Organizing electronics

I've been on a bit of a housecleaning binge lately.  Cleaning takes me longer than it should, because we're still pretty new in our house (and I haven't even unpacked some boxes yet).  So I'm still at step one of the old adage, "A place for everything, and everything in its place"--that is, we need to designate some places for our things.

We have this odd built-in in our dining room:

It was clearly created for a TV--if you look just to the right of the printer, through the jumble of electronics, you can see a cable outlet, and there's also an electrical outlet back there.  We're not sure what we're going to do with this space long-term--modern flat-screens have rendered it obsolete, and we don't want a TV in this room anyway.  For now, it serves as a convenient home-base for most of our electronics.  We've got our printer, cable modem, and wireless router here.  P generally uses his laptop at the dining room table, so it's also a convenient place for the laptop to dock and charge when not in use.

But the cords were getting out of control.  In fact, I'm pretty sure there were various cords up there that didn't connect to anything at all.  We had to replace both our cable modem and wireless systems shortly after moving, and I never really tidied up after trouble-shooting.

I had plans for elaborate setups and cable-routing, but then I realized that there was just enough space behind the printer to jam everything in there.  And I'm fine with being an out-of-sight, out-of-mind kind of girl.  So here's our new and improved set-up:

That one cord still sticking out is the USB cable to plug the printer into the computer--I wanted to keep that accessible.  Yes, the printer has wireless capabilities, but it was such a nightmare to set-up the first time--it seriously took 4 different Dell technicians two routers and over 6 hours to finally get it working--that I tremble at the thought of trying to set that up again now that we have a new wireless system and a new laptop.  So I'm procrastinating on that one....

Since organizing this area went so much faster than I had expected, I decided to move on to our growing collection of electronic accessories.  In addition to a few useless cables I rounded up from the printer area, we had two bins full of various cables and AC/DC power adapters.  Did you notice those in the before picture?

Honestly, I don't even know what most of those power adapters power.  A few may belong to items that we're still using but haven't set up since the move, but I'm pretty sure most of them are for obsolete pieces.  We may have a hoarding problem here.  But we discovered last year that, when one of these puppies die (which is not infrequently), they're neither simple nor cheap to replace.  But quite often we're lucky, and find that we can substitute another adapter we happen to have for the broken/lost one.  So we're loath to part with one we're not currently using--what if it turns out to be the next magic bullet?

Anyway, P loves organizing things with cords into Ziplock bags, and I'm starting to admit that he's onto something here.  So I got out my Ziplocks and a sharpie (for those rare instances when I actually knew what something was), and started bagging.

And by the end, I had this:

Ahh.  Much better.  We'll deal with potential hoarding issues another year.

Shoot Along

I follow along with the blog Giver's Log (which provides lots of cute, and often easy, ideas of small, crafty gifts).  Today I found this invitation there:

And I thought, well, why not?  As you've seen, my camera skills could definitely use improving, and maybe some structured practice would help. 

The theme for this week is "summer moments you wish would last forever."  I have to admit, I'm not feeling the summer thing right now, so this is a good reminder to me to appreciate the world around me. 

On that note, I'll leave you with a photo of the rainbow that just appeared across the street on the tail-end of a thunderstorm.  And P rather skeptically posing for me.  Now, if I could just make electric lines magically disappear at my will....

Curb appeal

Our front steps are in desperate need of a new paint job.

I figure as long as I'm out there, I should paint the porch foundation as well.  See that white splotch above right?  How about here?

Not sure why the last person to paint this decided to change colors there.  But it is symmetrical on both sides of the porch!  You just can't see that in the picture because of the overgrown azalea bush in too small a space.

I was in a pruning war with the azalea--cutting it back bit by bit, encouraging it to fill out from the base, be smaller, and not totally take over the stairs.  I was winning the war, but the fact is, it was never going to look good there. 

Painting presented the perfect excuse to just get rid of the bush--I couldn't possibly paint the porch with the azalea still there--it touching the cement in far too many places, and too close to just tie it back.

This was on the "oh, I'll get around to it one of these days.  Maybe when it's cooler.  Maybe October," list, until I found some great cheap dwarf sunflowers at Home Depot, that I knew would look much better in that spot than that azalea.  I bought the sunflowers, and moved the azalea extraction to the top of the to-do list.

The real stroke of genius was when I recruited P to help.  Here's my idea of how an azalea should be removed:

After all, it's what I made my father do on his last visit.

Here's P's idea of how to "git 'er done."  Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4: Repeat x2.  Turns out that azalea was three separate bushes.  No wonder it was bursting at the seams and taking over the stairs.

Step 5:

(Yup, he's airborne.)

I think this root ball P pulled out perfectly illustrates how thoroughly the azaleas were wedged into this space, and why trying to paint around them just wasn't an option:

Where, might you ask, is the wife?  Happily sitting on the stairs, offering pointers.  "Oh, here's another root!"  This arrangement turned out to be surprisingly agreeable to both of us--P was surprised that I wasn't bored, and I was surprised that he wasn't annoyed that I wasn't pulling my weight.  Or doing anything at all.  (I did take a brief break from the sitting to dig up the sage plant located to the right side of the stairs, and move it to a different spot.)

Instead of planting the dwarf sunflowers in the ground, we put them into some large pots.  I've had these for years--P gave them to me for my birthday one year, back when I was living in an apartment that was begging for a balcony garden.  Putting the sunflowers in here gives them a bit of loft and a bit more presence in the landscape, plus will make it much easier for me to paint. That is, whenever the magic combination of cooler temperatures, dry weather, free time and inclination arise.

So that's where we currently are.  I think much more needs to happen for us to have a nice, welcoming entryway, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Ahh. Much better.

$7 Thrift Store Chair

The short story:

Before:

After:

The longer version:

I've been looking for some furniture at the local thrift stores.  It's been difficult--people around here are really good thrifters, and not too proud to buy used.  Good for the planet and society, but bad for me.  It's hard to find a good item, and prices tend to be pretty high.

So when I found this baby for $7, I was pretty excited.  The simple lines were the perfect opportunity to try out my first reupholstering project, without getting in over my head.

(I'm sure some of you are doubtful that this even needed reupholstering.  I can see how the lovely orange stripes of the original would look lovely in someone's home--but not mine.  Plus, the fabric was really itchy, and I don't do itchy.  Finally, the fabric was starting to wear through on the corners, so I didn't ruin an item in perfect condition.)

The chair unscrewed from the base easily.  I got such a good deal on the chair because the joints had come loose.  With just a bit of wood glue, things were as good as new, and the chair was no longer rickety.

Bar clamps: one perk of marriage to a woodworker.

I could have restained the arms of the chair where the finish had worn smooth, but I decided that I actually like the lived-in look the chair has now.  The contrast between light and dark areas makes the nice wood joints much easier to see and appreciate.

Next, I pulled out my Bissell carpet cleaner, and gave the upholstery a good scrubbing.  I'll spare you a picture of the pounds of dirt that came out.  Cleaning it well spared me the trouble of removing the old upholstery--less work, plus I suspect it's all that's holding the old foam together.  Didn't want to open that can of worms....

I traced a rough form of the chair upholstery onto butcher paper, added seam allowances, and used that as a pattern to cut the fabric.  (It's the fabric I decided not to use for curtains, and promised you would see again.  This is the first of many projects--I've got a few yards left to go.)

To get a nice tight fit, I pinned the pieces to the chair, then gently pulled them off, and sewed the pinned seams:

Skipping ahead several iterations of fitting, sewing, refitting, sewing the next seam....  P helped out with the staple gun, and here's the finished chair!  I'm going to use it at my sewing machine in my office for the time being--once we get the living room set up, we'll probably move it in there.  Happily, though the fabric is really bright and energetic, it works well in multiple rooms of our house.