The 10 Worst Things About Painting

10 -- The smell.

9 -- Painting while standing in bare feet (it’s darn hot here) and having the plastic drop cloth stick to your sweaty feet.

8 -- Having serious doubts about the colour.

7 -- Drips.

6 -- Dogs who come looking to see what you’re doing and who wag their black hairy tails over a freshly painted spot.

5 -- Painting with white paint while wearing your new black skirt which you bought specifically to wear in Europe in August.

4 -- Cleaning up afterwards.

3 -- Getting paint out from under your fingernails.

2 -- Getting it done and realizing that at least one, if not two more coats will be required.

1 -- This stupid Wal-Mart brand ColourPlace paint brush which sheds bristles all over the place!

Bathroom Reno Project Status Report, July 22, 2006

Project Summary

Lots of progress made this week (see pictures.) Everything is ready for painting and wall papering. The project manager expects project completion in the first week of August.



Deliverables Status - Green

Purchases of Bench/Laundry Hamper, Wastebasket and assorted decorative items all complete. Delivery of Painted Trim and Wall Papered Walls anticipated next week. Grouted Bathtub Rim expected either next week or early the week after.

Schedule Status - Yellow

The project manager has evaluated the status of each planned task and has determined that the overall project is a teensy weensy bit behind schedule.

Tasks completed this week: Filling holes, sanding, vacuuming and cleaning all done. Green masking tape all applied in readiness for painting.

Budget Status - Red

Budget is totally blown. And the project manager still has to buy a towel bar, electrical switches and outlet and a bathroom vent fan cover. Everything budget-wise was on track until J. and I cruised through a few antique stores this week in New West. I bought these lovely framed Iris tiles and a wonderfully eccentric wooden folding basket from India.

Risk Management Report

N/A. As the project manager did not prepare a Risk Management Plan, there will be no Risk Management reporting.

Issues

The customer (me) is complaining about the lack of a mirror in her bathroom but the project manager (also me) has arranged for her to use The Big Guy’s bathroom mirror next door and, despite The Big Guy’s dim lighting and messy counter top, this appears to have resolved the problem.

Project Manager Without a Project Team

As it seems there isn’t any way I’m going to convince The Big Guy that moving to the Sunshine Coast is what we should do, we’re faced with a house that requires maintenance and general upkeep to keep it in a condition that satisfies our desires for someplace warm, dry and pleasurable to live in and look at.

The Big Guy has managed to turn a single leak discovered several months ago at one garage window into a major outside siding repair, deck repair, cleaning, painting, and eavestrough/downspout replacement project.

This spring, partially to avoid getting dragged into too much of the outside work, I decided to take on a couple of inside rooms.

Repainting the kitchen was pretty easy and didn’t take too long.

Now I’m working on "my" bathroom. This is the main bathroom upstairs and was last decorated by me almost 25 years ago.

Here are a few "Before" pictures.




Yeah, it’s time. That 1980’s look has got to go…

I have noticed that using baskets as decorator items is trendy again. No matter, these baskets will be tossed!


Task List (more or less in the order in which things are getting done):

• Remove mirror, light fixture, picture and other stuff attached to walls, curtain, curtain rod, towel bar, toilet paper holder, switch and electrical outlet covers, bathroom vent cover and everything sitting on the window sill, counter, toilet tank and floor.


• Remove tank from toilet.


• Strip off the old wallpaper, fill in the holes in the walls, sand the walls, vacuum up the dust and loose bits of paper.


• Clean all surfaces including ceiling, tile above bathtub, window and the sliding glass shower doors.


• Paint window trim, window sill and the outside edge of the tile.


• Put up the new wallpaper.


• Remove the moldy old grout around bathtub and put in new grout.


• Replace electrical switches and outlets (old ones are beige, I need white ones for the new wallpaper and paint color scheme). Re-install light fixture. Attach new bathroom vent cover.


• Reattach toilet tank. Check for leaks and adjust as required until nothing leaks.


• Hang the mirror.


• Install new towel rack and the old toilet paper holder.


• Install new wall shelf for the radio.


• Hang the picture. Place the stylish new bench/laundry hamper and wastepaper basket in their designated spots.


• Decide whether to rehang the old curtain (washed), buy/make a new curtain, or leave the window uncovered.


• Put back the toiletries, knick-knacks, etc., making decisions about which should return to their old spots and which should be hidden inside drawers and cupboards.


• Optional Task that can be put off until I really feel like it: Clean out the drawers and under-sink cupboard.

So far, I’m almost done striping off the old wallpaper except for the part behind the toilet. I’m waiting for a good moment to ask The Big Guy to help me remove the toilet tank. The Big Guy and Plumbing never get on well so I have to be very careful to choose the right time...

I can do everything else myself except maybe he’ll want to do the electrical work. I’ve read up on how to de-install and install electrical switches and outlets and it doesn’t look too hard to me but it sure would be a lot easier and quicker for him to do it.

Back when I used to do work that people paid me money to do, I was, from time to time, a project manager. The methods have some applicability to my bathroom improvement project. Unfortunately I have no team to delegate tasks to so I have to do nearly everything myself. And I find that not having a paying customer or a stressed-out boss makes the schedules and deadlines much more relaxed.

Sure would be nice to have that mirror back up sometime soon.

Need to have a word with the project manager about the schedule slips... Not to mention the budget.

Dominion Homes Sold (Good Riddance!)

You can refer to my last post about investing in Dominion Homes here.

I am beginning to believe that the marvelous bull market we’ve enjoyed the last few years has finally reached its inevitable end and we’re entering bear market territory.

This week’s US stock market drop, more gloomy US home-building news and yet another bad news quarterly report pushed Dominion Homes stock (NASDAQ:DHOM) down low enough to trigger my stop loss and my holdings were automagically sold. My loss amounted to 19% since purchasing the stock in January.

Well, I can use the capital loss to offset some of my capital gains on my next tax return.

This afternoon I took the cash and bought some more Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) shares. This will be a relatively safe place for my money for awhile.

I hope.

Johnson & Johnson is a large, well established and diversified healthcare business in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer products. The fundamentals look good, analysts like the stock and it also has a very nice dividend yield of about 2.5%. While it’s recently recovered some ground, the stock is down significantly since its peak in April 2005, down along with other big pharma companies. This is helping make JNJ more attractive from a value point-of-view. I’m not a big believer in technical analysis but I also happened to notice that the current stock price and the 50-day moving average price have both just crossed above the 200-day moving average price.


Instead of buying JNJ, I could hang on to the cash and watch for some other interesting yet safe dividend-paying blue chip stock to drop low enough during the bear market (or correction if that is what this really is) to become an even better buy. But I don’t like sitting on cash in my investment accounts. I’ve been thinking about buying some more JNJ for a couple of months and this is an obvious opportunity. The quicker I get this money working for me again, the quicker I can make up the loss from DHOM.

Cut and Colour

Today I went to see my hair guy, Greg, or Gregory, as he’s also known to many of his clients.

I always like going for my regular cut and colour. It feels like we’re old friends now even though we only see each other to look after my hair.

Greg’s business has changed radically from when I first knew him as the very busy owner of a trez chic salon with 6 or 7 stylists plus employees plus someone he was training. In those days you had to book your appointment at least a couple of months in advance and even then you had to share your hour with another client. I once had my appointment bumped by Courtney Love.

Now he rents a chair in a tiny 3-chair salon and my sessions with him often go 3 or even 4 hours as we stretch out the luxuries of hair consultation, shampooing and massage, colour-mixing and application, more shampooing, conditioning, cutting and drying, styling and more styling.

Greg’s a somewhat eccentric dresser. I’ve seen him in waist-length hair (his own), a brush-cut, skirts, cowboy boots, a silk suit, white palazzo pants with a white wrap top, every imaginable type of hat, all sorts of sunglasses, silver bracelets, chains, rings on every finger, with and without beard…

Today he was even more outlandish than usual - bright pink wide-legged pants with ruched side seams long enough to drag on the floor and almost hiding the faded orange Adidas. Over the pants (which Gregory wore several inches below his waist, exposing a fair amount of skin) he had an orange fringed scarf tied around his hips and a camouflage purse fastened to a lime green belt with silver buckle. He had a fuchsia-coloured top under a pink Hawaiian shirt; and over all of that an off-white long-sleeved knitted duster with shawl collar. He had a lime-green turban covering his black hair and over the turban, a white Stetson-style straw hat; plus big sunglasses which he swapped for reading glasses on a string around his neck whenever he needed to look at my hair. In contrast the jewelry was very restrained today, a couple of wide silver bands on one finger and a tiny silver hoop in each pierced ear. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the black nail polish.

Ziggy, Greg’s dog, was also in the salon today. The front door was open and every 5 minutes Greg had to call Ziggy back in when he snuck outside to better see the world go by on Broadway.

Greg played his David Bowie CDs and I had a fabulous time.

Oblivion Shopping... Shopping for Oblivion

I’ve talked about The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion before.


I bid on a number of Oblivion listings on eBay trying for a good deal. My objective was to find a reliable seller with a new or good used copy (with everything – retail box, map, instruction booklet and original DVD) and spend, including shipping, no more than half of what I would pay if I bought the game new at a local Electronics Boutique, Future Shop or Best Buy store. These stores are currently selling it for $59.99 plus tax, or you can get the collector’s edition for $69.99.

I bid on and lost six eBay auctions before winning a used game in superb condition plus the official Prima Oblivion game guide book all for $28.50 (US dollars) including shipping from a seller in Barrie, ON. This is a really good deal since I would have bought the game guide book too anyway. I figure I saved about $66 for the game and the book over what I would have paid at Future Shop.

I can tell from the turned-down page corners in the game guide that my seller probably played Oblivion as a mage. I myself usually play a fighter/mage combo character. I played Morrowind all the way through twice as a Dark Elf and worked at developing a versatile character with very high blade skills. I wonder if this will also work well in Oblivion?

I just noticed that people are showing video clips of their Oblivion gameplay (and mods) at YouTube!


If you’re not a hardcore computer rpg gamer the previous two paragraphs probably don’t make much sense but, never mind, this post is really about shopping, not about gaming.

I wouldn’t normally go to such lengths to save $66 to play a computer game, even one that I really want, but I already knew that I would also have to upgrade the graphics card in my computer. When I added everything up it started to look like a major investment.

I was determined to nickel and dime this every way that I could.

A few months ago, I researched graphics cards so I already had a short list of cards that would handle the very intensive Oblivion graphics and were also compatible with my computer. Luckily my computer system manual and ATI’s web site were very helpful in figuring out what would work in my 4-year old Dell PC.

Of course I really, really wanted the ATI graphics card at the very top of the list, the most powerful and fastest card, the most expensive card, the $299.99 US card. Too much money, I thought. So I was considering the lesser cards in the range of $169 to $199.

Despite being an experienced eBay Seller and Buyer, I’m reluctant to risk buying graphics cards on eBay otherwise I probably could have found one there for a lower price. I like to buy my computer hardware brand new, still sealed inside the original manufacturer’s packaging and covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Or else given to me for free out of The Big Guy’s stash.

But, as is usual with computer stuff, just wait a little while and things get cheaper.

This Canada Day weekend, Future Shop celebrated in their usual manner with a really big sale. And, guess what. They had the very graphics card that I had written off at $299 US as too expensive on sale for $199! That’s Canadian dollars!

Woo Hoo!

Read on, it gets even better.

I had $9.41 left on a Future Shop gift card, the last remnant of a few gift cards that The Big Guy gave me last year in one of his occasional fits of generosity.

I also had another $100 Future Shop gift card that I got from Aeroplan in return for a bunch of air travel points that turned out to be impossible to use on actual air travel due to black-out periods, a shortage of seats designated for air travel points redeemers, and hopeless soul-destroying waits on hold wishing that a human being with a heart would answer my calls to Air Canada’s reservations call center. Besides, these days I prefer WestJet.

Anyway...

Do you realize the GST has also been lowered from 7% to 6%?

So, the graphics card plus tax only cost me $116.58 in real money.

Let the fun begin!

Kilimanjaro Climb Part 8 – Descent and Celebration

The previous entries in this Kilimanjaro Trip journal are the Introduction, Arrival in Moshi, To Machame Camp, To Shira Camp, To Barranco Camp, To Barafu Camp and To The Summit. Alice’s words (with the bare minimum of editing by me) will be in italics. My words will be in the usual font I use for these blog entries.

Today’s entry is Day 6 of the Kilimanjaro climb, the final day on the Machame Route. Day 6 includes the descent from Millennium Camp (3750m/12,305ft) to Mweka Gate (1800m/6000ft) and the celebration in Moshi.

Elevation Change: 1950 meters descending
Distance: 12 kilometers in 4 hours
Habitat: Heath and Moorland to tropical Montane Forest to Cultivated Land

Alice’s journal:

---

April 5, 9:50 PM

Boy, I haven’t stayed up this late for days! I’m back at the Keys Hotel, writing my journal under my mosquito net. I’m still wearing my headlamp since I’ve grown accustomed to it and there are no functioning bed lamps.

Our climb is over and it was great. We had a day that started and ended very clear and sunny. In the middle of the day we had mist but no real rain.

The wakeup routine is always interesting. Camp is quiet and then one porter or the Guide yells. Then a bit more yelling, “Get up!" in Swahili and then the porter chatter starts. They start yelling and joking amongst themselves. John told us that this morning they were talking about the walk out with no rain. Soon after, a porter taps on my tent to wake me up (I’ve already been awake for an hour) and asks me how I’ve slept.

We broke camp at 8:00 AM and had one long fast downhill march for four hours. I got the impression they wanted to finish this climb.



With all this downhill plus yesterday’s downhill, the legs are taking a beating.

We arrived at Mweka Gate at noon, signed out, and John collected our "Uhuru Peak" certificates.

The Green Jeep was already loaded with our gear since the porters have beat us down by an hour. We all loaded into the jeep with two hanging off the back. The first kilometer of road was a mess. I have great respect for the Green Jeep now, it can make it through anything. We had a precarious situation with the Jeep sliding part way into the ditch. It took a bit of maneuvering but we finally crawled out and continued on.


The 30 to 45 minute drive to Moshi was via a more rural route and there was absolutely no piece of land that was not cultivated or housing. And people everywhere. Lots of people hand hoeing in the corn fields. Kids hanging out at the side of the road. Women carrying stuff on their heads. The communities near the mountain looked desperately poor. Conditions improved closer to Moshi.

We arrived at the Keys Hotel, showered, ate lunch, and then started our celebration. While I ate lunch I sent the bartender around to give the porters two rounds. Little did I know that the beer bottles are a lot larger than I’m used to and the porters had not eaten since 7:30 AM.

John orchestrated the ceremony. We all sat together on the patio and I ordered them a third round. John presented our certificates and they sang us the Kilimanjaro Song. They were very good. We thanked them and they thanked us. Maria and I had given John the tip money at lunch and he had distributed it while we were absent.



I laid out all my goodies (used clothing, pens, pencils, rain poncho, very dirty socks, 20-year old headlamp…) John called each porter up and distributed the stuff. Oddly enough he did not distribute it evenly at all. I believe he based it on how he valued the porters.

The party wrapped up and we said good bye. Our half-drunk porters were going to buy some chicken from a street stall for a late lunch and then catch buses for home.

After six great days, our climb is complete. I had initially figured my odds at summiting as being 50/50, but no problem, and I am so delighted. Our Guide was excellent, the porters so hard-working and sweet and Maria was a great climbing companion.

Hey, I’ve got to do more of this in my life.

The End