Almost 12:30 a.m. Friday night/Saturday morning here at work. Almost time for the amateur drinkers to leave the bars, go out into the parking lots, and call attention to themselves either by fighting or crashing their cars into one another. But in the meantime, I have a few minutes to tell you this: As of 7 a.m., I will be on my way home for four whole days. There are no shifts left uncovered for the next four days and nights, and so no chance that I will be called into work unexpectedly. There is no rain predicted for the next four days in my area. I called the folks at my part-time job and told them not to expect me in on Monday or Tuesday. I told my friends I'd arrive late and leave early at our long-standing plans on Saturday night.
For the next four days, I will be painting. I will put the second coat of dark green paint on the freizeboard and corner piece on the east side of the house, paint that little corner of the wall between the house and the side porch that for some reason I missed, and scrape and paint those two windows on the east side that are still white. I will scrub the dirt off the side porch trim and scrape off any loose paint and then re-paint it cream, will get the second coat of cream paint on the inside of the screen porch panels and re-hang my matchstick shades, will scrape off the loose paint on the front porch, fill some nail holes I missed, and paint the front porch yellow. I will toenail in those porch brackets piled on my dining room chairs. I will ask someone to move the big ladder over to the west side of the house so I can put on the second coat of paint above the dining room bay, then ask them to move the ladder again to the front of the house so I can paint the scary part above the living room bump-out.
I will do all of that. Well, okay, I'll do as much of that as I possibly can, and hope to get to the library to give you words, but still no photos, of my progress.
Curb Appeal & Progress (No Pics)
Blogging to you from a computer at work, which has no time limit like the library, but does have the same rule against uploading photos. Darnit.
Here's what White Trash Bob and I got done Sunday: we dug up the groundcover that had been planted on either side of the front steps and planted daylilies and ajuga in its place, we unearthed two cinder blocks next to the steps and put them in the back yard, I planted more daylilies on the west side of the house, WTB pulled up two scraggly trees that had been growing in the yard, I tore the DirecTV cable off the house and WTB sent the satellite dish crashing to the ground (but left the dish bracket in place so I don't have holes in my roof), I trimmed back the rosebush by the front porch and trained it up the porch post and along the top of the porch so it looks more like Mrs. Kelly's rosebush in the 1906 photo of the house, and WTB cut down with a Sawzall the ugly railing made of pipe that had been next to my front steps. Yes, I am now the President of the WTB Fan Club!
And on Monday, I: planted lilies of the valley on both sides of the front sidewalk, watered everything we'd planted on Sunday (and noticed that WTB fixed the connection from the hose to the spigot so water doesn't spray everywhere), took the storm windows off of the last two unpainted windows on the west side of the house and scraped and cleaned the windows, planted some columbine and Siberian iris my mom gave me, spent an inordinate amount of time poking around in the back yard with a piece of rebar to try and find the foundation of Mr. Kelly's stable (with no luck), and promised Carl I'd help him at The Parsonage during the Old Homes Tour.
Then on Tuesday, I: painted those two windows and the storms on the west side of the house (which means I have only four windows left to paint!), watered everything again, pulled the dead plants out of the containers on my front porch, bought a lavender mum to put in the big planter on the porch, painted the rest of the inside of the new screened porch panels, scraped some paint and filled some nail holes on the front porch, put up my new curtain rods with the nifty bay window connectors in the dining room, hung the dining room sheers, and took my daughter-in-law to supper.
Those lists would've been so much nicer if they had photos along with them....sigh...
Here's what White Trash Bob and I got done Sunday: we dug up the groundcover that had been planted on either side of the front steps and planted daylilies and ajuga in its place, we unearthed two cinder blocks next to the steps and put them in the back yard, I planted more daylilies on the west side of the house, WTB pulled up two scraggly trees that had been growing in the yard, I tore the DirecTV cable off the house and WTB sent the satellite dish crashing to the ground (but left the dish bracket in place so I don't have holes in my roof), I trimmed back the rosebush by the front porch and trained it up the porch post and along the top of the porch so it looks more like Mrs. Kelly's rosebush in the 1906 photo of the house, and WTB cut down with a Sawzall the ugly railing made of pipe that had been next to my front steps. Yes, I am now the President of the WTB Fan Club!
And on Monday, I: planted lilies of the valley on both sides of the front sidewalk, watered everything we'd planted on Sunday (and noticed that WTB fixed the connection from the hose to the spigot so water doesn't spray everywhere), took the storm windows off of the last two unpainted windows on the west side of the house and scraped and cleaned the windows, planted some columbine and Siberian iris my mom gave me, spent an inordinate amount of time poking around in the back yard with a piece of rebar to try and find the foundation of Mr. Kelly's stable (with no luck), and promised Carl I'd help him at The Parsonage during the Old Homes Tour.
Then on Tuesday, I: painted those two windows and the storms on the west side of the house (which means I have only four windows left to paint!), watered everything again, pulled the dead plants out of the containers on my front porch, bought a lavender mum to put in the big planter on the porch, painted the rest of the inside of the new screened porch panels, scraped some paint and filled some nail holes on the front porch, put up my new curtain rods with the nifty bay window connectors in the dining room, hung the dining room sheers, and took my daughter-in-law to supper.
Those lists would've been so much nicer if they had photos along with them....sigh...
Uh-Oh
So....yesterday morning I turned on my laptop and pretty much nothing happened. Nothing except an ominous error message that kept cycling over and over and over. I have no idea how to fix it, or even if it can be fixed. Lucky for me, White Trash Bob knows someone who does. The prognosis isn't good so far...WTB came over yesterday afternoon and explained to me in detail what's wrong with the laptop. The only part of it I understood is "Your hard drive is dead." Uh-oh. That can't be good. I don't know if it's dead like Lazarus, or permanently and irretrievably dead. So....I don't know when I'll be able to blog again. (Sniffle, sniffle.) I'm using the computer at the public library at the moment, but it has a 30-minute time limit and I can't upload photos. Darnit. As we say at work, "FireComm out." For now anyway. Hopefully I'm back sooner rather than later.
Company's Comin!
Company's comin! Oh, not to my house, but to Carl's house across the street. Hopefully lots of company. It's almost Old Homes Tour time again, and Carl's house is one of five tour homes. (If you click on the Old Homes Tour link, Carl's house is The Parsonage.) The ticket price ($13 in advance, $15 day of) includes all five homes plus the Lafayette County Courthouse and admission to the Anderson House at the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site. The first Old Homes Tour in Lexington was in 1952, when some ladies in the Garden Club thought it might be nice to invite the public to tour some of Lexington's beautiful historic homes. So they advertised a little bit, and printed up a few tickets, and then got flooded with thousands more visitors than expected that first weekend. Honestly, I hope that happens again this year. A nice little website with the ability to buy tickets online, pretty flyers distributed throughout the area, and good advertising just might make it happen.
My son is the sixth generation of my family to make our home in Lafayette County, and the third generation to live in Lexington. Like many of the natives, we're so surrounded by the history of our little town that I think we tend to take it for granted. But when I stop and read my hometown's tourism website, www.VisitLexingtonMo.com , I realize how extraordinary this place really is. The oldest Courthouse west of the Mississippi River still in continuous use, an important stop for the westward-bound settlers along the Santa Fe trail, the site of a Civil War battle, the location of the headquarters for the firm that founded the Pony Express...Oh, I'm sorry, am I rambling on? Here, let me put away my tourism soapbox and get back to telling you about the Kelly House.
So anyhow, even though my house isn't on the tour, since it's right across the street I thought it might be nice to straighten up the place a bit. I remembered from the research I did last winter that Maria Kelly (the wife of James Crawford Kelly, who built this house) was known as an immaculate housekeeper. I'm sure she's plenty unhappy with the interior of her house these days, but the outside doesn't look so bad. Or does it? I stood on the sidewalk in front of Carl's house and channeled Maria Kelly while looking at her/my house with a critical eye. For some reason "Beverly Hillbillies" came to mind....maybe it's the paint cans here and there on the front porch, or the dead flowers in the pots on the steps, or the trees sprouting up in the yard, or the satellite cable dangling off the edge of the house...
So I got to work. I was digging a hole in the front yard when who should come along but White Trash Bob to ask me what the heck I was doing. When I explained it to him, he pitched in and helped. Actually, he took over the front yard project and I helped a very little bit. Of course he did. That's what White Trash Bob does, and bless his heart for doing so. I got lots more done today with Bob around than I ever would've accomplished by myself, and none of it involved painting. What it did involve is a whole lot of what Bob calls "curb appeal", and I didn't even think to take photos until it was too dark to do so. So, lots of photos tomorrow—of today's work and Monday's too. How's that for a cliffhanger that will have you coming back??
My son is the sixth generation of my family to make our home in Lafayette County, and the third generation to live in Lexington. Like many of the natives, we're so surrounded by the history of our little town that I think we tend to take it for granted. But when I stop and read my hometown's tourism website, www.VisitLexingtonMo.com , I realize how extraordinary this place really is. The oldest Courthouse west of the Mississippi River still in continuous use, an important stop for the westward-bound settlers along the Santa Fe trail, the site of a Civil War battle, the location of the headquarters for the firm that founded the Pony Express...Oh, I'm sorry, am I rambling on? Here, let me put away my tourism soapbox and get back to telling you about the Kelly House.
So anyhow, even though my house isn't on the tour, since it's right across the street I thought it might be nice to straighten up the place a bit. I remembered from the research I did last winter that Maria Kelly (the wife of James Crawford Kelly, who built this house) was known as an immaculate housekeeper. I'm sure she's plenty unhappy with the interior of her house these days, but the outside doesn't look so bad. Or does it? I stood on the sidewalk in front of Carl's house and channeled Maria Kelly while looking at her/my house with a critical eye. For some reason "Beverly Hillbillies" came to mind....maybe it's the paint cans here and there on the front porch, or the dead flowers in the pots on the steps, or the trees sprouting up in the yard, or the satellite cable dangling off the edge of the house...
So I got to work. I was digging a hole in the front yard when who should come along but White Trash Bob to ask me what the heck I was doing. When I explained it to him, he pitched in and helped. Actually, he took over the front yard project and I helped a very little bit. Of course he did. That's what White Trash Bob does, and bless his heart for doing so. I got lots more done today with Bob around than I ever would've accomplished by myself, and none of it involved painting. What it did involve is a whole lot of what Bob calls "curb appeal", and I didn't even think to take photos until it was too dark to do so. So, lots of photos tomorrow—of today's work and Monday's too. How's that for a cliffhanger that will have you coming back??
Score!
When the sale bill for today's auction was posted on the Courthouse bulletin board earlier this week, there was only one thing I really wanted: a little antique washstand. Since I was sleeping today, my mom went to the auction and bid on it for me. "I really want it," I said, "but I don't want to pay a whole lot for it." So when she called me this afternoon, sounding a little worried, and said she won it but it wouldn't fit in her car and then said, "Gosh, I hope I didn't pay too much for it..." that made me a little worried, too. The auctioneers were packing up for the day by the time I got there, but one of them carried the washstand out to my car for me. So I asked him, "How much did it go for, Ron?"
"Seven dollars and a half," he drawled.
Score!
Cable & Instant Landscaping
Darnit. No vacation day tomorrow. Which means no work on the house until Sunday. Darnit.
In other news...the very nice cable man arrived just before 5 p.m. to install my cable. He kindly informed me that I wouldn't have cable in my bedroom until I bought either a new television or a new DVD player to run the cable through. Five minutes after he left, I connected the wire that was dangling on the floor to the back of the television and—wabam!—it worked. Amazing. Also amazing is that he apparently forgot to flip a little switch somewhere or something, and I'm getting HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel while paying only for basic cable. (Insert evil laugh here.) This is the same cable company that's been providing free cable to my son and his wife for almost two years, despite my son's several calls to them saying that he doesn't want cable. His reason for not wanting cable, though, is that he can't afford it...so now the cable company's made that a moot point.
And my sweet little momma, whose backyard looks like a "Better Homes & Gardens" photo spread, informed me a couple of days ago that she's making broad gravel paths through her gardens and putting in garden benches and such so she doesn't have so many plants to take care of. Would I like to have a few hostas and daylilies, she wondered. Of course I would! My own yard is a mess of weeds and vinca, which I hate. So yesterday I picked up seven bags of hostas. Today I got six bags of daylilies. This is "a few"?!? Wah-hoo! I'll be planting them tomorrow before I go to work. She left a lot of dirt around the root balls and put water in the sacks, too, so they'll be okay til then. My plan is to just stick 'em in the ground someplace for now and divide and relocate them in the spring.
Someday soon, hopefully Sunday, I'll put some more paint on the house and post some photos of the progress.
In other news...the very nice cable man arrived just before 5 p.m. to install my cable. He kindly informed me that I wouldn't have cable in my bedroom until I bought either a new television or a new DVD player to run the cable through. Five minutes after he left, I connected the wire that was dangling on the floor to the back of the television and—wabam!—it worked. Amazing. Also amazing is that he apparently forgot to flip a little switch somewhere or something, and I'm getting HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel while paying only for basic cable. (Insert evil laugh here.) This is the same cable company that's been providing free cable to my son and his wife for almost two years, despite my son's several calls to them saying that he doesn't want cable. His reason for not wanting cable, though, is that he can't afford it...so now the cable company's made that a moot point.
And my sweet little momma, whose backyard looks like a "Better Homes & Gardens" photo spread, informed me a couple of days ago that she's making broad gravel paths through her gardens and putting in garden benches and such so she doesn't have so many plants to take care of. Would I like to have a few hostas and daylilies, she wondered. Of course I would! My own yard is a mess of weeds and vinca, which I hate. So yesterday I picked up seven bags of hostas. Today I got six bags of daylilies. This is "a few"?!? Wah-hoo! I'll be planting them tomorrow before I go to work. She left a lot of dirt around the root balls and put water in the sacks, too, so they'll be okay til then. My plan is to just stick 'em in the ground someplace for now and divide and relocate them in the spring.
Someday soon, hopefully Sunday, I'll put some more paint on the house and post some photos of the progress.
Bleah
Sunday night it started, on the way home from the State Fair. A headache behind my eyes and a generally icky feeling. I thought maybe it was the foot-long corn dog I ate and too much loud music at the free Kansas concert. But Monday I felt worse. And dizzy. And feverish. Sinus infection, the doctor said. Bleah.
The only things I accomplished on my three days off were a couple of phone calls to disconnect my DirecTV and unused phone line, and to have cable tv installed. Yep, after much debate and research and debacle, I decided to go with the cable company. Just over $63 a month for tv and internet, saving myself a whopping $78 a month over what I've been paying. Oh, and I very slowly painted a little bit of the porch trim under the roof in the pouring rain until I almost fell off a 3-step ladder and decided the painting just wasn't worth the effort.
And I'm starting to feel better, just in time to go back to work tomorrow night. Here's hoping my vacation days got covered, which would make both this week and next short work weeks. (Short work weeks at work mean longer work weeks at home.)
The only things I accomplished on my three days off were a couple of phone calls to disconnect my DirecTV and unused phone line, and to have cable tv installed. Yep, after much debate and research and debacle, I decided to go with the cable company. Just over $63 a month for tv and internet, saving myself a whopping $78 a month over what I've been paying. Oh, and I very slowly painted a little bit of the porch trim under the roof in the pouring rain until I almost fell off a 3-step ladder and decided the painting just wasn't worth the effort.
And I'm starting to feel better, just in time to go back to work tomorrow night. Here's hoping my vacation days got covered, which would make both this week and next short work weeks. (Short work weeks at work mean longer work weeks at home.)
Updated Un-Done
Two things crossed off the List of the Un-Done! Got the second coat of yellow paint on the side porch clapboards before work tonight, and I finished painting the storm window. Now, only six more windows to do, and none of them have little teeny muntins that need to be painted with a one-inch brush! Yay!
So...six more windows, three sections of screen panel, two walls under the front porch roof, and two scary parts of the house left to do! Then a few non-painting odds and ends like nailing up the porch brackets, putting the downspouts back on, re-attaching the hose holder to the house, and whatever else I've forgotten.
So...six more windows, three sections of screen panel, two walls under the front porch roof, and two scary parts of the house left to do! Then a few non-painting odds and ends like nailing up the porch brackets, putting the downspouts back on, re-attaching the hose holder to the house, and whatever else I've forgotten.
Whole Lotta Ifs
So...if I didn't already own the Kelly House...and if I wasn't workin my hiney into the ground on it...and if I won the lottery...then I'd buy this house today. That's a whole lotta "ifs", but you know how it is. It's a pre-Civil War house on 25 acres and has a guest house and a little log cabin that dates back to the 1830s or so. The house has been beautifully restored and sets at the end of a long, winding lane. Drive down that lane and it's like going into another world...the property is so quiet and beautiful that you forget it's 2009. You can read more about the house's history and features and see interior photos of it here. Oh, and this house is a movie star, too. Rent the movie "Ride With The Devil" and you can see the Yankees burn it. As always, I'm unaffiliated in any way and just wanted to share another one of Lexington's gorgeous homes with y'all.
More Almost-Done
Today I was feelin it! But I had to sleep today so I'd be able to stay awake all night at work. It just figures.
I did add a few more things to the Almost-Done List: finished painting the last of the front windows and put the storm window back up, but didn't have enough time to paint it; put the first coat of yellow paint on the clapboards Bob replaced, but the high humidity made the paint take forever to dry so they didn't get a second coat; and swept the floor of the front porch and moved the furniture around so I can get to the two walls and two windows there that need to be scraped, caulked and painted.
Tomorrow I'll paint the storm window and put the second coat of paint on the side porch clapboards, and then I can mark those two things off the List of the Un-Done.
There's a quote by Charles Haddon Spurgeon that I think sums up my projects perfectly: "By perseverance the snail reached the ark."
I did add a few more things to the Almost-Done List: finished painting the last of the front windows and put the storm window back up, but didn't have enough time to paint it; put the first coat of yellow paint on the clapboards Bob replaced, but the high humidity made the paint take forever to dry so they didn't get a second coat; and swept the floor of the front porch and moved the furniture around so I can get to the two walls and two windows there that need to be scraped, caulked and painted.
Tomorrow I'll paint the storm window and put the second coat of paint on the side porch clapboards, and then I can mark those two things off the List of the Un-Done.
There's a quote by Charles Haddon Spurgeon that I think sums up my projects perfectly: "By perseverance the snail reached the ark."
The Un-Done Remains The Same
I just wasn't feelin it today. Dynochick over at Gear Acres says "lack of interest" is factored into the projected completion date of what she's working on. I didn't account for days like today when I predicted I'd be finished painting the house yesterday. I also didn't account for not being able to sleep well the night before and forgetting to set an alarm today. It's hard to have a productive work day when you get up at one in the afternoon.
So all I have to show for today is a few almost-dones. I put together the rest of the porch brackets before I went to bed (since that was around 3 a.m., it counts as today) but didn't get them nailed onto the porch. I finished painting all those teeny little muntins on the last of the windows that have teeny little muntins, but got only the first coat of cream paint on the window trim. I put one coat of dark green paint on the last of the freize boards that was still white, but it needs a second coat. And finally, I painted the tops (but not the rest) of two of the three screen panels. Yep, that's it. Stunning achievements for a four-hour workday, no?
But wait, today was not a total loss. I did do a good deed today. While looking for Mare at the house where he's supposed to be working, I saw that one of the horses (not a mare, by the way) had gotten out and was wandering through the front yard. No one was home. I briefly considered trying to put the horse back inside the fence by myself but decided against it based on the following facts: I know nothing about horses, there were other horses inside the fence and I was worried that while trying to put one horse back in ten horses would get out, and the horse had no bridle or leash or handle thingy with which to lead it. Oh yeah, and I know nothing about horses. So I left and looked up the number for Big River Ranch, where there are horses, on the off chance that horse people hang out together and someone there would help. Turns out the guy who answered the phone is the owner of the horses at that house. He muchly appreciated my phone call. Yay for small towns where such a thing is possible!
So back I went to the Kelly House and pondered the List of the Un-Done. Still the same as yesterday's list. Sigh. Maybe I'll be feelin it tomorrow.
So all I have to show for today is a few almost-dones. I put together the rest of the porch brackets before I went to bed (since that was around 3 a.m., it counts as today) but didn't get them nailed onto the porch. I finished painting all those teeny little muntins on the last of the windows that have teeny little muntins, but got only the first coat of cream paint on the window trim. I put one coat of dark green paint on the last of the freize boards that was still white, but it needs a second coat. And finally, I painted the tops (but not the rest) of two of the three screen panels. Yep, that's it. Stunning achievements for a four-hour workday, no?
But wait, today was not a total loss. I did do a good deed today. While looking for Mare at the house where he's supposed to be working, I saw that one of the horses (not a mare, by the way) had gotten out and was wandering through the front yard. No one was home. I briefly considered trying to put the horse back inside the fence by myself but decided against it based on the following facts: I know nothing about horses, there were other horses inside the fence and I was worried that while trying to put one horse back in ten horses would get out, and the horse had no bridle or leash or handle thingy with which to lead it. Oh yeah, and I know nothing about horses. So I left and looked up the number for Big River Ranch, where there are horses, on the off chance that horse people hang out together and someone there would help. Turns out the guy who answered the phone is the owner of the horses at that house. He muchly appreciated my phone call. Yay for small towns where such a thing is possible!
So back I went to the Kelly House and pondered the List of the Un-Done. Still the same as yesterday's list. Sigh. Maybe I'll be feelin it tomorrow.
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