The Sweetness of Doing it Yourself

Tonight, *B* and I knocked out a whole bunch of projects that we've been putting off.  It's amazing how a few small changes make such a big difference. 

Some of the projects were little.  The globe fell off of the ceiling fan in our room weeks ago, and we never got around to putting it back up.  The curtains also fell down (a pattern here?), so we patched the holes in the wall and will put them back up tomorrow.

Some projects were a tad bigger.  Our windows leak both air and water like you wouldn't believe.  The air is awful because you can actually feel a breeze when walking by a window.  The water is only a problem with one set of windows.  There is what I can only assume is black mold that grows on our bedroom window frames.  I've never been able to scrape it off, no matter how hard I try.  More recently I've used vinegar, and it still does nothing.  Ideally, we'll replace the windows.  Until then, I'll probably have to remove the paint to get all of the mold.  Last year, we sealed the windows in with shrink wrap.  This year, we were able to put weatherstripping on the bottoms of the windows.  I can tell the difference almost immediately, and there's no effect on the use of the window.  In the picture below, you can see both the mold and if you look close enough, the weatherstripping:

While we were out getting supplies at Lowe's, we decided to spruce up the bathroom.  When Evie was little, she accidentally shredded the foam/plastic toilet seat that was here when we moved in.  We dealt with it, but it has annoyed me every day.  On top of that, the pieces in the bathroom don't look like they ever really meant to go together, so it's definitely my least favorite room of the house.  We have a white painted medicine cabinet with an oak-ish and faux marble sink.  The rest of the items in the bathroom are a kind of sand color.  So when we changed the seat, we got an oak-ish wooden seat.  It makes all the difference in the world.  Everything just goes together now and makes sense. 

We still need to replace the bathtub though.  It was an early 90s bathfitter job (I think) that was never properly done.  The pieces don't quite fit together:

 

The faucet was obviously not done by a professional because it doesn't actually reach the wall!  I can easily put my finger between the back of the faucet and the plastic of the tub.

This weekend, we'll finish by putting down a carpet strip where lovely little Evie tore up the carpet.  She's been a rather naughty cat over the past few weeks.  We lock her out of the room at night, and she tears at the door when she's hungry in the morning.  When I let her in, she tears at the bed!  I've been keeping a squirt bottle near me, but some damage has already been done at the interface between our bedroom carpet and the hallway carpet.  In the past, when she did this to get to a hamster, the carpet strip kept her from making it any worse.

 Finally, we decided to harvest our carrots and parsnips - in the dark.  There has been frost on the ground for a week, and the western part of the state is calling for 2-5 inches of snow this weekend, so it was time to pull them.  We got two and a half pounds between the two of them:

I'm ever so pleased that they did that well at least, considering I didn't thin them out at all.  Next year I know better.  We've begun planning our garden for next year and are very excited about some changes that will be coming about. Stay tuned for all the details on the new plan :o)