Category: House Fix up

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Tarmac the House Squirrel

Now that it’s January, the Santa hat for our little furless squirrel friend had to go. But, knowing–from my childhood– that many inanimate objects probably have feelings, and not being willing to take the risk that they don’t– I still wanted our little Tarmac to be warm.

Perhaps your thinking, “Aww how sweet.” Perhaps your thinking, “Somebody over at that place needs medication,” I don’t know. All I do know is that it makes life a lot more interesting if you believe in a few things that are…

a bit whimsical.

And so I do.

Besides, if I try to make Hobbes wear stuff he bites me, so naturally I’ll choose a more docile creature to dress for winter.  Be cold grumpy old Hobbes.

Tarmac the squirrel is warm and happy.

So I’m warm and happy.

Let it snow.

 

 

 

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Ready To Rip

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My sweet Jillian came over one day with her work gloves on…

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and said, “Are you ready to rip out that carpet, and have a look at what is underneath?”

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She’s a very brave soul and I’m more the contented with whatever, “Ummm, sure!” kind of person.

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So, I stepped back and she started yanking–only took her about 15 minutes and she had the whole thing loose and curled up in the middle of the room.

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Sure enough–there was dusty, staple-y, positively potentially lovely hardwood underneath that blue carpet.

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I am officially the staple remover, duster, sweeper lady now. When that’s finished, I think we’ll have a dang pretty floor here.

That’s my bet.

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Underneath~

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I got brave one day about a week before Christmas and decided the bedroom carpet had to go too. It was the ugliest burnt orange piece of nastiness. Luckily, I knew there was hardwood underneath it, but I almost didn’t care. It was too gross to stay. But as you can see, even though the pad was much newer than the mummified stuff in the front room, it was still old and creepy and…this time…

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wherever it was deteriorating, it stuck to the floor.

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No, no…I’m not kidding. It was really stuck. But I’m a sturdy mountain woman…

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so I got out the equally sturdy shop vac and scraped and hosed it all up.

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I’m certain that someone much smarter and waaay more savvy about such things would have told me not to do it this way. But you know, whoever that was, wasn’t here and I was actually feeling pretty dang clever.

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And this time, I dragged the creepy orange carpet outside myself. We’ll talk about the ugly porch rock some other time.

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 Of course, I get that it needs the tack strips yanked off and a good, hard scrubbing…

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but hey…

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anything beats burnt orange…shag.

You know I’m right.

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Skilled Labor

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Every time I come over to the house to just “hang out” I’m excited to see what has happened since I’ve been here last.

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Baseboards are being cut and painted.

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The back bedroom is getting a few more coats of paint.

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There’s a pretty little corner turning thingy that’s awesome…

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and even a new beam separating the kitchen and the living room.

So much stuff that may seem little, but I’ll certainly never take it for granted again.

Our goal is to be in by Christmas.

Do wish us luck!

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