SI

Tool Time

A couple of weeks ago Charmed and I were feeling ambitious. (OK, she was feeling ambitious, I was somewhere between nervous and filled-with-dread). I've never been big on home improvement projects, but Charmed convinced me that we could handle this and the results would be worth the trouble.

The project? My old house has a narrow back room (about 7 by 23) that was wasted space and had carpet that had to go. It used to be a dining room but we moved that furniture to the front of the house where it belongs. Join me on a photographic journey, won't you?

I think most people have a room in which they keep golf clubs, a vacuum cleaner and a coffee table, right? Plus a bookshelf filled with mouse poop.











I don't know if this was the work of one or more dogs, the aforementioned poopy mice, or Father Time, but this is not what you want to see in a quality carpet.











If only this stain had been shaped more like the Virgin Mary I could have made a bundle, because no matter what I did it always came back.











So after removing the various junk seen above, the next step was to rip up the carpet. Not nearly as bad as I had feared, although prying up this crap got a little tedious.













The biggest unknown in all of this, and what could have made it a real nightmare, was the condition of the subfloor. As you can see, it was in pretty good shape. Not quite "baby butt smooth", as we declared to the Home Depot lady with our fingers crossed, but still in decent shape.

So we swept up the scraps and started making it spiffy.












I don't have a close-up of the floor, but I think you get the idea here. We did a heck of a job on the quarter-round trim too, I think.

I'm sure HGTV will be calling any day now.

Hunt the Wumpus

• Both postcards have been received by my new Euro-friends (see post below) but I have yet to receive my first. I'm not sending out any more until I get at least one! I think I have an idea for an artsy-craftsy kinda project when I start to get a few of these puppies in.

• A note to my neighbors: When I'm walking my dog, it's not necessary to ask, "Who's walking who?" or some such equivalent. Wasn't funny the first time. Not funny now. A simple "Nice dog, cap'n" and a tip of the cap will suffice.

• I haven't been this excited about Christmas in a long time. When you go somewhere else for the holidays it's hard to get in the spirit until you actually get there. I'm staying home this year and I'm already in the mood for egg nog, and I don't even like egg nog. Plus, we're getting a real tree. It's been a long time since I've bought a real tree.

• Made some chicken curry the other night - how do people who work in Indian restaurants not always have yellow under their fingernails?

• My dog won't stop licking things - she's already ruined two throw pillows. Maybe I should be giving her food and water.

• I did some cleaning out of my liquor cabinet last night - if you were wondering if Amaretto can go bad, I think the answer is yes. And why did I ever buy gin? I hate gin. Is it good or bad that I have four varieties of bourbon?

• That is all.