Hespera Descending

So i havent updated in forever... I havent been online much in general the last month and a half - September wasnt exactly a good month, I was sort of hit with a huge marital crisis that I really didnt see coming and it pretty much brought everything here to a halt while we spent a month dealing with it. Things are a lot better now - in a lot of ways the best they have ever been. But it was pretty painful nonetheless and there were a lot of emotions that didnt just go away overnight when we "worked it out" as it was.  Its finally starting to fade though, and I am again finding energy to deal with things here, to work on dolls, and to join life again in general.

The house is coming along, very slowly. I still havent touched the dining room or living room, and Chloe's room is unfinished. But the kitchen i nearing completion at least. I am so sick of living in this empty house, I need start working my ass off to get done by Thanksgiving at least. I cant imagine not having everything together for Christmas, that would be horrid.

The kitchen still needs some things... some of the cabinet doors had to be changed and the new ones arent here yet, one sheetrocked corner needs to be mudded again, sanded, primed and painted. The faucet, garbage disposal, diswasher, range and pendant lights over the sink need to be installed. The windows have to be removed, restored, and painted (off white like the upper cabinets) and their trim put back up and painted,  the floor needs to some love, the doors need to be stripped and painted, and the door trims and baseboard trim need to be stained and put back up. oh and i need to trim out the edges of the ceiling with tin moulding. sheesh, now that i write it all out, it sounds like a lot to do >:-| And then, when I have funds again, I am supposed to do a tile backsplash in cool custom made art nouveau tiles, and undercabinet lighting. *when* I have funds again... and judging by the dismal state of ebay sales lately,  that may be a long way off. I am much more worried about getting the bills paid right now.

oh, and one other *minor* thing... we have no electricity in the kitchen lol. we rewired, but the wires are all hanging down in the basement by the circuit box. we need 2 dedicated circuits and 2 other circuits to hook the kitchen up, and we have no free circuits at all. and some dumb fuck installed the circuit box in the bathroom in the basement, which is illegal, so the city is breathing down our necks to move it. it looks like to free up circuits for the kitchen (well to do it to code anyway), we had best just move the circuit box, replace it with one with more circuits, and take care of both problems together. thats probably a fairly big project, and of course we cant afford to hire an electrician, so its up to Dan to get it done. And around his 60+ hour work week and his 45 minute commute to and from work, I am sure he will get right on that... *sigh*

So... kitchen pics. I am proud to say I completely fucked up the design for the upper glass cabinets. I made decisions about the mullion widths and outside edge widths from a mental image in my head, instead of drafting working drawings to refine my design. so i didnt really take into account what sizes the doors were actually going to end up being, and  consequently the mullions are way too wide for the scale of the doors. they look like they came from ikea, instead of looking similar to my 1915 arts and crafts dining room windows that they were supposed to mimic. I should so know better than that... I spent two years as an interior design major, I have done shit like this before. I am dying over this *sigh*


( Cut for kitchen pics... )

Stolen from celticgeekess:

1. Your Middle Name (it's a friendslocked post, but you can skip this one if you want to):
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Favorite food:
10. Favorite doll:

HERE COMES THE FUN ... ... ...

1. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
2. What's your philosophy on life?
3. Would you have my back in a fight?
4. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
5. What is your favorite memory of us?
6. Would you give me a kidney?
7. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
8. Would you take care of me when I'm sick?
9. Can we get together and make a cake?
10. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?
11. Do you/have you talk(ed) shit about me?
12. Do you think I'm a good person?
13. Would you drive across country with me?
14. Do you think I'm attractive?
15. If you could change anything about me, would you?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?
18. Would you go on a date with me if i asked you?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Will you repost this so i can fill it out for you?

The weekend was long and dirty, and the main floor and basement have finally succumbed completely to chaos...

Dan and friends finished removing the old oil furnace venting chimney from the main floor and the basement. The chimney was placed in the most inconveniant place possible - it ran through the entrance of our bedrrom in the attic so you had to stoop to get past it under the eaves, through the already tiny kithchen, and in the middle of my future studio space in the basement. So having it out is really nice, everything seems more opened up. And the open hole in the attic roof has made the attic so cool and comfortable - and I can lie in bed and watch the stars, or possibly, feel the rain on my face (if the weather changes). Got to get that fixed soon I suppose...

Demo pics (and cute kitty pic too!)



So... with the kitchen demo'd and cleaned up, Chloe can come back home from her grandma's. Chloe has become completely accustomed to chaos... I moved my espresso machine into the bathroom cause it was one intact room with water and a clean surface. So chloe was in there taking a bath (she hadnt noticed that I moved the coffee maker) and i walked in and made myself a mocha. And she DIDNT EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE me in the bathroom grinding coffee beans and brewing espresso. So I was like "uhm, isnt that weird that I am making coffee in the bathroom, baby?" and she just sort of shrugs... like "WTF dude, we eat dinner on a couch on the front porch, i sleep on a bed in the living room, and I have to play with bits of trash I find, since you DIDNT EVEN BRING MY TOYS when we moved. So, no, coffee in the bathroom doesnt seem weird"

Then, R3 (My brother Zach's girlfriend, Rachel. Not to be confused with his ex-wife Rachel, or his sister Rachel. Refered to as R3) and Dan's tires got slashed on Saturday night, along with like 10 other people cars over the last week. (The cops said that is not at all normal for our neighborhood, just some shithead kids no doubt). So now, amidst the old kitchen cabinets, appliances, bags of debris, old bricks, and piles of broken lumber, there are also three cars parked in our backyard to protect them from bored shitheads. We are truly living the white trash dream i say...