Tag: House and Home

Bed Head

We’ve been through an ordeal: mattress shopping.

I thought it would be a dandy idea to order a bed-in-a-box thing, so tré moderne! The only problem? Either it sucked or we’re too old to sleep on ‘a cloud’, a.k.a. Casper.  My back has never been so bad.

Then we slept on it the next night, just to make sure it sucked. I couldn’t even move yesterday, going from the inversion table to the very firm sofa over and over…

Ironically, we’ll have to jet over to Mattress Firm, which is in financial peril over the bed-in-a-box phenom. Oh, I get it; I’d much rather make this sort of transaction in a detached, sanitized way instead of touching mattresses that dog knows who have lain upon. I’m taking a sheet with me, screw anyone who thinks it too precious!

This is our 20 year old headboard, which I still love.. but I swear I’ll cut it up with a blowtorch should the top of my head ever touch it again.

bedhead

Bad shot, but I wasn’t going into the brush and spiders to take a better one.

Now, my original idea was to take a picture and post it for free on NextDoor… but Arthur opined that it would look good covered in ivy out back.

I think it would be sweet spray painted white(ish), suitable for a teen’s room… but since when do teenagers have king sized beds?

Sigh. I suck at the home decor thing. And now I must find a new mattress and headboard. Pray for me.

EDIT:

It’s the Simmons Beautyrest World Class Resonance Plush! Which felt wonderful in the store and hard as a brickbat last night. We’ll see. The salesman said it would take a few days to feel like it’s supposed to, but I wonder why… Anyway, new bed. I’m exhausted.

Forgot to add:

The guys who picked up the Casper (1-800-Buy-Junk) to supposedly recycle it? They were very forthcoming about how many beds, just in our area, they pick up: A hint? Between Casper, Purple and another he couldn’t remember the name of… they are very busy. LOTS. It must cost the Bed-in-a-Bag people about $100 a pop to manufacture those mattresses; they’re just foam. Then they sell them for $800 and up? Yep, they can afford to give a LOT of people their money back…

 

14

And a Funny Story

mybabes

Look at my pretty babies! Growing out of their makeshift pots like fledglings falling out of nests…

Rocks are so chaotic, don’t you think? Seen from the street they might give a uniform appearance, but up close, it’s like a stony holy war.

Okay, here’s the story, more silly than funny. I’m still painting. (And yes, still on the first room. Go ahead and laugh. We’ll talk when you’re 60.) Everything is done in the master bedroom except baseboards.

While the bed was pulled out last week I painted the baseboards in that area, which included caulking. Now… I’m a very neat painter, but caulk? It gets everywhere, as if I simply open the tube and start spraying it with childish abandon… AND, instead of putting gloves on, my hands were nekkid. Of course. Well, it didn’t take too long for my right hand to be completely covered in caulk. And it freaked me out; that stuff just doesn’t want to come off! If only my store had Lava, but I can’t find it around here.

Dawn and Bartender’s Helper proved useless, so I ran into the bathroom and found some face wash… the kind with little beads to help exfoliate dead skin. Ew. So I’m washing… and washing… and the stuff’s not budging! In fact, the damned beads had stuck to the caulk, so now it looks -and feels- like I’m wearing a beaded glove.

Acetone saved the day, but how surreal there for a minute…

glove

4

Whiteout

whiteout

I painted the master closet (yes, this is how small the master closet is; can you imagine the matchbox that is the guest closet?) Ultra Pure White and this is pretty much how it seems when I go in there.

Took me all weekend, which is more a nod to my age than anything else. It was only a prelude, though, because I plan on painting the whole house.

Should be done by this time next year. Ha.

4

Selloum

I wanted some of those giant Philodendrons, the ‘Selloum’ variety, but of course Home Depot had absolutely nada and Lowe’s only had one ‘Hope’ (which I bought but am not thrilled with). Didn’t want to hike 50 miles to Miami so instead purchased seeds on the internet. As one does.

Philodendron bipinnatifidum at Floridata.

And my 19 seedlings, which really tickle me. Almost time to plant in pots.

flat2

There are way too many for my lot, which is why there will soon be little pots of babies at the curb. My crinum lilies went pretty fast so I’m sure these will as well.

0

Après Irma

alive
It’s alive!

Well, we survived. Again. But really, how many times can one tempt fate? I lost track of how many hurricanes I’ve been through.

I took before pictures, as one does… but no after. The pictures would come out looking like modern art that nobody understands because everything is swathed in green and brown roughage; the result of the almighty raking a giant comb over the land at great speed.

We were more ready for this storm than any other, which thankfully was not needed. Luckier than most, we were only without power for 24 hours and internet for a few days. I’d rather have power than internet, but it felt odd and I didn’t even turn my pc on til it came back up.

Kudos to the city of Margate and Broward county, both of which kept everyone updated via Twitter and Facebook.

Now… there are three other systems to keep a weather eye on… and have I mentioned that I WANT TO MOVE??

 

5

Hurricane Prep/Disaster Kit

This is my master list so I’m dropping it here.

GENERAL

  • Silicone caulking for bathtub drains to hold water. The caulk will not affect the taste of the water and cleans up easily. Just use a thick bead around the seams and it will pull away cleanly when dry.
  • Manual can and bottle openers.
  • Folding stove, oven mitts. Better to use a camp stove or grill; but don’t use them indoors. In a pinch, you can use ”canned heat” (Sterno, etc.) but it will only heat food; it won’t cook it.
  • A battery-operated radio and/or television.
  • Extra batteries.
  • A windup clock.
  • Battery-operated lanterns and enough flashlights for each member of the family, plus extra batteries and bulbs. Candles and kerosene lights can cause fires and severe burns. If you must use candles, never leave one burning unattended.
  • Duct tape.
  • Lightweight fire extinguishers.
  • Wrench to turn off household gas and water. Keep it near the shut-off valves.
  • Chain saw, gassed up, oiled and ready.
  • Generator.

Continue reading “Hurricane Prep/Disaster Kit” →

0

New Windows!

Three are broken and four sills have to be replaced, but we finally got the new windows in! Yes, I am happy.

Before, of course. Goodbye, nasty old rotted aluminum crap. Honestly, some of those thin little panes were just barely sitting in the frame, it was all so rotted.

winbfr1

After!

winaftr2

winaftr1

The broken part, which can be easily replaced. The inside pane is broken. The outside pane is pretty much unbreakable.

IMG_0745

Happy and tired. 🙂

0

From the Old Windows

They’ll be the torn off, thrown aside scrap soon, these old bastards. So, the view out two of them.

Looking into the back yard/patio from the Florida room.

fromflrm

And… the view from the 2nd bedroom. Love my neighbor’s yard; awash in color!

secbdrm

 

The height of laziness, eh? Didn’t even have to go outside.

0

Tree

After 15 years of blogging, I’ve come to hate titles. All these years.. through so many iterations of this blog.. I think I’ve utilized every conceivable title twice over. So ‘tree’; we’ll keep it simple.

tree16

Hate this year’s lights. I like soft, twinkly little fairy lights but these were at Home Depot for 5 bucks a box, so the man picked them up and voila! We’re blessed with these harsh, bright, non-twinkly bastards.

That’s okay. I’ve got an entire year to find the correct lights.

Well, that sounds bitchy. Which is not what I’m feeling at all.

0

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑