Off topic, building endeavors and self-pride a bit
I helped a friend put in a new door at Christmas time and we put our feet through the floor! It is a long story, but I had had a taped in, screwed in door that had been here for years. This is just one reason the house came so dirt cheap.
I tried to get another friend out to help me, but he had a heart attack and pacemaker placement at Christmas, then his work truck (think huge like a semi) broke down, and his diesel pickup died! He got busy. I asked around for a handyman, 3 of them said ohh yeah, I'll be over next week and have a look. NO ONE SHOWED UP! They didn't want my money. I took a short vacation and understood I would be doing this by myself and I'd have to figure out how to do it without any advice.
I tore out the old floor that needed to come up, screwed in cross braces to make it stronger right there and put new plywood down. It is good and solid and then I put the underlayment in last night. HOORAY!!! I can put the flooring in today. I now know way too much about power tools and I didn't care to know anything about them.
About got the puppy house trained too, but she really did that herself. SHe scratched at the door to go out on Saturday! I was impressed. SHe is very prissy and has a poodle prance that is too funny to watch. She literally can bounce with all 4 feet down and then up, like a jump going forward and you can't see her legs move at all. SHe got a puppy clip by a friend and she is just toooooo cute!
Power tools are so cool! Awesome feeling to accomplish something like that by yourself, huh? And congrats on the puppy, too!
8) Thats too cool DragonFly! Its nice to accomplish something you didn't think you could do on your own (when you started). Just think of all the handy-dandy things you can do for yourself now?! And of all the money you could save! If there are any larger chain hardware stores in your area (ie: Lowes, Home Depot), they offer different types of classes to learn how to do your own home remodeling.
There's a ton of how-to-resources on the net. But a lot of stuff you can figure out how to replace by examining how it was put in there in the first place. My DH reshingled the roof of our previous house by doing that and he's a computer geek math nerd, who'd never done anything like that before. A logical mind and patience can accomplish a lot.
Poodles are such darling dogs. I miss having a dog around. My parents used to have a dog that was half Palmerian (sp?) and half Chihuahua and when he was happy, he skipped one back leg when he walked. He didn't do it all the time, just when you could tell by the circumstances that he was happy.
Woah, I am impressed! Power tools! AND housebreaking! Now if you can deal with inappropriate puppy chewing, you're all set.
I miss having a dog. You can't cuddle a parakeet... :D
Who says you can't cuddle a parakeet (aka budgie)???? We cuddle ours all the time, they love it. They kiss us and fly to our hands when we call them.
I cuddle my Stashy bird all the time, she loves it and there is nothing as sweet as clean birdie arm/wing pits for kissing and sniffing and enjoying. They smell wonderful and fruity.
The chewing I am dealing with and I think she is doing okay. THe only problem is that she challenges my discipline which I don't want. She bites and I clamp her yap shut and tell her NO! She hates it so when I look at her and tell her NO, she lets go. It'll take time, but she is already starting to get it.
i was living at my best friend's parent's house this summer (she lives in a small town up north where we were both working.) anyhoo, her parents are not in the greatest health and not financially well-off, but they were putting up both myself and my friend's boyfriend, feeding us and letting us use their car. they went out of town for a weekend and i decided to re-do their bathroom while they were gone. normally it might not be the smartest thing to waltz into someone's house and start redoing things, but they had this list on the fridge door of all this little jobs they needed done around the house, and their bathroom was very high on that list. so i enlisted the boyfriend, and we went to home depot and bought flooring, paint, new cabinet knobs, and molding.
about three hours into it, we realized we had gotten in a little too deep (like when we broke the cracked old plumbing trying to replace the flooring... good thing we had a friend with a father as a plumber, or when we realized that cutting molding is like seriously the most difficult thing in the world to do). anyway, after 48 hours of feverish painting, hammering, and learning basic welding techniques, it was finished, and beautiful!
it's still one of my favourite parts of that summer... and learning how to fix cracked water pipes, and the correct way to replace a toilet are high on my list of cool skills!
yeay for do it yourself home renovation!