I have been mulling over what I want to do in my hallway. Its average width but it has the circuit breaker box there and it’s an eye sore. I thought about covering it with a picture but it would need to be pretty honkin’ big and would look out of place. You would also still be able to see the box cover because it’s a hallway. I also thought about a shadow box with a little depth so it would be flush on the wall, but I don’t collect chach-kas so what’s the point. It would be too kitschy.

The best thing to do is to hide it in plain site and use it as part of what you are creating. A mural came to mind. I have done that before. It took days, and although I loved it, I will not do that again.

Then I got the idea for a picture wall. Lots of pictures all over the wall with tons of low profile frames. The collage of rectangles might hide it and then I realized I STILL cant cover it because I can put a picture nail in the metal cover. I mean… its metal…what sticks to metal?

MAGNETS!

Once I figured that out, the rest came into place. I would paint the entire wall with magnetic paint and then paint it again with a nice wall color and get a ton of magnetic picture frames to stick on the wall. Since they are magnets it will be easy to swap out pictures just like people do on a refrigerator.

I went to the store to get the paint and was appalled that it was 18 dollars a quart and it only covered 16 SQUARE FEET! Doing the math in my head, I figured the entire wall, which was small, would still cost about ninety dollars to do with the undercoating alone. That’s too pricey for me, so I only bought one quart and would tape off and area and cover as much as I could. The resized area I wanted was about 35 square feet. Resigned to get two quarts, I still only got one and was please to see how far I could stretch it. I have paint to spare so I may enlarge the area yet.

To finish the area off, I got the idea of hanging a digital picture frame on the wall as well. Its nestled among the other pictures and is high enough that people wont bang into it when they walk down the hallway.

I have not painted the top coat yet because I think I’m going to use the rest of the magnetic paint on the wall to make it as ‘sticky’ as possible because I can see some of the frames curling a little and I’m concerned because the paint is black and any top coat will take away from the magnetic quality of the wall.

Personally, I think the wall is a success. At this point no one has swapped out pictures (Perhaps because I don’t have the extras near the wall yet) but people walk to the bathroom and stop to look and then become entranced watching the slideshow of the digital picture frame. I think its cool that people hang out in my hallway. It has made good use of a space designed only for travel. Now it’s a living piece of my home.

(F.Y.I. – The title is a quote from the movie ‘House Bunny’ that has become a long standing private joke that makes me laugh)

The apartment is almost done and I have done it for pennies on the dollar. I have one or two more items to get before I’m done but I can honestly say the place is really livable and guess what? I now have to start getting rid of items that are taking up space.

This is an exciting premise. Its time to cast off and clean out the clutter. The boxes with stuff I couldn’t do anything but keep in storage and this stuff stayed there for years. It has not seen the light of day since I moved here so why do I need it? I’m sure there are items like pictures and memories in the mix but I find, and this is true with most peoples clutter, that’s its 80% garbage and 20% stuff you want to keep. I once had a basement so full that I couldn’t walk in it. So I applied the two year rule.

If I haven’t needed it for two years, it goes.

Think about it: two year old clothing?  Is it out of style or does it not fit anymore? Either way I know of a very few people who can wear clothing they have outgrown. They never go back.

 Lamps, desks, chairs…. Why keep it? There is no need unless they are a family heirloom and then they should not be hidden in the basement only to get moldy?

So I’m thinning out this and next weekend. Its spring and I think I will find someone to have a garage sale with. Between us we should have enough stuff to draw some attention.

Speaking of thinning out, so am I. I recently started the 12 second program created by Jorge Cruise. I’m now cruising into week three of it. Its for people who want to sculpt and are in relatively good health. I fence, I skateboard, and I am active in everything I do with exception to work because I’m a desk jockey. This can be a problem at times because I don’t get up and move about for long periods of time.

I think I hit my all time high weight three years ago at close to 200 pounds I had cheap scale so I never could tell, but honestly I didn’t want to know. It just happened. I was really doing nothing different but getting fatter. My knees hurt, my back was sore, and clothing didn’t fit.

I changed diet a bit and dropped a lot of weight. The shape of my face changed and I got my chin back and I kind of yo-yo between 180 and 185 with a few dips below that when I try to drop down to my ideal weight. I have never been able to keep at it consistently because it required too much work and not enough background in health.

This is why I like the 12 second program. It has an eight week program with 16 routines and its only 2 times a week and with cardio every day. Its 20 minutes a day and since I have a gym at my apartment, there is not rain, cold, or dead of night that gives me an excuse to stop.

I am at the end of my second week on Sunday. However I am floored at this point for a few reasons.

1) I weighed in yesterday at 175.2 pounds on a good scale. That’s how much I weigh. I have never been that weight in 15 years and I know I will drop more. 177 was my best and I was starving. I’m 175.2 and FULL. The difference is exciting.

2) I can see a physical change. I went to scratch my head while sitting at my desk and my arm stopped short. Just a tad. It ‘bounced.’ Now, I scratch my head a lot Its what I do when I think. This is a repetitive movement. What did my arm bounce off of? MY ARM. I HAVE A BICEP. WHOOOHOOO!!. It’s a tiny difference but it still is muscle growth and strength. I was pretty please with myself. And then my Girlfriend came over and gave me a hug and was like, what’s this? HOLY CRAP YOUR BOOBS ARE HARD! (Yes, she called them boobs. They really aren’t ‘boobish’ but they certainly are not pecks.) It was nice to have someone else notice the change and that was after three workouts and 9 days. It was given as a the perfect compliment because she knows how embarrassed I get. It made me laugh and then told me my biceps were HUGE! Hence the title of this blog. And then big kiss followed. life doesn’t get better than this.  

NINE DAYS! The full program is 8 weeks long and the routine is easy to follow. I eat healthy for the most part and have pizza and buffalo chicken sandwiches now and then, but honestly I have not changed what I eat. I can wear 31 inch pants now.  I’m far from perfect. Fitting into the pants doesn’t mean that the muffin top is gone, but at least its not 33 or 34 inch pants with a muffin top. The possibilities excite me.

Let’s see what spring cleaning does for me. Its time to shed a lot of garbage in my life.

I decided to develop an eating schedule. I’m a bit tubby right now and soft. By tubby, I mean I’m overweight, not obese. +10 pounds, give or take on any given day. I also am a desk jockey, which means I don’t flex the muscles I should. Shame on me.

Now I know I can’t start everything at once or it will be too much of a change and I’ll fail. This means I have to take baby steps, or at least little kid steps  

I found a great website where I can track the foods I eat and it logs my calories and activities all in one place; it even gives me a scorecard telling me how healthy I am eating o a daily basis and over time.

http://caloriecount.about.com/

I have spent quite a bit of time figuring out what I eat and don’t eat on a regular basis. When you get past all the spices, specialty foods and condiments I really come down to my core foods

Chicken, Kidney Beans, Black beans, rice, tuna, eggs, carrots, peas, bread, tortillas, and a variety of pastas. I was surprised to see just how basic my food intake was. There are a few secondary items like cheese and fruits and waffles, but I generally don’t eat them more than once in a week, if that.

I started out with a daily menu but realized I was wasting a lot of time making food every day and wasting energy because of it.

So yesterday I not only cooked up dinner, I cooked up a plan. I boiled four pieces of chicken for two different meals I was planning. The first was Chicken Alfredo, and the second was chicken pot pie. I used the broth to soak beans and rice overnight to use them for the next day. I boiled spaghetti and added peas and carrots to some chicken stock for flavor. I froze the rest of the chicken stock for another day. I made the chicken pot pie from scratch, with the exception of the cream of chicken. And I cleaned up all the cooking dishes before the pot pie was out of the oven. It took about an hour in total.

Here is my shopping list:

·        4 pieces of chicken

·        ½ cup of brown rice

·        ¼ cup of black beans

·        ¼ cup of kidney beans

·        2 cups of flour

·        2 cans of cream of chicken soup

·        ¾ cup of bertoli’s  Alfredo sauce

·        1 cup of frozen peas

·        1 cup of frozen carrots

·        3 serving of spaghetti

·        1 stick of butter

The chicken was frozen and I got 6 pounds of it from SAM’s Club for 10 bucks. My guess is that was my big ticket item at about 2 dollars. The rest of the food cost about 3 dollars combined.

I broke the food up into regular servings, based on how much a person SHOULD eat, not CAN eat. And took a tally of complete meals that I made. All of them have carbs, veggies and protein, even if its not super-duper healthy, I still made it myself, so at least I know that it’s healthier than buying it pre-made.

How many meals did it make?

Fourteen.

That’s about 35 cents a meal and it’s not Spaghetti-Os.

Next week, I will use the same items and make all new meals for some variety.  I wonder if I can improve on the food model. And get my cost under 20 dollars a month?

We’ll see.

As chance would have it, I managed to get an older desktop computer for the boy’s room two days ago. It’s a Dell Dimension 3000 and will work just fine for homework and basic internet access. I’m not a fan of on-line gaming because I see how much time it takes out of people’s lives in a negative way and even though I spend a lot of time on the computer for work, and even for random goofing off and connections, I still try to get out a lot.

I spent a marathon day refurbishing the computer while I was working from home. It’s not that hard. XP takes about 90 minutes to install and most of the time you just hit enter 2 or three times. The rest is just waiting. It’s the same with everything else. It took about 10 hours to do and since I was linked to the desktop and my laptop is mobile, I decided to work in the really really green room all day.

It was very warm and fuzzy feeling in there and I found that when I walked back into my office over the course of my day I realized how cold it is in there. Not physically cold, just emotionally cold.

Now I know I want to hang my movie posters in the office and I have not because I don’t have the correct sized picture frames to put them in and I don’t want to use push pins. After all, it’s my place and I can be stubborn. But the walls… I never realize how emotionally cold they were.

The boy’s room does not have as nice furniture as the office and it certainly looks less finished than the office, yet I seriously contemplated working in there again today.

I guess paint makes a big difference.

So now I have to think about what paint for the office since I spend a tremendous amount of time here. It will have to be in the hallway because the office is really just an alcove between rooms. Large enough to put a couch and a TV, but I have a large executive desk and a bookshelf.

I truly am down to needing only a few things. I need a dresser for the green room and I need some items for my bedroom, which is ironic because it was the highest priority room in my place. I got a bed and nothing else has been appropriate. It has a side table and a lamp, but it really is pretty bare by comparison. I will think about what will work in there.

Just another day in the life.

I saw this post on Craigslist last week and decided to head out there since it was around the corner from a friend of mine. I didn’t know what to expect and I wanted to check it out before lugging stuff down there. I have made mistakes like that before.

What I found was a really nice group of people trading things they didn’t need for things they did. I didn’t get there in the first hour but I plan to next time. I will also bring some chairs and other furniture because people do need things. There were so many items that we had a lot to donate to the Rescue Mission afterwards.

Food not Bombs, cooked a free vegan stew and I found a few CDs I wanted. I will look for blankets next because I really need them.

If more people were like these people, the world would have fewer problems, I’m sure. So I’m doing my bit… I’m advertising it for them as well. Go out and see what they are doing. Bring stuff. Help people. Be a good neighbor.

The Really Really Free Market on 4th and Castle

I haven’t had time to write and I’m a bit under the weather right now… just a cold and sore throat, but I’ll take some time to blog about the items the items I have acquired over the past few weeks.

pretty sweet Computer Desk, Eh? it was free!

This is the desk My Daughter and I pulled from the dumpster. Well, in front of the dumpster. Someone wanted it to be taken, so why not us? It’s a computer desk and does not have wheels. Personally I think it looks better without them. I had to reinforce the desk on the side because it wouldn’t stay together. It is solid now, but not as much as I would like. I’ll take more time with it later on this month. It has nothing on it for the time being, although I’m sure it would do well for years without me doing anything. I’m just being anal. There is also a Bamboo shelf in the picture that I got for 5 bucks off of Craigslist a while ago. It used to hold my DVD’s but I have a place for them now. I think with the green paint, the bamboo is a good fit for the room.

This is a longer shot of the room

This is a longer shot of the room. The bed was my daughter’s and not used for years. The mattress was free and only used four times by a grandchild before they outgrew it and moved away. Again… Craigslist.

free TV for video game play and a bit of privacy for the boys

This is a smaller TV I plucked from out of the dumpster. It works and will be good for the kids to play video games on. I will assume more TV’s will show up as the country goes digital next month. I’ll find one that is a bit larger and fits the TV stand better.

The door swing fully back, but i can hide the TV when i don't want to see the technologyNow you see it. Now you don't. TV GONEThe Technology is out of sight and out of mind

This is an armoire I got at the Salvation Army. It is made of real wood and looks handmade, honestly. It was about $100 but I grew tired looking for a TV center people were giving away. I was planning on building one myself anyway so the money s squirreled away went to this one. The armoire I wanted to build would have cost me more in wood by itself.

This shot is the couch I got for free. The lag was broken and I fixed it. The wine rack top was loose and I tightened it was also free. The clock just needed a good cleaning and was from the napping cat for pennies. I think it looks nice.

Once this Chair was welded, it was in better condition than the ogiginal executive chair I purchased many years ago, and it matches my desk better as well!

This is the executive chair that was chucked because the post broke its weld. I tried to weld it myself but I suck at it. I went around the corner to a chopper shop and paid I guy 20 bucks to weld it for me. It works great now, and I have two chairs now, so I don’t need to find one for the boys’ desk.

These chairs remind me of the dining room table from my youth. They may be just as old too.

This is the set of 6 chairs I got in a curb alert off of Craigslist. They need a little TLC, and I would like to paint them but it’s really not necessary… They just need to be tightened down a bit… nothing for free ever is perfect.
My place is now beginning to look like a home and not some random collection of furniture where people keep their stuff on. It took 3 months to get this far and I’m almost done. Then I can even be choosier about what I’m looking for and perhaps give back to the dumpster gods some of my fortunate finds and someone else can benefit from them.

A very good friend and his fiancé gave me a present this Christmas before heading off to visit family. It happens to be a lucky bamboo plant submerged in a complete biosphere. There are two frogs and a snail in the plant and the plant itself is submerged in water and rocks.

Please meet my new friends, Algernon and Duffy, and Dog.

I have always like lucky bamboo anyway, but I have never received it as a gift.

I plucked this from a website (Fastfengshui.com) about lucky Bamboo:

The Lucky Bamboo
Over the past few years “Lucky Bamboo” has become one of the most popular Feng Shui accessories on the market. If you don’t yet have a Lucky Bamboo plant, once your friends and family find out that you are interested in Feng Shui you’ll probably receive one as a gift someday soon. In fact, Lucky Bamboo is said to be luckiest when it is received as a gift. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy one for yourself if you want to, though; just think of it as a gift from you to your home or office…

Bamboo is a symbol of luck and success because of its rapid growth, strength and fortitude. In this newsletter issue’s article, Stephanie shares some things she has learned to ensure that your Lucky Bamboo continues to bring you good fortune for a very long time.

Apparently, the frogs feed off the bamboo, and their poop feeds the plant (technically a grass) and the plant puts oxygen in the water. The snail cleans up the Algae. It s a maintenance free system. Perfect for me.

I also had he hardest time deciding what to name the frogs and snail. It took me more than 24 hours. I didn’t want to be cliché like Kermit or make literary references like Romeo and Juliet. I must admit, I had no luck in picking out lucky names for my new, easy to maintain, family.

It came to while I was buying eggs and butter at the store today.

The two frogs names are ‘Algernon’ and ‘Duffy’, and the snail is named ‘Dog’.

 

Dog is Hidden somwhere, but here are Algernon and Duffy

I have no reason, it just simply felt right.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I have become more actively seeking storage options for as I have begun to get sick of the piles I have in the back room. I had gotten some metal wire shelving a few weeks back in front on someone’s house but the brackets were missing, and when I stopped at home depot, I found them to be a bit pricey to buy outright.

My plan was to go to Habitat for Humanity this weekend and pick up a couple used ones for a 50 cents a piece and put the shelves up. They were not perfect for my needs being only a foot deep, but at least it would get the bleach and laundry soap out of the way. What I really needed was floor to ceiling shelving that was about 2 feet deep and I had been contemplating building them out of 2X4’s. I hated the idea and the look and knew it would cost me cash do it anyway, which is why I have been holding off.

My plans went up in smoke when I had to work this weekend due to the whole system tanking and in need of TLC. No getting downtown, so it would need to wait another weekend.

Then two things happened. Since I work from home and on line I commonly check craigslist for free items I might need. After all my needs are pretty basic at this point. I found two things. Someone was giving away a free armoire and someone had a bucket of used screws and bolts. I called and he said it was mine; I just had to go get it, which is exactly what I did.

When I got there, Adam (the guy who was getting rid of it) showed it to me and I was surprise and even elated. It happened to be a ‘Komplement’ Armoire, which is really portable closet in the best sense.

I knew it would not work for the television; however, it would work very well for the Laundry room. Notice the segway? It seems every time I start to really burn brain cells about what I really ‘need,’ stuff just shows up.

The armoire is the one on the center right with the hanger bar, but it has more shelves. The Nature of IKEA modulare and built to suit.

Now…, there are a few things to know about IKEA furniture. Roughly Translated, IKEA is Swedish for ‘heavy as hell.’ IKEA furniture is also very European. It’s very functional and space mined. There is not one cubic foot of this furniture that is wasted. And since I am trying to make the most of my space, I was elated when I saw it. I initially thought it would be the standard TV armoire that people normally have. I hate my TV and hate seeing it as a focal point for my living room so I jumped at the change to get a piece of furniture to hide it.

It took a while to put it together and I was looking through the last remnants of my odd screw jar to put it back together. That is the second thing to know about IKEA furniture. It’s really easy to screw it up when building it. The people who had it before me had rigged it to work, but it was really shabby looking. One look at the picture on the web and I knew what went wrong. It took about an hour to fix it and now it looks right and I threw away the junk wood they used to make it work. That burned up the rest of my day and I couldn’t make it to Habitat for Humanity. I knew it would be another week before I could get brackets for the wire shelves.

My biggest sense of frustration is not having the hardware to put it back together. When you get stuff for free, there is always something wrong with it. It always needs fixing. It’s always incomplete. It always needs screws.

That brings me to find #2:

A big five gallon pail of used screws. Free. I know what you are thinking. I know what I was thinking.

“If I can get a pickle jar’s worth of screws I can use out of it, I’ll be happy”

When I got there, I was a bit dismayed, but took them anyway. It was going to be work sorting out the junk, but that’s life sometimes. You need to sort through the junk to find the gems.

The first thing I found were the brackets to hold the wire shelves up! YESSSSssssss

That made the trip worth it. Plus it had a lot of screws. I have to set a few hours aside to get it all straight, but the trip was worth it.

Life is just funny that way sometimes.

I have been feeling a little tubby lately… not bad but this last 10 pounds really kills me. I get within 4 pounds of my goal and go right back up. I don’t look bad. Currently 180 pounds and I need to lose ten pounds to lose the little soft belly paunch I have. I really don’t look bad, but I think this scene from American beauty sums it up.

Lester Burnham: I figured you guys might be able to give me some pointers. I need to shape up. Fast.

Jim Olmeyer: Are you just looking to lose weight, or do you want increased strength and flexibility as well?

Lester Burnham: I want to look good naked…

I also know that I have problems with my knees if I become only three pounds heavier. So being thinner will be easier on my whole existence.

It’s also the middle of the month and my budget is pretty thin right now, so what better time to lose the weight!!?!?!

I’m not going to stop eating, but rather, modify my eating for a while. I boiled some beans and rice up the other day and figured it cost me fifteen cents to make the dinner and it filled me up. I will have vegetables and maybe some chicken added for variety, but I think it will be the best way to make my dollar stretch without starving.

I also have started doing yoga in the morning again. My work routine starts early now and I have to be on the ball by 08:00. So now I get up, weigh myself, do yoga for about 30 minutes, make coffee, shower and start work. I want to add running into the mix but at this point I am working on small successes and modifications to my lifestyle.

Change too much and you fail completely

Well, at long last, the bathroom is complete. The accoutrements are not there. I still need a cabinet and a plant and a soap dish among other things, but my assault on the walls is done. I really feel like it has more of a spa feel right now so I’m pretty pleased.

Things to note:

The base paint cost 1 dollar at a garage sale. I happened to see the paint on the table and still had the paint chips in the car to match it up. It was close enough, because I knew I would be putting glaze over top of it. That is the more important step.

The glaze and mix paint cost twenty in total, but I have a ton of glaze left over for other projects. I know how to not waster it now. So I will get at least one more room out of it should I choose to do so.

The last part was to take my old towel rack off and replace them with my new Zen towel rocks… and I do mean ROCKS.

My towel ROCK, not towel rack…. very zen for me and cheap too!

The wood cost fifty-three cents, and the rocks were eight-eight cents. The two feet of copper cost about two dollars and the glue was the most costly at about five bucks with the bolts to hold it to the wall as a close second at about three dollars. I already had the clear lacquer spray to seal the wood and the rocks. I think they turned out well.

They are held to the wall with anchors behind the sheetrock

I took the leftover wood and made two floating shelves out of them. Note that the towel rock is lower than the candle shelf to prevent an accidental fire from starting. I will not be responsible if you do this and don’t think of that possibility in advance.

I also saw a really cool thing the other day…MAGNETIC PAINT!!! Look it up… turns any wall into a magnet board! I can’t wait to try it out.