Socks

Of course, the socks have nothing to do with "the Beast". The last quilt show I attended with my sister was held at a convention center where there was also a 'yarn and knitters' show. Thus, I drug my sister to the yarn/knitting show and I purchased an interesting book for knitting socks. Since we inherited a million skeins of thread and yard recently from Aunt Sophie, who is unable to continue crafting, I figured socks would be fun to knit (because one can have only so many hats, scarves and afghans. Viola!...my first pair. I am now working on knitting my sister a wardrobe of socks. This works toward motivating her to come pick the socks up and while she is here.....working on 'the Beast.' (Maniacal laughter.)

Oh, Found a Good Picture

I found a picture I took of the sunroom back in April, when I took my first tour of the house. I thought perhaps the original condition of the sunroom, which included ugly, moldy pink shag carpet, crappy paneling, and pink contac paper pasted on top of the paneling would make the new ceramic floor in the sunroom look even better. My theory is, any improvement is a BIG improvement.

I am thinking about using some metal panels for the ceiling but the ceiling is not a priority so I will ponder that for awhile because the metal ceiling is expensive.

My sister and I worked on the old, fallen down fence. We took apart 4 panels and she took the wood home to use in their wood burning furnace. There are still 5 panels to eliminate and we are considering taking care of that project the week after Thanksgiving, while the weather is still decent for outdoor work. The office products business that is next door to my property had tucked a few junky items behind their building, which were found under leaves and under my fallen fence. Luckily, the business has a nice, red, handy dumpster behind their secondary building, in the alleyway, and we just tossed all their junky stuff in their dumpster. Cleaning up the rest of that area is a priority the week after Thanksgiving.

I met the neighbors, across the alley. I have to stop calling it an alley, because it is asphalted and looks like a street, and people zoom down it in their cars. Anyway, the neighbors directly behind me were coming home and parking in their garage which faces the alleyway. We were putting trash out, and the neighbors were very friendly. They are Tom and Jan, and both are retired from the town's school district. Tom was a superintendent, and Jan was a teacher. Like myself, they are newly retired this year. They have a huge house and have lived in it for 31 years. They renovated it and told me that it was in the same shape as mine when they first purchased it. They told me to keep plugging away because I was making progress. I am going to have to take a picture of their huge, lovely home. They have a really nice cedar fence around their yard, too, and I want one. Actually, I want a wrought iron fence, but I will probably settle for the privacy type fence because the wrought iron fencing is 144 bucks an 8 ft. section, and I am a tad thriftier than 144 bucks for 8 ft.

Tom and Jan told me that my neighbors next door to me are their best friends, and their names are Ron and Lou. They were leaving while we were out working in the yard, and Lou, who is a lovely gray haired elderly lady, waved at me. So, I am feeling all warm and fuzzy now regarding neighbors.

Bring on the Windows

So, I got a call from Rick, who was stalled on his latest roofing job and he had some time to install my 5 windows I had on hand. I got up at 5 (good Lord), and left at 6 (still dark at 6) and got to "The Beast" at 7. Rick was there a moment later and he had one helper with him. He removed the 5 windows and installed the new ones and was done by noon. Rick is 'the man'.

Rick says he can do 10 windows in a day so bring 'em on. Thus, I must now order a couple more rooms of windows for December, January window shenanigans.

The final product looks really good. Of course, we didn't think we would receive anything but a quality job from Rick, did we? Why? Because, Rick is 'the man.'

Now, I wish I had had more than 5 ready for Rick.

These three amigos are the windows in the library.

The stairwell windows are now in place. The large stairwell window was the ONE window that was broken out and boarded up, so that one looks 100% better. (Of course, they all looke 100% better.)

I am leaning toward painting the exterior a light gray with white shutters in the spring.

While Rick was installing windows I worked on finishing up the floor in the sunroom. However, I ran out of grout. So, tomorrow I need for Lowes to cut 4 more piece of tile for me, I have to get another tub of Casual Beige grout, and I could use a small tub of adhesive. Then, the sunroom floor will be a done deal. It turned out quite well if I do say so myself.

I SHOULD get out to the garage and cut the drywall for under the windows but I think its bubble bath time instead. I am kinda tired from the getting up at 5 a.m. (Who does that?)

My sister is coming tomorrow and we are going to take apart the rest of the fallen down fence on Thursday. The rain is supposed to stop so we should have a sunny, Indian summer type of fall day for that project. Tomorrow, since it will rain again....we shall have a thrift store adventure.

Making Things Pretty

One more day and the sunroom floor will be finished with Texas beige ceramic tile. This picture does not really do them justice. They are a bit more peachy beige than what displays here. I took the picture when it was getting sort of dark this evening. The grout perfectly matches the tile though and I am really grout happy. I have 32 more pieces to glue down around the perimeter of the room. I have to go to Lowes Home Improvement tomorrow before driving out to "The Beast" to have them cut 9 pieces of the tile for me. The last row along the length of the room has only 9 inches of space left. Sigh, if the room had been 3 inches longer it would have been perfect with no cutting. Oh, well. I anticipate needing my own tile cutter/saw by the time I get around to the kitchen/laundry room floor and the upstairs bathroom walls.

So, I used 144 tile at a whopping sale price from Lowes at .68 a tile which totaled 97.92, another 38.00 for the adhesive and 16.97 for the grout. Plus tax, the floor cost approximately 163.00. Wall repair may begin as early as Thursday. I already have the drywall. I DO need some plaster. OK... another trip to Lowes.

Fun Furniture

Well, I hung with 'The Beast' on Friday and began putting down the ceramic tile on the sunroom floor. I ran out of daylight and adhesive so I will work on that project some more on Tuesday. I was planning to see 'The Beast' today, but I had a cold all week and was not feeling too frisky last night nor this morning.

The last time my sister was in town and we thrift stored...I found a really fabulous brass bed with huge, tall posts... with shiny huge balls on top and it is really totally coolness. It is old and big and clunky and tall and will look great in a room with 10 foot ceilings. I found it at the Goodwill for 75 bucks. I decided today to start polishing and eliminating the tarnish and it is coming along slowly but it will be quite shiny when finished.

Thus far I have used up an entire roll of paper towels and a small bottle of brass polish. I have been doing some online research and many sources suggest cleaning with regular household items such as ketchup, Worsteshire sauce, lemon juice and even Tidy Bowl Toilet Cleaner.

I shall attempt to try some of the natural household cleaning items tomorrow and see how they compare to the commercial chemical brass cleaners. I am wondering how many years of tarnish are on this bed at this point and how often I am going to have to polish it up to keep it all nice and shiny. More internet research ASAP.

Ta-Da Moment! Roof is Finished

Ta Da!
Another Ta Da moment.

The roof is done. They tore off 5 layers of old shingles. They resheeted the entire roof with plywood underlay. They used 33 squares of onyx black architectural Owens Corning shingles. (In case you don't know....a square is equal to 100 square feet of roof.) They also put the rubber roof on the sunroom. All in all I believe I got a good deal for $10,230.

As an aside Rick rebuilt the front porch roof to line up with the sunroom and finished it with fascia to match the sunroom.

That cost a couple bucks extra and was not in the original job. I liked the result.
What I really liked about Rick the roofer was the fact that he did not ask for a dime up front. Is that not unheard of in today's world? He did not have me sign a contract either. He merely told me over the phone that he could do the job for around $10,200. I had not even met Rick in person before he began the job. He was recommended to me by the local home improvement store. On a nice sunny day he just showed up with his workers and started the job. Next week he will begin installing my windows for me. Rick is the man.