It's a wrap

Popcorn ceilings were someone's idea of a good time, circa 1970. Whoever put them all in, did it to guarantee employment for the guys who install drywall and texture and such today. Our new house came complete with the requisite texture on the ceiling, having been built in 1973. We are not fond of such things, and made immediate plans to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, we did not schedule the work to be done until after we arrived, they we had to wait a couple of weeks for the work to commence.


This week, the first part of the work was completed. For three days, the upstairs rooms were wrapped in plastic for the process of hosing down the asbestos laden stuff and scraping it off, applying a skim coat, applying texture and painting the finished product. From what I have seen looking at houses in this town, there are lots of ceilings that need replacing, and some that have been replaced without the benefit of the final coat of paint. Again, not my idea of a good time. Once the work was done, I quickly finished painting both kids rooms. Now they are waiting for the paint to be dry enough to put furniture against the walls and hang pictures, but at least they do not have to move everything out of their rooms again.

We start this week's tour with a view of the three bedroom doors leading off the upstairs hallway.

Taking the center door, we head into the girl's bedroom. Sheet plastic speckled with paint and texture material rivals the beaded doors in high fashion.

Next, we pay a visit to the boy's bedroom. That plastic impedes access to the closet, but it does keep the toys tidy.

The spare room is looking lovely today as well. Should you pay us a visit, what a treat it would be to sleep here.

Downstairs, in the kitchen, after removing the cupboard over the place where the miniature refrigerator would go, we installed our full size model. Some day soon, perhaps we will make the cabinet look like it was supposed to be that way, and unpack that box. We should do it before Christmas, since the label indicates it holds Christmas dishes.

When children lack bedrooms, they nest in odd places. This room full of boxes will some day be a living room. It has couches and a TV. It has a girl's bed too. Just outside the frame to the left are two chests of drawers.

The master bedroom doubles as a resting place for the boy, waiting for the return of his own room. There seem to be musical instruments and other extraneous items as well.Finally, my sanctuary. The room where I communicate with the world. Next week, it is on the ceiling patrol's list for restructuring. At least I can fold up the laptop and visit the world from another perch. The wireless modem will move back upstairs before this room is closed off to the world for three days. What a fine ledge to collect insulators below the window. Either the car is flying, or I am below ground, take your pick.

Tempus Fugits once again

Another week has gone by, and I am still looking at boxes. I have painted one room with a first coat and in another I painted the accent wall twice. We are still waiting for the guy to come and fix the ceilings so we can really settle in. He wants the rooms empty to work, so we are in this temporary state for the moment. I have done a few things like hanging towel racks in bathrooms and unpacking some of my kitchen things which make life better. I still have not removed the cupboard over the fridge which keeps it from moving into place. I like the fridge in the dining room, it adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the ambiance. Of course if I took out the cupboard and moved the fridge, I would have to unpack the last two dish packs, which would mean that I would need to find more space in my kitchen which is full already, and I am contemplating removing a cupboard.

Outside the house, I am doing better. My girl has been to four cross country practices this week, I registered both children for school, and I have obtained licenses for two cars. One of them needed its final emissions check. Next year it will be 25 and graduate from the program, or something. The other car without a license needs an emissions check too. Up next is driver licenses. That test requires more studying than the smog test. They insist on taking my old license away too. I got to keep the plates from the cars. One is good until next July. I guess my garage wall can drive in California for 11 months if it wants.

We have done some back to school shopping, and we are learning which stores are best to shop at for various items. More painting is on the way before I get to make yet another fun drive to California. I think I get to rest for a while after that. Until something else comes up, as it always does.

Progress

Life is getting better. We connected our DSL today. Now the rest of the family can use the other computer. Qwest kindly upgraded our modem to a wireless one, so I can sit down here and peck away in peace. Of course, I could use the router which came free the last time I connected to broadband, but the modem works just as well. I even gave it a128 bit encryption password, which I did not feel I needed last time, since the neighbors were farther away. I can see at least 3 other wireless networks from where I sit, so I decided to protect mine.

Yesterday, my son and I took a walk/ride to the end of the next street. It runs out at the edge of a green space mandated by the local high voltage power lines. I guess that is one of the benefits of having a major power generation facility in the middle of the river downtown. Another one is cheap locally produced hydropower. At the end of the street we found a place that he described as AWESOME,and wished he could share it with his friend who he rode bikes with the whole day when we were loading the truck last week. At least he rode bikes for the part of the day when they were not watching Underdog. Here is part what he found and what he did with it.

There seems to be a whole course with jumps and such that someone has created just behind a few houses. We have not seen anyone else using it, but there are plenty of tracks to indicate that it sees use. I did not get any pictures of him catching air, but he certainly did that many times.

New arrivals

This first one is a bit of old news. This is the paper we saw the morning after we arrived in Klamath Falls. A little more than 24 hours after the big accident, we drove past it. It was still a mess, but at least the road was open for us. Yesterday's big news, a big truck on a little street. . .

I had a car in here once, but now all I see is stuff.
Maybe it came from that truck. Now we are busy unpacking boxes. Kind of like Christmas, except nothing is new, and we put it all there ourselves. It is always funny to discover where things were packed, like the remotes for the DVD player and the TV in the box labeled "Kitchen"

Old toys, new places

This morning, my boys mowed the lawn using the old Silent Scotts that we used as kids. It was not easy, because the lawn had not been mowed in weeks, but it had benefited from a steady supply of water from the sprinklers. Here the job is done and the boy and dog are cooling themselves on the freshly cut grass. The girl is busy text messaging her friends.