I Love My Guys!

Time to boast about my guys!!  I love having them around.  Especially the dear hubby.  Just love him.

The weather warmed up a smidge, and my guys were hard at work.

First, Fernando did some research on the Internet and saved us around $900 in car repairs by replacing the brakes and rotors on the Suburban.  *my hero*

The next day,  the guys were hard at work again, pulling out the patio chairs and other outdoor stuff for the back yard.

Someday I'll get in front of them so I don't take pictures of their backsides, lol.

Below is the pool, which we're nowhere near ready to uncover!  It's still c-c-cold right now, even in mid-April, so hopefully sometime in May that job will get done.

Then it was back into the garage to get the bikes down from the hanging hooks.  Love those hooks.  The garage looks messy, but it's a man-area of our house.  So I leave it alone unless Fernando goes out of town.  Like one time last year.  That's a long story; you should go read it, though.  It's a funny one.

Woo-hoo for bikes!

 
I can't wait to bask in the sun in our patio chairs.  I don't care how falling-apart they are (only a little).

And bikes mean spring is on the way!!!

I'm really ready for spring.


Back to life,
Christine

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Sitting Pretty

I thought for a split second I might title this post Clean Your Seat.  But I thought better.  :)

When we remodeled our kitchen, we had purchased four rather expensive bar stools to be placed around our kitchen counter area.  They were microfiber, which the store sales rep told us was so very easy to clean.  I loved the black metal, and the swirly design, and the "easy to clean" sales pitch sewed it up.  We were sold.

Well, the stools lost their ability to swivel cleanly (an issue with the ball bearings inside the seat), but they were still very pretty and comfortable to sit in.  And, the years passed by, and the seats got dirty.  Every now and then I'd clean them with a damp dish cloth, but there'd still be stains left behind.  And after a while, I ceased to care.

Gross, huh?  Well, after all the cleaning and re-organizing we recently did, I took one look at those bar stool seats and decided I'd better spend some time cleaning them.  An upcoming church meeting at our house sealed my determination to clean--even if men don't care about the cleanliness of the space they're in if you put coffee and food out on the table.  :)

Yeah, the stains were bad.  Looking at the pictures, I can't believe I let it get that bad.  Embarrassing, huh?  But I'm usually pretty transparent on this blog, and I'm sure you have some of your own spaces and places in your home that you'd be embarrassed to show me.  So let's call it even.

I remember reading--and pinning--a blog post telling you how to clean microfiber, over at 551 East.  This is not my original idea!  But I thought I'd try her method and see if it really worked.  Read on, dear reader!

I utilized a teenager in the cleaning process--but only after I exhausted my own arm muscles.  First, take a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol in it.  My own spray bottle leaked, so I simply removed the sprayer and put it directly into the bottle of rubbing alcohol.  Worked just fine.

Over at 551 East, Julia wrote that I should use a white sponge, to avoid possible color transfer onto my microfiber material.  I didn't have white, but I had a pink one and a couple other colors, and they were new, so I figured I was game and tried it--no problems!  I think I would have been more careful had my microfiber been light colored, as Julia's was.

I sprayed the rubbing alcohol directly onto the fabric, saturating it (not until it was dripping, mind you).  Then I took the sponge--which I had damped and wrung out--and began scrubbing.  I pretty much scrubbed the entire seat, though I missed the sides of the cushions at first.  You'll see that below.

When my arms were dead tired, I engaged Thomas' help.  Please don't rest your hand on top of the seat you have just cleaned, as you see Thomas doing below.  He left little finger-shaped marks on the seat and we had to clean it again.  :/

While Thomas cleaned, I enjoyed a cup of coffee.  Yes, I usually fill it to the brim.

Here below is my first effort with the first chair.  You can see the dirty areas on some of the sides, which I later cleaned.  And another note:  rotate your sponge so that you're using a clean section, and once that gets dirty, rotate it again.  Or simple rinse it out really, really, well, and continue scrubbing.

I was seriously amazed.  I couldn't believe I had new-looking chairs again!  The reason rubbing alcohol is used instead of water is its ability to dry quickly.  And since I decided to clean the bar stools on the same day as the men's meeting, I needed them to dry quickly!  I placed one in the patch of sun coming through the patio door, then rotated the chairs around.  Within just a few hours, they were all dry and ready to be sat in once again.

The smell of the alcohol didn't really bother me, but if that's something you'd rather avoid, put a fan out, or open the windows if the weather is nice.  The smell dissipated quickly, so no worries about it lingering around for guests.

Looks like a new bar stool, doesn't it?  I'm so tickled that this method works.  And I read that I can do this once a month.  I don't know that I'll do it that frequently, but maybe just as needed or at the change of seasons--spring and fall cleaning.


Back to life,
Christine

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This DOES Compute!

After removing the train table from the basement and into the garage, we tackled the next project on our list.  We had talked about it for a while, but since we were on a roll moving stuff, we figured we'd go ahead and get it done.

A few days after the guys had come to visit and move the train table, they were back for another afternoon of guy time together.  I walked into the room and casually asked them if they'd like to do another project for me.  I asked with a smile.  And they agreed, without even knowing what I was about to ask them.

Yep--it was more moving of heavy items.  Except this involved electronics, as in--the family computer.  The very old family computer.

First, they removed all the books from the adjoining bookcase.  Then, under Danny's direction, the got the computer equipment and all the other stuff in the desk taken down.  It really was a mess!

Doesn't life seem like this photo below?  I know sometimes mine seems like a tangled mess.  But the Lord is ever faithful, and when I leave it in His hands, He guides me every step of the way.

I think this was the point my regular lens quit working again, so this is the best shot I could get.  Well, Danny thought he was in the way, so hid himself from the camera.

Here's a better shot of the corner where the computer desk would eventually stay.

Danny spent a lot of time getting the comptuer up and running, while I got the books back into the bookshelf, and the stuff back onto the shelves of the desk.

There's still mess on the floor in the above image.  But not in real life!  Everything has been picked up and put in its place, and the front living room is now a spacious study.  The family room, where the computer desk used to be, is now a spacious room, with the seating arranged to facilitate conversation and family time.  I really like the set-up, and I'll take pictures of that room soon.


Back to life,
Christine

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Choo Choo and Out It Goes!

A few years ago, I cleaned out and organized a large chunk of our basement.  Part of that project included dealing with the train table.  We decided to tip it on its side so we could maneuver around our space.  This is where the train table ended up:

The rest of the area in the above image got cleared out, and we had a clean space once again for our "bomb shelter."  We placed buckets of grains--rice, beans, wheat--behind the massive table, along the wall.  However, it was difficult to maneuver behind that table to get to the buckets to get the food items we needed.  We left it that way for many months, until...

Jacob was home from college on his spring break, and Fernando determined that it was indeed time to move the train table out of the basement and into the garage, so that it would be accessible to be further removed.  Y'know, as in--gotten rid of.

We asked buddies of Jacob to come by, we'd feed them pizza, and they could spend about 20 minutes helping get the massive piece up from the basement.  They agreed.  (They'll do most anything for food.)

Because it was built in the basement, the table was tricky to get up the stairs and down the hallway.  But our guys are pretty innovative, and they figured it out without nicking a single wall.

Um, yeah, that's Thomas tromping through the March snow.  Goofy.

Picture of the cleaned-out "bomb shelter" to come soon.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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More July Frisbee

It's funny how I finally got caught up with blog posts, then I went on vacation and am a month behind again.  I wonder how that keeps happening...

Anyway, we delayed our leave-on-vacation day and so the guys got to play Frisbee.  It has been fun trying my hand at sports photography!  Here are just a few highlights, subtitled when I felt like it.

My Danny

Oops.

Thomas doing what he's good at.

Goofy Jacob

I love this shot of Thomas, who just made another block.  It's a little blurry, but his pose and expression are great.

Back to life,
Christine

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Put Me to Work!

April 29.  A work day at our home.  First, though, we said hello to the squatters...

...then waved goodbye when they flew away.

Then we got to work.  Well, let's just say the guys worked and I documented it all with my camera.  Little by little, we've been laying down newspaper in the walkways of my raised bed vegetable gardens, then laying grass clippings on top.  This way, we have a soft pathway to walk on, and the boys don't have to figure out how to get the lawnmower into the garden and up and down the walkways.  It takes a lot of grass to fill in the walkways, and even after two years we're not done with every path.

Fernando was a sweetie and pulled the larger weeds while Jacob followed behind him with layers of newspaper.

Look at my surprise lettuce, grown up from seeds planted last autumn!  I've been enjoying this throughout our early spring.  It makes me happy just to see it growing in my garden.  :)

The squatters waited patiently on our neighbors' roof while we worked in "their" back yard.  ;)

Thomas diligently weeded the beds.

At the end, some weed-whacking remained to be done, but otherwise, the gardens were ready for compost and plants.  I was one very happy gardening lady!

Back to life,
Christine

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