New In & Outs

New Front Door - ooo! Fancy curvy handle (click on any of photos to see them enlarged)

Late this morning I waved bye-bye to the construction guys. Work all done and doors are complete. Hurrah! I have a new front and back doors. The front door is so very pretty I love it. The beveled & frosted panes lets in loads of light but are opaque; big improvement over the previous doors.

The French doors in living room are marvelous! Way nicer than the old sliding doors with the HUMONGOUS and unsafe dog door. I always say it is (was) a cat flap but it was more like a gorilla flap. Daisy, a huge lab used to go through that flap so you can see it was totally always a robbery waiting to happen (even though a robbery through them never did happen.


Which reminds me I need to hide a key outside because when I get locked out. Can’t wait to see the shocked look on the kitty’s faces when they crawl back home tonight. They must have fled to Canada with all the noise and hubbub.

Old Sliding Glass doors with HUMONGOUS
cat gorilla flap, pre-French Doors

Les Nouvelles Portes (that be fancy talk for new Frenchy doors!)

I think I will take a day off work to paint the new doors. For some reason there is a thing in the Lowes contract that the doors MUST be painted within 48 hours… which adorably enough is how long the contractor told me how long I should wait to paint the doors because the caulking must dry before painting; nice little Catch 22 there. There were two workmen & new door instillations went quicker than predicted; front door maybe an hour, the French door maybe an hour and a half.

Next Project! I am aching to paint the kitchen. The walls are so grimy and the cabinet doors are really in need of paint. The Fridge door has been opening on its own so new fridge is in order. The fridge I have was here when I moved in and the color – gold – is a hint at how old it was then – at least 20. Now it is at least 32. It will be amusing to see if the electric bill drops noticeably with one of the new energy efficient fridge. Also, the stove is 12 years old and was crap from day one, having next to no insulation – when the oven is on the kitchen heats up and the top of the stove is too hot to touch. Will try to find a deal on both stove and fridge.

This afternoon a trip to Lowes is in order. I preferred reuse of the old wooden door frames (waste not, want not) I have loads of wooden trim to return. The trim was in case old trim broke during the work. While I might price kitchen appliances – it never freakn’ ends does it? Am still standing undecided on the color of paint on the last bedroom or for the kitchen; for the kitchen I’m thinking white walls and cabinets with the cabinet doors painted some cheery color.

Got any suggestions? Leave a post for me in comments. Go on; you know you want to.

In other news - dreadful news - on this new Dell, program after program freezes, misfires, crashes. Could ten different programs be wrong? No; new computer is a lemon. That means shipping the worthless $%#&@ back to Dell and doing without a computer for a month or more - AGAIN. Will life ever return to normal?

Give me strength! Want to take a rusty red hot poker and gouge out the eyes of filthy bastards who stole my original Dell (uh... just kidding... if I gouged any eyes I would actually use a cold, sanitary stainless steel poker).

BEFORE - The uggy sliding glass doors removed
for a view straight back to dining room.
You can see the room isn't very large the mat on the right is the fireplace, the big boxon the left
 is the back of my computer amoire

AFTER - not as snazzy looking as from inside but still
an improvement - That's me waving in the glass reflection

One Chore Down - Seventy-five to Go

Tada! The damned near year long fireplace decoration project is complete. It started - as the unfortunate may recall - with me having painted the dark area with burgundy paint. It did NOT quite match the pale grey/green paint and looked gawdawful. That was maybe even more than a year ago I did that.

Finally I found some nice terra cotta sorta paint that has dark stuff in it, so the surface looks like brick and it also has gold, or pyrite sprinkled in it so it has a textured surface as shown below.

Oh well, at least you can see the paint is not just a solid color.

I took down the dignified painting and put back up my beloved and wildarse looking Tule Elk antlers. Yes - I like to decorate as if I am living sometime between the Jurassic and the 19th Century frontier. It is not everyone's taste but it is mine. Nearby, the dining room has high back rattan chairs with a round glass table - somehow the whole mishmosh looks alright together, perhaps because the rattan isn't too far off from looking rustic.

The little mat in front the fireplace is new. I put it there because... uh well... been burning a lot of wood this winter and one or two logs flew out the fireplace, making a couple of eensie black mars on the wood floor. Now with the mat down... I imagine the sparks will set the mat on fire and the house will burn down? Well, that isn't the plan exactly - I'm hoping the mat burns and not the floor.
Also on the list of 'finally completed household challenges' is that I changed around the doorknobs and locks in the garage so now the back garage door actually locks and has a key. It used to just have a crap slide bolt. Also I installed a cute door latch on the inside dining room door. It is brushed nickle and will match the knobs on the Front & back porch French doors that are to be installed tomorrow.
More pictures after the door installations are completed.

Haven't posted any of my photos since the robbery. It is nice to very nearly be back to normal - or as close to normal as I'm likely to ever get anyway.

Three Day Weekend

Hurrah! It is Saturday and so far, none of the promised storm, though the skies are clouding up a bit. This is my three day weekend and I have a load of tasks set for myself, including yet-another-trip to the hardware store for paint and more trashing of crap in current junkroom/future snazzy bedroom. I feel energized and ready to tackle the lot!

But first, a nap.

Kidding.