GetSheila

Oh-ven (how to say oven in dutch)

I've been wanting to buy a smooth-surface, double-oven range for some time now so imagine how excited I was to discover the only working large burner on my current, cheapo, non-self-cleaning, range no longer worked.

(The other one went out pretty much from Day One.)

(That’s not entirely true, actually. The other one works just fine as long as you don’t put anything on top of it like, say, a pan.)

So naturally I immediately clicked over to Lowes to pick out the perfect slide-in range…only to discover slide-ins are TWICE the price of free-standing ranges.

Proof:

RANGE #1, $1,300: smaller oven conveniently located above large oven but you have to reach over the cooking surface to operate the controls. Not good for Shortie McShortersons like my mom. Also, no bridge element, which I would really like.

 

 

RANGE #2, $2,500: controls conveniently located at the front of the cooking surface. No bridge element here, either, but it has lovely “luxury-glide” oven racks.

Before you get all “But Sheila, the slide-in is an Electrolux, hence more expensive” I ask you to go price slide-ins on your own. FIND ME A SMOOTH-SURFACE, SLIDE-IN, DOUBLE-OVEN FOR $1,500.

My kitchen is currently set up for a slide-in range but could easily accommodate a free-standing one. It could also accommodate a complete remodel. Sadly, my budget cannot.

So I can get a free-standing double-oven range with pretty much everything I want except for the whole reach-over-hot-elements-to-the-controls thing, or get a sleeker slide-in one for way more money.

BUT WAIT. What’s this? The cleaning lady took out the burner element to clean the drip pan and missed the plug-in connection when she put it back? So now my old oven works just fine, as before?

Drat, foiled again.

 

Technorati Tags: slide-in range,double oven

Garage, …not quite conquered but definitely subdued

I started with this:

And ended with this:

  

The stuff in front of the washer & dryer is temporary and will soon go to new homes.

I used the rafters whenever possible: rolled up rugs, extra vertical blind vanes, kitty door I no longer use…

 

Christmas stuff…

 

Oddball project leftovers like extra inserts for modular shoe racks in closet…

 

But the pièce de résistance (that’s French for ZOMG!!!1!!!PONIES!11!1!) is this:

 

That’s two – count em, TWO! – cars parked in there. Has anyone ever parked two cars in a 2-car garage? I’ve never seen it, only in a 3-car garage where they have the 3rd space for all their crap.

My baby looks happy.

Seriously, that looks like a smile to me.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dive into a giant bowl of S’Mores ice cream. BECAUSE I DESERVE IT.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,garage,organize

Shed, conquered! (Garage still kicking my ass)

I finished stuffing the shed like a sausage. Man can that thing hold a lot o’ crap. I made sure it was still functional, though, i.e. I can still walk around and get to everything AND actually open bins to get stuff out, should I need to.

After last weekend’s head start and making of space into which to put stuff, I had four giant black bins of loose things from the garage to be sausaged in:

 

One of them was previously crammed full of all my clothes that no longer fit but I cannot bear to part with because I WILL get back down to that size, goddammit.

(Shut up. I’m eating better and getting exercise by doing my own yard work and hauling stuff back and forth between the shed and garage and falling off ladders and stuff. It could happen…Okay, if I still can’t wear them by next summer I will donate them. Are you happy now? Nag, nag nag.)

The clothes took up 4 red flip-top bins and are already in the shed. You can see one of them on the shelving unit. Note that 3 of the 4 giant black bins are full of old paint, half of which was here when I moved in. My prior owners kindly left me their wild paint colors in case I needed to touch up this:

Or this:

Or perhaps this:

Okay, that last one’s not so bad but not really me. I repainted the entire house a lovely latte (read: beige) color before moving in. You can see all the before and afters on my Flickr page. So why, WHY, am I still keeping that old paint? Possible future craft project? I don’t know but it all fits on the bottom shelf of the shelving rack so there it will stay for now.

 

After moving all the paint and paint supplies in, I brought in as many boxes and bins as I could fit from the garage. The final result:

Can I cook, or what.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,garage cleanup,storage shed

I have a shed

It should not come as a surprise to me that I have a backyard shed. It was here when I moved in 5 years ago, after all. It’s just that I’ve always thought of it as a “garden” shed and not until today did it occur to me to use it as a “storage” shed.

Perhaps because I own a lawn mower and weed eater now so am constantly traipsing in and out of the shed, I noticed how much room it has and how much wasn’t being used – or was being used by unneeded things like dried out plant bulbs and all the kiddie toys I found about the garden after I moved in.

Since I inexplicably woke up at 5:00am today (I know!), I got to work:

Notice all the shade. My house faces east so my backyard is in shade in the morning, though it isn’t actually 5 o’clock in this photo. I sat around drinking tea for a few hours – because that’s what you do on Sunday – so this is around 7:30 or 8:00.

BEFORE AND AFTER of the side with built-in shelves:

 

I kept the kiddie toys after all but swept them up in some garden netting to keep them out of way and utilize the dead space in the roof peak. NOTICE THE PRACTICALLY EMPTY TOP SHELF. I can fit at least 3 more bins up there. The labels on the bins so far include: Edging, Weed / Feed, Pots, Baskets, Sprinkler, and Terminate. (The latter holds insecticides and other weapons of mass bug and weed destruction. I thought about labeling it Sarah Connor but didn’t want to confuse mom.)

BEFORE AND AFTER of the other side:

 

The lawn mower is on the right with its groovy folding handle so it doesn’t take up so much space. NOTICE THE PARACTICALLY EMPTY SHELVING UNIT. I still have tons of space and many things to move out there from the garage, but that task shall wait for another day. So far, all that is in there is what was in there before, after a bit of editing.

The best part of the whole project is I didn’t have to buy a thing. The shelving unit came over with mom as did many of the plastic bins, though I admit I have a fair sized collection of my own.

 

I will likely do more rearranging as I move things from the garage because, GUYS, I HAVE A STORAGE SHED.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,garden shed,storage shed

Exhausted

Where have I been, you ask? Well… WELL…I’ve been busy.

December: Mom got sick and almost died…again…so she finally agreed to move in with me. Have you ever cleared out the 40-year domicile of a pack-rat? No? ATTEMPT IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

January 1 – April 15: Tax season. Enough said.

April 15 – May 15: Catch up on all the work I put off during tax season. Only it’s July 1st and I am just now finishing getting caught up.

May 16 – May 31: OMIGOD I ONLY HAVE 2 WEEKS TO GET MOM’S HOUSE READY FOR THE NEW TENANT. ::clean, paint, replace carpet and vinyl, remove all the last minute stuff I left there in January, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh::

June 1 – June 15: Move my friend Micky into mom’s house. Hook up TV’s! Hook up computer! Weed!

Mom’s garden area before weeding:

I was too pooped to take an after picture. But I will, really, I swear. There are three raised beds there. You just can’t make out the closest one because of all the weeds. It is completely empty now and Micky is dumping the garbage cans full of green waste one per week. Baby steps.

My compost pile:

 

It’s rather pathetic. I need a better setup. Cinder blocks? Thoughts?

I started mowing my own lawn to save money and get some exercise:

 

I know! MOWING MY OWN LAWN. What a concept. I bought a cordless lawn mower, which I love. So much quieter than gas-powered. The self-propelled feature somewhat takes away from the “get some exercise” goal but I do still sweat – a lot – even though I wait until after 7:00pm to mow when it’s cooler. Much practice still needed with the weed-eater for edging purposes but time is on my side.

Updating old computers to get them the hell out of my garage:

 

I was going to just give them to e-recycle for disposal but I tested them first to see what still works and got one CPU/monitor/printer set up for my former gardener, who can’t afford to buy a computer. He can get free dial-up, which is dinosaur slow, but he has never had a computer so I hope it will be sufficient for his needs.

Opening computers and poking around inside is rather fun. That clear bin with all the brown folders in it is my new cable/cord organization. With labels. Never underestimate the joy of getting organized. Oh Happy Day.

Next, do something about the garage:

I think I need to go “up.” So much wasted space up there in the rafters.

 

Technorati Tags: garage,organize,mom

Inside at last!

I started a little painting project oh so long ago and vowed to finish it today because I have been parking my precious Prius outside in the elements for months.

All I had left to do was lightly sand the living room cabinet doors and apply a third coat of paint. I’ve had the drop cloth down and the painting tools ready all this time but just couldn’t get my butt in gear.

So today I did get them sanded but more paint came off in some places than I expected and it all just became TOO HARD.

So I cleaned and reorganized the garage instead. Here is what it looked like before:

 

Well, sort of before. The boxes were stacked all askew on the right but I broke them down and threw them in the center of the floor before going to town with my Skil Power Cutter.

Best. Tool. Ever.

See the giant box on the right? I kept it on its side like that and shoved it full of a bunch of stuff I don’t use but can’t get rid of yet for various reasons AND I can use it as a sort of table.

You can’t see the giant box-table very well due to the avalanche of cardboard I have yet to cut up because the recycling bin is inadequate when you put off cutting up your cardboard for…a while.

Look at all the empty shelves on the other wall!

 

Most of what was there is in the giant box, which I am also using as Donation Station to stash all the things I need to donate but, uh, haven’t.

But perhaps most importantly:

 

It’s a beautiful thing. Except for all the filth on my car. Yuck. I’d wash it myself but I’m a delicate flower. I see a visit to the detailer in my future.

Ow. My feet hurt. And my shoulders. And my back. Ow.

 

Technorati Tags: garage cleanup,skil power cutter

Activation Energy to the Rescue! (Or not)

I’ve mentioned activation energy before, which is apparently a chemistry term for the energy needed to start a reaction. I read about it at Vlad Dolenzal’s blog a few years ago and it was rather an Ah-Ha moment for me.

Not that I have actually used it to start exercising regularly and eating healthy. Don’t be ridiculous!

But it’s brilliant for getting your butt in gear when you have a not-so-fun task to do and no one around to motivate you to actually do it.

Enter: my living room entertainment center painting project.

My BFF Tania came down from Sacramento last weekend at the beginning of July and helped me get it done, along with decking out my master closet. The world needs more friends like Tania. (Love you, girl!)

I let everything dry about a week before putting the shelves back in and promptly peeled paint off left and right getting them in. THE HORROR. On closer inspection of my paint job on the base unit and uprights (Tania did the doors and shelves and they are perfectly lovely) I decided it needed a third coat of paint anyway so I would do that and add a few coats of shellac for protection.

Of course this involves taking the shelves back out and removing the doors, followed by lightly sanding the monstrosity so coat #3 will adhere and wiping/vacuuming/tack clothing away every miniscule bit of sanding residue, before the equally monumental task of actually painting begins. Followed by repeating the entire process multiple times depending on how many coats of shellac you think it needs.

Dear god, I was not looking forward to it.

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While it was only a couple of carriage returns for you, that was two hours away from the keyboard for me, during which I actually did get the 3rd coat of paint on the living room shelving unit base cabinets and uprights. This post was going to be all about activation energy and how awesome it is and how much I got done because of it.

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That was on July 10th, exactly 4 weeks ago. I just got the 3rd coat of paint on ONE side of the shelf inserts today, and don’t even ask me about the cabinet doors.

To put things in perspective, here are things that got done during that 4 weeks I wasn’t painting the shelves:

1. Had my annual review at work;
2. Had my annual mammogram;
3. Had DirecTV out to fix the TV connection in my guest room in preparation for mom staying with me before and after her eye surgery;
4. My sister Karen had major abdominal surgery and is already half way through her recovery period;
5. Took Mom for cataract and glaucoma surgery in one eye, to 3 follow up appointments so far, and she is back to her regular activities pending upcoming surgery on the other eye;
6. Found myself – to my horror – working along side the Tea Party (It turned not to be that horrifying after the initial shock but that’s a whole other post);
7. Took mom to Fresno 3 times for injections in her knee of something that originally came from a rooster’s comb to cushion the joint where the cartilage has worn down to the bone, aka arthritis. One more injection to go and, if it works, she’ll be pain-free for 6-12 months;
8. Got my nails done (another trip to Fresno);
9. Got my hair done;
10. Fed and watered a friend’s critters while she was out of town one weekend;

In retrospect, it sounds like I had a lot going on but, truthfully, I sat on my butt every evening when I could have been painting and sat around drinking tea during the cool hours of the weekend mornings. I used the excuse that it averaged 100 degrees for the last month, but still…

I think perfection-itis was holding me back. I opted to sand only (not prime) before the first coat of paint, thinking the raw wood would suck up the paint and apply a good bond. It certainly did suck up the paint but I’m not so sure about the good bond part. Maybe that’s why it peeled off when I put the shelf inserts back in. I decided I don’t give a crap anymore and just want it DONE. The cabinet top is holding up nicely where I have had the cable box and DVR sitting so maybe the third coat will do the trick. I plan to let the shelves dry for a good month before putting anything on them, like books and chotchkies. And I have decided To Hell with applying shellac, though I did buy some should I change my mind.

Then maybe I’ll get around to finishing the caulking on the baseboards in my master closet.

I need handy friends and family who live closer and will work for food and/or alcohol.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,painting cabinets,activation energy

I’m more of a Glossy White than a Knotty Pine

In addition to revamping my master closet, Tania and I painted my giant living room entertainment center.

BEFORE:

  

AFTER:

HOW WE GOT IT DONE:

I owe Tania a big BIG THANK YOU for helping me with this. I never would have gotten it accomplished without your help, my friend.

I LOVE the way my living room looks now. I’ll wait a week or so before reloading the shelves, to make sure the paint has a chance to dry thoroughly. We don’t want a repeat of the time I painted my mom’s bookshelves and loaded the books on too soon. NOT. PRETTY.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go sit on my sofa and stare at my beautiful new wall o’ shelves, to be interrupted only by running down the hall to stare at my newly revamped master closet.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,tania,painting cabinets

Master Closet, Mastered

A great big hug and THANK YOU to my friend Tania for coming down and helping me revamp my master closet.

See this post for the Before, Empty, and Oh-Dear-God-Demolition-Is-Hard photos. As a refresher, here is a basic shot of what I faced every morning:

Depressing, isn’t it? The top shelf ran the full perimeter of the closet. Yes, even over the door. (You can see the bottom of the shelf and a bit of the brim of a straw hat peeking over the edge.) There are single poles running along each side for hanging clothes. I replaced the door with a sheer curtain because it opened inward and, while the left side of the closet is 24” deep the right side is only 12”, so the hangers stuck out and the door couldn’t open all the way.

WHO DESIGNED THIS THING?

Here is what it looks like now:

Doesn’t it look eleventy billion times bigger?

I still have a few things to do, like install new baseboards (painted and ready to be sacrificed for the greater good) and fill the wall on the right above the double-decker shoe condo. I was initially going to get a third shoe condo but have decided to put two 24” wide shelves there instead, where I will put baskets filled with delicate girly things and, hey!, maybe I’ll be able to get rid of one of my three – count ‘em, THREE – dressers.

Yeah, I’m liking that idea more and more.

Please notice the light fixture in the ceiling. Lest you think it is boring and unremarkable, know that the original fixture was a bare bulb with no way to attach a globe of any kind. Great for aggressive questioning in a small, otherwise dark room by men in black. Not so good for making you feel pretty in the morning.

BTW, the closet wasn’t the only thing Tania and I got accomplished during the 48 hours she was here but I’ll have to tell you about it later. Now I must go become prone.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,master closet remodel,wire shelving,Tania

Not for girlie-girls

If you cry when you break a nail, stop reading. You won’t find this even remotely interesting. If, however, you are someone who Gets Shit Done, read on.

This is my old tool box along with my cordless drill with two batteries (in the black bag,) two drill/driver bit sets, a set ratchet set,and my handy tape measure.

Relatively compact but it still takes two trips if I need to, say, drill and hammer something.

Behold my magical new bag:

And my pink toenails. (It is in fact possible to get regular manicures and operate power tools.) Also note the small green and black bag. It was an old one I had lying around that is perfect for all the loose crap, like electrical tape, plumbers tape, replacement blades for the utility knife, glue sticks for the hot glue gun (yes, every tool box should have a hot glue gun – so handy), staples for the staple gun, etc. I just toss it on top inside before I zip up the main bag.

And look at all the exterior pockets!

Front and right-facing side above, back and left-facing side below.

They even have two little places on the back there to clip things, like a tape measure.

And the best part? IT ROLLS. Just like a rolling suitcase.

It’s pretty heavy with all that stuff in there but it rolls quite easily. I don’t really need everything I have in there at present. I could probably leave out the ratchet set and a few other task-specific tools but it’s nice to know it all fits with room to spare. I can even stack things on top and bungee them to the handle if I need to go mobile.

BTW, if you’re wondering why the three screw drivers in front have pink ends, I dabbed pink fingernail polish on them to identify them as the Phillips heads. Pink starts with “P” as does Phillips. You know, in case someone uses my tools and – GOD FORBID – puts them back in the wrong pocket, I will still be able to easily locate a Phillips when I need it.

 

Technorati Tags: home improvement,tool box,rolling tool caddy,toolbelt diva