Tag Archives: house

Photos, Stories, Wylie's Tale

Bad Birdy!

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I have a child safety gate sitting in the hallway at the top of the stairs. The general idea is that if I put the gate across the top of the stairs, Wylie will stay upstairs while I’m away at work. Of course, it’s really just one more thing I have to deal with every morning and again in the evening. Wylie is so well behaved that there would really be no harm in just getting rid of it.

Take today for example. After a somewhat unusual start to the day, I forgot to put the gate up before leaving for work.

Not to worry though! When I came home in the evening, Wylie was still sitting on the bed. Oh, to be certain, he was ready to spring into action if there had been any sort of trouble – flood, fire, break-in, ol’ Wylie was prepared. But mostly he was just sitting on the bed, patiently awaiting his master’s return. Wylie is a good boy after all.

Wylie, patiently awaiting his master's return.

Clearly it was that dirty, rotten Terry Dactyl who tore a hole in the sofa cushion.

Torn sofa cushion in front of the bird cage.
Assorted Ramblings, Photos

A Feeling of Accomplishment

At the end of May, I had new floors installed in my house. For a month before that, the house was a whirlwind of moving EVERYTHING into the basement, culminating in about two weeks of painting.
The living room and half of the kitchen (the half involving the wall behind the fridge — there was some strategy involved) were painted before the floors were installed on the theory that it was better to drip paint on the carpets that were being removed than on the new floors. Time ran out however and most of the painting was done with a great deal of caution so as to avoid any spills.
By mid-June, the entire house had been painted except for some touch up work in two of the bedrooms and the upstairs hallway, and that pesky other half of the kitchen. That’s when the procrastination set in. Fast forward through June, July, August, September, October and the first week of November.
This past weekend, I decided to stay home on Saturday and did all the touch up painting. The upstairs bedrooms and hallway are painted, and I even put an area rug in the master bedroom. Sunday evening, I put the curtains back up for the first time since May. (This is about as “domestic” as I get.)
All that remained to be done was to finish painting the darn kitchen.
Tuesday was Veterans Day and I had the day off from work. Here’s how the kitchen looked by mid-afternoon. Everything off the counter, painters tape on all the edges.
The kitchen, all ready to be painted.
The paint had dried by Wednesday evening, so I took down all the tape and put up the curtains. This evening I put the various wallplates back on the outlets and switches. Here’s how the kitchen looks now.
The kitchen, all ready to be painted.
I still have stuff to do — it’s a house after all, so the TODO list never ends — but at this point, I’m ready to declare this particular project complete.

Assorted Ramblings, Photos

Foot Warmer

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In the past month or so, I’ve discovered that one of the downsides to the wooden floors is that as the temperatures drop, wood isn’t nearly as warm as carpet. This makes getting out of bed just that much more difficult. (Wylie’s perspective is that because it’s more slippery, wood floors make it more difficult to launch yourself onto the bed. He gets stuck halfway about once a week.)
Last night, instead of dancing, I stayed home, and after some minor prep work, touched up the paint in two of the bedrooms. (When I took down the masking tape a few months ago, some of the new paint came with it.)
This afternoon, with the paint dry, I put the furniture back, and at long last put down my first area rug.
The new area rug
I think it looks pretty darn good, but now I’ll have to find a new excuse for oversleeping.