Has been occupying my attention for the past month. Wow. It's been a while since I've updated. I didn't realize it had been that long. Time flies, doesn't it?
In the past month, I have repainted the kitchen, installed new lights in the hallway, a new ceiling fan and light in the kitchen and wired then installed a ceiling fan/light fixture in the back bedroom. Yes, I did the electrical wiring myself and lived to tell the sordid tale! (Thank you, google, tribe.net and half-price books!)
I also installed new tile backsplashes on the kitchen sink and the stove. Ceramic tile. You know - the kind I've been drooling over to install on the floor. (Must resist urge until summer when I can open the windows).
I also painted the front hall with all sorts of grotesques and sphinx and other things that remind me of an italian villa. Just because I've been threatening to do it and it was time. Took for freaking EVER, tho. Hand painting all of those creatures. But it looks pretty cool.
And I finally got around to repainting the kitchen cabinets. Now I have to remove the doors, sand them and repaint them. I'm still debating on the color/finish I want to use so that might end up waiting a bit.
The kitchen looks really nice. I haven't totally finished it yet - there are a few things I need to do (finish painting the herbs on the walls and the cabinet doors) but for the most part it's done and looks rather nice.
Next up I think I'm going to wallpaper the back bedroom. I finally found the wallpaper I really like (after 5 years of looking). This will have to wait until my tax return, tho, 'cause it's a bit expensive.
Oh, man! I totally forgot the whole part about removing the wallpaper in the kitchen! What a BITCH!!
Three of the walls weren't a problem because the wallpaper was the kind that will just pull off the top layer so all you have to do is wet and scrape the gluey part off. Not a big deal because it comes off pretty easy. But the other wall - oh, man! It took me about 4 hours to get that crap off! It was one of those things you really had to prepare yourself for.
I didn't rent a steamer. I just got a paper tiger, some DIF and a putty knife and went to town. The DIF worked great taking off the glue. Keeping the paper damp is the key. I finally got into a rhythm where I'd run the paper tiger over the wall, then put the DIF on then wait about 5 minutes. I'd start running a wet sponge over the DIF parts then start scraping. Once you got it going, it was easy to keep adding DIF and keeping that wet as you scraped other areas. And then it came off fast & easy.
After that, I had to patch the walls in places then put on the KILZ then paint. My kitchen is now a bright yellow. I love my yellow kitchen. It looks so sunny and bright! And with all of the green plants in there, it's very bright and cheery.
Installing those ceiling fans was heinous! I had to climb up into the creepy-ass dark attic and crawl around. That place is creepy and I don't like it. To hang the ceiling fan in the kitchen, I had to remove the light fixture and install a cross bar between the ceiling joists. It wasn't hard really but it was painful because I had to stay humped over to put the screws in. And wearing that tyvek suit, goggles and a respirator because of the insulation was bogus.
Fortunately, it was like -20F so working up there wasn't ungodly hot. I couldn't imagine being up there in the summer and sweating with that insulation. Oh, man. That would be BEASTLY!! The temp didn't diminish the creep factor, tho.
And climbing UP there - harrowing. I had to place a ladder near the closet and squirm past the shelving to get up there. I didn't think I would fit but I did. So did my lantern and the bucket of tools I took with me.
Installing the fan in the back bedroom was a bitch. There was no light fixture (in the kitchen I just had to replace the light fixture with the ceiling fan fixture - there was no wiring) so no electric to the ceiling.
I had been threatening to put a ceiling fan in there (the back bedroom) for years because I wanted a light fixture (and the fan would help the air circulation). After installing the one in the kitchen, I got the big head and figured I could do the back bedroom as well. How hard can it be to run new wiring?
I asked dad and one of the electricians here at work how hard it would be to tap into the existing electrical wiring in the bedroom. Was such a thing possible? Then I asked on tribe.net. And googled. Then I bought two books on electrical wiring.
It was intimidating, to be sure. But once I realized that it was a fairly common thing to do, I wasn't so scared (still nervous but not as scared of it as I HAD been).
So, I followed the calculations in the book to make sure I wouldn't overload the circuit, bought 25' of wiring and a keyhole saw and set to work. First, I had to determine the center of the room. Then I had to drill a hole in the ceiling and poke a stick up thru it so I could find it from the attic and finish cutting the hole out.
I climbed up into the attic and finished cutting out the hole with the keyhole saw then installed the fan brace and the electrical wire (it was not 'hot'. I still had to tap into the circuit). When I got back down into the bedroom and saw the mess from the plaster all over the bed and the floor, my first thought was (I kid you not), "Look at this mess! Mom is gonna KILL me!"
It took me a few seconds to realize mom doesn't care because it ain't her house! HA!! I can make as big a mess as I want and nobody can say jack about it! HA! But I did clean it up anyway. Eventually. After all was said and done.
Really - after crawling around in that attic like a monkey for an entire day, sawing, pulling wire and hammering, actually INSTALLING the fixture was easy. Took about an hour. Then I got bold. I decided if I was going to install that light and fan then I was going to install a dimmer switch on that light because that's what I wanted! Dammit! (Thing cost twenty-five BUCKS, too!) And I did! I couldn't believe it worked! I mean it really worked! The fan is controlled by one sliding switch and the light is controlled by another sliding switch. It's pretty cool. (Figuring out what wire went to WHAT on the fan/light fixture took me a few minutes).
And I didn't shock the piss out of myself or blow a fuse! Imagine my utter amazement to realize I did it! By myself! Using only the books and instructions I had from the internet. (Dad was my self-check and I would call him to say "does that sound right?") I am still quite pleased and impressed with that bit of handiness on my part. Now I can actually read in bed and SEE at night. Amazing!
I almost don't know what to do with myself since that is done. It took up a LOT of time and energy. But I'm back to sewing and embroidering until I recouperate (and finish the kitchen). This will probably last about a month or so and I'll be back to painting and then set to work on the bathroom. You know I hate that tub in there.
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The Rogue Goddess saw shadows dancing at 10:31 AM
