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Month: July 2022

home reno continues!

home reno continues!

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it’s time for home reno! when nate and i moved in, our house was still original to 1997 when it was built. since then, we’ve (well, mostly i’ve) replaced a lot of lights, painted some walls, painted the kitchen cabinets, taken out a very 90s corner kitchen computer desk, put in a couple ceiling fans, removed a clunky medicine cabinet, etc. etc.

what remained as a big to-dos? the floors. ugh. the bedrooms have maroon and hunter green carpet. the weird dining room a beige low-pile carpet, and the kitchen vinyl linoleum. all of which were definitely end of life.

check out the very 90s gold threshold connector. that was satisfying to pull up!

but oof it’s a lot of work to replace floors. over the past week, i worked on clearing out the furniture, taking off all the floor trim, and then pulling up the carpet and padding.

nate had the last few days off, and we spent hours getting the vinyl off the floor and cleaning the concrete underneath.

on friday, nate loaded up the old carpet and we headed to cold spring to drop it off at the dump. $45 to drop off 200 lbs of gross 25-year-old carpet, which is a steal. unfortunately, something in the carpet got stuck in my arm, and i’ve had a swollen allergic reaction in my wrist and upper arm for the past couple days.

small price to pay. it’s getting better.

other mishaps?

  • nate slipped on the wet concrete and biffed it.
  • also realized after doing 80% of the vinyl removal that he hadn’t actually put in the blade of the floor scraper we bought (he was using the part that holds it in place). (the scraper above is actually our winter ice scraper. we bought an actual floor scraper, not pictured, with a very sharp blade. that he didn’t realize wasn’t in. this is why you read the directions.)
  • the house is a mess. stuff is in the shed, the garage, the bedroom, the living room. the cats are confused and looking for a non-concrete place to place their butts.

what’s left at this point: there is one corner of carpet that goes into a closet, the linoleum under the dishwasher (waiting til the last moment to unhook the dishwasher’s very non-code electrical), and then a final cleaning of the concrete. but almost all of the concrete is smooth and ready for some floor!

i’m also going to paint the walls in the weird dining room, at least the wall on your right as you’re looking at it. it’ll be the same color as the kitchen (NOT what’s behind the stove). haven’t decided if i’ll go all the way around yet.

then it will be time to lay the new floor! liz is coming up the first weekend in august to help with her expertise and i think she’ll be here for the easy part. i have 23 boxes of flooring. i hope it’s enough.

update to come after that!

 

mid-summer updates

mid-summer updates

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frogs are quiet now

crickets sing from the tall grass

summer slips along

 

it’s hot out. and not only is it hot, but it’s wet outside. last summer, it was dry – i mowed my lawn maybe three times last summer and the mosquitoes and black flies were nonexistent. not so this summer!

in the springtime, seeing the different greens and tree colors really makes me happy – a glimpse of their true colors, and at times it’s indistinguishable from autumn. but chlorophyll soaks the leaves this time of year and the atmosphere keeps the heat from the sun past its apex.

i’ve got one camping trip scheduled for two weeks from now at william o brien stte park with megan, and i’m looking forward to it! it hasn’t been a totally busy summer, with my family reunion in early june. last week i was in the cities to celebrate my mom’s birthday, and the weekend before that was the fourth down at liz’s. now i’m debating trying to get up the north shore yet this summer – maybe late august or early september.

on the home front, nate and i finally are biting the bullet and putting in new floors. the flooring is in the garage, and the old carpet needs to come up in the next three weeks so that when liz comes the first weekend of august, it’s ready to go. the carpet is just gross! full of 25 years’ worth of dust and pet hair and general junk. i’m putting down wood-look vinyl plank, which should hopefully not absorb dander and stuff and help with allergens.

and on the running front, ragnar is two months away. the few times i’ve been out to st johns this summer, it’s been rough. i get bored right around 2 miles in, and i’m not sure why. i don’t get bored road running the same route, so i’m not sure what’s happening. but that’ll be here before i know it, so i’ve got to get some trail and hill miles in. i’m sure i will be lying in the tent at 4 am, sweat dried all over and shivering from the cold, wondering why on earth i’m doing this – i could be in my warm bed with a bathroom 20 feet away. it’s worth it, but it sometimes sucks while in the doing of it.

my yoga teacher training final is in a week! after this, i’ve just got to do the anatomy class and i’m a certified yoga teacher trainer. no idea what i’m going to do with it yet, but it seemed like the logical thing to do. maybe ill start a youtube channel. who knows!

anyway, that’s the update from avon. i’ll take pics of the floor renewal and have a long post about that for sure!

frogs on flower

frogs on flower

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today i was hanging out on my patio at the gloaming, watching the sun make its way past the horizon and reading a book, when i looked up and there were teeny tiny frogs just hanging out on my siding, on the patio door. then i looked more closely at some of the milkweed i have growing next to the patio, and frogs were just hanging out on the leaves and flowers!

summer’s sliding by. the fourth of july always marks a halfway point, and because my fam reunion was early this year, it seems like the season is scooting a bit faster than i’d like. but i’m taking more vacation days over the summer than usual, so i’m happy to get some longer weekends in to enjoy the time.