Circle Drive

Ode to Switchplates

2008-09-09T15:22:00.001-07:00

Understanding the way this house was decorated before we bought it, I shouldn't be surprised by the discontinuity of the plates. But I am. So instead of being annoyed, I have decided to laugh and share this laughter with you. These are just a few of the switch and outlet plates from throughout the building.

SWITCHPLATES
Most of the switches were painted prior to the replacement of the cover. DYIers, does this still look like a good idea?

OUTLETS
Rectangular or round, shiny or polished nickel, brass or white plastic, take your pick. We've got them all!

IN PROGRESS: Kitchen

2008-09-09T10:05:00.001-07:00

So this was our starting point - a kitchen with no working appliances, a granite countertop, oddly decorated cabinetry, a black and white checkered marble and granite floor, and a weirdly constructed pantry that jutted out into the room.

Originally, we planned to live with it (minus the black decor on the cabinets) for a few years in order to save up the money to gut it and start over. But I was having a really, REALLY hard time getting excited about the house (to read why, go back to this entry) - the kitchen became my scapegoat. The energy was just not right. If that weren't enough, Brent was looking for something to swing a sledgehammer at, and the pantry was just begging for it.

The proverbial straw was when my dad announced that the guys working on his remodel were stalled (waiting on tile or something). If Brent was to help out, we could hire their assistant who was competent enough to do what we needed. It would cost us a fraction of what we would have to pay later, especially if Brent was too busy at work (he had some time off before starting his new job at this point). So...we remodeled the pantry/utility area and moved the entry back to its original floorplan.

PART I - the cabinets.
Brent removed them all. The wooden embellishments had to be popped off which then meant I had to fill in the depression with drywall mud. I then sanded everything, painted them antique white, and rehung them.

Trying to keep the mess outside...

Some things that made this job difficult - the previous folks had done a cheap job of painting so the cabinets had irreparable brush strokes and clumpy paint. Sanding too much only made the paint get hot and sticky.

And, the handles on the drawers were not straight. I removed the handles on all the doors and drawers, but intended to reattach the drawers...no way. So now, every hole has been patched and when I find time I will measure and redrill the holes.

PART II - the pantry.
The entrance to the kitchen is that opening on the left. Then there's the pantry. On the right is a large, unfinished opening where a fridge could go. But honestly, there are exposed studs, holes in the drywall, and some aluminum plating. It was a mess.

We wanted to restore it to its original use as a utility area. (The previous owners had moved the washer and dryer into a closet in the master bath.)

So the man picked up his favorite tool and started hitting things...

When we removed the pantry, we could move the entry back to its original place. Here you are looking at the dining room wall with the corrected entry. You can see where the entry was over to the right.

My dad is pretty proficient at tiling. He and Brent filled in the new area with matching tile.

The new and improved utility area - hanging cabinets will eventually line the upper part, and there will be a utility sink, washer and dryer. The hole in the wall goes through to the hallway. The original floorplan included that as a way for both levels to be able to reach cleaning supplies - or whatever else we wish to store in that spot.

The original cabinets were moved to the garage. It will require some work to make them functional as one row is missing a shelf, there's a missing door, and they are all the original natural wood tone.

Stay tuned...as soon as I finish sewing the curtains, I will post the finished product!

Ants in my Pants

2008-08-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have a natural solution for killing and/or chasing away ants? If we merely leave a used baby bottle out, or a dead fly falls to the ground, or the laundry hamper isn't emptied fast enough, we are swarmed. And, you see, this has become more than just an ant problem. This is entering the realm of a marriage problem.

Brent is fed up with these critters. He is ready to send me and the baby and dog off to my folks' house so that he can put powdered poison out. I am fed up with them, too, but I recognize that, in general, our house is a mess right now. The ants come because we give them something to come for. I still have a few more days of work to accomplish before our two major culprits (the kitchen and the master suite) are in clean, organized, maintainable order. I am still painting cabinet doors which should be rehung by tomorrow. (Yeah!) But the closet in the master bath just got its first step in rehab this week...I won't get to that room until Wednesday, likely.

And here's the other major difference in thinking between me and The Mister.
He is happy with conventional methods of just about anything - he's all about accomplishing the task as efficiently as possible. He doesn't want to wrestle or hassle any more than he has to. While I value efficiency (believe me, I don't like to haggle with stuff), I value equally the way something is accomplished. And I am really, really serious about trying to weed out the chemicals, poisons, and unnatural concoctions in our home environment. So this is a real conundrum for me.

I found this info on the Simple Gifts Farm web site. Have you tried any of these methods before? Which ones have or haven't worked for you? Please leave a comment.

----from Simple Gifts Farm web site ---

Apparently baby powder or talcum powder is not appreciated. I’m told if you dust the ants and the trail, they’ll stop coming.

I have used vinegar to destroy their trails and if you can get it close to the source, they’ll get confused and not come in for a while. I used it at full strength but some folks have diluted it with water. The other benefit to this of course is that it cleans the counters etc as you wipe out the ant trails.

Cinnamon – from the spice rack – is increasingly being used in garden insect control trials and products. You might find it of use to dust the outdoor nests. As an indoor natural ant control I don’t know how it would work but you can only try. It would likely be more effective as a barrier to stop them from coming indoors so if you can sprinkle it around where you see them coming into the house, you’ll likely have better results.

Black pepper has the same story as above. I can’t vouch for either of these products. But if nothing else, your ants will have herbally spicy food to eat.

I’m told that some gardeners have had great luck simply spraying the ant areas – their trail, their entry points etc with insecticidal soap. Some have reported that ivory soap works very well too.

Bay leaves have been used for centuries for ant control. Put a leaf or two behind canisters on the counter, in your silver drawer, food shelves, anywhere ants have congregated. I haven’t had the heart to take any leaves off my bay tree yet but this is reputed to work.

Whole cloves are supposed to do the same thing. They’d keep me away for sure.

Peppermint sprayed around the edges of your house and ant entry points will deter ants as will growing peppermint and other mints in your foundation planting. I caution you against this as you’ll quickly be over-run with mint instead of ants. But spraying a mint extract or heavy mint tea might help; as long as it leaves a minty smell behind it is strong enough

A reader recommended giving ants a bowl of uncooked Cream of Wheat cereal. Apparently the product swells in their stomachs and kills them. Personally, I don’t believe this – right up there with the old feed chewing gum to moles/voles to block them up hoax – but I pass it along for your amusement.

Diatomaceous earth will cut up ants as quickly as it cuts up other small insects. You can scatter this around and it is not dangerous to humans or pets unless breathed in quantity.

How about red chili pepper paste or hot curry paste? Spray it or mix it into a paste and put it on their trails.

There is some non-scientific experience that says that putting a product containing aspertame (nutrisweet etc) beside the ant hill kills them off. This works as a nerve poison.

So there’s the word on natural ant control. Some of these will work better than others but at least you have the whole bag now. Good luck.

Coyote Country

2008-08-13T13:47:00.001-07:00

At 1:42 today, I looked outside to see this - a lone coyote cruising up the road. I've heard talk of these bold creatures frolicking in neighbors' yards, knocking over potted lavender plants and such, but here I caught my own coyote on camera. This little guy was on a walk, not even a trot. He went up the long driveway of one of my neighbor's houses - the driveway that seems to function as a wildlife path for critters heading out to the undeveloped side of the hill.

Night Lights

2008-08-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I am happy living here - the view from the balcony at night. The first shot is looking left. The second is looking straight ahead. We eat breakfast and dinner on the balcony most days, and can often hear coyotes at night.

Trading Wasted

2008-08-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

Fun Fact #101:
This house appeared in an episode of Trading Spaces (the family version) around 2003. The show came in and redid the living room, hanging thick heavy curtains over all those windows to block out the light. ?! With the kind of light and view available via those windows, why on earth would you block them out?! ?!?!?!?!

Both makeovers (our poor neighbor's kitchen got the worst of it) were cheap and shabby. Wish I could post the video here, but it's on a VHS tape belonging to our neighbor.

Neutralize it!

2008-08-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

If you've looked at the BEFORE photos, you probably have some idea why I did not feel at home in this house. Taking such an angular house and painting all the walls different garish colors only makes it worse.

We started by hiring a painter to neutralize the place. I have never hired a painter before because painting is one of those things I can do myself...and being a do-it-yourselfer like my parents (only with fewer skills and experiences), I really like to do what I can. But, good lord, look at those colors.

When I pictured Brent and I on 16-foot ladders applying our eleventh coat of paint (because the colors keep showing through) and trying to keep our cool with our lovely-but-demanding infant, I said...no. If there is ever a time to say "uncle" this is it.

So the house is now a light tan-gray. I will eventually add color back in strategically, one room at a time. I picture a house this angular and modern and open as a good place to sort of Zen out. I picture some use of stone, taking inspiration from colors that might appear in a running stream or something. Using texture and natural fibers to dress things up. Maybe making a slate floor in the entry. This does not go with my black-and-white Alice in Wonderland kitchen, I know. But we figure we can save up for a kitchen redo if that's still important to us in five years.

For now, you can glimpse the overall change in mood by looking at the pics below. They first two are the same shot taken from the loft looking down - before and after. The second is just looking into the hallway from the living room. That's my brother-in-law in the hall (Hi, Brian!).

Looks a bit like a museum, no?

BEFORE: Backyard

2008-08-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

We have a lovely little patio with a ceiling fan in need of repair. I have furnished this and will post photos when I can. The backyard has, er, potential.

BEFORE: Master Bedroom

2008-08-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Our bedroom is at the end of the hallway, which is so open that it doesn't really feel like a hallway at all. You can see the windows lining the ceiling - this allows light to come in from the outside (on the right windows) to penetrate the bedroom (the windows on the left). We have removed all the decals and it's much brighter.

The master bedroom has its own bathroom suite with a large shower, separate watercloset, and bathtub for two. The pics did not really show it well so I left them off. We busted up that silly armoire and hauled it off.

BEFORE: Benjamin's Bedroom

2008-08-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

This is the blue room (with the painter's ladder in it). Here the painter was scraping hundreds of little, and not so little, glow-in-the-dark stars off the ceiling. This room is now Benjamin's room. And, while we did have the color neutralized, we had to keep the carpet for the time being.

BEFORE: Loft

2008-08-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

You enter the loft in the living room. It is a doorway fit for a hobbit.

The next shot is looking down from the loft - there is an opening on another wall.

The last two shots look up at the loft from different angles.

The "stained glass" is a decal.

Yes, the dark paints used throughout the house all needed a second coat. You are truly seeing brush strokes, even in these photos. They were that obvious.

BEFORE: Office and Living Room

2008-08-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

When you go up the stairs to the second level, you face this room - what we will use as an office. Notice the scuffs around the walls near the ceiling. The previous owners had installed elaborate crown molding throughout the house. Besides not fitting with the modern style of the house, the molding was poorly installed with gaps and misaligned edges. We had it removed when the house was painted.

As you turn left, you head into the living room (over the garage). The spiral staircase leads to a loft. At some point we intend to build in some bookcases with a moving library ladder that will allow for access to the loft without taking up so much space.

Once on the deck, you can see the view in the last photo.

BEFORE: The First Level

2008-08-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

When you reach the top of the entrance stairs, you can turn right into the dining room. Through the dining room you enter the kitchen, and then the family room area. Yes, we kept the checked floor, but we did an overhaul on part of the kitchen...to be shown later. We did remove the black decorations on the cabinets, and I have been patching, sanding, and painting the cabinet doors. I have a few rehung, but that is still a project of mine. Do ya like the floor-to-ceiling mirrors in the family room? How about that mantle place? The last shot is looking up toward the rest of the house from the dining area. It's a very open floorplan.

BEFORE: The Entrance

2008-08-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the entrance, as we bought the house. Notice the dead grass. Notice the overly ornate front doors hiding in a nook that doesn't even look like an entrance. Notice the pairing of peach tile with gray marble. When you enter the house, you immediately meet this short staircase that takes you to the main level.

I hope to take out some of the bushes and that palm tree in order to create a landscape that looks more inviting - something that helps it look like there's an entrance there. And eventually that marble and tile will have to go. And those doors - I foresee some solid, dark wood doors. Maybe something a little bit Spanish looking to go with the red tile roof.

Icky, Sticky Webs

2008-08-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

One of the problems of living in Southern California is that there are so many things that can harm you: poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, gang members, and nutcases on the freeway with road rage. In upstate New York, we had none of that. Well, I suppose the gangsters could have posed a similar threat, but they did not do as much tagging so they weren't as heavy on the mind. Anyway.

I now live in the desert, and, with this new abode, am thinking most about the poisonous spiders in this region, namely, the black widow. Huh-huh-huh-huh (that's a shudder, if you can't tell). See, our dear little foreclosure stood vacant for somewheres around six months. During this time, the spiders, gophers, and ants thought they had inherited the property. Cheeky critters, they are. They have decorated well: uncountable mounds of dirt in the yard, courtesy of the furry subterranean guys; complete highways (with invisible infrastructure), by the miniature guys; thick, sticky webbing full of fly carcasses, from the eight-legged family.

And it's those webs that get to me.

Those webs. They are everywhere. They gather amongst the eaves of the roof, in the cracks of the retaining walls, in every crevice in the house, under our new patio furniture, in the upper corners of the shower. And beneath them...dozens of dead ants, remnants of their feasts. (Drama break - most of the webs in the house are for the Daddy Long Legs who, outside of their sheer number, I am happy to have around as they are able to consume both ants, my other nemesis, and black widows. Huh-huh-huh-huh.)

I am less concerned about the interior webs. They are merely annoying, for no matter how often I suck them up in a vacuum, they reappear 29 minutes later...with carcasses.

What worries me, what has entered my dreams at night, are the black widows (huh-huh-huh-huh) that live outside.

See, I was sweeping out a section of the back yard and found what looked like some chaotic old webbing running from the raised flower beds to the fence. That type of web is characteristic of the widow. She weaves a nasty ol' web...nothing pretty and geometrically precise. No, nasty. Nasty as her bite. And then I noticed A SPIDER in this web as I was poking at it with my broom. And THEN, the spider dropped to the ground, head pointed in my direction. And I noticed its long, pointy legs. (Widows have that slick, pointy look - it looks evil. As evil as their bites. Huh-huh-huh-huh.) And I did not wait for it to move any further - I took my flip-flop off and...WHUMP!

Upon closer look, it appeared that the spider was already dead some time before I encountered it. Quite dry and a bit crumbly. Nonetheless, she was a widow.

I went to clean the windows on my precious baby's room. They were totally dirty and full of cobwebs on the outside. While I did not encounter any actual spiders as I was dismantling the panes and the screen (hooray for modern windows - so much easier to clean than the, albeit beautiful, antique, double-hung, wavy glass ones at our previous residence), I did tangle with the webs. Huh-huh-huh-huh. They were everywhere - strung from the eaves to the window, piling up in the window track, attached to the screen, and so on. I vacuumed and washed everything within three feet on every side.

But now I have to do that on all the windows. And every time I tackle a new area of the house I get the heebie-jeebies. A stray piece of hair slips out of my ponytail and slithers past my ear, and I jump. I have the sensation that pieces of web are sticking to my elbows, falling down into my collar. I constantly search upwards in the trees and eaves to ensure that nothing is dropping down on me in sneaky ambush. You may call me paranoid; I prefer cautious.

I am slowly winning the war on spiders, ever so slowly, with the occasional lost battle, but they do haunt my dreams. Just the other night (and several nights in a row), I could not shake the sensation ALL NIGHT LONG (well it felt that way) that webs and spiders were sticking to my back. I would be somewhere, in a dream, and suddenly a spider would drop from the sky. Huh-huh-huh-huh.

I leave this topic for now as I prepare to go call a therapist. I think I need to talk this through with a professional. Never fear, though, I will return later to talk about rattlesnakes, gophers, gang members, and rabid soccer moms and their speeding, Mercedes Benz driving, talking incessantly on the phone and driving like they own the road husbands. Welcome to sunny California.

The Things They Left Behind

2008-07-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

When we first began degriming the kitchen we were surprised to find that the previous owners had left behind a built-in GE Profile microwave. After all, they had stripped everything else. As we removed it in order to install it in a more convenient location, we discovered some part of it was melted solidly into place. Ah...they didn't take it because it didn't work.

Yesterday I discovered that the awesome ceiling fan attached to the covered outdoor patio (a fabulous entertaining space), has one speed. Oh, no...it is supposed to have three speeds. But it doesn't. It moves at one speed so low that you can stand under it and not one hair on your head moves. Not one. This must be why it stayed with the house.

Tonight I went to turn on the garbage disposal. Nothing. So I looked underneath and discovered it was not plugged in. I plugged it in and then saw that it was leaking and leaking. So I turned it on and it was like one of those old aiplanes with a propeller problem. Metal grating upon metal. Quickly I turned it off. Seems they would have taken the disposal if it had worked.

They left the water heater - it had a leak, and we had to replace it (cheers, though, for our new TANKLESS water heating system...more economically and ecologically friendly), but they took their water pump (apparently the city keeps the water pressure so low in this area that you can hardly take a shower if you do not install your own pressure pump).

So now I am wondering about the really beautiful porcelain kitchen sink. Am I going to find something tragically wrong with it tomorrow?

The Red Hot Smoking Deal

2008-07-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

My dad is a man who manages to find the best deal in town no matter what he's buying. And when the deal is especially good, he appears to transform into some marketplace sheenie right before your eyes.

This house that we bought was the Red Hot Smoking Deal that, according to my father, could simply not be passed up. So sure was he of its value, he announced upon our first viewing of it that if we did not want it, he was going to buy it and turn it into a rental. No pressure, though, he said.

Brent is a wise enough, and malleable enough, guy that he basically finds whatever my dad says to be liquid gold. Thus, everything else we looked at was compared to this...RHSD. It was such a RHSD, that no matter what the merits of the other houses we visited were, we could not (and by we, I mean Brent) in good conscience buy anything else.

Let me tell you something...when I first stepped foot in this house, I HATED it. Too angular. Too sterile. Too god-awful ugly with its clashing color scheme (easily remedied with paint, I know) and shabby attempts to upgrade with half-baked workmanship. Every remaining light fixture (the previous owners stripped the house of almost anything of value before moving out, including the kitchen appliances) and outlet plate was different and oft times tragically dated. And the yard - gopher-infested dirt mounds.

I really disliked my dad, briefly, for getting into Brent's head like that. All our negotiations kept returning to PPF (price per square foot) and nothing in town could beat this RHSD. Not even close.

And now, I must admit, I love the place. Over the next several posts I'll explain why. It all started by tearing out a pantry and moving a doorway...