I have yet to move my office back downstairs. They finished my studio floor last week, so the room isn’t closed off anymore…I can go back now. But I kind of like it up here in the loft. The only downside is it gets kind of warm up here in the afternoon. It’s so high up that the HVAC system has trouble getting cool air up here to replace all the hot air that collects in the room at the top of the house. And lately it’s been so hot and humid outside that opening the windows doesn’t really do anything during the day. Pondering this though, maybe that will be a good thing in the winter time when it’s cold in my office / studio.
The room is a really nice space. I could definitely see a desk up here and a little sitting area. And it’s location means that my family has difficulty finding me at times which is always a plus. The last two days, I’ve turned on to watching the yellow birds fly around the front yard. I hadn’t noticed them before but they look to be having so much fun out there. They love our black gum trees. Makes getting anything accomplished more of a challenge than it really needs to be. Would be fun to be a bird for a bit. Oh well, I’ll move back downstairs sooner or later.
Now that the laundry room cabinets are in as well as the sink we can finally put everything in its place. Her new organizing book in hand, the wife has been awesome organizing things in there. She brought up 6 boxes from our ramshackle mess of a basement and was able to finally put stuff away. I helped out. We actually threw stuff out, created a box for donation and one box…well…that was for junk that didn’t need to be in the laundry room but weren’t sure where so it’ll go back in the basement. Next up will be the linen closet and all the office junk drawers. Rome wasn’t built in a day so to speak but every little bit counts. We should be organized completely on or about the day they put our ashes in an urn. Which is a vast scheduling improvement compared to where we were just a few months ago.
Outside the yard has gone to complete shit. I can’t remember the last time we were out there. The weeds are loving it and the veggie garden is all but abandoned. Bees? Oh yeah we should check on the bees. This weekend we’ll strike back and try to wrap up some things out there….finish the front bed, mount bat houses, turn a blind eye to the back yard and even cut the grass. Bees will get their time in the spotlight this afternoon. Hopefully they’re filling the upper frames. If so we can may just eek out a jar of honey before season’s end.
One thing that did get fixed outside is a broken spigot on the back of the house. Now we have a fancy new 1/4 turn spigot that works great. I’ll have to take a pic and share the info with you when I get a chance. With that I think ALL the plumbing stuff is added / fixed that was on the list other than the master bath sinks which are still broke – their water stops rendered useless. One thing our plumber pointed out was we have a push button water stop in the half bath. Very cool and I didn’t even know we had that. That may be a solution for our master bath, but would involve buying new drain hardware. Not that important right now. And I’m still waiting to hear back from our other plumber on the status of fixing the water stops on the Master Bath Kohler faucets. You’d think $700 faucets would be a little better quality but I guess not. They’ve been looking into a solution for the last 4 months so I’ll give it a few more months before I blow my brains out.
Speaking of blowing my brains out, Whirlpool claims that they’ll just credit me for the 4-way dryer vent that I didn’t need and wanted to return. I don’t have to return the vent kit. So if anyone wants a 4-way dryer vent kit, let me know. It’s worth $50. That only took 3 months to resolve…or at least claim that there is a resolution in the works. Customer service is clearly dead across the board. Take what they give you and smile cause this is as good as it gets.
I’m battling a painting in my studio and it’s winning. Looks like garbage on canvas, but I’ll rescue it. It’s a commissioned piece so hopefully my buyer likes it in the end. Work has been hit and miss but we’re not starving just yet. I think we’re done with house projects or at least the expenditures for a while…need to get out there and finish these projects actually. We’ve got gallons of paint, boards of wood and whatnot waiting to be added to the house. Just need to get ‘er done. Fragmented days add to the excitement but also the feeling of living life on a treadmill.
Enough of my ramblings, I’ve got a painting to go battle in my studio.
Sunflowers are just so cool. I wonder when we can harvest sunflower seeds….
Something ate our watermelon. They didn’t like the seeds though. Our veggie garden is in such disarray I’ve been chucking stuff over the fence when no one is looking. If I see one more zucchini I’m gonna puke.
nine apple trees 