Beebe -- our 1935 Bungalow on Baker Street.

[Lily left the valley]

Hey Lily - I'm glad that you're back. Folks were starting to worry !

It's good to be back!

[Lily left the valley]

Given the rain we had yesterday, and how often the sump kicked in, it is indeed GLORIOUS to have a working sump.

We started making some headway in the craft room as to at least getting all the little bits Sean had dumped on the rug and then left so I couldn't move stuff around for weeks on end. Hopefully after some sleep, I'll be able to start setting up my sewing area, as now that it's become obvious the weight Sean lost is staying off, I need to hem some pants again. (The last batch was on pants with a wider waistband.) I also have a lot of minor repairs/mends to various other articles of clothing. I haven't done any real mending pretty much ever, so I'll be leaning on some guides I found when I build my nerve enough to work on those.

I've also started reorganizing the Parlor, which has become the Craig's List room because it is FULL of things we are going to try to Craig's List. I put my first item up yesterday. My goal is one a day, six days a week for now, and see how much interest we get by the seventh. I'm putting up a mix of things, instead of focusing on all office stuff and so on. The post office still hasn't paid Sean for a certain bit of nonsense that we had to deal with earlier in the year, which his union rep is trying to get fixed. So funds are still crazy tight.

Speaking of funds, please keep me in your thoughts because I may have finally found a way to do what I've been wanting to do for way too long--find a shop in town that will allow me to put in a 1' x 1' display rack of comics so I can both sell some comics and hopefully start building up a clientele interested in older comics. A new gaming shop opened in town, and I spoke with one of the owners yesterday. He definitely is interested in what I'm offering, but he has to talk to the other two owners about how we'd go about the particulars if they're both of an agreeable mind. Our conversation led me to think that it's just a matter of them discussing it when they meet up next, and then one of them getting a hold of me to schedule a meeting.

So now I'm organizing the library again so I can make decent space to seriously start alphabetizing what we have. First I have to clean some of the shelving, then empty the remaining non comic boxes still in there and shelf the books so we can get more floor space in there. I also have to clear out all the office stuff that apparently was in a bunch of boxes and Sean just tossed it all on one of the bookshelves instead of, you know, actually taking it into the office.

The paper blinds we put in our east facing bedroom windows are really starting to fail as to light blocking. I don't really want to buy another set just to toss that one as well when they fail, but I have no idea when we're going to be able to afford real shades in there. Budget is still too tight, and I am still determined to have at least a few hundred dollars set aside just in case we have any more surprises like the plumbing in October.

[awomanwithahammer]

The paper blinds we put in our east facing bedroom windows are really starting to fail as to light blocking. I don't really want to buy another set just to toss that one as well when they fail, but I have no idea when we're going to be able to afford real shades in there. Budget is still too tight, and I am still determined to have at least a few hundred dollars set aside just in case we have any more surprises like the plumbing in October.

Have you ever seen a DIY for taking old mini-blinds and fabric and making something that looks like a Roman shade? My sister did something similar, and it turned out very well. You can almost always find old mini-blinds at thrift stores, and if you're anything like me, you have all sorts of fabric lying around. If you don't, you could use old sheets (also available at thrift stores). That might be an inexpensive, longer-lasting alternative to the paper blinds. I KNOW you're crafty enough to do this.

Here's a YouTube video on doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4VWE4JFEF. And another tutorial: https://hearthandvine.com/diy-roman-shade-mini-blinds/.

[Lily left the valley]

Have you ever seen a DIY for taking old mini-blinds and fabric and making something that looks like a Roman shade?

That particular hack I had not seen/thought of. TBH, we can't afford even thrift store blinds if we can find them at this point.

I did start sketching out shades topped and bottomed sleeved around some hollow aluminum dowels I have (from a shoe rack where the plastic side panels didn't last), and quite literally doing a "button up" panel from the base to the top when I want some light in the room. I thought about the tie up variant instead of buttons. Wasn't sure which direction to go in.

The issue was I don't have a lot of thick fabric, and since I often sleep very odd hours, I need that room near to pitch black when I'm day sleeping (it helps Sean nap better too).

I do have an older blanket I was thinking to cut up to help block the light, but the blanket really is in good shape, so I felt a bit guilty about cutting it up because it was one of the things I had set aside for a donation. I know that sounds REALLY DUMB, especially because our funds are so tight, but that's how my brain works. But the more light that strains to get through the paper each day, the more I'm realizing the blanket is probably my best (affordable) solution at this time.

In all honesty, I'd much prefer what we had at one place which was adjustable wooden shutters. Eventually we'll get those, but not anytime soon. I've even thought about transforming some broken baby gates I picked up for at least privacy panels on the upper sash portion to be fixed light blockers. Still considering that, but don't want to put too many holes in our wood either.

That reminds me, we still have a ton of plastic and two fiberglas shutters in our garage (fixed, though). Maybe I should just stop worrying about extra holes and put those up for the time being. I know I have extra hinges in a box in the cellar. It should be fine for now, as I only need them in our bedroom and Sean won't care. Good grief. I had totally forgotten about those. Hmmm...

Bonnie, this is why I love this site. I'm the sort that can use all the help I can get to focus on the To Do list to remember what's truly possible outside the expected.

Time for me to go take care of some laundry and then check measurements. *scoots off*

[Gothichome]

Lily, glad to see you posting once again.

[Lily left the valley]

Lily, glad to see you posting once again.

Thank you! It's great to be back.

And re-reading my last post, I realize I forgot to check the size of the plastic shutters... I should go do that before I get distracted again.

[Lily left the valley]

Dangit, the Craig's List ad that had all the dimensions for the shutters in it was one I somehow made when I wasn't logged into my CL account. So the info is gone, unless I can find the scrap of paper resused for other scribbles.

Snow's pretty much gone, so it'll be easier to just go outside tomorrow afternoon and retake measurements of the plastic ones. *sighs* (FWIW, I am trying to weed through my paper scrap notes and recycle what's no longer of use.)

[Lily left the valley]

Yesterday, I realized just how dangerous keeping a blog about restoring your house can be. I wrote a long winded post about the kitchen floor layers, and now I can't stop eyeballing the rest of the fake wood vinyl planking I've been so very, very good not to touch. I'm also getting tired of tripping over the one bit of ?-oleum where the crack formed from the damage, and over time crossing side to side from the half hoosier to the stove, bits are starting to give way.

Not sure if I remembered to mention this or not, but earlier last week, Sean and I spent the better part of a late afternoon and early evening hashing out what we need to get working on, making a priority list and such. (Needless to say, removing the rest of the vinyl flooring wasn't even on the near future part of list. )

The damaged kitchen floor, though is on the near future list. If for no other reason than it will force him to help me move the stove so I can get to the panels I need to to try to finally fix it.

Lots of other bits on my mind, but I'm sleepy.

[Lily left the valley]

One thing I forgot to mention before is that I'm strongly starting to suspect that we used to have either shoe moulding or quarter round in at least some of the downstairs rooms. I know it doesn't make sense to do so in some downstairs rooms, but not all. But until I spend some time in all the rooms looking for certain tell-tale signs, I feel more comfortable saying most. One of the downstairs rooms is a bedroom, and I keep forgetting to really look at the bedrooms upstairs and will laugh myself silly if it is there, though I don't expect so because of the usual formal versus family room rules. So, I am considering the possibility that that room in particular might have been done just as upstairs was.

I'd seen evidence in the dining, and I keep forgetting to look again the kitchen, but when the lino was put down, they did run it under the base moulding, and cut it just inside instead--maybe 1/8". I've never tried to measure it. It's harder to see in the dining room and hall because the fake vinyl is on top of it, and uneven in places.

However, now I'm leaning harder on the notion because I was taking a picture of something resting on the floor in the parlor, and I noticed that there was definite evidence at the bottom of the built-in in the parlor of such. It's unmistakable. I also noticed carpet fibers, still stuck with glue to the base trim on the coat closet doorframe. So it's entirely possible they took either all the shoe moulding out when all the carpeting went in, though why they didn't reinstall it is the part that keeps nagging at me.

I should have taken a picture. I should take a lot, really. I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow. But then I felt myself backing off and wondering if maybe they only did the extra detail on the cabinet itself, so what I see there shouldn't be used as a hard and fast determination for the entire room.

Tomorrow I will look up my copy of the Angel Catalog and pay better attention to their built-in cabinets.

I did find this page that shows examples of Craftsman style moulding: http://www.mouldingsone.com/styles/craftsman/ The site also says the "bump" would have been more of an eased angle.

This image, from that same site, does show it present.

[Lily left the valley]

Last night I went with a local group to tour a Maker Space down in Worcester because there is a committee I joined recently trying to create one here in Gardner. One of the folks that came along for the tour is a "save old windows" folk. He also turned out to be a wealth of knowledge for our area's history as we talked.

Long story short, it turned out he is the very same person that I had been recommended to contact last year when I was trying to find a local preservation committee in town. I dug out the card I had been given last year with my penciled note "local historian", and it was the very same one he gave me last night so we could keep in touch.

Sometimes we feel isolated here because we knew no one before we moved here, and haven't have much time or cause to meet new folks. Between the addition of the gaming shop in town, and all the folks I met last night, this week was the first time I felt...well, that there was hope for me to connect with the community here. That sounds more severe than what I'm intending, but it gets at least the base sentiment across.

Lots to do. The weather is nice today, so I'm hoping to get some more clean up done outside.