Housing Development: The Vacuum

The switch from a carpeted house to a house with hardwood floors created a vacuum problem for me.

The owners have a Filter Queen.  I'd never heard of a Filter Queen, but the lady of the house told me I'd never want another vacuum after using it.  I gave it a whirl, and yeah, it worked better than my Hoover, but I wasn't knocked off my feet or anything.  That is, until I googled the price:  $2200!  I didn't know if I should use it while I could or put it away, quick, before I broke it.  I later found out that there is a Filter Queen vacuum museum.  (I wonder who visits...)

But alas, the Filter Queen departed with the rest of the owners' stuff, so I've researched vacuum cleaners a bit of late.  Last weekend I was hunting on Craigslist for some garage sales to check out.  I wasn't even thinking about a vacuum cleaner, but I clicked on an estate sale and noticed a Miele vacuum offered.  Online reviews of Miele vacuums were enthusiastic.  I decided to arrive early in hopes of checking it out, but I feared it wouldn't work or would be too expensive.  But whadda ya know, there it was, working perfectly, for a mere $40.   I took it.

And when I got it home, I realized I hit the jackpot in vacuums.  The suction is fantastic.  There are three filters, including a HEPA allergy filter.  It's more compact and maneuverable than the clumsy Filter Queen, and it's relatively lightweight.  The wheels and hose rotate 360 degrees, and the hose will attach to the exhaust if for some reason you want to blow. The attachments are stored inside.  The cord retracts automatically.  It's quiet, and switches on and off with the tap of the foot.  There are two hooks on which to "park" your hose if you need to put it down to move things around while vacuuming.  So easy on the back, so easy on the ears, and so good for the allergies!

I know you can't tell that I'm thrilled with the find.  Reviewers say this vacuum lasts for years, and while I can't tell how old it is, I can tell that it will work for me even if later I should move into a carpeted house.  It's so good to have the right tools for the job, especially when they come at the right price!

Housing Development: Living Area

We ended our last installment in the kitchen, admiring the beautiful oak cabinet that adds much-needed storage to the kitchen.  (I love older homes because they are long on charm, but they are short on storage.  And electrical outlets.)

Let's move from the kitchen to the dining room.  Here's a view of the dining room from the front hallway.  To the left you catch a glimpse of the kitchen, where the oak cabinet and microwave are barely visible through the doorway. 

Behind that doorway is another handy cabinet.  This is a great place for me to drop my purse and keys when I come in the door.  This way I know where to find them later.

I'm now standing in front of the doorway to the kitchen, right where I took the above picture.  On the left of the picture you can see the frame to the doorway of the front hall.  Those who have visited may remember there was a china cabinet here before.

The chest used to be here.  The window is on the front of the house, and the doorway on the right goes to the front hall.

I'm standing in the kitchen doorway again, facing the front of the house.  The curtain on the right frames the window in the picture above (looking out the front); the curtain on the left covers a window looking out the side of the house.

Have I shown the letterbox in the front hallway before?  My brother's kids were fascinated by this.  This is where I get my mail...just like Winnie the Pooh!  My family may recognize the thing hanging above as coming from Nana.  I need to get some greenery or something in it.

When you walk in the front door, this is the view you get of the living room.

If you look a little farther to the left as you come in the door, you see the part of the living room on the front of the house.

Here's the mantle, which I really love.  Currently my paternal grandfather is reigning there, looking dashing in his military uniform.  A print of the icon of Our Lady of Tenderness is being framed now and will replace my grandfather when it's ready.  I think the item hung over the mantle sets the theme for the room and even the house, so while I was happy to have my grandfather there, I like having a religious item there even better.

I do a lot of grading here in this recliner.  Formerly there was a large armoire in the corner behind it, so having the lamp there now adds some good lighting.

A view of the room with the door to the office behind...

A similar view from a different angle, with the front hallway in the background.  This is pretty much what I see when sitting in the recliner.

This picture is for my mother's benefit.  This is the view of the room from the office.  I wish I could see the radio cabinet better from here.  I thought about cornering it, but then the recliner blocks your view of it when you're in the living room.

This concludes today's installment of the "Housing Development" series.  Stay tuned for further installments!

Housing Development: The Kitchen

There have been some recent developments in the house that I wanted to share with you.  The owners recently removed their belongings from the house, which gave me some space to rearrange things a bit. Those of you who have been here will recognize (and probably really appreciate!) the differences.

First, the kitchen.  If you've read this blog, you know how much I've griped about the kitchen.  Thankfully, there have been improvements:

Starting with a new stove!  How do I count the ways this stove improves my life?  It has four (count 'em, four) working burners.  There is a built-in clock and a timer.  It beeps when the oven has preheated.  I don't have to crawl on all fours or burn my hand if I want to broil something. And last, but most important of all, there is a storage drawer on the bottom.  A storage drawer!!

Moving clockwise around the room, I'll point out that I moved the dish rack from the left side of the sink to the right side, next to the canisters.  This freed up pretty much the whole left counter, giving me one "whole" countertop space instead of two halves.  And there's still a bit of space on the right, too.

I moved this cart from the right side of the fridge, where it was supporting the microwave, to the left side.  The drop leaves can be raised to add some work space.  This comes in handy especially if I'm baking, as most of my baking goods are in the above cabinet, and I can measure & stir right there.  (It doesn't work as well for chopping, but it does give a space for pulling items out of the fridge.  It really doesn't work well to raise the drop leaf and scoot the coffee maker over to the leaf.  Absent-minded professors later drop the leaf without returning the coffee maker to its original place, resulting in the coffee maker landing in the trash can.)

I found this gem on Craigslist to replace the cart that's now on the other side of the refrigerator.  This gave me some additional workspace, but more importantly, it gave me a much-needed additional cabinet and drawer.  My original idea had been to find something on wheels that I could then move over to the stove for counter space there, but this was aesthetically appealing and the price was right. So I decided to figure out the mobility thing later.

(A certain absent-minded professor, who shall remain nameless, moved the cabinet from blocking the door so that the stove could be brought in.  But said absent-minded professor forgot that the microwave was plugged into the wall and would not move when the cabinet moved.  Fortunately, said absent-minded professor returned to the real world when the microwave tottered precariously off the back of the cabinet, just in time to rescue it from a horrible fate.  Said absent-minded professor sometimes wonders if she should operate heavy machinery.)

Updates on the rest of the house forthcoming!

An Old-Fashioned Girl

Those who know me know that I've always enjoyed things that are "old-fashioned."  Growing up, my mom used to tell me I was born in the wrong century...I loved Laura Ingalls and Anne of Green Gables like best friends.  As an adult, I love living in the 21st century for innumerable reasons, but I continually am drawn to certain things that might be called "old-fashioned."

One of my old-fashioned interests is sewing.  I've come to regard sewing as a "dying art."  My generation does not know how to sew, mostly because it is cheaper and faster to go buy what you need at the store.  I've always wanted to learn to sew, but didn't have the opportunity until a few years ago, when a developing friendship with a creative and crafty family included the opportunity to join them in their sewing projects.  I began joining them on weekend afternoons or evenings, socializing and enjoying their company, and sewing gifts for nieces and nephews and godchildren.  Before I knew it, I'd been persuaded to make myself a quilt, shown here on my guest bed:

When I decided to take the new job and move away, leaving our Sewing Circle behind was a tough sacrifice.  So I was immensely touched when they told me they were making a quilt for me.  At the time it wasn't finished, but when I came home for Christmas, they presented me with the finished product:

I wish I could adequately express my delight in this gift, which truly is a work of art.  The details, the colors, the patterns (some of which were original designs by my friends) - remarkable!  I also love to garden, so they chose the perfect theme for me. I have to show off all the different ways I've displayed it in the house:

What a gift of beauty and love and friendship.  This is a gift I will treasure forever.  It's the perfect gift for an old-fashioned girl.

Staying warm

It's been warmer this winter than it typically is, which means lower heat bills and less snow shoveling.  But we've had some snow and frigid temperatures this week, so to celebrate I thought I'd share this little video.  Yes, Calgary is a little to the north, but this Southern gal welcomes any and all advice from those more experienced with cold winters.

Singing Tweets - Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra - YouTube

Hmmm.  Apparently, the key to staying warm in the winter is alcohol...alcohol and rich food.  If I'm not quite...myself...in the spring, you'll know why.

UPDATE:  Here are some pictures of the approximately six inches of snow we had last night.  It's moderate by local standards, but rather a lot by mine, and of a different consistency than the icy stuff we get at home.  When it snows here, life goes on, and not just because we have snow plows and salt trucks and "know how to get around in it." You're as likely to stay in when it snows as you are when it's cold and rainy, which is not very often for me.  And with the snow we've had so far, shoveling the driveway has only taken about 15-20 minutes.

My driveway and the house across the
street, as seen from my garage

My back yard, and house behind me

I shoveled that!

Home again!

The title of this post holds a double meaning, because in the time since my last post I've travelled home to be with friends and family for Christmas, and home again, back to my new residence and way of life.

I ended first semester jubilant for having survived it (quite well, if I do say so myself), exhausted from months of stress and transition, and desperately homesick.  I counted those last hours before I left for home, walking out of my last meeting directly to my packed car, and made my way south for a "progressive vacation" (some people have progressive dinners; I have progressive vacations).  I stopped at my brother's house, then moved on to my home of the past 11 years, then finally to my parents' for a week at Christmas.  A few days after Christmas I reversed it, finally making it back "home" on January 2...in the middle of the first real snow of the season.

My time home with family & friends revitalized me.  I basked in every moment of swapping stories with the adults, playing with the children (and secretly enjoying their bickering over who got to snuggle up with me next), making THREE batches of Christmas cookies (my favorite treat), watching movies I hadn't had the attention span for in months.  One friend, who saw me both at the beginning and the end of my vacation, commented on the difference in me.  I felt the difference, too...I felt calmer, more relaxed, less frazzled.  I don't think I even realized how stressed I'd been.  I felt more energetic, more optimistic, more eager to take on the challenges of a new semester.  I also realized that I don't have early stages of Alzheimer's after all...I'd just had so much going through my mind that I couldn't take any more in.  It's great to be able to remember things again!

Now, I'm back in my new home.  Unlike last semester, I don't have to figure out where to find groceries, exercise classes, or a dry cleaner's.  I don't have to experiment with different ways of washing dishes (sans dishwasher) to prevent sickness and grease fires.  I know my preferred Mass times, and I've decided which parish to join.  I even shoveled the driveway and figured out how best to clear it on snowy mornings.  All of that will make this semester much less stressful than last...I hope!

I have one more week before classes begin again.  I worked most of last week, and I have a great deal of work to do this week to prepare for classes.  But since my brain feels less cluttered, I feel more excited about tackling it, more confident in my ability to do it and do it well, more grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this work.

I hope 2012 holds abundant blessings for us all!

I survived!!!

The exams are finished, the grades are submitted, and I have SURVIVED my first semester teaching college!  Not only that, if my student thank you notes indicate anything, I actually succeeded.  I can't believe how much I've learned this semester, or how much I still have to learn, but that is all on hold right now while I go enjoy my family & friends.