ferry. In Seattle, lakmiseiru (SJ's roommate) gave us a tour of the greenhouses she works in at the U of W. They had plenty of strange plants. We also got to see her adviser's day-old baby harris hawk chicks. Extremely cute little carnivores with dried blood on their beaks.

Taking so many different city buses (Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria) left me very confused about how to ride the bus, and with a pile of wildly different transfers. I'm also appreciating the simplicity of the fares in Boston. The buses in Seattle post on them what the fare is right now (they need to) because the fares change based both on distance and time of day, as does whether you pay when getting on or off.

It was also interesting seeing all the compost bins in restaurants. If we were given disposable silverware, it was always compostable, as were nearly all containers. Coming back to the land of recycling dumped in trash bins when people aren't looking makes me sad, though I have noticed that compostable containers are becoming more common here. There's just nowhere to _put_ them.

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:29:02 GMT

Back from the west coast. A bit tired, and will probably be jetlagged for a few days. We had a good trip though, went lots of places, did lots of new things, saw people, and got sunburnt in Canada in April. I might put up some pictures in a few days.

Three projects and a trip

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:02:37 GMT

I've been taking pottery classes for a couple months now, and I'm just starting to get a few pieces that I really like. I'm particularly fond of this creamer. The glaze on it isn't as high gloss as most others, and I like how the speckled effect came out, you can't see all of that in the photo though. This mug is pretty nice too. I'm using it as my tea mug at work now.

I've been completely redesigning the sun bed (a flower bed about 20x8ft in size) so I'm digging up and moving almost every plant in it. Many of them are perennials that are getting split (bearded irises, some-other-iris, evening primroses). Some just need slight movement (lupins, poppies, yarrow, lamb's ear, tulips, daylilies). Either is a lot of work. The butterfly bush, viburnum, peonies and rose get to stay where they are. It looks kind of like this right now.

My other yard project is making a bench, for this spot. One of the hard things is that the bench should rest against that raised bed, and the planks there are 3 ft long, while almost all benches are 4 or 5 ft long. I've found one online which came as a kit and may require some work because the reviews on quality/easy of assembly were mixed. It's cedar, which should age outside okay, but I may want to seal it with something anyway. I'm still thinking about that.

frolain and I are headed out this afternoon to the west coast. We're flying into Portland, spending the weekend there, then taking the train up to Vancouver BC (via Seattle). We'll be there a few days, then take a ferry to Victoria, stay there a few days, and ferry back to Seattle, and fly back from there. Total trip is about 10 days. I hadn't realized how very very much I need the vacation until it really hit me last night that I didn't have to go in to the office again for almost two weeks, and I felt so much better.

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:46:28 GMT

I made candles last weekend.

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:40:05 GMT

Here are the two pieces of pottery I've brought home from my class. I like the bowl quite well, the cup is...more special. I have two more finished pieces, but I'm not a fan of the glazing on them, so I'm waiting to bring them home until I have a chance to talk to the instructor about whether there's anything I can do.

frolain and I are thinking of taking a weekday off in the next few weeks and going to Wachusett for skiing. I'm hoping it'll be less crowded on a weekday. If you'd be interested in coming along, let me know, we'll likely have space for 1-2 more people in the car.

I'm going a bit stir crazy waiting for spring. Still at least a month to go before I can reasonably expect to be able to work in the yard.

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:03:45 GMT

Looking outside today, I saw these and couldn't help but think they look like multi-tentacled aliens. Perhaps there were a few too many aliens this weekend. :)