Landlords, keys and childish office managers, oh my!

We were finally able to turn the keys in. They still refused the final walk through, and didn't even show up for our appointment.

We went to the apartment to wipe off a mirror, and while we were there the maintenance man ran into the office. About 2 minutes later, the office manager and the other employee got into her car and took off. (I know all of this from the nosy neighbor. She saw the whole thing.)

We got to the apartment about 20 minutes before our appointment, and they left. They didn't come back until 20 minutes after the time I told them Marty had to be at work.

We ended up calling the answering service, who called back and said that the manager told them that I was "Aware that I was just supposed to drop the keys into the drop box." I told them that she was aware that my attorney and the woman who handles landlord and tenant issues for the Michigan Attorney General's office told me not to do that, and she needed to keep our appointment. She never called back.

We ended up having to video tape me putting the keys and change of address card into the drop slot. We also taped me leaving as message (on speaker phone) saying that I was disappointed that she didn't keep our appointment, I needed the letter*, etc. I also asked her to call me to confirm that she received the keys and change of address card. I have yet to hear from her.

*I had told her that if she was refusing to do a final walk through I needed it in writing stating that she was refusing and why.

Japanese woman caught living in man's closet, or Alex's worst nightmare

Alex has a big cubby thing in his room. This thing is huge. It could easily house a twin mattress, tv, and storage room. It reminds me of a Capsule hotel. When we first moved in Alex said that he wanted to lock the doors to it so that no one could sneek in and live in his closet undetected. (He was joking.) I can't wait to show him this.

Japanese woman caught living in man's closet

TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."

It is a beautiful day... Too bad we are ruining it with a bike ride!

That is what Ethan said during our 5 mile bike ride.

A few things I learned:
1) I need a new bike seat... bad
2) I need a water bottle
3) I need a new knee

We rode over to the old apartment to help Marty and Christian take the garage door opener down. Of course, by the time we got there, they were done. 2 1/2 miles each way. And they were done.

We ended up at the clubhouse chatting with the puzzle ladies for a bit. The piece of German chocolate cake they forced me to eat really helped. Promise.

Yard Sale?

I was planning to have a yard sale this weekend but one look at the weather and I am not sure.

I still have the rest of today to decide. I guess it can't hurt to throw a few tables up in the yard tomorrow and see what happens, right?

Yes, you read that right. Thursday is the big yard sale day around here. Who knew?

Usually most of the good stuff is gone by 5pm Friday and people start slashing prices either Friday night or Saturday morning. You would be hard pressed to find a yard sale on Sunday.

I don't know if I have enough to make a good yard sale, but we will have to see. One of the positive side effects of decluttering, I suppose.

Anything we make is going straight into our Germany fund, so keep your fingers crossed.

Picture from flickr

Subway. Oy.

Why are people so upset about the Subway contest? Honestly... I don't get it. Not everyone has to be included in everything. This is one of the things that bothered me the most about when Christian was in PS. If you have a birthday party you have to invite everyone. You can't cheer for your kids team at field day because the other team might not have people cheering for them and will feel bad. You can't send in home baked snacks because the other moms might not have the time to bake something and we can't have little Johnny or Suzy feeling badly that their mommy had to buy a snack. (I kid you not.)

The best comment I have heard so far is by Carla at PrairieFrog Blog

I think that as homeschoolers, we make the choice to be counter-culture. Why, then, do we expect culture to bend to us? I also think that we need to acknowledge the fact that the same freedoms that allow us to homeschool (legally) are those that allow Subway to offer whatever contest they want.

ht to Doc

Old Landlords Stink

They are refusing to do a final walk through. The maintenance man "Doesn't think he can get over there Friday morning." I said "Of course not! He doesn't do his job and this is part of his job. Why in the world would you think that he would do it."

I called the attorney general's office and was told that by requiring a security deposit, a few things have to happen. 1) move in checklist and 2) a final walk through. If they refuse to do one, we are going to video tape every surface in the place and wait to see what they try to charge us for. They are notorious for stains suddenly appearing on carpets and holes showing up in walls after the keys have been turned in.

I told her that I am sure she wants to be rid of us just as much as we wanted to be rid of them and this was the final step in that process, so I didn't understand why they won't do it. I also said that if the maintenance man won't do it she needs to, and if she won't, someone from corporate needs to. We will see what happens.

Compacting with higher gas prices

This past weekend in Michigan we hit $4.19 a gallon for gas. Ouch! The higher prices have really been a challenge to my compacting ways. Before, I wouldn't hesitate to run to Saginaw (about 30 miles) or Mt. Pleasant (about 25 miles) to pick up something we needed from Freecycle or Craigslist. Now, not so much. Hitting up yard sales a few towns over is a thing of the past, too. In many cases the cost of gas would be more than buying the item new. Sad, when you think about it.

Have the gas prices put a crimp in your compacting/thrifty ways?

(Picture from flickr)

Cheap Wall Art

One of the things I have time to concentrate on is finding or making stuff to fill all of the walls. We have a lot of blank space here! One of my favorite cheap and easy projects was this:


You can tell by the complete and total lack of artistic ability that I painted these myself. I picked up four canvases at Jo-Ann's. They were two to a pack for $7 or so, and with two 50% coupons are cheap, cheap, cheap. While at Jo-Ann's, grab your paint. Since my favorite colors are red, brown and mossy green, that is what I used. Each paint was craft paint and under $1 a bottle. One bottle of brown covered all 4 canvases, and I still have almost full bottles of red and green left.

Because I never throw anything away, I can tell you what colors I used.
Chocolate Bar #20578 by Plaid
Tuscan Red by Delta Ceramcoat
Italian Sage #467 by Folk Art
The white was just a random off white latex paint that I had kicking around the garage.

Paint each canvas in the base color. Once dry, dry brush the top coat on. Go crazy. Be random. Remember... calculated randomness is the new black.

What's that you say? You don't know how to dry brush? Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Dip it into the paint and then brush some of the extra paint off onto a piece of paper towel (or paper bag, newspaper, etc.) Be sure to leave some paint on the brush. Now go crazy and paint the canvas. For a look like what I have, be sure to keep your brush strokes going one way. You can certainly go any way with the brush, but the look will be different.

I had originally painted these to line a long wall, but the last time we moved I needed something for over the TV armoire/cabinet thingy. It turned out that the four canvases together was the perfect size, so I screwed them together with brackets.



Just do me a favor. Paint the edges of the canvas. I didn't and I have a friend that it drives crazy. Each time she comes to the house she says "You need to get you some paint and paint the edges of that picture!" (She is from Mississippi and you can't appreciate the comment without the accent. I promise you it sounds as just as southern as you think it does.) I am pretty sure that one of these days she will take the thing down and paint it herself. At least that is what I am counting on.


So, don't forget to paint yours or every time Debbi comes over she will remind you.

My newest project

Waaaaaay back in May of 07 I found a bunch of embroidery hoops at a yard sale for $1. Really, my friend Emily found them. I passed right over them, even though they were one of the top three things I was looking for that day. C'est la vie.

I wanted to steal this idea from Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy. Posey found the idea at The Purl Bee. Don't you love the internet? Even non-creative people like me can find creative ideas. I have so little creativity that I have negative creativity. I have creativity debt. I wonder what Dave Ramsey would say about that? Can you snowball creativity debt? Just wonderin'.

The Purl Bee even has a tutorial for anyone out there who can't put fabric into an embroidery hoop. Like me.

As beautiful as I find most of the fabrics on their wall, I am not down with paying $35 a yard for something to hang on my wall. What is a cheapskate to do? I have started to keep an eye out for vintage fabrics at the thrift store and yard sales. The purple/red flowers and small stripe came from the same small apron. It was torn and marked down to 25¢. The white with pink flowers was also 25¢, and the pink, blue and orange/yellow piece is a scrap of fabric that was my great grandmas. I actually upholstered a chair in that fabric for my room when I was a teenager. Don't you want to put me out of my misery now?

I am hoping that it looks random once I get a few more up there. I don't do "random" so we will have to see how it turns out. Calculated randomness. It's a good thing.

They will (hopefully) fill the blank spot above the computer armoire, and since they are vintage they don't have to really match anything. Not that I like matchy matchy anyway. That would take creativity.

Build your own clothes line. Right now.

One of the things I missed while living in an apartment was my clothes line. As soon as we could, we put one up at the new house. We tried the pulley system, but the only place we could put it was right across the path into the back yard. I scoured freecycle and craigslist for clothes line posts that I could pick up (for free or a price) but nothing was ever posted. The other day, I noticed that my neighbor (the one who now thinks I am insane) had a nice set up behind her garage and went over to ask about it. I told her that it was nice to not be the only one in the neighborhood to have one. I grew up visiting family in Amish country (Ohio), and even lived there for a few years, so seeing a clothes line was nothing new to me. For some reason, when we put one up sixteen years ago we were called tree hugging hippies. Now they are hip enough that you see them often.

After looking at her posts, Googling various instructions and pondering our needs, we came up with a plan.

First, we gathered supplies.

5 landscaping timbers, a drill, saw, level, tape measure, 2 1/2" screws, 12 eye screws and two 6 1/2" lag screws.

Then, we dug two holes.


Two feet deep and About *this* big around.


Then, I fell into the hole. (But I recommend that you skip this step.)

Then, we got all scientifical, as Alex would say. We left the pole part the full 8', but cut the top beam to 66". We laid them on the ground, being sure to put the center post thing in the middle of the top beam. Using a drill bit that was slightly smaller than the lag screw, we drilled through the top support and into the pole part. After that, we laid the landscaping timber that was to be the support piece at an angle and marked where to cut it. Angle, schmangle.


Using the lag screws, attach the top beam to the pole. Using the screws, toenail the angled supports to the top and pole, where they touch.

Once assembled, you can decide if you will be using eye screws to hold your line, or if you will just drill holes and run the line through it. As you can see from the picture, we skipped this part. D'oh!
That's ok. A small drill bit and screwdriver will take care of it.

To put it into the ground just pack the dirt around the post as hard as you can. For some reason Marty and Christian decided to pile stones and various lawn creatures left by the previous occupants, but you do not have to do that. In fact, I probably wouldn't if I were you. You can cement it into the ground, if you want to. (The easiest way to do that is to pack the dry concrete mix around the pole as hard as you can, and then wet it with the garden hose. Don't worry if you don't get the whole thing wet. The dry mix on the bottom will wick the moisture from the ground.) Ours are 20 feet apart.

Now, deciding which clothes line to use is your next step. Personally, I have always used cotton, but it usually sags. I am planning to use the cotton that I have, and replace it with plastic as needed.

By the way... for sagging lines you can prop them with either an old broom stick or 1 x 2. Notch the top or pound two nails into the end. Do not, I repeat do not but a clothes line prop. That is just silly!

Voilà. 120 feet of drying space, with the ability to add more. (A 66" top is big enough for up to 11 lines, if places 6" apart.)

It took more time to explain it than it did to build it, I promise.

Total cost:
5 landscaping timbers @ $1.97 each = $9.85
2 lag screws @ 72¢ each = $1.44
Screws = leftover from another project (But you can buy them at any big box home improvement store for a few $)
12 Eye screws (two 6 packs)= $1.96
Clothes line = Already had mine but you can find 100' of cotton line at Wal-Mart for around $3
Clothes pins = Already had mine, but Wal-Mart sells 50 packs for 98¢

Total = $13.25

Considering the fact that my dryer bites and loads need to be run 2-3 times (I know, I know) the savings should be substantial.

(Really good picture of Amish clothes line from flickr. Really average pictures from moi.)

A memorable Memorial day

People will start arriving at 2, my living room and dining room still look like I am a transient, the clothes line poles need to be built and installed, the yard cleaned up, the kitchen floor mopped... sounds like a perfect time to blog to me!

Most of the food is ready and waiting. All I have to do is make the pasta salad, but the condiments, oh, and grill the meat.

I am trying a new pasta salad today. Usually, I make Gazpacho Pasta Salad - which is so good I can't even begin to tell you - but this time i am trying my friend Emily's pasta salad. She mixes equal parts ranch dressing and Italian dressing, and tosses in green peppers, salami, onion and black olives. We have a vegetarian visiting, so there will be no salami, and I think I might toss some broccoli and cauliflower into the mix. What do you think? I will let you know how it turns out.


Today is going to be fun. I love sitting around talking to old people about their lives. One woman is 93, her husband is 89, and there will be a bunch of 70's. I commented to Marty that I think it will be fun to have friends around on a holiday. He said that he thinks it is funny that most of my friends are octogenarians. Hmmm...
For the record, young people will be here, too.

Am I the only one who misses planting graves for the holidays? Am I the only one with a crazy family that still does that? Maybe for July 4th I will find a random grave that isn't tended and clean it up and plant it. I am sure there is a veterans cemetery around here somewhere.

Well, I am off to construct clothes line poles. Woohoo.

Happy Memorial day!

Picture from flickr

Hi! My name is Krista and I am the crazy neighbor...

Ayup. That's me. Yesterday I met the new neighbor. They had a clothes line up and I went over there and asked about it. I told her that I was quite happy to not be the only one in the neighborhood with a clothes line, and asked how they built their supports. Had a great conversation. It all went south fast today, though.

They were getting ready for a party, and I started talking to her. After a few minutes, I realized that it wasn't her, but her mother. Duh.Then, she comes out to the back yard and mentions that she is thinking of going to Meijer and buying new lawn furniture, because they don't have any and people will be coming soon. I say "Gee... I just saw a table. Where did I see it?" And before I could stop myself, it happens. I said "Oh yeah! It was in someone's trash. I don't know how you feel about trash picking but..." And that was as far as I got. The look on her face told me that either she is not fond of trash picking, or that I had a giant booger hanging out of my nose.

Then, in my final act of craziness, I offered to let her use my wrought iron patio set. She said "I will ask *them* because some people are bringing lawn chairs. Translation: "I don't think so, crazy person! Maybe you got it from the trash!"

Ahem.

The worst part is that earlier in the day I was out hanging something on the clothes line and FELL INTO A HOLE*. Both feet, right in to a 2 feet deep hole. Of course, because I was hanging things on the clothes line I had clothes pins pinned to my shirt in a random pattern. I stood in the hole and tried to call Marty through what turned out to be my closed bedroom window. The neighbor was outside, so had she chosen to look over at the right moment, she would have seen what looked like me standing in a hole with clothes pins pinned to myself yelling my husband's name.

Oh yeah. We will be best friends.

My friend, the hole.

* I had the boys dig two 2 feet deep holes earlier in the day to put my new clothes line poles in the ground. More on why we didn't get them into the ground later. I am fine, but my entire left side hurts and my lower back is killing me. Every time I say to Marty "My back hurts" or "I wonder why my foot really hurts" or even "Look at this bruise" he says "You fell into a hole!"

Yard saleing

No real goal of yard saleing, but when I was out I stopped at a few. The first one was right across the street from me and it was so good I stopped by twice. The first time I got a brass chandelier ($4) that once I paint it black will replace the track lighting in my bedroom. Oh yeah... track lighting and an ugly ceiling fan seem to be the theme here. I also found a 5 qt. cast iron dutch oven ($5) and a peg coat rack thing to hang on the wall (75¢).

Second yard sale was on the way to the store for the boys to stock up for movie night. Found a king size duvet and matching shams ($5) that should look pretty good with my new headboard. Also got a chenille throw that matches the duvet ($1), a solid wood shelf ($1), 3 rectangle vases (25¢ each). At the last yard sale I found two small framed mirrors ($1 for both).

On my way out with a friend I stopped back at the one across the street. They had just put out 4 plastic chairs and a matching table. (You know... those green ones?) I got them all for $5. Considering that we are having a bunch of people over on Monday and only have 5 lawn chairs, it was a good find.

Finally, a headboard

Way back in May 2007 I bought a door at a yard sale, with every intention of turning it into a headboard. Finally, it happened. If you click on the picture you can see the detail of the door. Don't mind the ugly curtains. They aren't staying.

I would have posted earlier, but when I was trying to upload the pictures a wasp crawled up my pant leg and stung the back of my knee over and over. I have never been stung by a wasp (and the last bee sting was when I was 6) and was a total baby about it.

Really now...

We have to have the housing inspector inspect the house tomorrow. Ok, really I think he is the health inspector but whatever. It is the same guy that inspected our last place and made us cover our recycling and remove the laundry from the laundry room. Yeah... over it already.

When I called to make the appointment the woman I talked to said that it is a re-inspection, because they failed the last one. She said that it wasn't anything to do with the house pre se, but more the tenants. Things like giant holes in the bathroom wall, no water (How do you live with no water???), they weren't supposed to be here, etc. Basically, they were being evicted and refused to leave. They were being evicted because they trashed the place and decided that if they were leaving they were going out with a bang.

Let's hope that this guy doesn't get out of prison and decide that he wants his house back. And I am sure that the Netflix movies that the post office accidentally forwarded to them will be promptly dropped in the mail when they realize that they are not theirs. Riiiiight.

So today we are going to finish up the last little bit. I also have to go get Christian new swim trunks, because apparently his old ones are too big? If he would just stop growing taller. Sheesh. I want to head to the farmers market while we are out, but Christian is taking so long to get ready I don't know if we will make it.

Alex and Ethan are having Detroit friends up for the weekend, so If you don't hear from me by Monday, assume that I have gone crazy and am wandering the streets in a tutu looking for a lost cat that was never mine. Or something like that.

Weight loss tools

Frame Size Calculator - Using this, I discovered that I am not a small frame like I thought, but a large frame. That means that my weight loss goal was not realistic. Oops!

Take Your Measurements - This is part of a bigger article that is full of great information.

Weight Chart for Women - This site also have a frame size calculator.

Hutch

Seriously, how do you guys stand my indecisiveness? I can barely stand it.

After all of the work and stress I think I am going to take the shelves out of the kitchen and just put my red hutch in there. Three reasons: 1) I really think I would like the openness better 2) I really like my hutch and 3) I really don't want to spend the money for a counter top.

I don't need the storage, really. Most of that stuff fit on the darn red thing at the apartment. If I do decide that I need the storage space, I can always bring the shelves back.

Oy!

Mental health day

We are still unpacking, but close enough to being done that I think we can run the boxes to the recycling center tomorrow. It will sure be nice to get them out of here!

Marty messed up his back pretty badly on Friday. A 2:30am trip to the emergency room had him written off of work for two days. Of course, he only took one off. Better than nothing, I suppose. He is still taking the loopy pills, and luckily was scheduled off today and tomorrow.

Before all of this, I went to a few thrift stores. I found a King sized down duvet for $5!!! Oh yeah! I laundered it yesterday (more on that later) and it is bright white, fresh smelling and quite puffy now.

Since Marty was injured, I declared Saturday a mental health day and went yard saleing with Emily. I found a couch for the basement($5), dining room chairs ($30), curtains and hardware for the dining room windows ($5), camo bean bag chairs (free) ... and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff.

Funny story about the chairs. On Friday, Emily and I were on our way back to my house and passed a yard sale. As we turned around to park, I saw these gorgeous chairs. As we were walking up the the yard, a woman walked away with them. Ugh! So... on Saturday we want to a yard sale where there was two table/chair combos. I asked the woman if she would sell just the chairs, and she said only on the one set because two of the chairs weren't in great shape. I thought about it for a second and decided I didn't want to buy 2 broken chairs with the set. At the very next yard sale, they had 4 chairs that matched the two I had just left almost exactly! I bought them and then ran back to the other yard sale and bought the two. I paid $5 for each chair. So once I finish the 9 million other things I have to do, I will paint and recover them. I think I am going to paint them black and use the same fabric that I recovered the other ones with. What do you think?

What do you think?

We have cut the shelves and put them in place. I just have to decide what to do with the top. Plywood would be about $30 or more (depending on whether I buy cabinet grade. A laminate counter top would be $70. Another option is composite board covered with something.

One thing I have learned about new kitchens in the 50's is that they liked to mix materials. It was not uncommon for wood and metal cabinets, or laminate and stainless counters to be in the same kitchen. So my thought is to wrap the composite in stainless.

I found a tablecloth at the thrift store for $4 that I think might work as curtains in front of the shelves.


That is... if I decide to keep it. As you can see from the picture, it is attracting a lot of clutter already. I am hoping that is because many things still don't have a place, so hopefully that will change soon.

Don't mind the yard sale clutter in front of the shelves. More on that later.

The Perfect Mother

'The Perfect Mother' by Erma Bombeck

Everyone said Sharon was a terrific mother.

Her neighbors said it.

Sharon painted the inside of her garbage cans with enamel, grew her own vegetables, cut her own grass every week, made winter coats for the entire family from remnants and donated blood.

Her mother said it.

Sharon drove her to the doctor’s when she had an appointment, color-coordinated the children’s clothes and put them in labeled drawers, laundered aluminum foil and used it again, planned family reunions, wrote her Congressman, cut everyone’s hair and knew her health insurance policy number by heart.

Her children’s teacher said it.

She helped her children every night with their homework, delivered her son’s paper route when it rained, packed nutritious lunches with little raised faces on the sandwiches, was homeroom mother, belonged to five car pools and once blew up 234 balloons by herself for the seventh grade cotillion.

Her husband said it.

Sharon washed the car when it rained, saved antifreeze from year to year, paid all the bills, arranged their social schedule, sprayed the garden for bugs, moved the hose during the summer, put the children on their backs at night to make sure they didn’t sleep on their faces, and once found a twelve-dollar error on a tax return filed by H & R Block.

Her best friend said it...

Her minister said it...

Sharon was one of those women blessed with a knack for being organized. She planned a “theme party” for the dog's birthday, made her children elaborate Halloween costumes out of old grocery bags and her knots came out just right on the shoelaces when they broke. She put a basketball hoop over the clothes hanger as an incentive for good habits, started seedlings in a toilet paper spindle, and insulated their house with empty egg cartons, which everyone else threw away.

Sharon kept a schedule that would have brought any other women to her knees. Need twenty-five women to chaperone a party? Give the list to Sharon. Need a mother to convert the school library to the Dewey Decimal System? Call Sharon. Need someone to organize a block party, garage sale or a school festival? Get Sharon.

Sharon was a SUPER MOM!
Her gynecologist said it.
Her butcher said it.
Her tennis partner said it.
Her children...

Her children never said it.

They spent a lot of time with Rick's mother, who was always home with them and who ate cookies out of a box and played poker with them.

Look what I found!

I love them all, but the top two are my favorite. The floral is also a close second. I don't think the yellow would look right, but it was too cute not to post.

What do you think?


50s Housewife Scenes Fabric


Retro 1950's Kitchen Appliances


Retro 1950's Kitchen Gals ~ Women Baking


Vintage 40-50's Floral Fabric

So far...

Bad picture, I know. My camera was in the car.

Oh, and remember when the boys teased me because of my ugly chair? Guess who wants to sit in it all of the time now.

Trying to hurry...

They are trying to unplug the computer on me so that they can load it. It turns out that one of the other managers has a truck, so we will be moving everything else tomorrow. The cable/internet guy comes tomorrow, so I have to spend the day over there waiting for him. The phone guy comes Friday. I don't know why the same guy can't do all three, but oh well.

Tomorrow I will get some pictures posted if I get everything done. I can't stand living in chaos, so the majority of it should be done.

Ok, they are really going to unplug me this time.

Just a second...

I have just a second between loads. We are loaded and ready to go, but we have to wait for the darn UPS guy. Marty's new phone is supposed to be here any second.

Yeah... new phone. You know what snazzy $300 phone he got back in July? He accidentally closed it in the van door. It wasn't pretty. He got a BlackBerry Pearl 8120, and mark my words... if this one is smashed he is going back to rotary dial from home. Yes, I would install a rotary phone just for him, thankyouverymuch.

We are almost done with the move, and our "official" moving day isn't until tomorrow. After today, the only things we are going to have to move are my bed, the couch and the tv and computer cabinet/armoire thingies. We have moved everything else in the back of my Town and Country. Marty's boss is loaning us his truck when he gets back into town Thursday morning for the big stuff. Then we will have three weeks to come back here and get it ready. There isn't much that needs to be done (mostly patching nail holes and cleaning the carpet), but we are going to make sure it is above and beyond what it needs to be. They have already made it known that they intend to recoup some of the money that they had to pay me. Ha!

The furniture looks great in the new place, by the way. I just knew hanging on to these family heirloom/junky antiques would serve me well. They match the hardwood floors and crookedness/ not newness of the place perfectly.

Ok, I am done making up words. UPS is here. Gotta go!

Speaking of the kitchen...

Remember how I told you that I wanted to make shelves for under the wall of windows? Done! All I have to do is cut a few things, attach a counter top and make a skirt.

A woman across the cul-de-sac was moving out the other day and asked me if I wanted some book shelves. Yes please! They are the really tall particle board shelves, so I am going to cut them down to size, add some reinforcement and set them in place. Once I figure out what to do with the kitchen I will put a "counter" on top, made of either wood or wood covered by a sheet of laminate, and then make a skirt out of appropriate fabric. All in all, it should take less than an hour to build, and about a year and a half to make the skirt. (Can't sew, you know...)

The particleboard isn't my first choice, but I am not going to turn down free!

Can I ask you a few questions?

1. How do you care for hardwood floors? I have always wanted them, but never had them. I am clueless! We mopped them with this orange wood cleaner from Marty's work, but I don't know what to do for the day to day cleaning.

2. What should I do with my kitchen? My kitchen is right out of the 50's. Teal metal cabinets, sheets of laminate for counter and backsplash. Metal trim around the laminate, of course. I need to repaint the cabinets (they were painted with regular latex paint and it is gummy and coming off around the handles.) So I have 2 options - repaint them the same color and embrace the 50's kitchen idea, or paint them white and try to downplay the 50's. I also need to replace the laminate, so that will be determined by which way I go.

3. If I have a 50's kitchen... now what? Meaning - what the heck do I do? I don't want cliché 50's, with black and white checkerboards and red accessories. I'm not hosting a sock hop. I *think* that if I do a 50's kitchen, I want it to look like you traveled back in time and ended up in your grandmas kitchen in the 50's. Or, maybe Mid-Century Modern.

The neighbor across the cul-de-sac told me that she had the same colored kitchen cabinets in the 50's, and she used blue polka dots for curtains.

Soooo... any ideas?

April Progress Report

You may remember that we decided to put the compact on hold while we move, thinking that we would need all sorts of little things that you would never consider buying used (toilet brush, for example). So far, we haven't had to buy a thing, but we are officially moving in next week.

One thing we have decided to buy new is stuff for the back yard. Our backyard is big but there is no patio or deck, so our table would sink into the soft ground. I came up with a design that will allow us to build a deck that can be taken with us the next time we move. (We will build four separate 6x6 sections that will be carriage bolted to each other, for a full 12x12 deck.) We also plan to buy a gazebo ($200), possibly a new grill ($150 or so. Ours is 8 years old and falling apart) and wood and various soil components for four 4x4 square foot garden beds. We had planned to sell our current patio set and buy a new one, because the wrought iron is rusting (loaned it to my brother while we lived in an apartment in Ohio and he left it out all winter, uncovered) and there are only four chairs for five people. After thinking about it I decided that I like our current set, so we will just paint it and buy a chair that sort of matches so we don't have to keep dragging a kitchen chair out there. All together, we will be spending less than $500, and since we are doing the compact for financial reasons, and we budgeted for this, I am totally ok with it. Justification? Maybe.

Everything else that I purchased falls under the exemptions that I decided on when we started. (Bras, cross trainers, shoes for large footed children.)

We have also decided to take the kids to Germany next summer, so there will be various purchases throughout the upcoming year. (Passports mostly.)

Another thing that I decided is that it isn't fair of me to drag my family along on my crazy adventure. I am the one who decided to do the compact, and it isn't fair of me to force it on them. Of course, I wouldn't hand them money and ask them to buy me something (I think that would violate the spirit of the compact), but I am not going to try to stop them from purchasing new.

So basically, no new purchases for April, but probably plenty for May.

Cross posted at Mamas on the Compact

Books I read in April

One of my 101 106 in 1001 is to keep a running list of the books I read for a year.
January's list
February's list
March's list

Again, I forgot to take note of them as I read them, so this is what I can remember (only because they are sitting here waiting to go back to the library.)

15-minute low-carb recipes : instant recipes for dinners, desserts, and more! - by Dana Carpenter
A cook's tour : in search of the perfect meal - by Anthony Bourdain
Dr. Atkins' new diet revolution - by Robert C. Atkins
Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America: My Story - by Michelle Kennedy
The kitchen garden - by Sylvia Thompson
Kitchen gardens : beyond the vegetable patch - by Carole Turner
The new kitchen garden - by Anna Pavord
Designing the new kitchen garden : an American potager handbook - by Jennifer R. Bartley
Gardens of plenty : [the art of the potager garden] - by Marylyn Abbott
Kitchen garden - by Lucy Peel

Dear anonymous:

Dear anonymous:
Thank you for taking the time to post a comment on my blog. While I appreciate you taking the time to type such a long reply (23,223 words! I don't even type that much and it is my blog!) I do have to disagree with a few of your points:

1. I do not believe that frugality will open the door to teenage prostitution.
2. Pretty sure the Jews didn't have anything to do with "the social deterioration that was the 1960s". Just saying.
3. I am also pretty sure that all Italians are not racists and even fewer like "the high-heeled transsexual's". Maybe you need a new group of friends?
4. I don't believe in God, but if I did I sure as hell wouldn't call him/her a pimp, or say any of the other things you said. Really. Would you want someone talking about your no-no's that way? I think not.

Really, that is about all the further I could read. I never wrote papers in college as long as your comment. So my suggestion to you is to take your meds, have a lie down, and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for you. Oh, and don't ever comment on my blog again you racist, bigoted ass hole.