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December 28, 2005
Catch-up
So, I really have been rather busy/productive the last few weeks but I really can't quite tell you all I've done. Hhhmmm...it probably has more to do with the renovations and Christmas preparations than you really want to know so I'll spare you the gory details.
Our Christmas celebration started the weekend before Christmas when Demian, Lori Maura and Kieran came up to visit. We ate food, exchanged presents, went to Al's (they still haven't changed the french fry grease and I nearly slipped out of bed from the residue.) Maura and I played with buttons. I got out the can of buttons that had been my mother's, the very same can I had opened and played with when I was little. We strung some on string and I showed her how to make whirlie-gigs....we'll do it again someday.
We made the trip to Montpelier to visit Granny/Great Granny Morna. Kieran was manning one end of the table, politely eating his bowl of grapes when the discussion turned to how Granny Morna was his Daddy's Grandma and his Pop Pop's Mommy.
Granny Morna: So, Kieran, that makes you a Great Grandson...
Kieran: Thanks......( a man of a few but pertinent words. snort)
Leo worked feverishly the week before Christmas so we could have the fireplace operational for the duration. We had the living room returned to a livable state again by Friday evening when Lisa and David arrived from Maine. Christmas Eve they spent dinner with Morna in Montpelier while we fetched Morgan and Nora from the airport ( on time) and enjoyed our usual lobster stew meal. Hhhmm, I must say, it WAS a mighty tasty batch this year. Christmas morning I actually slept in (for me) until 7am maybe even 7:30. At least I really didn't have to stomp around waking others up as I have had to do in the past. Lisa had bought us all matching nightclothes as I had described in my ideal Christmas scenario, so that was a hoot. Of course I have no pictures of us gathered around the fireplace IN our matching jammies but we know we did. For the second year in a row, I ordered up a batch of Kinder eggs for our stockings....
Lisa is shown here trying to hatch hers........Kinderguins I guess. Anyway you can see her nightgown and the pant leg of the PJs she got for the guys in the photo too. We looked stylin'.
Everyone up and left me Monday....Morgan and Nora few out at 6am, Lisa and David left by 10am and Greg was off to Nowhere, NY by 1pm. Hrumph...I survived. Leo returned Tuesday Morning...I've been catching up on paperwork, avoiding germs from the neighbors, roasting coffee beans so we don't have to do major roastings all in a day or two and finally bloggin' a little. Oh yeah..and maybe a little Sudoku ... I'm still addicted and have even managed to inflict my addiction on others. aaahhh....what are friends for.
Oh...and I've got to tell you...even if you aren't a Neil Diamond fan, his new CD 12 songs is great.
Have a fine day all.......
Posted by frani at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas
We have FLAMES!
I have been informed by my loving Sister-in-law that she has had enough faucet photos to last a while. Time to move on.
I give you flames and a partially finished sunroom...... We are pleased with how it is turning out and it's already very comfortable in the living room on cold evenings.
You just would not have believed the condition of our living room on Thursday...Leo/Eldon has moved all his tools and supplies into the basement so we could celebrate Christmas in some calmness. Aaahhh, what a nice man.
I hope you are all enjoying similar calmness.
Posted by frani at 03:18 PM | Comments (3)
December 07, 2005
Out with the old...
..in with the new...eventually.
Monday I bought a new faucet for the upstairs bathroom since the one that had been there for the last 30 years decided to seize in place. Fortunately, the cold water was in the off position.
Monday afternoon, I started to remove the old faucet. Think real carefully which way to turn the shut off valve when you have supply lines off and there is ever so slightly still a drip. At least keep your face out of the way when you turn it the wrong way.
Then I Googled how to remove an old faucet...things were already going pretty badly. I think it figured it had a right to stay after 30 years and it just was not going to go peacefully. If I had had some clue how it went on, I think it would have been easier to persist in trying to take it off the way I thought it should.
Tuesday morning I returned to hardware store and bought Basin wrench tool and even thought to buy new water supply lines since the things I took out were not all that great. I was armed and ready now. It was slow going, frustrating with some parts being very stubborn and not very obvious how they got installed in the first place. I would work on it, leave it for a while, go back up and try another approach, drag more of an arsenal of tools and destruction equipment upstairs. Wondered how much a whole new sink was going to cost plus plumber if I broke said sink.
Wednesday Morning found me once again attemtping to remove parts of old faucet. I had the handles off but that pesky spout and drain plug pull thing were still in place and those seemed to be blocking the rest of the thing from coming out. Brute force works on some things when you really know you aren't going to use them again AND it helps figure out how to remove them. Voila!
So, it took 2 and a half days of frustration and nashing of teeth to take out the old faucet and 1 hour to install the new faucet..and that included another trip to the hardware store to get the correct water supply lines. *I* don't know how I missed the fact there were two different size couplers on each end the first time. Why does any project, no matter what it is, always involve three trips to the hardware store?
The new faucet works properly, there are no leaks as yet. The wastebasket remains in place under it all Just in case; we all know how I feel about water where it doesn't belong.
Ok, I could stop right now and bask in my glory but I know it's still not quite perfect up there. The drain pull isn't connected. The new one won't fit the remains of the old one and right now there is no way I'm going to mess with those drain pipes under the sink. If I thought the faucet fixtures were in rough shape, you should see the drain pipe...I won't be touching that baby anytime soon. Now if you come to visit and you want the water to stay in the sink..well just reach under there and pull the little metal stick down yourself.
You really don't need the water to stay in the sink anyway, do you? Right, I didn't think so. Be happy you have hot and cold water again.
...and THAT is where I have been and what I have been doing this week. Maybe tomorrow I'll find something else exciting to do like replace that pesky flapper in the toilet. I bought one of those flappers while I was at the hardware store..always thinking ahead, I am!
Nighty night all.
Posted by frani at 05:54 PM | Comments (3)
December 01, 2005
This and that...
Thanks Fans, for all the nice comments on the recent home improvements. I hope our new property tax assessment isn't outrageous. Snort, it's one of those double edged swords...we'd want it appraised high for sale ( but we aren't selling yet)and low for taxes...we'll see. The city did the re-assessments this past summer. The "footprint" of the house is the same so it really shouldn't be a huge increase..just bring it up to "fair market" which is what our taxes are based on. Whooppee!
We've been in CT all week; haven't done much of anything except Tuesday I snuck ( snuck?) off to Stamford to deliver coffee and see some grandchildren.
Damn those Sudoku puzzles....I have spent an inordinate amount of time on the couch...I think I may need to buy some more erasers. Then again, what else am I suppose to do in a hotel room?
Funny incident yesterday...the head of housekeeping came to the room as she often does to secure scheduling for who's room needs cleaning and when. She commented on how good it smelled in here...coffee. Hehehe...of course this lead to a coffee discussion and how as a child in Puerto Rico, she and her siblings would help her mother roasting coffee in the back yard with beans from their own trees. She found coffee here in the US to be intolerable when she first got here and she gave me the name of some coffee she has found "instead". Of course I told her about our roasting and even the fact that we very much like the coffee we get from PR and in fact on 2 occasions we have received coffee beans from private homes in PR. I sympathized with the work involved shucking the beans before roasting too. Sometimes I don't notice the coffee smell about us but then again not many people travel with grinders and brewers and a few bags of coffee beans either.
BTW..Coffee of the day is Kenya Peaberry brewed in a 5 cup Bodum vacuum brewer (blue)
Off to Sudoku...have a good day all.
Posted by frani at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)