Knitting in the Shadows

Spring!

Last year, for Mothers' Day, my daughters and I went to the nursery and bought lovely annuals to fill the planters on my back patio.

This year, my lovely daughter (BookWorm) took me to see Gatsby.

I did have a moment when I wished we could go buy flowers too, but I realized that I'd not yet done the work that needs to happen before I can fill the back porch with flats of blossoms.  Just the thought of sweeping up the dead leaves, and pulling the old dead plants and new unwelcome volunteers (weeds) out of the planters was enough to rest in the fun of popcorn and flappers.

So... my planters remain lifeless and drab.  But the yard is doing it's thing!

The fruit trees bloomed and are now all leafed out and green.  The volunteer strawberry plants are spreading and blooming --- I see lots of strawberries in our future (perhaps this year we'll pay attention and pick them).

The lilac tree (I swear I thought it was a bush when I bought it ten years ago, but it's two stories tall now) outside the kitchen window is blooming -- has bloomed.  The only flowers left worth oohing over are dangling outside BookWorms window.  I almost missed this one, since from the patio it's hidden by arbor vitae, and from the kitchen it's hidden by the very showy crab-apple (whose flowers are also fading).

The lilac bushes behind the gazebo are starting to bloom.  Their buds are still closed tight, looking dark and mysterious.  But soon, they'll burst open and flood the yard with that sweet smell.

The lilac tree in the far back of the yard is blooming a bit.  This is it's first year for blooms, and there aren't as many as I'd like, but I caught them just in time to pick two for the living room.  Such lovely frail flowers!

What? you don't have three (four) different varieties of lilacs in your yard?  Poor thing.  Having the varieties means you get lilacs for weeks and weeks, not just a few days.  We even get some in the fall... I've got one fall blooming lilac.

But the lilacs aren't alone.  The Wisteria are going like gangbusters this year.  The one on the porch is putting on the best display I've ever seen.  Now I understand the wisteria stained glass window!  And...   the wisteria in the back on the arbor is blooming for it's first year.

(I wonder, is it the drought last year? or the insane amount of rain from this year that's doing this?  If it's the rains, we can duplicate it with mad early watering next year (but I'm pretty sure I won't).

The phlox and sedum and the Canterbury bells are blooming in the front yard.

One of the clematis is blooming by the bridge.

It's all glorious enough (almost) to get me to ignore the water grass that's taking over the front beds and the forest worth of "volunteer" mulberry trees that we'll need to hack down/pull out and otherwise do away with.

(and yes, there are pictures ... and no the phone still isn't releasing them)

Don't Let Plans Stop You

I had a plan for this months blogging.

That plan included lots of pictures.  There were going to be pictures of the prom, pictures of the graduation celebration, pictures of Mothers' Day stuff, pictures of the spring burgeoning about my yard, pictures of the Birthday, pictures of the H.S. Graduation celebration ....

ahem.

I've got pictures.  Some.  Not as many as I'd like.  But my phone (whose camera records more megapixels than my camera... go figure) and my computer are no longer on speaking terms.  This means that the best I can do is email my pictures to myself.  And when I do that, the camera shrinks them "for" me...  until they're too small to be worth much on the blog.

In frustration, I let that stop me from blogging!  I "couldn't" blog until I fixed the picture issue.

????

That's silly.

It's also a bit of a wake up call.  How many things do we not do because we can't do them the way we'd planned?

I had planned to set up my 90% finished living room with new shelves for the DVDs (since the old ones no longer stand up, having had their bottoms warped), and with a new gadget to allow me to stream my music from the hard drive (where I'm uploading all my CD's) instead of keeping all the CDs on the massive shelf.

I can't find a DVD storage unit that is both attractive and sturdy enough not to fall over (I already have falling over ones) without bolting them to the wall.  Thus, I've not quite finished putting those things away. 

I can't seem to get the folks at the local purveyors of electronic gadgets to identify the gadget I need to stream my audio stuff through my stereo (they all say they know it can be done, they've seen it done, they know people who do it, but they don't know what it takes to get it done).  Instead of just setting up the stereo the way it was, I'm waiting to get the gadget, and we're relying on the bad radio that was built into the intercom in our house for music.

I'm letting the fact that I can't do it the way I planned to do it interfere with getting it done.  How dumb is that?

Sure, I'll keep burning my CD's to the system so that when we figure out the how, we can implement it... but today, I'll focus more on putting together what I CAN do instead of why I can't get it the way I want it.

If we look, I'll bet we'll find lots of places in our lives where we've let not being able to do things the WAY we want has kept us from doing them at all.  I know that there are several other things in my life that suffer from this silliness.  I won't share them all, but here's one more:

There are lots of things in the house that constitute clutter now.  I'd like to get them out ... into the garage perhaps ... and then sort them for sale and/or donation.  But... the garage is a mess.  And the weather and my schedule haven't combined to allow me to clean it out to make room either for the stuff cluttering my house, or to sort what's already there, much less more stuff.  Somehow, I've let this prevent me from de-cluttering the house, from getting rid of some stuff that I know will wind up at GoodWill, and from simply chucking things out there for later contemplation. 

This does not sound like a win win to me.

Planning is a good thing.  But letting plans keep you from doing what you want to do... not so much. 

 

 

A Final Journey

My journey to Texas was a poignant one.  While there, I spent special time with my beautiful and talented Aunt Susan, and two of my cousins, Mark and Gail, all of whom are wonderful people whom I wish I could see more often and know better.  It reminded me how many years I've let slip by without managing to visit them.

I also had the opportunity to meet Susan's charming sisters, Patsy and Nancy.  In them, I found new family and new friends.  (And a new scrabble buddy).

But the real reason we were all gathered was to bid a final farewell to my beloved Uncle Marvin.

As I mentioned in my memorial post about Marvin, he was a sailor.  He'd sailed many seas, and where he didn't actually sail, he journeyed by larger boat as a passenger.  When he died, there was one last place he'd wanted to sail.... 

The Gulf of Mexico.

And so, the family thought that the best farewell we could give him was to take his ashes to the Gulf, and let him have his final sail there. We gathered in Houston, where Marvin lived when he died, and  then drove down to Galveston, past lovely houses built up so that the main living areas are safe from high water.

and a couple of cruise ships:  one from Disney

And one from Princess

(those life boats, which look so small and so few on that huge ship, remind me of the movie Titanic).

Then we arrived at the smaller marina where we were going to put out to sea.  There, we were greeted by a gathering of natives:

and their friends...

We boarded my cousin Debbie's boat, captained by her charming husband (and very fine boat pilot) Greg, and set out to pass the magic 5 mile marker so that we would be in international waters.

Along the way, we saw various ships, at anchor

and more at sea.  These may not look huge, but they really are.  There is about a mile to a mile and a half between each of these tankers.

The sea doesn't look all that exciting in these pictures, but there were points where we had some pretty big rollers, and it was fairly choppy.  Greg was amazing -- keeping all of us from experiencing the roughness of the seas we were in.

Once we'd gone out far enough, and then moved out of the shipping lanes, we pulled the not-urn with Marvin's ashes out from where it had been safely stowed for the journey.

Said our farewells and prayers, and gently set it in the sea

Where it floated for a moment, and then did it's biodegradable best, and began to dissolve,

All to soon, it had disappeared beneath the waves.

It was a peaceful moment; a sad moment; a joyful moment; a hard moment.

And then suddenly it was over.

When we were all ready, Greg turned the boat around, and we enjoyed the breeze and the sun and each other

as headed back in to shore, where Greg took us on a little tour of the area ...

This is an oil rig that had been towed in for some reason.

When we got back to the marina, our old friends were still there ...

But we left them in favor of lunch at Bubba's

Despite the special decor, they serve up some wonderful food -

Alas, the crayfish were cooked in a boil that was too spicy for me -- but Mark, Gail, Debbie, and Greg made short work of three pounds of 'em.  We settled into family traditions -- eating well, laughing together, and finally, playing scrabble on the Ancestral Scrabble Board.

I am so glad I went.

I am sad that it took losing a wonderful man to get me together with this group.

I am determined that it will take far far less to get me together with them again.

A little journey

Flying is always interesting. 

Flying out of tiny airports is like stepping into the past.  A little calmer, a little gentler.

Friday, I flew out of anwew-to-me airport, on my way to deliver my uncle's ashes to their final resting place in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's a tiny little airport.  Even though it has a full on restaurant, it has only one gate.  The airline is so small that it can't check your luggage (or  you) all the way through to your destination.  Not a big deal, but it comes into play later that my checking in here, I was not, in fact, checking in for the second leg of my flight to Houston.

Looking out the window we see signs that reveal the size.  Note the wind sock.

 There were no planes on the ground while I was waiting for mine to arrive.  There were, however, helicopters.

I watched that one leave while drinking my coffee and waiting.  I had to finish my coffee outside of security, because there was no place to buy anything inside security (it being the entrance to the gate itself).  They only had a water-cooler inside the gate.

I knew that I'd not be able to bring a water bottle into security, but had hoped to be able to buy some water on the other side.  No luck.  But the coffee from the restaurant was pretty good, and I planned on buying a grossly overpriced bottle of water when I got to O'Hare.

When my plane arrived, I realized again just how small an airport I was in.

The seven passengers and two crew pretty much filled the plane.  The woman who checked us in, and gave us our boarding passes came out to gate check our luggage and see us off...

The copilot helped us up the cute little drop down stairs, closed the door, and walked around to climb aboard the cockpit himself.

The flight was lovely.  A little bouncy at times, but gave a wonderfully different perspective on the world.  Had I remembered that my phone does have a flight mode (which would have let me use the camera in flight), I'd have been able to show you the quilt of the midwest as we flew over.

I was reminded that, despite the dense population of our cities, and even most towns, there are still places where folks' houses are half a mile or more apart.  I pondered the freedom and isolation of living that way as I looked down on houses that sat alone in their square mile of land, surrounded by fields.

Our landing was gentle, and our crew was charming as the co-pilot then led us into the terminal at O'Hare.

My peace was promptly dispelled by the realization that I had arrived at O'Hare airport at the far end of Terminal 3, with less than 50 minutes to get off my plane, gather my suitcase (which fits in the over head bin of large planes, but was gate checked for the wee plane above), and dash like a madwoman across the airport to the far end of Terminal 1.

That meant race-walking from the end of that horizontal blue band on the left (yep, the part that is out of the picture) up around the arc and back down to the bottom of the green band on the right (yep, the part that is out of the picture, but which you can almost see peeking back in as a wee bump).  I did manage to find a shuttle that got me from the Y at the top to the top of the green band.  But they were already loading my plane by the time I'd reached that Y.

Upon arrival at the Y (Terminal 2), I'd reached an area where my outgoing airline (United) had gates.  I tried to get the folks there to at least check me in, so that the folks at my gate would know I was, in fact, in the airport and thus wouldn't give my seat away to a stand-by passenger.  They refused.  They did, at least, aim me at the shuttle bus.* 

When I got to the top of Terminal 1 (the far end from my gate), I tried to get someone THERE to check me in.  I was breathing pretty heavily by this time, as it's been quite a while since I had to march at speed for that distance (nevermind hauling the suitcase).  Again, they refused.  The fellow told me that it only takes HIM 5 minutes to get to the gate I needed.  I refrained from pointing out that when he did it, he wasn't likely to have just dashed 2 miles.  He asked if I needed assistance, and I was tempted to say yes, but if I'd waited for their wheel chair, or cart, or whatever to get to me, I'd have missed my plane.

Needless to say, I did not stop to pee (no bathrooms on tiny planes), or get water, much less get lunch. I arrived gasping as they were calling stand by passengers to the counter.  At first, they coudln't find my reservation -- even with the confirmation number in hand.  But in the end, I boarded the plane, stashed my suitcase, and headed straight back to the lavatory.

The flight attendant generously gave me some water, after which I settled in to enjoy our pilots last ever flight.  He retired that day.

My arrival in Houston was smooth, and my lovely Aunt and beautiful cousin were waiting for me when I emerged from the building.

 

(I've since learned that there is some sort of train thing in O'hare, but no one told me about it, I saw no signs for it, and I still cant' figure out where I'd get it even looking at the O'Hare map.  I think it's outside security, which means risking going through a long line again....)

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

While I'm not going to get into political issues, I'm pretty sure that we can all agree that sexual assault is a bad thing, and that it ought to be stopped.  We can likely also all agree that victims of sexual assault should not be denied services they need just because they can't afford them.

It's all very good to be aware -- but it's also very important to take action.  We should be talking to our children, reporting things we see, and encouraging victims to seek help and to report what has happened to them.

I got to thinking -- what can I do to make a difference?  How can I help?  And, more significantly, what can I, as a massage therapist, do?  And, how can I encourage others to help?

Here's what I'm doing:  Throughout the month of April, I will donate a portion of my massage fees to our local Rape Crisis Center.  This center provides counseling services, and crisis services, but also provides all sorts of education services that help teach young people (from kindergarten up) about ways to avoid sexual assault - both to avoid becoming a victim, and to re-think their actions so that they're less likely to be perpetrators.  They do phenomenal work on a shoe-string budget.

What will you do?

That's entirely up to you, but if you're in my area, one thing you can do is spoil yourself

-
By getting a massage, you can help support those who work tirelessly to prevent sexual assault, and to offer help to it's victims!

At this point you may be asking why I'm writing about Sexual Assault Awareness on a Knitting Blog?  Well,perhaps it's because I'm a massage therapist, and it's relevant.  There are still countless people who don't recognize massage as healthcare, but instead think of massage therapists as people to whom they can make inappropriate propositions.

Perhaps it's because a couple of months ago, a new-to-me male client tried to expose himself to me by "adjusting" the sheet that draped him so that he could "feel the air on his skin".  I was strong enough to draw the line, replace the sheet, and let him know that un-draping himself was not acceptable.  I was okay.  I was able to think fast on my feet and defend my boundaries without freaking out .... and without letting him push me past my comfort zone.

But

Not every young massage therapist would have been.

Even worse, he had already pushed the line when his only feedback included remarking on how good the massage felt only when I worked on or near his glutes.  I have no idea how far he would have pushed things if I had not been able to define my boundaries firmly and promptly.

In this case, I was able to define my boundaries, and finish the massage.  Afterwards, I told him that I was "sure" he hadn't "intended to do anything inappropriate", it had made me uncomfortable that he only expressed appreciation for my work when I was working on his glutes, and that it not only made me uncomfortable but that it violated professional standards for him to attempt to remove the draping required by my state license.  He was polite.  I was polite.  Face was saved by all -- but he's never come back for another massage (which is okay by me).

I consider myself lucky.  The result could have been very different.  He could just as easily have continued "adjusting" his sheet.  (I would have left the massage room and told him to get dressed).  He could have grabbed my hands and tried to place them in inappropriate places.  I've heard stories about massage therapists who have experienced that and worse.

THAT is why I'm writing about Sexual Assault Awareness Month on this blog.

As long as people think of massage as a prelude to, or a substitute for, sexual activity -- and are willing to push boundaries this way, massage therapists are at risk.  And the people who are willing to push that boundary are more likely than others to try to push other boundaries -- touching their therapists, or ....

What will YOU do?

Awesome Gift -- Professional Fail - A detailed review. - Part IV

Back to the super house-cleaning that was supposed to be my Valentine's Gift.  When last we looked, Merry Maids and their subcontractor Turner's Carpet Cleaning had left disappointingly dirty floors on the first floor or my house, and Merry Maids "special attention deep cleaning" had been anything but deep.  But, Merry Maids' charming Branch Manager Jeff had promised to make things right.  He was going to show me that my experience was by no means a representative one....

Here's what happened next.

On Thursday, Jeff, the Branch Manager, told me that he would try to arrange for a team to come here on Saturday, but that he didn't think he could get that done.  He promised that if there was no Saturday crew, he would have a crew here on Monday.

On Friday afternoon, I called him to find out what the plan was.  I was not happy that I had to call him, instead of him calling me to report on what he was able to do, but I let that go.  He promised a crew Monday afternoon, by 2:00.

In the mean time, at his request, I sent him the pictures that you've all seen here.  I told him that I wasn't intending them to be a list of demands, but that since he'd acknowledged that the experience I'd had was an anomaly, and he'd told me that he was using my house as a teaching opportunity for a number of people on staff, I figured I'd send along a shot of anything I noticed.  After all, my cell phone is right there in my pocket, so it's not hard to do.

Monday morning arrived, and Jeff called.  He told me that he'd contacted the carpet  guy, who would get in touch with me, and that he and his crew would be here at 1:00. I informed the family (home on Spring Break) that the crew would be here an hour early.  I was pleased.

Luckily, I'd padded the window for them to be here, since I had clients right up to 1:00.

At 12:45, Golf Pro and Bookworm left the house to run errands and get her hair cut.  They didn't want to be here for the bulk of the cleaning.

At 12:54 Molly from Merry Maids called to tell me that the cleaning crew would not be here until 2:00.  At 1:30, Scott, the carpet guy, who hadn't called me yet,  arrived to address the many remaining stains and the dog fur. 

I had a long chat with Scott about the need to "pre-vac" the carpet.  He allowed as how he could do that. He also allowed as how he might have some spot remover he could use on the stains, some of which he admitted to not having seen when he was here last.  (I wonder -- had he forgotten to put his contacts in?)  I'm still rather mystified that he hadn't done both in the first place, but either way, he said he'd do it this second time around.

I had him start on the first floor so that the crew wouldn't have to walk over freshly cleaned carpets or stairs to get to the issues in the upstairs bathrooms.

At 2:08, Jeff, the Branch Manager called again.  The crew couldn't get here until 3:00.  He allowed as how he wasn't sure they could finish the job today, since they were getting such a late start. He began to ask when would be a good day for them to come back to finish the job. I refrained from pointing out that I'd originally asked if they could be here by noon.  I didn't refrain from pointing out that every time they do this, I effectively have to take the day  off, and can't see any clients.

Eventually, he started blaming things on my time restrictions (since I work from home, and my job requires the house to be quiet, I have to schedule blocks of time for them when I won't have clients here).  I admitted that I was very frustrated, and was beginning to feel like asking to just have my credit card credited for all it had been charged, and calling it a day.   I didn't want to do that -- because I don't want to start over, blocking off yet another day for a new team.  In the end, however, Merry Maids opted for taking a loss on the afternoon of incompetent cleaning instead of making good on their repeated promises to show me what their business practices really are.

Jeff told me that my account had been Jinxed from the start.

I'm not kidding.

Scott the carpet guy then finished.  He pointed out places where he'd gotten more of the spots out of the carpet.  He showed me a huge dog-sized swack of fur that he'd pulled from the carpet under my beds... and showed me a lovely tool I'll have to try to find somewhere that works wonders to pull the fur out of the carpet.

Off he went.  And while I'll admit that the dining room is much improved, and the stairs appear to have lost their extra fur coat, the upstairs hall carpet still has big spots on it.  I'll know better when it dries.

So, I've lost two afternoons and the first half of one evening. I have somewhat cleaner carpets in my dining room and bedroom.  Maybe even clean enough to wait awhile before calling in the real guys, if I can ignore the upstairs hallway and that spot in the library.  I have somewhat cleaner bathrooms, with gross places that I now KNOW about.  And the floor that was the impetus for all of this -- remains dirty. 

I guess I'm not back to square one, but I'm sure not where I expected to be.

After giving myself a brief cooling off period, and I decided that I'd really rather they just come do the floor, so that I get what I need AND they get paid for the work they did.  I called Jeff again, and we had a very pleasant conversation.  His proposal is that they come in and do the floor at their hourly rate: $60.00 per hour for one person, or $100.00 per hour for two people.  They anticipate several hours to clean the floor.  I wonder just how much of that $60.00 their employees see.

I'm off to see how much I can condense this all for YELP.

Whine mode off.

 

Positive Energy

Today's blog topic comes from a request from my Facebook Friends.

Yesterday,I posted to Facebook that I was "Looking forward to a day of positive energy all around me. Hoping I can resist all the temptation that will be there."

Folks asked for a bit of explanation, and even specifically requested a blog post.  SO...

After too much time in the house, I thought I'd put in a bit of positive spin before the final entry of the saga of the cleaners.

What WAS I doing?  Well, I was working!  I spent the day at a Psychic & Health Fair, where various folks come to let people have 15 minute samples of interesting services.  Those services range from Foot Massage (by me) to Reiki, Reflexology, Tarot Readings and Psychic Readings.  There was even a woman who does Stone Readings.

I offer brief tasters of services* that people may never have experienced, as well as more basic things that folks seem to forget to take time for.  A fifteen minute session is long enough to get an idea of whether you might like a full session, long enough to actually do some good, but doesn't represent a large investment of time or money for the curious.

Okay, but was does that have to do with positive energy and temptation?

Well, to start with, it''s fun. I get a chance to meet a bunch of people, and often have the chance to introduce someone to a new modality.  Generally, people are happy to have found something new that leaves them feeling better than they did when they came in.  I love seeing someone who was tense, or stressed, or nervous get up from my table relaxed, at ease, at peace, smiling.  That's a positive energy boost right there. (How often do you get THAT as an attorney? - I get that almost every time I see a client.)

Additionally, everyone who works these fairs tends to come in in a positive frame of mind.  They're all people whose company I have come to enjoy a great deal.  When we're not busy, we sit and visit and remind each other of the abundance of goodness in the world -- no one whines!  And if someone does have an issue, the others listen, and offer new positive perspectives.  But NO ONE WHINES.  Even if we spend three hours with no business, we take it as a blessing to be able to rest and socialize for a while. When one of us is busy, we are all happy about it. 

Even if I don't actually wind up 'working'  I am sustained by these days, surrounded by others who work in the broadly defined field of folks who help others.  That's another big part of the positive energy.

The temptation?  Well, these Fairs are held in a lovely local shop.  The proprietress offers books on interesting topics (many of which aren't always available at your local national-chain-bookstore). She makes her own incense, and since I love the way the shop smells, I'm usually tempted to buy more incense so my house can have a similar yummy background smell.  She stocks polished stones, and jewelry, and candles, and tarot decks, and all sorts of lovely stuff that it -- well -- tempting.

Among the more expensive things that tempt me there are large polished stones like ...

  Large fluorite stones - I just love the way they look and feel.

 

and selenite rods that make wonderful massage tools.

Despite a strong temptation for an expensive labradorite stone that was shaped in a way that would have made an awesome massage tool, I was strong.  So strong that I actually put it in the hands of a customer, who bought it.

 

 

* At the Fairs, I offer 15 minute sessions in Reiki, Reflexology, Structural Energy Balancing, Mini Relaxation Massages (for the Fairs, I offer Foot Massage, Hand & Arm Massage, and Face or Face & Head Massage, all of which are really relaxing), and Chakra Balancing.  I will also do a bit of therapeutic massage if someone has an issue they'd like addressed.

Library Windows

We moved into our house in July 2001.

We put lovely green leather recliners in the Library, across from the lovely fireplace with the green tile.

Ever since then, I've been trying to find window treatments for those windows.  As much as I love the bright sunshine, and the view of my lovely yard, it gets a bit too much in the afternoon when the sun is shining straight in.

I've looked at more curtains that I want to think about.  Finally, I decided to knit curtains for these windows.  And thus began the odyssey that is Dwarrowdelf.

Now, I'm making wonderful progress on these  curtains, but look at those windows again.  We're talking 84" long panels.  In lace. And they're wide too.  Even moving apace, I doubt there will be window coverage until next fall.

Golf Pro, who spends a lot of time in this room, has been very patient.  But as all the other work going on in the house, he began to wish that his space could be put on the list for improvements.  Finally, he asked that window coverings for those windows be next,

 After I got over feeling sorry for myself for having devoted so much time and effort into curtains, I started looking (again).  This time, I found something completely different. (And no, we' are NOT going into a Monty Python Sketch here).

Window fim.  That's different.

It doesn't quite achieve the sun block out goal for the half-round, but I still harbor a fantasy that I'll be able to work out some sort of miracle with the extra bits we have left over.  If that doesn't work, I've got a plan for a half-round curtain to match the Dwarrowdelf Panels.  I'm still thinking that they will work on these windows, even with the cool "stained glass".

If not, well, the dining room windows are the same size ....

We're both very pleased.

I am resisting t

The Season of the House - A Little Perspective

Once upon a time, this blog was all knitting all the time.

Then it became primarily knitting, with a smattering of travel and family stuff.

Lately, it seems to be about my house (in particular about fixing or cleaning it), with a smattering of knitting.  This was not planned.  And I don't anticipate that it will continue too much longer.  But it will go on a bit more.

Since the season is turning ... we are at the Equinox, I thought I'd do a quick review of this extended Spring Cleaning Binge.  Admittedly, this is more for me than for you, but it will also include a bit on what I still perceive as left to do, and that will give you a clue about how much more of this I'll be posting.

It started in January with an abrupt Deep Clean of the closet in which the Christmas/ Solstice /Yule tree lives.  At that point, I was still disputing that I'd be on a crazed house cleaning binge.

I moved on to the Yarn Closet (which remains clean and tidy).

Cleaning the Yarn Closet meant taking a serious inventory of all the yarn.  That led to taking an inventory of all the needles (creating a several part series).

Then I cleaned out and organized the Massage Room Closet.  I'm not sure I blogged that. I'm still inordinately pleased with the Massage Room Closet, but began to think you had all had about enough of my closets.

Along about this point I caved and admitted that even though I hadn't resolved to do a full on whole house purge and clean, that was apparently happening.  I added all those steps to The List (this week's list, by the way, started with 81 items).

My plan at that point was to continue cleaning out the closets in the house, one at a time, and to remove from the house all the things I found buried deep in those closets that we didn't need any more.  (For those who are counting, four closets remain, all but  one of which are smaller than the two big ones I've already tackled.)  I'm still planning an assault on the rest of the closets that aren't in the kids' rooms:
1) The storage closet in the Guest / Play room,
2) the Master Bedroom Closet;
3) the storage closet behind the Master bedroom closet; and
4) the floor of the back hall closet (the upper half having already been addressed).

When we get to my bedroom closet, I will be purging it of all my clothes that don't get worn and those that don't let me feel lovely (except, of course, the wedding dress).  I figure the Master Closet will take the longest because it comes with many decisions.  I may or may not include in the Great Clothing Purge an assault on my dresser and the Cedar Chest. If not, I'll get to those later.  Either way, I promise a picture of the mountain of clothes that will be leaving.

After the closets, I planned to tackle the Laundry Room (default place to shove stuff you don't know what to do with) and the Garage (by the time I get there, it should be warm enough). 

Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men are foiled by water.  That led to a series on the clean up, remediation, and effective remodeling of my family room after the whole house humidifier abandoned humidifying air in favor of watering the floor.

We're closing in on the end of that.  I'll be showing you the finished room as soon as we get window coverings and replacement media cases in there. (The media cases were mostly fine as long as we were okay with not putting videos on the top two shelves.... the water had warped their bases so much that fully loaded they rocked and fell over).

So... here's what I think will show up between the next few rounds of knitting posts:

1) Merry Maids, a Redux -- which I'm hoping will be "How Awesome ARE These Guys"

2) The library Windows

3) The Master Bedroom Closet

4) The Storage Closets

5) The REVEAL - A living room washed clean.

6) The Garage.

Wait? What happened to the laundry room?  Well, it got all cleaned up in preparation for the house cleaners.  I've already sent stuff to the Goodwill or the Recycling (or the trash). You'll see the result with the MM REdux.

See, only six more house cleaning posts.  And I promise more knitting, and more new designs, and more glorious Massage goodness.

And a college visit.

And a finished dress form, perhaps in combination with a WIP RoundUp.

Awesome Gift -- Professional Fail - A detailed review. - Part III

Let's turn, for a moment, to carpet cleaning.

After all the frenzy of rebuilding my family room, I thought cleaning the rest of the first floor so that it kind of matched the awesomeness of the Family Room was in order.  That's what started this whole hiring people thing.

First, I wanted someone to clean the evil tile floors.

Then I wanted a pro to clean the evil carpet in the Library/Dining Room areas (where food stains abound) and the stair case (where my capacity to vacuum is not up to the challenge posed by a dog who thinks that stairs are beds).  Once I'd talked myself into that much carpet cleaning, I figured I'd go ahead and get my bedroom carpet cleaned (after all, the other place the dog sleeps is under my bed).  That led to the upstairs hallway being in the mix... after all, it runs from the stairs to my bedroom.

If we're honest, the entire upstairs needs its carpet cleaned.  The massage room could likely also use a good cleaning, but it doesn't get much dirt, since almost no one goes into it with shoes on, and the animals aren't allowed in, ever.  I'm pretty sure that it's still fine from the last time I hired carpet cleaners.

So,  I did my research, and decided to give the Merry Maids sub-contractor a shot.  He was slightly less expensive than the local serious cleaner.  I felt a little bad about that, because I did like the job those guys did a few years ago.  Butbeing able to deal with one guy (Merry Maids' contact) instead of two seemed like a good plan.  After all, it worked really well with the folks who fixed the Water Issue.

So, the lad arrived in the morning, on time (I took this as a good sign).  We talked, we went through the rooms.  I pointed out stains.  I stressed, repeatedly, that it is really important to me that he get all of the dog fur in the stairs and under my bed.  He spent quite some time trying to sell me deodorizer for the carpet, but he finally  agreed that if people can come into my house and not know I own pets until the pets make a physical appearance, I can probably live without carpet deodorizer.

I didn't look closely at the carpets when our hero left, because they were quite wet, and I didn't want to track anything from the dirty kitchen floor or hallway onto the clean carpet. I peeked in, and they looked much cleaner, but it's hard to tell until things dry.

Later review revealed that the dining room still sports about a dozen spots on the floor.  The library floor still has spots, and there's a clear dirty path from the kitchen through the dining room, through the library to the front hall where folks walk. (When I pointed them out to Merry Maids' branch manager, he said he could get them out).  I didn't bother photographing them, because I've shown them to the guy who claims he's gonna fix it.

I'm under impressed.

The stairs...  well,

This does not look like a fully cleaned stair tread to me.  All of them look like this. Plenty of fur in the corners.  (That fur that I pointed out to him when he arrived...)

As we move upstairs into the hallway, I rather expected a wide expanse of clean carpet.  I saw this:

and yes, that's dry.  It's across the way from this:

I'm wondering what exactly this fellow did.  I saw the equipment.  I know he had a big long hose that ran out to his truck, just like the fellows who cleaned a couple of years ago did.  But they were louder, I think.

I do know that he did not thoroughly vacuum before doing the steam cleaning.  Perhaps he thought the Merry Maids crew (not due until that afternoon) had done it.  I had actually asked if they needed me to do any vacuuming first, and was told no.

You can imagine my dismay on finding this in my bedroom

That fuzzy stuff is fur.  I know my Roomba is not up to all of it; nor is my regular vacuum.  That's why I asked for this to be done.  If you look really closely, you can see that there are little foil things under the table legs, but NOT under the bed legs.  This is a clue that the bed wasn't moved.

But hey, that's okay, right.  He got all the other dirt out of the bedroom carpet, right?

um.

no.

This aren't awful, but they shouldn't be there.

With any luck, once our heros return to show me what they can really do, I will be able to do a whole series of before and after shots to show you a spotless carpet, a dazzlingly clean kitchen and laundry room etc.

But first -- cool things in the windows.

 

Awesome Gift -- Professional Fail - A detailed review. - Part II

Now that wev'e taken a look at what the regular cleaning should have included, lets take a look at the pre-prepared list of things they claimed to do as part of their Special Attention work that they were to have done.  Each time Merry Maids comes to a house, it has a list of rooms in which they will be giving special attention.  The first time they come, they basically do Special Attention to every room.  There after they split it all up so that they can maintain a level of cleanliness even for the stuff that doesn't need focus each week.

This is the sheet they left for us.

 

This pre-printed chart includes the following things:

• Wiped down cabinet fronts
• Cleaned the tile area outside shower/tub
• Soaked and cleaned stove drip pans
• Washed baseboards
• Washed window sills
• Washed doors and door frames
• Washed corners and edges of the floors
• Washed ceiling fan blades
• Washed sliding door tracks
• Dusted tops of drapes and valances
• Dusted shades or blinds

It also notes that they're looking forward to our next visit -- one week from their visit.  (As you may recall, we had NOT agreed to any repeat services.)

Though this list claims that they wiped down the cabinet fronts in my kitchen, I found places where something had clearly spilled and then stuck and hardened that were still there.

Though this list claims that they cleaned the area outside the shower and tub, the outside of my shower now looks like this:

The list indicates that they Soaked and cleaned stove drip pans.  My stove drip pans and grates looked like this when they were done:

Among the things you see there is spinach, adhered to the grate, and tomato sauce.  I'm  not so sure this got soaked and cleaned.

The list reports that they Washed baseboards.  I did see them washing baseboards in the sun room, but I'm not sure they got all of them.

The list reports that they Washed window sills.  When the sweet woman who cleaned the kitchen was done, there were still dead flies on the kitchen window sill.  I asked her to address that, and she did do something, but this is how it looked when she was done.

They claimed to have Washed doors and door frames.  This was the door frame to the first floor bathroom after they left:

I wet my thumb, and wiped at the spot -- it did take a bit of effort, a litte touch of nail, but it only took about 2 seconds to get it to look like this

Here is the door in the girls' bathroom

The list claims that they'd washed corners and edges of the floors, but since we've seen that they haven't yet washed the floor, we won't deal with that.

They printed up that they'd washed ceiling fan blades, but the rooms they were to clean didn't have ceiling fans.

The allege that they washed sliding door tracks, they may well have, but I've not checked.  I think they hadn't gotten there yet, since that side of the room was cluttered wtih furniture.

They allege that they'd' dusted tops of drapes and valances in rooms with neither valances nor drapes.  They also claim to have dusted shades or blinds.  The blinds in the laundry room were blocked off by things that had been set up on the counters.  The window ledge behind those things were still dirty, so I assume that the blinds are also dirty.

All in all, I'm very impressed - but not in a good way.

However, since the branch manager has told me that he's using this disaster as a teaching tool, and that he really believes that this is NOT representative of their work, they're getting a second chance.  I will report in as much detail when they've been back.

But first -- a review of what their sub-contractor left behind when he cleaned the carpets.

Awesome Gift -- Professional Fail - A detailed review. - Part I

So, Day Two of the Gift of Clean.

Before we go further.  I want to say - very clearly - that while there are a lot of issues exposed below, Merry Maids' branch manager has come by, and he's embarrassed on their behalf. He's bringing in a new crew to show me what their standard is supposed to look like.  While I'm exposing what happens when a communication failure leads to a crew that has no idea what they're supposed to be doing when they arrive -- I WILL be exposing what happens when their team does their best.

Anyway, we left this scene with me having just sending Calvin home instead of letting him try to scrub the entire tile floor clean while wearing office clothes.  After Calvin left I began to notice a few places where the deep first cleaning from our Professional Cleaners didn't quite meet expectations.

I admit, I have HIGH expectations.  And since  I know that I tend to have unreasonably high expectations, I try to dial them back down.  That said, Calvin made all sorts of promises of excellent work.  He didn't quite say that the rooms they cleaned would be white glove clean, but they did say that they'd clean all counters, clean all the baseboards, clean all the windowsills, wipe down the fronts of all cabinets. Dust the tops of picture frames.... Heck, not only do they publish on their website a comprehensive list of the things they do as part of a regular cleaning they have an adorable little check list that they pre-print and then leave for us to tell us what they allegedly done for the Special Attention portions of their service. We'll get to that next.  

Additionally, this series will bring to light just how  bad a housekeeper I've been.  It exposes dirt I wish I didn't have to admit to.  It may also serve as a reminder of just how many tiny details there are to cleaning a big house well.

So what is supposed to happen when these folks clean your house?  According to their website, their regular service includes the following:

"On every visit, your Merry Maids team dusts, vacuums, washes and sanitizes each room. Using our equipment and specially formulated products, they clean from left to right, top to bottom, so no detail is overlooked."

(We interrupt this quote to note that among the "specially formulated products" they used in our house was Mr. Clean.)

So, where were we? Oh yes, the things I expected, since they told me it would be so. let's start with the kitchen....

"Kitchen
Clean appliances, counters, cabinets, table and chairs. Clean, scrub and sanitize sinks. Clean and sanitize countertops and backsplashes. Clean the range top and refrigerator top and exterior. Clean microwave oven inside and out. Wash floor."

We'll skip the "wash floor" part for now.  They have agreed to come do that, so we'll pretend that's not an issue.  Let's move on to cleaning appliances, counters, cabinets, table and chairs.  Starting with appliances - the refrigerator looked lovely. (Okay there was a wee issue with the calcium deposits on the water dispenser, but otherwise, the front looked lovely.  The toaster was clean.  I've not examined the front of the dishwasher, so I can't speak to that today.

The microwave gets it's own mention.  The inside was gorgeous

Alas, the front wasn't as clean

Let's move on to counters: The main counters were clean.  I confess to having checked -- I moved the toaster to see what was behind it.  It was clean.  But there is a counter in the kitchen that they didn't even touch:

Sure it's cluttered.  But all that stuff can move, and should have moved, and the dusty counter beneath should have been touched.

Let's take a look at the sinks then.  Surely they could clean the sinks?

Hmm... not so much.  What about its mate -- there's a double sink.  That one was full of clean dishes when they arrived.  The other one was empty...

That white enamel kitchen sink with black streaks on it (caused by pot bottoms scraping it) could have been left gleaming white if they'd only used the Comet that was sitting on the window ledge right there.  I'd have thought that "clean, scrub, and sanitize sinks" would have included that. I see black marks there.

Hmm.  This isn't adding up so well. Since the stove becomes part of the the "Special Focus" list, I'll leave it until later.  Let's take a look at the Bathroom

"Bathrooms

Clean, scrub and sanitize showers, bathtubs and sinks. Clean and sanitize vanities, backsplashes and toilets. Clean mirrors. Polish chrome. Wash floors and tile walls. Deodorize."

We'll start with the showers, shall we.  There are ways in which I do not want to show you these, since they reveal just how lax my own housekeeping has been lately.  But ... well, sometimes blogging means embarrassing yourself.

Cleaning, scrubbing, and sanitizing showers ... 

That means that I should expect a clean shiny shower not this

or this - which insists on being upside down,

So lets go back to the big picture - what they said they'd do with

"All Rooms

Dust picture frames, knickknacks, ceiling fans, lamps, furniture, woodwork, shelves and baseboards. Remove cobwebs. Vacuum carpets. Wash all floors and dry wood floors. Vacuum furniture, including under any cushions. Empty and clean ashtrays and wastebaskets."

Okay, let's tak a look.  Dust picture frames.  That means that we look at a picture frame it should look shiny and clean?

And when I wipe my finger across the top of a picture frame, it should come away clean, right?

Maybe not so much.  These are from two different bathrooms.

Dust knicknacks? They did get the ones on the mantel, but not the ones on the kitchen windowsill.

Dust shelves - I combine that with the cleaning counters thing from the kitchen, and I assume that means that in the laundry room, they should have cleaned the surfaces - the counters.   The first thing they did in the laundry room seems to have been putting the trash cans on the counter so they could clean the floor -- but they never cleaned that counter. And there were cobwebs under the edges of that counter -- between the counter and the dryer.    Regular service includes at least dusting all furniture and removing cobwebs. There was a cobweb on the door window in the laundry room. It only got wiped off the window when I told Calvin about it and he dealt with it.  Here's what he left:

The concept of cleaning surfaces and appliances would seem to indicate that the tops of the washer and dryer would be cleaned.  After the original team was there, I found a sticky spot on the washer top.... and I told Calvin about it.  He wiped it off, but left this:

We've already seen what they do in kitchen sinks.... how about laundry room utility sinks?

This goes on and on.

It's too depressing to contemplate.  There are parts of my house that are this dirty.  The people I hired to clean it are this incompetent. 

Thank heavens the people I hired are determined to make this right.  Perhaps they detected that I'm a blogger, and would blog the fiasco.  Perhaps this really is an incredible fluke....

Lucky for them, I'll blog the WHOLE thing.  If they come through, I'll sing their praises..... and I'm holding my YELP review until our interaction on this issue has closed.

Tomorrow -- the Special Attention claims.

 

 

Awesom Gift - Not So Awesome Follow Through

My Beloved Golf Pro gave me the most wonderful Valentines Gift.  This week, it came to fruition.  Sort of.

After all this reconstruction, my house was more than a bit of a mess.  Worse yet, I hadn't been able to actually CLEAN a lot of it during the construction because, well, the living room was in the kitchen.

And... I confess, I haven't been the most focused housekeeper in a while.

And...  Well, let's just say this: pale beige/offwhite carpet -- dining room, dog, cat.  Yuck.

My present?  I got to hire someone to come in to really truly clean the kitchen floor.  In fact, I got to hire someone to clean the whole area where the floor is that lovely, but highly textured and bloody difficult to clean tile  (the kitchen, sunroom, bathroom, back hall, and laundry room) floor.  I HATE cleaning it.. and it was filthy.

I also got to hire someone to clean the carpet in the library/dining room, the stairs, the upstairs hall and our bedroom. 

I was excited!  I'd interviewed three different companies about the kitchen floor, and two companies about the carpets.  The Nationally Franchised Cleaning Service we chose allegedly Knows Clean.  They sent over a representative (Calvin) who seemed truly on the ball.  He was articulate about what they'd do, and assured us that they were insured, bonded etc., and dedicated to making us happy. As an added bonus, since it actually didn't add that much to the price, I eventually agreed to have them do a full "deep clean" on the kitchen, sunroom, back hall, laundry room and all three bathrooms.  That meant that they'd get all the cobwebs out of the corners at the ceiling, wipe down all the baseboards, clean the doors of cabinets etc. as well as cleaning sinks, toilets, tubs, showers, etc.  Oh, and the floors.

I was really looking forward to this!  Clean floor!  and clean kitchen and clean bathrooms!

Alas, I'm no longer quite as excited.

When the team of two arrived (15 minutes late) at 1:15pm to clean the tile floors and as a bonus, clean my kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms, the first person we spoke with commented loudly that she'd been given bad directions.  Indeed, she was really loud for the entire time she was here. Pleasant, but loud.  (I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt, and am assuming that she suffers some hearing loss from spending too much time talking to people over a loud vacuum cleaner). 

Once in the house, Loud Woman asked to be led to the basement, where she'd been told she'd be working. 

We don't have a basement.  Oops.  I guess the same person who gave directions to our house told them what we wanted done.  Perhaps there's a house elsewhere wondering why the team only thought they were supposed to clean the kitchen floor and not clean the family room.

I went over the plan with the Loud Woman, (thoroughly clean the tile floors, and while there also do a full clean on the rooms that had them, then clean the upstairs bathrooms). I asked if one of them could start with the master bathroom, so that Golf Pro would be able to take his afternoon nap. They went upstairs, I settled in to do some work.

I guess I should have been more worried when the Team Leader had no idea what her responsibilities were.  However, I assumed all would be well.  After all, I know that this company cleans the bejeezus out of a place their first time in to ensure that folks will sign a repeating contact.  I had told Calvin that we were not ready to sign any such contract yet, but that I would be considering it for at least part of the house, and that means that he was even more motivated to have his crew do a top job.

When they came downstairs, I had to go over the plan again.  They were to seriously clean the tile floor, and additionally, to clean the rooms rooms that have tile floors. Even though I had to repeat the scope of the job to her, I didn't worry. I knew that she had a worksheet with her that didn't make any sense.  I didn't even bother to go check on their work upstairs.

The Loud Woman and her companion (Sweet Quiet Gal), split up and tackled the bathroom and the kitchen.  Again, I assumed that they were doing a good job. 

Finally, after "cleaning" everything but the main goal, they went to the laundry room.  There, they were surprised to discover that we needed them to move some stuff so that they could thoroughly clean the whole floor.  I helped them move the washer and dryer.  When I went to move them back after they had allegedly cleaned the laundry room floor, I began to realize that we were in more trouble than a bit of confusion over the scope of the work.

That floor is tile, with wide grout, over which a dog runs many times a day to go in and out of her dog door. I've cleaned this floor.  At the best of times, it needs a scrub brush to get the grout clean, and indeed, since the tile is highly textured, to get the tiles clean.  These are not the best of times.  In addition to the dog trail (that place where she manages to drop mud before it makes it into the rest of the house), there was plenty of dirt from the humidifier leak and it's subsequent repair. The floor was filthy.

The Loud Woman had "cleaned" it wth a cloth and a Mr. Clean solution.  Cloth. No brushes. No scrubby sponges.  Not even a Dobie.

So, the floor, which was our primary reason for calling the Cleaning Company, was being surface wiped, not CLEANED.

The Loud Woman then asked me whether they needed to move the wicker furniture in the sunroom.  How is one supposed to clean a floor without moving the furniture that sits on it?  I'd have moved it myself, but had been told that they would take care of it all.  It was then that I finally discovered that had not been told they needed to do more than mop the floor. (Mopping these floors is a waste of time, it leaves the deep/wide grout full of dirt).  They didn't even have scrub brushes with them.  At this point, they'd been here for almost three hours.

I called Calvin. We talked.  He talked to the Loud Woman.  She opined that it would take her and Sweet Quiet Gal four or five hours to get the floor clean.  (FOUR HOURS? -- That would mean that they'd be here til close to 9:00 p.m.!!)

Calvin came to the house to talk to me, to work out a solution.  The first thing he did was to try to tell me that we had a communication problem, and that he hadn't understood that I'd wanted the floors thoroughly cleaned; that he thought we just wanted a basic clean on those rooms.  Seriously?  The only reason we called them was to have them clean the floors.  I pointed out to him that while I understood that HIS goal in coming to see us was to get us to contract for repeat visits, MY goal had been to get my floor cleaned.  I had repeatedly told him that we needed the floor clean -- and only after he pushed did we agree to add the other work.  I told him that as far as I was concerned he had a few options: 1) quit now, take a token payment for the work had been done, and forfeit the deal; or 2) find a way to get my floor actually clean as soon as possible.  I reminded him that I'd cleared the day, made sure that I had no clients scheduled, so that his team could clean, and that I couldn't just clear a whole day again.

Eventually, he realized that failing to do what he'd promised to do, what he'd contracted to do, would not only be a guarantee that I'd never call Merry Maids again, but would also guarantee that I'd be likely to complain, and to contest the charge to my credit card.

His plan? He sent the two women home, got one of my buckets, their Mr. Clean and my scrub brushes, and set about to do the floors himself.  On his hands and knees.

So, if two women who scrub floors as part of their jobs would take four to five hours to complete the job, how long do we think the office guy who doesn't do this regularly is going to take?  Did he think we'd be okay with him hanging out in our kitchen scrubbing floors til midnight?  Did he consider that at some point, his hands and knees would give out, and he'd have blisters on his gloveless hands, and he would be unable to finish anyway?

My morning clients are not scheduled for my home office, so I stopped Calvin from continuing his after-hours scrubbing, and asked him to send a crew over before 8:30 a.m. to do the floors.  He made a call, and said he could get that done.  I stressed that I needed them here and ready to work by 8:30, because I had to leave for work.  He said that would be no problem.

At 8:28 this morning, having seen no one arrive to clean the floors, I called the office.  I got my dear friend Calvin, who assured me that they were on their way, and should be here in 3-4 minutes, since they'd" left ten minutes ago."

At 8:40 this morning, I slapped a note on the door saying I was sorry I'd missed them, and left for work. 

Since then, I've spoken to another fellow, who will be sending over a different crew on another day.

I am prepared to give a decent review in the end if they actually accomplish what they said they'd do.  But I will remain a bit disappointed that I had to fight so hard to get what I contracted for.

 

From Disaster to Delightful - The Reveal Part I

I had this sneaky plan.  I was going to wait until the living room was fait a compli before showing it to you... but I just can't resist sharing this:

Lets unzip that zipper, shall we?

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to peek through that doorway.  I've fallen in love with a floor!

I'll keep it to myself until the curtains are up, and the furniture is in place... but just look at that wonderful floor!

I feel like my house is suddenly worth another $50,000.00 just from that floor.

From Disaster to Delightful - The Fun Continues

So ... here we are.  The walls are freshly painted and it's time to fix that hideous carpet.  Trust me, it's hideous.  So hideous that I can't bear to take it's picture.

Last Thursday morning, the crew came in and emptied the living room:

Into the kitchen.  Where it somehow managed to look like it fit tidily (while simultaneously blocking all access to the sun room and to the back porch (where we grill almost nightly).

Then, they put up magic plastic walls to protect the rest of the house from the evil dust that was about to be in play ..

Note that odd stripe down the center of the panel to the right?  I would never have guessed what that was ...

That, my friends, is a zipper.  It lets the incredibly hard working guys come in and out of the room while still letting them seal the room off.  They had a loud but wonderful machine that they tucked in with them which effectively created a slight negative pressure in the room, so that no dust would want to filter out into the house (and which might even have summoned tiny dust motes INTO the room).  That machine filtered the air and then vented it outside.

Once closed in, they ripped the carpet out with mind blowing efficiency, and then pulled up the pad.  Finally, they coated part of the subflooring with some magic stuff that killed any hope that mold might have had of living and/or growing in that bit of wood that was under the carpet that stayed wet longest because it was under bookcases.

By lunch, the room looked like this:

Then it looked like this:

Note the addition of boxes -- they're filled with wood. (you can see the vent for the machine in the background).

We spent the night with that noisy machine blowing.  It wasn't the best for our sleep, but it did make sure that any stupid fibers from the carpet padding weren't circulating into the air we breathe.  Bookworm's asthma has been dormant (knock wood), and I did not want to wake it up!

 

From Disaster to Delightful - A Path that Melts Your Brain Part III

In which we learn that no matter how careful you think you're being with color choices, missing one little thing can create a whole new project.

After spending a weekend that was dominated by much dithering and changing my mind, and much going back to look at the colors one more time in the sunlight, or the afternoon light, or the cloud cover light, or the artificial light of the lamp in the ceiling, I finally chose a paint color.

Luckily, I did this before the painter arrived.  By about ten minutes.

I was blessed with a delightful painter --- every bit as pleasant as the "General Contractor's" representative.  These are two guys I'd love to fold into our group of friends.

Of course, painting meant two days of thorough discombobulation, as the living room and sun room had to suck in their tummies and pull everything away from the walls.  That led to some furniture slipping into the kitchen.  All of the curtains came down and draped across the sofa.

I spent some time thinking back to my last painter experience (three years ago), and lamenting that I'd not found this fellow then.  He covered as much wall in two days (more like a day and a half) as the other guy covered in two weeks.  And did a better job!

When my two days were up, and we temporarily reassembled the living room (knowing that in less than a week the carpet would be coming out), I discovered that decision making was not over.

All that dithering....  All that looking at paint colors in sunlight and lamplight ... all that holding paint chips up to furniture, and the sunroom curtains, and the kitchen tile and the throw pillows .... and I forgot to check the paint against the living room curtains.

Deep sigh.

The paint and those curtains should only ever be passing acquaintances.  How I could have imagined that curtains which looked smashing next to our dark ivory walls would look good next to our much lighter purple walls is beyond me.

Sadly, local purveyors don't seem to want to carry curtains in purples that go with our walls without making the room look like a child's bedroom.  I've tried to take pictures, but none of them seem to want to reveal what I'm actually looking at. So far, I've brought home two (different) pair of purple curtains (one more or less opaque, and one with "burn outs" of leaves that turned out to be all but transparent), one pair of whit curtains (that seemed like a good idea but were so not) and, at first, a pair of green panels.  We've got four windows, so for a day, the room looked a bit schizophrenic with a different pair in each window. Three of those went back, and we're now testing out three different greens - two solid and one patterned.

Green?? you say?  Why GREEN?  well, our couch had some green, and there's this green chair.  And Golf Pro finally admitted that he, too, kind of hated the way the couch looked (and the hodge podge look of our living room that was pieced together like a grad school student's furniture).  I hauled off and bought a sofa cover, which doesn't quite get the job done, but leaves only the back pillows to be their other coler.  That's green.  It goes with the chair.  So... green.

Luckily, at least some of the panels that are leaving the living room will be moving to another room -- one that has been pining for curtains, and for which the realistic expectation is that the Dwarrowdelf curtains are a good 18 months away.  The library window will be NOT bare before the month is out. Others may actually move into the dining room (contiguous with the library).

From Disaster to Delightful - a Path that Melts Your Brain Part I

There was this leak ... my humidifier kind of imploded.  The wee orifice that is supposed to restrict the water flow eroded or something until it was many times the useful diameter.  Various other parts of the humidifier failed along with it, and the result was that the whole thing has been replaced. 

The mold has been killed killed killed.  The wall has been fixed.  The remediation part is over.

Now it's time for the restoration!

What does that mean?

Well, the carpet is a goner, so we "get" to replace it.  And the wall also suffered, so we get to repaint.

The only thing I was certain of was that the carpet would NOT be the same color.   Who knew that would lead to an unreasonable dance with more carpet samples than I realized a person could bring home. 

I had more than a few of these:

  and

a couple of these - though only those that didn't have only beiges

and these ,

and even a few that were about the size of a bath mat.

Had I not been limited by the allowance our insurance company had given us, I might have had half the store in my living room. 

Armed with many many carpet samples, I began the process of eliminating those colors that would not work in my home no matter how much i liked them (There was this deep teal.... man it was pretty...)

I looked at all of the colors in the evening - in the "unnatural" light.  I held them up to the various pieces of furniture - the sofa, the chairs (one green, one purple), the curtains - the rug...

I didn't want to bring home some lovely carpet on the floor that would clash with the furniture.  This was helpful.  I eliminated a number of colors because the things they did when put next to my furniture was nothing short of hideous.

I held carpet samples  up to the built in wood cabinets, to make sure that the colors didn't clash.  I held them up to the tile floor in the room next door ....

At the end of that round, I'd "narrowed" my choices down to 32 choices.  Now, it wasn't ALL color -- I also had several different carpet types, so that I could choose based on color AND feel.  But I have to admit, it was mostly color.  And let me tell you, changing the shade of green by one teensy bit can mean the difference between looking great with that chair and looking awful.

And then I did it again in the morning -- under "natural" light on a cloudy day.  I discovered that one of the carpet samples that looked gray and BORING in under the lights in the living room at night was GREEN in the day light. (I knew this about light, but it was still pretty fun to see it).

And I did it again the next day when I had real sun.

When I had things narrowed down to about 12 colors, I asked Golf Pro his opinion.  He ruled out a couple, added some I'd not considered, and then wondered at how this could take so long.

I asked friends, I mulled, I pondered.  I chose!!!

And then discovered that the color I wanted was absolutely not available in the carpet I wanted.  It was only available in a carpet I didn't particularly like.  So I started over...

and added wood choices.  I brought home sample boards.  I found the perfect color in a nice laminate - it matched our built in cabinets perfectly! Alas, that laminate was SHINY (and honestly, the color would have been too dark for a whole room.  

I looked at the engineered wood. I found another color -- lighter enough that it wouldn't turn the room into a cave, and yet dark enough to work with the built in.  It was even close enough to our price point that I was willing to pay for the upgrade to the house!

And then I learned that because of the height of the tile floor in the room next door, we'd have to build up the family room floor (basically laying a second subfloor) to use that flooring. 

I started over, and looked again at the real hard-wood.  It didn't seem to come in a color that looked like the person choosing the flooring knew that there would be built in cabinets and a wood mantel in the room.  It looked like the floor (or the other stuff) would have appeeared to have been a complete afterthought by someone who didn't care. I contemplated an inlay of a color that came close to our built ins so that the much lighter floor color wouldn't look like an after thought.  I found that doing THAT would be cheaper than the other flooring alternative.  In fact, it was cheaper than the only carpet I found that I really liked....

And then I discovered a board I'd missed before.  It's not so dark that you'll feel like you need all the lights on in the day time, and not so pale that it looks like an afterthought.  YAY!  Two weeks into the floor choice I found it!  Yes, it's over our insurance allowance, but it's real  live (okay not anymore, but once live) oak flooring!

And, best of all, my dithering had not yet impacted the timing of the rest of the project!  They're only now ready to paint, and paint has to come  before flooring goes in... so I was good.

Wait...

Paint?  I have to pick a color for the PAINT.

 

 

The Aftermath of a Leak, A Look at the Underbelly

So, the furnace room is nice and dry and tidy.  The soggy icky wall was removed, and replaced with a nice new dry wall.  But underneath it all, water lurked in the crawl space.

I know, that doesn't look too bad.  But this is a place that's supposed to be DRY.  All those little puddles, those wee little puddles ... they're what's left after the dehumidifier had run for four days drying things out.  You see, a humid crawlspace is not a good place to be unless you're, I don't know, mold.

One thing you can see here is that the visquine that forms the water barrier stops at the pilings. You can't see it, but It also stops before it goes up the walls.  That means that if any water comes in down the walls (as water tends to do when there's a lot of rain) it winds up between that water barrier and the house, not between that water barrier and the ground (where it belongs). 

But that picture up there isn't under the humidifier leak.  It's between the access hole into the crawl space and the area underneath the furnace.  It's the remaining signs of the water that flowed west from the zone underneath the furnace.  That's odd, the sump pump -- the place into which all the water under there should be flowing is EAST of the furnace. 

Why is the water flowing away from the sump pump?  Good question. 

The answer?  The builders were idiots. They left a wee berm (only about 1/2 an inch, but a berm none-the-less) around the sump pump hole. And they left a wee grade in the wrong direction. 

If we go a little further in, we find ... yes... more water.

And...that's even better for mold.

Like this:

Here, we're looking up into the underside of the floor. You see those dark places ... those dark gray spots? 

Yeah,

Mold.

shudder.

Luckily, the team has dried up all that water, leveled the underfloor, eradicated the berm, replaced the visquine with better stuff, and run it up the sides of the walls.... and done some magic that has killed the mold.

Now we can progress to the fun stuff!

It's Just a LITTLE Water

Over the past week or so, I've been diligently reporting on the work I have been doing in my house.  Others have also been diligently working on my house.  The next few blog posts will chronicle our experiences following an unhappy discovery about our whole house humidifier.

As with most folks whose houses sit on crawl spaces (or slabs), we have our furnace in a closet (albeit a closet built just to house the furnace and water heater).  The Real Estate People call such closets "Utility Closets". Our Utility Closet is in the laundry room. 

Our Utility Closet is a lonely closet.  We only open its doors to change the furnace filter.  And we're frankly not as diligent about that as we should be.  Thus, we didn't notice when something went awry sometime in December or so. (I'm guessing December, because I'm pretty sure I changed the furnace filter at the beginning of the month, and I'm positive I didn't change it at the beginning of January.)

We have this whole house humidifier you see.  It sits, rather like a parasite, on the side of our furnace.  When the furnace is on, the humidifier ensures that the hot air blowing into the vents blows over a certain small amount of water, so that the water evaporates into that air, and the house doesn't dry out to the point that touching anything creates static electricity.  I find this to be a good plan, because my sinuses don't dry out, my plants don't dry out as fast, and the piano's environment doesn't change radically.

Alas, something in that little humidifier experienced technical difficulties.  At some point (likely in December), it began dripping, thus redirecting at least some of the water that should have been pulled into our air onto the floor.  It wasn't a massive leak.  Maybe a couple of gallons of water a day.... But it went unchecked for a long time.

Eventually, the water seeped under the flooring and thence under the wall, and found its way into the TV room, where it got the carpet wet (and stained it).

Alas, it didn't soak the carpet, so the carpet would be dry sometimes and damp sometimes, and we spent a while thinking that someone had spilled something before we finally realized the truth.  In the man time, bookcases sat against the wall, keeping that part of the carpet damp, so mold could start to grow there.

Eventually we discovered the problem, and cleaned up most of the water in the Utility Room (where we once stored some oak boards against the wall.

The walls there are toast on the bottom.

So, while I'm poring over carpet samples, the wonderful folks at our Remediation Company have been doing things like cutting out sections of the wall

Spraying the inside of that wall with some fun mold killing stuff, verifying that the other side of the wall is nice and dry and mold free, and then replacing the drywall with nice fresh clean DRY drywall.

By the time we see this wall again, it will look like new, all freshly painted and stuff.

All of this is lovely, of course.  And we'll be replacing the carpet too.  But the scary stuff happens UNDER that floor in the crawl space.  We'll be going there next.

Lucky for me, my Remediation Company man took lots of pictures of the world under my house (a place I've never been).  And luckier still, he is generous with them. 

Needle Inventory Part III: The Insanity.

When I started this inventory project, I thought it might be a bit tedious, but that was okay.  I'd had a rough week (there will be a full report on the REMEDIATION soon), and I deluded myself into thinking that taking inventory might actually be soothing in a way....

After all, it's a simple task. The steps are all small.  No higher math skills are required.  And frankly, with the tiniest bit of forethought and planning, it wouldn't even take extended concentration.

This idea is the work of the devil. I'm well past the 1/2 way mark for the entire inventory (and even noticeably past the halfway mark on the dpns), so stopping now would be wasteful and disheartening. But Boy Howdy will I be glad when this project is over! It's crazy making.

I was pretty sane about the whole circular needle inventory.  Really.  I gathered the mess, I sorted by size, and I tackled one size at a time -- counted em up, updated the count on Ravelry, and popped 'em into their binder sleeves.  Easy Peasy.

It won't take much to do the straight needle inventory, since I only own about 6 sets of straight needles. (And frankly, if I don't have their inventory I dont' really care since I use them about once every three years.

But the dpn inventory has taken me over the edge.

Perhaps it was having to check each and every needle with the needle gauge.

Perhaps it was the consistency with which I'd find one needle in a sleeve that clearly did not belong there.

Perhaps it was the frustration of verifying that any given set really did have all five, only to realize that if I popped them back in their sleeve, they'd get all mixed up again....but I found myself making little sleeves for every set of needles for which the original sleeve was missing.

Seriously -- as of this posting, every set of dpns US Size 7 (4.5mm) or smaller has been carefully wrapped in a little sleeve made of printer paper and scotch tape and labeled with the needle manufacturer, the size in both mm and US sizing, the length of the needle, and the number of needles in the set (they come in 4 or 5, but some folks give you a spare, leaving 6).  I'm beginning to wonder if I should market these things (in something more durable than printer paper).

I even made those little packets for the ones that I know I'll be offering up for sale -- I figure it will make it easier to locate a given set, and pre-protects them a little for future shipping.  Since I no longer use 8" needles, I'll be offering almost all of them up for sale.  Ditto the sets of 4 (I really prefer using 5).  When I've finished wrapping all stick like objects in the house in little paper sleeves, I'll post the list.

Wait, is that a ball point pen?  Do we have others that color?  I'll make up a set.....

 

 

Needle Inventory Part II: The process.

In my last post, I referred to  my Ravelry needle inventory. It still rather frightens me just how many sets of needles it indicates I own. Ravelry, being the wonderful resource that it is, happily provides you with a little chart of your needle inventory (and a way to print out a copy that you can carry with you to stop you from duplicating things).

My chart looks like this:

Since I know that this chart is not accurate, my inventory process will include rounding up all of the needles that are not in current projects (most of them are actually in the Binders where I store them, but some are in various knitting bags that have come upstairs full of things to be put away in the Yarn Closet, and some are in chair side needle caddies, and some are still in the project bags that housed a project that has been finished.

Once I've rounded up all the needles, I have to count, sort, identify, and then update the data for all the needles I own.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have circular needles, a few straight needles, and scads of double pointed needles. 

Since I started my needle collection, I have also acquired a couple of interchangeable needle sets.  Interchangeable needles have "points" in a variety of sizes, and cables in a variety of lengths.  Using a handy little tool, I can affix the points I need to the appropriate length cable, and create the needle size/length I need for a given project.  In theory, these mean that you don't actually need as many needles (one set of points can be used for a variety of cable lengths).  The Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth is trying to tempt me into acquiring another one of these sets.  'Cause clearly, I don't have enough needles.

Here's a more detailed view of a section of the circular inventory, that also reveals a bit of what I'm doing now:

 

You'll note that I appear to have far too many 4.5 mm(US Size 7) circular needles. I tend to agree. BUT, you'll also note that I have at least five DIFFERENT brands of 4.5mm needles, and that I have them in at least four lengths (there are more size 7's in the list, but you didn't REALLY want to see the whole thing, did you?).

You may also note that some entries say "in Binder" and some don't. That means that I've physically located, and put in the binder where I keep my circular needles, some of those needles. Interchangeable needles have their own binders or rolls.  I have not begun the interchangeable inventory yet. Here's what my inventoried collection of stand alone US 7's look like. (This points out another issue -- circular needle storage around here needs a new plan). 

Alas, this does not really mean that I have all the US 7s in the binder. The chart claims that there's one in a shawl (Pc of Vt), but those may well be the same ones I now list as being in the Binder, since that shawl is no longer on the needles. (sigh).

Even so, I'm pretending the main circular inventory is 90% done. I have to go through and take and input the inventory for the needles that are currently in projects. And I'll have to delete needles I can no longer locate.  Otherwise, until I start in on the interchangeable needles, I'm done with circs.

So I started in on what we in the knitting world call dpns or dps (double pointed needles).

These are more fun.  When you have a set (or three, or twelve) that hare not in little wee cases, the only way to tell what size you've got is often by using a needle gauge to check.  I've gathered a bunch of needles, and sorted them by size.  Here are the smaller ones:

 See that lovley pile over on the left?  Yeah.  That's a bunch of random needles that were in a lump with a bunch of other random needles.  I measured each of them with the needle gauge (the pile on the far left are all 2.25 mm needles), and now have to sort them into sets.  DPNs come in sets of four or five, depending on the manufacturer.  Some, however, come with spares, so there's a set of six.

Once I've sorted these, I'll open the binder and, taking them one size at a time,  get all the needles out of the "sleeve" for each size, confirm that each is actually in the right sleeve (again with the needle gauge) and sort the needles there into sets.  As you can see, the binder sleeves are a bit jumbled:

Once I've confirmed the sets in a given binder sleeve (one sleeve for each needle size), I'll update the Ravelry inventory, showing which ones I actually have in the Binder.  I'm going to update the Ravelry inventory for each sleeve before I begin the sorting for the next.

Next up:  How that actually works in practice (i.e. the insanity).

A Fond Farewell to a Wonderful Man

I'm not prone to blogging about my extended family much.  I tend not to introduce you to them.  But today, I want to take a minute to introduce, belatedly, my wonderful Uncle Marvin

b. 5/31/1926, d. 1/30/2013

Marvin was a witty, intelligent, loving, man.  He was an engineer, a sailor, a computer programmer, a master gardener, a wonderful father, a musician, a scrabble champ,a story teller and a HAM radio operator.  He was a loving brother, and generous uncle.  There is so much to say, so many stories to tell, that nothing I put here will or can be adequate.  But I will do my best.

Marvin played clarinet and saxophone.  He played in high school in New Orleans  He was about nine years ahead of the guys like Pete Fountain, but developed sweet jazz skills all the same.  He was a musician, not just a guy who plays the sax.  So many folks play in high school bands, and then give up their music in favor of more serious studies in college.  Not Marvin; he kept on playing through college, and grad school, and earning his PhD.  And, he kept on playing, after getting a "real job" and marrying and raising his family.  I remember, when I was in my twenties, going to hear him play in a little jazz band.  He loved music from the Big Band Era, and played it so very well.  He may not have made any recordings, but the world is poorer for his sax beign silent.

Marvin worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for many years, his last position was Section Chief. He and his co-workers contributed to our country's knowledge of nuclear energy.  The world is better for the work he did. I didn't really know what exactly he did, but several of his contributions while in Oak Ridge were awarded patents.

Marvin had seven children - some were his biological children and some were step children.  As far as I can tell, he treated them all as his own - with love, respect, nurturing, inspiration and all the other things that the best fathers give.  I am no longer close to them all, but each time I speak to one of my cousins, I'm profoundly aware of what wonderful human beings he raised.  There is a deep abiding joy in their hearts that seeps through even when times are hard.  I am privileged to know them, and privileged to have known their father.  The world is blessed by the people he brought into it.

When his children were grown, and had moved on to the various places they now live their lives, Marvin left Oak Ridge.  He sold his house and bought a boat.   He and his lovely wife Susan

lived on that boat, and sailed the tropical seas for five years.  They had no address, but he did get a post office box so that he could get mail -- of course that P.O. box wasn't here on the mainland -- they stopped into Puerto Rico every few weeks to get supplies and mail. They had no phone either, of course, and so he used HAM radio to communicate with the rest of us.   They only really put in to the mainland to visit their family, which they did do regularly if not frequently.

When they returned to land, Marvin and Susan settled in Oriental, N.C., a lovely little town in a county among whose attributes is that it has no interstate highways.  Marvin continued with his HAM Radio activities, and had a regular time when he was on the air, listening for messages and passing them on for people who couldn't otherwise reach folks they're trying to contact. He returned the favors that others had done for him/us when we needed to reach him at sea. He touched people's lives with that simple dedication.  Eventually, a hurricane passed near Oriental and took out his radio tower  Alas, he never got the tower back up.  A stroke two years ago slowed him down a bit, and he moved to Texas to be closer to family.

Marvin loved to travel.  And he loved life aboard his boat.  Once settled on land again, he found ways to go to sea by taking "alternate" approaches to travel.  The rest of us board planes to cross the ocean.  Marvin and Susan booked passage on cargo ships, and traveled across the sea with simple accommodations, no concierge -- but likely ate dinner at the Captain's Table any way.

Despite his seafaring ways, Marvin also loved to garden. When living on land, he had gardens and even a green house attached to his house.  In addition to working in his own garden, which was carefully planted to appear as natural as possible, he volunteered at the Tryon Palace Gardens in New Bern, North Carolina.   He was especially fond of ferns.  Really fond of ferns.  He collected them, raised them, and grew an amazing variety of them in his yard and green house.  There are 12,000 varieties of ferns (who knew?), and while Marvin didn't grow the giant ones you find in New Zealand, he grew quite a few that were not at all indigenous to Pamlico County. That corner of North Carolina is more beautiful for the work he did.  When he finally left Oriental, he took spores from his garden with him, and managed to establish another fern garden in Texas. 

But mostly -- mostly Marvin was a wonderful person.  He was considerate, thoughtful, and loved little more than a good discussion.  He listened, and thought about what you said, and responded to what you really said, not just what he was thinking about.  And when he responded, he made good relevant points. That is not to say that he didn't have opinions, or that he wouldn't share them with vigor.  And it's not to say that some of his opinions weren't .... divergent from mine.  But he was never overbearing with them (at least not where I could see it); he respected my right to my opinions too.  The world would be a lot better place if more people engaged in discussions the way he did.

It's been far too long since I last saw him. 

In the hurly burly of my own life, I failed, over and over again, to make time to go to see him, and though I'd been hoping to do just that this spring, I hadn't solidified plans.  I am saddened that I let things go so long, saddened that my last hug with him was years back.  But I'm so very glad to have known and loved him.

Luckily, my girls had the opportunity to meet him a few times, so they too have good memories of this fine man.

 

Goodbye Marvin,  I love you still. 

Lists - a progress update

So, Last week I posted about my list.  I'd written up a long list, added to it, and did things...

I then wrote up a new list, which included all the things still remaining from the previous list, and added some new stuff.  On the 21st, I had 62 things on my list.

Again, as I got things done, I drew a line through the item on the list.  Watching the paper fill up with lines was encouraging.

This week, alas, I seemed to spend almost as much time adding things to the list as marking things off!  Four days into the list, I had 88 things on it!  It didn't look anything like a keyboard though (more's the pity).

Tonight, I finally admitted that there was no more room to add things to the list, and so I retired this edition.  There were 101 things on the list.  I kid you not.

BUT 61 of them had been marked off.  That means that over the course of the week, I effectively got all but one thing done!  (we will not discuss that there are some things on the list that remain from the very first edition).

Once again, I'm taking a moment to appreciate the progress.  61 things in 6 days.  It's nice to know I'm still moving forward...

I've drawn up another list, copying the 40 items remaining on the previous one, and adding a few more.  I have 56.  This is an improvement. It's the shortest starting number of the year.  Of course, it has a new biggie on it -- one of those four part things.

I'm thinking of something I may have to put on the list... so I'm going to dash off right now and do something on the list to keep the 'left to do' number even.

Major Achievement Award Leads to Sale

You remember that List I was talking about the other day?

I put five new things on it (making gifts to pay it forward).  But, I took one HUGE thing off of it.  That one line has taken about a week of work.  Admittedly, most of it was done in fits and starts, an hour here, two hours there, but it started with a Sunday of full on focus.

What was that line on the list?

Clean Out Stash Closet and Inventory Yarn.

I really should have taken pictures!

When I started, the closet showed clear signs of haste from parties and over-night guest hosting over the past couple of years.  You know what I mean -- those moments when you realize you're just NOT going to get the cleaning job done in time if you put everything all the way away, so you shove something into a closet.... 

Yeah.

Sure, some of it was me just chucking the leftover yarns from a project into a small project bag and lobbing it into the Yarn Closet.  But some of it was lobbing wholly unrelated things in there.  It had ceased being a walk in closet.  It had become a danger zone in which access to the lace yarn was blocked by bags and baskets and boxes of things like computer cables and office supplies.

So... I pulled everything out of the center "aisle".  I dealt with the boxes of cables and office supplies... putting some things away, sending some things to the garage, and sending some things to Not In My House.

Then, I dug way back into the closet and extracted all things that had been stored in there that were not legitimately fiber related.  The box that holds toys from my childhood and from my mother's childhood has been moved to a different storage closet (yeah, I know, more work for THAT closet, but it really didn't belong in THIS one).  The games have been re-located to the place where games live. Ditto puzzles.

I pulled all the many project and tote bags.  I made sure they were empty, and folded them and put them into two bags -- one full of single/small project bags, and one full of sweater sized project bags.  I put them in the closet.

Then, I started with the yarn.  Ravelry is my friend (again).  Ravelry let me download a spreadsheet of all the yarns I had listed there.  I printed it out (we will not discuss the number of pages), and used it to inventory every drawer, cube, bin, and crate in the closet.  I counted the yarn to be sure that what I said I had, I still have.  I recorded on the list which drawer, box, bin, crate etc. the yarn now lived in.  Then, I updated my Ravelry stash to SHOW where the yarn is located.

And, where I didn't have a photo up in Raverly, I took pictures, most of which have been uploaded to Ravelry.

Sometimes, I found yarn that wasn't in Ravelry -- so I entered it.  Sometimes Ravelry listed yarn that I can't find.  Some of these, I know I used up or sold.  For these, I updated the Ravelry database to say "All Used Up" or "Traded/Given Away".  Some ... well... some I'm pretty sure is in the house somewhere.  For those, the location is now listed as MISSING.

I even dove into the other closet and inventoried the For Sale Yarns that are stored there.

And now, my Yarn Closet is clean,

organized,

and accessible.

Doing this leaves me with a Great Big Feeling of Accomplishment.

But...

As a result, I have come face to face with just how huge the stash has become.  It's time for another Stash Reduction Sale.   Over the next several days (weeks?) I'll be updating my Stash Sale Page.  But once again, I'm declaring open season on my Ravelry Stash.  The stuff I WANT to sell is listed on the For Sale or Trade List there.  But ANYTHING that is in my Ravelry Stash that has a price listed in comments is actually available ...  Heck, for the rest of January -- even if it doesn't have a price tag, if you want it, let me know, I'll consider reasonable offers.

 

Progress - My theme for the month.

It seems that this year, I'm about progress.  Moving forward.  And, more importantly, acknowledging that even small steps count as progress.

I'm after progress -- not perfection.  I know that some of my "goals" are unattainable in the ordinary course of my life.  My house, for example, will not ever be 100% clean and tidy.  No way.  That's because people live in it. (Four two footed people, and two four footed people).  Between us all, and our insistence upon living normal lives, we perpetually mess things up.  Dogs and cats shed.  Humans dirty dishes, and wear clothes, and track dirt, and put things down and forget to put them away and...  well... LIVE.

That doesnt' mean that I don't try to get the house a little cleaner here or there.  Part of that is, having gone and become an adult and all, I realize that if one doesn't try to get the house clean, the house will become a vile pit all by itself.  A little work here and there every day keeps it livable.

So...  given that a lot of the progress I'm making is either tiny steps towards a distant goal, or perpetually undone by people living, how do I know I'm making progress?  You know the answer to this already if you've been reading this blog for any time...

I make lists.

And then, when I get something done, I cross it off the list -- allowing myself a moment for a Feeling of Accomplishment, and recognition that I made progress.

Six days ago, I made a list.  Over the course of those days, I added a few things here and there.  As of this morning, that list had sixty-one (61) things on it.  One of those things was a three part thing  and one of those things was a five part thing (I chose not to turn it into a sixty-four or sixty-nine thing list).  However, as of this morning, I had drawn lines through 23 of those things.  And... by the time I hit "publish" for this post, I'll be able to draw a line through one more.

I call that progress.

True, some things were tiny, but others took hours and hours to do.  Some things have been started, but aren't quite finished.  But mostly -- I note that I FINISHED twenty three of the things on that list!  That's more than a third!  Yay me.

And ... I accomplished a bunch of things that weren't even ON the list.

Progress!!!

I've now copied over the lingering 38 things, and have a new list.  I've added in new things, like you do), and even so, the new list is only 59 things.  And only one of them is a multi-part thing. (Okay, the one that says "clean out closet" is a huge one, but it's a much smaller task than "clean out and inventory the yarn closet".)

Some may see the net effect as being only a two item reduction -- but I see progress in those 23 drawn lines.  And I know that several of the things on the new list are specifically scheduled and will be done within the next 48 hours.

Progress.  It's an ongoing thing, and even when it's doing the laundry, it's worth acknowledging every load.