Comments on: HGTV: The Dark Side

By: Susan D

Susan D — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:22:24 +0000

And I just have to add one more thing. This weekend I FINALLY cleaned out the closet in the Office/Guest room that used to be my daughter’s bedroom, and who now has a husband and 2 kids. I filled the car with all her stuff from childhood and university and drove out to her mansion in the suburbs which is 4 times the size of my house and said, Here, now that you have a million-room house, YOU have to store it.

Oh, the joy of a whole closet for ME.

It must be a Spring thing, this cleaning-out obsession.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:54:43 +0000

No Van Gogh, but I have a ton of Art Deco china and Mexican folk art. I’m throwing out and giving to Goodwill a lot of stuff, but not that.

I’ll blog again. I did a rant and then decided life was too short. I also have over thirty drafts on here, mostly things I need to think through more. But in the meantime, I’m moving boxes. I can see half the floor in the studio now. It’s very exciting. And the dumpster finally got here so TOMORROW the pantry comes down.

And then there’s that writing thing which is fine because it’s AKMG and after thinking about it the whole time I was finishing D&G, I think I’ve got it. This afternoon: The Whiteboard.

By: marta

marta — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:48:12 +0000

The man I married came with a DM and DS who are, to put it mildly, decision-challenged. (They went all last summer with 9 different foot-wide vertical stripes of paint on the family room walls because they couldn’t decide . . .) The only thing that scares him is hearing his mother’s voice saying, “Maybe the sofa would look better over there—” He told me upfront, “I’ll move any piece of furniture you want, anywhere you want, once.”

So, I put silicon casters under everything I can, and use those wonderful “moving men” padded silicon disc sliders for everything else. On stairs, I use big sheets of cardboard. ‘Cause, sometimes you really need to see how the sofa looks ‘over there’.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:07:17 +0000

Jenny’s house seems to be as well furnished as Snoopy’s doghouse. Do you suppose she, too, has a Van Gogh?

By: G and T

G and T — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:56:38 +0000

Elevator shaft?

By: talpianna

talpianna — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:07:08 +0000

Jenny, if you can’t get at least one book plot out of that elevator shaft, you’re not the woman I think you! And once Bob gets involved, the sky’s the limit!

By: andi

andi — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:42:42 +0000

Ohhhh, be careful with the plumbing! My cheapo Ikea curtains(although, honestly they look gooooood) have now become custom draaaaperies(said with snobbish nasal affect)because in hanging them ourselves, we drilled through the main drainpipe line from the upstairs. Curses. The only way to access said pipe was to disassemble the exterior of my house. stupid, stupid, stupid! Take your pick… me, husband, curtains, whatever.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:23:53 +0000

It’s in the middle of the house. The only thing in that wall is dust and possibly plumbing.

However, the sealed up elevator shaft continues to intrigue me. And someday, we’re gonna open it. When I have money to throw away on things like opening elevator shafts.

By: robena grant

robena grant — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:25:58 +0000

Ooooh, Jenny, what if you found a hidden basement or something behind that wall and then there was a tunnel that had been sealed up and it led to … nah, that sounds like a story I once read.

By: RandomRanter

RandomRanter — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:42 +0000

I feel compelled to share that as a child I tossed things down the stairs. My mother caught me one day with a small chest of drawers. (She managed to stop me). So, I guess I used to be Milton.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:55:43 +0000

Susan D, you are a victim of bookbreeding. When left alone long enough, they mate and produce offspring. Where did you THINK paperbacks came from?

I put a copy of BODY LANGUAGE next to my Old English Dictionary, and now I have a copy of ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES.

I put a copy of THE VELVETEEN RABBIT next to a copy of HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, and now I have a copy of RABBIT IS RICH.

Jenny, I’m just pretending to myself that the house won’t need to be rewired until after I’m dead.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:12:09 +0000

You go girl. I know all about moving stuff by yourself as a single parent. I once wedged myself in the stairwell between a heavy dresser and the wall. The whole time I was stuck I kept thinking “somebody will save me once they smell the baby’s diaper”–fortunately my four year old came in and I convinced him to go next door and get help. I survived. He and his sister survived and now we are all old, fat and happy! Argh!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:05:15 +0000

Worse than rats, Tal. Plumbing. You find that in the wrong place, it gets expensive.

By: Susan D

Susan D — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:10:39 +0000

Ha! Brilliant image, Talpianna.

I find whenever I have to move my many many books (but never TOO many; that would be like finally admitting I’m allergic to my cat) that I invariably find long-lost books, books that need re-reading, books that need a first reading and books I swear I’ve never seen before. It’s like visiting a bookshop with a big fat gift certificate.

By: Nancy F

Nancy F — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:32:25 +0000

I am a second generation “I can move it myself” woman. Learned everything I know from my Mom who is 80 this July.
She taught me the value of a strong rag rug and a hardwood floor. Two women can move a heavy piece of furniture tipped onto as few of it’s legs/edges/arms/whateverlooksstrongest as possible, rag rug underneath… held up and pushed by one, and the other hauling on the rug to drag it across the floor. I was skinny-er then. I wonder if that was what kept me thin…moving the living room furniture around with my Mom.
My Dad is an expert at the Bob look. Then he goes and hides in his shed where he secretly moves around all of his powertools/garedningstuff/artsupplies. He uses the wheel barrow. I’ve caught him. He also says he is glad the one thing Mom can’t move is the toilet, so he can count on one thing being where he expects it.
Ditto on the vote of there is no such thing as too many books. Too many books is only the pessimists way of saying buy more book shelves.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:08:31 +0000

Rats in the walls, à la Lovecraft? Or something even more horrid, à la Poe?

Jenny, the remark about too many books reminds me of a favorite quote from mystery writer Ursula Curtiss. The heroine was thinking of selling the family home now that she was alone, and moving into an apartment. As she was sorting books, she thought to herself that trying to decide which books to discard felt like stomping on the fingers of survivors trying to climb into an already overcrowded lifeboat…

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:36:02 +0000

I carpeted my workroom and half the exercise room tonight. I am woman, watch me Flor. Those carpet tiles are genius.

Oh, and the guys carried an armoire up the stairs, and seven bookcases and a storage unit down the stairs today. Then they got to the treadclimber and said, “Tomorrow, with more people.” That’s a heavy sucker. I can move it from room to room by myself but the stairs? Not a chance in hell.

Tomorrow, the pantry walls come down. Very exciting. Especially since we don’t know what’s IN the walls.

By: JulieB

JulieB — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:31:22 +0000

Now, it may have been my imagination — but I think my IKEA _does_ have people who will help you load up. _Someone_ helped me load up my daughter’s bed and dresser. I assumed he worked there…..

By: Cary

Cary — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:15:20 +0000

I’m pretending I didn’t read the line about too many books.

I’m a move/assemble/pack/unpack it all yourself woman too. I can’t even recall all the flat-pack furniture I’ve assembled over the last ten or so years. Desks, dressers – I’ve done it all. But I’m starting to think about the “how do I move it out of here” thing. I seriously wanted to replace my couch and chair, but I couldn’t figure out how to, a) get rid of them, and, b) move the new ones in by myself. I hate paying more for uglier furniture just so that you can get delivery.

And I think Ikea needs car loading help. Lots of single women like me shop there for furniture. It’s easy to put together, even by yourself. But it isn’t easy to load. No one to watch your stuff while you move your car, and no one to help balance the packages as you load them in. Once you’re home, it’s easy, just open the packages in the car and take it in pieces to the house. But at the loading dock…

Good luck with the reno!!!

By: Sheri

Sheri — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:25:52 +0000

o–and I learned the hard way about stairs and moving. We mosved into this fabulous house int he mountains many years ago when I was much younger. the only problem was that the front door through which we had to move stuff was at the bottom of a very steep driveway and was actually on the bottom level of the house, whereas the kitchen and laundry room were on the second level. Yep. You can see the problem, right? Have you ever had to move APPLIANCES up stairs? Long, NARROW stairs?!! It is not a task for the faint of heart OR the weak of back!! That stairway was painted blue by the time my husband and I got the washer, dryer, and refrigerator up them!! Haha!! Needless to say, when we moved out I think we left the washer there… I couldn’t face moving it back down the stairs!! LOL!

and no, Jenny–you can NEVER have too many books!!