No words needed for this cuteness.

New backsplash brings back Contac paper memories
Maybe I’ve overloaded on home redecorating television lately. Or perhaps I’ve been spending too much time admiring my neighbors’ kitchen repainting and tiling project. At any rate, I decided it was time to cover my kitchen’s mottled gray laminate backsplash with something less mottled, but much less expensive than my neighbors’ pretty but pricey subway tile.

I started researching ideas on the internet and first found self-adhesive synthetic trimable tiles that could be ordered from a manufacturer in Canada. But they were quite pricey, difficult to determine their color and, most importantly, my trusted contractor/friend had never heard of them. Then it was on to the usual building supply stores to see if I could find any other alternatives. I even looked at Contac paper, which was very limited in design.

Then, while roaming the aisles of Target, looking for inspiration, I found some self-adhesive rolls of wallcovering that looked, well, like more sophisticated Contac paper. There was even a blue and white striped design that would complement my refaced beadboard kitchen cupboards. And for less than $25 per roll, it was worth a try.

I used to be a bit of a Contac paper aficionado back in my early-apartment days. I used it mainly to cover stained shelves and drawer interiors, but had never attempted anything as large or as visible as a kitchen backsplash.

The key is to measure carefully and leave enough length for trimming with a razor. Then, as the paper is applied, the backing can be smoothed off with a ruler or yardstick to minimize bubbling. I started slow with about three feet of backsplash surface to make sure I liked the look. And I liked it so much that I finished the project in just a few hours over a few days.



You can't have too many stripes in your kitchen.

The only tricky part was matching the stripe pattern when adjusting the adhesive around the stove and outlet covers. But otherwise, it was a pretty easy application, requiring just one roll of the adhesive, and brightened up my kitchen considerably. I even hung a couple of cute 88-cent fish plates I found at Target over the stove.

 
One thing leads to another, however, so now I’m swapping out my black metal/wood kitchen set for a white one and plan to add a couple of white bar stools to improve the view of the new backsplash. Now if I can just figure out how to get rid of the mottled gray laminate countertops . . . .                

                                    

The 'rooms' of summer:

mow, mow, mulch, mulch

The advent of spring into summer gives me four new rooms to decorate for warmer weather living – the front yard, the back yard and two side yards. Moving the indoors outdoors brings a “rug” of grass, a picnic table and all-weather chairs and accessories ranging from a variety of florals to lots of green plants.

Since this is only the second summer in my cottage, there’s still lots to do in decorating the outdoor space.  And the overarching theme is “you never can have enough mulch.” There’s something about finishing garden beds and those odd spots around the yard with the rich brown mixture that says, “I have conquered the weeds.” Especially since I place the mulch plastic bags under the mulch to really keep the pesty weeds at bay.

This season, I really focused on furnishing the room on the south side of the cottage, since it had basically been ignored. A kind neighbor gave me some ferns and my mom is always generous with plenty of her hostas for transplanting. I also added some lilies-of-the-valley to the existing lily population and finished the room off with a small floral banner, two hanging impatiens pots, some small stepping stones, rock borders and the requisite mulch.

Voila – the side room is done!

The other side of the house is my dining room, dominated by a large picnic table I bought last year. This year, I added a new umbrella over and an indoor/outdoor carpet under. It is my go-to spot for breakfast with a good book and hopefully many meals to come.

The front and back rooms continue to evolve as well. I’m mulching out some new perennial beds and adding rock borders. Then there is the mole tunnel erupting helter skelter in the backyard. Since I started feeling bad about exterminating these creatures, I’m trying to convince them to relocate elsewhere with a castor oil spray. Supposedly, it will repell them as they search for worms and grubs. We’ll see, but hopefully not more tunnels.

Other spring/summer wildlife is emerging now, so I’ve added a birdbath and bird feeder in the back. In addition to a wide variety of small birds, there are rabbits, ducks, geese, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks and even the occasional deer and a family of foxes in the neighborhood.

So as I mow, mow, mow and mulch, mulch, mulch, I need to remember to sit back and enjoy my additional rooms for the warmer months. Because, yikes, the Christmas decorations have already at Hobby Lobby.
         

Recently Read:

About memoirs, royalty, France and home making

 

- My Brief History, by Stephen Hawking

- Someday My Prince Will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess
- The Making of a Royal Romance
- The French House
- A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life
- Happier at Home
- The French Don’t Diet Plan
- The Tulip & The Pope
- Not That Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham
- Then Again, by Diane Keaton
- The Tao of Martha: My Year of Living, or Why I’m Never Getting All That Glitter Off Of The Dog

Pass the thyroid and break out the cat food, or how retiring will just have to wait

I used to believe the old adage about retirement being the “golden years.” I envisioned sprawling out in one of those cottagey Adirondack chairs with an iced tea, a good book and a nap in between. Well, I have two of those chairs, albeit the plastic version, but have yet to really sit down in them. And napping isn't really happening.

Today for example, the morning began at the crack of dawn with a wake-up call by my dog yipping to go outside. This generally means she needs to eat grass and vomit and today was no exception. I always tread carefully first thing in the morning, looking for hairballs or other surprise deposits by my three elderly cats.

The old girl still likes a milk challenge.

Then it was on to pet feeding and medications, all with a specified order. First, the largest cat with pancreatitis gets the less costly of two prescription cat foods and awaits his meal in his designated spot – my bedroom. If he meows after his first meal, he gets a second helping of the more costly food. The youngest of the cats, a notoriously poor eater, gets fed in the bathroom. Some days, she will eat on the first try, but generally I have to offer two or three different foods before she will eat. Then, it’s time for the dog to eat in her kennel so that I can feed the third cat without the dog grabbing her food. Today, doggie is not hungry due to the aforementioned vomiting, but she still needs to be locked up.

 

Then my oldest (18) and most frail cat gets her food, with quite a lot of coaxing. She likes a powdery substance I sprinkle on her food for joint pain, so the mornings are usually easier. Other times, I have to offer other food choices and, just lately, roast chicken and sometimes pet her while she eats. Since it’s a Monday, she needs a chemotherapy tablet to try to keep her bladder cancer at bay. I have to wear a surgical glove to avoid getting any of the chemo on my hand, but at least she usually swallows it without too much trouble. Lots of treats afterward help. She also gets a potassium substance rubbed on her gums three times daily. And, I typically have to help her with post-litter box hygiene every now and then, because she sleeps on my bed most nights.

The two female cats also need a thyroid supplement twice daily. One will take it in a handy pill pocket, but the other one has to be pinned down while I attempt to throw it down her throat. I take a thyroid supplement too, with far less effort.

During this routine, I text my daughter about her nearly-two-year-old daughter, who had come down with a fever while we were returning from Mother’s Day festivities the day before. We negotiate back and forth about childcare, as my daughter needs to go to work but apparently feels I will catch the bug if I come over. I remind her that I’m not old and frail and was already exposed the day before, but she ultimately decides the child’s father is a better option.

I then hear it’s supposed to rain by 11. Since my backyard looks like a hayfield, I decide to quickly walk the dog around the block and then do the mowing. I also catch up with my neighbor who had arrived home at 4 a.m. after being temporarily stranded on a flight in Texas and another neighbor who is going through some health challenges and who I want to remind that I am there for her.

Lawn mowed, I do two errands for my mom – mail out a book donation to two libraries and buy a razor. I find one that I think she can operate, with a big on/off button she can see even with her macular degeneration. And I pick up some photos my daughter ordered for a wonderful photo album she made me for Mother’s Day. During the day, my phone stays at the ready. My daughter and I constantly “talk” this way and share photos through texting and I stay in touch with other friends and my daughter in Italy through email. How did we ever exist before the constant “binging” of this contraption.

I try to eat my meals while either reading or watching the news, and my book of choice currently is “Not That Kind of Girl” by “Girls” star Lena Dunham. I don’t have the level of cable coverage I need to actually watch her show, but in my opinion she kinda is that kind of girl I would expect for a 20-something.

After lunch, I get a medical update from the neighbor with health challenges and it’s quite positive following a doctor visit. I am happy for her and suggest my usual celebration of any good news – a visit to our nearby ice cream/coffee shop. We’re hoping for tomorrow, when it might not be raining. The ice cream is severely interfering with my ability to get into my size 6 and 8 summer shorts, but who can resist a little celebrating now and then.

Cleaning the three litter boxes each afternoon is not exactly my favorite job of the day, but it helps keep my dog away from her disgusting poop eating habit. Plus, if I’m lucky, I’ll get enough clean urine from pancreatitis cat to check for any diabetes issues on a human test strip.

That’s about it for now. It will soon be time for the evening pet feeding, checking in with everyone electronically and “Dancing with the Stars.” Oh, and I have to try to finalize plans for pet care when I hope to go on vacation for about two whole days later in the month. I had to cut it short by one day because my vet tech caregiver wasn't available. 

 

As I sit here on the edge of my chair, my elderly cat is taking up most of the seat cushion but purring contentedly.  So retiring to the Adirondack will have to wait. I think I’ll spoil my dinner with some ice cream.

At least KD didn't require any Easter dinner. 

April Fool's Day from the sofa

I hosted an unexpected visitor to my family Easter eve dinner this year, a big, boxy arrival by the name of KD Graphite.

It all began a couple of weeks ago, when I optimistically decided that a new sofa would be just the right finale for my spring cleaning. My existing sofa, a queen sleeper, would be much more at home at my daughter’s house, where a sectional couch was way too much dominating her living room. Plus, the fold-out bed would help with her occasional overnight guests.

I naively assumed it would not be too difficult to find a basic brown sofa in a city once known as the furniture capital of the nation. I was wrong. Driving around to the few furniture stores left after economic downturns and big-box competition, I discovered two disconcerting facts:

 1. Inexpensive sofas are not intended for comfortable sitting and the colors and fabrics offered are less than ideal if you’ve got three cats and a dog who shed.

 2. Expensive sofas are, well, too expensive and often too big and fancy for a casual cottage.

So, I began online shopping for my sofa. I figured I could assess comfort by reading customer reviews and would just have to take a leap of faith that the color depicted onscreen would be accurate.

I wound up at Walmart. They had a lot of sofas in my price (cheap) range and also offered free shipping. My eventual choice was a button tufted sofa in a color called coffee. As I love to drink coffee, this seemed like a natural fit. The sofa was also offered for nearly $300 more on Amazon, so I figured I would be getting a good deal.

Well, maybe.

Order placed, I received an email letting me know that the sofa would arrive before April 1. That’s April Fool’s Day, which should have been a tipoff.

I then received a call from the delivery company that transports Walmart products locally telling me that the sofa would arrive on April 1. Still in time for my Easter festivities but, again, April Fool’s Day.

Bright and early on the appointed day, the sofa arrived. I should have listened more carefully when the driver told me the most common issue with such deliveries is that the wrong color gets dropped off.

The sofa arrived in one big box and as I dragged it from the garage into my sunroom, I noticed that the box was labeled “KD Sofa Graphite.” Uh oh. Opening the box, I discovered that not only was the sofa gray and not coffee but that it was also the wrong sofa. Completely incorrect.

So I called Walmart.com customer service. The representative was very apologetic and refunded a handling cost of about $40. My main question was, can I get this thing out of my house before my guests arrive for Easter eve dinner? He said he would start the process for getting the correct sofa delivered and that the delivery company would receive directions to pick up the incorrect one.

The only thing he neglected to tell me was that it can take several days for the delivery company to receive the directions.

Meanwhile, I received an email where I needed to confirm that I was returning the incorrect sofa. Only problem was that the incorrect sofa listed was actually the correct sofa that I had ordered. So I had to call customer service again, explaining that I was very confused, because it appeared I was now returning my coffee sofa. The representative assured me that their paperwork showed that the wrong sofa was delivered, but admitted “if I didn’t work for Walmart I wouldn’t understand this either.”

I decided to give it one more try to get KD Graphite out of my house before Easter so I called Walmart.com customer service again and was again told that it would take several days for the shipping company to receive the paperwork. They refunded another $40 or so for my inconvenience. Which didn’t exactly get the big box out of the house.

So now I’ve decided to just wait until the correct sofa arrives before KD departs. Might take a week, but who knows. Maybe I could ask Walmart to just let me  donate KD to my daughter.

April Fool, that’s me.

Postscript (and kind of a long one), but at least it's not lost in transit
Well, as it turned out, KD really wore out its welcome. Optimistic that the boxy intrusion would be gone before a second weekend, I received an email from Walmart confirming that my coffee sofa would be delivered on a Friday.

But this was a very suspect assertion, as I hadn’t heard from the delivery company. When I called them, they said the sofa had just arrived at their dock and wouldn’t be leaving for my house until after the weekend. Oh, and they had received no request from Walmart.com asking them to pick up KD.

So, thus ensued a more than hour-long call with a number of employees at Walmart.com., all who told me that my original idea – to send KD packing to my daughter’s house – wouldn’t work because they needed it returned. No exceptions. The final person I spoke with gave me a 30 percent discount on the sofa I had ordered and shortly thereafter the order to pick up KD mysteriously arrived at the delivery company.

Along the way, I really wanted to email the CEO of Walmart.com to let him know that his organization could use a healthier dose of employee empowerment. But not only was his email address not available on Walmart’s website, his own employees didn’t seem to have it. One employee suggested I Google him to try to locate it. Huh? Isn’t this guy your boss but you’re asking a customer to Google him?

Anyway, everything seemed set for a Monday delivery. It was the 13th of the month, yet another unlucky number. But I was pretty confident that it was time for "coffee" and that KD would finally be evicted. 

It didn’t take long for Walmart.com reality to rear its ugly head. During the weekend, I received an email ordering me to return KD by May 1 or I would be charged for it. Well, that wasn't very nice, considering I'd been trying so hard to get it out of my house.

But the grand finale in this comedy of errors came from some hapless employee informing me that "coffee" had been lost in transit, with a refund for the entire amount being processed. My response to the email was brief but to the point: “Lost in transit? It’s being delivered tomorrow.”

And sure enough, the sofa arrived bright and early. I was relieved to see “coffee” written on the box because it meant that it was likely the correct sofa. And I was delighted to bid a not so fond farewell to boxy KD.

But I needed to call Walmart.com yet again to let them know that there was no lost sofa, just a few lost minds. I knew to ask for “Tier 2” customer service, which is apparently where the snafus go. Just as I suspected, when the sofa wasn’t delivered on Friday, coupled with KD being picked up at the same time, it had short circuited Walmart.com’s inefficiency process. Or, as Mr. Tier 2 explained it, when an employee saw that the sofa hadn’t been delivered on Friday he or she assumed it was lost in transit. Who could have imagined that a delivery AND a pickup could actually happen on the same day! 

But aren’t there notes on all the screw-ups, I asked Mr. Tier 2. He muttered something about reminding employees to read the notes before issuing refunds. Then he huddled with his supervisor to figure out what they should do. That turned out to be another partial refund for me, plus I haggled for a $65 gift card.

Which brought the amount I paid for the sofa to around $50. Which would have resulted in far fewer missteps if Walmart.com had just agreed in the first place with my proposal to send KD to my daughter’s house. But hey, they made $50, which will probably be just about enough to tape up KD’s box again.



Sofa, so good

At least the new sofa arrived with no damage and I put it together in about 15 minutes. So far it is holding up well, but I’m keeping all the paperwork in case it ever decides to become lost in transit. And as for me, I'm pretty sure Walmart.com and I are never ever getting back together. 

 

 

 

    

Good reads while waiting for the thaw

It has been a chill winter, but the library has been mainly do-able in the deep freeze. Here are some recent good reads as I wait for the river to thaw:

 - A memoir by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Didn’t know much about her, but infinitely impressed by her lifelong zeal to achieve and make a difference as a mom, grandmother, lawyer and politician.
 

- A memoir by Sonia Sotomayor. This Supreme Court justice definitely had quite the life in her extended Puerto Rican family and obviously made the best use of her brilliant mind along the way.
 

- A memoir by Oksana Marafioti. This is a story about growing up in a Russian gypsy family and the related challenges in adapting to American life as an immigrant. While adopting my daughters in Russia, I would often see gypsy adults and children begging on the streets, and this narrative explains their cultural heritage.
 

- The “chocolate mystery” series by JoAnna Carl. Set in west Michigan, these fun books revolve around a chocolate shop and crimes that engage the owners, ready or not. Chocolate recipes and chocolate trivia make these books a definite escape from the winter doldrums.