Designed to Sell

One of my favorite shows on Home & Garden TV is Designed to Sell, in which homeowners are told what's wrong with their house so they can fix it up and get a better offer when selling. Tonight, I watched an episode as I walked on the treadmill, and I wondered what the designer would tell us to fix at our house.

I think we'd do pretty good on the curb appeal, except for the normal winter's end drabness. I usually put pansies in pots, but I never got around to that this year. My daffodils and crocuses are starting to come up, so I probably won't fool with it this late.

But aside from the lack of color, I think our house looks pretty good on the front. The new siding, painted trim, and mailbox number look nice. I also replaced our American flag today. The old one had definitely seen better days.

Once inside the door, though, I can just imagine the designer's comments:

The foyer's too dark.
Too many family pictures.
Cluttered with too many accessories.
Ceiling light fixtures need updating.
Carpet needs replacing everywhere.
Trim needs painting.
Kitchen floor doesn't blend into dining room floor.
Need new paint or wallpaper in the dining room.
All baths need updating with new fixtures, flooring, paint or paper.
Laundry room cabinets need painting.
Plantation shutters need painting.
Wall cracks need repair.
All inside doors need painting or replacing.
All but one room upstairs needs painting.
Upstairs floor needs repair.
Deck needs replacing.
Backyard garden fence needs updating.
Entire backyard fence needs replacing.
Beds need to be weeded.
Roof needs replacing.

Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. There's no way we could do that on the show's $2,000 budget. And it makes me weak just to think how much all that will eventually cost us, because, believe me--it needs to be done, whether we're selling or not.

So much we can do ourselves, if we have the time. But the roof, carpet, floor repairs, and some of the bathroom updates are beyond us. By the time we have the money to fix them, we'll be too old to enjoy the changes!

What's that they say? Youth is wasted on the young. Maybe so.

Unhinged Again

For the past several evenings, I have struggled unsuccessfully to reattach the lower cabinet doors to my daughter's bookshelves. I had removed them so that we could transport the shelves more easily from her old room to her new room (which is really her old, old room). You'd think it would be a simple task--just four screws for each door. The holes are already there. Just hold the hinge up to the holes, insert the screws, and buzz-buzz on the handy-dandy power screwdriver/drill.

Not so fast, buster.

You see, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to make the doors level. They were relatively level prior to the move. Why they're not now, I've no idea. The hinges look somewhat adjustable, but in trying to adjust one of them, I lost a screw. Apparently, you can't even unscrew that piece a fraction before it falls out.

I've switched doors, turned them upside down, turned me upside down, and done everything except a little dance in the middle of the room. Nothing works. I even resorted to asking my husband to try. He was unable to fix them either, which made me feel not so stupid but still disappointed that we can't get them to work.

Maybe I'll go back to my original idea to leave off the doors completely and use baskets on the lower shelves. It means another expense, but it should be minimal with the 50% off sale this week at Hobby Lobby. What worries me most is my daughter's tendency to be, well, let's say "untidy." At least with the doors, you can close off the mess when company comes.

Too bad I can't do that with the rest of the house :-)

Just A Minute

I firmly believe that there must be some subliminal message permeating the air at stores like Home Depot and Lowe's. Every time I go in there--even if it's only for "just a minute"--I get sucked into a time warp and can't get out for at least an hour.

Today, I ran by the local HD to pick up some chair leg felt pads for our new kitchen bar stools. That was all I planned to get--it was a very short list! As soon as I got out of the car, I happened to notice the pansies sitting outside the nursery area. It was a bright, sunny day, and the pansies reminded me that I had planned to plant my lettuce seed this afternoon. But I needed some soil for my window boxes. I made a quick, mental note to pick up a bag of soil after I got the pads.

As I entered the store, I turned toward the nursery. Before I got to the soil, I passed the seeds. Now, I had already purchased several varieties of lettuce seed, but a new one caught my eye. So I dropped it into my basket.

I heaved the huge bag of soil into the cart and headed for the carpet pads. But before I got out the nursery doors, I spied some vegetables plants on a rack--right next to the aisle where you couldn't miss them. (Smart marketers, those HD folks.) I did a quick once over of the plants and decided to pick up a broccoli seedling. After all, I've had trouble raising broccoli from seed in the past, so I thought it couldn't hurt to get just one.

As I went further, my route took me past the paint section. There was a display of caulk right by the aisle (again!), which reminded me that I finished the tube of caulk while caulking my daughter's bookcases the other night. So I grabbed some of that before continuing on.

I finally made it to the carpet pads, which are usually on the end of the aisle. However, this particular display was out of the type of pad I needed, so I had to walk further down the aisle to the main display. I found the right pads, but en route back to the main drag I passed the cabinet hardware--and stopped. You see, I'd been thinking about getting new knobs and drawer pulls for my daughter's desk to tie in the bookcases with the desk better. (The bookcases have cabinet doors on the bottom.) So I spent a few more minutes checking out the knob and pull designs, colors, and sizes. I knew it would be impractical to buy new ones today, since I didn't have the measurements I needed nor my daughter with me. But that didn't stop me from wasting time looking.

Fortunately, when I got to the checkout line, it moved quickly, or I might have ended up with another magazine in my cart. I did get stalled at the register, though, when the scanner kept malfunctioning. Good thing I was already too far away from the product display to grab anything else, like a pack of batteries or another flashlight.

When I left the HD building, the bright sunlight hit me squarely in the eyes. It was like a jolt that woke me up--awakened from my "HD-induced slumber" where I roam the aisles aimlessly, "just looking" and imagining wonderful new projects to be added to my list.

And I'm sure that's just what HD intended.

To Insulate Or Not To Insulate

Like most areas of the country, our winter utility bills have skyrocketed this year--despite a very mild winter in our parts. The utility company says it's partially caused by Katrina's disruption of oil and natural gas refineries, but I'm sure there are other contributing factors. Regardless, our last utility bill was more than $300, compared to the normal winter bill of $170 or $250 in a very cold spell.

Though we have a home encompassing over 2,600 s.f., we are fortunate that our house is relatively well-insulated. We do have storm windows, or so they're called. They definitely could be upgraded, with enough money. I'm sure we need to do some caulking and weatherstripping, too. But our attic seems to have sufficient insulation, and we have a new water heater that has built-in insulation.

My mother's house, on the other hand, is a circa 1954 home of less than 700 s.f. Knowing that the utilities were going up this winter, I intended to do some upgrading to her insulation to help on her bills. She's on a fixed income and is the kind of person who will do dangerous and stupid things to save money--like use the gas oven to heat her living area or turn her thermostat down too low for someone of her age.

I recently went up in her attic to check out the depth of her insulation and was astounded to realize that there was absolutely none in there! All these years, I had thought there was something. You'd think as many times as I'd been in that attic growing up, I would've noticed the lack of insulation. But I was surprised at what I found this time. I guess back in 1954, utilities were so low that they didn't think they needed insulation?

No matter, I thought, I'd just have to put in more insulation than I thought. But on closer inspection, I saw all the electrical wires running across the rafters--right through the areas where I would be laying batts. I'm a worrier of the first order, so my next thought was, "I can't insulate this attic by myself because I'm afraid I'll do something to cause a fire!"

I researched insulation online, and everywhere I looked, the instructions said to be careful with electrical wires and pipes, etc. I can be careful, but what the heck do I do with them? After an exhaustive search, I gave up and decided it was not a DIY job for me, at least, unless I had someone with me who had more knowledge than I.

So I decided to check the price on getting a professional to put down insulation. Apparently, professional insulation companies only do blown insulation--which I do not want her to have. (I had enough of that in Katrina-soaked Mississippi.) It didn't matter anyway because no one was interested in the job. Too small. Too busy this season. Too bad.

Here's another one of those situations where the average Joe (or Joie) is screwed because he (she) isn't wealthy enough or doesn't have a big enough house for someone to give you a second glance. Only the multimillion dollar renovations grab the interest of most contractors. And the few that might be interested are so overwhelmed with customers that they can charge an arm and a leg just to do a simple job.

Those "handyman" companies are worthless, too, in my opinion. I've tried on several occasions to get a quote on something--either for my mother's house or mine--and never even had the courtesy of a call back. Yet they keep advertising in each week's paper to get your jobs that you don't have the time or expertise to do.

Is it any wonder that stores like Home Depot and Lowe's are doing a booming business with DIY-ers? I just wish those free clinics covered more topics. Sometimes, they're too concerned with "decorating" rather than repairs or home improvement. I guess it depends on what product they're trying to push in the sales department that month.

Am I cynical? You bet. But I'll have the last laugh because I'm determined to learn more of this stuff. And I'll keep more of my money in my pocket, to boot!

No Finger-Pointing Here

As a beginning woodworker, I am the first to admit that I have a lot to learn--not just in terms of technique and skill but in terms of safety, too. Anyone who's been a regular reader of my blog has heard of my stupid mistakes that, fortunately, didn't cause loss of life or limb. But they could have.

I'm always eager to learn from other woodworkers/handywomen/carpenters, etc., but I never thought I'd see something like this. The site woodworking.org actually has an Accident Survey where you can search for mishaps that people have had, narrowing it right down to the specific type of tool and the person's skill level. For instance, I looked up "table saw" and "beginner" and was given a series of personal stories detailing injuries and near misses.

It's a macabre, voyeuristic experience, but you can bet you'll learn what not to do in your own workshop! I wonder if anyone mentions flying dowel pieces . . .

Swaying to the Music

I recently discovered an oldies radio station that plays my kind of music. It's amazing how it improves my attitude at work when I have it on in the background. (The only problem is I get terrible reception!) Even on songs that I never cared for in the past, I find myself rocking to the beat--that '60s and early '70s music was just far superior to what they play today. Songs like "Can't Get No Satisfaction," "Good Thing," "Kind of a Drag," "California Dreamin'," "Kind of a Hush," "Let's Stay Together," etc., etc.! It puts a smile on my face.

However, I'm a bit wary to turn on the radio while I'm in the carpentry mode. Imagine what damage I would do while bopping to the beat with a power tool in my hand!

"The Eve of Destruction" would take on a whole new meaning.

Behind Closed Doors

I finally finished embellishing one of Amelia's two bookcases today and moved it to her new room, alongside the desk and hutch. To minimize the weight when transporting it from one room to the other, I removed the lower cabinet doors. Once it was put in place, I thought it might be nice to leave the doors off and use white baskets on those bottom two shelves. So I'm now in search of the appropriate size, color, and price of baskets.

One thing I learned when working on these bookcases was the danger of hidden storage--at least for a preteen. A ton of "stuff" was unearthed from behind those cabinet doors when Amelia emptied them. I asked her to sort through the pile, to throw away what could be tossed and to figure out what could be moved up to the attic. What was left would be stored in the shelf when it was moved.

After a few minutes, I looked down from my perch on the stepstool and saw her on the floor, surrounded by her "stuff," and immersed in reading one of the notebooks she had "found" inside the cabinet. I gently urged her to get back to sorting, but before long, she was buried in another book. Suffice it to say that I had to do the sorting for her later :-)

The bookshelf looks pretty good, and I was pleased with the outcome of the scalloped trim on top. I drilled a large hole in the back to feed her stereo cord through, and we put most of her "stuff" back on the shelf. The second bookshelf is not quite done. I glued and clamped the trim in place but will let it sit overnight before setting the nails and moving it. Hopefully, we can move it to her room tomorrow. Then she'll have NO EXCUSE for "stuff" on the floor!

Of course, as her old room slowly is emptied--except for the drums--I am realizing that if I ever want to paint it (which I do), it had better be before I put anything else in there. We made the mistake of not painting the master bedroom when we moved into the house 11 years ago. It's the only room we have yet to paint, despite the desperate need for it. The idea of moving a huge armoire filled with TV and stereo equipment, a king-sized bed, two nightstands, a heavy desk, and a very heavy gentleman's chest is just too much for my feeble mind to grasp. And there's no way to paint around those things. They'd have to come out.

So I will not make that mistake twice. Once I move out Amelia's second shelf, there will be nothing left in her old room but the drums and my sewing machine. Those are easily moved temporarily during painting. And does it ever need painting! It's hot pink (with the expected dirt and scribbles, nail holes, and scuff marks from a preteen), topped with a tulip wallpaper border. Not exactly the decor for a music room.

My "plan" is to paint the room a rich yellow, add black bookshelves and a corner TV stand, and make a long countertop/table under which my sewing machine cabinet would roll. (We need a TV/VCR/DVD in there so Amelia can use her drum instruction DVD while she practices. We're hoping our old one in the attic still works.) That should go okay with the silver drums--I hope.

Unfortunately, while I may get the room painted one weekend soon, I doubt I'll have time to work on the furniture for a while. I promised Kate I'd try to finish her hutch before her birthday--which is the end of March! And I still have that half bath downstairs to strip and paint. Maybe I can teach the girls to strip wallpaper and apply masking tape. That way I could knock out the painting for both rooms in one weekend. I guess that means I need to sucker them into helping me before soccer starts.

I wonder if the dog could hold a paintbrush in her mouth?

Congratulations!

One of my many tasks in my day job is to edit a monthly employee newsletter. In each issue, we give away a $25 gift certificate to a local store or restaurant to one fortunate reader. The winner must correctly answer a question that relates to one of the articles in the issue and be lucky enough to have his/her entry drawn from among the other correct entries.

I always enjoy calling the winner with the news. Invariably, the response goes like this:

"I never won anything in my life!"

Well, I have won a few things in my lifetime, but they haven't been big. When I was a teen, I won a Cowsills "live" album for sending in my favorite snack recipe that goes with milk. (At the time, the Cowsills were doing PSAs for the Dairy Board.) There must not have been much competition, because I entered two different recipes and was sent two copies of the album.

Shortly after I got married, my husband and I "won" medals in a dance contest at his company's picnic. If you have ever seen us dance, you would know the outcome was "fixed." We competed against a bunch of elderly folks and a very few middle-aged couples. The fact that we were newlyweds cinched our place as the winners. I guess we just looked romantic. Either that, or we looked so bad that they awarded us the prize just to get us off the dance floor.

Well, I figure after all these years, my time is due to win something big. My youngest daughter has her heart set on us winning the HGTV house of the year, and I've been dutifully entering daily (almost) online to appease her. But my heart is set on something else--Norm's Workshop.

If you watch This Old House, you'll know who Norm is. He's the lead carpenter on the show and also has his own show, The New Yankee Workshop. Norm is a master craftsman, and his work shows it. Well, now Woodworkers Journal has launched a sweepstakes with the grand prize being an entire inventory of workshop tools ($21,500 value) selected by Norm. The winner even gets flown to Boston to visit Norm's real workshop and watch a taping of his show!

My fingers get itchy when I think of all those tools--a drill press, dust collector (boy, do I need that!), plate joiner, 3 kinds of power nailers, band saw, and more. Just imagine how many mistakes I could make with that many power tools!

Of course, if I won, I'd need one more thing: a workshop. I wonder if the HGTV house of the year has one of those????

Yipee?

I subscribe to an e-newsletter from Woodworking for Women, and this week's issue gave me pause. The editor had used the letters that form the word, "JOY," to spell out her suggested resolutions for woodworking women in 2006. (I think she went a bit overboard, listing about a million things for each letter, but that's neither here nor there.)

Here's the comment that made me think:

Yippee! should be your response when you make a mistake. You'll learn something new every time that happens. Not that you should try to make mistakes.

Now, I wouldn't never looked at a mistake that way. But, as my blog subtitle says, I'm learning this craft one mistake at a time. And I really do try to learn from my mistakes. Here are some things I finally learned to do right, after doing them wrong too many times:

• I measure a million times before cutting.
• I check to be sure which side of the wood is the "good" side before cutting.
• I triple-check the straightness of the table saw fence.
• I cut more than one pass to make a large groove with the router rather than a single pass.
• I sand and sand and sand again to get a smooth finish.
• I use a dust mask.
• I clean up my mess as I go along.
• I keep my drill battery charged.
• I slowly lower the miter saw, then turn it off before raising the blade.
• I level and level and level again, frontways, backways, and upside down!
• I keep my scraps of wood--you never know when you'll need one.
• I drill a pilot hole for screws.
• I realize I'll never get everything I need in one trip to Home Depot, no matter how hard I try.

Good lessons from 2005. I'm sure they'll be plenty more mistakes in 2006 from which I can learn.

Close But No Cigar

My wonderful Redskins lost their playoff game this afternoon. Our Cinderella story came to an end. It was great to get this far, but it just wasn't there for us this year. Joe Gibbs did a fantastic job in two short years to get us this far, so perhaps next year will be the one for us to make it all the way. The good news is I won't be planning a Super Bowl party--which means I can get some work done around the house!

I cut the tops for my daughter's laminate bookshelves tonight. The game took up my whole afternoon, so that's about all I got done today. I'll prime and paint tomorrow. Fortunately, I have Monday off this week.

We were able to unload a pickup full of stuff for the Goodwill, which freed up a little room in the attic. I left most of the "good" stuff for the garage sale that I still plan to hold when the next three-day weekend rolls around. I'm glad I didn't try to do it today, since I'm still a bit under the weather with sinus crud.

I'm getting a bit fearful, though, about finishing some of these projects. It's mid-January, and where we are, it seems almost like spring. (In fact, some of my bulbs are already sprouting from the ground!) Our seed catalogs have come, and I've already purchased a bunch of seeds for my cool-weather veggies. Pretty soon, I'll have to be out in the garden, clearing out last year's debris and prepping the beds for this year's crop. Then it will be time for soccer season to start, then mowing the grass, then . . . there's no time left for woodworking.

My neighbor across the street told me today he's getting ready to convert his attic to a playroom. Since his house is almost identical to ours inside, it got me thinking about yet another project. That would be a killer renovation, though, and one I'm not nearly ready to tackle.

I need a job where I'm off all summer so I can do these projects, work in the garden, and travel. I shoulda been a teacher. Now that would have been hilarious!

Back in the Saddle

I've avoided blogging for several days for a number of reasons. The main one is I've been plain ol' tired. All the Christmas activities (despite my week off from work) wore me out. Then it was back to the office to get caught up. A few days ago, I got a sinus infection--and that has really worn me out! But I think the main reason I haven't blogged is I got out of the habit. It's strange how you become accustomed to doing the same thing over and over. When you stop--for whatever reason--it's just as easy to get accustomed to NOT doing that thing. Once I didn't blog for a few days, it became harder and harder to force myself to get up and do it.

Now that I've broken the ice, shall we say, let's see if I can resume my fairly regular schedule. This blog is about a year old, now. If nothing else, it's helped me chronicle my failures and successes (few though they be) at my new hobby.

I still haven't finished Amelia's checkerboard, though I have done some work fixing her bookcases. She has two of those cheap, white laminate bookcases that you get at Office Max. These are about 11 years old, since we bought them for her sister when she was three. They've become a little worn but still serviceable. So I'm trying to "fancy them up" a bit.

I bought a 6-foot piece of scalloped trim and painted it to match the bookcase. It was plenty to make two separate pieces with some left over. The scallop trim will help to tie her bookcases into the style of the desk/hutch combo that sits in between the shelves. I haven't installed the trim yet, though, because I'm replacing the bookcase tops, too. That will enable me to have a smoother line on top. Maybe I can finish that this weekend :-)

My original plan for this weekend was to have a garage sale to get a little bit of money from all that stuff in our attic. But with my sinus problem, I think I may just send most of it to the Goodwill instead. I don't think I have the energy to get it all downstairs, much less stand in the cold all morning to haggle over a few kids' clothing items or some curtains. I'd probably do better trying to finish the checkerboard and bookshelves so I can move on to doing the hutch in my older daughter's room.

That was one prediction I made this year--I'll finish her room, poor thing. You see, we don't make resolutions around our house. We make predictions. Mine usually include things like we'll get at least 4-inches of snow this year--a rare occurrence down in these parts, but wishful thinking. My husband predicts babies, marriages, and such in the family. And the girls predict whatever they want to come true. It's interesting to see what really does come true when we reflect on the year later.

Here's another prediction--I'll mess up a bunch of carpentry projects this year. But I'll learn from my mistakes!