A Dream I was shopping

It's true, I had a dream filled night. Other than shopping I remember being in an airplane, and I had to lie down back in the tail section. When the plane landed my feet scraped the tarmac, weird. More pleasant than flying with one's feet out of the tail end of a plane, I also dreamed about shopping. Not grocery shopping, but fun shopping, and I know it's all because of Etsy, where I spend ungodly amounts of time browsing the works of fellow artisans and listing my own handmade things.

Here are a few favorite things I've seen this week that I really like: Senor Gato by MarianneW . He likes to ride motorcycles...well, then he's in my club!

These Love Quote earrings by littlebrownbird. Which way do you read these? Her question first? His statement first? I like them.

So, I actually DID buy something this week! I finally saved enough pennies to get myself an original Ozetta warmer! I didn't get the one shown above, but that's the color I ordered. If you want to see the style I ordered look here. Can't wait to get it! I've been admiring Ozetta's work for so long now. I own some of her Mom's kitchen dishclothes from CocoaBeans too :) I wrote about her shop back in November of 2008!! I still have the dishclothes, they are amazing!

A new quilt

A new quilt from the shop. It's great when you love what you do :)

Home Improvement Project #2 - Bathroom

Before:

A built in medicine cabinet with three mirrors had to go.
Here's a nice shot of the old vinyl flooring. It matched the tiles, but didn't do anything for the room. Plus it seemed dirty all the time.

Here's the old sink cabinet, which stuck out from the wall about 23 inches. It was really hard to get up close to the mirror to put on mascara...honestly, who needs that!

Another shot of the old sink cabinet, just so you can really get a good look at it. Also, the old soap dish, toothbrush holder, and towel rack are now gone. I had never chiseled tiled off of walls before, at least strategically, but it wasn't too hard, just a bit scary, not knowing if I'd really be able to replace the tiles properly. There was a box of replacement tiles left in the basement workbench, and they worked nicely.

DURING:

The sink's been ripped out. Yay!

The new floor going in. Roy, from National Carpet, installed the floor. He's a master and has been doing it for 30 years.

My Brother-In-Law, Shawn, is back to the rescue and installs the sink plumbing for the new sink cabinet. It's amazing, the cabinet has drawers and all the plumbing fits behind this. He's a genius!

See how this all fits so nicely!

AFTER:

The floor is pretty dark, but I love it. It's made to look like slate. Not easy to get a good look at it in this photo. Perhaps I'll have to add another photo with a better shot of the floor? I kept the cabinet over the toilet because it helps to lessen the look of the toilet in the room. Otherwise, the toilet dominates the space...not truly a desireable thing.
The new sink cabinet! It's so great with the two drawers...the sink is wonderful. Has two faucets ~ wheeee!
And here is the new medicine cabinet. Given the depth of the sink, which is way less than the old one, only 19 inches, it is way easier to see yourself in the mirror. Not to mention that the mirror is significantly bigger too. Notice the tiling behind the faucets! It looks so great without the toothbrush holder, and other stuff. It's a nice, smooth wall now. Got some new metal miniblinds as well. They are silver and look so great in the room with the grays. I had demo'd the old mirror cabinet out of the wall and contemplated sheetrocking the space it left. For now the new cabinet hangs directly over the old hole until I can get to that project. Only thing left to do is paint the closet doors with all those slats. They are washed and ready to go. Oh, and the old light above the cabinet is still there...haven't found a replacement that I like yet.

Pretty Great Friends ~ and a Good Cause

I've recently been mentioned in a couple of really great blogs. Rose, of Waterrose included a nice piece about Etsy Project Embrace, which is an amazing group of Etsy artisans who have teamed together to support the American Cancer Society. Inspired by Laura Slocum of LauraSlocumpainted, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year, this group is a driving force on Etsy. Waterrose is also an Etsian and makes fantastic embrodered items.

foxglove studios

Stacy, over at foxglove studios has a great blog all about handmade art and craft. She supports Etsy Project Embrace and her shop items can be found in several different platforms. See her blog to find links to all of her wonderful work, just click on her banner below.

Home Improvement Project #1 - heating system replacement

Look at this monstrosity of an oil tank.

I have to be honest, I've never owned a home with oil heat and I wasn't really pleased that the house I fell in love with had this heating system. Firstly, it really stunk. The whole place smelled like fuel oil. The previous owners (who were very, very awesome!) said that the smell went away each year after they had the boiler cleaned. I know I'm really sensitive to smells like this and went into the sale knowing that the smell would never diminish enough for my happiness. Secondly, the boiler was probably as old as the house (1940's or so according to my neighbor, Ron, across the street), and it needed to be replaced anyway....oh, and along with the 30 year old water heater! It was a miracle the water heater still worked! So first things first, and the oil tank was removed. (That's my Brother-In-Law, Shawn, who is a Master Plumber- LUCKY ME!!) He owns his own plumbing and heating business with my Sister, Leigh, called Peabody Plumbing & Heating out of Chicopee (I highly recommend him :)
Shawn organized the whole system replacement, including removing and proper disposal of the oil tank, the water heater and the boiler. Below, he works on taking apart the oil boiler, and HOLY SHIT, I had no idea just what was inside of these things. Huge cast iron parts, all rusty, full of crud, stinking to high heavens. For God's sake, it was nasty. And lo and behold, the boiler had been slowly leaking fuel oil for quite a few years...soaked into the concrete floor underneath. You can see it in the photo below...that brown on the floor below is NOT a dirt floor. That is the oil soaked concrete. I'm still working on scrubbing up that crap with phosphoric acid, so I can finally seal it and stop the stink once and for all (hopefully). If not, I think I'll hire someone with a jackhammer to come and get all that concrete up and refill the hole. Any one know someone with a jackhammer? LOL.

And Viola! Here is the new system, all in place and really pretty! It barely takes up any room at all. I think this shot might have actually been taken before some final touches were done (Shawn probably wouldn't approve!!), but this is the system. It's a wall hung, super-high-efficiency boiler, that is 96% efficient! It's by Triangle Tube and called the Prestige. Fancy! The tank next to it to the left is the hot water storage tank. The boiler manages the hot water in the house, so no separate hot water heater is needed. That tank is 30 gallons. This system is a hot water priority system, so it will give you hot water until the cows come home even if you blow through the 30 gallons. In winter, it'll shift priority over to the demand for hot water out of the storage tank, shifting heating to that instead of to the house. I can't imagine when I'd use more than 30 gallons of hot water....anyway, I haven't run out of hot water yet. And the whole thing heats the house nice and cozy!

Heating bill costs, you ask? So this house is basically uninsulated (except for a layer under the siding...which doesn't really do anything much). There's a breeze in some areas of the house. At first I tried setting the programmable thermostat as I normally would: 60 during sleeping hours and work hours, 72 when I'm home for long periods of time (ya, I like to be warm :). The new boiler is so super efficient that in order to jump from 60 to 72 it takes a really long time. It finds the most efficient way to get to 72. Way too long for my tastes. Shawn suggested just setting it at the temp I like and see what my bill might be like for one month. Set it and forget it. Which I did. 72. For 35 days straight (that was the billing period on the first full month bill that I received from Bay State Gas). Bill: $207. Shawn thought that was high, and maybe it was. He thought it would be half that. Well, if my house was insulated it might be half that, but seriously, I didn't think that was a bad number. I've had $600 bills in some of my homes, and that was keeping the heat down too. For heat, hot water, cooking, 35 days straight, night and day, 72 degrees! That's pretty incredible, honestly. Imagine if the house was insulated? I have the folks at CET (Center for Ecological Technology) coming to do an assessment of the energy efficiency of the house, including insulation. They will give a rebate up to $1500 towards insulation installation. Not sure if I'm ready to spend $4 to 8 thousand dollars on insulation though. The payback would take years. It would be nice to get rid of some of these breezes though.

First project in the new house is nearly complete! Next report will be on bathroom remodel...nearly done as well!

Ode to Styxy

Styx (Holyoke, 2004)

My friend, Styx, died yesterday after a brief and sudden illness. She was 13. Instead of reliving the past few weeks and especially yesterday, I want to remember her for all of her coolness and the awesome times we spent together. Styx found me, back in 1998, in Holyoke, in the parking lot behind my old apartment near the Highland Laundry. She was a little, dirty, beat up rag of a kitten and she came scurrying out from under the Highland trucks right up to me. We've been together since. Styx loved her bell toy on a stick with such passion, it was always a sure way to bring her from anywhere in the house. She adored morning scratches on the bed and chasing my hand around under the quilt. She played like a kitten until nearly the end, chasing the laser dot around the house, fetching her bell toy, playing with a new yellow mouse toy, and enjoying the evening can of wet food. She did not like Gromit too much (despite the photo below of them together on the chair and the couch), she didn't tolerate his antics and always hissed at him when he came near. After he passed away two years ago she was happy to be an only cat and blossomed into a very affectionate kitty. She couldn't really meow properly but was very vocal around the house, she'd grumble whenever she entered a room that I was in to announce her arrival, and she'd grumble a little louder whenever she was hungry. She didn't like to be brushed or handled in any way, but loved to have her ears and around her head scratched. I was looking forward to letting her do a little exploring outside this spring and summer, I really thought she'd enjoy that.

It's not even been 24 hours since she's gone, but the house is so obviously empty without her. I missed her on the bed this morning, and asking for breakfast after I came downstairs. There's a gap that her huge presence used to fill. It's amazing how such a tiny little creature can fill up your life so much, or how often they are in your mind throughout the day. I'm going to miss her. She was awesome.


Styx & Gromit (Easthampton, 1995)

Styx shortly after she moved in (Holyoke, 1998). Her hair hadn't grown yet!

A rare moment, probably the first and last time they occupied the stool together

The last photo I took of Styx. (Easthamtpon, January 2010)

quote of the day

Those in a hurry do not arrive ~ Zen saying