Defrosting the fridge

Isn't this why everyone owns a hairdryer?

All in good time...

The other posts never migrated. The other blog got hacked and the account was closed. I still have all the pictures, oh and the memories, they remain. They get sketchier as time goes on and I get used to the house as it is now. Why is that? I upgrade or restore something and afterwards, I'm almost immediately used to it? I got the chimneys fixed! I had deluded myself into thinking I would personally be climbing up to the roof to be rebuilding them, but that didn't really happen. Instead, a nice guy, Josh Cates, of Tennessee Chimney and Home Improvement, came out and tuck pointed and rebuilt them where necessary. They look fabulous. They have new crowns and a new tile at the top and new stainless caps and waterproofing. The best part is that they no longer spit errent bricks, taunting, as if to say, "HEY, I'm up here, SUFFERING, you know, getting sunburned and all that! It hurts and BURNS, not that you'd CARE."

I no longer really see the chimneys. The fanfaire lasted about a week.

I am still painting the house. You may not recall because I may not have told you, that I am using Allback Linseed Oil Paint. It is solvent free, organic, made in Sweden, and if I drink too much of it, I may get a bit of a tummy ache. It will never ever crack or peel and it will last 50 years on the house - or perhaps indefinitely - with periodic maintenance. It has no VOCs, it has a masters degree in history, it's mother won an academy award for best picture, and each flax seed was individually squeezed by hand by virgins wearing hemp skirts under the light of the Harvest Moon. That last part might have been a bit of advertising license... The rest is all true. The hard part is that it can't be sprayed and has to be painted with stiff brush in thin coats, so painting it is taking a very long time and allowing me to get very well acquainted with the house.

Today we have three sides of the body of the house painted. A spruce green color made by mixing two spruce greens with a white (if you purchase the color from solventfreepaint, that is how you would get this color). I'm going to have to take a break from painting green though, to paint soffits to prepare the house for its new roof. Pictures to follow...

First Post! Ok, not really.

I'm moving my blog to here from my own website that was at tinybungalow.com. Free is better than Not Free and I'm on a budget (hey, aren't we all?) So, no, this post doesn't contain a whole lot of meat as it were, but the other posts do. I'll try to back date posts as necessary so that you don't notice a thing!

My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore

I finally sold the other house! I imagine this blog should start up again now. :) After 8 months of double mortgage payments, I'm a little depleted, but that just means I get to do more things all by myself. The jackposts have been removed from the front porch and instead, the inner porch columns are being extended to the lintel. I installed 4x4 posts with "Stanley Strong Tie" brackets above and below to make them structurally sound. I just used wood screws on the lintel side, but on the side with the little slabs, I drilled holes in the masonry and then dropped in "redhead concrete anchors" - they are nail in. They are the best I have found for affixing anything solidly into concrete. One post cap was concrete and the other was soapstone, but the same principle applies to each since both are masonry. After that, I lifted the lintel a tad, popped in the 4x4s, dropped the lintel again and used deck screws to firmly affix them into place. They are not going anywhere. That's it in a nutshell. I left out the "boring parts" with the cutting and measuring and trips to the store. ;) I was able to remove the jack posts and the porch looked a little better.

I was not leaving the 4x4 lumber unadorned. The rest of the porch columns are brick, so the 4x4s are only the structural part of the posts which will also be bricked in. I managed to get 1/3 of one post all bricked before running out of steam. I'm not winning any "best mason" contests, but I'm free! LOL! I think the little bits that are crooked just give the place a little more character. :)

To quote "The Great Gatsby" a little - "My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore..."

Jen's Soap

16 oz olive oil
37 oz tallow or lard
1.5 oz coconut oil
1/2 tsp oregano oil or pepermint oil or almond oil
7 oz lye
20 oz cold water

All measures are by weight.
You can get lye at Ace Hardware. Red Devin Lye is no longer Lye - do not use it! It is something else!

In glass, measure cold water. In glass, measure lye. add lye to cold
water and stir with bakelite, stainless or plastic spoon until
dissolved. It will steam - don't put your face over it. (I do this
part outside) Set aside.

In stainless (not aluminum), combine the tallow/lard, olive oil, coconut
oil and oregano/pepermint/almond oil and heat until clear - mixing. (I do this until
around 200 degrees)

Wait until both the lye mixture and the oil mixture are both about 100
degrees. (This takes about an hour and a half)

Pour the lye mixture into the oil mixture and stir until trace. (This
takes another hour and a half - looked like pudding)

Pour into mold and let set 24 to 48 hours. (I use a plastic storage
container I have, but you can use a wooden mold lined with plastic or wax paper)

Cut into bars and wrap in wax paper. Let soap sit for at least three weeks before use.

What's above the ceiling?

In the living room? It's 5.5" below the original one. I can tell because I can just make out the original one from around the light fixture where they did not trim the drywall very well. Molding is peaking out from around the edges of the room by 2 inches. I know the original colunades were removed because I saw where the flooring stopped between the living and dining room areas. If it had colunades, I wonder if it had boxed beam ceilings... The plan is to drill a small hole large enough to fit a camera in to take pictures of the space between the two ceilings. I'll post findings!

Moved in! Adventure starts now, or a few weeks ago, actually.

We moved in officially on February 1st. Over a weekend. Insane did not quite cover it. Here's the story:
------
HARK!!!
WE HATH MOVE-ED!

Yeah, this past Thursday, we were livin' in Gulf Park, dirty clothes in the corner of the bathroom floor and all - no concrete intentions of actually moving. Oh, sure, it was all in the back of our minds that it would eventually happen and stuff, but among the fur-tumbleweeds and the mountains of stuff for the Good Will, well, it made this all seem a very remote reality - steeped in the mists of the far flung future. Maybe March, maybe April, oh put it off till May... What's another month in the grand scheme of life?

But then.

The Wicked Realtor of the West called. Realtor Mac had been plotting and scheming about how to get the Lazy Aquarian and her son to "get a move on with it". The Wicked Realtor took PICTURES of the front of the Tallahassee House and published them in the February HOMES magazine! The Lazy Aquarian was somehow under the impression that the magazine would come out in March, even though now she seems to remember something about February after all - huh, funny thing, that... Then the Wicked Realtor, scheming and plotting as always, called the Lazy Aquarian on Thursday and said,

"Hark! I hath a cash buyer for your Domicile!" "GET OUTETH! They want to tour it tomorrow-eth at 3pm-ith!"
The Lazy Aquarian said:
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" And started shouting things to the Oppressed Teenager:
"Pack, Don't think! Pack, Don't think! Swab the deck!!! Carry that Box!!!"

Then the Knight with Shining Leafblower came through and banished all the fur-tumbleweeds to the farthest reaches of the yard.

The Lazy Aquarian cast aside her former life of sloth and leisure and toiled endlessly. She drywalled a ceiling, installed a lightfixture, affixed crown molding, painted the laundry room and freshened the paint in other parts of the house. The Knight with Shining Leafblower painted the deck and back steps. The Oppressed Teenager packed and carried 250,000 boxes, installed baseboards and vent covers and touched up paint around the domicile. Miscellaneous odd jobs were divided among the three allies. All livestock was herded across town to the new pastures.

The cash buyers did not like the floor plan nor the orange kitchen. Humph.
There has already been another showing! Bad market, ha! Call me for a tour - you will never see the west Knox house more clean. It's actually kinda creepy.

Without further adieu, our new address:

Jennifer and Vincent
XXXX Woodlawn Pike

and phone number: XXXXXXXX - but it won't be turned on till later this week because they had to install a box or something.

Latergaters,
Jen (Lazy Aquarian) and Vincent (Oppressed Teenager, but a good sport!)
----

And now we live on blow up mattresses and still only have half the plumbing done and no real kitchen. The big house, though, is absolutely picture perfect and we've moved about 90% of our possessions into the little house. We're getting there!