jillithian | Entries tagged with home improvement

With reference to this article on the BBC: French hold out against credit crunch

... "Generally in France you spend what you have and not more," he explains.

"In the US and the UK, the economy has been driven by household spending, consumption has been driven by credit, and a lot less in France, so that's why when there were periods of expansion France grew a lot more slowly than the UK and the US but conversely when it's slowing down, it will slow down in a more moderate fashion than the UK or the US." ...

I have a sort of pride with regard to our home improvements. We also want to redo the kitchen, but we're not sure we have enough money in the savings account to pay for it to be done this fall. I'm really proud of the fact that it never occurred to Tim or me that we could just put it all on credit. We immediately thought to price it out and then pay for it with the cash we've been saving. That's pretty awesome.

Current Mood: pleased

News that are good:

I received a response from Sarnath regarding my starred paper committee and he has agreed to be on it! w00t! I sent off an email to Dr. Baliga to see who else he recommends for the committee...
Some major work has been completed in the bathroom this weekend. theeothertim was an enormous help on replacing the counter-top and faucet, and I assure you he was heartily rewarded. ;-)
The ultrasound on my thyroid came back with all nodules smaller than 1cm, so I do NOT need another biopsy and don't need another ultrasound for two years with just an office visit one year from now. ie: I still don't have cancer. :)

Current Mood: accomplished

I think I'm hitting the breaking point.

I'm stressed out. And reading the requirements for one of my classes that starts next week is not helping.

It's a 470/570 class, meaning that there will be about 20 to 30 undergraduate students in their last year of school and then me and one or two other graduate students. The syllabus says that the course will require approximately 10 hours a week just in preparation. Plus, there are group projects, which I never like because I usually end up in a group with a bunch of undergrads that don't understand what it takes when I also work 40 hours a week and can't just meet them at the library two hours before class to start the assignment that's due. This class it sounds like I'd be in a group with the other graduate student(s). But then we grad students are also required to write a 20 page term paper. On TOP of the 10 hours a week preparation for class. Blech.

So I'm stressed out about that. I was hoping I'd have some time to work on my starred paper for my graduation requirements, but it sounds like I'm going to be incredibly busy and bogged down with this one class. It's the International Business Management class which I am actually eager to take because I work for the largest eye glass company in the world. And the professor has his requirements and expectations spelled out quite clearly and succinctly on the class's website, which I like. I work well with boundaries and explicit expectations. Me and standardized tests? We're the best of buds. Me and 20 page term papers? Let's just say there's a reason why I write code.

But I'm feeling the stress build and the bathroom isn't nearly as far as I'd hoped. :( I think I'm going to have to take the dog for a long walk tonight to get some frustrations out and then start taping up the walls again...

Current Mood: stressed

In home improvement updates:
I decided I'd try to paint the wall above the window the same color as the bottom of the other walls - "Pressed Linen," I believe it's called. We'll call it an "accent" wall. Tim scrunched his nose up a bit when he first saw it, but I assured him that if we don't like it, it's only paint and we can repaint it. "We've got more than enough paint" I tell him.

So then, last night I decided to start painting some of the stripes the "Urban Gold" color. I was standing on a chair to paint the top of the wall and on the last stripe on one wall, I went to sit on the chair from my standing position and lean against the back of the chair to get to the lower portion. FYI: when planning on doing this, please ensure that the chair back is actually behind you and not to your left. I ended up falling backwards into the bathroom counter and spilled a bunch of paint on myself, the chair, the floor and a little splatter on the wall. Yes, yes. I rule. I know. I figured that was enough painting for one evening.

In work updates:
I just sent off the second version of an enhanced report I've been working on. I had sent off the first version yesterday to the customer and she had noticed I needed to add in functionality for the custom report options. This is by far the most code I've written in years - not counting the piddly JCLs I used to write at Nahan. And it's in C/SQL combined code which I've never written before. I feel so accomplished right now. I even made sure that the report header was updated. Response from my customer:

It worked this time.
This is gonna save me hours. Thank you so much!!!
Tina

She's one of my favorite customers. She's demanding and has an ever growing list of requests, but if you send her stuff to test, she'll test the crap out of it and send back excellent feedback in a timely manner.

In donation updates:
I've got some very generous friends, family and co-workers. I'm at 95% of my goal! That's just fricken awesome. Now if I can just convince Jody to have Jackson's fifth birthday party late enough in the day that I can still go... (the walk starts at 10am and she was saying that that she thought she'd have his party that day)

Also, her brother is hilarious. He suggested that the theme this year should be "Jackson 5". Can you imagine everyone in afro wigs?! Sylla said he might try to grow his hair out for his own natural afro. :)

Current Mood: accomplished

Here are some pics of my current bathroom progress. You can click on them to see the bigger versions.

The first is the old wallpaper - now, sadly, on its way to its new home in the city dump.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

SQEEE

I am super excited about my new window in the bathroom at home. The past few days I've been scraping wall paper paste off the walls and took down the ugly green shower curtain that was covering the old window. It has been sooo much brighter in that room now. With the glass block and tile sill replacing the wooden sill, I will no longer need that ugly green shower curtain. !!!!

You just don't understand how awesome this is going to be.

Rick came over this morning and was still working on it when I came home for lunch today. We'll need a good amount of caulk (I like caulk. I can't get enough of caulk. I have the sense of humor of a pre-pubescent boy) around the edges of the block. I'm a little nervous about if it will be weather proofed for the winter (don't want a lot of cold air coming through a shower window) but over all, I'm excited.

Can you tell I'm excited? Because I am. Excited, that is.

I won't have enough time to put some paint down tonight so it can dry over the weekend, but I'm put some primer over the spots that need it and maybe futz with the mirror....

Current Mood: excited

I'm kinda pissed.

I'm all excited to remodel the upstairs bathroom and have bought almost everything so far - just need the hardware for the cupboards and a new switch plate and a new curtain rod. Rick was supposed to replace the window in the shower with glass block this week but has been busy so he thinks he'll have time next week. That's fine.

What I'm crabby about is my flooring. I have fallen in love with cork flooring over the past two years and we just finally ordered it for the kitchen today. I also ordered some cork flooring for the bathroom and just received it today.

Nowhere in the literature that I received or read did it say to not use it in bathrooms. The installation instruction packet they gave me with my two boxes says it in the third paragraph: Installation of floating floor is not recommended in bathrooms or in areas with high moisture concentration.

Merde. Sucksucksuck.

I really LIKE the color and the look of my flooring. Crap.

I'm thinking of just biting the bullet though. It only says "not recommended". It doesn't say "Do NOT under any circumstances..." If it fails miserably, I'm only out the $150 for the floor. I'll take precautionary measures and put plastic sheeting underneath it and Tim is also offering to use some seam glue on it, too, if necessary.

Crap.

Otherwise, I am fairly happy with how easily the 30yr old wall paper came off. I bought some spray DIF stuff that removes the glue, but didn't need it right away as the paper just pulled right off. I'm using it instead with a scraper to get the glue residue off the walls. Tim was unhappy that we can't just move the TP holder as it has a tile thing installed on the wall that it fits into, but we'll survive.

*sigh*

I'm mostly stressed about the glass block. I'm not sure how it will look on the outside with the current windowsill or if the mortar-free installation kit is suitable for an outside wall in Minnesota. Again, nothing I could see on the box for the install kit says if it is "recommended" or not.

blech.

Maybe I should leave this remodeling stuff to the pros. Like

superna.

Current Mood: cranky

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