Projectum Interuptus

I'm part way through taking a few weeks off from the big project of replacing alllll the flooring upstairs and here are the reasons why:

1. I went to California to visit some beloveds!

2. We hosted Eric's friend, Tex, who joined him in attending MisCon.

Here is where a photo would've been nice, 

but I mistakenly assumed there would've been some from the event. 

3. I worked on some boring maintenance projects around the place like fussing with the hot tub, constantly wiping pine pollen off stuff, making hummingbird nectar, etc.

4. I made a little throw pillow to help break up the brownliness going on in the guest room since replacing the floor in there.

5. I started working on the refab of the screen doors.
    (post coming soon)

6. I did my first two cross stitch projects ever! They are going to be a part of a much bigger project around the house, so I think I'll save posting photos until I start talking about that.

Just before the very first stitch in to second project. That is a great-great auntie's embroidery hoop!

7. We'll be hosting the VME's most frequent guest, Juan, this weekend.

Cutting A Rug (Or Two)

A happy and hot dog.

In the warm, dry months we spend a good deal of time on the front deck. It's where the front door is, it's where the hot tub is (unfortunately those are the same place), it's where the good views are (hence the first two items on the list). But it's also in pretty poor shape. The last owners spruced up the dilapidation by applying barn-red paint (to a lot of things), but it doesn't look like they primed first or really did much preparations at all so it's coming off where it gets the weather. They also painted around the old hot tub and so when we got a new one and moved it just a bit to maximize square footage it got even worse looking.  Still, we have bigger plans than just replacing the deck boards, so those plans will have to wait a few years while other projects take priority.

Yeah. Ugh.

Another legacy of the last owners was this braided runner rug on the part of the deck from the stairs to the door. That first summer I was going to get rid of it, but Eric pointed out that the Beastie Grrrlz liked to lay on it in the sun beam, so it stayed. Later I realized just how much dust and dirt it caught and kept out of the house, so it stayed even longer.

Harsh sunlight was probably a bad photography chose, but that's what I had when I decided to take a before shot. Trust me, the rug looked even weirder in good light.

I started shopping for outdoor rugs to replace the runner and to help disguise the deck until we are ready to tackle redoing and expanding it. But HOLY CATS you can pay a lot for an outdoor rug! That's even at off season prices last autumn and winter. And the less costly ones are in colors that just aren't our style. At all. Then through the Magic of Pinterest, I learned that I could get an affordable, but unattractive option at the big box home centers and make it more attractive with stencils. Hey, I know how to stencil and paint!

I forgot to take a true "before" photo of the rugs before stenciling, but I do have a photo that shows how cheap they looked and at the same time sort of tells you what these rugs will endure.

You can see how Delia's Sticks go from being big sticks to small sticks. Betty chews them, too, but not nearly so much.

I used two different tutorials, combining what I thought were their best/easiest processes. I bought 6' wide indoor/outdoor carpet by-the-foot (or maybe it was by-the-yard) at one of the big box stores and I actually don't remember which one, because they're practically right across the street from each other in Missoula. The runner is a 3' length and the bigger rug is about 9'.  I wish I'd used the 12' material and made it 7' for this space, but I'd lost my measurements on one of my phone replacements over the last several months and so was guessing. Oh, well.

Obviously this is a cheater picture I made after the fact for inaccurate illustrative purposes. (BOO!) 

I didn't want to dive right in to the time-consuming stenciling, so I started with a simple 2.5" border using painters tape. It's 2.5" because that's the width of my long, clear ruler and the proportions seemed fine.  I chose black paint rather than a bold color, because even though I love the colors in the slip covers on the chairs, the (stupid) barn red deck boards really clash with them. Plus, the new resin wicker chair seats are brown with black, so it seemed like a classic and safe bet. I am all for experimenting, but I really didn't want to do this twice or live with a color we didn't like: if I wanted to do that, I could've bought a cheap one at World Market and kept that rag rug.  Plus, the real show around here is the forest and the view across the valley.

Just adding that border made a huge difference in the appearance of quality; even Betty (above) thinks so. That pile on the right is Delia's Sticks which she likes to bring up to the house from the property when it's time to come in.

I had been mulling over a couple of themes that I have been digging on lately, both trendy, but still appropriate for our mountain life: arrows and feathers. I eventually choose arrows, looked at various clip art images of them online, and then drew up a few options to later make into a stencil. I even looked at pre-made stencils, but they were not the right scale or the right price. Luckily, I've cut a few stencils in my day and even had mylar in my stash!

Of course, I measured then made design decisions and made the stencils.

Shafts, arrow heads and fletching.

Then I measured and marked the rugs with a fabric-marking pencil.

I have a drywall square which makes measuring and marking larger surfaces easier.

Finally I started applying the paint!  WOO! I started with the shafts, three different styles of heads and then fletching.

The stencil does 3 arrow shafts at a time. I used a sharpie to mark the center of the stencil and a chalk pencil to mark the center of the rug, There are chalk marks across the center that mark the center of the "top" shaft for each impression.

I should have left a bit more mylar around the cut out stencil and/or dug up a smaller brush to applying the paint to the arrow heads and fletching pieces.

The pattern was one style of arrow head every third shaft, switching ends every other third. I did the same with the fletching pieces.

I cut a second set of arrow shafts, this time 4" longer, for the larger rug.

Now I need new table covers for the patio tables and to reweave and slip cover the last two chairs!

~ ~ ~

Since I was going to all this trouble with the rugs it seemed like a good idea to deal with the side effects of one of the bird feeders: seed shells and poop on the deck and railing. I know whose poop that is, anyway, it's a whole bunch of freeloader birds' poop!

Yes, the feeder is empty in this photo. Eric's biologist friend at work pointed out how feeding wildlife, even birds, is enabling "the weak and the stupid" which doesn't help the gene pool at all. We just couldn't bring ourselves to quit feeding them altogether, so instead we let a few days lapse between refills so the birds have to keep finding wild food sources, too. Flawed logic? Very possibly.

So I got a plant hanger at the hardware store and moved the feeder from just over the railing to about a foot out. We can still easily reach it to refill, but the poop is gone from the railing and the shells and poop on the deck greatly diminished. Woo!

Wildlife Watch !X

We've caught our local flying squirrel visiting the bird feeders several-to-many times several times since our initial meeting back in January 2013.  But I finally got some (crappy) photos of my own!

I was sitting in the hot tub the other night and heard the scratching of wee claws on the tree by the deck on which the bird feeder hangs.  I was cruising pinterest on my phone and tried to use the light from the display to see. No dice.  So I texted Eric to ask if he'd turn on the deck light. He did, but I saw nothing, but a swaying bird feeder.

The two lower light smears are it's eyes!

When I went back into the house, I grabbed my digital camera and tried the and turned the deck light. There it was sitting on the swaying feeder!  I turned the light back off, but the results were less than satisfactory with the "night vision" setting.

Obviously the night-vision setting wasn't going to yield results, so I resorted to the old fill flash. At least, I think that's what it's called.

Spa Treatment

There she is on the delivery trailer about to get hoisted up onto the deck with a crane!

The other day Eric drained and refilled the hot tub in anticipation of Juan's visit* last weekend.  When we went to start heating it up it wasn't working.  It was a very basic model when it was new in 1999 and the mysterious codes on the display weren't helping us decipher the issue.  Even with the generic owners manual we didn't know what was going on.  So, I called the number in the manual which lead us to a spa business of a different name.  They came out on a service call and gave us the bad news: the shell (the fiberglass part that holds all the water and all the people) was failing and leaking and the plumbing was leaking and some other things were leaking.  We could spend a fair chunk of change to "put a band-aid on it" or about 2.2 times as much to fix it better, but the shell would still be failing.

This is the box the top came in.  I was assured that sporks were fine to use.

It was pretty exciting to watch the crane take away the old one and plunk the new one down on the deck.

So, instead of risking having that tub utterly fail in the middle of winter when we couldn't get a new one delivered and the old one hauled away and instead of throwing good money after bad we got a new spa!  It's still not the fanciest spa on the market, but it's quite an upgrade with about five times as many jets, a control display that makes some sense, new cover and cover lift, a low-maintenance cabinet (case? siding?) or whatever it's called, AND in a couple of weeks will have the saline filter-thingy.  And the spa guys (Chris & Ron) were the opposite of the tree guys as far as being here when they said they would be, returning calls and texts, etc.  YEY!  Let's hope that keeps up for our chemical needs and most importantly the installation of the saline thingy.  Did I mention the Aurora-Borealis-in-a-tub LED lights?

*Juan was the first to visit us twice and thrice!  As he's spending the summer not too far from here, I bet he'll beat everyone to fourth, too.  Not that it's a contest, but Juan's winning.

Juan Happened III: The Filthiest Corn Hole You've Seen
With Juan comes warmer weather, so we busted out the corn hole set.  It gets pretty dusty without a lawn or pavement to play on.

Mid-May Montana Mountain Mayhem

Hoo boy!  So much fun and games in so few days!  We were joined by 4 of Eric's longtime crew who came from Portland and Kansas City, KS to celebrate Mid-May Montana Mountain Mayhem (MV) i.e. Eric's 40th birthday.  There was eating & drinking, games of cornhole, badminton, & Yahtzee, rafting & hiking, hot tubbing & even a little bit of sleeping.  Did I mention eating and drinking?

Mountain Men with Mountain Man Beards.

Brace yourselves for the MV slideshow: safety not guaranteed.



Good times.

Lady beard and man beards: In Montana we enjoy freedom

 
Special thanks to JP, Brent, Greg & Juan for passing along some of their choicest pics.

Odds & Ends

There are just a few interesting or fun things I wanted to share, most of which really aren't worthy of a whole blog post.  I'll deliver them in the order that they were discovered.

1) I was having a key made at Ace and while I waited I was looking at the end cap right between the key making machine and the cash register.  I realize this is a hunting tool, but I still think the merchandising/branding is strange.

Also available in cow "flavor."

2) For those keeping score, I am getting almost adequately competent at pumping my own gas!

$2.96/gallon!  Well, closer to $2.97/gallon with that .9 cents, but still.

3) Information that makes this make sense: A) I don't walk around the hot tub in daylight very often. B) The snow had melted off the deck a few days before it started snowing again; yesterday morning we had a fresh 3/4" or so. C) Betty is one of those dogs who likes to greet us with something in her mouth (even if it's just to say good morning when each of us gets up).  Usually it's a toy or bone, but sometimes it's a small article of our clothing she's gotten out of the basket, a slipper, or shoe.

What is that?  Oh, frozen panties.  Of course.

4) The Alexanders left Christmas lights up around the living room window year round as a way to welcome each other home if one or the other arrived home late and they left them up for us.  E came home after dark yesterday so I had them on and while they don't put off much light they did enable us to see the Return of the Flying Squirrel! 

I used the "night vision" setting which is why it's all green and grainy.  That is not why there are dog nose smudges all the window.

Happy 2013!

Mavis was pure class ringing in the new year.

We had a cozy, homey New Years Eve at home which is just what we wanted.  Eric read, I painted my toenails and got Mavis all dolled up for the holiday while the Beastie Grrrlz worked over the antlers that Santa brought them.  Then we drank bubbly in the hot tub and looked out over the valley.  I saw one exploding firework and we heard others.

View from New Years Morning 2013:  (clockwise from upper left) Blue sky, sun shining through forest, grapefruit mimosa, hot tub, freshly painted toenails.

We managed to stay up until midnight (Mountain Time) and were given a late Christmas gift from the dogs: sleeping in until 9:17a!  After coffee, Eric went back to his reading and I went back to the hot tub.  After that I went back to working on our redecorating of the upstairs hall bathroom which was significantly less holiday-esque.

The 80s wallpaper is down and ready for the trash.  Most of it came off without the steamer, but that which was stuck on well was stuck on really well.

All the wallpaper is down.  I've started in on repairing the walls which included your basic hole-filling as well as, wall anchor hole-filling, caulking some inside corners, and figuring out how to deal with the texture left by the original 1976 wallpaper.  Blech.  If I can't get it sanded off relatively easily, I'll skim coat the walls.  Also, blech.  Why is my own project harder than my clients' projects were?

See that texture on the wall?  I think it's wallpaper glue from the original 1976 paper (a strip of which is shown here) that has been primed over to accept the 1980s wallpaper that I just removed.  Kudos to them for taking down the old before putting up the new; I just wish they'd taken the glue off, too.

The caulk is curing tonight, so I'll try sanding in the morning.  If it works, I may have that sucker primed and ready for paint by the end of the day.  WOO!

Wheeeeeee! bark bark bark Wheeeeeee!

Last week, we picked up a couple of your basic plastic saucers for sledding down our hill at our local Ace.  Then we waited for our colds to get better.  Yesterday we went on a test run.  Eric went first on the driveway.

The Beastie Grrrlz seem to think that the discs are silent relatives of the vacuum cleaner.  They don't trust 'em, but they want to make sure we are safe so they stay close.  Good girls.  I went next, but on the "yard."  It was so slow that when I turned to look at the dogs I could see them awkwardly trying to both run and stay behind me which is one of the cardinal rules of chasing.

We both gave it another go on the driveway and believe that as the season and snowing continues, we'll have some pretty good sledding conditions right out the front door.  It reminds me of growing up on "the hill" on Camwal Drive minus the ditches on either side.

Today we decided to take advantage of the nice, sunny day to hike a little further out into the woods than we usually do and further than I had to date.  We went high enough that we could see not only the other side of the valley, but the Bitterroot River at its bottom.

A pretty all right view.

We hope the sky stays clear tonight so we may view the Geminid Meteor Shower!  From the hot tub!  With spiked homemade hot chocolate!

Annnnnd We're Back!

... back online that is.  We went about 8 days sans internet here and it wasn't that bad.  I've gone longer when traveling, but when traveling it's lots more fun to be disconnected than when unpacking and trying to learn your way around your new state/town/lifestyle.  Anyway, just a few quick photos for the folks back home (and elsewhere).

The view from the bottom of the stairs after emptying the contents of the big U-haul truck into the living/dining room. A very special thanks to high school classmate, Bart VanderZanden, for having a son who is a freshman at University of Montana in Missoula!  Luke and 2 buddies come out and really busted their humps to get that truck unloaded in under 2 hours on Sunday evening.

This was a week ago, so it's much different in there with furniture roughly estimating how rooms look.  There are still boxes about, but many have been unpacked and many have been moved to the rooms befitting their contents.  We'll be working on fixtures as we go, too.

The smoke in the sky from the fires sure made for some pretty sunrises.  One of my new mottoes is: If one must be up with r the sunrise, one may as well see it from the hot tub.

The smoke cleared after we'd been in the house just a few days at the same time the temperature dropped.  It's definitely autumn here in the Bitterroot Valley (do I sound like a native when I saw that?), but that means temperatures more like winter in the Willamette Valley.  At least the sky is blue and the sunbeams are warm.

Here's the west side of the house as viewed from near the fence with the National Forest on the other side.

During the week away from the internet I've had a few ideas for posts, but those will have to wait until later this week (and next?).  Today I got smacked in the face with our new washing machine (the side not shown in the photo, even though the photo was take a few days ago) and am just not feeling myself.  I'm patched up and my glasses are most likely going to be put back into shape pretty easily by a trained professional, but I do look like a victim of some kind of violence.  The washing machine is still outside the back door; we're going to rent a hand truck tomorrow to get it in place and doing its job.  I sneaked a peak at the control panel and am still pretty excited about having it around despite its aggressive introduction.