clean corners, messy schedules

Have I mentioned that fall is a busy time for us? The boy is in two park district classes on-top of getting the kids to swim class each week. I’m taking a class AND teaching a class, on-top of working the normal full-time schedule…getting sick kind of throws a wrench into all of that. At least it didn’t happen while the wife was at her office’s yearly convention (I don’t know how I’m going to make it through that week on my own). So I haven’t had the time I would like to have had to keep working on things around the house. Throw in a couple of visitors and typical fall events and that time shrinks even more. 

Not that I can complain about having apples to make apple cake with. Let’s clear that up right now; apple cake is not the issue. However, I will complain about having to sit in on an 8 PM class at work tonite, even if it means I could go in a little later than usual to make up for it. So I snuck some time to work on something before going to actual work today. 

The fireplace has become a project I wish I had known what to do with while I was initially messing with the basement. It would have been a lot easier to do this additional taping and mudding with everything else, but oh well. At least I figured things out at some point. I took a fever-addled pass at smoothing out the mud and priming everything last weekend so this morning all I wanted to do was get a coat of paint on. This will likely all get covered in tile eventually anyway, but paint will give it something else to adhere to other than paper so it’s worth the effort. 

Mudded and primed, all with a tiny tiny brush.

A quick piece of advice: don’t take a two month break in-between painting projects and just assume you have a clean roller around you can use. Then you’ll have to go to the store while you’re sick, forget to get a new roller, and end up painting something with just your 1.5 inch short brush b/c it’s the only one clean and you can’t be bothered to get anything else. Sigh.

So much nicer.

My favorite part of this has been getting a good transition from the wall to the fireplace in this corner. Taking the paneling down made a bad transition from brick to wood even worse, with painted/unpainted brick and some bad caulk that I didn’t know what to do with, so I covered it in molding until I had a plan for the entire fireplace. Smoothing out some of the earlier mud has been icing on the cake, so to speak. And now we have what’s basically a blank slate to work with.

Still drying, but not looking terrible.

Part of me wants to go big and just tile the whole thing shiny black but I don’t think the wife would go for that. It might be hard to match a mantel to as well, which I think is going to be a whole other challenge. For now the matching paint will do until we get the tiles. I actually don’t think it looks terrible, which is good b/c it’s looking like at least a month before I get some time together to take next steps. Just one more reason to look forward to the holidays and time off.   

Just don't

Don't get sick while you're teaching a class and have to talk for hours at a time. Don't let the unfinished nature of a fireplace renovation goad you into working on it while you should be resting. Don't let your two football teams playing like utter and complete garbage distract you from the wonderful life you have.

And don't, under any circumstances, let your children distract you while you're proofing yeast for your pizza crust.

Uh, yeah, it's proofed.

Words to live by.

Now who's hungry?

Hey, that's a nice surprise.

Turns out we had a surprise in the backyard this summer, when the tree we thought had crab apples on it kept going to produce some full size apples. But by mid-September they had clearly grown into full-blown apples, and it’s pretty obvious we need to look up some tips on caring for an apple tree before next spring.

Eh, I've seen better looking apples but what the hell.

Droops aside, there were some semi normal-looking apples on there, even if they aren’t the prettiest. So we took one off this weekend and it actually tasted pretty good. A little tart, but it had more flavor than I was expecting. So what the hell, let’s pull three or four off and make a baked apple pancake. What’s the worst that could happen?

Now we're talking.

The worst that could happen is probably pretty dire in actuality, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. Really all that happens is I always get a sticker crust when I was trying for a crunchier one, b/c try as I might I just cannot replicate the experience of a Clarke’s baked apple. Oh well. Let’s just get some ice cream to go with it, and maybe make sure we know how to take better care of the tree moving forward. 

I need to cook more often.

I hate to see summer turn to fall but my god I can't wait to go apple picking. Apple cake, apple pie, apple slices, apple donuts, apple fudge, apple cider, apple everything. Bring it on.

From leaning to screwed

Whelp, back things up. The leaning shelf was an easy build and quickly came together. Unfortunately they weren’t a hit with anyone. For a bathroom no one uses these got a surprisingly big THUMBS DOWN from the rest of the family. No one liked using the basement bathroom with the shelves crowding them while they tried to do their business. That includes the boy, who uses that bathroom as his last stop before getting into the car before leaving for anywhere. So they pretty much had to go away. 

Well, not entirely. I like having extra shelves out, and was pleased with each individual shelf as a product as they came together. So I just figured why not put them directly on the wall as floating shelves.  

Well, the first shelf can support another, so that's a good sign.

These might not be as pretty as sliding a hollow shelf directly onto a bracket attached to the studs but since they were already built it seemed like a waste not to put them on as is. It was as simple as putting a screw into each stud they went across directly through the back ledge. I get the appeal of a leaning shelf but why own a home if you’re not going to put the occasional holes in the wall? I’ve got the time, I can go a little more invasive if the situation calls for it.

Maybe some more decorations would be good.

Not having shelf legs surrounding the toilet got immediate approval from the boy, so these are good to stay up. It’s always nice to have somewhere else to put a picture of Payton after all.