February 7, 2010 - Posted by Erin - 4 Comments
Ah, the feeling of a (mostly) completed task – I should really better acquaint myself with it.
Give me a few days and a fever of 102, and I can get you results.
Apart from the trim, the fan, the wall plates, the light fixture, the hutch and the toilet (and the quality time spent with a very small detail paintbrush) the bathroom is done. \o/ Ok, there’s a lot that’s not strictly done-done, but it’s usable and it looks nice. I’m calling it a win.
The hallway is still an unmitigated disaster, and is probably eligible for FEMA assistance at this point. That’s going to have to wait, however.
I would first like to thank 3M, for making a truly useless product – the blue painter’s tape. Not only did it not prevent paint from seeping under it, it peeled up a fair amount when I took it off – even when I scored it with a knife. For the extra hours I will spend fixing that fail, 3M, thank you.
Everything else went pretty well. I love the colors, I love the artwork, and I suspect I will love every minute I spend in there, especially once the shelves and/or hutch is in place for more candle goodness.
Here we go with The Photos!
Before:
After:
The choice of shower curtain is probably the most defining feature of the small space, and I’m pretty surprised I picked a blue one. I’m not a huge fan of most blues, but when I saw this one, nestled in amongst the others at the shop, I immediately knew this was The One. That I remember with pretty good clarity. I then spent a more nebulous, fuzzy amount of time in the art section to find accompaniment for it.
Were I a better person, I would have ironed it before I hung it – maybe someday, if it doesn’t relax in the steam.
When I bought these beautiful yet persnickety shower curtain hooks, I wondered, “are these things going to be the bane of my existence?” Perhaps. But they’re pretty enough I do not care. At least, not yet.
I’m not going to shower you with all the fail details, though several are present in these shots. Perhaps another time, because I have more pressing business at hand.
“Are you going to break it in tonight,” asked Mike Neir a moment ago.
“Yup!”
“Right now?” Laughing.
“Yup!”
And so I am.
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February 6, 2010 - Posted by Erin - 0 Comments
That’s the name of the color – “Sweet Molasses.”
I am in love with this color.
As Mike was helping me put up the ceiling tape, he remarked it looked a lot like molten chocolate. I’d had that same thought myself numerous times, wondering if it would be as delicious as it looked. I reckoned not.
Here’s the thing, though – it’s pretty much the exact same color I imagined my chocolate pudding should have been. The chocolate pudding which stubbornly refused to set up.
Ordinarily, I would not recommend making home decorating decisions based on a failed dessert recipe; however, in this case, it seems to have worked smashingly. It’s like being surrounded by delicious pudding. Mmm, pudding.
After he’d been putting tape on the stinking ceiling for about 20 minutes or so, Mike Neir (reknowned for being pretty damned smart) had a brilliant idea – why not put up ceiling trim and avoid this nonsense altogether? Whoa. Indeed!
Off we went to Home Depot and picked some up. I’ll need to spray paint it and nail it up, but heck – sure as hell beats putting tape on the ceiling and then edging it. I think. It should look quite nice, too, when everything is said and done. This is me, hoping white accents don’t badly clash with the shower curtain and accent pieces I’ve picked up. Post-HD, we went to the Mongolian BBQ place next door, where I became briefly annoyed the delicious flour tortillas are now forbidden, but discovered the brown and fried rice are pretty good sans tortilla (perhaps “sin tortilla” is more appropriate here (a propros? (Someone stop me before I nest another parenthetical phrase!!)))
I realized belatedly there could easily have been gluten in the peanut sauce, le sigh. I’ll figure these things out. Then we went to Coldstone Creamery, and if there is gluten in coffee ice cream, I don’t want to hear about it right now.
Tempted to curl up and take a nap post-feast, I went back at the bathroom still holding the “by Sunday” vision in mind. The spray paint may not fit into that picture; it’s sunny out, but all of about 15 degrees currently.
We found quite a treasure when we pulled the toilet up: The original flooring!
We also discovered the flange was deteriorating quite badly and needed replacing, anyhow. But seriously – can you guess approximately what year the house was built? I bet you can.
For a few days, we have a toilet at the top of our stairs (until we find the over-the-toilet hutch to go in there, which will probably be easier to install without the toilet present.)
I have to say, the space the toilet being gone frees up is very nice. It would allow for quite a Tub Expansion. We have two other toilets… we could plug the hole, apply a new tub… someday.
Please pretend my carpets have been vacuumed in this century. Thanks, I really appreciate the extra effort on your part.
Also, please ignore the ad hoc bathroom that is now in the hallway (she said, foisting it upon you:)
Seriously, there’s a vacuum right there; seems like I’d know how to use it. In my defense, we only got it working properly today. I swear! Having a husky mix can kill even the mightiest of pet hair vacuum cleaners.
Speaking of today, it is the day I realized how much time I wasted by not simply getting out the paint roller from the very beginning. It took probably less than an hour to get all of the second coat down avec roller. Sure, it’s messy, but wowsers it’s fast. I’ve painted a few rooms in my time, but this one was so small, it just seemed the roller might be, I don’t know, excessive.
It wasn’t. Write that down.
Incidentally, I don’t drink a lot of beer and olive oil in the tub – those are the bottles we use to partially fill the toilet tank so it uses less water per flush.
Here’s another thing to write down – don’t do the final clean-up until the last coat dries an there are no problems to go back and correct. As soon as the water hit the roller, I realized I had just insured some colossal screw-up, which would reveal itself in a few hours. We shall see.
Should you wish to renovate your own bathroom, please remember these vital supplies: Tape measure, mug of tea, glass of water, assorted screwdrivers, a pair of socks, a vanity mirror, a Gladware lid, some pliers and various table silverware items. You’ll thank me later.
In a few hours, things should be dry-ish, and I can perhaps take down the painting tape and maybe, just maybe, put up artwork and the new fixtures – yay!!
Mike Neir tapped out of all the renovation action not too long after we got home – all the HD excitement and Mongolian-esque BBQ’ing tuckered him right now. Shoes and all.
We don’t make our bed daily – it’s ok if you judge us a little for that. I just can’t bring myself to do it up unless someone might see it – not many surprise guests, bedroom-wise. Unless, of course, you count the times when I take photos to share with, y’know, The Internet, as a surprise guest. Alright, I wish I’d made the bed today.
One final word of advice: If you are at all like me and get a little loopy when febrile, stay away from the sharp knives. It’s healing up quite nicely – the divot at the end is nearly fully healed up. It’s more annoying than painful, as the half-inch hangnail catches on every damn thing in sight when not taped up (“so tape it back up, goofball.”)
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February 5, 2010 - Posted by Erin - 2 Comments
Today, I had my follow-up visit to discuss my gluten intolerance labs. Do I have gluten intolerance? Oh hell yes; yes I do. My IgA (mucosal) value was normal, but the IgG value, which should have been 17 or less, was apparently well over 100. Awesome. Gluten intolerance.
Barbara was right – but this should come as a surprise to precisely no one. The woman is a wonder.
So, the doctor hits me with the surprised-eyebrows, “wow, you’re over 100!” look, and I hit him with an accidental “holy f*ckamole.” He chuckled, then remembered, “Oh. You’re vegetarian, too.”
It was the perfect opportunity to use, “yeah, the only things I’ll be allowed to eat are sand and cranberries now.” He laughed aloud and then we talked about Resources. I told him about PHawk and Barbara and Stacey’s friend Kelly, and how I can avail myself of them and the hundreds or thousands of gluten-free websites and blogs. I lamented availing myself of D&W’s massive boxed pasta sale a couple of months ago, wherein I purchased 10 boxes of dried pasta for like a dollar.
“Man,” I fretted. “That shit is everywhere. This is going to be hard.”
I realized, however, I’ve done this before. Meat is everywhere, too – it’s in so many prepared foods, often in the form of “natural flavors.” It’s in most commercial yogurts and many sour creams (in the form of gelatin.) I’m used to scouring labels – I can do this.
One thing I haven’t had to worry about, though, is cross-contamination. A lot of facilities used to process non-wheat grain items also process wheat, and the remnants can cause problems for people with gluten sensitivities.
This will not be an overnight thing, or a 100% no-gluten all the time thing. I reckon there will be the occasional pizza, or the occasional non-sorghum beer (no good beer is really kicking my ass to think about, incidentally,) at least until I make this mental shift of GLUTEN IS POISON (as PHawk often says.)
Now the doctor, he’s stoked; apparently, “we’re” seeing more and more cases of “this kind of gluten sensitivity” and holy wow, he’s got a patient who’s more than happy to answer questions intelligently, have endless needles poked into her, and be his little field study should he want her to be. I like my doctor a lot, and I like being healthy a lot. So sure – I’ll do quite a bit of question answering and pin cushioning. Yes, I’ll do my best to keep some sort of Food & Symptoms Journal…
Thursday:
Food:
Breakfast: Bowl of unset chocolate pudding. Tea.
Lunch: Portuguese kale soup – you know what that goes great on? A slice of rye bread, that’s what. So I had one of those, too. Ok, I had two. Big glass of milk.
Afternoon: Two stalks of celery and several pots of tea. Infinite trips to bathroom.
Dinner: Altu’s Ethiopian food with delicious teff injera.
Mood: Feel like ass.
The kind of gluten sensitivity he referenced is the elevated IgG and normal IgA values, with little or no gastrointestinal symptoms. We in this group are afflicted with other, systemic symptoms, such as a general sense of apathy, low energy, low motivation, depression, skin irritation or flaking, weight gain, chronic fatigue syndrome, muscle weakness or pain, neurological symptoms, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Thinking about how most people tend to see allergies (acute-onset symptoms, which may be localized to the affected area (bee sting, topical exposure,) it’s easy to see how “allergic reaction” wouldn’t come stampeding to mind when looking at the whole presentation.
Listening to Science Friday on the way to and from my appointment, they were discussing depression and its many potential causes. A listener who was also a physician called in, wanting to underscore the importance of chronic inflammation in the depression process. If I’ve got a systemic, internal inflammation going on, I can see how that might mess pretty much everything up.
Barbara knows this; she’s been reassuring me all along and telling me how much better I’ll feel without gluten in my life, even before I was diagnosed today. She recognized the symptoms she and her family experienced, and she’s been ministering to me, providing resources, recipesand information. Bless her heart.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve done a little half-hearted gluten-free diet research, and while I’m not happy about the diagnosis, the outlook isn’t as bleak as it could be. Much like advances in the vegetarian arena, there are a lot more gluten-free-friendly products to be had. I can find other ways to make bread and dumplings and cookies and WWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH I want my gluten back already.
I nearly shed a self-pitying tear on the way home.
Le sigh.
But life is not over, we muster ourselves and we carry on, yes we do!
Riiiight after a nice, relaxing, pity-party bath.
Oh, wait.
How relaxing would that bath be whilst inhaling paint fumes? Probably not very. Sabotaged by my own visions of serenity!
Which brings us to today’s Progress Report. I really, really want to have this all done by Sunday, and I still think it’s an attainable goal.
Today’s work was more about details than broad strokes. The first coat is down, except for the bits around spackled holes – the spackle is curing for another little while tonight. I taped everything except most of the ceiling (because I hate taping the damned ceiling,) and got two coats of edgework done. Except on the ceiling. Cuz there’s no tape there, except immediately over the door.
The previous owners enjoyed remodeling. They were not necessarily awesome at it, but they did a lot of it. The holes left by the towel rod included these two beauties:
Of course, there’s the previously-mentioned cardboard wall behind the mirror, but that’s hard to see in a photo. Our gorgeous sunroom, built entirely by the previous owner, has some fit and finish issues I’d eventually like to finish, and his ad hoc painting of the dining room leaves a bit to be desired.
When they installed the (quite nice) toilet paper holder in my bathroom, it went from a one- to a two-holed apparatus. They left the other hole like this:
Spackled, but not sanded or painted. I’ll eventually replace that holder with one that fits the other bronzed/rubbed oil hardware I acquired.
I’ll be breaking out the roller for the final coat, so there’s a smoother application and less evidence of individual strokes (one hopes, at least.)
Even though it’s all smelly and not done yet, when I close the door and look around it’s very den-like. I cannot wait until it’s done and decorated! Mike Neir even offered to help with the ceiling stuff, since he’s taller. What a guy.
I should have spackled this yesterday, but drugs prevented me from thinking clearly. No drugs today, and my fever was down to 99.7. Sweet!
After my checking account recovers from yesterday’s spending spree, a new faucet will be a welcome addition. No more brass!!
I’ll be taking down the brass light fixture and painting it, as well, either white or the brown.
Today, I decided we will definitely be removing the toilet. No way in hell I can do a good job back behind here, and I don’t want to leave it all janky:
So – drain and yank toilet, apply two coats of paint back there, plunk new wax ring down, squish toilet down and affix anew, boom, done there.
Once the spackle is dry, I’ll be sanding/sponging those six areas down evenly, painting the first coat, and then I’ll throw a final coat of paint on with The Dreaded Roller in the Very Enclosed Space.
I still think Sunday is doable. That gives me all of tomorrow, with the added application of Mike Neir Where Required.
Perhaps by Sunday night, the fumes will have wafted away (too bad they don’t make VOC-free paint in ludicrously dark browns) and I can enjoy my new-found bliss. I can’t wait to hang the artwork and shelves and new hardware! Yay, sanctuary!
Boo, gluten stuff, but yay for future better health!
Someday, I may actually write about quilting again. Heck, I may do some actual quilting. In the meanwhile, my domain name might be better served by homesteadgeek.com (thanks Phawk), or stupideffingglutenintolerance.com, or simplifymyridiculouslife.com… but I suspect those who were only interested in the quilting stuff have long gone away at this point.
A friend at work said to me the other day, “I do read your Death By Quilting blog,” and I had to laugh; now there’s a domain I’d consider registering, were I a hard-core quilter. 
Right then – there’s a fierce wind whipping outside, Mike Neir is stuck at work for the foreseeable future, and I believe it’s time to make a fire and do some gluten-free living research.
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February 4, 2010 - Posted by Erin - 2 Comments
Mike Neir may have come home tonight to a bathroom that is a slightly different color than when he last saw it.
So, y’know how when you have a fever, you’re supposed to stay in bed, rest and generally not try to do anything?
Yeah. There’s a reason for that.
Last night, while I slept, the viruses which had previously established a beachhead mostly in my sinuses and joints staged a coup and took over my whole body. After some truly bizarre, somewhat horrific dreams last night, I woke up with my fever bumped up a degree to 101. I called in sick for the second day in a row with a silent wish for helpdesk to be kind to BenC. Rolling over, I slept at first fitfully and then resoundingly until nearly 11am – something I haven’t done in months and months.
A fresh dose of flu meds and a cup of tea later, I felt curiously good. Like, I am unstoppable good. I considered going into work, but realized my friends and co-workers would probably appreciate my not infecting our workspace with whatever this crud is.
Yesterday, I decided I wanted to paint my bathroom dark, dark brown, use pure white accents and candles to turn it into a true sanctuary… at least as much as a room that small can be such a thing. I’ve got a pretty clear vision in my head of what it should look like upon completion. The feeble, pastel blue and pink with a floral border isn’t offensive, per se, it’s just Not Me and it was beginning to grate.
Today, I spent nearly all of my weekly paycheck on making that vision a reality. A trip to Home Depot for paint and whatot, a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond for what started out as a tub stopper and ended up being Everything Else They Had and dude, I was well on my way. Note to Home Depot and BB&B : Please start drug testing your patrons before selling them All Your Stuff. Thanks.
A lot of this is a blur. I remember wandering up and down the aisles at BB&B, I remember finding The Perfect Shower Curtain. The rest is somewhat fuzzy. Thank goodness I didn’t come home with a new countertop sous vide machine, because I really, really want one of those, too. Perhaps they didn’t have them yet.
At any rate, I bought a metric honkload of stuff. Here it is, oozing with potential:
I remember having to stop and take breaks what seemed like every 15 minutes because I was getting tired ridiculously easily. Undeterred, if in fits and starts, I carried onward.
Here are a few “before” photos, in all their cluttered, messy glory:
I’m glad I had the presence of mind to photograph the process. The wallpaper border came off far easier than I anticipated, and the enzyme CHOMP stuff took care of the backing. For some reason, I was compelled to photograph myself using the Paper Tiger. I look like I have Man Hands.
Also, I scored it all without even trying to peel off the paper itself. That was a little silly, because it came right off in big, long, satisfying strips.
The border’s backing came off pretty darned easily with the enzyme stuff, but left a huge mess behind. Ok, perhaps it was me who made/left the mess, but I’m going to blame it on the backing – we’re cool with that, right?
Looking at the above photo there, I realized, “holy shit, I bought a bath pillow?” Bought it, and apparently felt the need to install it before all the crazed peeling and painting action. One can’t go into these adventures unprepared.
I remember bashing the slightly missing tip of my thumb a couple of times, mostly when taking down the large mirror from its weirdo holders.
I learned some fun things about this bathroom – like the wall behind the mirror is made entirely of cardboard. I painted over it, anyhow.
When under the influence of what I can only assume is a pretty awesome combination of methamphetamine and heroin, one forgets minor details – like needing to spackle holes over after taking off fixtures. And buying putty knives or spackle, for instance.
At first, I just dipped the foam corner painter thing into the paint on the lid – just to make sure I liked it. I spread it on one wall, figured I’d better try it on a few walls before really Diving In to the full painting process.
You really can’t tell the difference in color unless you look really, really closely:
It may be easier to spot here:
At some point, I poured paint into the tray and just went at it like a crazed banshee. I must have decided getting the rollers involved was too much work, because I just painted everything with the wheeled edger.
And then I ran out of steam, the drugs wore off, Mike Neir came home and I realized “oh my god, what am I doing.” I will probably be heading to bed immediately after hitting Publish.
Here’s the state of things now:
It’s only about 75% completed on the first coat, with no edges done (that little edger thingie was a bastard and I don’t trust it anymore.) Lots of work ahead.
But here’s the thing:
I love it.
I adore it. It’s dreamy.
Well, it will be dreamy when all is said and done. While I’d envisioned nothing but browns and whites, I seem to have picked out a largely dusty, darkish, aqua-shaded shower curtain and towels, but I think they’ll look really good. A different theme than strictly whites, and I think I’ll like it even better.
The larger, decor-oriented items I bought today have vanished. More correctly, I have put them Someplace Out of the Way, someplace clever, where I won’t forget them. That tin artwork thingie is like three feet tall, and I can’t find it. I’m giving up looking until tomorrow.
Tonight, my antibodies are going to rally and get this thing retreating. I can feel it.
Right then, bed now.
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February 3, 2010 - Posted by Erin - 5 Comments
Many of the women whose blogs I read are mothers, and as such, they often talk about their child-rearing methodologies, frustrations and the little details of Life With Kids. One term I see come up somewhat frequently is “self-soothing,” and today that hitched itself to another theme I’ve been seeing with remarkable frequency these last two days: What makes you happy?
Pondering the things that make me happy, things I can do by myself, I stumbled upon something I hadn’t thought of in a long time: Chocolate pudding. We have whole, raw milk… I have chocolate… how had I not made this dessert yet?!
Grepping about for chocolate pudding recipes, I alighted on Smitten Kitchen, a cooking site I trust. Her recipe is simple, flies in the face of all the overly-complicated, overly-decadent concoctions and goes back to the simplicity of smooth, rich, chocolate pudding essence.
Six simple ingredients slowly warmed into one of the ultimate comfort foods – what better day to make it than a sick day? Start to finish less than a half hour, thanks to the handy-dandy immersion blender’s chopper attachment. It made quick, gorgeous work of the chocolate squares:
Milk, starch, sugar:
And the final, yummy combination (a food photographer I am most certainly not:)
Mmmmm. I took a few sips of it warm, straight out of the bowl after having poured the rest into ramekins - It was to die for. I am now patiently waiting for the little ramekins to chill in the fridge, so I can properly enjoy its delights.
But let’s revisit, for a moment, the original topic here – what things that make me happy, things I can do by myself? What comforts me? This is something different from, “what satisfies me,” or “what would I like to do.” These need to be things that speak to my parasympathetic nervous system on a deep, deep level, things like what I asked you folks about a few posts ago. I think my parasympathetic system isn’t getting enough exercise (much like the rest of me;) I’m “fight-or-flight” all the time (stress/sympathetic nervous system,) as opposed to the “rest and digest” mode of the parasympathetic.
I need to start taking care of relaxing, detoxing, destressing with as much of an interest (and eventually as automatically) as I amp myself up and become tense.
These things relax me intrinsically:
- Baking
- Knitting
- Sewing
- Reading
- Taking a bath
- Cuddling with dogs
- Eating comfort foods
- Learning new skills
- Planning for chickens & the garden
- Stretching, doing yoga
- Drinking a mug of tea
- Writing
- Watching the woodpeckers in the trees outside my office
- Having quiet and stillness around me
- Being outside, surrounded by nature, simply observing and listening
- Sitting by a river
- Swimming in a remote, deserted mountain lake
- Watching snow fall
- Having a fire, watching the embers and flames
- Listening to soothing music
- Wearing comfortable, loose clothing
There are definitely things I can do to my immediate environment to make it more conducive to relaxation – adding more personal touches to our home, placing non-toxic candles about to light in the evenings, painting the walls more attractive colors, replacing window treatments with softer, more drapey, fabrics, organizing spaces so the clutter is at least hidden behind something attractive. I love being surrounded by natural things – I don’t like bright, shiny chrome or plastic glaring at me in spaces where I want to relax. In fact, I don’t much care for chrome/shiny at all. I prefer, by and large, muted things.
Barbara urges me to de-glutenize my life, because if I do have a sensitivity the gluten is contributing to the stress, weight and general apathy. My doctor’s appointment is Friday for follow-ups, and I hope to have something I can point to then or shortly after. Without Genuine Motivation, it’s difficult to make a radical choice that will eliminate some of my favorite comfort foods – homemade mac and cheese, breads, dumplings, cookies and for some reason “cupcakes” keeps jumping into my mental temper tantrum, even though I haven’t made cupcakes in probably ten years. But I love the idea of making them.
Of course, cutting these things out is entirely at my discretion; the gluten police aren’t monitoring me, much like the meat police don’t care, or I could always just make them and take them into work. We have no shortage of appreciative geeks, especially having recently hired about 30 new people. The satisfaction of baking, without the final payoff. Hmm.
For today, though, I have my tea (and am contemplating getting a proper tea pot, so I don’t have to run down and microwave another cup every half hour,) I have my Bieler brother, I have beans soaking overnight for tomorrow’s Portuguese kale soup, I’ll soon have my pudding, and I’m about to settle in for some knitting in the hopes of having a finished scarf while the weather still warrants it.
Footnote: So the pudding never set up – I’m guessing I didn’t let it thicken over the heat enough, alas. Tasty, but not pudding. Also, when chopping onions for the kale soup, I sliced through my left thumbnail cleanly and removed a tiny portion of the end of my thumb itself. Not the most awesome, soothing of nights. <sigh>
On the plus side, my fever is down a notch.
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