2 years and counting

2 years ago today, Katrina hit many of the Gulf Coastal cities. One of them being Perdido Key were my parents have a condo. A condo that the family has not been able to use for 2 years and will probably be a few more months before it is even ready. Should I mention that it should have been complete this past March.


There is some progress on the condo, but it is still not complete. I look forward to the day to be able to take a long weekend and head on down there.

Photo is from August 28, 2005.

Leukoplakia

Ok, I am not talking about "cancer of the mouth", but referring to the scene in Lucas . The specific scene I am referring to is the one with the locust. Having many trees in my yard I see 3 things; locust skins, dead locust, or locust flying into everything. I have never really seen them in the act of leaving their skins.

Well, this week I finally got to see one in the act and took a few photos. So enjoy more of the photos at Flickr.com. You can also see the Praying Mantis that was close by to try and catch the locust in it vulnerable state.

To do list

Lots accomplished on the house and still more to do. Below is a small list of items I would like to accomplish prior to the end of the year.

• Prime and paint living room.
• Prime and paint main entrance.
• Prime and paint formal living room.
• Drywall garage
• Replace garage door motors.
• Squirrel proof attic prior to winter.
• Finish Master Bedroom Closet.
• Install recessed Medicine Cabinet in Master Bathroom.
• Paint Garage Floor with Quikrete Garage Floor Coating.
• Install Garage Cabinets.
• Re-seed yard in spots.
• Replace attic pull down steps.
• Eventually replace carpet in Dining Room and Formal Living Room.

I know is seems like a lot to do, but the delay is mostly on the funding for the projects I have listed above. I need to learn to not go into Lowe's and spend more than I really need.

Peru Earthquake

For those that may not know, my family is from Peru where they just encountered a huge earthquake that pretty much leveled the city of Pisco and Chincha (my parents hometown) earlier this week.

Please go to the Red Cross and/or UNICEF Children of Peru to dontate to "support emergency relief efforts and help those affected by the earthquake in Peru".




Good news is that no one in my family was injured.

Wallpaper removal has its ups and downs.

For those that have not seen the house yet, I have 2 rooms with very bad wall paper. One room was the formal dining room and the other was the main entrance hall way.

I started by going to Lowe's last weekend to see what all they had for wall paper removal. I purchased a Wall Scraper and 3 spray bottles of DIF. I then when home to see what kinda of damage I could cause. I would highly recommend these products.

I started with the main entrance hallway, assuming that since it was smaller it would not take me a long time. I ripped off the top layer of the wallpaper and sprayed the DIF on what was left. It when pretty well, except the previous home owners did not properly prep the wall prior to putting on the wall paper. It took me about 4-5 hours to strip the wallpaper and probably another hours patching up any holes or uneven areas.

For the Formal Dining Room, I took a different approach. I purchased a gallon sprayer and filling it with DIF. Then ripped off the top layer and saturated was what left. Good news for this room was that the wall were properly prepped and that wallpaper came off like butter. The room took me about 3 hours and was a lot larger than the entrance hall way.

I plan on painting both rooms, but have not decided on any colors yet. If anything, I will just paint them with primer until I can chose some colors.

Below are some photos of what the wallpaper looked like prior to the removal.

Image 1 is the hall way. I took picture after I already started. Image 2 is the Formal Dining Room.

Updated Closet

I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but I have been busy with the new crib.

I did a little modification on the Master Bedroom Closet as you will see in the photos posted below. I could have gone with the pre-fabricated Closet Maid pieces, but they just do not seem sturdy enough to me.

So, I took down all exisiting selves and hardware and doubled up on the back wall and built some shelves. Overall it took me a weekend to complete. I only did half as I wanted to make sure it was going to work 100% before going to far with the project.

Check it our from start to finish in the photos below.

I will try to take a better photo of the finished product later. I do plan on replacing the light fixture to brighten it up.