Ladies, what are you doing this evening?

[LizzieMaine]

Thanx. I woke up with a migraine this morning, the result of the past three weeks' stress, but managed to get a bit of rest after the matinee show today when one of the kids and I went out to lunch and then over to a nearby shore and walked around for a while discussing weighty matters, like whether the swirls in a snail's shell go in the opposite direction in Australia. This is the gal who was very sick about a year ago, and I think it's safe to say she's fully recovered.

Then I got home and realized I need to do something about the collapsed ceiling in the bedroom closet. I went over to the hardware store and bought twenty-five pounds of plaster of paris and a trowel. In for a penny, in for a pound.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I made cupcakes tonight. I made each one a different color with different food dye mixes. Exciting to me! I gave up going out and getting sloshed 2-3 times a week after Memorial Day weekend!

 

[sheeplady]

I spent the evening doing laundry. Had 4 baskets in the queue that were already washed and dried and 4 baskets that were dirty, plus the bucket of diapers. Diapers will soak over night.

I normally wash the laundry and put it away, but my husband folds most of it for me. I am "playing" single mom right now as my husband is spending nights away for work during the week (I join him on weekends). I had forgotten what a pain it was to have to fold all the laundry for three people in addition to collecting it, washing it, and putting it away.

Tomorrow I am spending the day cooking and cleaning, after spending most of today picking up and shopping.

 

[DecoDame]

... This is the gal who was very sick about a year ago, and I think it's safe to say she's fully recovered...

Is this the girl that got slipped a drug, and didn't recognize anyone afterwards? That's great that she is well now. Sounded pretty dire.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Is this the girl that got slipped a drug, and didn't recognize anyone afterwards? That's great that she is well now. Sounded pretty dire.

That's her. She still has to take meds, and can't go anywhere near any kind of intoxicants, but she's come a long way from where she was a year ago, and I thank God for it every day.

 

[Stray Cat]

Tomorrow I am spending the day cooking and cleaning, after spending most of today picking up and shopping.

Sounds exactly like my plan for tomorrow. :nod: I've gotten some desperately needed days of (two days off, yeah!) and one of the first tasks if to give the bathroom the rub it deserves. Some folks go and get their bottoms tanned on a foreign beach - some of us stay house-bound. [huh]

That's her. She still has to take meds, and can't go anywhere near any kind of intoxicants, but she's come a long way from where she was a year ago, and I thank God for it every day.

That is good to hear.
I think we all needed to hear some good news.

..

As for my evening - after the buzzing sound of the office finally stopped in my head, I'm planning on listening to a radio show. Still can't decide which one, but, I guess I've gotten a whole evening for that.. since, there's no need to water the plants: the pouring rain is doing it for me.

 

[Stray Cat]

Well, well.. there was a strange twist in my plan:
The kitten I've gotten yesterday - I had to return it (for it's own safety - my cat, Cuddles, has smacked it couple of times, and it appeared there was no stopping her from continuing). So, into dad's car, out of the town, to the next village, get the kitten back. Go home?
Not yet. After that, I was invited by a friend, she had some news. Out of the car (dad was relieved of his duties, due to start of the football match) A quick stop at her place.
Now: go home? Yes - but, the rain started. I ended up getting soaked.
...After all that, I'm ready to do as little as I possibly can, until bed-time.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I hope the kitten will find a good home -- it's hard when one's feline incumbent doesn't want a new roomate. If my cat would let me, I'd have a bunch of them.

I also got soaked tonite and not in a good way. I took the night off from work so I'd have plenty of time to get stuff done here. I spent most of the day painting and started the plastering job, which is going to be a lot harder than I expected, never having tried to do anything like this before. But I got no choice, so I'm going to keep at it.

But I did get sidetracked, and that's where the soaking came in. While I was letting the first bit of plaster dry, I went down and decided to clean my broom closet -- which contains a toilet and shower stall from the previous occupant, an elderly fellow who couldn't get up the stairs. When I had my problem with the sewer pipes backing up last month, this was the event horizon, and there was a lot of intense cleaning to do. The first thing I did, naturally, was flush the toilet, scrub out the bowl with Lysol, and flush it out again. Nice and clean.

Except I forgot that my landlord had cut out the pipes connecting to this toilet when replacing the drainage system, and hadn't reconnected them, figuring he'd just rip out the whole installation and turn it back into a broom closet. Well, that's fine, but now I have ten gallons of sewage on my cellar floor. So I spent three hours tonight shoving as much as I could down the floor drain with a push broom, and sopping up the rest with a string mop and a wringer pail and lugging it upstairs to dump it down my working toilet.

The appraiser is probably going to be here early next week and I'm terrified the cellar isn't going to be dried out by then. It's raining here for the next day or so, which makes it even worse -- nothing's going to dry out under these circs. I'm in enough of a state of panic that if a hardware store was open at this hour I'd go out and put a dehumidifier on my credit card just to be sure it dries out.

I don't know how much more of this I can take. I've got aches in bones I didn't know I had, I've forgotten what it's like to be clean, and my cat is convinced I'm going to abandon her. If this deal doesn't work out after all this, you'll hear me screaming all the way in Europe.

 

[Veronica T]

a dehumidifier

Do you have a box fan / window fan? Anything to get air circulating can be a big help.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, I've got a fan in one of the cellar windows. If it wasn't raining I'd open the bulkhead and let the air out that way -- not supposed to see the sun again until Friday.

I suppose there's a good side to it though -- when I was down there I closed the inner door and discovered that it was all covered with peeling paint. That'd get me in trouble with the FHA, so I should be thankful I discovered it now instead of trying to convince the appraiser not to notice it.

 

[Stray Cat]

If my cat would let me, I'd have a bunch of them.

I'm sure the kitten will be fine - it's a healthy, fluffy little creature, and someone's cat wouldn't mind being it's friend. Alas, that not the case for my cat.. [huh]

I don't know how much more of this I can take. I've got aches in bones I didn't know I had, I've forgotten what it's like to be clean, and my cat is convinced I'm going to abandon her. If this deal doesn't work out after all this, you'll hear me screaming all the way in Europe.

Now it aches not being able to help you, Lizzie - because I'm great at plastering and paining (bragging doesn't help much, does it?). That ia a job set for me this summer. Sure, we paint the kitchen and the bathroom twice a year (humidity is the reason); but this time it's our parent's bedroom that need a bit of care. And, when I say "a bit", I'm saying: I'll strip everything down, lay some molter, then some humidity-proof plaster and than paint it to my mother's liking (it's easier to let her pick the color, then she can't nag about it not being "good enough") lol

 

[Veronica T]

.... lay some molter ....

Unfamiliar with this phrase.

Painting twice a year sounds very ambitious!

 

[Stray Cat]

Oki-doki, Veronica T..
I'll try to explain:
I haven't managed to find the suitable term - I suppose it's "cement plaster", or the material you lay on walls between the brickwork and lime plaster. Any of this helpful?

Oh, well: we have to paint both the bathroom and the kitchen twice. It's just how it's done over here. We don't want people to ask us "Have you forgotten to do your Spring paining?" or, later in the year "Oh, we're doing our autumn-paint on the kitchen - have you done yours?". Strangely, that is what we do. The seasons have no mercy with our walls, and the moist is hard to get rid of. Where there's moist - mold follows. We can't have that, can we?

 

[Veronica T]

I see. You live in a real brick house. My home is a brick house too but it was built circa 1930. It is actually a brick veneer. And I live in a northern climate with a long, snowy winter. My house has balloon framing with drywall and insulation within the exterior walls.

At the museum which I speak of frequently, there is a beautiful stone house which requires an annual 'painting' of the interior. The 'paint' is very thick — I believe it is lime—based — and applied with a substantial bristle brush of the type associated with wallpaper paste from the days before pre—pasted wallpaper rather than a soft paintbrush. This 'paint' might be somewhat similar to the molter. And it has to be historically correct. A modern latex or enamel—based paint would trap moisture and possibly cause frost heave during bitter cold.

There are real brick houses, commercial buildings, breweries and warehouses on the older side of town. Some of them are of a cream—color brick. Which is why one of the nicknames for Milwaukee is The Cream City. Sometimes just the façade is of cream brick and the sides and back of the building (which would be hidden by the neighboring buildings) were of regular fired red clay bricks. When the neighboring buildings were razed, the red bricks are exposed.

I read in the newspaper that one of the mansions is undergoing renovations and several walls were stripped to the brick. So. The next step would be to apply a fresh coat of molter before plastering. Except the reporter did not get into details and did not mention molter.

That is very interesting. Thank you for the explanation.

 

[DecoDame]

If this deal doesn't work out after all this, you'll hear me screaming all the way in Europe.

Lizzie, you've gotta tell your house it's in its own best interest to cooperate.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I went out this morning and bought a dehumidifier, and it's pulled about a gallon of water out of the air down cellar, and I've also had the furnace cranking all day -- I hate to burn up oil when it's almost July, but the heat will help dry up the water.

Meantime, I think I've finally finished dealing with all the peeling paint, and not a moment too soon. My wrists can barely move, and I have a bruise on my elbow the size of a silver dollar which I have no idea how I got. I don't ever want to see a can of paint again as long as I live.

The plastering job is hideous -- it looks like a relief map of the moon -- but it's better than bare laths, and the USDA/FHA requirements acknowledge that "cosmetic faults" are not a cause for disqualification. I found a couple rolls of old wallpaper in the cellar, and may try sticking them over the plaster once it's dry enough. It's in a closet, so I don't imagine the appraiser is going to spend too much time looking at it. I think I'll arrange for the light bulb in the closet to be missing, just so he isn't tempted to look too close.

I still don't know when he's coming, and I assume it'll be sometime next week.

The movie I had to preview today at work was "Fed Up." That ain't the half of it.

Right now I'm sitting here eating a salami sandwich with my cat on my lap. She's as stressed out as I am, and has given me claw marks on my thigh to prove it.

 

[sheeplady]

Aw, Lizzie, if I lived closer I would pack up the daughter and come help. I am great at plastering, painting, and cleaning. The situation just sucks.

With the lightbulb situation- I'd be tempted to put a blown bulb in the closet. But them I'm not sure if a missing bulb might tip them off as a negative or a blown bulb would be worse.

I'm really hoping all your work is going to pay off.

----

Today I spent the day teaching a girl friend how to alter some of her clothes. Then had her and her husband over for dinner. Cleaning up now and packing up for tomorrow.

 

[lolly_loisides]

Lizzie that's awful, I hope all your hard work pays off.
I spent most of the day driving my Dad to a skin cancer specialist (he had some biopsies taken, now we wait for the results) & then as my cat has recently been diagnosed with diabetes, I spent a few hours talking with the local vet . Mango (our cat) can be good natured when she wants, but turns into a hissing, spitting feral animal when she's at the vets. We discussed ways to treat her at home without taking blood samples to monitor her blood sugar levels (because given her temperament that will be impossible without sedating her).
So this evening I don't feel much like cooking so home delivery pizza & a glass of red wine as a Friday night treat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lolly, here's hoping the kit pulls thru OK. It's hard when you have to do things they don't understand and don't like.

Meanwhile, I've pretty much finished everythign I can do with the house and spent time today working on the garage -- the window frames are in really bad shape and had to be scraped and painted. I discovered a missing window pane that's been gone since before I moved in, since someone had nailed a board over it and I never noticed. Went over and got the glass, and got back to discover it was 1/16" too big. Flew into a violent rage and after rendering the air blue, I took a chisel and attacked the window frame until the glass fit. I'm convinced the neighbors are going to call somebody to come get me if this keeps up.

But hey, at least the cellar's good and dry.

 

[Stray Cat]

But hey, at least the cellar's good and dry.

As a matter of fact, that is a great thing. :thumb:

Plastering is hard, I won't lie. However, in the case of plastering, (with cement especially) it is best said that "practice makes perfect". Having it done for over 10 years, I still must admit, there are walls that are harder to "get along with".
My house is made out of bricks. Great. But, a part of it is truly old, and it's made out or clay. Yes, clay. Clay walls need special care, plastering is hard, and the moist leaves it horribly slow.
So, Lizzie, you should be happy with not having clay walls.
I do hope your inspection will go well.

..

Evening plans for last night were: reading and resting.
Tonight - maybe a trip to the pub, to meet some friends.