Posts tagged: small-jobs
Day 35: Goody-nough
By egelliaOoh, here’s a new development…
So Johnny’s been telling me for quite some time now that “this guy up at the pub who’s name I can’t remember but he’s a lawyer, honey” says we should file some homestead something or other on our house, and in fact this guy will do it for us if only we bring him our tax returns and the deed to our house.
Well, gosh. Here you go, honey. Let me know how it turns out.
NOT!
I swear to god, I love him. Bu » READ MORE
So Johnny’s been telling me for quite some time now that “this guy up at the pub who’s name I can’t remember but he’s a lawyer, honey” says we should file some homestead something or other on our house, and in fact this guy will do it for us if only we bring him our tax returns and the deed to our house.
Well, gosh. Here you go, honey. Let me know how it turns out.
NOT!
I swear to god, I love him. Bu » READ MORE
Day 34: Didn't I Tell You, Tina...?
By egellia.JPG)
I got into the knob-less closet. I didn't get a chance to start doing anything around here today until before I knew it Johnny was calling to be picked up from work. The weather is too gross and sticky for staining or painting, too gross and sticky for any work harder than staining or painting, and Goody (who, by the way, is pissed at having been locked down celler for the weekend) wouldn't let me make my very first day back also be my very first » READ MORE
Miles To Go Before We Sleep... (A Photo Essay)
By egelliaI can't quit now.
Just from where I'm sitting, for example, I can see something desperately needing to be done:
Just from where I'm sitting, for example, I can see something desperately needing to be done:
Ain't it cute? It's Superman. Johnny's nephew drew it on my desk when he stayed with us a couple summers ago. How old was he at the time, you ask?
26.
I didn't do anything about it at first because he said he was coming back and I was going to make him do it when he got here, but he knocked up some girl and never did come back, and I pu » READ MORE
Day 33 (late), Project 13: Not Recommended
By egellia
... Not while the machine's on spin cycle, anyway. Oh, it didn't fall -- but only just. Only just. (Please note how carefully I placed the iced coffee up on the shelf, though. Wouldn't want that spilling all over the floor. I might have to clean it up with, like, a mop or something...)
Also not recommended: questioning every step of the way a job that is spelled out in every how-to book and that your husband has been doing for (have I mentioned? » READ MORE
Day 32; Project 13: What I SHOULD have done...
By egellia... would be to take the handles off the closet in the bedroom, and stain them while I was at this, since they're the exact same doors and handles that I'm working with, but somehow these handles got forgot about when they were stained two years ago.
Good thing we never close them or they might be all greasy from fingerprints.
Okay, enough with the italics already.
I did it.
I varnished the hall.
And I found this:
Where I apparently decided oh, wh » READ MORE
Good thing we never close them or they might be all greasy from fingerprints. Okay, enough with the italics already.
I did it.
I varnished the hall.
And I found this:
Where I apparently decided oh, wh » READ MORE
Day 31, Project 14: Super Flash
By egelliaSo, I don’t know…
I was in bed this morning, with coffee and newspapers -- as any civilized person should be of a sunny Sunday morning -- when suddenly, with no idea how I got there, I found myself in the back hall in some sort of a fugue state with a paintbrush in my hand.
Methinks Prudence and Goody are trying to kill off the other selves.
...the people the people the people the people the people…
It took four hours -- which means either » READ MORE
I was in bed this morning, with coffee and newspapers -- as any civilized person should be of a sunny Sunday morning -- when suddenly, with no idea how I got there, I found myself in the back hall in some sort of a fugue state with a paintbrush in my hand.
Methinks Prudence and Goody are trying to kill off the other selves.
...the people the people the people the people the people…
It took four hours -- which means either » READ MORE
Day 29, Project 12: Happy, Nana?
By egelliaI don't have a "before" picture -- because it turns out when you check the box that says "delete photos from camera after copying", it actually, you know, does. Same thing happens when you highlight all the pictures in your folder and hit "delete." Go figure.
So I don't have a before picture and I don't have as many other pithily-commented illustrations as I'd planned (and maybe, just maybe, when I deleted all my photos after spending an hour car » READ MORE
So I don't have a before picture and I don't have as many other pithily-commented illustrations as I'd planned (and maybe, just maybe, when I deleted all my photos after spending an hour car » READ MORE
Day 28, Project 11: Swearing A Blue Screen
By egelliaMy plan today was to drop the screen-door screens off at Curry Hardware (the Ace Place where I have the plus-five-dollar coupon for) -- which is conveniently located on the way to dropping Johnny off at work -- because they’re both torn and we were supposed to get them fixed sometime over the winter. (Oops.)
It wasn't until we were actually driving by Curry Hardware that I realized I forgot to bring the screens.
So my new plan was to drop them » READ MORE
It wasn't until we were actually driving by Curry Hardware that I realized I forgot to bring the screens.
So my new plan was to drop them » READ MORE
Day 27, Project 11: Ta Da!
By egelliaLe laundry, c’est finis:
Here’s the thing.
I woke up this morning (sweating, I might add -- it is so hot here! 97, for those of you inclined to scoff, which I think is like 36 or something for you “Zed”-sayers) with a mind towards staining. I wanted to stain the back hallway -- two doors, three doorframes, and four windows.
Trying to decide whether to do it before work (when it would be less hot) or after (when I’d have more time) I aske » READ MORE
Here’s the thing.
I woke up this morning (sweating, I might add -- it is so hot here! 97, for those of you inclined to scoff, which I think is like 36 or something for you “Zed”-sayers) with a mind towards staining. I wanted to stain the back hallway -- two doors, three doorframes, and four windows.
Trying to decide whether to do it before work (when it would be less hot) or after (when I’d have more time) I aske » READ MORE
Day 25, Project 3: Opinions, Please?
By egelliaJohnny’s a pain in my butt.
I finished working out this morning, and was going to step in the shower, when I realized if I got in now I’d have to listen to church on the radio while I was in there. So I decided what the hell -- family plans or no family plans -- I can take twenty minutes and slap a coat of varnish on the door, and that way I can listen to something more interesting than sin-and-salvation while I shaved my legs.
The irony of » READ MORE
I finished working out this morning, and was going to step in the shower, when I realized if I got in now I’d have to listen to church on the radio while I was in there. So I decided what the hell -- family plans or no family plans -- I can take twenty minutes and slap a coat of varnish on the door, and that way I can listen to something more interesting than sin-and-salvation while I shaved my legs.
The irony of » READ MOREDay 24, Project 3: Quick Like A Bunny
By egelliaJohnny and I just got back from helping Andy on his house all day. That is a long story that only starts with a baby bunny getting runned-over with the lawn mower. I promise to tell you at least some of it tomorrow (though that's all I'll say about poor Peter) but for now I just found out I have to run back out again and save my husband from himself. So here are some pictures to tide you over for now -- and to satisfy my Prudent Heart.
I did the » READ MORE
I did the » READ MORE
Day 23, Project 9: Give Me Enough Rope...
By egelliaI hung a picture.
Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but consider the story of this particular work of art…
The actual piece of paper was a Christmas gift (birthday?) three years ago (five?) from my brother (definitely brother). It lived between the pages of a book until two years ago, when we finished the laundry room and I asked Johnny to frame it for me for as a present so I could hang it in there -- it’s a picture of a washing machi » READ MORE
Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but consider the story of this particular work of art…
The actual piece of paper was a Christmas gift (birthday?) three years ago (five?) from my brother (definitely brother). It lived between the pages of a book until two years ago, when we finished the laundry room and I asked Johnny to frame it for me for as a present so I could hang it in there -- it’s a picture of a washing machi » READ MORE
Day 22, Project 3: I Finally Broke In To The Prison
By egelliaWhat ever possessed me to believe that Leonard Cohen would be the appropriate soundtrack for this job? Well, I’ll tell you. When I started setting things up and deciding what I might want to listen to, the only thing I could hear inside my head was “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried, in my way, to be free…”
So Songs of Leonard Cohen it had to be, because Johnny Cash’s version of that song is just just t » READ MORE
So Songs of Leonard Cohen it had to be, because Johnny Cash’s version of that song is just just t » READ MORE
Day 18, Project 3 & 8: Me too.
By egelliaMe too this.
So last night Johnny told me to bring the door in but I said “You told me it would be okay.” Actually, I think I may have started a fight over the fact that he was (gasp!) going to help me bring it in, and I was insisting that I could do it “by my ownself” (a phrase borrowed from the first delightful book I've read all month). So then of course, being the most rational of all rational creatures, we left it out there rather th » READ MORE
So last night Johnny told me to bring the door in but I said “You told me it would be okay.” Actually, I think I may have started a fight over the fact that he was (gasp!) going to help me bring it in, and I was insisting that I could do it “by my ownself” (a phrase borrowed from the first delightful book I've read all month). So then of course, being the most rational of all rational creatures, we left it out there rather th » READ MORE
Day 16, Project Five: Hah!
By egelliaI hung the laundry room door!
First of all, I noticed at some point since I got home that the button has fallen off my jeans, and I don’t know when it happened so I don’t know where I might have been today with my pants all hanging open. Which has nothing to do with anything, I'm just saying: this is my life.
Then Johnny got home and he said the closet door that I've been working on is, too, lighter than it was when it started, and that the b » READ MORE
First of all, I noticed at some point since I got home that the button has fallen off my jeans, and I don’t know when it happened so I don’t know where I might have been today with my pants all hanging open. Which has nothing to do with anything, I'm just saying: this is my life.
Then Johnny got home and he said the closet door that I've been working on is, too, lighter than it was when it started, and that the b » READ MORE
Day Fifteen Redux: To Hell With All Of That
By egelliaIt didn't look like the bleach was doing anything this morning, so I hit it again before I left for work. Johnny didn't say it was okay to do this, but he didn't say it wasn't, either...
The skies darkened and threatened and scowled while I was in the city, but I shook my fist at them and told them they better not or I'd sic Goody on them. They didn't. Phew. I'm so relieved. Imagine how ugly the door would be if it got all rainstains on it!
Almos » READ MORE
The skies darkened and threatened and scowled while I was in the city, but I shook my fist at them and told them they better not or I'd sic Goody on them. They didn't. Phew. I'm so relieved. Imagine how ugly the door would be if it got all rainstains on it!
Almos » READ MORE
Day 15, Project Three: The Best Disinfectant
By egelliaThey aren’t predicting sun today, but they aren’t predicting rain, either, and I couldn’t stand it any longer so I did it already. I squirted the door. Woke up at 6:00, brushed my teeth, put the coffee on, and went outside.
Who knew straight bleach was so basic? As in pH, I mean. My hands were so slippery after, I had to (ugh) wash dishes just to get the feeling off. (Who out there might of thought of putting gloves on before you got that s » READ MORE
Who knew straight bleach was so basic? As in pH, I mean. My hands were so slippery after, I had to (ugh) wash dishes just to get the feeling off. (Who out there might of thought of putting gloves on before you got that s » READ MORE
Day 14, Project Five: I Am The Walrus
By egelliaYou know what they say about the weather in New England. If you don’t like it, wait a week and a half and go bonkers waiting for a chance to go outside with your door!!!!!!!
Okay, my head has spun back round and is facing front again. Pea soup’s all cleaned up. What was I talking about?
Oh right. The laundry room.
Now, okay. The tiny closet where you wash your clothes is not the most interesting room in the house (I hope it isn’t, anyway, for al » READ MORE
Day 13, Project Three: Deep Breaths
By egelliaI am so proud of me!
See, I lied to you a little bit yesterday. Not about the goats or the train or about time being an endless song or anything important like all that. But I didn’t exactly fold up my house and quit in a fit of pique like I pretended.
Okay I did … but then I smoothed it out again and started over. Let me explain:
After I posted my snit yesterday, I had myself something to eat and a half hour of quiet time, at which point I w » READ MORE
See, I lied to you a little bit yesterday. Not about the goats or the train or about time being an endless song or anything important like all that. But I didn’t exactly fold up my house and quit in a fit of pique like I pretended.
Okay I did … but then I smoothed it out again and started over. Let me explain:
After I posted my snit yesterday, I had myself something to eat and a half hour of quiet time, at which point I w » READ MORE
Day 12, Project @#!^!: Follow The Good Intentions
By egelliaLast week -- last Thursday -- the reason I couldn’t do anything around here or write about it was that I had promised to milk the goats. Remember? The baby goats? Well, the baby goats are weaned now and that means their mamas need a-milkin’. Papa goat-owner is away for a while (down the Cape with Johnny, as a matter of fact), and the person he got to milk them for him couldn’t make it that one day, so I volunteered. I’d milked a goat before: wh » READ MORE
