tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524The Ink-Pot and the PaletteBehold me in the character of a scribedarkemeralds2015-02-05T09:35:57Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:5060824/30 Some letting go2015-02-01T06:32:00Z2015-02-01T06:32:00Zpublic4Today my niece came and took away my collection of beads.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mCjjoWZlwY8/U77oDKCwMAI/AAAAAAAAQ1g/UU6T9TDZUfM/w1379-h776-no/20140710_110516.jpg" alt="Many colorful tubes of glass seed beads on display" height="450" width="800"><br /><i>DarkEm's Bead Shoppe</i></center><br /><br />I collected them in the Nineties and did some rather good art with a tiny portion of them. It was kind of a relief (a sad relief) to let them go, and with them all the zillions of brilliant creative ideas I once had that prompted me to spend most of my disposable income for four years buying them all in the first place. It was time.<br /><br />After admiring the newly cleared space in my living room, I took a long walk in the last of the strange January sunshine, and saw this yard art:<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qZZwMQ2lON8/VM1O7nwpCyI/AAAAAAAAWOs/uNsD5ZpCeqs/w708-h954-no/IMG_20150131_133704.jpg" alt="A garden path made of used circular saw blades laid out in a pattern" height="800" width="450"><br /><i>Oh, the symbolism.</i></center><br /><br />In unrelated news, I understand some important American sportsball event is happening tomorrow, AND that there's a major holiday coming up. I figured both out by going to the big store:<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pCYwJY3vv6M/VMwYxM4aECI/AAAAAAAAWOw/ZdsKMAkpa0w/w1379-h662-no/IMG_20150130_150956.jpg" width="800" height="384" alt="masses of red, pink, and purple heart-shaped Mylar balloons above the checkstands at a big supermarket"><br /><i>Mylar does it good. Wo wo wo wo.</i></center><br /><br />So, Go Team! Balloons Are All You Need! Hello February, goodbye, my beady beads, and farewell to the winter that never was.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=506082" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:497161Floored2014-04-13T22:43:47Z2014-04-19T01:20:05Zpublic13My good friend <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://roseambr.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://roseambr.dreamwidth.org/'><b>roseambr</b></a></span> and Mr Roseambr sacrificed a gorgeous spring day yesterday to share their expertise, their power tools and their knees and backs in installing my new laminate floor. Their precision and attention to detail have resulted in a gorgeous installation. <br /><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--Q96K1K0Vsg/U0sIqCkkxMI/AAAAAAAAOeM/4DqrUG-FaWQ/w510-h906-no/20140413_145731.jpg" alt="DarkEm's new black laminate bedroom floor in the afternoon light, with a white fur rug and some purple and magenta fabric samples" height="800" width="450"><br /><br />It's a curious thing, moving from design to execution. I'm much happier thinking up possibilities than pinning them down. Though I'm <i>extremely</i> satisfied with the results of all my planning, I'm aware of an antsy, anxious feeling today as the plan manifests, and all alternative possibilities drop away. I don't just have the cool idea of a black floor--I've now actually <i>got a black floor</i>--more or less forever. It's no longer possible to rearrange the furniture: everything now <i>has to go</i> where I drew it on the floorplan.<br /><br />So though there's quite a bit more physical work to do, the really fun part is done, and soon I'll be back to my regularly-scheduled retirement. I'm gonna need a new project!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=497161" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:496963Reassembly2014-04-12T01:39:27Z2014-04-19T01:19:53Zpublic8I can't decide whether the best invention ever right now is kneepads, utility knives, audiobooks or ibuprofen. All of these have played major roles in my life the last few days. <br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />The bedroom is now fully primed, painted and wall-stenciled. As of an hour ago, the underlayment is in place--heat pads in the traffic areas, jigsawed in with plain padding, for a sort of duct-tape, blood, and gray-flannel patchwork quilt covering every inch of the floor.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eRzHn647vcI/U0iNAqF9M6I/AAAAAAAAOXU/WjnOMwnQI9o/w536-h953-no/20140411_172655.jpg" alt="DarkEm's right leg and foot, featuring a red knee-pad, as she sits exhausted on the newly installed gray underlayment in her empty room" height="800" width="450"><br /><br />Flooring and baseboards tomorrow. Window and door trim Monday. IKEA furniture order, delivery and assembly next week. Installation of light fixtures, outlets and ceiling fan next weekend. <br /><br />The amount I'm looking forward to having a real bedroom again can be measured in giga-somethings. Maybe tera-somethings. <br /><br />After that, I guess, I get to find out what's next in My Retired Life.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=496963" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:496780Board now2014-04-06T04:58:18Z2014-04-19T01:19:35Zpublic6I've been sleeping in my living room for three weeks.<br /><br />The moonlighting electrician, who could only squeeze me in on a Saturday, added a week to my little camping trip. Another several days got tacked on by four applications of plaster, each taking a day longer than normal to dry, owing to persistently damp weather and a north wall.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />Andres the Drywall Guy swears that the new walls and ceiling will be ready for primer tomorrow, and if that's so, I can paint them on Monday. In anticipation of this exciting development, I came home from the neighborhood hardware store today with a step-ladder, which I will need to reach my newly-soaring 110" ceiling.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I was able to maneuver the 10' baseboards from their storage place behind my couch on the porch into the bedroom, and there get them painted.<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cj9cSFAPqC0/U0CDz4fO86I/AAAAAAAAOOo/u_6FRkQRIVk/w549-h975-no/20140405_145208.jpg" alt="Five long boards painted high gloss white, lying across a pair of sawhorses in the unfinished bedroom" height="800" width="450"><br /><i>I love that all these pristine new surfaces can wear high-gloss paint.</i></center><br /><br />The chaos around me is becoming extreme as deliveries of light fixtures, door hardware, ceiling fan, thermostat, smoke detector, glowy ceiling stars, cans of paint, a new door, lumber, fabric, switch plate covers, flooring, and heating elements accumulate. Stuff is stashed in every spare corner, and the place is so far past tidying or cleaning that my only object is to maintain a hazard-free path between my laptop, my coffee grinder, and my bike.<br /><br />After paint, the milestones are electrical fixtures installed and flooring laid down. Then I can undertake the <i>massive</i> Some Assembly Required, IKEA, portion of our agenda.<br /><br />Here's one of the visualizations I mocked up in GIMP to keep me going until I can move back into my bedroom:<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1QK0jmofa4w/U1HDuybn5GI/AAAAAAAAOmU/0uwjK5V8L7g/w1383-h779-no/Room2.png" alt="Photo collage showing various fixtures and paint proposed for the finished room" height="500" width="800"></center><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=496780" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:496604Drywall2014-04-01T02:01:54Z2014-04-19T01:19:17Zpublic12The drywall contractors dropped off 20 sheets of Sheetrock the other day, and it's been lying on my sad, sad bedroom floor, conveniently wrong side up, so last night I magicked some of it up.<br /><br /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ZkGgInRhfjY/UzjXOMdVsnI/AAAAAAAAN9Y/t3YeYH-O5SU/w549-h975-no/20140330_185208.jpg" alt="A piece of Sheetrock with a large portrait photograph of DarkEmeralds taped to it, and the poem The Jewel by James Wright" height="800" width="450""><br />That's my one and only professional portrait photo, which I had done for my 40th birthday and have had hidden in the back of a closet ever since. I wrote a little history of my time in this house on the back.<br /><br />The writing is "The Jewel" by James Wright, my forever-favorite poem:<br /><br /><i>There is this cave<br />In the air behind my body<br />That nobody is going to touch: <br />A cloister<br />A silence<br />Closing around a blossom of fire.<br />When I stand upright in the wind<br />My bones turn to dark emeralds.</i><br /><br /><br />A couple of vigorous fellows came at 8:30 this morning, and had my drywall installed by 2:00. (One of them looked at my Sheetrock enhancement and asked, "What's that?" and I said, "Just some magic," and he kind of nodded, like, yeah, I've heard of that. Apparently people do this kind of thing all the time. Who knew?)<br /><br /><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-npqcRhfXjt0/UzoVytwkzUI/AAAAAAAAN-U/DSR_Tuq8vow/w549-h975-no/20140331_143746.jpg" alt="DarkEm's bedroom with raw drywall installed on walls and ceiling, and an incredibly dirty floor." height="800" width="450"><br />(Look at all my light fixtures! \o/)<br /><br />Taping tomorrow morning, mudding tomorrow afternoon, sanding on Wednesday, and the contractor says I can paint by Saturday.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=496604" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:496181Just add lightning2014-03-28T21:14:35Z2014-04-19T01:19:00Zpublic4After ten days' delay, the electrician has arrived.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br /><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-I0gGB_1BjgE/UzW0NehFubI/AAAAAAAAN3U/LlJ4ApsB5Ac/w524-h929-no/20140328_095432_1-MOTION.gif" alt="animated gif showing a monstrous shadowy figure silhouetted against an open door in the gutted bedroom"><br /><br />He's doing a monstrously good job in there--seven outlets, five ceiling light fixtures, a three-gang switch, a thermostat, a smoke detector, and a power supply for the heated floor, all precisely where I want them, with a minimum of mess and fuss.<br /><br />Tomorrow: drywall!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=496181" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:495836Bare old bones2014-03-18T01:51:58Z2014-04-19T01:18:31Zpublic14A couple of very focused, very knowledgeable drywall and plaster experts started in on my bedroom this morning at 8:30. It's been a noisy, chaotic, somewhat nerve-wracking day.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-jNB2eg9WYAg/UyeQ56GnGoI/AAAAAAAANhI/T2dT9MuTmRk/w1464-h824-no/20140317_171833.jpg" alt="Plaster debris in the afternoon sunlight against a wall of ancient exposed lath" height="450" width="800"></center><br /> <br />On tearing out the first chunk of ceiling, the guys discovered that it wasn't plaster OR drywall, but some kind of weird cardboardy stuff about 50mm thick, mounted to an insufficient lumber framework. Above this false ceiling was a gap of 30 cm (14 inches) or so, and above that, the original plaster ceiling. Apparently someone in the 70s wanted to lower heating costs. Or something.<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MJ17jfOhZFY/UydCQs3_4NI/AAAAAAAANc4/1iqFxk3IGJI/w549-h975-no/20140317_114255.jpg" alt="the cardboard ceiling, its fragile superstructure, and the original ceiling above it" height="800" width="450"><br />The cardboard ceiling, its inadequate superstructure, the wide gap, and the original ceiling.</center><br /><br />So I guess my new bedroom is going to have a relatively soaring 9-plus-foot (275 cm) ceiling. I did <i>not</i> see that coming. The difference this will make in the room's proportions is startling:<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-K7HdGcuygVA/UwphxrgzRMI/AAAAAAAAMbg/MHX2eYvGWh0/w1464-h824-no/20140220_144236.jpg" alt="A view of the room prior to demolition, showing the low ceiling" height="300" width="650"></center><br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M9M2Z35wANY/UyedVcgt26I/AAAAAAAANmI/pJmgLZSPsus/w1464-h824-no/20140317_181136.jpg" alt="a view of the room after demolition, showing the much higher original ceiling" height="300" width="650"></center><br /><br />The guys sealed the bedroom door with plastic to protect the rest of the house from dust, and they came and went and carted lumber and debris out all day long entirely through the west window:<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ab9FLnWizhI/UydVggSc-9I/AAAAAAAANe0/CIk_Q-vlPBA/w1464-h824-no/20140317_130507.jpg" alt="The west window of the bedroom from the outside, and a pile of discarded lumber in the garden next to it" height="450" width="800"><br />Not the usual ingress and egress point.</center><br /><br />They'll be back in the morning to finish the demolition and clean up the mess. Electrical work is on Friday. Sheetrock goes up on Saturday. Taping and mudding next Monday. Then I can paint.<br /><br />After that, it's flooring. Then furniture delivery, assembly and installation. Then I move select items back into the room and have a yard sale to get rid of the rest. <br /><br />Then done. Done done done.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=495836" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:495361The freaking-out portion of our agenda2014-03-17T07:35:22Z2014-04-19T01:17:39Zpublic18Apologies to everyone in my circles for being a bad online friend over the last several weeks. I'm entering the freaking-out portion of my bedroom project, and my level of absorption--not to say obsession--is extreme. I hope to return to regular communication very soon.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />I've tapped the money vein and am now hemhorrhaging the stuff over this project, an experience that is three parts anxiety and one part exhilaration.<br /><br />The drywall contractor, on viewing the wall damage wrought by a) demolition of the closet and b) 108 years of existence, recommended a complete re-do. His bid for removing plaster from all four walls <i>and</i> the ceiling, and replacing it with pristine, new, perfect drywall, was so damn reasonable that I said okay. (Exhilaration: I'm actually going to have smooth walls and a seamless ceiling for the first time in my whole life.)<br /><br />Work starts first thing in the morning, so today I moved the last four things out of the bedroom, and it is now a completely empty, amazingly echoey, and strangely unpleasant space:<br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Wo3_TLKVBCc/UyYJpUOmpFI/AAAAAAAANXg/ymhEnjZPb8E/w1464-h824-no/20140316_132632.jpg" alt="DarkEm's bedroom, completely empty, showing paint-spattered old flooring and disastrous walls" height="450" width="800"><br />("Imagine an empty room")<br /><br />My mattress is taking up most of the living room floor:<br /><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--6Tj1egXKtk/UyYJefxzwmI/AAAAAAAANV0/RJfrcMPXwJ8/w1464-h824-no/20140316_132441.jpg" alt="DarkEm's living room, filled with bedroom things including bedding on the floor" height="450" width="800"><br /><br />...so my living room furniture had to go to the porch. The porch is protected at least a little from the March storms by an Outbreak-style application of duct tape and plastic sheeting. <br /><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bG1pzAd4qoI/UyPVN2HGQEI/AAAAAAAANM0/OSzGrzpMcGs/w1464-h824-no/20140314_182713.jpg" alt="DarkEm's porch, surrounded by plastic sheeting and pink duct tape, and containing a bunch of furniture" height="450" width="800"><br /><br />It's going to be a bit crazy for a couple of weeks, but hey. I don't have to get dressed for work. As long as I can find my <s>drug paraphernalia</s> French press and coffee grinder in the morning, and can get out the back door to my bike, I think I'll be fine. It'll be like camping. Only indoors. With a comfy mattress and wifi.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=495361" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:495306Portlandia 4 - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Redistribute2014-03-12T05:41:55Z2014-03-12T05:41:55Zpublic8Here's the fourth of five visits to Portlandy things I love. We seem to have a theme of redistribution going on. Today I visited <i>two</i> favorite east-side reduce/reuse/recycle places.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />The floor and corners of my former-but-now-demolished closet yielded up several bags of yarn. Craft-hobby-creative supplies are hard to get rid of because they have monetary <i>and</i> sentimental value. Even though I'm willing to let them go, I hate to give them away indiscriminately. That's why, even after the massive decluttering of Project Empty, my closet remained crammed with the stuff.<br /><br />Recently I found a new and wonderful way to move it along. It's an operation called <a href="http://scrappdx.org/">SCRAP Creative Reuse Center</a>. Like the Rebuilding Center, it's non-profit and takes donations, which are tax-deductible. They take yarn, fabric, beads, little boxes, pens, paints--basically all kinds of little doo-dads that creative people can use for making stuff. And it's right up the street from me.<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-avFtvzCwb20/Ux-a5qsj2uI/AAAAAAAANHs/yUBOqeb-2YM/w1464-h890-no/20140311_110217.jpg" alt="Scrap Creative Reuse Center in Portland, with their red-trailer craft gallery" height="450" width="740"><br />Eleanor O laden with donations outside Scrap. The red trailer is a craft gallery</center><br /><br />SCRAP is located in a grungy old light-industrial space, filled with bins and racks of oddball stuff. I saw a barrel full of never-used wine corks, one of pre-printed small cardboard boxes in their unfolded-up state, rolls of silver mylar tape narrow enough to knit with, buckets of crayons sorted by color...a strange array, donated by end-users and industry alike, thematically linked only by "wow, that's kind of cool! I could make something out of that, I bet..."<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1mOnRo1FXxo/Ux-bAvcAlQI/AAAAAAAANEY/X4bgfueyKMQ/w1464-h824-no/20140311_110940.jpg" alt="Bins of stuff at Scrap" width="535" height="300"><br /><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-RH2LP1DL06s/Ux-bD16qbaI/AAAAAAAANE8/BZuXRufnAcg/w1464-h824-no/20140311_111018.jpg" alt="Sign reading Re-Boutique at the entrance to the craft shop at Scrap" width="535" height="300"></center><br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lOHs3z8RG-g/Ux-bJD1ZQcI/AAAAAAAANF4/jKpIgy3w2Cw/w523-h929-no/20140311_111246.jpg" alt="Barrels of stuff at Scrap including little white jars" height="535" width="300"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XeO6CnhL3qg/Ux-bKKASFnI/AAAAAAAANGE/RApU_lSjRdc/w523-h929-no/20140311_111257.jpg" alt="More barrels of stuff at Scrap, including rolls of skinny silver mylar" height="535" width="300"><br />Stuff you find at Scrap</center><br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WWk3i3cIUlo/Ux-bE8Pl9OI/AAAAAAAANFI/1EOVbfFu6lc/w523-h929-no/20140311_111037.jpg" alt="Two vinyl record albums turned into wall clocks at Scrap" width="450" height="800"><br />One of the fun re-purposed object ideas in the Re-Boutique</center><br /><br />The lady wearing cat-ears who accepted my yarn donation was happy to have it, and we spent a couple of pleasant minutes chit-chatting about the suddenly-gorgeous, perfect-for-bike-riding weather. A children's craft class was just getting underway so several moms and kids were filing in. <br /><br />Later in the day I went to <a href="http://www.freegeek.org/">Free Geek</a>, yet another non-profit where you donate stuff and they do good with it--in this case, electronic stuff. <br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-b1mnnZr5Pi8/Ux-bQGmEn8I/AAAAAAAANGQ/o2rAHjGZ0xY/w1464-h824-no/20140311_143140.jpg" alt="The exterior of Free Geek in Portland on a sunny day, with a group of customers outside" height="450" width="800"></center><br /><br />I wasn't donating today, just looking for a particular adapter, which I found for three bucks. (It didn't actually serve my purpose once I got it home, so I guess I'll donate it back again.)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=495306" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:494187Rainbow white2014-03-02T02:37:37Z2014-04-19T01:13:38Zpublic12Since creating my not-really-black <a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/434958.html">Rothko Walls</a> in the living room a couple of years ago, I've been wanting to do a not-really-white version in the bedroom. Today I bought some paint and started experimenting.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />The technique starts with six quarts of paint.<br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-MxtWVQ6P338/UxJ4L0h0irI/AAAAAAAAMlg/EzQ84PnOr2o/w1464-h824-no/20140301_154125.jpg" alt="Six quarts of wall paint, lids off, showing six near-white pastel colors" height="450" width="800"><br />(Speaking of colorful, King Cake for Mardi Gras in the lower left--brought to me by my neighbor from Louisiana.)</center><br /><br />You daub the paint on with a sopping brush in big, thick strokes. It's a careless, untidy process, super forgiving and easy to do. You can play around with color proportions: here, pure white gets the most brushfuls, beige gets the fewest.<br /><center><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jLqrsVZCUNM/UxKRiVv2_8I/AAAAAAAAMo4/t5GJ_g0qrOs/w523-h929-no/20140301_174630.jpg" alt="Many heavy brushstrokes of pastel colors on the wall" height="800" width="450"></center><br /><br />It's <i>really</i> messy:<br /><center><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HTg5V_E8Ajs/UxKRdXE5TPI/AAAAAAAAMmY/enoSRLTd9po/w1464-h824-no/20140301_174643.jpg" alt="detail of multi-pastel brush strokes showing paint dripping down the wall" height="450" width="800"></center><br /><br />After you load up a section of wall, you smudge the brushstrokes madly with a lambswool pad before the paint has a chance to set:<br /><center><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-qOZPLrpy4yE/UxKRhRHGPlI/AAAAAAAAMm8/5sFTSqJleDM/w1464-h824-no/20140301_180303.jpg" alt="Multi-pastel paint smudged together on the wall" height="450" width="800"><br />Could use a little more smudging to obliterate the brushstrokes and the drips better.</center><br /><br />I think I like the result. I'll know more in the morning light when the paint is completely dry.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=494187" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:493426I love it when a plan comes together2014-02-26T08:39:36Z2015-02-05T09:34:55Zpublic12I've been so immersed in my bedroom remodeling project for the last couple of weeks that I'm dreaming about it. I can--for the moment--recite IKEA cabinetry dimensions and all the Swedish product names, as well as every measurement of my room. <br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />Designs, like writing, improve with a good beta or editor. In the absence of a professional interior designer, I submitted my floorplan and samples to a some of my talented friends. <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://ravurian.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://ravurian.dreamwidth.org/'><b>ravurian</b></a></span> instantly saw a better layout than had ever so much as crossed my mind, which I immediately adopted. <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://roseambr.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://roseambr.dreamwidth.org/'><b>roseambr</b></a></span> gave me some important feedback on colors and the floor heat. A neighbor who knows his way around electrical work is going to stop by tomorrow (and probably tell me I can't afford everything I want).<br /><br />So I've been nudging Pax wardrobes and Akurum kitchen cabinets around pixel by pixel on my floorplan, obsessively watching how-to videos (LED strip lighting!), and searching Ikeahackers.net to find out if I can actually do some of the hacks I have in mind.<br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-QQwsd4vSlnQ/Uw2k0ar6r4I/AAAAAAAAMiY/igvsrUYitTQ/w1244-h908-no/RoomPlanRevised.png" alt="Floorplan drawing of the bedroom" height="500" width="675"><br />The giant magenta pillow is...well, a giant magenta pillow. The fuchsia rectangle just above it is the storage headboard. Which I'm hacking together out of incompatible IKEA parts.</center><br /><br />I found the right rug from <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/FurAccents?ref=l2-shopheader-name">some very nice folks on Etsy</a>, and ordered it:<br /><center><img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/da/fd/46/dafd465d28de96683aba6f6487c52d92.jpg" alt="Extremely furry white faux-fur rug"><br />Several polyesters died...</center><br /><br />The old closet is about...40% gone, maybe? <br /><center><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c_7dGINeTHQ/Uwm4sgtmatI/AAAAAAAAMao/IyrjSDhQAPQ/w523-h929-no/20140222_224900.jpg" alt="Old closet in the process of demolition, with drywall gone and studs showing" height="800" width="450"><br />Hacking away at it a little at a time</center><br /><br />And most of my photos lately look like this:<br /><center><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N9ELemh3o54/Uw1CBHx_lLI/AAAAAAAAMg8/E6DFBbQQOrY/w510-h906-no/20140225_161154.jpg" alt="An IKEA wardrobe with identifying tags, taken in the IKEA store" height="800" width="450"><br />How did we deal with IKEA before instant-upload phone-cam pictures?</center><br /><br />So I'm having fun. Obsessive, totally absorbing fun.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=493426" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:493092There's no rush2014-02-21T09:27:13Z2015-02-05T09:35:26Zpublic6I'm taking this bedroom re-do so slowly, it's like watching hair grow. I do a tiny bit every day, some physical and visible, and some preparatory, like shopping online for better deals. None of it has unduly hurt my hands or wasted resources in hasty mistakes. So far I haven't even really spent any money (though that's coming).<br /><br />And yet there's progress.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br /><center><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I8H7M6TONK0/UwaRcauBSzI/AAAAAAAAMZ8/_70zAAAdOHU/w1464-h824-no/20140220_144236.jpg" alt="Dark Em's bedroom closet in a partially demolished state" height="450" width="800"></center><br /><br />I pried the closet door-frame out last night. The closet is now cleared of everything except hanging clothes (I'll move those out when I have to--my living room is getting full!). I've removed all the carpet except the swath under the bed. All window trim is now painted. <br /><br />I might paint the ceiling black because <a href="http://www.theglowpatch.com/XVR-Star-Ceiling.html">I really want these ceiling stars</a>:<br /><center><img src="http://media-cache-cd0.pinimg.com/originals/2c/a9/a8/2ca9a8cf8208abed25448878987452a7.jpg" alt="a bedroom with its ceiling covered in glow-in-the-dark-stars"></center><br /><br />Google finally yielded up <a href="http://www.bestlaminate.com/kronoswiss-urban-black-p214se/">my new flooring</a> because I had the time to keep searching:<br /><center><img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/12/7e/af/127eaf82fcf86ea3940f143f20e91eec.jpg" alt="Black laminate flooring sample"></center><br /><br />My best friend and her husband have volunteered to help me install it, an offer I can jump on because I have time to fit my schedule to theirs.<br /><br />That generous offer leaves me enough budget to buy <a href="https://www.thermosoft.com/radiant-floor-heat/">under-floor heating mats</a>. I'm not sure I can afford an electrician to hook them up right away, but that's okay. There's no rush.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=493092" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:492443Sequence of events2014-02-13T08:20:43Z2015-02-05T09:35:57Zpublic13Here's how it went:<ul><li>Ohh! pretty curtain fabric! *buys*</li><li>Man, that window trim needs painting now</li><li>If I paint the trim, I really need to paint the walls, which means protecting the carpet</li><li>Wow, this carpet is disgusting! Hahahah! Utility knife! Slash! Rip! Goodbye old carpet!</li><li>This floor! What a sad mess!...*shops for new flooring*</li><li>But I can't do the floor till I solve the wardrobe problem...</li></ul> And from there it's a total re-do.<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />Today I ripped out the remaining carpet except the bit under the bed. Shifting furniture to get carpet up has shaken a lot of stuff loose, literally and figuratively, and the giveaway pile is mounting. <br /><br />This afternoon I took the old window blinds down and masked the window trim for painting. <br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vmkKStiiYGU/Uvw8QbZuhBI/AAAAAAAAMN8/YyE82mpzpik/w549-h975-no/20140212_192916.jpg" alt="Bedroom windows masked off, and a badly paint-marked old wood floor" height="800" width="450"></center><br />(You can see how mistreated the floor was. I'm leaning heavily towards putting a floating floor over it and calling it good.)<br /><br />With the windows bared, temporary privacy measures were required, so I hung the old curtains on the clothesline just outside the bedroom windows. Looks classy, huh?<br /><center><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-7X6mw6paY18/UvxzvfUplmI/AAAAAAAAMOk/M7affx8LsyE/w1464-h824-no/20140212_201805.jpg" alt="" height="450" width="800"></center><br /><br />Then my sis came over and we discussed demolition of the built-in closet, an ill-designed and inaccessible waste of space made of plywood and two-by-fours--it's that whole end of the room: <br /><center><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u1HFfe-FFdA/Uvw8PbP2y2I/AAAAAAAAMOA/vnq5QKPbtdg/w1464-h824-no/20140212_192834.jpg" alt="" height="450" width="800"></center><br /><br />After she left, I started crowbarring the trim off and removing the doors, but I had to stop because my hands were hurting and the neighbors were going to start complaining about the hammering and that nasty nail-pulling screech.<br /><br />Tomorrow I'll paint the window trim. Maybe start emptying the closet. Ack!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=492443" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:4706282/30 The Return of Project Empty2013-09-04T06:14:38Z2013-09-07T18:46:49Zpublic14Consultation with my sister the realtor has convinced me that there's no meaningful advantage in selling my house and moving to a condo. The only gain--that of no longer having a garden to <s>waste water on</s> attend to--would be amply offset by losses. I can't actually downsize--my house is already smaller than a lot of condos. I can't reduce my monthly rent by enough to matter. And in my price range I can't possibly improve on my inner-city location.<br /><br />So I'm staying. But one brilliant idea emerged from the few weeks where I was thinking about moving: I'm gonna play dead and have an estate sale. Turns out there are businesses--reputable local businesses of long standing--that will broker, sell, donate or discard every single thing in a house and leave it "broom clean and ready to sell". They document everything, take a cut, and write you a check.<br /><br />I'm gonna rent a POD, put a select few items in it, take a vacation to the beach, and let the estate sale agents go to town. Then I'm going to move back in with my few items and start all over again.<br /><br />I'm hoping to accomplish this before I retire.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=470628" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:364080Clutterhack2010-12-27T21:38:50Z2010-12-27T21:52:24Zpublic11<a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/364023.html?thread=3091191#cmt3091191">A comment</a> from <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://karen-jk.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://karen-jk.dreamwidth.org/'><b>karen_jk</b></a></span> this morning has me thinking again about the analogies between weight loss and decluttering--specifically, can you "hack" your clutter the way John Walker claims you can hack your weight?<br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />Looking back at my own massive <a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/tag/project+empty">decluttering project</a>, I see a bunch of similarities between it and Walker's weight-loss story.<ul><li>Body::House</li><li> Excess weight::Clutter</li><li>Goal weight::Uncluttered house</li><li>Calories::Possessions</li><li>Eating::Acquisition</li><li>Calorie Burn::Disposal</li></ul><br />I see now that my solution to clutter was similar to Walker's weight hack in several important respects. I had to quantify the problem and design "negative feedback proportional controls" to get to a solution. That meant measuring my initial level of clutter, defining the desired level, and then decreasing the current level systematically and measurably. When the measurement declined, I was on the right track. When it went up, I had to apply additional controls.<br /><br />The big difference is that with weight loss I only need to control the inputs--how much I eat--and my metabolism will manage the outputs--excess pounds (exercise is a minor factor in calorie burn for me); whereas with decluttering I had to take conscious physical action on both sides of the equation.<br /><br />The decluttered areas of my house have remained persistently decluttered, but I'm not sure whether that's from a profound and permanent change in my perspective or because I've developed a set of feedback loops and controls that are unconscious. A little of each, I think. I do <i>not</i> think a change of perspective will result in permanent weight-management, but I think it will help me accept that I must fire up the artificial controls pretty much every day forever.<br /><br />So yeah, I'd say there's a clutterhack, and now I'm curious to design it.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=364080" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:337740Hotel Dark Em is open for business2010-09-07T01:01:04Z2010-09-07T01:02:12Zpublic2Whew! Just came home from the grocery store on Eleanor O with all three baskets filled, the most stuff I've ever carted by bike: lots of goodies to share with <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://kis.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://kis.dreamwidth.org/'><b>kis</b></a></span> and Mr Kis over the coming week.<br /><br />My front yard has been suitably barbered, the house is as tidy as it's gonna get, and I've painted my last for a while. There's a fresh set of cotton sheets, the duvet cover is on the clothesline being breezed, and I have a stack of little post-it notes ready to affix to cupboards and drawers so that my guests know where to find things, notably the tea.<br /><br />I've emptied out a couple of drawers in the bedroom, set up a clothes rack, and fluffed up the pillows. I think Hotel Dark Em is ready for guests!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=337740" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:336133There's a whole air flow2010-09-01T21:57:37Z2010-09-01T21:57:37Zpublic2Back in 1912, when my house was built, Portland was booming, and housing for railroad workers was going up fast and cheap. They dug a hole, set some sturdy timber posts in concrete piers, laid beams across them, and put up walls and a roof. <br /><br />There was a woodstove. No central heat, no insulation, no double-glazed windows; just a box of wood and glass, hovering about three feet above a depression in the soil, with a thin wooden skirt between that crawlspace and the east wind.<br /><br />Fast forward a century, and a tiny house in an ungentrified working-class neighborhood is, not surprisingly, hardly improved at all. There are electric space heaters now (of the recalled-for-fire-hazard sort), and some cheap landlord of the past insulated the roof to 70s standards, but the house is still <i>bloody</i> cold in the winter.<br /><br />Well, that's all about to change. The <a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/335006.html">Clean Energy Works</a> contractors spent the morning here assessing and measuring, and whee! It looks like I'm getting not only big fluffy insulation on all six sides of the cube, but what amounts to an actual heating system, too.<br /><br />Just think! I'll be able to sit in my living room on a January night, rather than having to go to bed just to keep warm. <br /><br />It's homeowner geekery at its finest, but I'm really pretty excited.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=336133" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:335006A shift of mass2010-08-27T22:38:25Z2010-08-27T22:38:25Zpublic2<a href="http://www.cleanenergyworksportland.org/">Clean Energy Works</a> just called me to say that they've approved my loan application. This is the program that <a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/332525.html">rejected my sister's application</a> a few weeks ago. I tweeted the mayor to say that it didn't seem fair, he DM'ed me back saying he'd look into it, and now my application has been approved.<br /><br />I asked the Clean Energy Works person what the approval criteria were, and she said your house has to be in the "top 75%" of energy inefficiency--or the bottom 25% of efficiency, I guess--and you have to pass the credit check. The inefficiency measure is based on heating bills and square footage. There was nothing to suggest that "mayoral pressure" was involved. Yet I went "Hm."<br /><br />It turns out that the work they underwrite is really unglamorous: insulation, air-sealing, water-heater wrapping. No replacement windows or doors, nothing pretty or fancy or even visible. Just the hard, ugly work of blowing insulation into existing walls, and caulking gaps between them and the floors, and putting fiberglass blankets up under the floor from the basement.<br /><br />It strikes me that it's almost like compacting the mass of all the stuff I've gotten rid of in the past couple of years and stuffing it into the walls and crawl spaces to help keep me warm this winter.<br /><br />Work starts in October.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=335006" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:328808Driving2010-08-02T03:48:50Z2010-08-02T03:48:50Zpublic13Until today, I hadn't started my car since February. It's been sitting out on the street in front of my house, gathering cherry-tree detritus and looking sad, while I ride my bike everywhere and test non-car-ownership as a way of life.<br /><br />Poor car. If my sis hadn't stepped in, it would have sat there till all its value was gone. To me, the deadness of it seemed like an insurmountable obstacle, but she called AAA (on <i>her</i> membership), and they came and poured two gallons of gas into the tank and forced enough juice into the battery to turn the engine over.<br /><br />Then she went with me for an otherwise-pointless 45-minute freeway drive to solidify the battery's charge and ream out whatever pipelines might have become gummed up. <br /><br />To my amazement, it was fun. Driving fast on a summer afternoon, going nowhere, enjoying the freedom--it's part of the foundation of my youth. Suddenly, just getting rid of a car that I couldn't easily replace seemed kind of extreme. It's a nice car, it's a pleasure to drive, it runs well, and it's paid for. Part of me really does like driving. <br /><br />On the other hand, the car needs cleaning, an oil change, some air in the tires, and, sometime in the next year or so, new brakes. And driving somewhere once a week just to keep an unneeded car viable seems silly and wrong.<br /><br />I don't know. I haven't decided yet, I guess.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=328808" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:305709Zippity2010-05-13T20:32:08Z2010-05-14T02:42:12Zpublic11I joined <a href="http://www.zipcar.com">Zipcar</a> today. <br /><br />Zipcar is the car-share business that lets members reserve and use cars for a few hours at a time. Their cars, rather than all being at the airport or in a central garage, are parked throughout the city. Once you're a member, you reserve online, you go borrow the car, you drive, and you park it back where you found it--easy peasy.<br /><br />There's a Zipcar parked a couple of blocks from my house. It's not that my own car isn't working--it is, I think, though I haven't started it months, and last time I did the fuel tank was near empty. That's the point. I don't really need to own a car. I haven't needed to own a car for a while now.<br /><br />So I'm gonna try out ZipCar for a few months. It cost me $25 to join, and the hourly rental fees (which include fuel and insurance) wouldn't amount to a hill of beans at my rate of car-usage. <br /><br />Then, at the end of the summer, if it's been viable, I'll probably sell my car. It's just sitting there.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=305709" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:183524:290515Project Empty, Phase II: Fifteen Minutes for Kis2010-03-27T20:45:13Z2010-03-27T20:47:36Zpublic0One of the greatest things that can happen in online fandom life is to discover even more common ground than fandom with someone, and make a real-life friend, one you enjoy meeting in person.<br /><br />I had that experience with <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://kis.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://kis.dreamwidth.org/'><b>kis</b></a></span>. We connected online in the Firefly fandom way back in 2003 (god! could it have been that long ago?). I met her in person for the first time at a 2005 con in London (where we had the most squeeingly great time), and got a personalized tour of Edinburgh a year later when I was back in the UK for non-fannish purposes. Met Mr Kis and "the Son and Heir", both delightful gentlemen, and brought home wonderful memories.<br /><br />So now, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://kis.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://kis.dreamwidth.org/'><b>kis</b></a></span> and Mr Kis are coming to see me! They've planned a trip to the US centering around Jellystone Park, and because hey, coming-all-this-way, etc., they are going to fly first to Stumptown solely on the strength of my living here. Well, that, and Mt St Helens.<br /><br />We have tons of plans involving <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/">volcano</a>-climbing, <a href="http://www.powells.com/info/places/burnsideinfo.html">bookstore</a>-wandering, <a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/tag/augite+hunting">augite-hunting</a>, <a href="http://www.traveloregon.com/Explore%20Oregon/Oregon%20Coast.aspx">beach</a>-going, possibly bike-riding, friends-meeting, food-eating and generally good-time-having, before they rent a car and drive eastward into the Rockies to go see Old Faithful and fly home out of Denver.<br /><br />The very-clever arrangement we've come up with is for them to take over my humble house while they're here. (I, meanwhile, will stay across the street at my sister's house. My house is way too small for three people.)<br /><br />This is all going to happen in early September. Between now and then, I must put my house in order. I'm used to my house, but that's no reason to inflict it as it is on wonderful friends from lands far away, right?<br /><br />Accordingly, I'm implementing <b>15M4K, Fifteen Minutes For Kis</b>. I will spend (a minimum of) fifteen minutes every day making, doing, or fixing something about the house and grounds that will make their stay more enjoyable. Remodeling, it ain't. It's more of an extension of <a href="http://darkemeralds.dreamwidth.org/tag/project+empty">Project Empty</a>. <br /><br />First up: Prune the crazy kiwi vine that's threatening to tear down my porch. *goes outside with garden shears*<br /><br />Okay, that's done. Next? The Secret Closet of Clutter.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=darkemeralds&ditemid=290515" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments