Pentimento

Delfts Boch Freres Plates Aquired

I only meant to tell my friend about them, and that I saw them for sale at a local shop for $9.95 each. After we talked about them, and she told me they sell on Ebay for $45.00 each I felt compelled to go back and buy them. Yes, I did look on Ebay first to see if they did sell for that amount, and at the time (about a month ago) there were some listings more than $9.95. I thought about it for a few days and then decided it would be a good 'investment' and went back and bought the plates.

My friend has these exact plates, but that isn't why I bought them. For now, they are on the wall in the blue bedroom. Jill will probably tell me I need to 'merch' them. Hey, at least I got them up! Well, technically, Jim did.

These pictures don't really do justice to to the beautiful blue color of the plates. What do you think? Do you like them? (Oh, and yes, we do have "popcorn" ceilings. Our whole house has them, except for the kitchen and bathroom. I know, so last century!)

Pentimento: Changes Are Coming Soon

Changes Are Coming To Pentimento

You may see some changes to Pentimento over the next few months. I will still be writing about my everyday life, adding photos, and yakking about things I think are interesting. But, I have decided to go back to writing some adverts too. Why? Let me explain...

It's The Economy. And No, You Aren't Stupid

Going out and finding a job is just not possible for me. I need to have control over when I can work or not because, at the end of the day, I will always have fibromyalgia and there are just some days I am in so much pain I can't do anything but lay down and rest. But, I have my trusty computer, a reasonably lucid mind and spell check. I need a way to make some money to pay for my blog fees and other small incidentals. I always disclose when it's a compensated post and Pentimento won't just become a blog to sell you things. I ask for your understanding about this, and if you feel so inclined, please help me out and click a link now and then. It's appreciated, not mandatory. 

Home Improvement Update - Wilkerson House

Coming soon in following posts will be updates on some of our house projects around here. I'll tell you what products we've used and why, as well as any "light bulb" moments or "uh ohs".

• We've (as in, Jim, at this point) been working on replacing our Trex deck with a new one when the old one failed.

• We're in the midst of remodeling our only bathroom. (pictures of "before" coming soon).

• I'll probably have to do some more purging of closets and storage cabinets, all in preparation for the next major push: adding a bath/laundry room at one end of our family room. I'll have to find someplace to put all the stuff that's at that end of the room now. Ugh!

As always, thanks for visiting today and every day. You guys are the best.

Hanging Tomato of Power and Window Replacement 101

The cool thing about having your own blog is that you can write about anything you want. I run the gamut from About Kitsap to Yakity Yak, and anything alphabetically in between.

Today, it's tomatoes! Look at how well our hanging tomato is doing now that the weather's warmed up a bit. Actually, we're under a 'red flag alert" for fire danger in the whole state, which means it's warm, dry and ripe for forest fires. It also means warm nights and happy smiling little tomatoes.  Jim and I talked about maybe next year doing some raised beds in the backyard to grow some of our own veggies. At least some green onions, peppers, and some other things we like. I am so happy with the hanging planter for the tomato that I might get another one for cucumbers. No real plan yet, but as I see more and more articles about tainted food, it's prompting me to do something to try to eat better.

I see that Turnip of Power is going to focus a little more on gardening, so I'm interested to see what he'll be writing about. His current post Garden Under Construction gives us a heads up on future posts. Make sure you click on the picture of his garden. It's spectacular.

So, what else have we been up to? Jim's been hard at it putting in a new bathroom window. That sounds pretty straight forward and easy, right? Ha! We're talking about the Wilkersons. Our catch phrase is: "Everything we know we learned the hard way". That means, in this case anyway, the whole job was more complicated because he had to 'release' the window from it's opening and then take off all the siding below it to make sure the wall wasn't damaged.

Some years ago we had a problem with carpenter ants in the outside wall because the soap dish in the wall wasn't sealed well and wet wood attracts those critters. Until Jim could really examine the wall we didn't know how much damage they might have done to any of the wood. As it turns out, it wasn't bad, but he did have to put in new car decking (structural tongue and groove 2 X 6's) under the tub. Of course, there had to be a rose bush in the way right where he was working too. I'm happy to report no damage was done to "Reba".

Our siding is lapped cedar and when he took it off the wall some of it broke (he anticipated that) and so he had to go buy some more planks to replace them. They don't make that kind anymore though, so he had to buy cedar planks and then router the length of each one to match the old stuff. Tedious, but it looks great. Actually, the new boards look better than the old ones as far as laying flat. So, there you have it. The window is back in, the boards are all primed and painted and the outside is done. We were surprised at how much the yellow paint had faded in just one year. Now, on to the inside of the bathroom.

Cool-N-Save Instantly Saves You 30% On Cooling Costs

Cool-N-Save - $ 99.95 Cool-N-Save can instantly save you up to 30% on your Air Conditioning costs! Cool-n-Save is an amazing new, patented product, that is actually based on the same scientific Principles that large corporations have used to save themselves money for years.

A good many of you are sweltering in the heat all over the United States right now, but what if spending just $99 could save you 30% on your cooling costs? I am an affiliate for this product, but I am also a customer, and I plan to buy the Cool-N-Save product this week as well as tell all my friends about it. Why? We spent tons of money on our heating and cooling units, so why not spend a small amount to make them last longer? Here's how it works...

The Principle

Installed in less than five minutes with no tools required, the Cool-N-Save system affixes to the top of most home air conditioning units. The system is activated only when the AC unit turns on; hot air from the condenser unit’s fan raises the flap on the patented Cool-n-Save control valve allowing water to flow to the misters that surround the AC unit. When the ultra-fine mist is released into the air, it evaporates almost instantly creating what is known as a “Flash Evaporation,” which literally sucks heat out of the air as water absorbs the energy it needs to evaporate. The result of the immediate evaporation constitutes a substantial drop in ambient temperature without wetness—up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Problem

Air conditioner units, in times of extreme heat, are unable to release their stored heat into the air, and it makes the unit work harder to dispel that heat.

The Solution

Flash evaporation from the Cool-N-Save system, lowers the temperature much like on larger high-rise buildings or amusement parks, through a fine mist. You run a very small water tubing to the unit from a faucet (which also includes a filter) and as I said before, it only uses water when the unit is running. I think this is an ingenious idea and I can't wait to see my energy bills go down!

Trace Ellements In My Kitchen Window

 

Over a month ago I bought a beautiful beaded pull from Tracy Ellison at Trace Ellements with the intention of using it as a window shade pull. Jim had to do a little fabricating for me to make it so I can get the shade to open all the way. I'm short, and there is a kitchen sink between me and the window shade, so I needed the chain for the pull to be long and strong enough to work for me when I open and close it each day.

I wanted this beaded pull because it has cobalt blue colors in it and when the sun shines through the window in the winter it will be very cheery to see for sure. As you can see, fan pulls can be re-purposed. (Click on the photo to see the full sized image).

Thanks Tracy!

Finally, Something Useful On the Internet!

Thank goodness this guy does the demo slow enough so even I could catch on and copy him!

2 Second T-Shirt Fold!! - video powered by Metacafe

Indoor UFO's?

It arrived on Thursday. We knew it was coming, but it was much more amazing than we expected. Glowing all day and long into the night. Long after sundown, close to 8 PM it was still there in plain sight. Oh, OK, it's our new solatube we put in the family room. We plan on walling off one end of the family room and making it into a laundry room/half bath eventually.

When we went to a home show a few weeks ago the company we used (Hanley Construction) for our new roof was having a promotion where if you signed up at the home show for a new roof that they would install one of these light tubes for free. I called and asked if we would be able to take advantage of that offer even though our roof was completed the week before. At first, I was told "no", even though I pointed out that we had just paid them $15K for the new roof. They came back with a counter offer where we would pay $400 and they would do the labor for free. I was really hoping for the home show deal, and told them so, but we talked it over and I called them a couple weeks later to see what had been decided.

During the time of the roofing job someone had accidentally broken our hose reel on the back side of the house, and to replace it would be around $50, so I asked Hanley if we could take $50 off the $400 price and call it even. That was agreeable, and the appointment was made for the solatube install for April 9th. The actual tube that was installed was a CrystaLite, not a Solatube, but they are very similar in application.

Just a little side note to this story. One young man showed up to do the job and he was right on time, polite and got right to work. He did have some tools in one hand and a coffee cup in the other, but he put the travel mug down and got going. The day before my husband had done all the measuring of approximately where we thought the tube could go (we have a French hip roof, so the ridge had to be considered, as well as the ceiling beams, etc.) and gone into the attic to move the blown-in insulation out of the way, put down boards for the guy to kneel on, ran a drop cord for his electrical tools and moved everything out of the way to make the job go easier and faster for whomever might do it.

The young guy was here by 8 AM, and as I said, got right on the job. About half way through though, as he was making several trips up and down the ladder I noticed he had his cell phone up to his ear. It obviously was not a "work" call because those are usually short so the guy can work. I hate to be negative about any of this particular job because the kid was so nice and did good work. But I question him going up and down an extension ladder with one hand (or none) with this cell phone. I believe in working smart, even in a small job like this.

The other thing that I noticed was that when he cut into the ceiling in the family room he used a reciprocating saw. I have watched enough home improvement shows now to know that there are ways to cut down on the mess and dust, but the main concern I had was that this guy had NO dust mask on and he hadn't even opened the patio door to allow some of that dust to blow out. I happened to look in the room through the passage door from the kitchen and saw all this dust and asked in a friendly but astonished tone, "Where is your mask?". Hell, I don't know if there is asbestos or something in the popcorn ceiling and maybe I have been exposed to it now too!? But what about him working this way all the time?

A Rant About Roofing Contractors

One of the things I have always hated about roofing contractors is that you are at the mercy of their schedule. Rain or shine, they do as they please and seemingly have little or no concern about anything but making the big bucks.

Last night, about 10:30, we had a little squall go through our area and the result was a loud bang and jangled nerves. Why? Because the roofers had left something unsecured on our neighbor's roof and it had blown off. They began this job last Friday, which happened to be a day with drizzling rain. Contrary to what everyone thinks, we do not have rain here in Washington all the time. In fact, we had been enjoying some warm and sunny weather. That is until the day the roofers showed up next door to begin their job.

Saturday was a wonderfully cool and dry day, but no, the roofers were not working because the contractor chooses to not pay them to work the weekend. That, to me, is just ludicrous. This company would rather take a chance on being sued for creating a hazard (debris flying off the roof and potentially hitting someone or something) rather than pay a few hundred extra dollars. I sure as heck hope they do a good roofing job. We have worked with this same company before (Hanley Construction of Port Orchard) and but it was years ago.

My message to the company is that they need to be a bit more professional and careful with the stuff they leave on the roof when they break for the weekend. Whomever is in charge of this particular roofing job should make it a point to come take a look over the weekend just to make sure everything is ok.

The Old Folks Do Gardening Favors

It was a bright and sunny day yesterday, and not too hot temperature-wise, so I had this bright idea that Jim and I would 'help' the neighbors by planting some roses for them. These roses had been sitting on their front porch for a while and, ever the worrying- nosy-busybody, I hate to see plants just wither and die, so I convinced Jim that it would be a nice thing to do for George and Mary.

We have more gardening tools than you can shake a stick at, so we got a good many of them out and after getting the go-ahead from Mary, we proceeded to dig the bed, weed it out and get those puppies in the ground. Each rose bush was a different type, and there were four of them. Our plan was to plant them in front of their picture window in a row of three, and the fourth one would be planted by the street to fill in where another bush had been taken out in another planting area.

Everything was going fine....we got the three rose bushes planted up by the house, and were ready to put the fourth one in the bed by the street when I discovered that I had planted the wrong one up by the house and it was the one I wanted by the street because it was a shrub rose. So....out came the mis-planted rose bush and it was soon in the ground in its proper spot.

My next "plan" is to see if they would like some free ground cover for around the roses. Right now, my pink and blue phlox are blooming, as well as the lithodora. I have two colors of lithodora: blue and blue and white, and the neighbor's house is blue with white trim. Maybe they would like some of the blue and white lithodora? We shall see...

Yesterday's Gardening Projects

This time of year, I am all about getting the backyard spruced up. It takes me all day to just plant flowers, which is what I did yesterday. I think you can see the hanging baskets along the left edge of the deck. Four of those have vining red geraniums in them. And one in the middle has a nemesia - 'Angelart Pear'. There are window boxes on either side of the patio doors (both sets) and I planted trailing lobelia, a trailing yellow flower called "sanvitalia - cuzco" and some celisosia - kimono cherry red . I think you can see right below the closest window box is a zonal red geranium on a small table.  To get the full effect of the yard though, you would have to hear all the birds out there.  My husband has about three feeders and he puts out thistle seed in a hanging mesh bag that attracts the finches (including willow goldfinches, our state bird) and black-capped chickadees.

Out on the front porch, I have three shelves in the corner and in two pots for there I put some more trailing blue lobelia, and one pot with a combo of the sanvitalia and the celosia. I am not sure if those two might crowd each other out...if so, I can always transplant them! Also on the front porch is a big planter with a grass-type plant (can't remember the name) and so at the base of that I put in some trailing red petunias.

It is currently 67 degrees F at 11 AM, and there is sunshine and blue skies. God is in his heaven (or my backyard) and all is (somewhat) right with the world.