Interior Decorating

With cold weather ending outside activities, our focus moves to a couple of major indoor projects. Work progressed on the laundry room wall and the upstairs guest bedroom. A few other tasks occupied some time as well.

I had completed the patching of the laundry room wall and Pam decided to move ahead with installing wallpaper on it. (Wallpaper is easier to apply before the installation of the job sink and relocation of the washing machine.) This is work still in progress; here is a photo of the wallpaper taped in place to check alignment and cut openings for the outlet and plumbing features.

Pam plans to complete the initial fitting and then install the paper permanently in a few days.

The papering job, while large, was not the only indoor project we took on. The wire shelving Pam had ordered for the guest bedroom arrived so we moved ahead on that project. The shelving (2 sections) was assembled and items arranged on them. That really opened up the room by getting boxes and other items off the floor.

The timing was good as we received word Pam’s sister Becky has accepted an offer on her current place and may be joining us later this month. We are looking forward to her stay. However, clearing up this room revealed another renovation project we had hoped to avoid: window replacement for that room is now on the “To Do” list. As we found in the snug on the first floor, when the previous owner installed a large window air conditioner in the second floor window, it really messed up the window framing and trim. Nothing is salvageable. We’d hoped to simply remove the old A/C unit but now it’s time to talk to Bob the Builder about replacing the entire window. It’s the route we took in the snug and it turned out very well.

On a more mundane level, I put new front brake pads in the F-150 truck. During this job I discovered the insides of the front tires were wearing faster than the rest of the tires, indicating an alignment was in order. An appointment was made with the alignment shop and the truck is now correctly aligned. A new pair of tires is scheduled to be installed this coming Tuesday. The current front tires were put on 6 years ago, well before we began moving, and were due for replacement even before I found the alignment problem.

Along with doing another leaf pickup, outside activities included putting up our winter bird feeder. An amazing number of birds have shown up to take advantage of the free food. As many as three blue jays have been on or around the feeder at the same time, a red-headed woodpecker is a frequent visitor, and literally dozens of smaller birds are at the feeder at any given time. I was not expecting this quantity of birds so early in the season.

A recent trip to the local farm supply store secured more black oil sunflower seeds and a bag of seed mix so I can keep the feeder stocked. At this point I am refilling the feeder every other day.

Moving back inside, I finished re-wicking and cleaning a couple of my old kerosene lamps. My lamp fuel arrived and soon I will fill one of the lamps and light it up to see how it works. I don’t want to have fuel in more than one lamp as the wicks can get crusty from the evaporation of the fuel. One lamp for occasional or emergency use will be fine.

I took the following photo of our three dogs, along with Velvet, one of our cats, sleeping in the corner of the library. Velvet took over one of the beds so JoJo had to sleep on a blanket on the floor. Such ignominy.

Photo Archive

I have a few family photos to post this week along with a photo of Thor, our first dog.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Cold winds blow across NE Iowa. I’m slowly making the transitions — keeping drinking water unfrozen + monitoring heat in the catio for the feral cats. It’s a bummer putting a coat on Blondie when she goes outside. Ugh.

Happy Trails.