Wednesday, April 22, 2009

An automated soda dispenser? and two lips

Sugar's morning baby sitter (grandma's house) was not able to watch her this morning. I had to leave her in the house all day and just wanted to get home and let her out so she could stretch her legs a bit before church this evening.

On the way home I stopped at McDonald's and grabbed a burger and was fascinated by the automated soda dispenser that was at the drive up window, truly a modern marvel. The order comes in, the cup holder spins and a arm pulls the cup and drops it onto this little conveyor, a handful of ice drops in the cup and then the soda. I must have been living under a rock because I have never seen this before. I think I pissed the girl off behind the counter because I just kept staring at the damn thing going through is routine and she kept asking me for my order. I don't think she was very happy with me. Small things amuse me I guess.

I really haven't done to much on the inside of the house at all since the weather broke. I mostly have been focusing on getting the yard in shape as much as the budget allows. It is slowly coming together but there is still allot to do in the yard after (same story) years of neglect. I will have my near golf course look in a few weeks though with some persistence. I'm just glad it is a small yard.

Today I pulled all this old cement edging out of yard, 6 wheel barrels full and edged all the sidewalks that have not been done in years, I mean years. That was a wheel barrel full of grass and dirt. I am just getting to old to do this kind of work and still move the next day. But on the flip side, all the hard work is done and I only need to maintain it now.

Tulipa, commonly called tulip, is a genus of about 150 species of bulbous flowering plants in the family Liliaceae.Tulipa, commonly called tulip, is a genus of about 150 species of bulbous flowering plants in the family Liliaceae. Tulipa gesneriana




I had my first pair of tulips bloom today. The PO had planted them all along the street and are really kind of just in big bunches. Dig a hole, dump a bag of bulbs, dig a hole, dump a bag of bulbs, repeat for half a block.
Tulips, that is like parakeets. It is one entity but has a plural name. I still think it is funny, and tulips, I see no semblance of two lips on this flower but I guess when it comes to latin all the words sound funny, like incontineticus butticus, or biggus dickus.

Come hell or high water, Sunday I am going to start the tear out of the kitchen. I have put it off all week and really need to get it going and done. No more excuses.
And that is what I did. I tore quite a bit out and made a mess again.
During my deconstruction, I found that the base boards where not in fact "boards" but a clay type of ceramic and in fact looks as though it was installed when the sub floor was poured. The house is not on slab but there is a layer of cement on top of the wood floor underneath. So it is a early version of cement board that was installed when the house was built.
What I found kind of cool about the baseboards, is that they are made of a clay type material and when you look real close, you can see sawdust was mixed into the material. Very well dispersed throughout the mixture, so I am not sure if it was a premix or something done on site.
What I also thought was neat is that the baseboards were poured and formed in place. The corners had wire mesh nailed into the wood with older style roofing type nails. Then the corner pieces were formed over top.
Had I known, I probably would have tried to clean them up and save them. But as I tore into the baseboards with my trusty flatbar and hammer is when I found out what I had broken into. And kind of to late. That's alright though, I will find something to replace them and no one will ever know except me and Sugar. Although she hears me cuss enough and just tunes it all out so I not certain if she knew what I was cursing about this time.

I have a friend that showed me a picture of a ceiling that is done in alternating patterns of bead board. I think it is pretty cool and will try and attempt the same style in my kitchen. Long story, but after I got into the first bit of tear out on the kitchen last week I found that the ceiling stopped where the cabinets met the wall, in other words it the wall and ceiling were not finished above and behind the cabinets. So I think the bead board will be a inexpensive alternative to drywall, less messier, less expensive than a tin product and just unique enough to fit me. It is going to be really cool and something that I can do myself. I really, really, really hate working with drywall. Which gives me a segway into the next part.
During the tear out today on the surface of the walls, someone covered the plaster starting at about 4 ft up and to the ceiling with a luan material, then wall paper overtop. Underneath the luan was the original wall paper that was installed. Kind of a vinyl type of wallpaper, and as drab a color as one could pick for a kitchen. The nice thing about the wallpaper and the luan? When I pulled it off the wall the paper came off with the luan and left the original skim coat of plaster underneath. Nice huh? Now? I am looking forward to putting drywall over all the walls to cover up all the disastrous projects that have taken place in the kitchen over the years. Oh yeah! taping, and sanding! I can't wait! Love it!

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