The House: I am a Golden Goddess of Drywall

Monday, October 6, 2008

Considering that the last time I did any mudding was, oh, 15.5 years ago, the skill set came back remarkably quickly. In four hours I was able to get the top half of the hallway smoothly mudded, and patched a bunch of areas around the bathroom. With luck and a tailwind I should finish all the mudding tomorrow night, and then we can primer the crap out of it, put the textured paint on and the topcoat.

And THEN we get to tile. Whee!!!

In the meantime, the Bodacious Brit keeps asking when we'll start painting the master bath. Granted, he's not being pushy so much as wanting to know when I need him, but I have to keep saying, "Not yet."



I did explain that today I have to finish the hallway mudding and the patching around the rest of the room; while I'm doing that, he could pull the toilet out of the toilet stall and remove the baseboards in preparation for painting and tiling. Hmm -- I may tape the doorway and cut in the ceiling first thing this afternoon so that he can start painting in there while I mud the rest of the bath.

Oh, and then he goes to Atlanta tomorrow for three days. His managers have such good timing.

The House

Friday, October 3, 2008

So, we bought a house. The reason why I'm posting about it here is that I am about to don my cowl and mask and become Spackle Woman, Maid of Mortar, DIY Warrior Princess (catchphrase: "Criminals, prepare to be renovated!") and overhaul the master bathroom, which is...well...

Okay, you have a 15' x 12' room with am L-shaped 2-sink vanity, Roman tub, glass shower enclosure, a 6' hallway leading to the bedroom, and a sloping ceiling which means the wall closest to the interior of the house is 10' tall. In reality the room is more like 12' x 12' because one interior corner is cut off and leads to the toilet stall, and the other corner leads to the walk-in closet -- the space between them is taken up by the hallway.



1) The walls have painted-over wallpaper (the paint is bright mustard yellow and the wallpaper is an extraordinarily hideous blue and red paisley. Euuuuuuu...) which is badly damaged and has to come off; after this, the drywall must be repaired, primed, covered with textured paint and painted with an Aegean blue topcoat. The ceiling will be painted semi-gloss white. Part of this requires me to climb up a 6' ladder to get at the top of the 10' ceiling -- intellectually I know that a fall of five feet won't kill me, but it could certainly break a couple of bones.

2) The main floor is carpeted and the toilet stall has a linoleum floor; all of this is coming up, along with the baseboards, and is being replaced with white textured porcelain tile and suede white coving tile.

3) The fixtures (two 4" centerpoint sink faucets and drains, one Roman tub faucet and drain, one shower faucet and showerhead, one towel rod, two round towel holders, one toilet paper holder) are ancient gold-colored things that are corroded in places; they will be replaced with brushed nickel fittings.

4) The shower door and glass wall are sheathed in tarnished gold trim and need to be replaced. Because of the odd shape of the half-glass wall (it sits on a tile wall next to the far end of the tub) I may have to have the pros come in and do this.

5) The vanity lights are tarnished gold and need to be replaced with brushed nickel vanity lights, and the glass acorn light fixtures in the toilet stall and closet replaced with nice dome lights.

The exercise angle is, I'm doing all of this renovation work myself, with the possible exception of the shower stall door. Lyndon is helping me as brute force and painter's apprentice, but the mudding, paint cutting in, tiling, plumbing and wiring is being done by yours truly. So far I have badly banged up knuckles and a blister on the underside of my right index finger, my arms feel like limp noodles from all the wallpaper scraping, my feet hurt like hell, my Achilles bursa needs to be iced every night, and I'm having the time of my life.

Haven't lost any weight so far, but I think I'm also retaining water as a result of muscle and joint inflammation. I do know that my leg muscles are starting to firm up something wicked. And yes, pictures will be posted once the job is done.

Exercise is coming along nicely

Saturday, September 20, 2008

I did my walk last night, and found out tonight while on a walk that the complex's weight room is open again in the evenings (you need to use your garage door opener to unlock the door -- this was broken, oh, seven years or so ago, and only fixed recently after someone broke in and stole the office's flatscreen TV).

Which makes Mellie very happy for two reasons. One, I know from experience that I can do all the aerobics in the world and I won't lose a frigging ounce. Add weightlifting to that, however, and the fat starts coming off (what can I say -- I'm 3/4 Eastern European. They breed women who can pull a plow after a bad winter where they had to eat the ox). Besides, I always feel better when I'm carrying serious muscle tissue around -- screw toning, I want to see bulges in all the right places.

Two, we close on the house a week from Monday, after which we have three weeks to do some serious painting and tile installation, not to mention moving over all the delicate/electronic stuff, all of which will be much easier to do with nominal muscle strength. As it is, I'm probably going to be utterly and completely wiped once we complete the move since I keep forgetting that I'm not 16 anymore. Still, I'm also not 70, so I should be able to do all this without toppling over with muscle spasms.

Thursday's total mileage: 1.25 miles. 484.05 miles to Isengard.
Friday's total mileage: 1 mile. 483.05 miles to Isengard.

No, really, I AM back this time

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What can I say -- the last month has been spent looking for a house, podcasting, dealing with assorted weather issues and other stuff. And I haven't been all that good about walking (bad Mellie, no biscuit), but that should be remedied now that --

-- ta-da! --

-- we're buying a house. We close on the 29th, move in on the 18th, and after that I'm leaving the freaking treadmill UP permanently so that I can hop on it any time I like, even after 10 PM, and do my walk. That is, if I have any energy after the renovations we're planning for the offices (walls need to be painted), master bath (walls need to be painted, carpet pulled up, a tile floor put down) and kitchen (cabinets need to be painted). Whee.

In other news, my consistently malfunctioning reproductive system is at it again, and while I'm waiting for the Crimson Tide to make its belated appearance (and there goes all my male readers) I'm having runs of PVCs (premature ventricular contractions, or as I refer to them, "heart hiccups") due to hormone fluctuations.

Yes, my doctor knows about them. No, the beta blockers he gives me don't work. Oddly enough, getting mildly hammered does, so I may indulge in a rare and precious mojito tonight. My body -- you know you want it.

And speaking of things to want, man, I really, REALLY want ice cream right now. Probably due to the hormone fluctuations as it's not something I normally crave, but a bowl of Tin Roof would really hit the spot.

Wednesday's total mileage: 1.25 miles. 485.30 miles to Isengard.

I'm back

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Now that the period of Tour de France/Conestoga/Worldcon/Armadillocon is over and done with, it's back to the walking for me (and that's it for now, since the weight room at the leasing office is closed outside of office hours due to a recent robbery. Bastards).

On the upside, I haven't gained back the initial 10-pound loss, and I did a full 30 minutes last night (in a pouring rainstorm, mind you -- I came back to the apartment, dripping wet, and told Lyndon that it was a bit humid out there) without a problem. On the other hand, I haven't lost any more weight in the intervening month. So now it's time to kick the walking back into gear, and I've gotten some nice suggestions from Taffy on tasty low-carb stuff to eat for breakfast.

Update on the Achilles bursitis -- if I'm good about taking my ibuprofen and wearing my walking shoes, it seems to settle down. If I wear forget the ibu and wear dress shoes, oh dear God. This whole getting older thing sucks.

I am also seriously considering turning Jordan into a pair of black-and-white slippers. It's bad enough that I have King Hell insomnia, but him wiggling next to me, headbutting me for attenion and nipping my butt at 4:00 AM is really, REALLY not helping the situation. I don't want to take sleeping aids if I can avoid them, but Jesus, this cat is working my last nerve.

Tuesday's total mileage: 1.25 miles. 486.55 miles to Isengard.

Interesting...

Monday, July 14, 2008

Lost 1.4 pounds over the weekend, and I don't really know why. I didn't eat much, true, but I also sprawled around the house watching the Tour or doing work for a web client so it's hardly as if I was out there doing aerobics. I also added a Super B Complex vitamin to the SAM-e to help with metabolization and prevent an unsafe increase in homocysteine, but that was this morning so it doesn't really explain the weight drop over the weekend. Oh, well -- stop complaining and enjoy it, Mel.

I also just realized that Worldcon is three weeks away and I really, REALLY need to find a nice dress for the Hugos (the semiprozine I'm associated with is up for a Hugo -- we don't have a shot in hell, but I'm going to dress for the occasion nonetheless). Where is Albin when I need him?

Chugging Onwards

Friday, July 11, 2008

Sorry about not posting recently -- I've been walking, but I've also been watching the Tour de France and I'm somewhat sleep-deprived because of the little black and white bastard, so I'm shamefully behind in all of my blogs.

However, as of this morning I officially scored a 10 pound loss since all of this started. Yes, true, this has been going on for, what, four months now, but I also feel really good because while the weight loss is slow, it's not bouncing up and down on a weekly basis. For me in this particular situation, slow is good.

The new walking shoes have really helped -- walking with them is a pleasure, and my heel only starts hurting when I switch back to my dress shoes and have to go walking for any distance. Now I just need to start hauling my still-large butt to the gym so that I can lift weights on a regular basis, because a muscled Melanie is a happy Melanie.

I've also tried something for the last month, not so much for weight loss but to counteract the constant exhaustion and aching joints I've had for the first part of the year. There's a supplement called SAM-e that is a synthetic form of a compound formed naturally in the body from the essential amino acid methionine and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy-producing compound found in all cells in the body. SAMe is believed to work by being a methyl group donor in many reactions in the body. After donating the methyl group, it is converted to a compound called S-adenosyl-homocysteine.

People use SAMe for a variety of reasons -- osteoarthritis (SAM-e appears to diminish osteoarthritis pain as effectively as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication), depression (it has been hypothesized that SAMe increases the availaibility of neurotransmitter serotonin and dopamine), and liver disease (preliminary research suggests it may help to normalize liver enzyme levels and help with cholestasis). I read about it in a fitness magazine and thought, "well, I don't have liver problems but osteoarthritis pain and depression -- oh, yeah."

So I started taking a 400 mg pill every day about a month ago, and I do believe there's been a marked improvement in both my knees and my mood. Due to its anti-inflammatory properties I also haven't been retaining water like a camel, which is frigging marvelous. There are side effects -- it can produce manic behavior and cause insomnia -- which is why you're supposed to taper off to a 200 mg pill every other day once you've recharged your ATP levels. Since I have thyroid issues anyway and haven't noticed any manic behavior (insomnia, yes, but I've always had problems with that and the recent insomnia has been prompted by a small black and white feline from the inner circle of Hell), I'm continuing with the daily 400 mg pill for at least the next few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.