Spiders From Hell

Those who know me best know that I do not like spiders.  To appease all you do-gooder nature freaks, I will admit they have a place in the Great Scheme of Things.  They are wonderfully beneficial in the garden.  They are NOT wonderfully beneficial inside my house.  It is now fall, and what with the interminable ongoing remodeling (will it ever end?) and the advance of cooler weather, the spiders are making their way indoors.  Six weeks ago I woke up with 6 spider bites on one leg, and 1 spider bite on the other.  The picture above shows three of the bites a week after they first appeared.  What really freaked me out is that I apparently got bitten in my bed.  Meaning a spider was in bed with me.  Probably brought in with the sheets from the clothesline. 

Six weeks later, my legs are not a pretty sight, as evidenced by the photo on the right.  Despite the passage of time, the bites are still a violent red and they itch something fierce.  This is the first (and, I hope, only) time I have been bitten by a spider and it is not something I want to repeat. What's worse is  now I'm getting those gigantic scarey "drain spiders" that appear in my bathtub and sinks.  You can't kill them with Raid.  They just shake it off and laugh in your face.  Then they scuttle up to the ceiling where they hang out, waiting to slide down on their butt thread to scare you as you wash your face or brush your hair.

More Madness

The remodeling continues.  Slowly but steadily.  My carpenter-friend cannot make it every day, so I usually get him 2-4 days of the week, with 4 being rare.  And he's usually here for only 4 or 5 hours each day, so you can see why this is taking so long.  Plus, I'm doing a lot of the work myself, and I'm slow.  I do all the tedious stuff--painting, varnishing, sanding, etc. 

Next week we begin tearing down the exterior walls to the kitchen and laundry room. I'm the main tearing-down person.  Tove, the carpenter, will mark the items for demolition, and he'll cut the deck in half so that I can dismantle it.  I'll be saving as much useable wood as I can, to be used for rebuilding the new deck and for use in the enlargement of both the laundry room and kitchen.  I have a large bottle of aspirin set aside, and the pain pills for my back/leg are on prescription, so my crowbar and I are ready to roll!

The Madness Continues

Remodel woes.  Everyone told me I'd be tearing out my hair.  Actually, now that most of the lumber and construction debris have been removed from my hall and kitchen, I'm breathing easier.  I love the new white beaded board wainscoting in the hall with the pristine new mottled beige paneling above the wainscoting.  That's a picture of the hall, on the left.  I'm sorting through my artwork, trying to decide which pictures I'll be hanging on the walls above the wainscoting.  The hall will be my informal art gallery, since I have so much wall space.

I have painted or varnished miles and miles of trim and molding, and last night I stained and varnished (6 coats of varnish!) the oak that will be used as windowsills for the new windows in the Craft Room and the Rose Room.  (Okay, so they're spare bedrooms turned into a craft room and a sewing room!)

And next week we begin the expansion of the laundry room and the kitchen.  I'm excited and scared.  The exterior walls of both rooms will be demolished (that's my job!), so we'll have to make sure the weather will be nice, since I'll be exposed to the Great Outdoors.

Stay tuned for more updates!