Saturday, August 15, 2020

Home, Sweet (and not-so-sweet) Home

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: We’ve all been spending a LOT more time in our houses recently, even for writers who usually work from home. I know several of us have, like so many others, been sorting, cleaning out and organizing. But there’s another thing I’ve noticed after being in my house for approximately 130 of the last 150 days. It’s imperfections. Like spending just a leetle too much time with your spouse, a beloved residence starts to reveal all sorts of annoying quirks when you can’t get away one in a while.

For me, it started with my desk, which I’ve been using for literally years with no complaint. In the past, of course, I’ve also been able to work at the dining room table, in the kitchen, at the university or at our local library. The last two are obviously right out, and the accommodations we made for having four people working and attending classes at home meant everyone got his or her own space. So I’m 100% at my desk. Which, I discovered, is too damn small for me. Papers piled up on my computer tower. Reference books and notebooks slid from the desk to a small table I dragged in, and spread across the parlour. And then of course, there’s Neko, who feels beholden to sit at my left hand while I work, making it impossible to put anything else on that side of the desk (she’ll just knock it on the floor.)

I solved this issue with the generous help of my friend Victor Wakefield, who cut a furniture grade piece of plywood to perfectly fit between the bay windows where my desk resides. I gained an extra two feet of surface, and now the cat and I can both use the space. Hurrah!

Another irritation I twigged to was the back door, which screeched like a banshee whenever it was opened - and as soon as the weather gets warm, it’s opened a lot. It also stuck against the door jamb, probably due to a century plus of slightly uneven settling. (We can all relate to that, I’m sure.) After a month or so of screech-stick-screech, my dear Guest Son took matters in his own hands, and I opened the door one morning to discover it swung freely and silently. He had taken it off the hinged, planed down the bottom a few millimeters, and oiled all the metal bits up before reassembling it. Brilliant!

Lately, it’s been the front porch. Why didn’t I notice the paint was so old and so boring? Wouldn’t it look great in a checkerboard pattern? We’ll see if I can find some kindly Samaritan (or shanghai’d child) to upgrade it for me.

How about you, Reds? Have you experienced any non-House Beautiful Hmmmm moments while sheltering (and sheltering and sheltering) at home?

LUCY BURDETTE: For me it’s our screened-in porch. We’ve been living out there since bringing Lottie the Havanese puppy home. House-training rules mean you’re supposed to reduce the space a new dog  lives in so she begins to realize it’s her den too, and thus doesn't pee and poop everywhere. Since we’ve been out of the house (all four of us often!), I have also noticed the most annoying sticking of the porch door. And the smell of toxic mothballs wafting up from underneath--John put them there to discourage woodchucks and skunks moving in. So yesterday we had a nice man come and fix both of those issues--wheee! I don’t want to look around too hard at anything else for fear we need more repair people…

JENN McKINLAY: I don’t even know where to start! I live in a frat house with three man-boys. There is not one room in my petite 1959 ranch house that doesn’t bug me on some level. Some need painting, others need upgraded doors, and several need new furniture. I stick to my writing corner and ignore everything but the newly remodeled kitchen (ignore the dishes in the sink!) and the swimming pool - my two bright spots. I have a feeling it won’t be a fully realized pretty house until we get ready to sell it. (sigh)

HALLIE EPHRON: Sticking sliding door to our garden was driving us all nuts… I scored a can of WD-40 at the supermarket. Jerry applied it and wiggled the door back into its proper rut in the track, and voila. Smooth gliding and silent. 

What drives me nuts is the bushes in my garden. I can only trim them as far as I can reach. So they’re fat round balls with cowlicks sticking up the top. Hoping I can get our local tree service come and do a major all-the-bushes trim in the fall. 

My happy place is my little office which is the only room with a/c. 

RHYS BOWEN: No complaints really, apart from my garage which is full of STUFF. I try not to go there: bags for Goodwill, boxes of books for the Friends of the library, shelves stocked with paper towels, toilet paper (even before the pandemic), canned food etc that John can’t resist stocking up on. When I sent my son in law a picture of our pristine garage in Arizona he texted back “Who are you and what have you done with my in-laws?”

NOT actually Rhys and John's garage.
I’d love to do more to my garden, have bright pots of flowers within the enclosed patio area but I’m not going to risk Home Depot. 

We rarely use that patio down under the balcony but now it’s the perfect place to entertain in the shade where visitors can be suitably distanced. Normally it just has a swing on it. But I located our old patio table and chairs, scrubbed them all down with bleach until they look good, found a round table cloth and voila: nice little area to sit and eat.

I’d love to put a gazebo up on our hillside, but for now I’ve sent for a wooden bench to put up there: another place we don’t think of during our usual busy summers but now looks really inviting. I’m hoping to persuade Dominic to build me some kind of shelter up there.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  On day 2 of the pandemic, we bought a new freezer and put it in the basement. (I actually give it a love pat every time I walk by. Good going, I say. You stay cool.) On day 5 or so, I ordered barn red Adirondack chairs for our front porch, and two weathered gray tables. We’d never sat out there before, preferring to stay around the pool in the back, but now it seems like seeing the world go by (or not) is more important. We have breakfast out there, sometimes and also go out late, every night, with the last of the wine, and look at the stars. (And then I saw an article in the WSJ that said something like :Front porches are back.)

Hank's office in The Before Time
My office is a crazy place. It used to be perfect. Now it’s an insane maze of wires and lights and plugged in stuff. Two Ipads and a phone and a laptop, plus my desktop.  And a little basket of lipstick and earrings and mirrors  for last minute Zooms. Gah.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: The first week of the pandemic, we cleaned out our stairwell closet. I tackled a few cabinets in the kitchen, the main thing being my big corner double lazy Susan, which was HORRIBLE.  And in May, I did venture out with my mask a couple of times to the garden centers, and was really enjoying the patio and deck and porch. But, now, meh. It's just two big watering stints a day, and hoping the plants make it through August so we can enjoy the autumn.

As for the big fix-it projects, we desperately need a new downstairs central A/C unit, solar film on the sun porch windows (that's TEN big windows), and ditto all new blinds with blackout lining. (All due to neighbor taking down the huge tree that shaded our backyard.) But these are all big ticket items and I don't really want to tackle them in a pandemic--not to mention that two of the three require having people in the house, still a big no-no here.

JULIA: All right, dear readers, it's your turn. What new or old thing about your house has started working your last nerve over the last five months?

75 comments:

  1. We’ve talked about re-tiling the kitchen for far longer than the past five months, but a well-placed rug is keeping me from being frustrated about the floor. [Probably because I absolutely love the rug with its star nebula pattern.]
    Aside from that and my never-ending quest for bookshelves, squeaky doors are about the worst that it gets around here . . . I grumble, John gets the WD40 and, like magic, the squeaks are gone . . . .

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  2. I have been working at home since this all began back in March. I rarely go out except to get food and other necessities. Most are curbside pickups. Which I have come to love. I also attend a lot of zoom events, both work and pleasure and I have got to say these are my ray of sunshine in these dire times. I can see more of you authors than I could ever if I had to go to the locations. So thank you all for the virtual events and for writing the books!!

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    1. We are thrilled to hear people are watching! Don't miss the big convention of Reds next Saturday!

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    2. Here's the Poisoned Pen Bookstore's page with information about the first EVER JungleReds virtual book event... https://www.poisonedpenevents.com/event/a-special-virtual-event-with-the-jungle-red-writers/?instance_id=4347

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    3. Just go to Poisoned Pens Facebook page!

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    4. Oh, wow. Yes! A convention of Reds. That'll be fun! Thanks for the info.

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  3. I'm feeling too grumbly about everything - it's the pandemic that's sticking and bothering me and affecting everything else. The lawnmower won't start. The man I live with is being cranky. The kitten is in manic destructive mode, not to mention trying out biting people. ("No!") For today, I'm hanging out in my office, the one room I deep cleaned and partly reorganized a few weeks ago. Glad the rest of you are getting a few things fixed up.

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    1. It's my garden that's haunting me... weeds are crying out to be pulled, bushes moaning that they need to be trimmed, and lawn watered.

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    2. My flower garden is a MESS - half clover and some native spiky purple flowers have seeded themselves and I was glad because it fills in the space where I failed to put annuals in this spring. I love the idea of gardening, but the execution often fails me.

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    3. Julia, that's a riot. "The execution fails me." Ha!

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    4. Right there with you, Edith and Lucy, although I have no one living with me to be cranky (but that crazy gray haired woman in my mirror can surely be a grump!) This was to be the Spring that everything got spiffed up and ready for someone else to live here. Sigh. :(

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  4. Jenn, I've been thinking about this a lot lately: WHY do we have to wait until we're ready to sell our houses before making them "pretty"?

    I'm sick of EVERYTHING in my house right now. We were supposed to start remodeling my circa 1982 kitchen this summer after delaying the project for two years already. Now? Make that three years. And in that time, I've rethought the remodel a gazillion times. (Upgrade it, calculate the cost, downgrade it again.) I have several pieces of furniture in the living room I want to get rid off but that's not happening this year either.

    The only place I'm totally happy with is my front porch. I bought a new cushion for my swing (I love Wayfair and Overstock!) and can sit out there and read or drink coffee or wine for hours.

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    1. Nothing like a good porch swing!

      My mother-in-law, who lived in the same house for over 50 years, was the best at keeping things fixed up NOW, and not waiting. I've adopted that philosophy as my own. It just makes sense.

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    2. Annette, my husband and I came to that same "WHY do we have to wait..." conclusion two years ago. We were considering downsizing, but didn't feel quite emotionally ready. The house had been neglected while we put our son through college, and the thought of fixing it up and then selling it without getting to enjoy the improvements made me sad beyond words. In the end we took out a home equity loan and re-did our bathroom, upgraded a few things in the kitchen, put new carpets/flooring throughout, and painted throughout. It is amazing what a difference that made!

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    3. Annette, Wayfair and Overstock sell living room furniture as well... just put those old pieces by the side of the road with a "Free" sign and watch them disappear!

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    4. I love my two porch swings, but at the moment it's too hot to sit in them. Week before last we had a rogue cool day and Gigi came over for socially distanced morning tea. I can't wait for autumn and the chance to enjoy outside again!

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  5. " It also stuck against the door jamb, probably due to a century plus of slightly uneven settling."

    I've had almost a century of uneven settling too, but loose shorts and a tank top pretty much address that issue. I recommend everyone of a certain age to try it.

    The big thing in our house and garden is the garden. Our gardener, Erin, is excellent. When she shows up. When she doesn't, as in the last couple of weeks, she's no gardener at all. This week is her last chance before we replace her. I can no longer do much of any gardening except for the pots on the patio, and Julie's knees are killing her, so she's not able to do it either. We've had a beautiful summer, hottish in the daytime but cool at night, and with the addition of Sergeant Pepper, we spend a lot of time out there.

    We started the quarantine with cleaning out a few kitchen cabinets. But I'm so over that. And the twenty year old ceiling fan in one bedroom is grumbling, not sure what will happen with that. Maybe autumn will come before it expires.

    Which brings me to the big project of the summer. We are on constant puppy patrol, and we are fortunate to have a baby who is a quick learner. He's got the part about going potty in the backyard. Except when he doesn't. So there is still about one accident a day to deal with. He has slept all night since we brought him home -- thank the universe for Snuggle Puppy -- except when he doesn't, as in the past two nights. He does come to his name when called, is so good at sitting on command that he comes to me and plops his little puppy butt down, looking hopefully at me and begging for a treat. This week he's been coming along for our morning walk, and he's getting the part about walking nicely on lead. However, he's a ton of work. Every day I think the gods that be for Julie. She was working when we had Baby Toby and then Baby Penny, so I had it all to do myself. This time she is home all day, and I have some help with the endless puppy training.

    The saving grace is crate training. He eats and sleeps in his crates, one up and one down stairs, and we cover them, sort of like covering a bird cage. A good meal in a dark crate means he takes a long nap after, and he goes out to potty as soon as he wakes up. I think covering the crate it the trick.







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    1. Ann, I so agree on covering the crate. Whenever I need to crate Nemo, the mini-dach, I cover his crate. He lies down and naps until he's sprung, no barking.

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    2. Ann, I love the pictures of Sgt. Pepper and Lucy's Lotte, but hearing your routines with puppies reminds me why I've always adopted dogs who were at least a year old!

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    3. We always covered our crates, too, Ann. I think it makes a big difference. I actually have a seamstress-made cover for our big crate, somewhere. (In that closet that needs to be cleaned out...)

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  6. In normal times, my job keeps me out of the house at least ten hours a day, often on weekends, too. When I moved in here, I brought a lot of boxes of old stuff I figured I'd sort through "eventually," and then pretty much forgot because--with that work schedule--who had the time or the energy?

    Now I live with them, and with the couch I never sit on because the dogs ate the cushions. And with all the other things, big and little, I've been able to ignore around here. And I keep asking myself, who lives like this?

    It's just me, and I still lack the energy for a deep dive into the mess, but I now need desks for my work computer as well as my personal computer, and the pressure to clear more usable space is real. I've started pecking away, box by box, and I have to believe I will, eventually see some serious progress.

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    1. Gigi, I offer you one slapdash solution: when Ross and I were first married, we had more boxed stuff than we had room to unpack in our tiny rental. So I threw cloth over them and turned the boxes into a coffee table, side tables, etc. You could do a box desk and a box sofa (though you'll still need new cushions for that! :-)

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  7. Rhys, John and Steve seem to have the same philosophy about what a garage is meant to do. And we have two garages. And three barns. Aaargh.

    The biggest craw-sticker in my life at the moment is our year-old walls and ceilings. The drywall guys came to fix the inevitable nail pops and cracks of new drywall, one day into quarantine. Then left me with a big mess. Drywall dust everywhere, plus rough, mudded areas over once-pristine paint.

    Sure, I could paint it myself. Except this house has nine-foot ceilings, and my ladder is for eight-foot ceilings. And my neck and shoulders can no longer take all that over-the-head work. And the paint we were left is insufficient for using rollers. And there are something like eight colors of paint that need patching. And did I mention we already have furniture and rugs underneath? Steve and I can't move all that stuff by ourselves.

    I've patched some of the walls with a brush, but they need a second coat that's rolled on to really smooth it out. So I live with Dalmatian-like spots. Could be worse, I guess.

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    1. Karen, I lived with Dalmation-spotted drywall in my kitchen for years before painting it, and I didn't even have your good excuses. There was just always something more pressing (like reading a book) to do!

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    2. Do not attempt painting ceilings, Karen ! I’ve been looking at John’s bathroom and thinking that we could repaint. Then I picture myself on the ladder. No!

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    3. Well, yes. Lots of books to read, Julia! I didn't mention them, because isn't that a given?

      Rhys, no ladders for either of us. It's a deal.

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    4. I keep looking at how dirty my kitchen cabinets are, but they are to-the-ceiling, and we have ten foot ceilings. So, no.

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  8. I hurt my arm overdoing yardwork early in the summer--and now everything irritates me. I can't get at the weeds, I can't paint inside, I can't get the garage or the basement cleaned out, etc. No porch--one of my biggest regrets about my house--but I do have a canopied swing that I have positioned this year in a quiet flower garden spot. And strung up a hammock under the oaks. And I take lots of long walks through the woods--don't need two arms to do that! But oh the stuff I want to do! Oh, and yes to WD40--no more squeaky doors!!

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    1. Oh Flora - that sounds miserable. I find it literally painful to see a weed popping up among my perennials and not being able to pull it. It's like a sentence with a typo. Aaaaaagh!

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    2. Oh, Flora, I'm so sorry. I can't think of anything more irritating than to have the will to work and being unable to. Where are the teens of yesteryear, eager to do simple household jobs for twenty bucks? Probably inside making Tik Tok videos.

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    3. Julia, one of those teens is at my house this very minute! She's going to be a senior this year, her dad and I are old friends (44 years this month), and her paid summer internship that she'd been hoping would help her save some money for college next year didn't happen. I asked her dad (they're also neighbors) if he knew anyone who could help us clear out some brush, and he asked if Molly could do it. She's been great, very eager to work 2-4 hours several days a week, and this little dynamo has cleared an amazing amount of brush. I started out paying her $8 an hour, but we upped it to $10.

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  9. Purging the house continues, though I'm waiting for the library to start collecting books and St Vincent to recover from being inundated with clothing donations earlier in the season. The weeds and wild vines are magnificent this year, the chigger mites hell.

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    1. Margaret, thank you for reminding me there are outside bugs worse than ticks. It makes me feel much more kindly about the little menaces!

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  10. From the beginning of the pandemic until last week, I was working from a folding chair like you would use at a card table. I had a folded blanket on the seat to raise me to a more comfortable level for my keyboard. To be honest, I didn't think much of it until a month or so ago. Then I mentioned it to my husband, and began to think about doing something about it. Eventually, I would have reached the point of action. But before I reached that point, he said one day while I was out he went in and looked at it and was kind of horrified to see what I had been sitting on all this time. A new, proper desk chair arrived last week.

    The only other thing nagging me about the house itself is that in both the kitchen and the laundry room, we still have an old fluorescent light fixture. Both have a white shade that seems to color-correct, so it isn't the actual lighting that bothers me. But as they have aged, they don't light up immediately upon being turned on. At least not reliably. So in those two rooms, I flip the switch then wait and see what's going to happen. Will the light come right on? Will it start dimly and then grow in strength? Or will it flicker annoyingly?

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    1. I am in awe! How did you pick a desk chair? I need a new one, so much, my chair is so awful, but I would have no idea how to make sure it was the right size .

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    2. Susan, this has been my experience as well. I don't know if Yankee frugality was drummed into me, or if it's just inertia, but I'll work around a problem forEVER. Then, when I finally get it corrected, I'm always amazed at how quick and easy it was!

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    3. Hank, I've had two Aeron chairs forever (two writing desks) and you cannot beat them. They are infinitely adjustable. They are also expensive but they last forever, and sometimes you can find really good deals on used ones.

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  11. Some time within the last several months or so I have been invaded by mice! What a mess they have made in my basement/garage. When the man came to service my boiler he pointed it out to me. I think he was rather disgusted, as was I. I used to get the odd mouse in a trap now and then but they must have been holding their convention here. My granddaughter helped me try to figure out where they were getting in. She was on the ladder and had pulled back a bit of insulation when she let out a scream and nearly fell off the ladder. There had been a mouse looking at her with its beady little eyes! I put the trap on the floor in that area, then we went outside to see if we could tell anything from that. After pulling away a lot of leaves we still couldn't tell much but I vowed to keep the leaves clear from there and maybe the cat could do her job. When we went back inside there was a mouse in that trap already. He was probably already scared to death so it didn't take much to finish him off. My gd put expanding foam where we thought it would so some good and proceeded to clean the mess as best we could. Don't know what I would do without my dear Ayla, but if that wasn't enough work for one morning she went up to the attic and tidied that beautifully!

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    1. Mice. Ugh! When we had the roof and eaves/soffits etc replaced at the cottage several years ago, the guy doing the soffits pulled away some piece of the siding and out flowed a huge pile of mice-chewed insulation and other stuff (I'll leave the details to your imagination...). He couldn't get out of the way fast enough. And we were horrified. And mortified. Thankfully, the replacement job solved the problem. I hope your problem is fixed now, too, Judi!

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    2. Oh, Judy they're so cute in children's fiction and so gross in real life. We always have a "mouse problem" because we live in the country - they come inside every fall like clockwork. We've always had a cat or two, which helps, but the heavy lifting is done by MULTIPLE mousetraps - I have ten or so. I get the self-baiting kind, which really does seem to work, and check and rest them every day.

      Someone told me the life cycle is looking for food--breeding--new mice---looking for food. If you wipe out enough of one generation, it will significantly cut back on the population going forward. I've found this to be true, judging by the numbers I find in the traps.

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    3. A friend of ours is in the animal removal business, like when you have raccoons in the attic, etc. He gave us the best idea for trapping mice, which works well if you have a lot of them, because once a snap trap is triggered it can't catch any more.

      Take a five-gallon bucket to the area. Smear some peanut butter around about 10" of the inside of the top of the bucket, not all the way around, and make some of the smears "drip" down the insides for a few inches. Make a ramp to the top of the bucket from something; even a broken yardstick will work. This works best if it's alongside a wall, since mice like to hug walls.

      Now put about 3-4" of water in the bucket. The mice will try to eat the peanut butter, and they will fall into the bucket, which they cannot get out of. We've had as many as four mice in the bucket at once.

      When you want to reset the bucket trap, just dump the water somewhere outside, and refill it again with 3-4" of water.

      This works even if you can't get to the trap for several days, like on vacation, too, and it's not nearly as smelly as having a dead mouse in a snap trap. It's also more humane than the glue traps, which horrify me.

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  12. And I need a magic cord arranger for electrical cords. They are so snaky and tangly and every time I untangle them, they tangle themselves up again. And yes, my desk chair is suddenly horrifically uncomfortable. I think it happened overnight. I just can’t sit there anymore. But I am worried how to measure for a new one, so who knows.

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    1. Hank, consult an expert on replacing the chair, someone at Staples or another office supply place. They should be able to advise on measuring. Or try a piece of really comfortable furniture, like a dining room chair. It's your office!

      As for the cords, masking tape! Easy to use, easy to rmove.

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    2. Hank, here's a site that has a calculator - plug in your numbers and it tells you the dimensions to look for: https://www.blitzresults.com/en/ergonomic/

      Cords are the bane of my existence. I can see four right from where I'm sitting. Ugh.

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  13. It has been really hot and humid here most of the summer. We have a large screened-in porch on the back of the house off of the family room. Even on the hottest days we sit out on that porch for a while both morning and evening. The furniture out there was a hand-me-down iron set from my step mother. She brought it with her from her house in 1968 when she and my dad married and each sold a house to buy one together. I figure her set was from the 1950's, all filigree leaves and swirls.

    Irwin hated it, but put up with it, until the pandemic. SO, in May or June, as soon as the stores opened here, I made an appointment with a sales clerk at our Pottery Barn, went there and bought a new set, most of which was delivered very quickly, some is still on backorder. Then I called a local iron-works dealer in my town. I told him he could have the old set, (not all of the pieces, because there were many including a dining table with 4 chairs) if he came and removed it. There was a small amount of rust and the paint was flaking off, which Irwin really despised. The man came and looked at it one morning, then an hour later his guys arrived in a truck and hauled it away. Once he refinishes that "vintage" furniture, he can probably sell it for a pretty penny. We were not looking for the $$$, just the empty space for the new pieces.

    Every time Irwin goes out there he says, "Boy, this is so much more comfortable than the old set."

    We have tons to do inside, but have done little. We should be removing the detritus of 36 years here, but, maybe in the winter (sigh).

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    1. Judy, I'm still living with a few hand-me-downs from parents and grandparents. Got rid of a few this weekend by carting them to my son's house in VA. I can't wait for the girls to establish their own households, so I can give away the rest, thus justifying upgrades in my mind!

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  14. Inside, I work in a corner of the living room, behind the sofa. The space works well for me, but it's the sofa that is the sore point. Our house is small, so when we chose the sofa it was big enough to lie on for a nap but small enough to fit the living room. However, after about 15 years, it looks outdated -- but the thought of getting rid of it and finding a replacement is entirely totally and absolutely unappealing. So. The sofa will stay, I'm sure.

    Outside, we are finally having a new fence built between us and the neighbours and it's going to be lovely. Well, it will be once we then redesign and build the teeny tiny backyard growing- and sitting-space. In the front yard, the spring refurbishment has settled in well and we now delight in sitting on that patio, enjoying the plantings and watching the people walk, bike and dog-walk down the quiet street. That space is a highlight for me this summer.

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    1. Amanda, one interesting aspect of today's conversation is how MANY of us are valuing our outdoor spaces like never before. I suspect a lot of us are going to live more fully and creatively with our homes after the pandemic is (please, God) gone.

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  15. What bother me most this summer are my living room curtains . I use them only against the west sun's glare and they are truly discoloured. I tried online but I couldn't feel the fabrics and ascertain the colours.
    So, last week, up I went masked to an almost deserted linen store and found what I needed. Now they are being short cut to the right length. How happy I'll be soon sitting in my living room !

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  16. Wow!

    Jungle Reds, it looks like you tackled a lot of projects! I am STILL decluttering.

    Diana

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    1. To be extremely clear, Diana, I'm tackling a lot of projects with the help of two hardworking twenty-somethings. If I were still living alone, I'm pretty sure I'd just squeeze my eyes shut when walking past anything I didn't like!

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    2. Julia, Two hands halves the work, right? It is wonderful to have people helping us. I am trying to be more minimalist so I do not have to deal with more clutter in the future,

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  17. Just before the pandemic a friend relocated to Texas to be with her aging mother. She gave us an oriental rug. It was to go into the computer room to cover a carpet that is more stained than Dorian Gray's portrait. I am now in the computer room looking at the 72 gazillion pieces of furniture (that seem to be multipyling) wondering if today is the day the rug will be installed.
    Side bar: Julia et al. re the Key Lime Juice. My email addy is izchicpanda@gmail.com. Send my your mailing address and the key lime juice will arrive. Can't guarantee timely.. but it will arrive. Pat D. sorry not my own key lime juice/ my tree died back when the winter temps got down to 35 degrees. Still want some?

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  18. The one less than happy house moment I've had so far is that one of the bookcases in my bedroom just came crashing down out of nowhere about 2 months ago or so. No warning and I hadn't even added anything to the shelves in years.

    The 5 shelves just came crashing down one night and it took me 2 1/2 hours to clean everything up. It spurred me to decide on getting rid of some of the books on the shelves that I read but probably wouldn't ever get around to reading again. Or at least hope to get rid of them since until the other day, the library wasn't accepting book donations yet.

    Most of the books were some Star Trek prose novels but a couple of the shelves had my collection of Robert B. Parker Spenser novels and my John Sandford collection. Plus Faye Kellerman and Patricia Cornwell books too.

    And a bunch of my TV show DVDs. I found a new place to put the DVDs and some of the books that I still want to to keep but for the stuff that I plan to get rid of, their temporary new home is the kitchen table.

    I don't think I'm going to put the shelves back up. First, I'm not handy at all. Second, I don't know anyone that I could ask if they wanted to do some carpentry to fix the stuff up for me so they could be put pack up.

    It may lead to me having a smaller book collection but at this point, that's not a bad thing since I don't really get to do much re-reading of books these days.

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  19. I have finally moved to my new home so right now the boxes, both empty and those still full, are the main irritant I'm dealing with right now. The boxes and my missing new couch, mattress and box springs. Apparently they can't be delivered until everything is ready. Grr. There are problems that need to be fixed but I'm taking iddy, biddy baby steps. Step one is to put the doors back on the upper storage shed. (A mobile home with three storage sheds, who would have thought that possible?) The right door fell off within the first 24 hours of moving and even though my sister and niece stayed to unpack and fix things so I could keep working, that door is still lying on it's side. I need an electrician to fix the wiring in the kitchen so the new fridge isn't plugged into a outlet on the other side of the house. Good thing about this home is the AC! Bad thing is the state has requested rolling blackouts due to the heat and higher power consumption. So, now I'm off to the store before it gets any warmer, sorry, HOTTER today then I'm going to hide inside and unpack some more boxes. Anyone in the north San Francisco bay area need boxes? These are good, only had one owner and move boxes! I can do a no contact delivery to the end of your driveway.

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  20. I WD-40ed the back door lock when it started shrieking everytime a key was turned. Problem solved. Tried the same with the front door lock but it had more issues. Something had shifted. The door wouldn't stay shut unless it was locked. To lock and unlock it was a real pain as it had to be alligned just right. Finally, Frank fixed it with his dremel on one of the rare days he stayed home from his acreage. So, that problem is solved. I called Mr Sparky(love that name) to come take care of lighting issues in the living room and kitchen. One can light circuit blew years ago and I've been doing without ever since. Since I've been going blind trying to read on the couch without a light nearby I decided it's time. Also I see Home Depot has some bathroom faucets on sale and several of ours really need replacing. Bad. With the onset of Mr Sparky I am finally getting motivated to do some projects. And I actually filled a laundry basket full of clothes from my closet to donate yesterday. Now if I can only find a place open to take them.

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  21. I was inspired by everyone's clean-up posts this morning, so I tackled *one* drawer in the kitchen. And finished it. yay! That will have to count for a good day's home improvement work; now the sun and front patio are calling.

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  22. I have to admit after the first flurry of energy, in March, when it was still winter outside, I haven't done much.

    But early on, I did some heavy fixing and cleaning. I'm proudest of repairing the loose handrail on the basement stairs. It was a major job, and now, every time I go down there, I grab hold of it for safety, and for that "aaahhh!" feeling I get with all that solidity.

    Oh, I also straightened up the back garden and patio just enough so I can sit out there all summer and enjoy it.

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  23. I'm starting to notice the dirt a lot more. I've never been super good at cleaning. (Lazy bachelor) But even as I've started to clean more, the hard stuff to clean has been getting to me. Fortunately, I can tackle some of them in a few minutes here and there.

    And all the stuff I need to sort through and cut down on. Fortunately, I can distract myself with a good book so I don't have to tackle those things.

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  24. You would think that having had new paint to most of the rooms, a complete main bathroom redo, new flooring, and some new furniture four years ago would have my house in fairly good shape. You would think. Now, we're integrating some of my mother-in-law's furniture into an already full house, and my house is one big mess. And, the dining room table has been taken over by my husband with documents from his mother's estate, as he's the executor. I'm not going to mention my book buying spree as adding to the clutter because books are not clutter. They're not. I'm closing my eyes to it all this weekend. My reading mojo is back, and priorities must be respected.

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  25. I clean out a few things once in a while but don't really have a way to get rid of things yet. I also have bags of books for the library, bags of romances for 2 friends and bags of comics and magazines for my cousins. The library isn't accepting donations now, and my cousins and friends are older than me with more health problems so probably won't see them until September.

    I weeded more in the garden today since it was cooler. I thought about buying plants from the nursery to replace the ones fried from the heat, but it's the middle of August, I might as well start dumping pots and planting those flowers in the ground. Stay safe and well.

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  26. I'm taking the coward's way out...my house went on the market yesterday. Goodbye garden, little (but sweet) ocean view. Hello condo next to hiking paths/trails, and potted trees, flowers, plants on the patio.

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