TOH: Shaping up

Detail work on the furniture begins...

 

The reading room/craft room now has a customized shabby chic hutch.

 

A new spread and pillows spruces up the bed.

TOH: Shabby chic

First of all let me start by congratulating all the couples in the US who can now marry thanks to a stunningly intelligent decision by the Supreme Court.

It's about damn time.

And to those who are against gay marriage let me say this: Come talk to me when gay marriage actually does something to hurt you. When it burns down your house or injures your children or steals all your money and takes the food out of your mouth. Until that happens, you've GOT NOTHING to say so pack up your toys and go home. You're drunk.

Now, on to the beach cottage!

Not the best picture of it, but the plumbing hardware has been installed in the shower. Toilet and sink have been painted. Lots more to do in this small room but it's shaping up.

 

I painted and distressed the living room end table - came out pretty good for DIY shabby chic.

 

 

The kitchen chairs - same thing, plus some cushions in a fabric that compliments the table cloth.

 

The appliances have been repainted too - less country kitchen, more shabby chic!

 

Today I may tackle the display cabinet and the coffee table. The small pieces I did turned out so well, I feel confident enough to try the larger ones to really complete the look I'm going for.

TOH: Flashy prints

It took some doing but the living room furniture has been reupholstered.

 

I started with the ottoman - added a bit of ribbon to give it some flare.

 

 

I think the bold print of the new upholstery will brighten up the room. Now I have a lot of leeway with throw pillows and drapes...so many decisions!

 

The custom hexagonal table fits perfectly in the kitchen, accented by the print of the table cloth. Still waiting on a design for the kitchen cabinets.

I'm hoping to get more work done this evening - I got some doodads in the mail today that work nicely as accessories. The hard part is tearing myself away from looking at what's already done to work on new things.

 

 

TOH: Floor plans

Custom work begins:

A custom designed shower stall, toilet and sink will solve the problem of a bathroom that's too small for standard fixtures.

 

 

Just needs the medicine cabinet installed and the plumbing fixtures set in place.

 

Custom sized bed leaves room for walking around in the bedroom. Plenty of storage in the two dressers and a chair from the living room may add a comfy spot for relaxing.

 

The office may become a cozy reading room with a small table for a laptop and a hutch to hold books and craft supplies. That chair seems to pop up everywhere...

 

Now the real detail work begins...

 

TOH: The staircase

Back to some serious work on the cottage...

 

So many carpet choices!

 

Gray for the stairs - rolls are delivered and ready for installation.

 

 

Not bad - my first carpet install.

 

AND the real furniture arrived! It all needs work - reupholstering and paint and fixing some broken parts but here's a mock up of the living room and kitchen with some preliminary placement.

 

 

The table is a bit too big for the space, so I'm going to have to have one custom made.

 

 

 

First world problems

In the midst of remodeling my beach cottage, I had a real world epiphany I wanted to write about, just because I feel a bit like ranting.

I'm debating putting some of this on Facebook to counteract all lot of the asshattery that goes on there.

What occurred to me the other day is that as a rule, we complain TOO much. Entirely TOO much.

I work in local government and everyday the fellow employees are bombarded with people's complaints. We listen to people literally lose their shit over a $0.25 bill, over losing a garbage can lid, over grass that grows too high, over leaves that fall on their property, over plastic flowers planted in a neighbor's yard, over every single penny spent to improve the quality of life in our town. Let me tell you, this shit gets old fast.

Through most of it I just smile and nod and try to commiserate, and I will continue to do so because I discovered something I'm loathe to admit publicly - I like my job. And, believe it or not, I actually like people - most of them, even sometimes the ones who complain about every little thing that comes down the pike.

But what I realized recently is that as a community, as a country as a race, we need to calm down and get over ourselves. As a rule - we are VERY LUCKY. We live in a free country. Not the only free country and maybe not even the best free country, but a free country. Our children can attend school - boys and GIRLS - in some religiously run countries that's not allowed. A lot of those old religions like people, especially women, to be ignorant because then they're easier to control. We recognize the stupidity of that here and we provide a means for out kids to be educated - granted sometimes barely, but at least we try.

We have access to medical care. Sure the medical system in American is a class A JOKE. I hate doctors. I hate the medical industry and Big Pharma - but at least I can go to a doctor if I decide I need one, and I can get medication if I'm sick.

Taxes are high. But we have people who pick up our garbage for us, who plow the snow off our streets and who care enough to test the quality of the water, fix the electricity when storms knock it out, patch water pipes that burst, clear sewer clogs, and respond to our calls for help with police officers or ambulance workers or firefighters - many of whom are VOLUNTEERS.

We have the right to vote and the right not to if we don't want to. We have the right to complain about the government and not wake up in jail for it. We have paved streets, cars in our driveways and cable TV.

Sure NOTHING is perfect. Sure EVERYTHING could be better - but for heaven's sake people, don't ever forget that everything could be a lot WORSE too. And there are places in this world where it is worse for the people who live there. A lot worse.

So my advice to everyone is, take a minute and be freakin' THANKFUL for what you have instead of constantly moaning about what you don't.

I guarantee if you do that, you'll actually be a lot happier and a lot healthier. Give it a try.

TOH: Window treatments

Yesterday, was about framing out the windows. A LOT of work, but I think it looks pretty good and hides a multitude of sins and old wall damage.

Here's a fancy frame for the living room window, ready to be installed.

 

 

New wooden frames for the bedroom windows clean up the lines a bit.

 

 

A brick accent wall will add rustic charm to the kitchen.

 

 

Some sample furniture shows off the new look in the living room.

 

 

Next project is touching up the paint jobs and selecting a carpet for the staircase.

 

TOH: Renovations

Work continued yesterday on the cottage. If it hadn't been Sunday I might have stayed up all night. FYI: Nothing else got done in the real world. I'm too deeply entrenched in my mini-vacation home:

The first coat of primer covered the hideous old wallpaper that couldn't be scraped off.

 

While the first coat of primer dried, I tackled refinishing the hardwood floors with some gloss to bring out the natural design of the wood.

 

A couple of new windows will bring some light into the second floor.

 

 

Accent colors in paint that matches my fabric selections.

 

Here's the upholstery samples and border prints.

 

The renovated back wall sports new windows in the stairwell, the bathroom, the bedroom and the kitchen.

 

There's a lot more work to do - to get ready for the furniture I ordered. Some will be ready-made and some will be  handmade. Off to the workshop!

 

 

 

This old house: Beach Cottage Edition

It was a handyman special - a steal at $18.00.

No electricity.

No plumbing.

No fourth wall - but a lot of heart.

I couldn't pass it up.

It has five rooms - kitchen and living room on the ground floor. Master bedroom, bathroom and what will become a home office on the second floor. No attic, no basement, no porch - but I'll make do.

 

The building inspector pronounced it sturdy and habitable with sturdy walls and a decent roof.

 

Demolition of the ratty old wallpaper began immediately.

 

 

 

And a fourth wall was constructed of foamcore.

 

 

 

Today painting will begin and possibly some extra windows will be added to the fourth wall to let some light into the second floor.

 

Off to get started on reconstruction and renovation.

Lucky 13

The potatoes are looking pretty good - though the lower leaves are turning yellow which could mean a nitrogen deficiency. I fed them coffee grounds today - hopefully this will perk them up.

I fed myself a cup of coffee today too - and it perked me up tremendously.

So - here's the scoop: The Whole 30 failed me. It became a Whole 12 and then it stopped.

After spending the last 12 days feeling anywhere from just sub-par to really crappy, I decided it was time to change the rules again. The constant headache is just NOT acceptable anymore. After getting really sick with reflux last night during dinner, I decided that while eating healthy is a great idea, I'm just cutting too much out of my diet to really be comfortable. Battling hunger all day, especially when I had finally gotten that under control without the Whole 30 just wasn't making sense anymore. Popping Advil every other day when I had rarely had headaches in a long time, just wasn't making sense anymore. Lying awake half the night because my stomach was bothering me when it hadn't been for a long time, wasn't making sense anymore. It was time to call it and say Whole 30 was a bust for me.

I get that I still may be experiencing sugar withdrawal, but to be honest, I learned a long time ago that life is too short to be miserable if you don't have to be. Thirty days isn't a long time, but I asked myself what was the point of spending even a few precious hours of those 30 days feeling rotten? Who am I helping? Not me.

I lost 5 pounds in 12 days. Which just about beats the 6 in 6 months on keto.

Then again, I lost 6 pounds in 2 days when I had the stomach flu, so it's not really a good indicator.

Here's what I learned:

* I can live without chocolate.
* I can live without a decadent dessert every night.
* I can live without bread.
* I can enjoy a piece of fruit as much as I can enjoy a cookie.
* I can't really enjoy my work day without a good cup of coffee.
* Being hungry is not healthy.
* Having a headache all the time is not healthy.
* Feeling well is more important than looking good.

I'm not switching from Whole 30 to Whole Hog though. I had a protein shake this morning [soy and sugar] but I'm keeping off of almond milk for now and using water instead. It tasted fine- and thus I'm still avoiding the carrageenan.

I had coffee - one cup by itself, no snack to go with it. And I had about half the sweetener I usually use. Did I want a rich, sweet, decadent cappuccino? Yes. But I'm holding off.

I had my leftover dinner from last night for lunch. And with dinner I indulged in a couple of onion rings and then I had a mini-ice cream cone. So what?

I didn't need between meal snacks today. I don't have a gnawing pain in my stomach or a nagging headache. I plan to stick to as many whole30 compliant foods as I can without using the words 'I can't have...' anymore, but that wasn't doing me a damn bit of good.

Besides, I have more important things to do now that I have found my next project... at a garage sale for $18.00....

This Old House!

I'm so psyched to work on it! My next post will be about my new miniature project and the conversion of this old raggedy dollhouse into my Beach Cottage. I can't wait to get started.

10 down, 20 to go

 

New room box - partially finished. This is going to be a tropical vacation bedroom patterned after something I found on Pinterest.

 

It's probably a third of the way done - and I'm a third of the way through Whole 30 and still wondering what all the hype is about.

 

Today I had cheese.

 

And I'm not sorry. I didn't plan to 'cheat' - but my daughter bought me a salad from Panera. Pecan Apple Chicken Salad, which I love. Which I also forgot contains small crumbles of bleu cheese. [Remember my dream? I guess it was prophetic - but in the dream I felt bad about having eaten the cheese, and in real life I don't]. I was starving, and I wasn't about to throw the salad away or stuff it back in the fridge and hope someone else would eat it before it went bad, and I wasn't about to try to remove tiny little bleu cheese crumbles. So I scarfed it down like I'd been stuck on a desert island for a month. It was heaven.

 

The rest of the afternoon I spent craving bacon, so I made bacon and eggs for dinner. It was great.

 

So far, I really miss coffee. I don't think I'm getting enough protein [choked down a hard boiled egg with breakfast. It was awful. I can't eat eggs for breakfast.] I don't think I'm getting enough fat. [Hence the bacon.] I'm tired of having headaches. I didn't used to get frequent headaches before this. According to my research days 10 and 11 are the hardest. So if I can make it to day 12 I'm doing well. Hopefully by then I'll be feeling more like I'm detoxing rather than just arbitrarily depriving myself of food that I like that actually gives the me energy to get through the day.

 

Do I want to quit? God, yes.

 

Am I going to? No. Not yet. I really want to be able to see how I feel on Day 30 and if I don't feel utterly refreshed and fantastic by then I'll be able to truthfully say that I've tried everything and I've earned the right to eat whatever I want whenever I want. That's sort of what I'm in it for now - for how good it's going to feel to be done with it.



6 of 30

It's always when I'm in a hurry that Blogger acts up... I'm rushing off to sit down and watch a movie after being on my feet all day - and of course nothing I do in Blogger works right tonight.  Ugh.

 

Anyway - I'm not planning on updating every 3 days, but since I made it to the weekend on Whole 30, I want to crow about it. I got this far! I'm pretty amazed that I've been able to say no to chocolate all week. It has NOT been easy.

 

The week started off rough - I was cranky, tired and hungry. Today I am FINALLY less tired. In fact I got a surge of energy this afternoon that I'm still riding on. I hope that means all this good food is finally kicking in. My mood is decidedly better and I had the willpower to walk away from mini-donuts at the flea market even though I was hungry. I've eating good food all week and I found I've really enjoyed my food. Fruit has never tasted better and I appreciate every bite of everything else - probably because I'm so hungry.

 

Tomorrow I'm breaking a cardinal rule of Whole 30 and I'm making paleo pancakes for breakfast.

 

Why?

 

Simple. Whole 30 doesn't tell me what to do. And some stupid rules are made to be broken. I get why the authors of the book FORBID pancakes of any kind. 1) They're pandering to people who enjoy that feeling of having to 'be good' in order to prove themselves worthy. I got nothin' to prove. 2) They want you to get used to not having some of the trigger foods that can lead you down the garden path to bad eating. I get that. A paleo pancake is perfectly fine - but if you get used to eating pancakes every day, what happens when paleo pancakes aren't available? You'll just have regular pancakes and that's a different animal altogether. I get it. That's why I'm allowed to break the rule. It's like in writing. Know what the rules are and break them only for a good reason. My good reason is this: Eating right is NOT about never having something you like or about having the will power not to make something decadent out of good ingredients. LIVING WELL is about LIVING - not about sticking to arbitrary rules.

 

So, I'm having paleo pancakes because I can eat an egg and I can eat a banana and that's fine - there's NO REASON I can't mix them together and cook them and eat the result if that will make me happy, fuller, well fed and give me some variety. Arbitrary rules are stupid.

 

That being said, I am having the food dreams that so many people report having. In my dreams I've eaten corn, walnut chicken with soy sauce and bleu cheese - and I felt bad about it each time. But I did it anyway.

 

On that note, here's a before and after photo of one of my terrariums. Interesting to see the difference a year has made.

Then

 

 

 

Now

  



 

3 of 30

I had forgotten that I posted about the Whole 30 experiment already. I'm glad I did. It saves me time today.

I stuck to my plan and I began the Whole 30 June 1st. It seems silly to be writing an update at Day 3, but hey, I made it this far...with no sugar or chocolate or coffee. So that's an accomplishment in itself.

[BTW, that's a baby lemon tree in an awesome planter I found this weekend at a garage sale]

PROS: So far? No real pros. I'm still on board with the program and eager to see if it lives up to the hype. My goal is to achieve that 'I've never felt better in my life' feeling that so many people who have written about their Whole 30 results report. One pro is I don't have a really hard time eating food that's simple and good for me. I had a baked chicken cutlet, a baked sweet potato and a salad for dinner and I thought it was excellent. I don't need lasagna to feel like I 'ate' - but I think I do need cheese to be happy.

CONS: It's only day 3. It's going to be a LONG month. I did tell my co-workers about the plan and of course my family and I put it on Facebook. Of course on Facebook I got crickets - which is how most of my post are received. If they're received at all. I don't really know. Facebook generally sucks.
The problem with telling too many people is that of course the inevitable has happened already. "How are you doing on your diet?" [Ugh - really? I've been on it 72 hours, and you asked me at 24 hours and at 48 hours. Can we NOT do this every damn day?] I get that maybe people are interested and are hoping I will stumble across the Holy Grail of Weight Loss [for which I am not looking], but really? It's like telling people you submitted a novel to a publisher and they ask every day thereafter, "Have you heard from the publisher?" [If I had, don't you think that would be the first thing I'd mention?]

I've also gotten "Is that on your diet?" Which is the SINGULAR most inane question that I absolutely hate to hear from anyone. Because 1) If I'm eating it, it's ON MY DIET. 2) You are not the diet police. 3) I know what's ON MY DIET better than you do. I know the people who ask it actually do mean well - but enough already.

So if I do fall off the program, I imagine it will be from the stress of having to answer these inane questions and not from lack of food.

The final con is that I have been hungry the last three days. I don't like that. It took me YEARS to adjust my 'diet' to a point where I wasn't suffering blood sugar spikes and valleys that made me feel ravenous all day long and now they're back. One of my cardinal rules of diet is feeling hungry all the time and having to ignore it in order to stay on the diet is NOT ACCEPTABLE. I'm hoping it's a residual blood sugar drop from actual lack of sugar - and not true hunger. To combat it, I added a little more food to my breakfast and I'm now back to having an afternoon snack, which I didn't need on my regular eating plan. With Whole 30 you are technically not supposed to snack or need snacks, but hell, if I'm hungry then the plan isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing.

I made a small before chart to plot how things change over the 30 days - I'm assessing back pain, mood, sleep quality, GI health, skin and joint health. I also took a before weight and will weigh myself on July 1, but I took no measurements. This isn't about size, it's about how I feel.

I suppose the crankiness I'm experiencing is part of it - I recall on keto having an elevated mood and right now I'm a little short-fused. I think because on keto I was not hungry and on this I am. We'll see how that shapes up over the next four weeks.

Onward!