Stewart's Superpowers

This blog is quickly becoming more about the new dog than new decor.  This is not by choice but as it stands, Stewart is pretty much on a mission to undo what I've been working on during the last year.  Only kidding, sorta.  I was all ready to report how good Stewart was doing in his crate since coming home from the hospital on Saturday.  We had a couple of really good days.  He didn't protest his new position as Dog-In-The-Box and he was even taking his medicines (steroids and pain killers).  Then yesterday, I came home from work and he was there to greet me at the door.

He had escaped from his kennel.  He didn't figure out how to open the door.  No, instead he just bent metal and disassembled his house.  This is your dog on steroids.

Poor guy has some stomach related side effects that created a giant sense of urgency to get out of the crate.  It's hard to be to upset with him but it definitely was not fun cleaning up multiple accidents in various rooms, including several on my dining room rug.  All I could do was move it out back and hose it down.

Luckily you can't see much from this distance and this was after I'd hosed her down.  Thanks to my love of painting, I always have a spare tarp laying around.  It came in handy when I carried the rug back in the house.

I'm hoping the rug makes a semi-full recovery.  Can I tell you how heavy an 8 x 10 WET rug is?  In between cleaning bouts, I made it to the vet to pick up new presciptions for Stewart.  He's now also taking an anti-diarrheal and Valium.  Poor guy.  At this rate he'll be in rehab by September.  I reassembled his crate and put every zip tie in the house that I could find on its joints.

He seems to be okay.  The valium is making him appear drunk when he walks, tripping over his feet and running into walls.  He has some cuts and sores on his muzzle from his escape and his front nails are desperate for a manicure.

I'm telling you, his cute face is the only thing keeping me from completely losing it.  Well, that and the fact that he checks in to the Pet Hotel in 36 hours. 

Too Hot for Home Improvement

As temperatures cruised past 100 this weekend, I was just too hot to get anything done.  I especially couldn't seem to cool down all day Sunday.  I couldn't motivate myself to mow the lawn.  I broke a sweat just switching out loads of laundry.  I even got worried for a second that I might be getting sick because I was so hot.  But then the dogs started panting.  I went and checked my thermostat and it was a balmy 85 in my house!  The AC was running but was not actually cooling the air.  Ugh.  At least now I don't feel as lazy.  I have no clue when it went out but by Sunday evening it was like living in a sauna.  I spent most of the night awake, sweating, and covering my body with various bags of frozen vegetables.  Here is Stewart posing with some edamame.

Around 4am we all headed to the backyard for a while to play.  It was only 80 out there and my house was nearing 90.  It was quite the all nighter.  Sadly my AC people can not come out until tomorrow morning so it looks like we will be pulling another one tonight.  Send cool thoughts our way.  Or more frozen peas.

Raise the Roof!

The Great Hailstorm of 2012 claimed my roof.  Or so said my insurance company.  Some people might be elated by that news, but I'm guessing those people have lower insurance deductibles than I do.  Sigh.  I was at least excited about catching it before leaks created an even bigger problem.  Thursday morning, while I was still trying to wake up in the 6 o'clock hour, roofing elves delivered their supplies.

And while I was at work so were they.  When I came home they were still at it.  In fact, they were at it until about 9:30 last night.  I feel bad for their longs hours but I'm glad to know they were well hydrated in the heat.

Someone was hanging out in my driveway this morning so I assume they are finishing the job today.  Here's an idea of the damage from the storm.

 
Nothing too disturbing, but there are definitely some shingles knocked out of place.  Here is what it looks like now.

They replaced my whirly-thing and I actually preferred the black one I had originally.  But that's really not a big deal.  The funny thing is that the After photo almost looks like it's had some damage but that's because it's a different type of composite shingle.  This new shingle has a higher profile, doesn't lie as flat.  It also has an ombre shading (how trendy) that gives it the appearance of more depth.  Here's another before and after (of different parts of the house) that show how the shingles are different.

All in all this has been my most expensive before/after project and also the most unimpressive as far as change in appearance is concerned.  Necessary but not exciting. 

Sideyard Cleanup

I have slowly been working on the south sideyard of my house.  As I mentioned, I managed to get the giant junk tree down:

I have been working on breaking it down for bulk trash day.  I just need one or two more cuts in the large trunk and it will been ready.

I hammered the old nails on the AC fence back together and improved the look of that situation.  It no longer screams dilapitated.  Well...no longer screams as loud.

I guess I'll eventually have to add a gate or access panel of some sort so that I can completely close in the unit.  Because without all the sides closed, it's just kinda pointless, right?  This past weekend I drilled big ol' holes all in my remaining stump and then filled them with "stump killer" powder.  I'm not 100% sure how it works but it will take a few weeks to do its thing.

Soon this side area will be all cleaned out and useable!  Useable for what, it still have no clue.  I guess I will try to get some sort of ground cover going to improve its appearance and then work from there.  All I know is it's come a long way so far!

Move in day...including free plastic bag

Progress

Timber!

Trees weren't the only thing falling Easter Sunday.  As I was cleaning up Sunday morning I heard a loud, long crash coming from my bedroom.  When I last left it, my closet looked like this:

Yet when I walked into my closet Sunday morning, it looked like this:

Where did all my clothes go?  Oh, wait.  There they are on the floor.

Yeah, so basically one-third of my closet collapsed.  Now I am part to blame for this.  I was in the process of switching over my closet to Spring/Summer and had been piling stuff on the shelf that would eventually get hung even though I hadn't fully removed the winter clothes.  Lesson learned.  I am now in the process of organzing my clothes and donating or storing all of the excess.

I managed to rip the anchors right out of the wall on the shelf support beams so I will be heading to Home Depot to get some new metal anchors today.

In the meantime, I just get dressed every morning by digging through the various piles on my bedroom floor.  Sigh.

Got Blanket?

No, I haven't redone my master bedroom again.  This is how Pablo and I slept last night to stay warm since my heater went out this weekend.  I gathered blankets from every room and piled them onto my bed.  We both slept burrowed completely underneath everything.  And it worked!  We survived the night and the repairman got my heater up and running by 10am this morning.  This is good, because Pablo was starting to worry about how long I was going to keep making him wear his sweater.