Soup and what's bugging me

I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup for lunches. Even with my cold it smells good.

What's bugging me - Public schools wasting money on stupid stuff and then wanting more.
There was another murder about 6 blocks from where I work in the middle of the afternoon. The guy had "at least six children". WTF! Nobody knows how many kids this guy had? He had a rap sheet 5 pages long including non-payment of child support.
The government giving out free cell phones
The IRS making deals with people who own more taxes than they can pay. This is what is bugging me - you don't have to agree or disagree - I just feel like I am living in a world gone mad.

Another detail

Here is the return air grille from the redo bedroom. I did buy a new one, but it was lightweight and the screw holes did not line up with the old ones. This old paint encrusted, dirty grille is make from steel so I decided to striped it, scraped it, then wire brushed to get those last crusty bits off and use steel wool to smooth the surfaces.

Here it is before painting.

Here it is after one coat of paint.

I am pleased with how it turned out. I will give it another coat of gloss white paint, install it, and that will be one more thing done. I am getting so close to being done with everything except the closet doors which will have to wait and the baseboards. I will finish the touch up painting and electrical this weekend the room will be done. That means I will have a giveaway on Tuesday to celebrate the room being as done as I can at this time. The giveaway will be sewing related - not remodeling!

Details and fixing stuff

Saturday my nose ran all day. I have the starting of a cold. Every 5 minutes I was blowing my nose so I decided to work on the small details for the room re-do and fixing stuff. Here is a shade for the floor lamp I had spray painted a couple of weeks ago. The shade had a crack in it already, but when I went to clean the shade the piece cracked the rest of the way. I got out the Goop and glued it back together.

While I had the Goop out I tacked this diffuser cover that was broken.

Fixed.

Next - I forgot to spray paint the part that screws on the top of a lamp to hold the shade - I don't remember what it is called. This is a table lamp which is going into the redo room.
Sprayed

Installed

Here are some screws for the return air grilles that I spray painted white.

To finish out Saturday I worked on the window treatments for the redo room and mowed most of the grass. I will have to take the week wacker to cut down some of the grass in the back. My poor mower was trying it's best, but the grass was just too long and it was still wet underneath.

Sunday I trimed out the other window in the redo bedroom.
Extension jambs - installed

Trim pieces at the ready

Before the first trim piece was put in place

I have to sand the ends of any excess paint on these trim pieces or they will not fit

First piece installed

All eight installed

Next is the casing. As I installed each piece, I filled the gap with spray foam for doors and windows. I learned not to go all the way around the window and then install the casing, because the stuff expands and then you have to wipe the excess away and it is a big mess.

Here is a reminder of what the before looked like.

Here is the casing done. I still need to finish the caulking and give it a touch up coat of paint, but the hard part is done!

I finished up the other window treatment on Sunday. The fabric width ended up being too narrow for the windows so I put on my thinking cap, and rumaged thru my stash and found some black duck left over from a lighting mask I had made for my brother when he toured with Bruce Springsteen. I cut strips and added it to the sides. I still need to get some hardware to wind the cords on.

So what is left to do in this space? The electrical will be cleaned up on Labor Day weekend and I still need to sort out the water issue before I can install the baseboards. The casing at the doorway needs a touch up coat of paint (I will do that when I put the final coat on the window), I need to hang the door, and put a few more coats of yellow paint on the bed. The closet doors will have to wait until I save up some money, but I am getting close to having the work done in this room.

I did get about 6" of the 17" of unquilting I need to do on the Dutch wax quilt.

Darn that yellow paint

Last evening I sanded and primed the extension jambs for the other window in the re-do bedroom. I should have gotten up early to put the first coat of paint on them before I went to work, but I had a cool dream instead. I was dreaming that I was starting to work in a fabric printing shop, but not like anything normal. Everything was custom and very edgy.

I put another coat of paint on this chair. This is the fourth coat. It looks ok in the picture, but in person there are still places where the wood is showing thru.

While I had yellow on the brush, I put another coat on the back side of the head and foot board for the bed. I can only paint one side at a time, so right now there are two coats of paint on each side. I know I will have to do at least one more and possibly two more coats.

This weekend I plan on getting the finish coats on the extension jambs so I can install the trim on Sunday. I will try and get another coat of paint on the bed. I need to get back to alterations and maybe work on unquilting the Dutch wax quilt. I guess I will be busy - again!

Back to the Dutch Wax flag quilt

Last evening I decided to finish quilting the last 3 square feet of the Dutch wax quilt.

It looked great until I turned it over. I ended up with a ridge between the two rows of quilting. I will have to unquilt the last 17" and try again.

A little of this and a little of that

My friend stopped over last evening with her machine and the baby quilt that she is making. She was having trouble quilting it so I had to put on my thinking cap. The problems were: the thread she was using in the bobbin was a slick-it-tee shiny thread, the stitch lenght was too short, and she did not have one of those wooden spool inserts for the oversized spool of quilting thread. She is borrowing my wood insert - I need to find another one. Does anyone out there know where I can get one?

Here is the completed zig zag top. It will finish 75" x 85".

A co-worker dropped off my extension jambs yesterday. I can now get the ones for the re-do bedroom painted over the next couple of evenings and then I can install the trim on the other window in the re-do bedroom this weekend.

Other news - I got my electric bill yesterday. I almost did not want to open it for fear of how much it was going to be since I ran A/C every day with all the heat and humidity. To my suprise it was only $87.22! Usually my electric bill is about $22 to $26 a month without heat or A/C. I am glad to pay that for all the comfort I received!

Yes, it was interesting yesterday afternoon with the earthquake. I have felt them before in Ohio so it was no big deal although yesterday's much lasted longer than any I have felt in the past. The blinds were shaking along with the fake ficus tree. I am just glad that no one was killed or injured and the damage was minor compared to other earthquakes that have taken place in the world.

ig Zag top is done

This what the top looked like before I finished it last evening. I forgot my camera at work so I could not take a picture of the finished top. I will post it tomorrow. I am so glad to have the top done and I really like it. I think it is a fun piece.

I also made salmon paddies with a sesame seed crust and watched the prolog of the American Pro Cycling Challange which is being held in Colorado. All the top riders are there including Cadel Evans and the Schleck brothers. Men on bicycles - HOT!

Great weekend

I am having sewing company Tuesday evening so I needed to get the downstairs cleaned up. I had four piles - garage sale, keep, my son, and trash. This is the downstairs foyer. I started out clearing out the shelf on the right wall in this picture. Not a good shot of it, but it had three shelves and was packed full of my containers I used to sort scraps.

Once I moved the shelf and its contents (some when into to closet in the re-do bedroom) it was time to deal with the floor. Here is where I had not installed the floor tile yet.

I got the tile installed along with the baseboard between the doorways.

Next it was time to sort the boxes on top of that yellow and gree toy box. Now the only thing on top of it is my tools.

I had to go out and work in the garage Sunday a bit to make a spot for the garage sale items. Once I made a decision about an item to go to the sale, I just wanted to get it out of the house. It was very humid and after 1 1/2 hours I deemed the spot clean enough, started bringing stuff out to the garage, and them went back into the A/c.
Before:

After:

I went thru every box and made hard decisions about everything. I even went thru all my xmas ornaments and sorted out a box of them to go to the garage sale. I went from 5 boxes of xmas stuff to two.

The box of my son's trophies has not been unpacked for over 15 years and it was time to deal with them. I cut off all the plaques and will be using them in a memory box project I have started. The trophies will be going to the garage sale.

The oddest thing I found was a pair of beat up metallic shoes worn by James Tayler from Kool and the Gang. My brother tourned with Kool and the Gang a very long time ago and he "saved" these from the trash for my son. I remember at the party when my brother brought these shoes that my son, who was probably 9 or 10 at the time, putting on the shoes and dancing around in them. It was too funny. What should I do with these? E-bay?

I did sew a little last night and managed to sew together the blocks for the last two rows of the xmas family zig zag quilt, and dumped out my yogurt for straining that I had started Sunday morning. A neighbor stopped over with a couple of alterations about 7 PM so after she left I threw in the towel and called it a night.

Tonight I have to finish cleaning up the kitchen since company is coming and cook something for lunches this week.

Mess, extension jambs, and future giveaway - OH MY!

Here comes the weekend! I want to get my sewing room and foyer cleaned up of all the stuff I pulled out of the re-do bedroom. I am posting pictures of the ugly mess/dirty laundry so to speak. It is very humid this morning and I hope this is not the case for the whole weekend. I need to get some of this stuff out to the garage and organized for the garage sale my neighbor invited me to sell at in a few weeks. My garage faces south and it gets hot!

I even have stuff stuffed behind my big table.

Here is a view the opposite direction looking toward the foyer and the re-do bedroom. What a pile of stuff!

The foyer

The extension jambs were in the garage when I got to the house after work - YEAH! I broke the bundle apart, measured the windows, marked the jambs with the measurment I need them ripped to, and bundled them back up by window. All four windows had different measurements. I loaded them up in the car with the mt beer bottles (in the white boxes) and my friend, Mike, will be taking them home and ripping them for me. I will be glad to get them back so I can finish trimming the other window in the re-do bedroom.

I need to get another coat or two of paint on the other yellow pieces that are going into the room this weekend. Who knows what else I will end up doing!

I came up with an idea this morning. I think I will have a giveaway inspired by this re-do once I get the room done. As I continue to finish rooms, I plan on having some kind of giveaway for each room finished. You will have to keep encouraging me to finish rooms so the giveaways happen!

More yellow

I bought these bookends several years ago and they are just butt ugly.

To solve that problem I painted them yellow! Now I think they are cute and will look nice in the new bedroom. The framed piece is one my son did in high school art class. It is a tribute to Kirk Cobane of Nirvana. I framed this piece several years ago and it will be perfect for the new bedroom.

Here is a picture of a room that inspired me to use yellow as my accent color. What a fun room!

Keim Lumber is delivering my extention jambs this morning. Tonight I will measure the windows and hand them off tomorrow to a fellow worker - the one I have been saving the beer bottles for - who will rip them down to the correct size. This extension jamb issue has slowed the project along with the foundation issue. The foundation waterproofers are coming Friday to look at the situation. I have not heard back from the electrician with a date and time to do the electrical.

I needed something for breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week so I dug thru the cupboards and found chicken broth, a can of carrots, a can of peas, and noodles. With the leftover turkey in the freezer, celery and parsley flakes, I made a soup/stew. I am eating it as I post and it is quite good.

End table re-do

Here is the before again for this ugly end table.

After primer and three coats of paint this is what it looks like.

The yellow paint is not covering well and I am not completely satified with the result after 3 coats. It looks a lot better with the 3rd, but I may put a fourth coat on.