I'm still here...but I haven't gotten anything else done this week, so there's nothing much to tell you about. Oh, in case you were wondering, ripping the shingles off the house is a whole lot more fun than picking them up and trying to stuff them into trash bags. In my next life I will own a trash company and rent dumpsters to myself for free. (In this life, a small dumpster would cost me a hundred bucks to rent.) Wait, what am I saying?? In my next life I won't own a house that needs a billion cedar shingles torn off it, so I won't need a dumpster! I should learn to dream big.
Anyway, I finally picked up all the shingles. Seven trash bags full of them. I bet the trash man dreads turning into my alley. I can just imagine the two trash guys chatting as they turn the corner:
"Wonder what the crazy lady in the yellow house has for us today? More carpet that's 3'11" wide?" (Because they won't pick it up if it's wider than 4 feet.) "A stack of rusty tomato cages? Bags of wallpaper?"
And then as they pull up behind my house:
"Oh, look! Shingles! Haven't had bags and bags of those for awhile."
The trash guys should be grateful. They'd have at least a couple more bags of shingles to pick up if I hadn't sorted out all the little pieces of shingles and thrown them in a metal trashcan in the corner of my yard. See, those shingles make really good kindling in my fire bowl. There's something very satisfying (and maybe just a wee bit vengeful) about watching those damn shingles burn up as I'm kicked back in a chair drinking a cold beer. Which I plan to do a lot more of as soon as I finish the back wall of the house.
Going...Going...Gone!
Going....
Going...
Gone!
Mark this day on your calendars, dear friends. Today at 6:52 p.m. CST the last shingle was removed from the Kelly House. In recognition of this momentous occasion, April 26th shall forever after be known as Victory Day, for it was today that I at last conquered the shingles.
And tomorrow I have a big mess to clean up...
Oh, and that blob at the top of the ladder in the second photo is Christopher. See?
Quite daring for a cat who spends about 20 hours a day sleeping on the end of my bed.
The Loophole
I've surely mentioned before how much I love my neighbors Floyd and Gwen. They live right next door in a house built on the other half of the lot my house sits on, and I couldn't ask for better neighbors. They loaned me their big extension ladder so I could paint the tall parts of my house—well, okay, so WTB could paint the tall parts of my house. They gave me a little dogwood tree. They've offered tons of advice and encouragement along the way.
Tuesday when I was checking out the back wall of the house Floyd yelled over from his yard, "Go, Jayne, go!"
I admitted that I had no motivation to finish tearing the shingles off the wall that day. "In fact," I confessed, "I'm gonna take the whole summer off."
He strolled over with raised eyebrows. "Really now? Is that so?" Clearly Floyd does not believe me.
"That's so. No major projects for the whole entire summer. That's my vow."
"Well...you're kinda committed to do this now that you've started," he said, looking at the half of the wall that still has shingles. "Good thing summer doesn't officially start 'til the 21st of June. You'll have it all done by then."
Now there's a loophole I can work right through...
Tuesday when I was checking out the back wall of the house Floyd yelled over from his yard, "Go, Jayne, go!"
I admitted that I had no motivation to finish tearing the shingles off the wall that day. "In fact," I confessed, "I'm gonna take the whole summer off."
He strolled over with raised eyebrows. "Really now? Is that so?" Clearly Floyd does not believe me.
"That's so. No major projects for the whole entire summer. That's my vow."
"Well...you're kinda committed to do this now that you've started," he said, looking at the half of the wall that still has shingles. "Good thing summer doesn't officially start 'til the 21st of June. You'll have it all done by then."
Now there's a loophole I can work right through...
Today's Lesson
They say you learn something new every day.
Today I learned not to leave a box of packing peanuts unattended
in a house inhabited by three cats and a dog.
Meh...I Planted Flowers
I woke up Tuesday at the crack of noon and walked outside to survey the back wall of the house. Part shingled, part not. The part with shingles is much larger than the part without. As I was walking over to get my wrecker bar, a thought occurred to me which I've rarely had in regard to the exterior of my house. I thought, Meh....I'll do that later. There's always plenty of meh to go around when it comes to the interior of the house and things like dusting and vacuuming. (And lately, wallpapering.) The outside of the house, not so much meh, probably because everyone can see that. But somewhere between the stoop and the corner of the yard where the tools are, every bit of motivation to rip shingles off the house just drained right out of me. I was still sitting on the back patio in one of my cute blue chairs an hour later when my mom called me. "Let's go down to Hilltop [a local greenhouse] and get my tomatoes," she said. Excellent idea.
She bought tomatoes. I bought pretty things.
Some I planted in the big container on the west side of my house:
In the middle is a Red Star cordyline, around it are Bada Boom Rose wax begonias, and trailing down is Snow Princess sweet alyssum. This container's in the middle of what will eventually be a big bed of hosta, columbine and ferns. Eventually. Right now it's kind of a mess.
Others I planted in the short containers on my front porch steps:
In front are Cappucino petunias and in back is a Kingwood Torch coleus. I've never seen that color of petunia before and I just had to have 'em. The photo doesn't really do them justice.
And I filled up the tall skinny containers on the front porch, too:
This combination is an old standby, but I love it anyway. In the back is an Inky Fingers coleus and in the front is a Margarita sweet potato vine.
And that, my friends, is the sum total of my accomplishments for Tuesday. Meh, those shingles will still be there next week. I planted flowers instead.
She bought tomatoes. I bought pretty things.
Some I planted in the big container on the west side of my house:
In the middle is a Red Star cordyline, around it are Bada Boom Rose wax begonias, and trailing down is Snow Princess sweet alyssum. This container's in the middle of what will eventually be a big bed of hosta, columbine and ferns. Eventually. Right now it's kind of a mess.
Others I planted in the short containers on my front porch steps:
And I filled up the tall skinny containers on the front porch, too:
And that, my friends, is the sum total of my accomplishments for Tuesday. Meh, those shingles will still be there next week. I planted flowers instead.
It's Just A Task
Okay, I admit that Milah is right. I need therapy. And NV is right, too, when she says I'm a remodelaholic. But that Christine...that woman is an enabler! She said, and I quote, "I think anything that only lasts a day is really just a 'task'."
So...with that in mind...Feast your eyes upon my latest "task".
Yep, I took the shingles off half of the back wall of the house. Now, that might seem like a project...but it's not. Nope, it's just a task. I set out this afternoon to get the shingles off of the back porch enclosure and caulk the nail holes. And that's what I did. Took me about three hours. Therefore, since that is considerably less than a day, it's still just a task. Christine says so.
So...with that in mind...Feast your eyes upon my latest "task".
The First Weekend of Nothing
Well, well, well...It's the first weekend since my big declaration that I'm taking the summer off from major projects. So how am I doing so far?
Saturday night I did well. I went out to see my friend Troy's band, Mary Goes Round, play at an odd little bar called the Blue Moon. My buddy Cookie and I agreed that MGR does the best rendition of "Summer of 69", ever. I won a good-natured argument over the longest MLB game in history. (Chicago v. Milwaukee back in '84, 8 hours & 6 minutes.) Hearing Troy sing Lady Gaga left me whomper-jawed and laughing. I got home about 3 a.m. after breakfast at Denny's.
And then today struck. Wasn't it Kate who said I'd be into a bunch of little projects that would become one big project? Well, ahem, that's what happened today. It started out innocently enough with my daughter-in-law offering to help me haul the debris from the carport roof reno down to the city dump. Then I said I'd return the favor by helping her clean up the mess in her yard from re-roofing their back porch. And then my mom said she had a few things that could go to the city dump, too. Seven hours, three trips to the city dump and two trips to Sarah's dad's burn pile later, we finished.
Seven hours of hauling trash and yard waste on a Sunday afternoon and evening qualifies as a major project, I think. I'll be having a little crow for supper, thank you.
Saturday night I did well. I went out to see my friend Troy's band, Mary Goes Round, play at an odd little bar called the Blue Moon. My buddy Cookie and I agreed that MGR does the best rendition of "Summer of 69", ever. I won a good-natured argument over the longest MLB game in history. (Chicago v. Milwaukee back in '84, 8 hours & 6 minutes.) Hearing Troy sing Lady Gaga left me whomper-jawed and laughing. I got home about 3 a.m. after breakfast at Denny's.
And then today struck. Wasn't it Kate who said I'd be into a bunch of little projects that would become one big project? Well, ahem, that's what happened today. It started out innocently enough with my daughter-in-law offering to help me haul the debris from the carport roof reno down to the city dump. Then I said I'd return the favor by helping her clean up the mess in her yard from re-roofing their back porch. And then my mom said she had a few things that could go to the city dump, too. Seven hours, three trips to the city dump and two trips to Sarah's dad's burn pile later, we finished.
Seven hours of hauling trash and yard waste on a Sunday afternoon and evening qualifies as a major project, I think. I'll be having a little crow for supper, thank you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)