What I could & couldn’t do today (& table tale part 3)

Warning…a long post with lots of pix & topics.

Today I accomplished most of what I attempted.

First I decided I it was time to do the repair on my leather chair. If I recall correctly, when puppy Baxter (who’s now 7) visited he tried to get a toy from under the chair and inadvertently made a little tear. It took me a while (a year?) to buy the repair kit, which I’ve now had for probably 5 years. No procrastination here. 🙂

Suffice it to say it was a multi-step process that was neither quick nor easy. Up close it looks like crap.

But 99% of the time it will now be much less noticeable than the little white spot of stuffing. (No before pic)

After I got the first step done and was waiting the 4 hours for the next step I decided to tackle the kitchen sink, which is draining really s…l…o…w…l…y. I started with the baking soda & vinegar treatment, followed by hot water. Twice, with no improvement.

Ok, time to climb under the sink and remove the trap. Not usually a big deal. Except that this trap isn’t threaded PVC pipe, it’s glued on, so there’s a different type of trap situation with a clean out. I tried everything I knew to loosen the trap, all to no avail.

My kind son will help me out with it tomorrow. And in the meantime, I’ll pick up some teflon tape, which is needed and I wouldn’t have had on hand if I’d gotten it apart. And a plunger, although I don’t have high hopes for the plunger working; it’s difficult to make that method work in a double bowl sink, even with 2 people..

Then I headed out to the garage. I’m sorry that I’ve not been able to capture the color of the table due to the poor lighting in the garage. The legs are a pale silvery-gray and the top is a soft, pale green.

Anyway, the table is in its 3-5 day curing phase. Remember I told you about my neighbor, the world’s neatest painter? And that I’m not? That I slopped on the underside of the table? Well, “Who cares?” I thought. “It’s underneath!”

Hah! The answer is, “I do!” Since my table will spend most of its life with the leaves down, I can see the slops on that dark underside at a glance. It would annoy the heck out of me every single day. I should have been able to think ahead and know that I needed to wipe up my slobbering with a damp cloth immediately. But I didn’t.

I was afraid I’d have to go through the whole sand-prime-paint-seal process with the underside of the table, when my brilliant son (also the kind one) suggested I try wiping/scrubbing the slops off with a rag dampened with mineral spirits. I couldn’t really do that till this morning, as the paint on the opposite side needed to be dry so I could apply some pressure. So I did that today. It’s far from perfect, but it’s now something I can live with. And since the mineral spirits removed some of the wood finish, when I slobber with the polycrylic it’ll seal it back up. 😉

Then I came inside and posted a dresser I have for sale on Craigslist.

Next, then it was off to Lowe’s to pick up all the needed gutter supplies. (My neighbor with the garage is going to install it for me, and put up gutter on his garage, too. He’s willing to act as an occasional paid handyman for me. I have the best neighbors!) I also picked up a roll of fiberglass insulation so I can insulate the basement sills, and a couple organizing things for my kitchen cupboards.

I came home and installed a pull-out basket/drawer in a bottom cupboard. Basket in…

…and basket out. You can see there’s still room on the sides for other things, too.

The whole thing took literally about 15 minutes, and I love it. I think I’m going to put one on the top shelf of this cupboard, too, and if I can find a narrower one for my other lower cupboard I’ll put one there, too. These things are great!

The things I put on this shelf emptied out an upper shelf so I could put my spices there. I purchased this 3-tier wire shelf for them.

This will get returned. I hate it. The shelves are sloped forward and slippery, so my spice jars slide all over them. Not handy at all. I’ll try the other kind of 3-tiered shelf Lowe’s had, which won’t have any space underneath it, but will both expand to fill the shelf and its plastic tiers have a non-slippery coating on them.

With all this cupboard organization, now I’m really not sure how to use the space in that nook. My biggest need is probably for more counter top/work space, not more cupboard space. Once I get my table & chairs in, I’ll have to think about my current tentative plan and see if it still makes sense.

While I was out I stopped at Staples to pick up the print job they’d done for me. Postcards I designed. If you’re on my Christmas card list you’ll get one. If not, seeing it here will have to suffice.

Finally late this afternoon I sat down at the loom. I got about 40″ of JMC’s wrap woven. It’s been a long time from winding the warp to this stage, but I have too many things requiring attention. JM has a framboise (aka raspberry) weft. I wasn’t sure how it’d work with all the warp colors, but it looks great. Tomorrow I’ll take a shot when it’s shady so you can see the colors better. But I can’t begin to express how wonderful it is to be able to weave from 7AM to 7PM without turning on a light! All the natural light coming in these windows is fantastic. I couldn’t throw a single shuttle without artificial light at my old house.

Although not done today, I’ve finished the side garden except for mulching.

Since this picture I trimmed off the dead branches of that poor, little rose. I hope it comes back strong in the spring.

I started on the garage garden. No nasty bishop’s weed here, but a million of those ‘wild’ violets crowding out ‘real’ plants. Here’s a bit of before…

…and after…several feet left to attack. In addition to the sedum varieties and a rose, there are more daffodils in this garden, too. It will be a riot of spring color at my house!