Foam Day!!

Well, I have all kinds of new foam and latex in my house now.

Yesterday, the latex topper arrived. It's all soft and squishy. I liked sleeping on it, but I didn't love it. Now with the new case that arrived today, I think I'm going to love it!

Here are the layers. They are upside down in this image because I had to put all the layers in the case upside down since it zippers on the bottom. Not my favorite case, but I ordered it before I did a lot of research and found ones that zipper on the top. You see the old 6" of high density foam and old 4" of memory foam wrapped in a cover from my old bed and the new 2" of eco-friendly latex. You can also see the staple holes in the foam where the old case was attached. And surprisingly it's only aged yellow on the very edges, the top and bottom still look bright yellow.

Here it is all in case upside down.

And then right side up. Which took quite a bit of maneuvering. That 12 inches of foam is heavy when it's all in one case. The latex weighs 21 pounds and I'm guessing the memory foam weighs between 30 and 40 pounds. The foam base is rather light but still....

Ah! It looks like a mattress again. And that cover is bamboo and wool and super soft. I love it. A pain to put everything in it, but so worth it. I am in love with my bed again. And now it's goofy high at 12 inches for the mattress alone. I have to jump up on it just like I did when I first got it.

And I didn't stop there. I also received my new couch cushions. The old ones were 7 years old and just plain flattened when you sat on them.

A little less than two weeks ago, I measured the cushions and sent the order into the Foam Factory (foambymail.com). And here's what they sent back.

One sixteen pound box with three tightly wrapped cushions.

Take off several layers of plastic and you get this:

Then when you cut open that bag they expand to full size:

I ordered the HD36 foam which is the high quality that is supposed to last 12 to 18 years. I'm sure it's better foam then the sofa had to start with! I can see that the dacron wrap is much better than what I had before because it is wrapped all the way around the cushions. On my old ones it did not wrap around the sides.

And after washing all the covers and stuffing the new cushions into them, here is the couch.

It's a little tight because those cushions are made to really fit. I was actually afraid that they wouldn't fit because they were about two or three inches too big when they weren't in the covers. The foam will shrink as it ages and settle into the couch a bit more. The fabric on the couch is in great shape. I'm so happy that for $149 I could give the couch a whole new life.

Fixing My Pillowtop Mattress

I bought my mattress 10 years ago from a place called Memory Foam Source (which is no longer around), but I found out that the manufacturer of the mattress is Park Place and they are still around. I loved that mattress from day one. I mean LOVED IT! It's their Sleep Therapy 4000 which is 6" of foam then 4" of memory foam topped with a foam pillowtop. 

Well, after 10 years it started sagging. And since I knew it was in layers, I was wondering if I need to swap out the memory foam layer. You can buy memory foam almost everywhere these days. I thought I would just have to cut into the case to find out. Well, it turns out that I would have to cut OFF the case to find out. That sucker was extremely well made. Each layer sewn into it's own box and sewn to the next layer. And the pillowtop was glued to the memory foam. So I went in with a seam ripper (which broke) and finished up the job with fabric scissors. I just cut the casing off and pulled the memory foam from the topper (it's not pretty in some spots — that glue was still holding on!) It turns out that the bad layer was the pillowtop. All that foam was compressed in the middle where I sleep. The other layers look fine. I tested each one individually and they seem to be holding up.

For right now, I just put the 4" memory foam (which is a nightmare to move, it's like moving a big sheet of jello) on top of the 6" base foam. I put mattress pads on it and it's good to go. Honestly, I didn't like sleeping on it that much. And here I thought that I loved memory foam! It has a rather stiff feeling. I guess what I really enjoyed about my old mattress was the cushion of the topper. So I've decided to replace the old foam pillowtop with a latex topper. I found a natural one from SleepOnLatex. 

I'm waiting for a 2" soft latex topper to come in. I spent hours debating the firmness of the latex topper. I thought was I liked about my mattress was how firm it was, but I think what I am now missing is the softness of the foam topper, so I finally picked a soft latex for the new top layer.

I've also purchased a 12" mattress cover with a zipper. I really liked having a "mattress" and not a collection of foam pieces so I think the cover will give me that feeling again. Plus I can move it as a whole when I need to move my bed and I can just unzip it and replace a layer when one of those layers gives out. I'm thinking the memory foam may need replacing sooner than later, but I'm going to see how everything feels with the latex topper before I make that decision.

I'm pretty excited. For about $260 I'm updating my mattress without creating a lot of waste. Hopefully it will be like new again.

Frangipani Inflo!

After 4 years and one tragic fall, my Frangipani (better known as a stick with a few leaves) has an inflo, which means it's going to bloom!

I think dedicated gardeners are able to successfully grow Frangipani in Virginia, but I'm a lazy gardener at best. So I depend on a hope and a prayer. And it seems that my prayer might be answered.

To smell those flowers again would be heaven. I've read that it will be six weeks before bloom. So I'll be back around July 7.

Rockwell Compact Circular Saw

I'm excited to start using my Rockwell compact circular saw. Since I live in a condo and have very little room, I have never bought a circular saw. As is, I have tools stored in every nook and cranny in my condo. My router, jigsaw, drill, and Rotozip are all in various closets and under beds. I forgot I had a jigsaw for a while until I found it stuffed in the back of a closet.

This weekend I redid my old patio table. The pressure treated wood was 17 years old and in need of replacing. But I didn't want to waste the old wood, so I decided to paint some art pieces on it. But first I needed to cut the wood to size. Certainly the jigsaw or Rotozip would do it, but I'm not good a doing straight lines with those tools. And I knew a circular saw would do it in half the time (at least).

I went to the store to look at getting a small one as was excited to find the Rockwell compact circular saw.

Look at how small it is! Easy to store, easy to use. And I finally can make straight cuts on wood. It's perfect for a hobbyist.

I have 6 boards at 48 inches. I can do at least 6 pieces of art with that. I can't wait to get started.

My Favorite Painting

Prince Charles by Bryan Organ, ©National Portrait Gallery, London

I saw this portrait in 1988. It amazed me then and it still resides in my head to this very day. I'm not a huge art fan nor a Prince Charles fan, but this painting of Prince Charles moved me on that day and stays with me still. You can see it at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It's the only image I remember from the entire place and they have quite a collection.

I wonder why it moved me so. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that it's remarkably simple in it's approach. It has no pretense and suggests no grandeur. In this picture Prince Charles could be any man, but he so obviously is not. It's accessible and I guess that's what I want art to be, be it art that I view or art that I create.

If you get a chance to see it, do. See if it speaks to you.

NPG Link

New Air Conditioner: Keeping Up with the Joneses

My neighbor put in a new air conditioner. It's about 8 feet away from mine. When I was out in my yard in the heat, I heard a slight sound and noticed that new air conditioner. It was so quiet. I was envious immediately. My 1995 air conditioner sounds like a jet. When I have it on, I have to turn the TV up to SCREAM level. I'm certain my neighbors hate me (for many reasons, this is just one).

I was so envious that I invited myself in their house to look at the unit. I don't even know their name. (I know, I'm rotten. The worst part, I still don't know their name. But I do know the make and model of the air conditioner.) They told me that they ordered it from Amazon and installed it themselves. Hmm...

I can order from Amazon, I thought. But I can I install a 100 pound unit? I thought that might be a bit much for me. So I order it from eBay and call out somebody to estimate the installation. $300. What? The unit only cost $479 and it comes with everything you need to install it but caulk.

Well, that was enough motivation for me to try to install it myself. I cut out all the old caulk and pulled and pulled and pulled. Man, that old unit just fit in that sleeve. Here it is out with a nice hole in my wall. Luckily the sleeve was still in great shape.

I pushed the new unit over to the window, installed some foam spaces and then pushed and pushed and pushed. Man, the new unit just fit in that sleeve. TIGHT on the sides. 

I added more foam than the old one had and caulked like a champ. It was easy to caulk inside the house, hard to get to the bottom on the outside of the house. I had to lay completely flat and I got covered in dirt and eaten by mosquitos. I even replaced the outlet. Nothing peeves me more than painted outlets and this one had 20 years of paint on it (including mine).

I still have to get some help getting the old one out of my house. There's no way that I could lift it by myself. Luckily, I have a big, strong friend with a truck. 

That was yesterday. Today, I can barely move. Wow, at my age that much work it's a lot of strain on your body. It bugs me that as I get older, my recovery time is much longer. But apparently it doesn't stop me from doing this stuff!

And there you have it. I just had to keep with Joneses (whatever their name may really be). You'd think being a Jones would make it a non-issue. You'd be wrong.

Refinished Fireplace

Back in 2004, I bought an electric fireplace off of Craig's List. It was in a newly remodeled home and the guy hated it. The builder made the mantle to fit around an old chimney stack. It was a beautiful mantle with lots of detail made out of solid oak. There was dental moulding and fluted molding. But like the guy who sold it, I hate new oak. It's so bright. And for some reason people love to put a gloss varnish on new oak so it's always ridiculously shiny.

Here's the Craig's List image:

I had to trim off the sides to put in my condo.

The new oak made the piece seem huge, so I stained it with blue wash stain. I claimed it took up too much visual space in that golden oak color.

And it was like that for 9 years. Then the other day, I looked at it and decided to remove the wash and put on some American Walnut stain, I like to think of it as an antique oak color since it's the color oak turns after 50 or so years. I have a ton of old oak in my house so I thought it was time to get it to look like all the other pieces in my house.

For $30, I bought some stripper, steel wool, steel brushes, gloves and stain and went to work.

Here's what it looks like in progress. Since the mantle and fireplace were grouted to the stand I made for it out of MDF, I decided to do the job in my house (all windows open of course). It would have been better to do it outside. Since the blue wash was a stain, it wasn't hard to get it off. And as a bonus, it left the wood a little grayish (which means it looked aged). And I didn't have to work so hard to get it all off, because I wasn't looking for bright new wood.

When I stained it blue, I thought I would always keep it that way because I knew the dental moulding would be hard to strip. And it was the hardest part of the whole job. But the steel brush made it much more manageable. I highly recommend the steel brush. It was a life saver for this job.

And here it is in it's new color.

I think it does take up more visual space in the wood tone, but now it matches all the old oak I have collected over the years and it's looks like it belongs.

Day 1 of the Remodel

So they got down all the tile and put in the new tub. They forgot to turn back on the hot water, but quickly came back out to fix that. Thank heavens, three mad neighbors are not what I need!

And my favorite part of today: I found an old coke bottle in the walls! The walls are still open from the plumbing today —tomorrow is the rebuild day — so, of course, I had to look around in them.

Here's a picture. Getting this shot was a challenge, but I had to do it.

I am constantly fascinated that contractors leave trash in the walls. Just leave it there. Yes, it becomes a find in 70 years, but it's still a little gross.

And to all those haters of selective coloring: I know selective coloring is considered passé, but I am doing it for a couple shots that I am going to hang in the bathroom when it's all done. It's a black and white bathroom, so I wanted black and white shots, but certain colors I thought were important. I don't know, sometimes, you have to do passé if it speaks to you artistically. Here's the other selective color image I want to hang in there, it's my old, broken soap dish. So if you are going to hate, do it in full force!!

Bathroom Remodel Starts Tomorrow

After 16 years of living with this old Parkfairfax bathroom (built in the 40s), I am finally remodeling. I have done little things to the bathroom like replace the light, paint, try to paint the tub, and replace the toilet and medicine cabinet. Everything else is original. Oh, except the shower converter, they installed that in 1970 when they converted these units from apartments to condos.

Here are the before pictures. You'll notice the wall with the window has the tile removed. I'm trying to save some tile for my neighbors who haven't remodeled and can't buy this tile anymore.

I'm keeping the toilet, sink and medicine cabinet. The sink is in great condition so there is no point in getting a new one. The toilet and medicine cabinet are new, so they stay. I have a plan to dress up the medicine cabinet. 

My bathroom is tiny, when you open the door it takes up half of the bathroom. It drives me nuts, so I'm getting rid of the door and putting in a door that will attach to the outside wall with barn door track. It's a normal door, not a barn door.

Goodbye, old bathroom. You have served me well. I'm impressed that you lasted over 70 years. That's quite an accomplishment.

Bathroom Towel Holder and Shelf

Well, I finally finished the shelf with the faucet handles. I took those two pieces of wood that I found at the Goodwill for $6 and combined them with faucet handles that I bought from ebay for $5 (including shipping!)

Here's the raw wood again:

Here's the final shelf:

I had to fake the towels stacked on top because I can't hang it on the wall yet. I have to buy a hanger system that I think will hold the shelf up. I faked the hanging towel as well.

I did buy 1x2 to add some heft to the back. The white towel holder is actually a box. So there is a finishing molding around that as well. So if I total up the paint, wood, handles and polyurethane, it comes to $21. Worth that just for the fun of making it!

Since I seem to suck at cutting wood, this thing has a roughness to it that will make it look vintage!

The reason I wanted to make my own shelf is because I bought one of those stainless steel shelves that turned into a rusty mess in no time. I resolved never to put stainless steel in that bathroom again.

I'm a Painter

I am preparing for my bathroom remodel (which so far is only in the estimate stage because I can't believe how much people want to do a 5x8 bathroom). I have a long thin wall space that will be available for art. I thought I would try painting. I looked at gallery canvases but they were $30 a pop and I'd have to buy paint on top of that. I didn't want to spend all that on something I wasn't sure would even work. Well, my junk luck came through again. I was looking around Goodwill and I found an old canvas just the size I needed for $6. Deal!

Here is the canvas before (admire that painting surface, it's like christmas all the time!)

The canvas was in good shape and I thought for $6, I could fail and not lose much.

Here's the final painting. (I think it's final, I have an idea to turn it into mixed media, but I'm not sure about that yet.) It's based off a photograph I took in Key West in the early morning. It was a little darker that morning so the water was not it's usual teal color.

I'm pretty excited about it. I'm not much of a painter, but having the sample photo helped a lot. 

Next project includes these two pieces of wood for $6 from Goodwill and some vintage faucet handles I got off of ebay for $5. I'm excited about that piece as well. Now all I need is to find a reasonably priced contractor or I'll be hanging all this bathroom stuff in my dining room.

I met the cutest kid this weekend

He was about three years old. I was at the Long Bridge Park and this little guy goes running by me. He stops and points to the train track. "Train," he says. Makes sure I saw him and then takes off running again. A plane goes by overhead, he stops, points and says, "Plane." He waits for confirmation that I heard him and takes off running again. He repeated that about 10 times.

I just smiled and thought to myself, remember when life was that exciting? When you couldn't wait to get to the next exciting thing that you went off running to see it? And you were so excited you had to share it with any and everybody that was around?

Sometimes I wish life was like that again.

All Things Random Have an Order Part II

I wrote Part I over three years ago. That's when he entered my life and I had no idea why. As I said, there's always a tragedy waiting in the wings. And his tragedy comes tomorrow at 9 am. (It's nice when tragedy comes on a schedule, because if you're paying attention, you can avoid it!) And even though he pulled me into his life and made me stay there for three confusing years, he didn't listen to me when I warned him not to go. And now I just have to wait for him to take this leap off the edge and hope to God that he lands on his feet (or only breaks one leg). I hope that, even though he didn't listen to me, that the words I said will play back in his head when he needs them most.

I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't scared. When I first knew it was coming, I was terrified. Then mad. And now, resigned. It seems that this is his destiny. Believe me, I did what I could to change it. It just seems weird that I was pulled into his life for just this moment and then was summarily dismissed when I tried to help. But to be honest, I don't believe he pulled me into his life. There was another force at play here and that force is just as scared as I am.

All I can say now is "Via con Dios."

Buy a Keen, Sell a Keen

My favorite Keen shoes were discontinued years ago. I only just discovered it because it took years for my pair to wear out. I even asked Keen what happened to my shoe. Well, they "evolved" it into another shoe, that I just don't like. The material is stiffer and the shoe is less comfortable. I know, I bought a pair.

Luckily for me there's eBay, where you can buy almost anything. And as luck would have it, I found my old shoe, barely worn, in my size. I ordered them at the buy it now price of $14.90. That same day, eBay sent me a notice that would let me sell one item for free. And guess what I decided to sell... you guessed it, my barely worn pair of Keens. I sold them for the same price that I bought my pair for. It seemed fair. They sold in three days.

The pair I bought:

The pair I sold:

And the original shoe that I loved so much, I featured it on my photography website for a couple weeks.

I'm definitely one of those Keen converts. I tell everybody to buy Keens. This particular shoe is the most comfortable shoe that I own. I don't know what I'm going to do when I wear out this "new" pair in ten years.

Spirit Guides

I've always been curious who my spirit guides are. Go ahead, start being judgmental now—there's more coming. So today at the psychic fair (see, I told you), I asked a psychic and she said she could see two. One is an alligator in a baseball cap with a wicked sense of humor and the other is a Tibetan monk telling me to just breath.

Well, if that doesn't just sum me up, I don't know what does.

Who even thought you could have an alligator as a spirit guide? And I get a redneck one who's sarcastic. Wow. Now I have to wonder how they are assigned. I guess that's something to ask at the next psychic fair.

Time for a New Washer

So my washer broke. After 13 years, my front loader sounded like it was going to explode when I washed a load of laundry. I had quite the adventure finding a new one. The door opening to my kitchen is 26.5" wide. All large washers are 27" wide and 30" or more deep. And my contractor made sure to get the largest unit he could that would fit in my kitchen. He found the only unit that is 26.5" wide. After buying a new set and returning it the same day (when I remembered that I had narrow doors), I finally found my 13-year old Gibson reborn as a Frigidaire. They make almost exactly my same machine. The size specs are exactly the same (the knobs have changed a bit). So that's fantastic. Except nobody sells it in the is area and nobody would special order it for me. I had to buy it from a place in NYC and have them ship it here. But they don't install or haul away.

I have somebody taking my old one away. I listed it on Craig's List as a free working dryer if they take away my broken washer. Turns out a repair man is coming to pick them up and fix the washer for a shelter. That's a nice use for my old washer. I've read that it's not hard to fix (bearings and possible spider arm replacement); that most of the money is in the labor. If I were to pay to fix it, it would cost almost as much as buying a new one. Not worth it for me, but worth it for the repair man.

You know what's strange, I'm going to miss my old machine. The kitchen remodel was my first remodel in my first home. It worked like a champ. 13-years without a single hitch. (Although it is featured in another one of my blog posts on leaking water, but that came out of the return, not the washer.) I don't know how I grew attached to a washing machine, but I did. Since my new one is almost exactly the same, maybe I won't miss it so much. The new one actually has blue accents so it will match my kitchen better, so maybe I'll like it even more.

UPDATE: Here's the new one in place. 2.5 hours to install, due to some heavy rain (they only delivered to the door) and the fact that I can't help lift a 250 lb washer. It was just too heavy, so we used a series of slides and tilts that made it go down my front steps. I guess it's nice that the plastic is as white as the painted metal. And look at the lovely blue highlights that match the blue countertop and floor. Now I'm just waiting for the guy to come take away my old ones.

Frangipani: Abigail

Last year when I got back from Key West, I order a frangipani plant. Actually, I ordered it in the hotel in Georgia on my way home. I should have stopped at a nursery, but it didn't occur to me until I was driving for 10 hours through Florida.

This year it's growing like a champ! I imagine I have at least one more year until it blooms, if not more. This one is should be small and bush-like rather than tall and tree-like. You can see where it's grafted, I imagine the bottom part is what keeps it short.

PS My mom gave me the ceramic cats in the background. They are a Baltimore tradition. I've never seen them here in Virginia. My neighbors little dogs bark at them like they are real.

Madagascar Palm

I bought this plant over 15 years ago for 99 cents at a Franks. Anybody remember Franks? A plant store that is long gone.

The plant was no more than 2 inches tall and had cute little palm leaves at the top. This sucker grew to over 7 feet tall and it must weigh over 75 pounds. I have to lug it outside every summer and lug it back in in the fall. One year it fell on my head (see previous entry).  I use to replant it every couple of years, but I stopped doing that when it became too heavy and painful to hold. I just throw some leaf mulch in the pot each year to replenish the soil. Actually, after reading about this cactus, I'm surprised it grows at all. I don't have it in sand or cactus soil and I never have. It's just regular old plant soil for this thing.

This year I decided to cut off the top. I read that was the way to  prune them. They even said you could plant the top and it will root. We'll see. I won't be sad if it doesn't work because heaven knows I don't need two of these monstrous things to lug in and out of the house.

What I learned in my internet search is that this plant is related to the plumeria (or frangipani as they say in Florida). If you read my Key West blog, I fell in love with the smell of frangipani. This plant blooms in warmer climates and smells like frangipani. It won't bloom here because it goes dormant in the winter when I bring it inside. It prefers the tropics, like me.

UPDATE 7/13: It's working! The trunk is spouting branches all around the cut. There's about 20 sprouts.

And the top is doing just as well. I don't know if there are roots yet, but it's not dying as the leaves keep getting bigger. Two smaller plants will be so much better than that one large monster plant!!

UPDATE 2013: It worked, 2 years later, and both top and bottom are growing like champs. I hope that now that they are growing in shoots they won't get to be 7 feet tall again.

Lightning Bug!

I saw my first one tonight. It's officially summer! Sadly, I saw only one. His buddies weren't ready to come out yet, although it is hot enough tonight.

Opportunities

I bought this towel at HomeGoods. When I looked at the receipt, for department it said "Opportunities." The department for the blue towels behind it was appropriately named "Table Linens."

I'm wondering why the special department for the rooster. What kind of opportunity did I just buy?