The Morning After

A little dark outside yet, but this is how my house and car look this Saturday morning!  The entire neighborhood is a winter wonderland, although I would not like to be out on the streets driving.  Can you spell ICE?

My neighbor's yard, also this morning. 

I had (still have?) thoughts of checking out a flea market today, but unless the ice melts completely, that's not going to be on the menu.  Since it's clear and sunny out, perhaps that will happen.  We'll see.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning the master bedroom -- just the woodwork, windows, fireplace, blinds, not walls or floors.  One window turned out to have a good bit of flaking paint, so I cleaned off the worst of it, so I could actually clean.  Like so much else, this will be a project for summer.  All the windows need work of one kind or another.  Today, or soon, I want to fill nail holes and maybe attack the floor, which has lots of tiny paint spatters.  They flake off easily with a fingernail, but again, there are lots of them so it will be a slow process.  Still, it would be nice to have this finished before the furniture arrives.  I'm also having thoughts of painting the walls, but not sure how far I'll get with that one.  To do it right, I think I need to do a lot more prep work and I don't think I'm into that right now.  And I need to think about colors.

Bathroom, as is when I arrived, minus a few things left by the sellers.  The vanity/sink is awful, not enough storage and this is ALL the storage in the room.  The medicine cabinet is too high, old and rusty, and there is NO electrical outlet in the room other than in the light above the medicine cabinet, which I couldn't possibly reach.  I've already replaced the plastic shower curtain with my cotton one, and tried without success to remove the steel support on the tub.  It really doesn't look much better now.  The room just doesn't work.

Another interesting discovery is that the tub surround in the bathroom allows water to seep behind it. See the vertical seams under the window? They're not tight, and there's also a bit of caulking needed where it meets the tub. I doubt that the woman who lived here used the shower, and it's been almost a year since anyone lived here, so there probably isn't a lot of damage but I need to be sure.  I've sealed the seams with masking tape (don't laugh, it's all I had on hand and so far it's working) so I can use the shower.  But, I think it's becoming obvious that I need to attack the bathroom first, in terms of major work and expenditures.  I'm not thrilled with that, since there are other things that appeal to me more. On the other hand, I really dislike everything about this room and it would be good to remedy that.  I can see the $$ signs growing however, as I think about what I'd like to do with the room.  So -- lots to think about.

Mayflower told me yesterday that the truck carrying my stuff was in Kansas, which is over half way here.  That's good news, because I'd really like to have my comfortable things to sit and sleep on.  They couldn't give me a delivery date, because there are other deliveries involved.  But soon, surely!