I’m splitting today’s stuff because some of it belongs in my Bistro blog, and some of it doesn’t. This does.

First thing this morning (morning of a beautiful day that ended up sunny and 73 degrees, may I add), I finally got sick of seeing my chickadees’ private dining room all cockeyed from starlings trying to get in it, and the chain sliding. I’d got an eye bolt and two lock nuts from work (I asked C), so I just drilled a hole in the top, cut two “washers” from leftover pond liner, and sealed with silicone.

Works perfectly! Now I just have to make more goor-met suet.

Other than the crazy ones that peeped out in December, I was concerned about the croci, but they’re working on making their way to the surface.

Hyacinths are doing well, too.

I’d poisoned some bush honeysuckle last fall, and most of it appears quite dead, but one bunch started putting out leaves. I got a crowbar…it’s not going to be putting out any more leaves. 😀

P.S. There was an Eastern Bluebird male out by the feeders. He doesn’t eat seeds, but maybe he came for water? I dunno, but he was welcome!

I’m splitting today’s stuff because some belongs in my Bistro blog, and some does not. This does not.

I got the wall taped off bright and early this morning; still in pyjamas until it was time to actually paint.

I had one coat on by 1000h, and had planned to do another later today, but it was sunny and 73 degrees, so I found excuses to be outside instead. I hated to paint the paper because it was pretty as it was, but once the paint was on there, I was happy with it. I’ll do the second coat tomorrow.

I ended up not needing this, but it’s damned cute, wasn’t expensive, and I’m sure it’ll come in handy someday.

One of my excuses to be outside was cleaning the 55 gallon tank. Between the pressure washer and C.L.R., it came out pretty well. Hopefully the seals are still good; I’ll be just sick if this thing leaks after all of my time, effort and money!

I also got gung ho and trimmed the glass tops. They were, in fact, not tempered, so they didn’t shatter, and now they fit!

Dremel knock-off and diamond cutting wheels. I could have paid someone to cut the glass for me, but since I did it myself, I have both the experience and the tools for another project…and there’s always another project!

Well, not really, but it is “more of the same” because I took the afternoon off today to work on stuff I’d already started.

My rocks are…getting there. They’ll never be pefect, but they also didn’t cost even half as much as resin would have, and they’ll be good enough to put around pond plants on a mini-island.

I trimmed the wallpaper at the ceiling (been putting that off, but it actually went quite well), and then caulked the corners and edges (lines that look dull are caulked). Latex-acrylic caulking dries fast–2h to painting–but I’m going to leave it overnight, just to be sure.

Tomorrow morning (I hope), I’ll tape off the ceiling, corners, and baseboard, and I’ll put on the first coat of paint. While that’s drying, I’ll get out my pressure washer and the C.L.R. I got a couple of weeks ago, and see what I can do with the 55g tank. I got the 50lb bag of “Torpedo Beach” sand for it today; the 20lb for Cliffie’s Walstad tank and the rest of the 55 came earlier this week. It’s light, but I think I’d rather have light sand, reflecting light that I’m paying for, than dark sand absorbing it, even if dark substrate does tend to make fish look nicer. Anyway, it’s pretty, and with green plants, I think it’ll be fine.

I took the afternoon off because I was dying to test my glass cutter and work on rocks.

The only piece of glass I had to test was the door off the old entertainment stand. It didn’t take long to figure out it was tempered.

I got the textured paint a day early, so I worked on some “rocks” for the pond island. Carved with a Fat Max saw, brushed with a wire brush to shape, sprayed with a flat black base coat.

Added brown, grey and russet textured paints. I’ll sand this with 60 grit paper to remove any loose bits, then spray on a thin coat of granite textured paint, and a matte top coat. I’ll glue them to the island with black expanding foam.

Since I couldn’t work on glass, I groomed my plants, repotted a bunch of them, washed them with insecticidal soap, finally hung up the sconce pot, and installed the hook for the Pot From Hell. I took a panoramic picture, but light was poor, and I don’t have it fixed to put on here (too wide and wouldn’t be useful because width is limited in my blog). Anyway, I did accomplish some stuff, and P came home very early with his new glasses frames. I paid for them as a Valeversary present, though they were under warranty and only $19.95. I didn’t know that when I agreed to buy them, though, so I guess it still counts!

What do buttercrunch lettuce (presumably seeds), flowers, mealworms, and a wire brush for an angle grinder have in common? Me.

I started getting nest material ready to put out for my birds. I washed the cat hair that I’d saved (dunno how well that’s going to work out), and washed about half of the wool I got last year, but too late for nesting season. I’d got a couple of wire-bristle slicker brushes on ebay; less than $1 each shipped straight from China, and used those like wool carders. I’m not finished, but it works!

I also did an experiment with used foam packaging to see whether spray paint would melt it like it would Styrofoam because I want to make a few rocks for my pond island. I bought four 8″ aquatic plant pots and two 10″ pots (couldn’t make myself shell out $15 for a kidney-shaped pot) and want to put rocks between them so it’s not just plain, flat polyethylene foam with pots stuck in it, but fake rocks are expensive, and real ones too heavy. I cut a test piece and sprayed it with flat black paint.

There’s more left; this was used to ship a blower motor; it’s just expanding foam inside plastic.

The only textured paint I had was green, but it was good enough to find out whether it was going to work. I ordered grey, brown and russet textured paint, and some faux granite in “pebble” (grey). I think it’s going to work, and I’ll stick them to the island with landscape foam, or something else that’ll hold up to water. I think it’ll look cool.

Not completely finished, but I put up the shower curtain and put the rugs on the floor!

P thought of these all on his own! Italian crystal wine glasses, an electric wine bottle opener, and a wine chiller. I love them!

Finally! Perfect? No. Good enough for me? Yep!

I took this when I wasn’t quite done, but I was running out of daylight. The new stuff looks darker because it’s still wet, but the stuff I put on last week looks pretty good.

I caulked the seam and corner of the dry stuff with paintable acrylic latex caulking. Makes it look nice and “finished”, and will also keep that weird little jog in the edge of the paper (cut to accommodate the east wall window frame edge) from being a weak point for humidity around the fish tanks.

Done! Wallpaper paste feels like snot, and it’s worse when it’s cold, but the awful, shiny, peach-flowered wallpaper is gone, and the vile 70s stuff beneath that, and the horrific navy and turquoise beneath that, and the ugly, baby shit yellow paint beneath that. Gone. It’ll be a week before I can paint, and I’ll need to use semi-gloss because of the tanks, but I think it’ll be pretty.

I didn’t trust such large holes to only backing paper, so I got some mesh drywall tape and went over them again. The bottom one made the biggest mess, but fortunately for me, drywall compound is easy to sand.

Oh, and since I’m redoing the wall, and the tanks look like shit right now, I finally broke down and bought canopies and decent plant lights for the 55g. Since I wanted free shipping from Drs. F & S, I got a canopy for Cliffie’s tank (the new one I haven’t bought yet), and then got him a double-tube light so he can have a planted tank, too. It’s not warm enough yet to buy the plants, but at least I’ll be ready when it is! I’ve got fancy sand in my Amazon cart, but haven’t quite decided to make the purchase yet. If I’m going to use my points on it, it’s damned well going to be something I like!