Pool's Open

But no one will be swimming in it for a while unless they are crazy a member of this club. It's freezing out there.
We The Guy started the process on Saturday afternoon by taking the pump out of the pond*, going to the hardware store to buy a new piece of hose the correct diameter to replace the one that "got lost" during the winter, attaching hose to pump, dropping it into the water that had accumulated on the pool cover since last September and flicking on the switch in the kitchen. (No not that one, that's the outdoor lights. No, that's the tree light. No that's the balcony. Hang on... By connecting the cable to the pump and turning on the switch). Then we pumped water, Saturday until dusk and all Sunday, by which time had a nice, dry cover with a few inches of leaves all ready to be scooped onto the leaf pile.
Then it started to rain. It poured down all Monday, a good 2" by the end of the day. A lot of which sat right there on the pool cover again. So we started the pump going again this morning. By the time the guys (as opposed to The Guy) arrived to actually open the pool we still had a fair bit of water on the top, and it was raining again.
They will come back again tomorrow to make sure the system is working, I think there is going to be a problem with the return, maybe even the pump itself, and we are finally getting a replacement timer for the one that hasn't worked since we bought the place so I think we'll have to charge people to swim this year. Or maybe even to look at it.

*we use the tiny pond pump to pump the water off the cover because neither of us can figure out how to use the actual pool pump to do it

Knock, knock

We started Saturday with a long list of things to do in the yard, things we'd been putting off until the weather got warmer and with temperatures in the mid-seventies we had no excuse not to get on with them.


First chore was for The Guy to jump on the roof and clean out the gutters while I stood below ready to call 911 if he fell off. Division of labour, if you will. I follow him around at ground level, taking the opportunity to check out the siding for any signs of carpenter bee activity and anything else on the exterior of the house that requires attention.


Often there's the start of a wasps' nest, or some other minor problem to take care of but this year had everything beat. Three huge holes an inch or so in diameter with the wood splintered around the side. This was no attack of the insects, this was woodpecker damage. Not only had he or she been drilling for carpenter bee lavae but it had been excavating roosting holes into the bargain.
We have a few woodpeckers in the trees and at this time of year there's usually one trying to bore holes in the siding. I shout at it, it flies off, comes back starts drumming, I run out, shout at it and we play this game ad nauseam. This one had managed to find itself a secluded spot on the corner of the garage and had obviously been at it for a while. I managed to restrain myself from screaming while The Guy was up on the roof and I tried to prepare him for the amount of damage but for someone who rarely curses he really let himself go when he saw those holes. Luckily we had a jumbo sized tube of wood filler handy (for the holes that is, not to shut The Guy up).


Even better we have the perfect solution for keeping the woodpecker away from that corner in the future. One of the Xmas presents we received was a spiral wind chime. I think the twirling shiny copper sphere should do the trick.


Unless it thinks I provided it a perch. During the entire time we were The Guy was repairing the holes and I was taking photos, the woodpecker was sitting in the oak tree chuntering at us. I know it was a just warning: we may have won this battle but the war will continue.

Up the garden path

We moved the garden path 4" to the right. No, I'm not kidding. You would not believe the work entailed in moving five bluestone slabs 4". The digging, raking and sniping away at old roots so the stones would sit level took a couple of hours. And why, you might ask did we undertake this particular project at 5PM on Saturday? Because I was fed up of walking up the garden path only to have to step off it onto soil to get past the huge holly and open the gate.
Other Saturday projects successfully completed: purchase of a 12" brace to temporarily mend the fence again; fixing of said brace to fence panels and post; a rewarding Martini in Mary Carroll's bar at Huntington, followed by the purchase of a Caesar Salad Pizza from Rosa's Pizzeria next door.

Spring clean up

Do you see what that is? No, not the cute dog with the dopey expression on his face. Up a bit. In the glass? That bright circle in the middle? It's my flash bouncing off the window because it is so freakin' clean. It's taken three years but we The Guy has perfected a system that leaves the windows cleaner than before he washed them. Hurrah. Who knew it was more difficult than rocket science?
Not to be outdone, I rearranged the laundry room (again) and I will reveal the new, great plan to make this room a fully functioning space again at some point in the very near future.
And the landscaper/font of all house knowledge guy came out and cleaned up the yard, including hauling away the dead azaleas (yes, it turns out we lost a couple this winter) but unfortunately he also took the branch that was holding up the fence, so I suspect that will be falling down again soon.
But the yard looks good, and what's better I can see it now through my sparkling windows.

Bathroom flooring: the tip

Finally I got the long anticipated email from Apartment therapy with the tip for doing your own cheap and chunky marble floor. Big disappointment. The tip? Buy cheap marble pieces from Home Depot and buff them down to kill the shine. I'd already thought of that. But I'm not sure that's going to make for easy cleaning and that's a high priority here. Everything cleans off polished marble, including the red wine ring I found three weeks after our last party. (Which of you put that red glass bowl over the stain?) I just Windexed it off. But buffed marble and possible pee sounds like it might lead to odd yellow stains on the floor, and that would annoy me.
Does anyone know whether buffing makes marble more pervious?
Otherwise I could go with Porcelanosa Urbatek Zone Nature, which would be maintenance free and cheaper at $5.95 sq'.

A round up of recent chores

We knocked a few off the punch-list, we even hope not to have to do a couple of them again for at least a few days, weeks months - or EVER!
1) Secure the fence. Again. It blew down during the storms over the weekend. It's happened at least once a year since we moved in. In the past we've re-nailed it, re-braced it, shored it up and bracketed it. This time we have two pieces of cedar on either side of the fence acting as supports, plus one branch that snapped off a Dogwood. I have no confidence that this will be equal to a stiff breeze. The only way to fix this is to re-fence.
2) Screw the hinge back on the mudroom door. Again. This time we not only used longer screws, we also glued them into the wood. It has a 50% chance of being a permanent solution.
3) Straighten the drive post light. Again. The one the local hooligan hit with a baseball bat two summers ago. This time I took a piece of bluestone and rammed it down the side of the post to prop it up. The bluestone will be hidden by the hostas in another month. Probability of success? 75-80%. I don't think this will move unless someone swings on it. Or swings at it with a blunt instrument.
4) Refinish the back door. The one with the dog scratches made not by our puppies but the dog of the previous owner, and the nicks that were made when we had the tempered glass put in. I used Restore-a-Finish, it took almost no time and little effort. Now you can't see the scratches. I went over the entire door. It gleams. I was so impressed I did the laundry door, the window in the kitchen, the sliding door and assorted pieces of baseboard. I love this product.
The only downside is that you can really tell where you used the product so to avoid the tell-tale "I got bored and achey and went off to have a Martini" line on the woodwork you have to keep going. And when you have 70' linear of baseboard Martini time can seem a long way off.

What goes "hmm...errr" all through the night?

No not my better half snoring.
It sounded like a nail gun compressor, or the power-washer when you've switched it off but haven't unplugged it. Hmm...errr. It started about 2 AM and continued at five minute intervals. I got up and checked the dryer: Off. And the pond pump: Off. And the oil burner: Definitely off. I thought it might possibly be the neighbour's airco unit. It was odd and irritating and disturbed my sleep all night long. This morning I discovered that every time the Hmm...errr occurred the lights flickered. Obviously it was our problem and I was going to have to track it down.



The one thing I didn't think of was the pool pump because I noticed it was off on Monday. It was completely still out there, and as no-one is brave enough to get into the unheated pool now, I thought I'd just leave it off until the guys come and close it up for the winter.
Well, guess what? Having exhausted all other possibilities, we checked the pump and the electrical unit was still on although the pump wasn't functioning. We turned the timer off and voila, silence. So I'm pretty sure that means we'll need a new part or pump or whole freakin' electrical unit next Spring.
Ho, hum, errr......

Maintenance, Renovation or Total Remodel?

When you're rehabing a house how do you know whether a project is renovation or just simply maintenance?
For example, that vanity unit we had to replace in the downstairs bath this spring. Was that maintenance? The thing had de-laminated completely. What about the faucet? It was leaking and we couldn't fix it. If we'd simply bought another a part I'm pretty sure that would be classified as maintenance but replacing it with a new one? What category does that fall into?
Right now I'm looking at the redwood siding between the kitchen slider and the slate patio step and it's in pretty sorry condition. The rainwater gets splashed up against the siding and has caused the redwood to look a little moth-eaten. It definitely needs some maintenance. The question really is: what should we do about it?
The other sliders off the living room have had their redwood footers replaced with the same bluestone as the terrace on that side of the house. This would seem to be the most sensible solution, effectively solving the problem once and for all. However, these doors are (hopefully) going to remain in situ and ideally I would like to remove the kitchen slider, a replacement that was put in neither straight nor true, (and with interior molding that doesn't match any other in the house) with a better model. Unfortunately, the slider is only a few years old and would not be cheap to replace. It would also be better to leave any replacement doors and windows in this room until we get the kitchen updated, to go for one major upheaval, rather than making two lots of mess. In short, I don't want to replace the rotted siding with slate only to have to knock it off again in a year or so.
The only answer I've been able to come up with so far would be to replace the thin cedar molding by the step with a 4" version, and hope that withstands this winter's rain, ice and snow. I'm a little afraid though, that, as often happens in this family, the temporary fix will turn into a permanent solution.
My problem is that we would be doing maintenance on what I think requires renovation, if not a total remodel.

Screens, doors and hostas

How did I spend my day?
First off I fixed the garage door. Not the one that failed in an ice storm on Valentine's Day this year. The other one. Someone had knocked the sensor off its box, either with the car or while manoeuvring the trash-can out of the garage. We should open the other door to take out the trash but one of us is too lazy and the other too clumsy to do it properly. Anyway, half an hour's playing with the lever, pull knob, buttons and sensor box and the door was fully functioning again.



Then I put back the screen door that the clumsy person knocked off its wheels during the party and even fixed the other one that has been only partially functioning since, oh I don't know, last summer. Pretty good going, huh?
And just because I was already sweaty and and dirty, I thought I might as well transplant another dozen or so hostas. What, you thought I'd finished that job weeks ago? Not quite.



The thing about transplanting perennials in the fall is that they will die back quickly now and then I'm left to wonder for the next six to eight months if they have really taken, or whether I just wasted several beautiful September days getting mucky when I could have been down at the beach with a book soaking up the last of summer.

Five minute fix

Cabot walnut stain
Originally uploaded by modernemama

I've mentioned this before, but it's amazing how history repeats itself around here, there is nothing like someone announcing they'd like to visit your house for you to fix those little chores you've been putting off since, oh I don't know, June 2004.
This evening I stained this piece of molding that was missing for three years and has been begging to be finished for the past two months. Hurrah for me.
I also dusted, washed floors and vacuumed, even though I know that by tomorrow morning the two dogs and four cats will have shed enough to cover every surface with a thick layer of fur, and if I'm very lucky one of the kittens will have coughed up a pink or green fur ball on the white carpet and the other will have peed on my new duvet cover.
I'm glad someone gave me the impetus to do this though. Who knows how long we might have been living with an 2' untreated piece of wood otherwise?

Power washing chore sparks kitchen design idea

concentrated power washing
Originally uploaded by modernemama

It's that hot, humid time of year when the algae grows like crazy and the beautiful slate patio looks like a mossy lawn.
Steven got the power washer working properly for the first time this year and boy did that green gunge fly off. Unfortunately so did a lot of mortar, too. *Sigh*. You know, it would be really nice to do a job and not cause another little problem by doing that job. Just once.
So next week we plan to spend the holiday weekend power washing the front path, the back patio, the brick path and pool area. Then we'll take that big bag of mortar we have left over from the barbeque project and re-grout the slabs in place.
Just maintenance, not exciting but it has to be done. The benefit is we can see how gorgeous the stone really is. Which led me to a little thought: When we renovate the kitchen, should we put slate like this on the floor to bring the outside in?

Tidying up

No renovation, no demolition, no construction, no new purchases. Man this is going to be boring. I mean, seriously, what does that leave?
I decided it left those chores I've been putting off forever because I thought they needed an extra pair of hands. Turns out I could do it all by myself.
I started by throwing out the 10 year old Dell we bought from Belgium as no-one had used it in over a year. Then I fixed the hinge on the desk in Steven's office, moved his desk around so it's L-shaped rather than straight, cleaned the dust off it, kicked some filing boxes into his cupboard and washed the floor. Hurray for me. I think it looks better and will be more efficient, but it's not my space.
So if you're reading this dear, I rearranged your office space. And now can you put up that pendant shade I bought the other week?

Reviewing the weekend

This turned out to be an unforgettable weekend. Not only were we able to tick off all the chores on the list but as it totally poured down all afternoon we took a well-earned nap. Steven reminded me that, in addition to all the other chores he completed this weekend, he also removed the wasps nest from the hemlock nearest the kitchen (he sprayed it with the stuff we use on the carpenter bees and it crashed down, mercifully not unleashing a swarm of angry wasps) and climbed up on the roof to clear the gutters.
One of the neat things about the design of the roofs on this house is that it's relatively easy to climb on them and then you can sit on the edge and clear the gutters with the aid of a stick and a black plastic sack. It was just as well he cleared them because the one under the balsa tree was so blocked with leaves and tiny seeds that the rain would simply have bounced off the gutter and cascaded down the side of the house.
I completed a very successful weekend by placing the winning bid on ebay



for this mid-century wall sculpture, that I will hang on the chimney breast in the great room in place of the mask.



If you think the photo is a lot sharper than my usual efforts, that's because film maker Jake Gorst was here on Friday to look at his grandfather, Andrew Geller's work and he took a few photos, too. Like I said, it was a really memorable weekend.

Sunday morning

Should be for lazying around, drinking coffee and reading the paper. One day maybe it will be but for the moment it is when we try to get all the chores done.
On today's list: re-align hinges on another tall kitchen cabinet; install hardware in downstairs bath; mortar three bluestone paving slabs on the old barbeque base.
Chore one went without a hitch. Chore two hit a snag when we realised that one screw holding the old towel bar on the tile had had its head stripped and would not come off. We'll leave it for now and make do with the old towel rail that matches the mirror. If we ever do a re-tile or beadboard job in there we can install the new one then. We did get the toilet roll holder on the vanity without a hassle, though and it looks very smart.
Chore three started to go bad when Steven realised he had badly underestimated the amount of mortar he needed and blamed me for not accompanying him to Home Depot to get the stuff. He had to apologise when he decided this made him look a) incapable and b) grumpy, but that cost us half an hour or so. We made a run to the Depot together, collected an 80lb bag of mortar and then broke for lunch.
Despite the increasingly grey skies, and the weather forecast predicting thunderstorms, Steven declared he wouldn't recommence work outside until he had got the results of the Tour de France - on TV. He could have had them on the web anytime but no, it had to be on the TV, right now, this minute. I did point out that he was probably the only person left who was still interested in this year's race, but that failed to move him, so I waited patiently (ahem) until all the men in spandex had received their bouquets of flowers and we ran outside just as the first claps of thunder started.
Luckily all the prep work paid off and fifteen minutes later we had three 2' sq flagstones laid perfectly level. Steve covered his beautiful work with contractors sacks to keep it dry, I cleaned the tools and we made it inside just as the first drops fell.
No pictures yet but it looks pretty neat. I'm not sure what we will do with the base now. We can either use it as a base for the new bbq or for planters. Or we could plant flowers around it and encourage them to grow over the edges. I'm sure we'll think of something.