I had my last chemo on Friday. Now I sit and wait for the familiar sequence of side effects. Today is "everything tastes like shit day," which will likely end tomorrow when "coming down from the antinausea drugs" kicks in. Then "I am so hungry but can't eat much day" will hit, then my bones will hurt, then my blood counts will dive in two weeks, then I'll start feeling normal again. The best part about this last cycle is that I won't start feeling better just to get knocked down again!
Last Thursday, the day before the final chemo, I went to Lowes and bought some melon color paint for an old bookcase of mine. This bookcase is going to go in the room I'm setting up as a studio. It'll take time for my strength to gather, but I'm determined to start making the house my own by painting something a lovely color and setting it up in a Room With a Purpose. Small significant steps. :) I also got some hardware for my wall shelves.
Preparations for setting up my first studio: stud finder, check. Drill, check. Laser level, check. Wall screws, check. Cats to supervise, check. Bed for frequent naps, check.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
More unpacking...
I'm trying to get my craftroom set up today. It's slow going but I'm getting there. I have actual places to store supplies so I can finally unpack the boxes I've been staring at for almost a year. I love having a whole house to myself.
I decided to use my mom's desk as a place for my beading/jewelry making supplies. It has a nice fold down desk top that will make a terrific work surface. I have some Ikea shelves and a bookcase too. Organizational stuff makes me feel like my life works. Haha.
I decided to use my mom's desk as a place for my beading/jewelry making supplies. It has a nice fold down desk top that will make a terrific work surface. I have some Ikea shelves and a bookcase too. Organizational stuff makes me feel like my life works. Haha.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Nesting while resting?
Some friends threw me a cleaning party a few weeks ago, right after chemo #2. I was not allowed to do anything but tell folks what needed doing. I'm still really blown away by the generosity and kindness of this group of people I've only known for a few months since moving here. My kitchen was completly unpacked and set up and my hard wood floors got a thorough cleaning. I'm really looking forward to the time when I can reciprocate. :)
Chemo #3 was just over a week ago. This one hit me harder than any of them in terms of side effects, though I was up and around sooner than normal. My last chemo is in 2 weeks. It's getting harder to do anything for the house so I'm spending a lot of time looking for ideas and dreaming. I'm still obsessing over my windows and have found a local carpenter who does beautiful work. I'm planning to talk to him about the cost of restoring my existing windows versus replacements. It would be really nice to make my single hung windows into double.
The main branch of the library downtown has an entire room devoted to housing and neighborhoods and has tons of pictures available so folks can see what their houses might have looked like back in the day.
Chemo #3 was just over a week ago. This one hit me harder than any of them in terms of side effects, though I was up and around sooner than normal. My last chemo is in 2 weeks. It's getting harder to do anything for the house so I'm spending a lot of time looking for ideas and dreaming. I'm still obsessing over my windows and have found a local carpenter who does beautiful work. I'm planning to talk to him about the cost of restoring my existing windows versus replacements. It would be really nice to make my single hung windows into double.
The main branch of the library downtown has an entire room devoted to housing and neighborhoods and has tons of pictures available so folks can see what their houses might have looked like back in the day.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
An unpacking interlude
I'm trying to unpack one box a day, a not unreasonable goal given my blood cell counts and energy level this week. It's been weird to unpack the boxes of my mom's things. I hired movers to pack up her apartment after she died because I wasn't ready to sort through her things. I'm taking those boxes very slowly as each one brings back a vivid memory.
I found her Stewie Griffen t-shirt the other day. I bought it for her Valentine's Day present this year because she loved Family Guy and thought "that little monster" was a hoot. I did unpack her mother's dishes and have them in my vintage china closet. It occured to me the other day that those dishes are around a century old. She used them as her everyday dishes rather than let them gather dust in the closet. I've decided that I like that idea and am using the crystal bowls and other vintage dishes for my everyday meals.
I miss her every day.
I found her Stewie Griffen t-shirt the other day. I bought it for her Valentine's Day present this year because she loved Family Guy and thought "that little monster" was a hoot. I did unpack her mother's dishes and have them in my vintage china closet. It occured to me the other day that those dishes are around a century old. She used them as her everyday dishes rather than let them gather dust in the closet. I've decided that I like that idea and am using the crystal bowls and other vintage dishes for my everyday meals.
I miss her every day.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Kicking back
My red and white blood cell counts are down this week. I knew I wasn't feeling great. :P My ambitious plans to unpack one or two boxes have been put on hold until I get some energy back.
I really need to find my camera so I can take some pictures of the house.
I pretty much have myself talked into fixing up the original wood windows. After reading many many many housing blogs I suspect that vinyl replacement windows are akin to 70s leisure suits.
Our local government has put together a "Plan Book" that suggests styles for folks fixing up their old houses. My neighborhood is made up almost totally of foursquares. There is much fear around here that the plan book is a tentative step into declaring our community historic and installing a review board. The next neighborhood over was declared Historic a few years ago and the review board horor stories are legendary. Proir to its historic designation, that neighborhood was a run down area where folks with little money could afford to purchase houses. Most of hte houses there are old Victorian places. A few years back people with more means started buying the houses and restoring them. Somewhere along the line the district was designated historic and the folks who moved to the neighborhood first - a very sore point among those residents - suddenly found htemselves having to get permission to do outside repairs with many of those repairs getting turned down because of inauthenticity.
If a house in that area had a non-historic repair or replacement done prior to the historic designation, then a similar repair or replacement is fine. The problem is when a tin roof needs replacing and the owners can only afford shingles the review board will tend to not approve the replacement. We had a very big case of just that in the past year. There is some quaking in fear and gnashing of teeth in my neighborhood because if I do decide to use leisure suit windows I want to be able to.
What bothers me the most about a historic designation here is the fear that our lovely community will disappear because people will no longer be able to afford living here. This is by no means a poor community but the reality is that historic houses require a certain affluence. Not everyone has the desire or the skill set to do the work themselves. Friends have been suggesting that I replace my windows as soon as possible before a review board gets set in place here.
I really need to find my camera so I can take some pictures of the house.
I pretty much have myself talked into fixing up the original wood windows. After reading many many many housing blogs I suspect that vinyl replacement windows are akin to 70s leisure suits.
Our local government has put together a "Plan Book" that suggests styles for folks fixing up their old houses. My neighborhood is made up almost totally of foursquares. There is much fear around here that the plan book is a tentative step into declaring our community historic and installing a review board. The next neighborhood over was declared Historic a few years ago and the review board horor stories are legendary. Proir to its historic designation, that neighborhood was a run down area where folks with little money could afford to purchase houses. Most of hte houses there are old Victorian places. A few years back people with more means started buying the houses and restoring them. Somewhere along the line the district was designated historic and the folks who moved to the neighborhood first - a very sore point among those residents - suddenly found htemselves having to get permission to do outside repairs with many of those repairs getting turned down because of inauthenticity.
If a house in that area had a non-historic repair or replacement done prior to the historic designation, then a similar repair or replacement is fine. The problem is when a tin roof needs replacing and the owners can only afford shingles the review board will tend to not approve the replacement. We had a very big case of just that in the past year. There is some quaking in fear and gnashing of teeth in my neighborhood because if I do decide to use leisure suit windows I want to be able to.
What bothers me the most about a historic designation here is the fear that our lovely community will disappear because people will no longer be able to afford living here. This is by no means a poor community but the reality is that historic houses require a certain affluence. Not everyone has the desire or the skill set to do the work themselves. Friends have been suggesting that I replace my windows as soon as possible before a review board gets set in place here.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Windows
I counted my windows today. The house has 41 windows, and that doesn't include the windows enclosing the front porch. Murphy says that if I have that many windows and the house is older the one thing the house will need is windows.
It's an interesting dillemma. I've been doing a lot of reading on the net, everything from house blogs to houseblogs.net to real estate sites and home improvement sites. When I bought this house I was looking for a place to recover and nest and to make my own. I hadn't thought about renovations or preservation or historical accuracy or anything beyond moving in, taking care of the few things that needed fixing, and painting the walls pretty colors. I bought the house from a small local company that buys wrecked houses, renovates them, and then sells them (ideally) in a ready to move in state.
One would think that replacing windows would be fairly straight forward. I've seen some vinyl windows I like and that I can afford but now I'm wondering if perhaps I should try to restore the original windows that are still in the house. The sills are rotting in about three of my windows so I'm feeling a little pressure to do something.
A small part of the affinity I feel for this house is the fact that it's been abused. The previous owners lived hard lives and the signs can be found throughout the house. It's obvious that the windows have been broken multiple times, all of the original interior doors have been replaced, and I can see where the renovators replaced moldings and placed new pieces of wood in an attempt to match the old. I'm sure I'm over identifying with the house, at least in terms of my own current battle with cancer and the signs I can see in my own body from my treatments.
So, take the modern, easy way and use modern replacements? Or start what will probably be a never ending process of restoration? And how far does one take these things? I already have modern heating and air conditioning, a new modern kitchen that I like, and modern bathrooms. I have no desire to change those. My mother, who was a Depression Era baby, used to always laugh about how they couldn't wait to replace old furniture and household items with newer more modern things. In the 70s she couldn't wait to cover our beat up hard wood floors with wall to wall carpet. In the past few years she went back to her hard wood floors, but loved her updated vinyl windows. Her house was a 1959 square tract house so the windows looked good in it, but I wonder if 40 years from now someone will buy the house and want to go back to the old less efficient windows.
It's an interesting dillemma. I've been doing a lot of reading on the net, everything from house blogs to houseblogs.net to real estate sites and home improvement sites. When I bought this house I was looking for a place to recover and nest and to make my own. I hadn't thought about renovations or preservation or historical accuracy or anything beyond moving in, taking care of the few things that needed fixing, and painting the walls pretty colors. I bought the house from a small local company that buys wrecked houses, renovates them, and then sells them (ideally) in a ready to move in state.
One would think that replacing windows would be fairly straight forward. I've seen some vinyl windows I like and that I can afford but now I'm wondering if perhaps I should try to restore the original windows that are still in the house. The sills are rotting in about three of my windows so I'm feeling a little pressure to do something.
A small part of the affinity I feel for this house is the fact that it's been abused. The previous owners lived hard lives and the signs can be found throughout the house. It's obvious that the windows have been broken multiple times, all of the original interior doors have been replaced, and I can see where the renovators replaced moldings and placed new pieces of wood in an attempt to match the old. I'm sure I'm over identifying with the house, at least in terms of my own current battle with cancer and the signs I can see in my own body from my treatments.
So, take the modern, easy way and use modern replacements? Or start what will probably be a never ending process of restoration? And how far does one take these things? I already have modern heating and air conditioning, a new modern kitchen that I like, and modern bathrooms. I have no desire to change those. My mother, who was a Depression Era baby, used to always laugh about how they couldn't wait to replace old furniture and household items with newer more modern things. In the 70s she couldn't wait to cover our beat up hard wood floors with wall to wall carpet. In the past few years she went back to her hard wood floors, but loved her updated vinyl windows. Her house was a 1959 square tract house so the windows looked good in it, but I wonder if 40 years from now someone will buy the house and want to go back to the old less efficient windows.
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