Tag Archive | personal: house

Hump Day!

Nov16

Yesterday was mellow, getting-over-sick and somehow writing 4025 words (woo).

We made “pumpkin” “pie” for the first time this season, one of my favorite desserts.

(make pie custard with butternut puree, then pour into a casserole sans crust and bake. Nom! Also much lower-calorie that way).

We bought a nice Dremel for T. to do some work with, and he enjoyed making wood chips all over the living room.

(The situation: the “card room” is a small former-porch-maybe, 8’x8′, off the living room, next to the bedroom. Its floor is 4″ higher than the living room, and will hopefully be lowered next year. Its ceiling was just a scoootch lower than the living room’s, the difference covered by a styrofoam wood beam. We removed the beam to find that someone had cut off the wall studs about 1″ lower than the ceiling. So to cover the hole smoothly, we needed to saw off these Very Very Firm Studs. hence, tiny Dremel saw!)

(Also? Tiny Dremel saws are awesome.)

((Also? I finally have a Dremel and now I don’t want vampire fangs O_O))

I posted 100 more words on the linkback incentive (LJ) for [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith‘s signal boost, but I have a feeling I’m missing some. 550 words = 11 linkbacks.

And, since the prompts stay open until I write the last prompt, I’ve still got two to go!

On LJ – http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/316593.html
and on DW – http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/170868.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/177469.html. You can comment here or there.

I do believe it’s Thursday, Right?

Nov10

Yesterday, a 70F day in mid-November, I stayed home sick (actually sick, but mostly a mild office cold I was trying to beat before it was no longer mild), wrote 3500+ words, over 2100 of which were for my Nanowrimo, and sorted the last of the apples.

I need to get back into the swing of house stuff before it’s too cold to do anything, but the plumber prospects are at least looking up.

Newest house weirdness: it appears that, sometime along the line, someone actually taped the drywall corners…

…wait for it…

…with masking tape. *facepalm*

~~

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith is taking ideas for future fishbowl themes here.

And if you have not yet read her epic Igor’s Creature, I strongly suggest you do so now. Right now. Go. I’ll be here when you get back.

~~

[personal profile] meeks has worked her magic again, and it’s thematic to my nano!

Go see her sketch of Autumn, updated.
(and on LJ).

~~

And Rix_Scaedu has two amazing new pieces up:
Tales Behind The Verses: Between Eighteen and Nineteen – Part 1 and Astrith.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/169674.html. You can comment here or there.

Wednesday morning after emergency Lowe’s run

Nov2

I got a message from T. as I was about to leave work yesterday – “either you need to stop on the way home or we need to go out once you’re home.”

Seems the threshold to our house had died a messy death.

(This is amusing to me because I’m a big fan of Jim Butcher’s Dresden’verse, where the threshold is the word used for the magical protection of one’s own home, and something similar exists in Addergoole/Fae Apoc, where you cannot enter someone’s home without their permission).

But in this case, the wood under the metal and weather stripping and above the slab had disintegrated. Not nearly as magical, no demons, and we just needed some wood and a new metal threshold & weather stripping to replace…. which T. will be doing today.

~

[personal profile] meeks has uploaded a new detail view of Rin‘s picture 🙂 It’s the city! (Livjournal and Dreamwidth.

She’s also posted a new sketch on DW and LJ – to [personal profile] jjhunter‘s poem The Lamb’s Plea To Them Both, which is definitely worth a read.

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith had her monthly Fishbowl yesterday (sorry for lack of boost; 1st/month is mad for me); of the poems she’s posted so far (which you should read), I think “The Funny Farm” is my favorite.

Aaannndd… (A little late, sorry) [personal profile] lilfluff wrote this story to my prompt – I’m eager to see more of this world!!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/165535.html. You can comment here or there.

Monday, Hallowe’en, almost Nano

Oct31

Woo! This weekend, we picked more apples (the cold snap had not hurt those still on the tree, thankfully, so we managed to get another 2 buckets and 2 boxes worth).

(I need a bushel basket to have a decent idea how many apples we have!)

We also made applesauce and began apple butter, made and devoured apple cake, raked leaves (peh) and planted crocuses.

I found a computer-based post-it-noted system and started making notes for my nano novella (yeah, started. I’m not that good at this).

Aaand… that’s about it.

Oh! check out this! Rix-scaedu painted the Primordial card from Heirlooms & Old Lace 🙂

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/163670.html. You can comment here or there.

Already Wednesday, avec les pommes

Oct19

Yesterday, we made applesauce.
Monday, we made applesauce and apple cake.
Sunday, we made applesauce.
Saturday, we got lost on an Epic!Quest! for apple cider.
Tonight, we will make applesauce. And maybe can it.
(the makeshift canner (our giant pot and a steamer rack from the Chinese food store) will hold 8 quart jars. Our next-biggest pot will hold about 8 cups of applesauce. So batches.)

There hasn’t been as much work on this house this week, but we got a Giant Order Of Stuff from Lowes yesterday (incl. the stuff for the closet, window molding, log rack supplies, door molding, drywall, insulation… and a chest freezer) so there will be Stuff to Do once again. Also, mudding and painting. This bedroom is taking a lot of mudding.

~~
Read The Kiss, from [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith‘s mid-month Monster House Fishbowl, from my prompt.

Read a short Addergoole fanfic, by cluudle!!

Read Ghost Story, by Rix-Scaedu

~

And someone is trying square foot gardening & Lasagna gardening together!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/152772.html. You can comment here or there.

Wednesday, in other people’s stuff

Oct12

One of the projects this weekend was sorting through boxes of crap stuff crap from the attic spaces in the house. The steamer trunk I posted earlier was part of that – more of a treasure than a crap – as well as a solid-wood kitchen cabinet that had been sitting in our (wet) basement (dealing with the leak in the basement is our Major Home Expense for the year, knock on wood).

But among the piles of stuff were two boxes of fabric. Stash, if you will. Someone in this house had, in the 70’s from the looks of things, been the sort of sewer who saves every little scrap. Of polyester plaid. And polyester denim. Oy.

Most of it was too small, too polyester, or too random-bits to be of any use, but I salvaged a few pieces of cotton flannel, their denim scraps (the real denim), and a few other things. And since I found this little contest, some of those scraps will be getting a new life. 🙂

~~~

Micah has posted to let us know she’s not dead!

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith has introduced me to the Dreamwidth community [community profile] poetree.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/143302.html. You can comment here or there.

House Renovations: An Agenda

Oct6

Things to be Renovated Include:

First
Bedroom
– repair and paint walls
– Install new window
– new trim for window
– have new baseboard radiators installed
– have new carpet installed
– build new built-in closet
(later: new linens, duvet cover, and paint job on dresser)

Next, in some order depending on mood:
ORCHARD!
also, goats.

Mud room
– strip wallpaper, paint, install doors to util room and kitchen, replace trim (and paint trim), repair hook board and seat and paint/decorate

Living/Dining/Card Room
– spackle sand paint non-paneled walls, remove paneling where feasible.
– Install reasonable light fixtures.
– fix short doorway between rooms
-(next year – level and replace floor)

Bathroom
– rip everything out and replace it, incl. kicking bathroom wall back for a 6′ tub

Basement stairwell
– clean, seal off attic, repair/replace shelves

Basement
– have leaks fixed
– Repair stairs

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/139913.html. You can comment here or there.

Tuesday Morning, Still full

Oct4

Yesterday for dinner we had a sort-of-goulash made from tomatoes Mom left when she visited, and apple crisp made with apples from our tree. There’s a sense of happy homeyness about that that I love.

I patched T’s jeans the other day, and I’ve been looking up canning and other food-preservation. It makes me feel like I’ve come full circle. Which (along with a conversation with cluudle) has brought me to a thought I had in college, a magazine I wanted to publish.

The ideas are a little vague after *cough cough* years, but, loosely – a sort of practical Mother Earth News / Foxfire / different ways of doing things. Both how-tos and, if I get brave enough, histories and interviews.

If I were to do something like that, what sort of thing would you be interested in reading about?

***

haikujaguar posted a call to cover artists so that she can begin a list of cover-artists-for-hire.

Autumn’s story written to comments/linkbacks/donations to Meeks’ sketch of Autumn is still hanging out there, waiting for more love.

***

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/making_grape_juice/ Grape Juice! (we have a lot of grapes)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/53092763/yarn-wreath-felt-handmade-door?ref=sc_2 I love argyle. I may have to make this.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/138477.html. You can comment here or there.

Monday, tired and accomplished

Oct3

I’ve been remiss in posting lately; this has been a combination of tired (sick + busy) and busy (busy + busy) 😉

This weekend, my parents came down to help us install a new window in the bedroom-to-be (the old one was leaking air and a general mess). Of course, it rained all weekend, but we have a new window, my mother cleaned our kitchen (it sparkles. How does rough ceramic tile sparkle? O_O), and we had two nice meals together.

Step one in bedroom remodel: done. Step two – find a plumber not occupied, difficult as two nearby counties were recently flooded in Irene. The baseboard radiators need to be redone/replaced/moved so we can have a closet.

***

Until noon EDT today (you have 3 hours!) rebelsheart is offering a microfic fishbowl. Read the piece to my prompt!

Dakotabailey is doing a free icon day.

***

I want this Ferris wheel. I have absolutely no place for it. But it’s cute.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/137622.html. You can comment here or there.