Darkoshi

I just got called "sweetie" again, by a woman on the phone. I'm 39 years old and still getting called "sweetie". ::amused::

I was calling to make an appointment for routine service to my air conditioning unit. I'm hoping that once I see how it is done, I can do it myself in the future.

I'm on vacation this week.

Now I still need to make some calls to get quotes for a roof replacement.

I was considering getting a metal roof, because of the beneficial energy and environmental aspects. They're supposed to keep the attic cooler, thereby reducing your A/C use. And since they are metal, they're recyclable at the end of their supposedly long lifespan. But I'm not convinced that the standing-seam kind of metal roof will maintain a good appearance over a long time-span. I've seen many standing-seam roofs where the colors have faded or the finish has started to look weathered.

So I was considering the smaller metal tile shingles. They look nicer to me than the standing-seam kind of roof. But it seems that metal tiles can be easily damaged, if you ever need to walk on the roof. Most websites say to read the manufacturers' special instructions for how to walk on the roof. Walking on a metal roof is also more slippery and dangerous than on an asphalt shingle roof. If the shingles aren't installed right, there are risks of leaks... and my guess is that not many roofers around here have much experience with metal shingles.

So then I was considering the regular or architectural asphalt shingles again.

I remember seeing a shingle that was metal but covered with some kind of asphalt-like coating, on an home improvement TV show... but I haven't found any info on those online.
Update: I found out that they are called "stone coated metal tile" or "stone coated steel".


Now I came across another new thing - "synthetic polymer-based" shingles.

Sigh. I thought I was decided, but now I'm not anymore.

Another issue is whether I've got enough attic ventilation. That can cause asphalt shingles to fail early. I've got aluminum soffits, with vented slats every few yards. I was wondering whether the solid aluminum slats could all be replaced with vented slats, to increase ventilation. But I've now discovered that the aluminum soffit was installed over an older wood soffit. The vented aluminum slats are on top of the old vents which were in the wood soffit. So adding more venting would require dealing with *both* the aluminum and the wood soffits. Sigh.

It is so hard deciding what to do.

Still emotional. This guy I don't even really know, other than the name, posted on one of the lists that he was throwing a milestone birthday party for himself and inviting all his friends to come to a fun event... That seemed like such a brave, unusual thing to do, when I read it. But now he cancelled it, due to "not really any interest". Made me cry to think about it from his point of view. Which is somewhat silly, right?, as maybe it didn't even bother him that much, if he was that brave to begin with.

But anyway.

Sunshine! Finally. The birds and squirrels are scampering and playing in it.

I got a good amount of sleep last night and feel much better today.

It looks like I'm going to be doing Halloween again this year. Got a pumpkin, got candy....
But it seems I shall have to invest in some advertising of my candy-giveaway business, if I want to get any costumed munchkins at all at my doorstep on the special day. A nearby house has a fantastic Halloween display with a lighted ghoul clawing its way out of the ground. I will put colored lights up on one of the trees in my front-yard. And perhaps I'll go see what kind of decorations they have available this year the stores... Hehehheh, Halloween stuff, and having an actual reason to buy it!

I discovered that hollow doors aren't hollow on about the outer 1.5 inches of the door edges. (Hurrah for stud-finders!) That made putting up the magnetic doorstop much easier than I had thought it was going to be. I also got the push-down spring-loaded doorstops put up on 2 of the other doors. They were even easier to install than the magnetic one. But they are too slick on the bottom to work very well. I will attach some better rubber so that they hold the doors better.

The phone box's ground wire goes into the basement, and it was connected with a clamp to one of the hot water pipes. I thought that perhaps that was part of the problem; perhaps the water heater was interfering with having a direct path to ground. So I considered moving the ground wire over to the cold water pipe instead. Then I remembered that after I moved in, I had a plumber install a shut-off valve on the main water pipe coming into the basement. When he did that, he replaced a small section of the original metal water pipe by the new valve with a section of plastic pipe. So it is possible that before then, the water pipes were grounded, but afterwards, they no longer were. So I installed a new ground wire going from the clamp on the hot water pipe out to the grounding rod outside. Maybe I should have just removed the original ground wire from the phone box, and connected the new wire directly to the box instead of to the pipe. I'm not sure.

Now I shall monitor my phone line over the next few days to see if the static is gone. Here's hoping!!

Why is it, that one day will go along fairly great, and you'll get a lot of stuff done - wash a load of clothes and hang them up to dry; wash the sheets and dry them and put them back on the bed; take some items to the thrift shop; get the car's oil changed, in spite of the first place you go to being full and only accepting appointments for next week; buy an air filter for the car and install it; figure out how the garage door bottom seal is attached and how to remove it; wash the garage door seal in preparation for removing it; go to Lowes and buy some more step stones for the yard, and some foam rod to put into the garage door seal to hopefully keep it from being squashed flat, and a wooden peg rack (with thoughts of attaching it to the now-non-squeaking door for being able to hang some bells on the pegs); clean up stuff in the living room; try out the extra digital converter box with the small TV in the bedroom; sew various things that have been needing sewing; manage not to be sad and upset the whole day in spite of having started out feeling that you and your guyfriend might be on the verge of breaking up...

And the next day just falls flat...

- You realize that that there are 2 more possibilities of how to position bells on or around the door (this was actually a good thing) - one curtain rod hook which I have fits into the molly bolts which I have, so I could install that hook in the door; I could also hang a bell or chimes from the ceiling, so that when the door opens, it would brush against the bottom of the bell-pull or the bottom of the chimes and cause them to make noise...

- While opening the bedroom curtains, you notice that its curtain rod hook is somewhat loose and leaning downwards, so you decide to put in a drywall anchor so that it will hold better...
- You go to get a drywall anchor from the sunroom, and notice that the cardinals are still banging themselves against the window (you had noticed it yesterday already, and had pulled the blinds down in hopes that would reduce the reflection)...
- You try to put the drywall anchor in the wall, but even after drilling the hole bigger, it still won't go in all the way; and in the process you spill drywall dust on the newly washed sheets...
- You decide to get the ladder from the garage, so that you can look into the hole to see what the problem is (apparently the hole is right over the stud, and the stud is causing problems)...
- In the garage, you discover that rain has leaked in again under the garage door seal - the most water that has *ever* leaked in since I've been here...
- You try to write an LJ post about the birds, but the LJ site response time is very slow...
- Then you spend time taping plastic over the window, and sweeping water out of the garage...
- Then you cut off the end of the drywall anchor, but it *still* doesn't fit all the way into the hole...
- You finally cut enough off the end of the anchor so that it fits in, and the hook holds fairly well, but in the process, the left side of curtains falls off the rod..

::sigh::

Someone greased the hinges on at least 2 of my doors. With multiple people staying at my house, I can't even be sure of who did it, without asking. I'm pissed that they did it without asking me. The one door, I liked that it squeaked. I purposefully did not fix the squeak, because I thought that if someone were to break into the house at night while I'm here alone, at least the door squeaking might have woken me up, or the noise may have worried the intruder - in the same way that the noisy squeaking floor in the hallway might.

I'm annoyed that they did it without asking me. Do they think I'm too stupid to know how to grease my own squeaking doors? I'm annoyed that you can't easily un-oil a door hinge and make it start squeaking again. I'm annoyed that they probably were trying to be helpful, so I know that I shouldn't even complain to them about it. I shouldn't. It's my own fault for not telling them not to oil my door hinges. I even thought about telling them about it a few times, but then I thought that I was being silly - surely they wouldn't fix my squeaking doors on their own, and I didn't want to have to tell them my weird reason for not wanting the squeaks gone.

I'll ask Q if he did it, as I don't think it was him. But I won't complain about it, as it would be unreasonable to do so. It's quite reasonable to think one doesn't need to ask permission to oil a squeaky door. It's quite reasonable to think that the other person simply hasn't done it because they haven't had the time, or the know-how, or that the squeak simply doesn't bother the other person as much as it does oneself.
I'm just ranting here instead of complaining to the do-gooder. Gah!

Ok. I've made cupcakes, painted the closet, and gone shopping.

The closet turned out very well; the painting seemed much easier than the primer-ing. Lessons learned, and all that. One thing I learned - don't wash out the paintbrushes and tools in the kitchen sink. Do it in the tub, and use a bucket. Else risk splashing half the kitchen with watery paint, and spending more time cleaning that up than it took to do the painting.

Cupcakes also turned out very well.

I also uploaded vids to YouTube. I had trouble with one of the shirtless ones, so you'll just not be able to see me flogging myself along to music for the time being.

Here are the vids. I recorded these in 2006 and 2007.

Fast Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEJJIqrjaG8

Skirt Hat Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVWf7Ty9Chs

Blue Androgyne (warning, semi-nakedness)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqX9Z8PMrt8

Black Balloon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxic4pmAY4I

The last one is fairly long, but I think it is cute. There's a bit right before the 6 and a half minute mark that makes me laugh, watching it.

I had the air conditioner on earlier today so that the person whom I had hired to install tile flooring in the washer/dryer area wouldn't be too uncomfortable while working. The temperature in the house was down to about 83 degrees (which felt way cooler than outside). Around 2pm, I turned the AC off and haven't had the windows open since then. It supposedly got up to 102 today, and is supposed to go down to 78 tonight. Now it is 11:16pm, and is about 87 degrees in the house, but it still feels hotter outside than in!

I'm not complaining, mind you. Just marvelling.

.

Now I am trying to decide which washer and dryer to buy. I really have a hard time making decisions like this sometimes... there are so many factors, so much data to consider, so many potential problems. On the internet, you can find stories of problems with pretty much every brand and model, so you have to figure out which problems are wide-spread versus not.

And should I get the smaller sized ones which would fit better in my w/d area, or bigger ones which can handle larger sized items... no, I don't have a king-size-comforter at this time, but is it possible I might ever need to wash something that big in the future???

And I'm not sure if I will need to get part of my standpipe replaced, since one brochure said it should be a minimum of 2 inches, and mine is smaller. While checking the pipe in the basement, I noticed that the insulation on the electric cable to that area is frayed off, leaving the paper wrappings exposed.

I wish that the w/d area were located somewhere else... not in the main part of the house where it could cause a big mess if the water ever leaks. But it is where it is.

.

I wonder if I can get my shower faucet which has a single control replaced with one which has 2 or 3 separate controls, or if that would require cutting into the shower wall to get to the pipes behind it.

I called the recycling office and verified that they are supposed to pick up the recyclables on Monday, each week. They said they will give my address to someone who will monitor the situation.

Discovered ants crawling over the bin, which I had left on the porch. So I bumped them off it and washed it today after all. I will glue and/or tape together some of the cracked parts, and then set it out again next Monday.

I looked up non-toxic remedies against ants. Instant grits or cornmeal is supposed to swell in their bellies and kill them. Repeatedly pouring boiling water over the hill may work. Or soapy water, or water with orange oil. But some of that sounds cruel. I also read that they don't like cinnamon. I don't have any pure cinnamon, but do have some pumpkin pie spice which contains cinnamon. So I sprinkled that over the ant hill by the water meter. I don't need to kill them, and I don't care much if they build their hill somewhere else by the curb. I just don't want them right there by the meter. The meter-reader person probably doosn't want them there either.

If there is a meter-reader person, that is. I noticed on my water bill that even though a monthly meter reading is listed, the amount of the bill is apparently constant regardless of usage. And I suspect they may have put down an estimated "reading".

I braved the attic space by myself, and put an extension on the light-pull, so that I can now reach it from the ladder without crawling all the way up there.

Doing these kind of things with the house... getting things accomplished, seems to make me feel excited/good/proud. And then tired and exhausted.

I think I'm ready now to set up an appointment for an electrician to come over. Although I still need to get a different light fixture for the front hall, so that they can install it.

Well, shucks. :)

While I was in my basement, I had noticed a crack in one of the heating/air ducts which needs to be patched. So my logical conclusion was, "Aha! That must be what duct tape is truly meant for! I shall use some duct tape to patch it closed."

But in reading the Wikipedia entry on duct tape, I find out that "The name "duct tape" came from its use on heating and air conditioning ducts, a purpose for which it, ironically, has been deemed ineffective."
and that "Their major conclusion is that one should use anything but duct tape to seal ducts."

Who woulda thunk it?

I noticed that the neighbors have at least 2 roosters. They appeared to be tethered on either side of the front door yesterday. They were actually quite big and colorful-looking compared to what I had imagined. From the cute sound, I had envisaged a scrawny-looking thing. I didn't see any chickens around though, and I hope the roosters are not being kept for cock-fighting.