Category: Life updates

Removing Wallpaper

  • Listing photo with wallpaper

When we moved in, there was a wall that ran through the house that was covered in wallpaper. It ran from the utility room through the kitchen, dining room, living room, and the hallway outside the bathroom and two bedrooms. It literally went throughout the whole house. We have been working for weeks to remove some the wallpaper and to figure out how to deal with some spots that were giving us some problems. First, there was not just one layer of wallpaper, but two layers of the exact same wallpaper! Second, there were spots where they plastered over the wallpaper extensively to cover all damage, now we were stuck with spots that had plaster on top of the two layers of wallpaper!

Before New Year’s, we were able to strip the wallpaper almost completely off of 1/3 of the wallpapered surfaces in the house. We recently were able to finish that first third by sanding off the plaster, removing the underlying wallpaper, plastering spots that were damaged, sanding again, washing the walls, then finally painting the wall. Thankfully, this wallpaper can be removed with water, so that has been very helpful, but it was still a lot of work. Take a look at the work so far, and keep an eye out as we still have 2/3 left to go!

The next two photos show some flaws in the wall after painting. I’ll let you know what we do about that in the future, but for now we’re gonna leave it since you can only really see the flaws at night in artificial lighting.

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Being Prepared

I’m a bit of a hoarder, and that can either be a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe one day I’ll show you my green room’s storage unit to show you what I mean… Anyway, I tend to overstock on everything. I currently have 2 unopened containers of toothpaste, 13 rolls of untouched toilet paper that will last me and my husband over 3 months, and I have a small horde of canned foods.

Why am I posting this? That’s a good question. I feel kind of embarrassed to say it’s because I went out preparing yesterday. I spend a lot of time listening to the news and some time with my ear towards YouTube, and I just want to be prepared. I grew up as a girl scout where we share the same motto as the boys with “Be Prepared”. I also grew up in a house were we always seemed to be in need of an essential. I just want to be prepared, and I want to make sure my family is prepared.

Yesterday when my husband and I went to the store, we had a shocking realization. We first went to a hardware store. When we went there last Saturday, there were stocked cold face masks right when you enter. Because we remembered that, we decided to go there first. The shelf that was once completely full have 4 boxes left, and 3 of which were opened. Beyond that, these boxes had a sign saying “Limit one per customer” and were $20 for 20 masks. We had a shocking realization at that point that this may not be a simple cold. We checked their safety gear section and they were also out of normal respiration masks. Our second stop was CVS down the road. Surely a pharmacy would have some, right? Right? The selves were empty where there had been the $9.49 and $4.49 face masks. We got some cold medicine and some hand sanitizer and we decided to visit the grocery store. We stocked up on groceries because it had been several months since my last big haul. We got the essentials, and also more canned foods and water. We found some face masks there of all places, and we decided to get a couple.

What prompted my trip was the illness, but I wasn’t expecting the results to be as bleak as they were. I live in a state that doesn’t even have a single case. I live on the east coast, far from the quarantines, so why was there already such a need? Don’t panic. There is no need for that, but would it hurt to get a couple weeks worth of cans? Would it hurt to get some water and a bit of cold medicine? I just don’t know. Nobody seems to know how bad or how weak this illness is going to be. On some levels, even I was at the front of the line preparing, and it’s already getting tougher to find things. Worst case, you have a bit of extra food and you don’t have to go shopping for a bit, right?

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Update and Mistakes

Josh and I have been working on multiple big projects since Christmas. We’ve been working to get a bit more DIY content on the blog, but we’ve found it’s just a little too hard to do some of these projects in winter.

We’ve pulled out our old dishwasher, since it stopped working mid-November, and though we would like another one eventually, we just don’t have the money or the options at this point to get another one, even used. So, we’re trying to come up with a plan for the now hole under our cabinets. We’ve also been working on a hidden roll out pantry. We started this project on the First, but we’ve been delayed a bit and it’s been taking a few days to finish it up, but hopefully, it will be up by Friday, fingers crossed! Finally, our big mistake.

We’ve been working on removing wallpaper for a few weeks now. But, there is a spot where they plastered over wallpaper, so we decided sanding would be the best option. So, last night we decided to sand down the wall, and though it looks great now, I think I’m going to go crazy with how much plaster dust is covering EVERYTHING! I’ve seen some forums talking about this problem and they encourage washing all fabrics and wet wiping down all surfaces, but man! It’s so much! So, if you ever attack a project like this, please, wear face masks (we did that atleast), make sure the room is well ventilated and sealed off from other rooms if possible, and try not to get frustrated with the mess you just made!

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New Light Fixtures

This weekend, Josh and I went to a new liquidation store a few towns over. While we were there, we were looking at their light section, and we had talked many times about how bad our lighting was and how our fixtures didn’t match what our styling was. On top of this, this store had a good selection, and we were able to get the ceiling light for $23 and we bought their last one, and the wall sconce was only $8.

After that, we finished our Christmas shopping, and crashed for the night. On Sunday, we had to run out to Home Depot to get the 13 watt bulbs needed for the kitchen, and boy was it worth it! Josh spent to rest of the afternoon putting up the lights. It was kind of weird since the ceiling light needed the ground attached to the bracket before it attaches, so I had to hold the light near the ceiling while Josh attached the bracket. Also, it was nice to find light boxes in the ceiling and wall, since we didn’t have one behind our medicine cabinet. The light box in the ceiling isn’t attached to the ceiling at all, but the wires attached through a smaller hole, so there is no risk of that falling. The original kitchen light also had insulation underneath the plate. Though that was the case, we installed the new light without insulation, with the thought that we can always add some later if we so desire or need.

The wall sconce however was a complete disaster trying to install. Originally, Josh thought that would be the easy one, and the ceiling light would be hard, but it was quite the opposite. First, we had to paint it, because it had an oiled brass finish, and we decided it would look better in nickle. But, the problems began shortly after. There was a light box behind the wall sconce, however it sticks out of the wall by about an eighth of an inch. So, the whole fixture is away from the wall a bit, but everything is weird about the design of the fixture. The bulb screws in toward the bottom left edge of the glass, and to not see the bulb, the bulb has to be twisted toward the right. So, the light is uneven, which can be seen a bit in the lit photo below. Also, nothing aligned with the new sconce. A bolt on the back hit the edge of the box making it stick out more, and the ground screw on the mounting bracket also prevented the light from laying flat. So, Josh had to switch brackets, and grind down the light box, making it so the light was nearly even with the wall.

Overall, things didn’t go as we had expected them to, however, they both turned out well nevertheless. The lights take a second to turn on in the kitchen and though we will probably change the wall sconce again in the future, it turned out well in the end. What do you think of the new fixtures? I’m excited to make a new recipe in the kitchen to show off my new lighting soon!

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This Weekend: Shower Disaster and, Filling our Freezer

Shower Problems

One thing that happened this weekend was our shower stopped working. When we first moved in, the shower was already not working correctly. The hot water knob would slip and make it very difficult to turn on and off the water, as well as hard to close it enough to prevent a leak. In September or October, Josh pulled apart the hot water knob, and was able to tighten a clamp on the cartridge. But, Sunday morning when I was about to shower, the clamp finally gave again, so Josh pulled apart the mechanism and broke the old clamp, but it needed to be actually fixed this time anyway.
We turned off the water, took out the cartridge, and took it to ACE hardware to find replacement cartridges. We found two, so we could also replace the cold water too, and we also bought new handles that attach directly to the splines on the cartridge. We returned home late, but we still fixed it and with that we finally have water again. What do you think of the new knobs? Have you ever had problems with your shower handles?

Packing our Freezer (Venison)

We are not vegan or vegetarians, but my husband and I are fervently against animal cruelty. We also understand that our meals come from animals. We understand that some are against hunting, however hundreds of deer die every winter from starvation and car accidents in our area, and if hunting will prevent animal suffering and if hunting can provide food for someone, we feel hunting is worth it. We don’t enjoy the action of hunting, but our ecosystem is cruel. We also use as much of the meat as possible, and find that the meat is often healthier than normal grass/corn fed beef, and has a fat content of less than most beefs. Deer usually has a fat content of less that 5%.
With that understood, Josh went hunting this weekend and managed to get a button buck. I had gone hunting with him earlier this year, but this weekend we were fortunate enough to get a small buck. We then took Sunday to process the deer and get it cut and packaged for meals. We are grateful that now we will have 36 meals covered as a result, and it is a blessing that we won’t have to spend as much on groceries in these winter months as a result.
What does this mean? It means I’m going to be making a lot of recipes in the next few months using a mixture of my normal beef, pork, chicken, but now also venison. This will be my first year cooking venison, so bear with me as I try new recipes and give you alternates to Venison if you want to try the same recipe. As you can see my freezer is now mostly meat and frozen meals, so please consider subscribing or following if you want to keep up with everything to come!

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