Saturday, December 29, 2012

Achievement Unlocked: Laundry

The Small Year only has a few days left and I'm behind in reporting my accomplishments. I've been busy trying to reach a milestone, full laundry capabilities at home. This required me to finish the back 10 feet of the Spartan. I had to lay tile, buy and install all the 1x4 tongue and groove walls and ceiling, learn how to do two part plaster, find some, and do it, wait for it to dry, wax it, install trim work, and retrieve from storage and hook up my washer and dryer. I went ahead and put in my sink while I had my helper here from Jacksonville.
Clean towels uncontaminated with artificial scents!
My machines were ready on Thursday the 20th of December but I didn't get to wash these towels until Saturday Dec 22. There was a lot of other chores I had to do for other people first. I got my mother and aunt all fixed up for a cold winter with chemotherapy, with a new toilet, metal framed bed (indoors!) and revamped plumbing under their house for a shower (indoors!).

A lesson in cast iron quality. This $25 on Craigslist new cast iron sink
is crooked in every conceivable way a thing can be crooked.
Name brand cast iron costs more for a reason. See how the drain pipe isn't plumb?
 That's because the drain hole in the sink isn't straight.
Still have to put the trim around the bottom of the wall.
Here's the outside of my new laundry room.


The front 20 feet of the Spartan remains to be done, as well as finishing up the trim in the laundry room and setting the toilet.

Trick is I really hurt my back with the tile and the plaster and the moving those heavy things. I think I herniated a disc back in September and there's not many things I do that don't aggravate it. I'm considering how to occupy myself for a while without bending over or picking up heavy things. It's sort of a lost cause. All my favorite activities require bending and picking up heavy things. I can't even sit down to work on the computer it hurts so bad. Fortunately my computer works standing up, so that's how I'm writing this. Having an iPad so I can read lying down is really helpful, but the Blogger app is lacking. Lesson: Aging sucks. Plan ahead to have all your heavy stuff where you want it before you hurt yourself.

On the topic of achievements and the end of the year, I sort of despise year end wrap ups and lists and stuff. In case I don't make it back to the blogging before next year I will say that doing a Small Year suited me. Not as small as I would like, but the basic ideas of reduce, reuse, and recluse were a driving force. I'm going to do another one.

3 comments:

  1. You amaze me. What a great laundry room. We also are a family of the baking soda and vinegar belief... no artificial smells in our laundry.

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  2. Ditto to Nubian's comment, and congratulations on the Small Year! And on your general awesomeness (just take the compliments and ignore the lame word choice of awesomeness!).

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  3. Cool interior!
    You are one of my very favorite blogs to read! I found you while trying to find out why my right eye goes blurry off and on. I still don't get what/how of spasms of accommodations, but I love all your projects. Your brain works like I wish mine did.

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