Slacker Cat

PDM says I should rename this blog "Slacker Cat" because of my lack of updates. It is true that I am ignoring my blog (and many others), but not because I am a slacker. I've been Getting Shit Done at home and that is a very good thing. It finally dawned on me after five years in this house that it is not gonna decorate itself. I gave it plenty of chances. So, for whatever reason, right after I got back from the New Years vacation, I got obsessed with decluttering and getting all the crap outta here. I'm off to a great start. Dropped off eight huge shopping bags of schtuff at Goodwill this very afternoon. Recycled a ton of paper/cardboard. Freed up a lot of shelf and closet space. And I am only getting started.

No more living like a grad student. Time to be a grown up. I'm ditching the particle board and getting some real furniture. Gonna hang some ART on the walls - probably lots of my own photos, enlarged and framed. I've got 600 CD sleeves on the way so I can finally get rid of all those stupid jewel cases. I donated all my VHS movies. If it doesn't fit or hasn't been worn in several years, it is outta here. If I am keeping it, it is going to be packed away in an orderly fashion.

Making a list of home projects to be crossed off in 2011. Some are easily accompished - like today's project of getting rid of those stupid bathtub "safety" decals that have mostly disintegrated and have been ugly germ traps for years. Done! Other low-hanging fruit includes some painting (although that includes some drywall repair that might not be trivial). Every one of our interior doors needs to be replaced.

So sorry about the blog neglect, but it feels so good to be getting so much done at home. I didn't check my feed reader on vacation 12/30 - 1/4, and then I was busy and couldn't do it, and then realized last week that I didn't really miss most of it. So today I checked on my friends and deleted the rest. Very similar to the other decluttering I've been engaged in!

Catching Up - Bathroom Renovation

It was 95% done and completely functional by last Thanksgiving (thanks, Tim!), but we didn't put on the finishing touches until our party last Friday. So without further delay, I present: The Downstairs Bathroom Project - Before, During, and After.



Our friend Tim completely dismantled and rebuilt our lower bathroom last fall. Goodbye old fixtures, cracked tiles, rusty pipes, ugly crusty dirt and grime, and torn up door. Hello marble tile, custom built shower stall, low-flow toilet, built-in shelves, wainscoting, and pedestal sink. Much nicer!

Backaches and Improbable Statements

The amount of work I get done around the house and yard on a given weekend is directly proportional to the intensity of the backache that inevitably results. I got a lot done this time. There is not enough naproxin sodium in the world to fix this. Now I'm sitting here with a hot pack wrapped around my lower back. I hadn't planned to work in the yard at all on Saturday, but the Tech game was such a crapfest that I went outside to burn off my frustration. For three hours. At top speed. *sigh* I was pretty mad.

At one point, I had to go get PDM and ask "Hey honey, can you move this toilet so I can get to the lawnmower?" Then I cracked up. Never thought I'd have to say something like that. That ranks right up there with the redneck classic: "Can you move this transmission so I can take a bath?" The bathroom construction project is still going on, and we have bath fixtures all over the place. Including the carport storage room, right in front of the lawnmower.

It wasn't all drudgery, although our fun plans for today were scuttled by my waking up with a sore throat -- we were supposed to spend the day on the lake in a friend's boat. That didn't seem like a great idea given the cool temps and my possible cold or whatever this is. We stayed home and painted the wainscoting in the new bathroom instead. But I did get to see my sister. She spent last night with us during an Atlanta layover. We went out to dinner, then watched Clerks II and drank the bottle of Bordeaux she brought back from Paris. Classy, no? Nothing goes with "ass to mouth" dialog like fancy French wine.

What If?

What if you had been working on a large, complex project at work that fundamentally changes How Things Are Done? And what if your boss supported you 100%, and your peers were helping you out by trying all the new stuff and helping you make it better? What if the "worker bees" of the department were going out of their way to learn all the new stuff and doing a damn good job with it? And what if the team decided they were ready to implement a portion of the new process? What if you sent a message to the head of your department that contained the plan to go forward, along with a timetable and details, a week ahead of the proposed launch date? And what if that person decided to completely ignore your email, not telling you YES or NO or anything at all? What if your boss manages to get this squeezed into a meeting agenda at the last minute anyway, even though your email requesting to have it discussed in the meeting was completely ignored? What if, after you briefly describe what you are proposing, and someone who hasn't even tried it brings up an objection that isn't really a problem but they don't know that because they haven't tried it? And what if the elite workers who participated in the trial runs said it really isn't a problem? And what if the head of your department uses this objection as an opportunity to bash your vendors' software, kneecapping you and crapping all over the whole project team in the process? What if you held two training sessions for the other elite workers and only a handful bothered to show up (which would not be a big surprise given the obvious lack of support from the Big Chief)? How would you be feeling about your day, your project, your job, and your chances of success?

In possibly unrelated news, my day sucked so much that I poured myself a drink the minute I walked in the door tonight, twelve hours after I left this morning. Good thing these beautiful flowers from PDM are on my desk at work to soothe me and remind me of what is really important:

Done!

Six months ago, a scene of home improvement horror:



This weekend, finished at last:




As always, click on the photos to see them larger.

I know it doesn't look like much, but it was a hell of a lot of work for both of us. It is clear to us that the previous owners had a similar result in the adjoining bathroom when they removed the wallpaper. The decided to just paint over it, and it looks like it. It looks bad. I think we're just going to live with it for now. Neither one of us has the appetite for starting another major wall repair project any time soon.

A Winkin' Kitty!

Happy Friday, everyone! This Friday CatBlogging post is dedicated to the original winkin' kitty. I'm sure she'd like it if you check out her new book lover's forum: Cyber City Bibliotheca. No doubt you'll recognize a few familiar screen names over there.

I'm exhausted from herding cats - figuratively at work, and literally at home (if two cats counts as a "herd"). The project I am involved with at work has to do with electronic medical records, and while we are evaluating paperless radiation therapy documentation, the physicians who are piloting this new system have to do it the new way AND the old way. Keeping track of them and making sure both get done (and match each other) is like herding cats. Add to that the changes that we are making in how the physics staff uses some the software applications, and you have a recipe for barely controlled chaos while we're sorting it all out. And a ton of extra work.

And at home, they've been painting the new porch this week. Guess where Zima and Moxy like to hang out now? You got it -- the new porch railings. So when we let them out in the evening, one of us has to stay with them and attempt to keep them away from the freshly painted porch. Now that Moxy has discovered that one of our birdhouses is occupied, we have a hard time keeping her out of that as well. Keeping two determined cats from going where they want to go in an open yard is a difficult assignment.

The "two weekend project" that's been going on for six months...

... still not finished.

But much, much closer after this weekend's labors.

Before, during (oh, the horror!) and after photos to follow. When the project is finished, of course. No cheating. The trim and cabinet need at least one more coat of paint, I need to find replacement cabinet hardware and bath hardware that I like, and then I need to get my stuff out of PDM's bathroom and back into mine. Then there is the need to completely empty the linen closet and wash all of the drywall dust off of everything in it, because all exposed items and surfaces are powdery white. On the plus side, that stuff's needed to be reorganized for a long time, and it will be nice to put everything back in such a way that it can all be easily retrieved.

We did a few other random things around the house and yard as well, but the big news is the almost-complete half bath. I hope you had a productive weekend, and if not - I hope the reason you didn't get anything done was because you were too busy having fun.

Progress

The porch has come a long way since I last blogged about it. The permit issues are all settled and it has passed the foundation and rough electrical inspections. Work proceeds apace and we come home to more progress every day. We've made all the many decisions that needed to be made - tile color and pattern, how to hang the doors, shingles, and paint color. Now we just watch the thing take shape day after day, looking forward to having it complete and ready to enjoy. As always, new photos get added every few days to this Flickr set.

I'm also making progress on a big project at work. Change is painful at times, and there are so many ramifications to think about when you work in healthcare and need/want to change the way you are doing things, but we are getting somewhere for our efforts. After some of the changes that we put in place today (a long, exhausting day), I am prepared to deal with no small amount of resistance from others tomorrow. It won't be fun, but if I can manage to bring a sense of humor to work, maybe I can get through it and make it more bearable for others.

Primed!

Bathroom walls... "two weekend project"... remove old wallpaper and paint a pretty color... started back in October... total disaster... thorn in our sides...

Primed!

(Finally.)


And how was YOUR weekend?

Under Construction

I temporarily removed all my sidebar items last week when I posted about Big Daddy's death. They seemed too distracting and frivolous to occupy the same space as such a post, and were easy enough to get rid of. But now I am thinking this is a good opportunity to clean up my template and make some of the changes I have been meaning to do for a long time. So my blog will keep the plain Jane look for a while longer until I get everything the way I want it. Not sure how long that will take. Now that daylight savings time has kicked in, I am more likely to work or relax outside when I get home from work than to spend much time on my computer.

It isn't just my blog that is undergoing some construction. We just signed a contract to have a screened in porch built where our patio is now. This time we were smart enough to hire somebody rather than to try it on our own. Photos to follow, of course.

And no, the bathroom is not yet finished. PDM wants you to know that my use of "we" when I have discussed this project is misleading, as he is doing nearly all of the work these days.

Owl Watching and Other Outdoor Projects

The barred owls continue to include our yard in their territory. We usually see the male shortly before sunset, as shown in the photo (yes there really is an owl in those trees, and yes I need a telephoto lens and do not have one). It was a nice, mild weekend in Atlanta, so we hung out on our patio late this afternoon with the cats. The male owl flew into a nearby tree to roost before the nightly hunt began. He called to the female a few times and she answered. We didn't get a glimpse of her, just heard her replies. She may be nesting already. There was also a brilliant red male cardinal wooing a female with song. It is safe to assume from the duet that she was interested. Never saw her either. It appears to be the bird-romance time of year. Our birdhouses are cleaned and ready, and I have been putting out dryer lint for the birdies along with keeping the feeder full. In a few weeks, it will be time to hang the nectar feeders again for the first wave of migrating hummingbirds. Ahhh, spring! Almost here...

Speaking of our patio, we met with a contractor on Saturday to discuss transforming that concrete pad into a screened-in porch. It is something we have wanted to do since we bought the house. We have a wonderful, wooded, peaceful back yard. We would enjoy it a lot more if we could sit out there and not get chewed up by mosquitoes. Before and after photos will be posted here once things get going. Hopefully that project will proceed more smoothly than the damn bathroom project, which is STILL going on. It seems like no matter what we do, those walls aren't good enough to paint.

Non-Standard

It was another "fun filled" weekend of home repairs not going as planned in the Cosmic Cat household. But you knew that already... because if things had gone smoothly I wouldn't be writing a blog post bitching about it.

It was a simple enough repair - fix a leaky tub faucet. It doesn't get much more mundane than that. Except when you get your vintage 1965 plumbing halfway taken apart and find out that it is a not a standard size. After going to the big hardware store that has every tool known to man, PDM found out that they no longer make the tool he needs in the size he needs. That scuttled the repair.

We (mostly PDM) are still fixing the damaged wallboard in the half bath. This was the project that I started in October, and was going to take two weekends to complete. Yeah, right. We're coming up on four months and those walls are still not ready to paint.

Old houses tend to be more solidly built than newer ones. But the tradeoff is that more stuff will fail due to age, and fixing it can be terribly frustrating. The non-standard size thing crops up all over the house - not just the plumbing. The new front door was also a special order due to a non-standard opening.

Some days we like our home better than others...

Home Improvement Hits and Misses

It was a mixed bag this weekend on the home front. PDM and I each had a home improvement project to work on. The front door replacement took PDM and our friend Tim longer than expected and was a little more involved than they had planned on (nothing in this house is a standard size), but it is basically done now and looks great. All that is left is to paint the interior trim and the job will be complete. The ugly old front door wasn't even exterior grade, so this is a big improvement. The glass lets in a lot of light and brightens up the foyer. It looks pretty from the street at night when the house is lit up. And purely by accident, we happened to buy it on the weekend that was a sales tax holiday for energy efficient home items. Since the door was a special order (non-standard size for our non-standard home), it was expensive, so the sales tax savings was significant. If it keeps our house a little warmer in the winter, so much the better.

My "supposedly simple" little two-weekend bathroom project went horribly off track. The first weekend I had planned to strip the wallpaper in the tiny half-bath, prepare the walls in the full bath next to it for painting, and remove the shower doors. Next weekend, I was going to paint both bathrooms and recaulk the tub. I am already way behind schedule.

When I removed the wallpaper, which appears to have been on the walls for the entire 42 years that the house has existed, a whole lot of wallboard came along for the ride. You are probably thinking that I suck at wallpaper stripping and must not know what I am doing. Let me assure you that this is the not the case. I've successfully removed wallpaper several times in the past and was able to do so without mangling the underlying surfaces. Now I know why the wall in the other bathroom looks so crappy and is going to need so much repair before we paint. I am guessing that some wallpaper was removed in there, with similar results, and the previous owners just painted over it anyway. We're not going to be satisfied with that kind of worksmanship. I asked PDM to help, so he tried mudding over some of the bad spots. We'll sand it smooth when it dries and then evaluate the results. If that doesn't work, we'll have to go to Plan B. Plan B involves replacing the damaged wallboards, so I hope we don't have to go that far.

PDM, who is cooking dinner for us right now (chicken burritos), wanted to make sure I let y'all know that I called him in to fix my mangled bathroom wall project. I told him that I was honest about how the two projects went down. But just in case you missed it, I will say it again. "PDM's project went great, looks great, and is 95% done and won't be a hassle to finish. My project turned out to be a horrible mess that will drag on for weeks, and I had to get him to fix the stuff I did wrong, and it is going to be a monumental hassle to finish, and probably won't look that good when it is done. And now he is making my dinner." And he is smiling.

Exhausted.

I'm not keeping up with reading your blogs or posting as often as I would like. It turns out that treating a family member, even palliatively, is very stressful. I'm not sleeping well, and feel all glassy-eyed and distracted when I am awake. I hope to get back to normal soon, although I am not confident enough to make promises about it. And aside from treating a family member, all four of our machines are due for annual testing and that is also taking up a lot of my time. Then on top of it all lies the slowly creeping crisis situation with Atlanta's water supply, leading to a further feeling of unease. Oh yeah, and our department is getting a new chairman in January. Who knows what changes that will bring? More unease and uncertainty. I wish I were one of those serene people who don't let things bother them. Unfortunately I am not that type. I am restless and tense. Not a patient person who can wait calmly to see how things turn out.

But this weekend, I have just the thing to help keep my mind off the turmoil: a home project! There are no Tech football games this Saturday or next, so I'll be stripping the yucky wallpaper off of the bathroom walls. The other bathroom needs to be scraped and sanded and have some drywall repair. We also have a new front door to pick up and install, and we want to take out the old glass shower doors. The next weekend after this one, I will paint the bathrooms and we will re-caulk the tub. Projects are good. They keep you busy and give you a sense of accomplishment, and make it a little easier to forget all the problems swirling around outside your door.