 |
| After we popped the 'hump' and drained the water |
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| Once I peeled all the wet paint away |
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| Mudded, sanded and thick coat of Kilz paint, good as new! |
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Before and (almost) After
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Pets in Retail Stores
I must have missed a memo or something because twice now in the last week people have thought it was A-Okay to bring their dogs into the store I work at. I am not going to say where I work, but I will say that it is NOT Petsmart or the like. It is a retail store for humans.
The culprit last week had a very small dog that fit in a carrier thing. I probably wouldn't have really noticed if the lady didn't stop me to ask a question. I tried not to pay attention to the dog, because I didn't want to condone the act of bringing pets everywhere you go.
Today's culprit literally walked in the store with her dogs (2 OF THEM!) on leashes. She looked at my co-worker at the service desk then proceeded to put them in a shopping cart. Excuse me, what?! We both alerted one of our managers, and he didn't seem too concerned and said as long as they aren't causing a scene and barking the whole time then we will just let it go, but does agree that they should not be in the store. There were even other customers over talking to the lady and petting her dogs and paying all sorts of attention to them. Me? I kept walking, again to not condone this type of behavior/mentality that it is perfectly okay to bring your pets into retail stores.
Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE dogs. I have one! She is my precious, lovable, cutest fur-baby ever! But she does not go to the grocery store with me, she does not walk around Target, Wal-Mart, or any other retail store with me. She gets to go to Petsmart and that's it!
The major concern, above the tackiness of it, is you just don't know who is allergic to animals, who is scared to death of any kind of dog (regardless of its mannerisms). Also, I do not want to pick up/clean-up after your dog if s/he feels the need to relieve themselves while you are shopping.
/end rant
Carry on with the rest your day!
The culprit last week had a very small dog that fit in a carrier thing. I probably wouldn't have really noticed if the lady didn't stop me to ask a question. I tried not to pay attention to the dog, because I didn't want to condone the act of bringing pets everywhere you go.
Today's culprit literally walked in the store with her dogs (2 OF THEM!) on leashes. She looked at my co-worker at the service desk then proceeded to put them in a shopping cart. Excuse me, what?! We both alerted one of our managers, and he didn't seem too concerned and said as long as they aren't causing a scene and barking the whole time then we will just let it go, but does agree that they should not be in the store. There were even other customers over talking to the lady and petting her dogs and paying all sorts of attention to them. Me? I kept walking, again to not condone this type of behavior/mentality that it is perfectly okay to bring your pets into retail stores.
Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE dogs. I have one! She is my precious, lovable, cutest fur-baby ever! But she does not go to the grocery store with me, she does not walk around Target, Wal-Mart, or any other retail store with me. She gets to go to Petsmart and that's it!
The major concern, above the tackiness of it, is you just don't know who is allergic to animals, who is scared to death of any kind of dog (regardless of its mannerisms). Also, I do not want to pick up/clean-up after your dog if s/he feels the need to relieve themselves while you are shopping.
/end rant
Carry on with the rest your day!
Fixing the Kitchen Ceiling
Well, it took about 2 weeks to be able to silicone the hole on the outside of the house, but since Saturday was such a beautiful day here (low 50's for the day), we got a lot of outdoor projects wrapped up.
Now I have to fix the inside of the house. Monday afternoon, I got out my gigantic bucket of mud, got my container of drywall supplies and lugged them upstairs from the basement. As I was opening the bucket of mud, I was praying that it wasn't moldy since we did get it a while ago when we were doing the basement and also when we had the intention of re-doing the 3rd bedroom (that's a whole other post!)
So bucket of mud still good, not dried out the least bit. Grabbed my mud knives and loaded up! Now, unfortunately, since it got so wet, the side of the beam had a big crack in it, and it kind of shifted. Not much I could do about that without tearing it down, so I just gently kept adding mud to it to square it off. I think I did a decent job!
I also had to fill the hole, so I grabbed some insulation and stuffed it up there. I put a nice glob of mud up there too. I did my best to keep the whole area smooth to lessen my sanding, but I still need to sand it down and put another coat of mud up.
No pictures for this post, none really came out that great and there isn't much to show anyways.
Now I have to fix the inside of the house. Monday afternoon, I got out my gigantic bucket of mud, got my container of drywall supplies and lugged them upstairs from the basement. As I was opening the bucket of mud, I was praying that it wasn't moldy since we did get it a while ago when we were doing the basement and also when we had the intention of re-doing the 3rd bedroom (that's a whole other post!)
So bucket of mud still good, not dried out the least bit. Grabbed my mud knives and loaded up! Now, unfortunately, since it got so wet, the side of the beam had a big crack in it, and it kind of shifted. Not much I could do about that without tearing it down, so I just gently kept adding mud to it to square it off. I think I did a decent job!
I also had to fill the hole, so I grabbed some insulation and stuffed it up there. I put a nice glob of mud up there too. I did my best to keep the whole area smooth to lessen my sanding, but I still need to sand it down and put another coat of mud up.
No pictures for this post, none really came out that great and there isn't much to show anyways.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
I See You People!
Well, I can put my fear of no one reading my blog to rest, I see all the page views. I know you are out there! Don't be shy, leave some comments!
Thanks for reading! I will have lots of posts coming soon with the holidays approaching. I have a cake and cookies I will be making this week/next week!
Thanks for reading! I will have lots of posts coming soon with the holidays approaching. I have a cake and cookies I will be making this week/next week!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Rats are smart....very very smart!
We finally caught #3 Sunday night! It only took rearranging/resetting the whole area for that to happen though.
Apparently, our little rodent friends figured out pretty quickly that we were out to get them and learned how to jump over the bricks and trap to avoid being caught and eventually see their demise. (You may recall in my last update, one of these buggers got their foot stuck on the sticky trap and chewed off the corner of the sticky trap.)
We weren't really sure there were still any left, so I went out and bought some sand to put down to see if there were tracks. Saturday we reset it and rearranged the area with the sand and I patted it down to make it smooth.
Sunday morning, H thought that it looked a little disturbed by the hole, but I wasn't totally convinced, thinking I might have missed a little part when I smoothed the rest. Still, we rearranged it again into this lovely set-up.
We had leftover bricks and blocks from digging up things around the yard and H had the brilliant idea to make them have to go through the hole in the block which would lead directly into the trap. We are getting ruthless now. I want these filthy things gone.
Sure enough, I went to take our dog out around 11pm Sunday night and good thing I remembered to shine the flashlight outside the door first because we caught that little monster!
HMHW-3, Rodents-1
Apparently, our little rodent friends figured out pretty quickly that we were out to get them and learned how to jump over the bricks and trap to avoid being caught and eventually see their demise. (You may recall in my last update, one of these buggers got their foot stuck on the sticky trap and chewed off the corner of the sticky trap.)
We weren't really sure there were still any left, so I went out and bought some sand to put down to see if there were tracks. Saturday we reset it and rearranged the area with the sand and I patted it down to make it smooth.
Sunday morning, H thought that it looked a little disturbed by the hole, but I wasn't totally convinced, thinking I might have missed a little part when I smoothed the rest. Still, we rearranged it again into this lovely set-up.We had leftover bricks and blocks from digging up things around the yard and H had the brilliant idea to make them have to go through the hole in the block which would lead directly into the trap. We are getting ruthless now. I want these filthy things gone.
Sure enough, I went to take our dog out around 11pm Sunday night and good thing I remembered to shine the flashlight outside the door first because we caught that little monster!
HMHW-3, Rodents-1
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Election Day
Politics....where do I begin? I hate politics and elections. All I ever see are ads bashing the other candidates and such. Forget the bashing and lies, just tell me what YOU are going to do for ME!
With that said, I voted today. For the first time in my life. Flame me if you must, but for the past 8 years, I just haven't been able to care enough and get into it. Mind you, I didn't even follow anything at all about this years elections (Presidential and State elections). I was up last night and this morning trying to figure out what the hell I was doing and who to vote for.
I got information on a few of the topics that were somewhat important to me for the presidential candidates and I am happy with my choice. As for the state races, I am glad that I didn't have to choose between 2 candidates that I thought I did (newb, remember?) So while I looked up all 4 candidates (2 districts), I'm glad that the ones I had to choose from were easier than the other 2 (who were equally not impressive).
Now, I am just waiting for all of the political BS to get off my Facebook news feed...
With that said, I voted today. For the first time in my life. Flame me if you must, but for the past 8 years, I just haven't been able to care enough and get into it. Mind you, I didn't even follow anything at all about this years elections (Presidential and State elections). I was up last night and this morning trying to figure out what the hell I was doing and who to vote for.
I got information on a few of the topics that were somewhat important to me for the presidential candidates and I am happy with my choice. As for the state races, I am glad that I didn't have to choose between 2 candidates that I thought I did (newb, remember?) So while I looked up all 4 candidates (2 districts), I'm glad that the ones I had to choose from were easier than the other 2 (who were equally not impressive).
Now, I am just waiting for all of the political BS to get off my Facebook news feed...
Monday, November 5, 2012
Chicken Noodle Casserole
Growing up it was Tuna Noodle Casserole, but I have made my own modifications to it to suit our tastes better.
Preheat oven to 350*
Ingredients:
1 pkg Wide Egg Noodles
1 pkg Frozen Mixed Veggies (I use Birds Eye because I don't like Lima Beans)
1 can Cream of Celery Soup (My mom uses cream of mushroom, I don't like mushrooms)
1 lg can of Chunk Chicken (Can use Tuna in its place, my H doesn't like Tuna)
Milk
Bread Crumbs (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Salt & Pepper
1.) Start your water boiling for the noodles
2.) While waiting for water to boil, add Cream of Celery Soup and some milk to casserole dish. Use a whisk to mix it together, use enough milk to get a creamy/watery consistency.
3.) Once Milk and Soup are combined, add Salt & Pepper to taste. Also add in Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs to your liking
4.) Once water is boiling, add noodles. DO NOT cook noodles all the way through, only about 1/2 way cooked.
5.) Drain chicken and break apart with fork. Add chicken to mixture in casserole dish and mix well.
6.) Add frozen veggies to mixture and mix well. Add more milk to keep it a creamy consistency
7.) Once noodles are 1/2 cooked, drain in collander
8.) Add to mixture and combine well! Add milk as you go to make it easier to mix.
9.) Once noodles and mixture are thoroughly combined, add milk until it just creeps to the top layer of noodles. Basically, you just want to barely see the milk standing at this point.
10.) Top off with Salt & Pepper, more Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.
11.) Put in oven for approximately 55 minutes or until milk is cooked into noodles, no longer a runny consistency. The milk helps finished cooking the noodles.
Once it is done, let it cool slightly and Enjoy! 1 casserole dish generally leaves leftovers for the 2 of us!
Preheat oven to 350*
Ingredients:
1 pkg Wide Egg Noodles
1 pkg Frozen Mixed Veggies (I use Birds Eye because I don't like Lima Beans)
1 can Cream of Celery Soup (My mom uses cream of mushroom, I don't like mushrooms)
1 lg can of Chunk Chicken (Can use Tuna in its place, my H doesn't like Tuna)
Milk
Bread Crumbs (optional)
Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Salt & Pepper
1.) Start your water boiling for the noodles
2.) While waiting for water to boil, add Cream of Celery Soup and some milk to casserole dish. Use a whisk to mix it together, use enough milk to get a creamy/watery consistency.
3.) Once Milk and Soup are combined, add Salt & Pepper to taste. Also add in Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs to your liking
4.) Once water is boiling, add noodles. DO NOT cook noodles all the way through, only about 1/2 way cooked.
5.) Drain chicken and break apart with fork. Add chicken to mixture in casserole dish and mix well.
6.) Add frozen veggies to mixture and mix well. Add more milk to keep it a creamy consistency
7.) Once noodles are 1/2 cooked, drain in collander
8.) Add to mixture and combine well! Add milk as you go to make it easier to mix.
9.) Once noodles and mixture are thoroughly combined, add milk until it just creeps to the top layer of noodles. Basically, you just want to barely see the milk standing at this point.
10.) Top off with Salt & Pepper, more Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.
11.) Put in oven for approximately 55 minutes or until milk is cooked into noodles, no longer a runny consistency. The milk helps finished cooking the noodles.
Once it is done, let it cool slightly and Enjoy! 1 casserole dish generally leaves leftovers for the 2 of us!
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Hurricane Sandy Left Us a Present!
We were hardly touched by the hurricane, but it did get windy and it has rained a lot the past few days, and since the hurricane goes in a counter-clockwise direction, the rain was hitting the east side of our house, which it normally does not. Well, Tuesday late afternoon, I looked up in the kitchen and saw this upside-down hump on my ceiling! OH NO!
I panicked for a minute while trying to figure out what my plan of action was going to be. My husband didn't hear me, so I had to walk through the living room to get his attention. I ran downstairs to get the Rubbermaid dish bin that we have, grabbed a pair of scissors, stood on the chair, and punctured the hump while my H held the bin. Well, now that the immediate threat of it exploding is over, time to figure out where it came from. Never-mind that all the stuff on the table got wet, and my table too. I can tell that it got damaged because where the water was it is rougher than the rest of the table when I run my hand over it. BUMMER! I don't know how we didn't see it sooner because it had to have been dripping long enough to soak boxes and sit on my table to ruin it.
So up to the attic/crawl space we go. (In a traditional Cape Cod style house, there really is no attic, more like storage in the eaves of the roof). We had to pull out 2 full trunks of stuff and a few more boxes. Did a little hunting around, trying to get our bearings and figure out where we should be looking in relation to the kitchen. Well we found some wet insulation, but not really a clear source of the water. We decide to go outside because the spot that it happened was about 1 foot from our window, dead center.
We get out the ladder and H gets up on the roof of the carport, the window looks good and sealed, the carport doesn't go 'into' the house, just butted up against it, but the flashing was loose (rusty nails lifted a bit), well just at the corner of the carport there was a hole. DAMN YOU SANDY! However, it is a bit of a relief though that it happened, because the rain does not drive sideways into that side of the house during any other rain due to the direction of the house/general weather paths.
So with the rain subsiding, no more water should be coming in, but I do need it to stay dry for a day so that I can caulk the hole so this doesn't happen again. I did scrape and peel off the paint that was wet, anything that peeled easily really. I had a little table fan as well and I sat that on the table and pointed it straight up at the ceiling to dry it out, can't have mold starting to grow!
Once everything is all good and we are sure it won't be an issue anymore, I need to get out my drywall tools, put a coat of mud up and sand it down. Then repaint the ceiling.
Did I mention that I am having Thanksgiving dinner in my house in 3 weeks?
I panicked for a minute while trying to figure out what my plan of action was going to be. My husband didn't hear me, so I had to walk through the living room to get his attention. I ran downstairs to get the Rubbermaid dish bin that we have, grabbed a pair of scissors, stood on the chair, and punctured the hump while my H held the bin. Well, now that the immediate threat of it exploding is over, time to figure out where it came from. Never-mind that all the stuff on the table got wet, and my table too. I can tell that it got damaged because where the water was it is rougher than the rest of the table when I run my hand over it. BUMMER! I don't know how we didn't see it sooner because it had to have been dripping long enough to soak boxes and sit on my table to ruin it.
|
| This originally was a nice hump until I popped it |
|
| I peeled all the loose/wet paint away |
So up to the attic/crawl space we go. (In a traditional Cape Cod style house, there really is no attic, more like storage in the eaves of the roof). We had to pull out 2 full trunks of stuff and a few more boxes. Did a little hunting around, trying to get our bearings and figure out where we should be looking in relation to the kitchen. Well we found some wet insulation, but not really a clear source of the water. We decide to go outside because the spot that it happened was about 1 foot from our window, dead center.
We get out the ladder and H gets up on the roof of the carport, the window looks good and sealed, the carport doesn't go 'into' the house, just butted up against it, but the flashing was loose (rusty nails lifted a bit), well just at the corner of the carport there was a hole. DAMN YOU SANDY! However, it is a bit of a relief though that it happened, because the rain does not drive sideways into that side of the house during any other rain due to the direction of the house/general weather paths.
 |
| For reference of what the next picture is, carport meets house over window |
 |
| Hard to see because I wasn't on the ladder, but where the siding is cut and the carport meets it, there is a hole! |
So with the rain subsiding, no more water should be coming in, but I do need it to stay dry for a day so that I can caulk the hole so this doesn't happen again. I did scrape and peel off the paint that was wet, anything that peeled easily really. I had a little table fan as well and I sat that on the table and pointed it straight up at the ceiling to dry it out, can't have mold starting to grow!
Once everything is all good and we are sure it won't be an issue anymore, I need to get out my drywall tools, put a coat of mud up and sand it down. Then repaint the ceiling.
Did I mention that I am having Thanksgiving dinner in my house in 3 weeks?
Banana (Nut) Bread
I love banana bread. It is simple to put together, and then you throw it in the oven for about an hour!
Preheat Oven to 325*
Ingredients:
3 Well Ripened Bananas (I freeze bananas that we don't eat in time)
2 eggs
3/4 cup Sugar
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Chopped Walnuts (Optional/ I don't like walnuts, so I don't use them)
If you use frozen bananas, let them sit out for a bit to soften up, or put them in the sink with room temp water (not hot!) to thaw out.
Once bananas are smooshable, put them in the mixer, put on low speed. Add in 2 eggs and sugar, blend well.
Mix together your flour, salt and baking soda in measuring cup. Start adding to mixing bowl on low speed (or your flour will go everywhere!)
Once all ingredients are mixed, scrape the sides of your bowl and mix again for 30 seconds.
If you choose to add in the walnuts, hand mix them at this point with a spatula. (I have been known to use chocolate chips or cinnamon chips :-) )
Make sure you spray your loaf pan with cooking spray so it doesn't stick. Then pour batter into loaf pan and spread evenly.
Put in oven for 50-60 minutes. Use a toothpick to check that it is done. I personally like the top center still a little gooey, plus the ends start getting dry and over-baked if you go for the fully cooked center.
Preheat Oven to 325*
Ingredients:
3 Well Ripened Bananas (I freeze bananas that we don't eat in time)
2 eggs
3/4 cup Sugar
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Chopped Walnuts (Optional/ I don't like walnuts, so I don't use them)
If you use frozen bananas, let them sit out for a bit to soften up, or put them in the sink with room temp water (not hot!) to thaw out.
Once bananas are smooshable, put them in the mixer, put on low speed. Add in 2 eggs and sugar, blend well.
Mix together your flour, salt and baking soda in measuring cup. Start adding to mixing bowl on low speed (or your flour will go everywhere!)
Once all ingredients are mixed, scrape the sides of your bowl and mix again for 30 seconds.
If you choose to add in the walnuts, hand mix them at this point with a spatula. (I have been known to use chocolate chips or cinnamon chips :-) )
Make sure you spray your loaf pan with cooking spray so it doesn't stick. Then pour batter into loaf pan and spread evenly.
Put in oven for 50-60 minutes. Use a toothpick to check that it is done. I personally like the top center still a little gooey, plus the ends start getting dry and over-baked if you go for the fully cooked center.
 | |
| 60 minutes later it smells so yummy! |
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Rodent Update (or lack thereof)
Well, nothing new since my first post. There was some evidence that there is still another one (more insulation pulled out of the hole about a week ago) but nothing has gotten caught in the trap again. My H did get some sticky rat trap pad things and re-set the whole area/trap. Well, it appears that one of those little buggers got his foot stuck on the corner of the sticky pad, and then chewed off the corner to get free! Seriously? Why couldn't he have just stayed there and been stupid so we could kill him!?
I'm feeling a little discouraged, and unsure of what is going to happen. It is getting colder here, been raining a lot as well, so I don't know if that is deterring it/them from coming out of hiding. If we don't catch another one by the weekend, I think my husband is going to try to rent a snake/camera thing.
If it comes to this, we will have to clear out the whole breezeway, roll up the carpet and cut a few holes in the sub-floor to see what is going on under there. Oh man, I really hope it doesn't come to that, but it is looking more and more like that will be the plan.
While we did want to rip apart the breezeway eventually (there is a soft spot in the sub-floor that needs to be repaired/looked at) we did not have this on the agenda to be done right now.
My husband did call an exterminator and since it is getting into the winter season, they will really only set traps/bait and remove any that are caught. So we don't feel that paying for that service will do any good since we have a trap set already.
Cross your fingers we catch one this weekend.....
I'm feeling a little discouraged, and unsure of what is going to happen. It is getting colder here, been raining a lot as well, so I don't know if that is deterring it/them from coming out of hiding. If we don't catch another one by the weekend, I think my husband is going to try to rent a snake/camera thing.
If it comes to this, we will have to clear out the whole breezeway, roll up the carpet and cut a few holes in the sub-floor to see what is going on under there. Oh man, I really hope it doesn't come to that, but it is looking more and more like that will be the plan.
While we did want to rip apart the breezeway eventually (there is a soft spot in the sub-floor that needs to be repaired/looked at) we did not have this on the agenda to be done right now.
My husband did call an exterminator and since it is getting into the winter season, they will really only set traps/bait and remove any that are caught. So we don't feel that paying for that service will do any good since we have a trap set already.
Cross your fingers we catch one this weekend.....
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