Ehouse work never ends...
Oct. 4th, 2009 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feng_shui_houseThis morning I pulled down the blind in the living room.
Literally. It was the ONLY one my brother had put up that I hadn't replaced because it looked reasonably ok. Foolish me. I didn't know one end holder was broken and with a piece missing-- I had noticed the sag but figured that was because he put it up crooked. I thought I'd exchange the middle holder for the broken end one, but the middle one broke while I was trying to get the crookedly installed blind all the way down. After innumerable attempts to make a new hook out of some combination of plastic/metal scraps, I gave up and superglued the middle one & exchanged it for the outside one which is now in the inside half-holding up the middle. So far, so good. Wish I could just buy new hardware, but that doesn't seem an option these days- there are so many slightly different types of blinds I'd never get one to fit. And since the window's not standard, I'd have to order a custom-made blind. (Been there, done that, time-consuming, expensive, frustratingly difficult to install) *fingers crossed this holds* Maybe tomorrow I'll lower it half-way and leave it.
I went in the back and looked at the bit of grounding wire STILL showing. I could not manage to get the workman to understand that he was to cover all of it. I caught him leaving a big part sticking up and he pushed it in, but I missed this... I still have about a wastebasket of cement (ditto sand) left, shall try to botch cover it myself later.
I went out the front on a stepstool & filled in with exterior wood putty a few small gaps the soffit guys left in an unobtrusive spot. I don't THINK they were large enough to allow mice to get in, but why tempt fate?
I decided to take an axe to the remaining stump of one of my brother's idiotically planted directly under a power line trees in the back yard (he and my mother liked to do that-- they never thought that the little trees would actually grow up.) Whilst I was doing that I noticed a white peacock butterfly- but it flew before I could snap. Then I noticed a pair of gulf fritillaries mating. And DID get a couple snaps.
Ok, I've cooled off, shall go play with cement now.
EDIT: Cement work done. Hope it holds.
I went out to the front to the 3-4foot high stumps of the trashpile trees I'd cut down a couple years ago. I figured by now they were probably dried up enough that I could axe them and reduce them a bit. I was wrong. They were so dry that I was able to uproot them entirely and drag them a few feet & pile them up semi-neatly. Bulk pickup isn't for another 3 weeks and so they'll have to sit there and be eyesore, but hey, the stumps were there all along, I've only turned them horizontal. :^)
Now I am really hot & icky. Shall cool off, put on a suit, shower outside and go for a float in the pool.
Literally. It was the ONLY one my brother had put up that I hadn't replaced because it looked reasonably ok. Foolish me. I didn't know one end holder was broken and with a piece missing-- I had noticed the sag but figured that was because he put it up crooked. I thought I'd exchange the middle holder for the broken end one, but the middle one broke while I was trying to get the crookedly installed blind all the way down. After innumerable attempts to make a new hook out of some combination of plastic/metal scraps, I gave up and superglued the middle one & exchanged it for the outside one which is now in the inside half-holding up the middle. So far, so good. Wish I could just buy new hardware, but that doesn't seem an option these days- there are so many slightly different types of blinds I'd never get one to fit. And since the window's not standard, I'd have to order a custom-made blind. (Been there, done that, time-consuming, expensive, frustratingly difficult to install) *fingers crossed this holds* Maybe tomorrow I'll lower it half-way and leave it.
I went in the back and looked at the bit of grounding wire STILL showing. I could not manage to get the workman to understand that he was to cover all of it. I caught him leaving a big part sticking up and he pushed it in, but I missed this... I still have about a wastebasket of cement (ditto sand) left, shall try to botch cover it myself later.
I went out the front on a stepstool & filled in with exterior wood putty a few small gaps the soffit guys left in an unobtrusive spot. I don't THINK they were large enough to allow mice to get in, but why tempt fate?
I decided to take an axe to the remaining stump of one of my brother's idiotically planted directly under a power line trees in the back yard (he and my mother liked to do that-- they never thought that the little trees would actually grow up.) Whilst I was doing that I noticed a white peacock butterfly- but it flew before I could snap. Then I noticed a pair of gulf fritillaries mating. And DID get a couple snaps.
Ok, I've cooled off, shall go play with cement now.
EDIT: Cement work done. Hope it holds.
I went out to the front to the 3-4foot high stumps of the trashpile trees I'd cut down a couple years ago. I figured by now they were probably dried up enough that I could axe them and reduce them a bit. I was wrong. They were so dry that I was able to uproot them entirely and drag them a few feet & pile them up semi-neatly. Bulk pickup isn't for another 3 weeks and so they'll have to sit there and be eyesore, but hey, the stumps were there all along, I've only turned them horizontal. :^)
Now I am really hot & icky. Shall cool off, put on a suit, shower outside and go for a float in the pool.
