In which we show the progress of the floors

In the beginning, there was carpet, and it was hideous and smelly.
 
Then Mrs. House and Mr. House tore out the carpet, and discovered a hideous black mess underneath, which we were able to clean. And that was good.

Removal of the carpet begat removal of the carpet tack strips (and staples), which was significantly less good.

And then the floor was cleaned by Mrs. House's father, which was wonderful and tedious.

Then our fathers sanded the floor, Mrs. House's father with the huge suction sander (not shown) and Mr. House's father with various hand sanders.

And then it was bare wood. Which needed to be sealed.

Prior to sealing there is the cleaning with nasty smelling chemicals.

Then the sealing of the floor with even nastier chemicals. Followed by more sanding, more cleaning, and more sealing.

And finally, we have a finished room, with a lovely floor, and a lovely Mrs. House watching some Seinfeld.

On Tools

Here at This Old Blog, we are fans of hand tools, which is to say tools powered by muscle, not by electricity, or petroleum byproducts.  This has more to do with aversion to noise pollution I think, rather than air or other pollution.   So we have a rather surprising number of crank drills, hand saws, and the like.

Correspondingly, when we needed a mower, we never even considered a gas mower, even though we have a great deal of grass.  (currently, we hope to remove that)  The only other options for lawns (besides sheep, goats, other ruminants) are push mowers and electric mowers.  Electric mowers are both costly, and powered, so noise.  So a push mower is the way to go for us. 

Here is the result of this impulse:

It is a Scott 18" reel mower, with a catch basket, bought from Home Despot [sic], just like most of our home items.  The whole thing came in a kit, which was sort of a pain to put together, since the handle came in several segments, and had to be assembled.  The various nuts are "tool-less" nuts, which are much looser than a wrench cranked version. we might replace them, since they get loose during use. 

In comparison to my father's reel mower, this one is much smoother in action, but harder to turn due to the multi segmented handle.  Saturday I mowed the whole of the lawn (10 baskets of grass), which took around two hours.   Good times! (let's get on removing some of that lawn!)

Next up, the Rumpas room floor...

trees, glorious trees!

So Mr. House has a whole plan for our backyard landscaping. It was one of the first things that he thought about and planned. We have a very thorough plant blueprint drawn and ready to be put into action. The thing we started realizing was - plants are expensive and very time consuming - the type of project we don't really need more of right now. The problem is that our backyard is not exactly a private oasis. It will take much time to get it to where we want it to be.

So with all these factors in mind (plus the fact that the window for planting is beginning to close or so I am told) we went out and bought two fruit trees last weekend from Capital Nursery. We went out on a hot day and scoured their many rows and rows of plants. We ended up buying a White Nectarine and a Black Fig. The nectarine is about a 7 or 8 foot beauty with many fruits beginning to grow already (that sadly had to be picked off in order for it to take root). The fig was a hearty 4 feet with a few good looking leaves. Luckily for us we brought the van, otherwise I don't know how we would have gotten them home. Here is Mr. House with the tree stretching all the way from the back to the very front.

After we got home we took a look at our backyard and roughly decided where they should go. Here is a picture looking to the right and then the left from the back porch.

Now you know what we have to work with. I would love to post the plant map that Mr. House drew now, BUT we don't have our scanner up yet so that will have to wait. Next Mr. House dug a big hole while I attempted to pull weeds and hoe the ground in that back planting bed.

Mr. House worked hard diggin that hole! Here he is taking a much needed break sittin in his hole.

The reason why Mr. House dug the hole so deep and big was to A. add fortified dirt around the roots and B. implant a drainage pipe so as to better water the tree. We put the pipe in its place and then filled it with rocks from our front flower beds for drainage.

Here is Mr. House with the tree all ready to move into its new home!



After we filled in with dirt and mulch on top, Mr. House secured it to stakes with spare painters rags (hey it's what we have on hand!) and I supervised.


There was this cement strip that separates that far bed from the rest of the grass that was kind of awkward, so we decided to use those wavy brick trim pieces all along the cement and build up the bed by a few inches. We have a bunch of the brick things in the yard, I think enough to finish the whole span along the fence. I think it creates a much needed definition between the two spaces. So here is the finished product with just a part of what the new wall will look like.

It got dark before we had time to plant the fig so we planted that the next day. Now we need to find one more tree, perhaps a plum tree, to go along the back fence.

welcome into our home internets!

We are now online. Which allows me the opportunity to post this picture of what we looked like cooking dinner tonight!

Just kidding. That pic was stolen from cuteoverload.com, one of our favorite websites! More pictures and content to come!

Modern conveniences

Moving always reveals your deep dark secrets. You find things that you forgot you had, hidden away in drawers, the back of a closet, beneath the pile of laundry. It also can bring out the side of yourself that you try to keep hidden, the mean, anal-retentive side. The side that gets annoyed when things aren't packed a certain way or dusted before they are moved.

Anyway back to the subject...

There are so many things that we have that we don't need. Of this list of unnecessary things there are items that I love, and items I wish I could get rid of. On the list of things that I love are small kitchen appliances. Because of the size of our old kitchen, many of these little treasures were hidden away so deep that I forgot we had them. OR I knew we had them, but it was such a bother to dig it out, use it, clean it and put it back that they rarely were used. As I was packing up I compiled a list of all the small appliances and vowed to use them in the new house. But for many of them, I'm just not sure what to even do with them. So I am asking you all for advice! Below is my list of small appliances with their past frequency of use. Please leave your ideas about how we should use them in the comments. I would also appreciate off-the-wall ideas (if you only knew how seriously I am thinking about using my blender as a door stop . . . ) Maybe when we get around to using some of the ideas I will post the results!

1. Toaster - Frequency: Often
   
2. Mini Food Processor - Frequency: Often/Occasionally
3. Panini Griddler - Frequency: Occasionally/Rarely
4. Stand Mixer - Frequency: Occasionally/Rarely
5. Crockpot - Frequency: Rarely
6. Electric Fondue Pot - Frequency: Rarely
7. Sandwich Press - Frequency: Rarely
8. Frother - Frequency: Rarely/Never
9. Blender - Frequency: Rarely/Never
10. Waffle Maker - Frequency: Rarely/Once
    
11. Instant Hot Shot - Frequency: Never/Still in box