Month: February 2002

So the siding project is underway (has been for about a week, actually). It really does look better than I thought it would – I guess they’ve made significant improvements in the color and texture of vinyl siding since most of the houses in our neighborhood were sided. We’re doing the house in a pretty pale yellowy-creamy color – it looks really nice with the brick front. The only bad part is, since our house is on a hill, the basement concrete courses were painted to match the house – and they clash pretty awfully with the new siding – but we have to wait until it’s warmer to repaint. Oh, well. As an added bonus, the siding guy (who’s doing the job alone – I would’ve thought it would be a two-person job at least!) has to take down the gutters to put up some soffit vents, and he’s cleaning them out while they’re down. Yay! That’s one thing I’m not sorry to say we haven’t done yet in our almost three years of home ownership. For one thing, it involves ladders. For another thing, it involves…ladders. I’m not afraid of heights, except on wobbly ladders. The three step ladder I have to use for interior painting is bad enough!!! Yes, I have a fear of ladders. And spiders. If I ever saw a spider while standing on a ladder…well, it’d be like those cartoons where the character (usually Sylvester) uses the ladder like stilts and…oops, I’m rambling…time to get back to work!

Last night was the first night in two weeks that I haven’t had to come home from work, log back in, and continue working until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I didn’t even really get more sleep than usual last night, but I feel *so* rested today. Or maybe I’m just so used to being exhausted that I really am as tired as I used to be in the mornings before my crazy busy project but it’s such an improvement over the past few weeks that it feels like I’m well-rested? (OK, obviously I’m still not very coherent.)

Honest! Just haven’t been blogging much because a) I’m too busy and b) I’d only complain about how busy I am. Figured I’d spare everyone my whingeing. In a few days, things will hopefully calm down a bit, and I can return to my regularly scheduled blogging. :)

With the lovely computer outage at work, plus my QA deadline tomorrow, I just finished what I needed to get done today. I know it’s pathetic, but I’m usually at least getting ready for bed by 10, and it’s after 11, and I want to cry, I’m so sleepy…and I think my contacts are permanently fused to my eyeballs. I’m so tired, I’m not sure I can even make it up to bed. Maybe I’ll just stay here, and curl up in this nice comfy chair, with my laptop as a blanket…

One of the first signs of spring’s arrival is when the at the grocery store becomes plentiful and cheap. It’s not quite here yet, but I did find an pen while I was shopping on Sunday. :) I know, I know, it’s silly. (Maybe not as silly as the eggplant pen I bought for mom…)

Here’s a picture of the board I painted. The roses are “wallies” – wallpaper cutouts from the craft store. (They’re stuck on with little white dots so that I take them off and use them on the walls eventually.) They look like they’ll be much easier than stencils. And then if I decide I hate the color I won’t feel bad painting over it. Now I just need to collect about 5 of those 40% off a single item Michael’s coupons. :D The little bit of white underneath the board is the top of the wainscoting. I’m planning on painting that a more creamy color – “coffee cream”. I think my favorite part of painting is picking out the neatest named colors – red zinger, coffee cream, and possibly applegold (a yellow-green, or green-yellow, depending on how you look at it) for the boxes in the wainscoting… Sounds like a good snack, not dining room walls!

I have been on a total redecorating kick lately. I think it’s because I finally decided how I want everything done. I’ve been doing it room by room over the past year, and now I have such a good picture in my head about everything that I want to do it now. I’m all about instant gratification. :) So I found this fantastic burgandy paint for my dining room (which is not the next room on my list) but it’s really dark. Since it’s a fairly small room (10 x 13) with only one (east-facing) window, I’m a little nervous about using such a dark color. I bought some foam board and a quart of the paint, and spent the afternoon painting it with several coats. At one point, I found myself sitting on the dining room floor, waiting for the previous coat to dry so I could decide if it needed another coat. All I could think of was that commercial about the house paint where everyone brought lawn chairs over to watch the paint dry. *giggle* But it looks really nice! I’ve had to practically sit on my hands to prevent myself from stripping the wallpaper and starting right now. As soon as my major work project is done, I’m taking a couple days off to paint!!!

Today I feel like a lump on a log. I think I’m coming down with a head cold, which makes it really hard to concentrate on either the work I should be doing or my master’s project. Instead, I spent the day cleaning, picking out paint chips for my dining room (as if I don’t have enough home-improvement projects lined up), and just being pokey. Now it’s 5:30, I’ve barely done any work, and the weekend’s half over! Blah.

On the positive side, we did finally pick someone to do the siding. We signed the contract today. I’m a little nervous, because we went with the low bid – which was low by a lot! – but it was within the original range we had assumed we would be spending on siding, and the company had excellent references. We’ll see what happens… I hate vinyl siding to begin with – it looks fake, and the seams are so obvious – but at least the front of our house is brick, so we won’t have to look at it all that often. They’re probably going to start late next week – I didn’t know you could side your house in winter, but it’s been so mild I’m not sure this qualifies as winter anyway!

Today I talked about engineering to a bunch of 8th graders. Sounds easy, right? Right. For the past 4 (5?) years I’ve volunteered for National Engineer’s Week, where a number of us go to a middle school and do nifty engineering-type demonstrations for the kids so they’ll be interested in taking math and science in high school. Don’t know if it works or not, but most of the kids like it. I must be getting old, though, because these kids look younger and younger every year. :) And, after standing for the whole day and talking for 8 hours straight, I’m hobbling around the house like an old woman. Hopefully I’ll get my voice back before rehearsal tomorrow morning…