Next project - the second bedroom upstairs

It's been pretty quiet around the Bungalowtastic these days - I haven't been up to too much other than the holidays, at least in terms of working on the house. There was a failed shelf project that I am a little embarassed to even mention, but suffice it to say that it's VERY difficult to hang shelves on a wall that's not entirely flat. I promise to post more about this later, once we figure out a solution and actually hang the shelves.

Anyway, I am excited to get going on my next project, which I decided will be painting the second bedroom upstairs. We are going to get the carpet replaced in both upstairs bedrooms in January, which I have been told is the best time to buy new carpet. Before that, I want to paint the walls, like we did in the master bedroom.

Applying some lessons learned from the last painting project, I'm going to take a lot more care in prepping the walls prior to painting. I really wasn't very happy with the coverage from the Benjamin Moore Aura paint, so I'll either be giving Behr, Glidden, or Valspar a try. I also need to fill in some pretty major drywall cracks on the slanted wall near the window:




I need to do some research on how to best cover the cracks - the photos don't really show scale, but they're pretty big, and I don't think spackle is going to work. I have a few days off this week for New Year's so I am hoping to actually tackle this project this weekend so we can start prepping for new carpet.

Roofs that go bump in the night

So Friday we had some roofers come out to replace the flashing around the chimney and caulk the leaking gutters on the side of the garage and the side of the house. Well, since I was completely incapacitated at my work holiday party most of the day, and Adam was in court most of the day, I wasn't really sure what they got done on Friday.

I should have called the company yesterday, just to see what they got done and when they were coming back to finish the gutters (which are obviously still leaking)... but I was dealing with a WICKED hangover most of the day. So now there's this bumping, banging noise coming from above that can only be heard from the upstairs bedroom.

This morning I took a look outside, and it seems that our manual TV antenna, which happens to be pretty huge, is not very stable, and is swaying in the wind. I suspect it somehow got loosened by the roofers when they were fixing the flashing, and this is what's causing the noise. Should I have the roofers remove the antenna? Is there any practical use for it? I can't see ever not having cable or some form of digital television.

Plans, derailed

So in the midst of putting up plastic over our windows yesterday afternoon, we ended up taking one of our cats to the emergency room, which ended up taking 5 hours in total. He's doing well now - it was a recurring incident of the urinary problem he had last week, but we wanted to get it taken care of sooner rather than later. So the rest of the windows may not get done for awhile - it's really hard to do without decent light, and since we aren't usually around together during the day... we probably won't finish this project until the weekend.

And the plastic has already fallen down from the window in the basement bathroom. This is most likely a combination of the humidity and adhering the tape to the glossy bathroom paint. Sigh.

The heat is on, and it's no longer included.

So my first gas bill came on Friday. I knew it would be a bit of a shock, after living in an apartment with heat included for nearly 6 years...and waking up to toasty, clanky radiators every morning... but I didn't realize just how high it would be. Umm, $281, yikes. As a result, this weekend's projects include: 1) Readjusting the thermostat, 2) Putting up that plastic stuff on the windows.

So far, we have plasticked up 3 windows in the basement, and Adam already says he feels a difference in the bathroom. We're about to install it on the octagonal living room windows, as that has always been the coldest spot in the house. So for about $12 worth of stuff, if our gas bill goes down next month, I'll be very happy.

What do people keep their thermostats at? When I was growing up, and to this day, my parents keep theirs at 74 degrees all day and night. I used to think was normal and got into many an argument over temperature with former roommates, who I decided were just maniacal ice queens. Now that I'm paying to heat a 3 story bungalow, maybe they weren't so crazy after all. I am trying to go a few degrees colder now, keeping it at 68 or 69 during the day and 66 at night.

I will report back on how all this works out.

A public service announcement...

In the past 2 weeks, two of my very close friends had their homes burglarized. Thankfully no one was hurt in either incident, and no permanent damage was done. They were completely separate occurrences, across the country from one another, but I'm thinking it's no coincidence that times are tough, and these types of incidents may be on the rise. What is notable is that neither incident involved any sign of forcible entry.

So lock your doors and check them twice, and ask the same of anyone who may be in your home visiting, or taking care of your pets, or house-sitting while you're away for the holidays. It behooves all of us to be vigilant and not take our safety and security for granted.