House Projects

I'm waiting for this electrician guy to come and fix our fireplace.

We have a gas fireplace, that you "turn on" with a switch, and while we initially thought this was the height of cheese, we enjoyed it the first time we turned on our fire. This was maybe 8 months ago. The second time we turned on our fire we were sitting, enjoying the illusion of warmth, when the whole thing made this sucking sound and died. The switch - thereafter - did nothing. We were still getting things sorted and unboxed and moved into and painted and constructed and we didn't have time to address it, then the summer came and who in their right mind would want FIRE in your house in a CA summer? Then the weather started to cool down again, and there's the whole "stockings" thing and what not. And we have no fire, and our house warranty is about to expire.

So I'm waiting for this electrician guy to come and fix our fireplace. Which just feels weird. I'm actually a little worried that it's not the electrics, that there's something else going on. And our home warranty only pays for the electrician to check the switch. If it's a problem with the actual FIREPLACE they don't cover it. Even though that's what they're coming out to fix.

Then there's the kitchen situation. We took our counters off two weeks ago for the counter top guy to come and measure for the new ones. We were told "two weeks" like that was the magic number so we thought we'd have counter tops... now. I don't want to go into the whole story but it includes such elements as: lost paperwork, Home Depot guy unable to pick up phone to call contractor, confusion about whether a guy even came to measure our kitchen despite the fact that I was here and I talked to him and I said "so what's next?" and he said "oh, you just go to Home Depot to sign off on the estimate and pay," and JB finally getting on the phone every 2 hours until someone from Home Depot picked up the phone and called the contractor and got it all straightened out.

I just got a little chill typing "all straightened out." I hope that didn't jinx us. Because we still have no kitchen counters, no kitchen sink, no access to the dishwasher which drains through the kitchen sink plumbing, no place to prepare food. For the record, I will acknowledge that it is "all straightened out" when I'm staring at the water flowing - leaklessly - through the kitchen faucet.

Phone Conversation with JB:

"Holy crap, you're not going to believe who's starring on Veronica Mars tomorrow night!"

"Joss Whedon."

"Wh- HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?"

"Joss Whedon?! Like, as in: acting???"

"THAT WAS A GUESS?!"

"Well, yeah."

"HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?!"

"It's you."

"I am so transparent."

The Kitchen Project: Phase One

JB and I have arranged for a counter guy to come to our house and measure for new kitchen countertops. For the first time I'm kind of glad our kitchen is on the smallish side. We also bought a sink and a new faucet. AND, looking at our sorry-ass cabinet doors, we decided to possibly buy new cabinet doors and paint them to match our cabinet boxes. I hope to include pictures of befores and afters, especially of our kitchen sink which I HAVE ALWAYS HATED WITH A FIERY PASSION.

November Rollercoaster

Well, after blogging rapturously about the costume, I am here to tell you it was a crash-and-burn at the last second. I spent all my time on the first part (which turned out very well, thank you!) but rushed through the second part, erroneously thinking it wasn't necessary to make a mockup because this isn't a "fitted" garment.

Ahem. If you EVER hear me say I don't need to make a mockup again, please grab the nearest heavy object and beat me around the head a little. Keep in mind that the garment takes 10 yards of material for the surcote and 10 yards of more material for the lining. So that's 20 yards of fabric that I blew through. I hemmed it PERFECTLY (taking another 3 hours to do that nice sewing machine trick, but this time it was really really nice looking at the end). Then I put it on. This is a surcote, meaning it's like a dress with two gaping holes for arms. The front piece of the garment is about 4 inches too narrow, which makes me look about 12 inches too wide. NOT A GOOD FEELING.

JB walked in just after I tried it on and said "Is it supposed to look like that?" with a carefully neutral expression on his face. While I'm sure this was motivated by feelings of love and concern, it ensured that I would NEVER wear the damn thing out of the house. I will, however, attempt to sell it on eBay. The actual garment looks very nice. Just not on me.

In other news, my new class started and so far it's as great as I had hoped (knocking on wood that it will continue thus.)

Happy Thursday, all!