Danged previous owners' corner-cutting...

worst plumbing ever 1
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

As I told the electrician, even if I TRIED to do a half-assed job on things, I couldn't have done this stuff and more stupidly than these people.

Our main-floor bathtub drain sprung a leak the other day -- fortunately, we were working on the basement, in the utility room, when it happened. Otherwise, it might have gone unnoticed for a time.

This is what I was greeted with. You can read all about the stupidity in the photo's caption on the page. It doesn't surprise me one bit...and although it's an "easy" fix, it's not something I need to do right now, given all the other work in the family room downstairs.

Minor changes and updates...

new window film 2
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Yesterday Gina and I went to Home Depot to look at and possibly buy new blinds for the nursery. The ones in there are a tan color that doesn't match and looks really horrible, actually, against the light green on the walls now.

We backed off on buying the blinds, and we've actually decided that we'll probably just switch the tan ones in the nursery with the white ones in our master bedroom -- assuming they measure up right, as they are expected to do. We shall see.

While there, I checked out the Artscapes product...it's a static cling window film made to look like stained glass. Our first floor bathroom faces pretty much a brick wall with a glass block bathroom window for "variety" next door. But the PO installed blinds for privacy. That's cool, except the blinds weren't a perfect vertical fit, and they were dark brown (which is nice, except they made the room very dark). There isn't much in the way of ambient light from the fixtures in there, so I wanted to brighten it up some.

I followed all the directions in the package, so we'll see if it sticks and for how long. I figured, for $20 or whatever it was exactly, it was worth a shot. And it definitely looks pretty and is easy to use. Plus, it goes with the Arts & Crafts motif -- this design, anyway. Furthermore, the bathroom is done in gold and beige, so this matches pretty much spot-on. It's better than plain clear frosted film, in my opinion.

You can also head on over to Flickr to see how the nursery's coming along and see a picture of the room with the furniture hanging out, waiting for baby. We've got one month and one day to the supposed due date, so it's just a waiting game now. :)

Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone!

Ah...painting, finished...

I really HATE painting. I like most home improvement tasks, but painting is not one of them. I pretty much always love the outcome, as I like having color in my house; but I hate the process and work to get to that process.

My brother came by this evening again to help me finish, finally, the baby's room. We needed to paint the slanted ceiling and the alcove ceiling a lighter shade of green than the walls are. For the walls, again, we used Benjamin Moore Key Lime, and we painted the slanted part of the ceiling and the alcove ceiling only with B.M. Lime Froth, basically two shades lighter than Key Lime. You can, honestly, barely see the Lime Froth vs. white ceiling, which it borders -- but that's OK. Gina's more of a conservative person when it comes to paint choices, particularly accents wall types of things. I'd personally have gone one or two shades DARKER, instead of lighter, but, again, this is OK. It's her room to decorate, I told her.

So that's done, finally. I don't have any pictures right now though. After it's cleaned up and lookin' good, I'll post more. It isn't much different than the last set.

After getting our $300 gas bill today, which is probably nothing compared to some people, and then reading about heating at The Bungalow Chronicles, I've decided to add a new task to the projects bar on the left -- installing programmable thermostats both upstairs and downstairs. At some point, of course. First, I have to figure out if I need to buy a new toilet for the first floor, as it appears to be broken. Although I could install the old upstairs toilet down here and see if that one works. Probably worth a shot, honestly. But I don't know when I'll get around to either of those tasks, as picking up and assembling the baby furniture is next on the list.

Meanwhile, Gina needs to find new window coverings for the baby room's windows, since the blinds up there are beige/tan and don't match anything now. Of course, then I'll probably have to install whatever it is...unless it's curtains. Maybe she can do those...we'll see.