There is something very satisfying about starting from scratch and making everything new and fresh! Also, sounds like you have a new skill to add to your repertoire!
We are having new carpet installed on our stairs. The old carpet is one of the reasons my husband fell…the carpet was too thick and spongy so it was easy to “bounce” and lose your balance. The new carpet is very flat and industrial and will hopefully be safer for us both.
Our job today is (hopefully) final sanding on the repaired knee wall ceiling…the sloped part. We had to patch the discrepency between the paneling and the bit of ceiling, and mud in the paneling grooves. Sand, prime, add texture, and paint. Then we get to do the whole thing over on the opposite side of the bedroom.
But the closet is almost done. We are installing a shelf and rod hangers today, and then I can start stuffing it full again. I wonder how much will not fit and how many bags of donation items I can fill. Two bags have already gone. It’s not all my stuff, but there is more to go away.
Here’s hoping it helps. We have carpet on some of our stairs and I wish they were all hardwood. The carpeted ones are so much easier to slip on.
The stairs are hardwood but would need refinishing. We selected an industrial carpet like they use in the lobbies of hotels. Relatively inexpensive and very durable. They are a rough texture as well. We spent way too much time looking at samples, so we picked out a neutral dark gray to go with the gray vinyl planks.
With double handrails and flat carpets, I think it will make things way safer for us older folks!
Closet update. It’s done! Minus the rug coming on Wednesday.
Walls repaired, fresh paint on walls and shelves, and shelf and rod installed. I covered two bankers boxes with fabric for storage on the upper shelf. I need to see what pictures I can add to that blank wall.
Paint was free, a half can of no longer needed paint from my DW’s work. The scallop edged shelf was from a wood valance over the window seat. I reused an expanding clothes rod and repainted an old shelving unit.
I did purchase shelf brackets and rod hangers.
Pros: It is more efficient and I can access the whole depth of the closet. My laundry hamper now fits in the closet instead of out in the bedroom. I love the 3 bag system, but I may diy down to two bags.
Cons: I have one 48" rod instead of two 36" rods, but then the back rod was mostly inaccessible storage. I lost a two shelf unit, but gained a place for the laundry bags.
All in all a success and now I am motivated to donate a pile of clothes that had been taking up space I couldn’t see…out of sight, out of mind.
It looks really nice and functional, and I love that you’ve been able to re-use that shelf.
@marionberries Fresh new closet is so nice! I love that scalloped shelf - why can’t a closet have cute details? No reason!
@AIMR I’m glad to hear you’re making your home safer for you two!
@Immaculata Congratulations on learning a new skill! You started with a tougher project, that’s for sure, but you kept on and are well on your way to making that pantry better for you.
Done! The walls are still in bad shape but at least they’ve mouse proof.
Now filling the shelves from the doorway as we can’t walk on the floor yet. I had maybe wanted to paint the walls but the contents of the pantry have been sitting on my counter, on the dining table, in the bookcase, on the floor etc for two weeks … I was tired of it. So I’m putting everything I can back. I made sure the bottom shelf is high enough that our shelf stable milk and boxes of granola fit under it. We store our drinking water at the end of the pantry. Still waiting for my new flour buckets to arrive.
Looking good and functional! I bet you are glad to put stuff away!
I put a bay leaf in with my flour and other dry goods…supposedly, it is a natural way to ward off bugs and mice. I haven’t had any issues since we put everything into containers now.
Funny you say that - the mice had dug several tunnels into the pantry, and from there, walked into the kitchen, through an existing hole for electric wires. I could see they route from their droppings. But they hadn’t actually touched any food in the pantry yet. I thought because crumbs are so easy to find in the kitchen, but maybe it’s because I keep an entire bag of bay leaves from my MIL’s garden there?
A month ago we had an issue with our well - the water was harder than normal - and an inspection didn’t find any mechanical issues. Fast forward to this past weekend and the problem is back, with a vengeance. Luckily, the well guys were able to come out today and (mostly) fix it - bad valves. But, there are more things to fix (screen, replace an aging tank, etc.) and probably soon. Being without water is so stressful. As if the holidays weren’t exhausting enough. Oh, and one of the guys somehow managed to step in dog poo on his way in (not sure why he was walking through my yard at that point) and track that halfway through my house, ruining at least two rugs.
Oh, no! So many bad things here…
I will always be grateful to our neighbors who brought us gallons of their water when our well went out years ago over the Labor Day weekend…we were only out for five days, but I remember how hard that was…I feel for you and your family and hope that it holds until later…hope the company gave you a break for the two ruined rugs! UGH!
They were just the cheap rugs I put in the garage and right inside the door to catch mud and snow and dirt. I’m not mad, just stressed out.
Question for those of you with wells (I always had municipal water growing up) … When you have something repaired and they sanitize the well afterwards, do you have your water tested, too? Like, for microorganisms, contaminants, etc. Or, do you just assume the sanitizing took care of the creepy-crawlies?
Did they shock the well? When they replaced our submersed pump, they shocked the well, which means they basically stuck bleach down. We could only use the water to flush once or twice for just a day and then ran the water until it stopped smelling like chlorine. We were told that it did not need to be tested as it was probably safer than any municipal provided water.
We had our well shocked once a year but only tested twice: once before we bought and once before we sold (over a 20 year span!). It depends a lot on how safe you feel with your ground water not being contaminated by farm waste, etc.
They shocked the well and just told us to wait 24 hours before drinking the water. I’m not too concerned about farm run-off. We don’t have a lot of livestock around here and our well is pretty deep (160 ft, iirc).
We had to have the well shocked a few years ago and had a similar protocol as Linda: let it sit, then flush it all out until there was no longer a chorine smell. SInce we hae a presure tank as well as a standard hot water heater, and our well only runs about 3 gal/min it took AGES to run the chlorine smell out totally. And by that I mean hours. Growing up in a water-conscious time, it felt soooooo wrong to just leave the water running most of the day.
If the water runs into a septic tank and is then leached out back into the ground…then it is just recycled water, right?
But, yeah, in my head, I also felt like I was wasting water…especially since we actually were in a drought that year!
It’s a lonnnnng process though and they make sure that the drain field for the septic is not in the well water. And, of course, shocking the well means killing the good stuff in the septic, too, so starting that up again is imperative.
I forgot about that…yes, the good bacteria has to be replaced…our old septic was clear on the opposite side of our property and the drain field was downhill…but at the time we did it, our county had a mandatory hook up to the public sewer system thing. There are so few people on wells here anymore.
