Pink! Plastic! Tiles!
I don't have many nice things to say about plastic tiles, but at least they're easy to remove. Yes, the destruction has finally begun. My parents wanted to wait until the holidays were over before we started ripping the house apart, and just a few days ago I got the OK to start prying tiles off the bathroom walls. This turned out to not take long at all, since grout apparently doesn't stick very well to plastic tiles. It was fun and interesting, as I got to conduct some house archaeology.
Judging by old indentations, it looks like the bathroom used to have "subway" tiles (rectangle tiles that are stuck on horizontally in a brick-like pattern). In many places, the outer coating of smooth white plaster is falling away from the wall, revealing the rough, gray plaster underneath. I've read that horse hair was used in plaster to help hold it together, and there are definitely brown hairs in this plaster. Continuing to peel away the layers, there are a few holes in the walls where I can see some lath (thin wood strips to which the plaster was applied). This is inordinately exciting to me, since I've been dying to take a screwdriver to these tiles for months now, and have had to be satisfied with reading books about remodeling.
I haven't posted in a while, I guess. Christmas has come and gone, and it was good. It was strange not having Beth with us on Christmas morning, but she and Clayton did surprise us by coming for Christmas dinner.
January first seems like such and arbitrary date for celebrating the new year. I think we should switch the date to that of winter solstice. It would be much more meaningful. I love realizing that from this day forward, we will have progressively more daylight and less night. Although I guess summer solstice, then, could be seen as a rather depressing occasion.
We went to Tulsa to spend New Year's Eve with some family friends. It was a nice, low-key evening. One notable happening: my mom taught a six-year-old girl how to knit, which kind of astonished everyone. Tessa says she's going to make me a scarf, and my dad a hat, and my mom mittens. My mom just taught me how to knit a couple of weeks ago. My scarf (nice, simple, rectangle) is coming along nicely, although it's slow going. I started working on a hat, to see if I could knit in a circle using four needles. I was doing pretty well, but soon realized that this hat was going to be too big for any human head. So I bound it off and was left with a large loop. Two people (Dad and Joles) have independently suggested turning it into a tube top, but guys, it's way too big for that.
On New Year's Day, we went to visit the Burgesses, and my dad and I got to see the inside of Beth and Clayton's new house for the first time. It is adorable. It's small, but it doesn't feel cramped. The living room is actually pretty big. There are beautiful hardwood floors in the living room, bedroom, and hallway, with very narrow planks of wood. Clayton plans to refinish them, but they don't look that bad, even now. A few days ago, Clayton drove to Norman and picked up our old fridge and stove, so now they have a pretty complete kitchen.
Judging by old indentations, it looks like the bathroom used to have "subway" tiles (rectangle tiles that are stuck on horizontally in a brick-like pattern). In many places, the outer coating of smooth white plaster is falling away from the wall, revealing the rough, gray plaster underneath. I've read that horse hair was used in plaster to help hold it together, and there are definitely brown hairs in this plaster. Continuing to peel away the layers, there are a few holes in the walls where I can see some lath (thin wood strips to which the plaster was applied). This is inordinately exciting to me, since I've been dying to take a screwdriver to these tiles for months now, and have had to be satisfied with reading books about remodeling.
I haven't posted in a while, I guess. Christmas has come and gone, and it was good. It was strange not having Beth with us on Christmas morning, but she and Clayton did surprise us by coming for Christmas dinner.
January first seems like such and arbitrary date for celebrating the new year. I think we should switch the date to that of winter solstice. It would be much more meaningful. I love realizing that from this day forward, we will have progressively more daylight and less night. Although I guess summer solstice, then, could be seen as a rather depressing occasion.
We went to Tulsa to spend New Year's Eve with some family friends. It was a nice, low-key evening. One notable happening: my mom taught a six-year-old girl how to knit, which kind of astonished everyone. Tessa says she's going to make me a scarf, and my dad a hat, and my mom mittens. My mom just taught me how to knit a couple of weeks ago. My scarf (nice, simple, rectangle) is coming along nicely, although it's slow going. I started working on a hat, to see if I could knit in a circle using four needles. I was doing pretty well, but soon realized that this hat was going to be too big for any human head. So I bound it off and was left with a large loop. Two people (Dad and Joles) have independently suggested turning it into a tube top, but guys, it's way too big for that.
On New Year's Day, we went to visit the Burgesses, and my dad and I got to see the inside of Beth and Clayton's new house for the first time. It is adorable. It's small, but it doesn't feel cramped. The living room is actually pretty big. There are beautiful hardwood floors in the living room, bedroom, and hallway, with very narrow planks of wood. Clayton plans to refinish them, but they don't look that bad, even now. A few days ago, Clayton drove to Norman and picked up our old fridge and stove, so now they have a pretty complete kitchen.
Comments
I said tube top since you mentioned it in an email.
DPNs work so so so so much nicer when you use five of them...and knit a couple of stitches after the switch...that way you don't have an obvious seam where you switch from one needle to the next. Does that make sense? A good knitting store will usually sell 5 packs of DPNs.
Not much here...delaying going to the dentist as long as possible, but the appointment must be kept.
See you in a few weeks!
Joles