Pennies in the Garden

I finally finished my alternative gazing ball this weekend -- a bowling ball covered in pennies.  Here it is!

I set it just inside my pedestrian gate -- you can see it from both sides of the fence.  Sort of fun.

I saw on Pinterest this weekend another idea for re-purposing bowling balls -- painting them to look like ladybugs:

Photo courtesy of Birds & Blooms

I have another second hand bowling ball, but for now it will just be waiting in the garden shed...

Getting Down & Dirty

Yesterday here in Dallas there was a bitter wind that I declared too cold for outside work, and so I tackled an indoor task that has been hanging over my head for quite a long time:  doing a major overhaul cleaning on my stovetop and oven.

Here is the little darling:

It looks benign enough, doesn't it?  Innocently waiting?  It's a Jenn-Air, which is a decent brand.  It's gas, and like most things in my house,* it's less than modern.  It's old enough that it now only has one rack, and I can't find a model number anywhere on it to purchase a second rack.  I've called the Jenn-Air customer number and had them walk me through all sorts of places to look for it, but alas.  But, it's not often that I need two oven racks anyway, so I suppose it's not a huge deal.

One thing I will say for Jenn-Air is that they have the dismantling thing down!  My gosh how I discovered what parts come off for cleaning!  Although I must say, I may be the first person to have figured that out during the lifetime of this stove -- if you know what I mean.

I've mentioned my love of Pinterest in the past, and (too) many weeks ago I had pinned a step-by-step instruction for deep cleaning your stove with baking soda, toothpaste and vinegar.  Here is the link for the instructions:  http://www.askannamoseley.com/2012/01/day-10-cleaning-oven.html

It took me nearly 4 hours and I'm not totally done but I ran out of time.   And the level of goo I uncovered -- not for the faint of heart.  And the layers of crusty things that had to be... reconsituted... to remove.  Things.... that were not vegan.  I'm just saying -- I could tell.  Things that had I known were lurking so nearby, I may not ever have used my stove.  While I highly advise you to take these steps if you are a homeowner, I cannot in good faith advise anyone living in a rental property to tackle this.  Number one, deep cleaning anything in a place that has been a rental property for any period of time is up there with the. most. disgusting. task. you will ever do.  It's akin to rental cars -- you know how gross those are.  Or hotel rooms...really, you WANT the lights dim.  And two, you probably aren't going to be living there long enough that you care about the uber cleanliness of your stove.  So, renters, my advice would be to live happily in denial or you may go running, screaming, into the woods.

In addition to the cleaning steps set out on Ask Anna's blog, I would add that it's really helpful to lay an old towel on the floor in front of your stove.  I didn't at first, and things were getting pretty messy.  I was armed with baking soda, running water (tried a bowl of water - woefully inadequate) a variety of scrubbies, an assortment of different shaped scrapers, an old toothbrush, some sponges, a micro-fiber rag, and a few paper towels, and about 2 cups of vinegar.  I use baking soda for a lot of things around the house, so I have the 16 pound bag from Sam's Club -- and I used a few cups of it.  The little gold box would not have made it.

I did not have the recommended Arm & Hammer toothpaste on hand because when I looked at it in the store and read the label it said that the active ingredients were baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, and I have both of those things on hand at home.  At one point I did try the baking soda/hydrogen peroxide mixture but it didn't seem to do anything spectacular.  Maybe I was so deep into trouble that I just couldn't identify progress...

I also sealed my oven rack into  a construction grade garbage bag with a cup of ammonia.   (Do not use your regular kitchen liner trash bag.  It will leak.)  Tonight I will take that out and rinse it, and it will look like new.  I know, the ammonia is bad.  But it had to be done.  but take heart, it will do a bit of double duty in my city issued rolling trash can.

Anyway, I didn't pull my stove away from the wall to clean back there, but I have to tell you -- I think that is a project all by itself for another day.  Frankly I'm a little scared and I need to work up the courage.  Murphy's Law dictates that the back of the stove is where the model number is...

I also need to take one more run at a patch of black on the bottom of the oven -- a patch that I greatly reduced in size and depth but didn't get it all -- but otherwise, my stove is shiny and pristine.  You could eat off of that thing!  Oh -- wait...    I was repeatedly amazed what a paste of baking soda and water and a scrubby can cut through.  Without fumes! 

And I've had one of those As Seen On TV Betty Crocker oven liners for literally months, waiting to have a clean oven to lay it down on.  So that's in there.  Yay.

And now, as a friend of mine and I like to say -- "and now, when it's dirty, I'll know that it's MY dirt."  And that makes all the difference in the world.

* my old, little house that I love dearly

Occupied

In May of last year I built an owl shack to hang in my big pecan tree in the front yard.  I often heard owls outside at night and thought that was so awesome that I wanted to encourage them to live in my area. 

I found house plans specifically for the eastern screech owl online, and used wood I had on hand to put it together.  I had some huge pieces of tree bark I had been saving for fireplace kindling, and I used it on the outside of the house like siding for camouflage.  Lastly, I put a layer of wood shavings in the bottom as directed for bedding.  Instructions for hanging it in the tree were also rather specific.  With the tree that I have, I was able to abide by all of suggestions except for the direction that it faced.  I initially hung it facing the direction suggested, but quickly realized that at night my neighbors' driveway lights lit it up like an airport runway.  I moved it around to the other side of the tree.  It faces the sidewalk now -- not recommended -- but it met the other recommendations, so it was a start.  And I waited.

When I told people about it, they told me I would probably get bees in it.  Or squirrels.  I shrugged them off -- who knows what would happen? 

My previous posts about my owl shack are here:

http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/03/owl-houses.html
http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/04/owl-shacks.html
http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/05/camouflaged.html

At Halloween when I had the ladder out I mustered my courage and peered inside.  Nobody home.  At Christmas, again with the ladder, I lifted the lid and peered in.  Empty, but there was a well in the wood shavings.  Hmmm.. had something been resting there?

And then last week -- on the way home from a dog walk at dusk I looked up, and...

I HAVE AN OWL IN MY OWL SHACK!!!!

(Okay, so that is a photo I found on the internet -- but it's what he looked like!  I took a photo, but it was too dark to see anything in it.)  And then as I wheeled out my trash bins that evening for next day pick up, he craned around out the front and to the side and watched me.  It was awesome.

I haven't seen him since.  I hope that my staring or my trash bin noise didn't discourage him from returning.  But regardless, it is an encouraging start... I don't know how long he had been there, but I will be watching for him again.

Crawl Space Excursion

Last weekend I went on an investigative trip under my house to see if I could figure out why my kitchen is always the coldest room in the house*, and why, if I put my face down near the floor in front of my washer/dryer that there is enough breeze to blow my hair back.

Last year in a fit of desperation I put Gorilla Tape all along the bottom of my baseboards where they met the floor (just in the laundry area, you can't see ii I swear!)  It helped a tiny bit but not enough.  With the washer/dryer pulled out I simply cannot see any big holes that would account for the draftiness.

So under the house I went.  I knew that at some point before my time someone had reconfigured the back of the house mostly because when I tore down the old wooden deck it revealed a set of concrete stairs 5 feet to the right of where my back doors are -- and when I looked closely at the brick above them I could see that there used to be a door there and it had been bricked in.  

Here is a post with a photo of the old deck.  So to the right of the doggie door and to the left of the electrical meter is where the old door was.. http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2010/12/foundation-to-build-upon.html

(This renovation also explained how a 1929 house had a doggie door within the brick wall -- I am pretty sure doggie doors with metal sides and sliding doors didn't exist in 1929...)  Anyway, the view under the house also confirmed the reconfiguration, although it didn't shed any light on the specifics.

Last week I went to the Dallas Public Library to get a copy of the original house plans -- multiple sources had told me they were on file there -- they are not -- and the librarian said she wished she knew who had started that rumor -- but I did find other information about Nettie and her family which is just SO interesting -- but alas, another post!

I could see that while the sub floor in the rest of the house was diagonal planking, the area under the laundry area was simply plywood.  And it was clear that some re-jiggering had been done before me -- and sort of rigged.  And I found a huge hole where the electrical for the dryer ran up from under the crawl space up into the wall, and I could see all the way up, through the wall, to what I  believe was the ceiling!  My light wasn't strong enough to reach all the way up, so who knows if it went to the ceiling or all the way into the attic.  Um yes, hello drafty...

Fast forward to yesterday... Red and I went to  Home Depot and bought some R 5.0 rated foam insulation in a 4'x8' sheet.  (As it turned out we should have bought 2.)  We were able to cut it and fill 2 full "bays" -- we put it up against the sub floor and tacked it up with blocks of wood on the sides of the joists.  Red also stuffed some regular pink rolled insulation up into the opening that the electrical runs through and we blocked another similar hole nearby.

I also have an area of hardwood floor right inside my back door that has a little too much give in it when you walk on it.  I measured inside the house to pin point where that area was, and then did the same measurement down under the house and discovered that the sub floor had been cut off (where the plywood began) and that the ends of those sub floor planks weren't supported.  We added a 2"x6" on its edge with hangers between the joists to support that.  It helped some, but taking a closer look at the floor from up in the kitchen, the hardwood floor boards aren't properly attached to the sub floor.  It is an area that is maybe 6-8 planks and it's maybe 1-2 feet lengthwise.  (For now I'm not doing anything about that, now that I know it isn't a structural issue.)

I took my phone down with me, intending to take photos (and I won't lie, I wanted a form of communication in the unlikely event I somehow got locked in down there.  Irrational.  Whatever.) but it was in a zippered pocket under my zippered zoot suit, and I never did retrieve it to capture the moment.  Here is one photo that I took last week on my investigative mission -- it shows a split in one of the sub floor planks.

I have a few others too, but it's difficult to tell what they are out of context so I won't torture you with them...

I also discovered that the pipe that leads up to my front of the house water spigot must have a leak in it.  The dirt around it is damp...The good news is, all but about 2 feet of the pipe is already above ground and exposed so I don't have a ton of unearthing to do.  And the part that is underground is not very far underground.  And, it isn't a gusher leak -- the area isn't muddy, just damp -- but I do need to take care of that.

We are both sore today -- lots of duck walking while carrying things, lots of sitting on piles of rocks and brick and then working overhead.  I will see next time it gets cold here if it's improved, but it seems like it will have to be.  Maybe when I am doing there doing that I will also pile up the broken bricks and larger rocks to the middle area, away from the perimeter which is the path of travel... And this time when I go I will definitely wear a breathing mask in addition to the Tyvek zoot suit.  It's super dusty down there.  (But bug free, which is the most important thing of all in my book.)

*  Another thing to check off on my 2012 Manifesto!  Yay me!

A Cute Skirt

You may have seen my 2012 manifesto that I posted, which is as close to New Year's resolutions as I am likely to come.  I have it posted on the wall right next to my computer monitor at work, so it effectively stares me in the face whenever my gaze strays from my computer.  It's effective... here are some of the current focus points...

"Finish off the backyard with granite."  I haven't done this, but mentally it's moving up the list and it's one of those projects that requires planning.  I've observed that grass is trying to come back in a few areas, and this week's torrential rains will only strengthen the little blades.  I've emailed a friend/neighbor about their granite guy who did work earlier this year.  I've also envisioned having granite delivered, borrowing extra shovels from neighbors, and hiring day labor.  I've made a mental note to find the pricing sheet at home that I have from my granite place.  ("My" granite place.  You know.  Doesn't everyone have one??)

"Be frugal."   "Eat out less."  "Eat foods in their natural state."  As it turns out, these three go hand in hand (in hand.)  I've also made a really concerted effort to brew my own coffee in the morning instead of stopping at the neighborhood Starbuck's which is literally about 20 feet out of my way on the way to work in the morning.  If you knew how much I loathe washing out the coffee pot (although my compost loves the grounds) you would realize that this is great progress.  I am also getting a ton of great recipes from Pinterest, and I'm actually making them -- so there's the eating out less part.  And, I'm trying to use up all those odds and ends that have been in my pantry for far too long.    I call that multi-tasking (because I don't like to speak of killing birds with stones...)

"Do yoga daily."  I haven't been doing it every day, but I am doing it much more often.  I downloaded a yoga interval timer from the Apple app store, and I have it set to chime every 60 seconds.  I have a pictorial of poses on the floor by my mat, and every time it chimes I change poses.  It's really good for me because I struggle with time, and I never know how long I've held a pose.  The harder ones feel like it's been 3 minutes, when in reality it was probably 20 seconds...

"Appreciate your dog."  My dog has been uber snugly lately.  And I am so letting her snuggle.  And I am trying really hard to give her more attention and longer walks.  She does wait for me at home every day.  All day.  It's the least I can do.  But I will say -- even before the manifesto, she had a pretty sweet life going.

"Get under the house and finally figure out why the kitchen is cold."  This past weekend I zipped up my Tyvek zoot suit, got a huge light on a long extension cord, and took a field trip under my house.  The cord was long enough for me to reach everywhere except under the guest room.  I did indeed determine at least part of the problem with the kitchen -- the sub floor is plywood.  Everywhere else in the house it is old planking.  It's due in part to a remodel that was done on the back of the house at some point.  To attempt to remedy, Red and I are donning our matching zoot suits this weekend and installing some insulation in that part of the house.  I also hope to make it to the public library today to get a copy of the original construction plans for the house -- that's been on my list for quite some time -- to help us decipher what in the heck happened back there.  I'm pretty sure there is a whole other blog post here...

"Start playing tennis and get a cute skirt."  I got the cute skirt.  It's black.  It's still sort of cold for me to contemplate actually playing...

"Don't let the laundry pile up."  So far I can declare a total victory here.  I've even washed my shower curtain.  So there.

"Take more time to hang out with friends."  I've spent a full day each of the last two weekends and spent the day with friends -- no projecting!  (And hence no blogging!)  And for the most part, was glad and consider it time well spent.  There is a small Sunday evening ache when you review your weekend and your project list, but ... it pays back in other, better ways.

"Really listen when the people you love speak."  I've made a conscious effort to sit down, and have my hands idle when I am on the phone with people, rather than racing around the house and multi-tasking during the conversation.  It doesn't come easy to me, but it does make me a better listener.

"Pursue the little house dream."  I did a lot of reading about work shops, and have started to ferret out more details on the logistics of it all.   I've started a conversation with Red about what a tiny house life could look like.   I think I've determined going to a workshop is on hold at least until Fall, so that when I attend I'm in a better position to come home and actually start executing.  I read about them weekly...

"Give yourself more avocado facials."  Check - did one this week... such great hydration...

"Get to know your neighbors."  I ran a blurb in our quarterly neighborhood newsletter in January, offering to organize a vegetarian pot luck dinner at my house.  I had a great response, and it's scheduled for February.  I'll meet at least a dozen new like-minded people in my neighborhood!  That's fun.

So, I'm off to a good start... Did you make resolutions?  How are you doing?