Category: Projects

Kitchen – Day 1

We decided to tackle the lighting first! But we are doing it in two steps  – no reason to rush into this right 😉

First up was the 4 lights, that are inside the glass door cabinets.

It turned out to be a fiddly process. As you can see from the picture below, there wasn’t much room to work with. I tried to remove the very thin sliver between my cabinets and ceiling, but my dad (when installing this) have obviously just about “velcroed” it together with acrylic, and I almost broke it trying to remove 😦

So I promptly had to give up on that! Which left me we only the small holes the old lamps was in, and the not even 2 fingers high sliver of an opening on top, to navigate all the wires/cables/transformers. As you can see from the picture, I ended up using a lot of rope (I figured this would be the only way I could pull the new wires).

Removing the old stuff was a pain. I have to admit my dad had done a good job installing everything, when we put the kitchen together originally, but removing the stuff!!! Seriously finger twisting work 😉

Installing the new stuff on the other hand, went like a breeze  – probably had something to do with all that rope already in place 😉

It looks really good, but I’ve come to realise one small mistake. Installing the lights, you could either fasten them with small screws or a clip, I used the clip (it was easy), but have realised that if I ever need to change them out later, I will have to “break” the rim of the lights, to push them through the cabinet, as the spring loaded clip won’t let me remove them the right way. In hindsight, I should have tried to use the screws or a small dollop of acrylic to fasten them. That would have made any potential future removal easier.

Hopefully I won’t ever have any issues with these, and since they are of a type where it is possible to change the led lights without changing out the whole lamp, there is hope I will never have to change the lamps again! I just figured I’d give you a heads up, if you are ever installing upper cabinet lighting, and have less to no space to work with (like me), my recommendation is to not use the clips, if they won’t let you remove the lamp the same way it goes in.

Any-ways! At least I realised this before my next 5 lights 😉

During and Done
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Kitchen work – DIY

It’s seem like I’m working on a “thousand” small projects these days. I’ll tell you all about them, but right now I want to let you in on one of the “bigger” ones.

I have a reasonable new house (2006) and there is no reason why this should have happened at all, but a few months ago (July I think) my kitchen sink, an under-mount stainless steel sink, suddenly came loose from the kitchen counter!!! Not a fun moment, believe me!

Well that didn’t make sense to me that an expensive under-mounted sink suddenly should come loose after only a few years. So I went down to the kitchen store and complained. It seems like the people I ordered my kitchen countertop from, thought the same.

There is no way to fix the under-mounted sink in it’s place, they told me this has to be done at the factory. So they decided to give me a new countertop and sink, even though it was outside of warranty. Which I have to say, was nice of them! Now, installation on the other hand, not included…

Fast forward to late September and I picked up my new kitchen counter. Which is currently laying on my living room floor 🙂

It’s time to tackle the kitchen project, so over the next few days a friend of mine have dedicated some time to help me out.

While working on the kitchen any ways, I figured this is a good time as ever, to fix some issues I’ve had with one of my under cabinet spotlights, that never really would work. So I’ve decided to go ahead and swap all my cabinet lights, over to new LED lights. Just to really give us some work 😉

As you know, my kitchen ain’t big, so swapping things out, pretty much means tearing the kitchen “apart”. Groan!!

I figured I might as well let you in on the chaos in my house, so I’ll be posting as we move along.

Wish us luck, will ya!  🙂

Kitchen before “hell” broke loose, and new kitchen counter on the floor.
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“Homemade” apple juice

My step mum have two apple trees on her allotment. One little one and one big brute of a tree! Somewhere along the way she decided it be a good idea to pick the apples, but she didn’t want any.. would I?

Saturday last weekend, a friend of mine and me, moseyed over there and picked the trees clean. With the exception of about 6 apples hanging so high there was no way I was going to get to them, without risking my “life”. Yes.. had a little “scare” when my ladder started to slip because a branch gave in, or rather to be absolutely frank with you, it broke! Not a comfy feeling let me tell you 😉 So I caved and left the last ones on the tree. Better safe than sorry.. right? 😉

There are a couple of places in town that lets you do something about your apples.

One place will exchange 1,25 kg of apples for a 0,7 litre bottle already made apple juice (of the type that has been treated to last a while). You pay for the juice, but you pay less than normal, since you are bringing the apples.

There is another place in town where they will press apples into fresh apple juice for a small fee. Since this is not treated apple juice (pure fresh, as if you used a juicer yourself) they will only last a few days, so you will be needing some room in your freezer for storage.

Since this was the first time ever, trying this (and we had no clue if the apples were good or not), we decided it be a good idea to try both of the options above.

So off we went with about 60 kg worth of apples 🙂

We delivered about 38 kg to the “swap” place! Which amounted to 30 bottles of juice at reduced price. But since we had no idea if that juice was any good or not, we decided to buy only 15 bottles this time, which gives us a another 15 we can buy later.

Then we delivered  22/23 kg at the apple press place, and would you believe it, it amounted to about 17,5 litres of freshly pressed! Woohoo 🙂 How’s that for utilising our resources, and they are guaranteed organic (since nobody have done didli squat with the trees in years) 🙂

Which one tasted the best? As nice as the juice at the swap place is, I have to admit the freshly pressed is way better. So guess which version I’ll be doing next year? Yepp, the freshly pressed way (depending on how much room I can borrow in my friends freezers 😉 )

Did we save some? Yes, off course! The little tree had some really nice red tasty apples, and these are kept outdoors in my garden box. So right now, I’m eating apples like a crazy person 😉

 

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Who the hell am I keeping it for?

I had a pretty interesting conversation recently, about what we keep. Why we keep it. Who we are keeping it for. And what interests will they have in what we leave behind!

As a woman with no kids and husband, there are not that much family left to give my family heirlooms to. The only ones left of my blood relatives are my mum, brother, half sister and some second cousins…

I have a large step-family (trough dad), but I’m assuming that whenever I’m not around any more, they might only be interested in some of my personal things. I can’t see that they would be much interested in things from my blood relatives, with maybe the exception of some of my dad’s stuff.

Thinking about this conversation have made me realize, that I’m keeping some thing from my past and my family’s past, that most likely nobody after me, will care one iota about! So who am I keeping it for? Well it turns out I’m obviously keeping it for me, and me alone! And that’s a pretty enlightening thought!

This morning I suddenly realized that keeping in mind, that I’m pretty much keeping things for me, and me alone, is going to make an big impact on my decluttering process.

I have a few bigger projects/tasks in mind for this fall. And I think the conclusion above is going to make these projects a whole lot easier to accomplish.

As an example I’ll tell you about – My huge photo collection. Tons and tons of albums, loose films, loose photos (not yet put into albums) and boxes of old inherited photos of people I barely know (or don’t know as it is). My intention have been to put the photos into albums (been working on it, on again, off again, the last few years) and the rule was, that what doesn’t go into albums will be tossed!

Somewhere along the way, I also decided I want to scan them all, so that I can have them as digital photos. Then I could clean up my albums. Since we are talking thousands of photos, this have seemed like such an undertaking, that I haven’t gotten it started yet.

Well this morning it dawned on me that, since I have no kids that will be interested. My half sister and my brother have no kids of their own (yeah we are really hopeless at producing kids). The family line is pretty much dying out with us (which is kinda sad when you think about it). So who am I keeping all these photographs for? Obviously no one! I can’t imagine my step family being interested in photos from my mums line of family, grandparents, their siblings and so on. Most likely they would just toss away the lot of it.

So what am I saying? Well for this instance, I’m saying my task of scanning suddenly got waaay less complicated. Conclusion is to keep a few key pictures as real photos (but only of people I know), scan a few more and then get rid of the rest. I mean seriously, I hardly ever look at those old photos, mum don’t ask for them and she is the only one left, who might know who they are. Dad have passed away, my brother wouldn’t care less, so why should I be so darned compelled to be the photos keeper?

So I just decided, I’m only going to keep the photos that are important to me! And me alone! So there 😉

Phew, I think I just went from several thousand of potential scans down to a third, hopefully less! But we will see how it goes when I start the job this fall 😉

But for now, I’m pretty happy with my conclusion.

I mentally decluttered a lot of things today! Especially since this doesn’t only apply to the photos…

What about you, have you ever thought seriously about what you are leaving behind, why and for whom? It might be pretty enlightening… and you never know, it might just shift a few priorities around!

April tally!

Month four! Sorry it’s a bit late, I almost forgot about it for a second, but here it is 😉

Let’s see, what I have I been able to shed this month?

APRIL TALLY of things “out-the-door” =  58 items and about 4500 emails

  • PC nicknack’s – I forgot to count out the items when I did this job, but what I can see from the picture I got rid off:
    • 2 mouse
    • 1 laptop hard-drive
    • 1 wireless adapter
    • 7 converters (Europe to US and the other way around) (count as 1)
    • 1 Bluetooth headset
    • 1 Apple charger station
    • 1 FM radio sender
    • Bunch of USB, firewire cables (count as 1)
    • Bunch of other stuff I have no idea what was (count as 1)
  • 2 bundles of sticks
  • 18 books
  • 1 bottle of port 😉
  • 1 compact camera with chargers, extra batteries ++
  • 1 handbag
  • 8 clear plastic boxes
  • 1 old broken cooking thermometer
  • 15 vases and other flower related stuff
  • 1 screwdriver set
  • Around 4500 emails at my work mailbox (still working on the 5000 I promised)

So what else have I’ve been up to? Not much, except for enjoying the heck out of spring 😉 And I’ve done a major patio overhaul.

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Happy as a clam…

I can’t even begin to tell you what wonderful weather we have had here the last week, it feels like summer (actually, you never know, it might be our summer! )

In my post Spring cleaning a month ago, I cleaned up the wall around my raised flowerbeds. After this, my patio looked a little forlorn 😦 probably wondering if I had forgotten all about it.

Well I’m happy to say that with this great – and I mean GREAT weather – the perfect opportunity presented itself for a little patio TLC.

He never knew what hit him, before he had time to take a breath, he was stripped bare of furniture, plants and stuff.

One proper clean-up with cleaner and a pressure washer, and my patios hair was standing up in pure shock.

Well we couldn’t have any of that, could we! So next day when everything was dried, out came the sanding paper and my Black and Decker sanding mouse. Throw in a few hours of “elbow crease” and my patio was smooth as a baby’s bottom 😉

Fast forward a couple of days, and about 40 minutes ago I finished putting on the last lick of oil!

The patio is positively radiant! Happy as a clam, in mud at high tide 😉

And here it is! Before and after – and a couple of more, for good measures 😉

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A screw loose?

My gosh! I have so many tools, way to many tools. I swear I could probably keep the whole neighbourhood with tools 😉

Yepp, I’m not your typical girl when it comes to tools. I love walking around in hardware stores. and I’ve been known to have people come rushing over to me, when I walk in. Just because they think it’s so much fun talking to a girl who has some new project up her sleeve, and actually know what she wants and need 🙂

It’s hard for me to part with tools, but I came across this screwdriver set today, that I believe I have used only once or twice. I have another one I much prefer, and that set I even have two off 😉

Today this unloved screwdriver set was given to a friend of mine, who surely can get more use of it than me.

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Another pile of books

I don’t know if you remember – but early this year in Taking a stab at by bookshelves, I wrote about my Read a book program. How I’m planning on reading my way through my books, to decrease the collection I keep.

I read in spurts, either not reading at all, or can’t seem to get my nose out of the books, kinda spurts 🙂

The year started off slow, but the last 6-7 weeks I’ve really gotten into my paperbacks. I have read a bunch of books and so far only one is a keeper 😉

That means that today, 18 books are going out of the house.

Well.. that is not strictly true actually, I know my mum reads some of these authors, so I’ve shot her an email to check which ones she wants, before I get rid of the rest. Hopefully in a day or two, some will be on their way to my mum in England and some will be on their way to the paper recycle bin 🙂

As soon as the weather is good enough to start my garden projects, I won’t get much reading done..  but for right now at least, I’m on a roll, so I’m hoping for one more pile of books this spring.

I have to admit, it’s hard to let them go, I like my books. But I have checked, and they can all be bought, as kindle e-books, should I want to read them again 😉

What about you, how do you handle your book collections?

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Spring cleaning

We have had a couple of really nice days, and it feels like spring 🙂 It’s still cold outside, but the crocus are out, and it’s time to start the garden spring cleaning.

I have some raised flower beds, and the edges are painted white. Well actually, after the winter they are no longer quite as white, they are kinda green 😉

So out came the pressure washer, and now it looks much, much better! If the weather warms up a little, I might even be able to freshen the edge up with a lick of paint.

Looks better, wouldn’t you say?

2014-03-27 17.20.19

The wallet maker.

My every day wallet is dying. It’s a tiny, credit card only, pink leather “wallet”. That holds about 6-8 credit cards and a folded money bill or two. I don’t think I have ever had a big fat wallet, I just can’t stand having to carry a purse just to hold my wallet. I’m a wallet in my back pocket, kind a girl 😉

Sadly the pink one is getting worn out, and yesterday I decided to hunt for a new one. I remember having read something about some really thin, strong wallets made out of Tyvek on Kickstarter, so I decided to see if I could find them again. And I did 😉 My favourites are the the Card Holder at Paperwallet , the Micro Slimfold wallet, from Slimfold and the Mini Mighty Wallet from Dynomighty.

While surfing the net looking for these, I came across a website called Instructables , where I found a whole lot off instructions, on how to make wallets, and among them some cool, duct tape wallets, origami wallets out of paper or Tyvek, the original Tyvek wallet and more.

So I decided to give it a try. Since I don’t have any Tyvek envelopes in the house, I grabbed a mail pouch that I had laying around, and I decided to make a origami wallet out of it, since it don’t need anything other than a piece of paper to make it.

It actually didn’t turn out to bad, and I’ll be taking it for a test run over the next few days, just for fun 🙂 You can see it below. If it works out, I can let my old wallet go…

After I did that one, I came across a link on how to make the original Tyvek wallet, and I’ll be giving that a try next. I just need to get my hands on some Tyvek made envelopes first 😉

This was fun – definitely not the last wallet I make – might be the last wallet I buy though 😉 I’ll let you know how it goes when I get my hands on some material to use, there are several different ones I would love to try, within duck tape, Tyvek, and plastic.

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