Puttin' Lipstick on the Pig

We have laundry facilities! Who knew a person could get so excited about washing and drying?

Too bad I didn't ask more questions when I responded to the Craig's List ad. I specifically wanted a stackable W&D that came apart because my only previous experience moving an attached unit was most unpleasant - they weigh a friggin' ton. But did I check? No, I did not. It was a miracle that Mikey didn't give himself a hernia lifting the heavy end out of the truck.

Technically, we only have washing because we have no dryer vent to the outside yet. The house didn't come with one, so Mike has to cut a hole in the house and put one of these in:

 But I'm gonna try and convince him to put in one of these, which is purported to be more efficient:

http://www.green-talk.com/2007/09/24/is-your-dryer-vent-giving-you-a-cold/

We also replaced the leaking and un-fixable kitchen faucet with this single handle, integrated spray thingy:

http://tinyurl.com/glacierbayfaucet

Ya just don't realize the things that make life easier and more pleasant until you don't have them anymore.

As long as we diverted the water to the sprayer and away from the main part of the faucet, it didn't leak.

This past weekend, we accomplished the following:
1. Installed the washing machine
2. Caulked the gap between  the walls and the ceiling in the "master" bedroom
3. Put up the baseboard trim in the office
4. Put up the baseboard trim in the guest room
5. Painted the "master" bedroom

Mike calls this color 'foundation', as in makeup. It actually looks pretty good, especially with the pale blue ceiling.

6. Survived the heat.
But at least it's a dry heat. Yea, yea, that's it. It's a dry heat.

I Got a New Way to Walk! (Walk, Walk!)

For Fun:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANQPlGmhAmA

After we removed the old wall-to-wall carpet, we couldn't figure out what to re-cover the floors with. In our current house we've done:

Tile, rejected now  because it is cold, slippery and makes my knees hurt to install;
Raw hardwood, rejected now because it is slippery, it needs finishing, and the dogs nails ruin it;
Prefinished hardwood, rejected now because it is slippery, the dogs nails ruin it, and it's expensive;
Professionally installed wall-to-wall, rejected now because it will be ruined in 2 seconds flat and it is profoundly unhygienic, trapping God knows what and all their friends down where we cannot evict them.

I started researching carpet tiles awhile back, but rejected them as too expensive because the only thing I was willing to consider were the kind that stay put without adhesive, like Milliken's Legato.

 http://www.millikencarpet.com/americas/residential/carpetpanels/legato/Pages/default.aspx

I thought that regular glue down carpet tiles had to be attached with the same kind of thing that Daddy used to install linoleum tiles with in our basement in 1963 - a foul smelling tar-like substance. So without doing any further research, I put that option out of my mind. But then that rascal, Reality, reared its ugly head and we had to choose something. (The adhesive is smelly, but not as bad as that adhesion primer we used.)

So we're driving down Fillmore Blvd. on our way to Cañon City one bright Saturday morn, and I says to Mikey, "Why don't we stop here at The Floor Trader to see what they have?".

 http://www.gcocarpet.com/linkframe.asp?wt=The+Floor+Trader&l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.floortradercoloradosprings.com 

And that is when we met The Fellas.

Mark, Ramon and Mark. (Not shown: Roy - Get well soon, Roy!)

Ramon and Mark answered all our questions about the carpet tiles they were discounting, helped us lay out possible patterns, and explained how to apply the pressure sensitive adhesive to the floor. (When applied correctly, it sticks ONLY to the floor, so the tiles can be removed if a replacement or spot cleaning is needed, or if you just love them so much that you want to take them with you to your next abode.) I guess the thing that impressed me most about The Fellas, was that they listened closely to our list of requirements and helped us fit the product to the project and our budget. And, they stored it for us until we were ready for it. Now that's service!

We were able to replace the floors in the entire house for under $1800, and it is WAY easier and faster than anything we've ever done before. We bought 3 different tiles - 2 of them were 18" x 18" and one was 24" x 24". Can you imagine how quickly they covered the areas? It was brilliant! I am so impressed with the products and The Fellas at The Floor Trader that I encourage you to consider them for your next DIY floor replacement project. It is a casual look, to be sure, but man, it is fast and easy. THANKS, FELLAS!

Mikey installing the carpet tiles in the office. The greys and black in the tiles go swimmingly with the cow shade.

With this pattern, the seams are virtually invisible. And that is saying something for a low pile carpet tile.

We could have installed raw hardwood for less $$$, but it would have MUCH harder on our bodies, MUCH messier because of the need for so much cutting with the chop saw, and MUCH slower. And then when we were finished, we wouldn't have been finished because then we'd have to seal it. Carpet tiles are my new favorite flooring option. No, they're not appropriate for the Queen's parlour, and the low pile is even more casual than the shag (which is deep enough to catch more yuckies). But for a quick, easy, durable, hygienic floor, this is the nuts!

I Hate Doubts

I hate doubts. I'd much rather be completely gung-ho about something than have those niggling little thoughts that perhaps, but not necessarily, a mistake has been made. How is one to know for sure? I like for sure.

This deck has more oops-es than all the Home Depot paint departments in the whole world.

It is possible that this whole deal may have been a mistake. Or it may just be that the high adhesion primer fumes got to me and made me feel all hopeless-like.

For those of you who don't know much about manufactured homes, the walls are made of 3/8" drywall panels covered with a durable vinyl coating. Sort of like having all your walls covered in a tough, well applied vinyl wallpaper. The joints between the panels are covered with a narrow batten board that is covered in the same vinyl stuff, so it all matches. I guess this allows the sections to flex if needed when the buildings' parts are being moved. From that perspective, it makes a great deal of sense. However, if you ever cut it, tear it, drive a nail or a screw into, or otherwise mar the surface, you will never be able to fix it. It is visually unforgiving. And paint will not adhere well to it without additional work and cost.

Being the classy types that we are, we wanted something that looked less like a trailer and more like a regular house. HA. Joke's on us. In order to fully disguise the telltale characteristics of being trailer like, a laborious process is needed. We are now quite tired of said process , and are doing less and less to every room.

The yellow office was the first room we worked on, dubbed the "experimental" room. Little did we know that every room would have it own experiment as we tried to make things look good, tossing some techniques and adding others.

OK, it's really called  'pear' - no wonder it looks green

In this room, we removed all the battens that telegraph " I am a manufactured home!", and taped over the seams. It didn't come out as well as we'd like, but we're not pros. You get what you pay for. All in all, it looks OK, but we didn't want to do it again. This room' s order of rehab was:
1. Remove battens
2. Wash walls
3. Rinse walls
4. Rinse walls again
5. Wipe dripping brownish water off of walls with a large towel and pretend they don't need further rinsing
6. Prime walls with high adhesion primer. We chose Sherwin-Williams brand, and it does exactly what it says it will: make traditionally unpaintable surfaces paintable. It will also make you sick as a dog if there is not enough ventilation. One large open window with a fan blowing in at top speed and a door open as well  IS NOT ENOUGH.

7. Tape and patch walls and ceiling. (We primed first to make sure the drywall mud and texturing would stick to the surfaces.)
8. Roll thinned drywall mud on the walls with a standard 3/8" paint roller.
9. Paint popcorn ceiling blue.
10. Paint ceiling blue again.
11. Paint walls.
This took entirely too long and had too many steps. We regrouped and made a plan for the second bedroom.

It has to be better than the first, right? Well, right and not quite right.

Assorted Photos

Since I didn't have any place to put these, but I thought folks might like to see them, I'm puttin' 'em here.  Sorry about the quality - they were taken with a phone.

Paper towels and painter's tape do an excellent job of keeping the heat out of the back door area. And so chic.

Our dear Oklahoma Dirt Dog, Hoopa.

That's the footbridge to the big pond area. Purple painted telephone poles and scrap lumber. A little scary.

The flat spot by the big pond.

We inherited some lovely items. I believe that is an old iron cookstove and a toilet that has been shot at.

More cottonwoods.

This concrete thing is part of Old Canon City Highway (?) from the late 1800's.

More cottonwoods and the rocks near the big pond.

And more cottonwoods.

The redneck dog pavilion. Only Bubba had the good sense to use its shade.

Some state folks say this tree is about 300 years old. So it was 100 years old around 1800. How can that be?

This is another very old cottonwood.

Hoopa had an unexpected swim in the 2nd pond, which is not very deep at all.

She is a good shaker, but not a good swimmer.

And yet, she seems quite happy.

That red rock formation looks a lot like some of the ones in Garden of the Gods.

Look what Mikey found! He seemed a little disturbed by the falling rock thing.

Not amber waves of grain - green waves of un-horse-munched grass.

Giving those rocks the evil eye so that they will stay put.

The Stay Awake Room

We decided that one of the bedrooms needed to be an office, since Mikey will be working a lot more from home when we finally move down to The New Place. Since I had carte blanche on the wall color, I decided a nice bright yellow would be cheery. We have enjoyed the pale blue ceilings in the house in town, so I also wanted to paint the ceilings blue in the DWT for that 'I'm-still-outdoors' vibe. The road to a really, really bright hell is paved with good intentions.

Lessons learned:
1. Unsealed popcorn ceilings slurp up a lot of paint. Two gallons for this 10' x 12' room, to be exact. $40+  for one ceiling.
2. It is not possible for a normal person to paint a nice straight, clean line where a wall and a popcorn ceiling meet. Be prepared to accept less than perfection when using two different paint colors.
3. Resist that urge to go with a yellow with a tiny little bit of green in it. It will be brighter and greener than you think.
4. Bright blue ceiling + bright yellow walls = weirdly greenish room
5. Even a cow spotted window shade cannot help.

Redneck Pond Rakes and Piles of Algae

Last weekend, we decided to take a break from priming, painting and installing carpet tiles, and do somethin' fun. We started raking algae off of the big pond surface.

Here is the Chief Pond Raker Dude with his fine Redneck Pond Rake. (A regular leaf rake with a block of pink Styrofoam Velcro-ed to the fan part, and a floating rope duct taped to the handle. Mucho cheaper than a real pond rake.)

This is the pile we pulled off before our shoulders said, "No More". That stuff is surprisingly heavy.

I guess this is why it's called string algae.

We definitely gotta git us some hip waders at The Wal-Mart.

I Thought the Wind aLways Blew From the North

All my life I have visualized the nasty winter wind blowing from the north. That's just how it is in all the books I've read. So I was very surprised to find in Westcliffe, and now in Cañon City as well, that the wind seems to mostly blow from the south. This is just not right.

 

In these photos, the trees are leaning to the northeast.

OK, so maybe on this Cañon land it blows from the southwest, but still, this is not right. And judging from the degree of lean, I'd say it blows pretty stinkin' hard. This makes me think that maybe we should plant the fruit trees in the "bowls".

The "bowls" are 2 large dirtwork water runoff catchments that the state put in when they expanded the roadways in the area. In a downpour, the runoff initially created some pretty deep crevices on the land. I guess somebody complained, and the state put in these earthworks.

The bottoms of bowls are below the level of the wind, so it's protected down in there. This might be a good place to plant. The only downside is that cold winter air will sink to the bottom and have no way to get out. Those trees could freeze their little tucheses off.

 

Decisions, decisions.

Just For Fun

Maeva, William, Silva, Nuno and Simon always cheer me up and on.

Green Pond Water

Our little ponds are covered in some green yuck. I think it is string algae, but I'm not sure. The ponds are fed by a spring whose Entrance Into The Light Of Day is hidden. A crack in the large rock wall, perhaps? We were told that it runs at about 25 gallons per minute, but I have trouble believing that. At that rate of flow, I'm confused as to why the water is still enough for algae growth. Anyway, we want to harvest the algae for compost. Now, how to get it?

 This thing is a pond rake. It has a removable Styrofoam float to keep it on the surface of the water. The float can be removed if you want to drag the bottom of the pond. I have no idea what lives on the bottom of our pond, as we've never been able to see through the water. I like the rake pictured below because it has a cool name and a cool shape.

I don't know if it would work very well - I just like its sharp, pointy teeth. And even though these are small ponds, you can't just reach across the surface and get it all. I can't see buying a little boat - even a buddy boat - to get it all, so there is more thunking to be done.