He fits. He sits.

Someone dropped off a basket of cookies at the station the other day. We all enjoyed the cookies, and I snagged the woven wood basket.

Like this, but with less flowers and more handle.

It's nothing fancy, but I thought it would be a cute fall piece, and that Mr.Beans would like sitting in it. True to form, ~2 seconds after it walked in the door; he checked for fit. Spoiler: good fit, he sits.

I had to wake up much earlier than normal for work today, and Beans was NOT pleased. He loves sleeping in (after hopping back in bed from an early morning jaunt to the kitchen for breakfast).

The 'not getting out of bed' face

Mr.Beans is a sleepy guy in general:

sheepskin on the porch couch?
loves it

new chair?
quality assurance testing in full swing

fluffy blanket snuggles?
all in

mom just got back from out of town?
insta dog cat pile
that happy little smooshed face.....adorable

So this morning when I had to be up early, he begrudgingly crawled out of bed and redeposited himself in the new basket over where I was getting stuff together in the front hall:

eyes. don't. want. to. open.

 Navy thought I was crouching down to hand out treats and ran over to get some. Always the optimist.

No treats, just picture taking.
Thanks for the photobomb.

I'm glad Beans looks comfy in the basket, another recent fits-n-sits attempt seemed a little too snug:

next size up, please

Oh Mr.Beans, you are a silly guy.

-Lindsay

Recent Projects - from the Land Where Nothing Ever Gets Finished

As is pretty clear: new posts have been MIA lately.
I blame a lack of time, a bad habit of not finishing projects, and my constant failing to take some damn pictures of the things I do get done!

Below are a few of the projects I've been working on recently, in no particular order.
As I get my $h!+ together and finish them up, I'll post a rundown on each.

• Mounted my TV on the wall.
- Getting rid of the massive entertainment center and putting the tv up on the wall has totally changed the living room.

Makes my living room hotel-sexy.

• Worked on screening in the back porches.
- Started on this in the spring, and when it got hot outside I got lazy. 
- Came back to it his week and discovered a roadblock I'll have to overcome with a bit of rework. But, progress is being made.

Patio progress. Catio creation.

• Reupholstered 3 old office chairs for use in the dining room.
- Related pattern (chevrons) and color (pinks!).

$5 each, and now all sassy.

- And made a bunch of coordinating pillows.

Modeled by the glamour-puss.
Meee-ooow

• Customized and hung a new dining room light.
- Changed my original plan from this post, but the result is close.

Real pictures to follow.

• Refinished a mid-century modern dresser and converted it into an entertainment center.
- Waited forever for the right piece to come along, and am trying to keep it classic enough to do Don Draper proud.

This was an exercise in patience and high # sandpaper.
I cant' wait to be finished and show you more. It's crazy gorgeous.

• Picked up a couch and two chairs from Craigslist and skinned them for their leather.
- Then washed and conditioned the heck out of it.
- Then made a purse out of said leather.

Lots of oiling. And shooing away cats who wanted to lick up ze oil.

• Received a used OTR microwave from the BF's parents to replace my broken one.
- Pictured below is die kaputt maschine. Mounting is in progress for the new-to-me zapper.

Best looking appliance when I moved in: only one that totally didn't work.
'Best' being SUPER relative.

• Mounted my grandfather's antique tools.
- For display and ease of use.
- Progress has gone at the same (snail's) pace as setting up the office/second bedroom.

Aaah. Love, love, love this project.
More to come!

• Relined an antique humpback trunk from my grandmother.
- Removed the old lining and blitz cleaned 40 years of dried mold. During which; the house smelled kind of good, in a granny's-basement sort of way.

Creative fabric manipulation 101.

• Played florist and created all the flowers for a friend's event.
- Tons of happy flowers to honor the passing of her beloved aunt.

10 arrangements, 2 Xl altar pieces, and a 24' broken heart.

• Found and shined up some old silver pieces.
- Sunday afternoon thrift store browsing.
- $20 in my pocket got me both of these AND a bangin smoothie. #winning

A good deal + a little elbow grease = not-so-shabby chic accent pieces.

• Turned a retired firefighter coat into a throw pillow cover.
- Will be a wedding present for a fellow firefighter, made from his old coat.

The most ridiculously complicated 'easy' project ever.

• Made a fuse box cover.
- Out of leftover paint chips from picking my wall colors.

For an ugly eye-level fuse box.

• And spent some quality time with my favorite furry guy.
- Like all good animals, anytime his person is on the floor for more than 10 seconds(dining room chair upholstering, in this case); it means PLAYTIME NOW.

He managed to get himself stuck in a bag handle and dealt with it by flopping over and looking cute.
Good call, actually.

One of these days I will find the missing hardware, cut the last piece, install the whatever, take a picture, or write a post about each of these projects. In the meantime, they are already improving The Cabindo, half-finished states and all. 

At the end of a recent post, John from Young House Love touched on being content with a home in-progress. I'm accepting that more and more, and it helps that most of my big projects are to the point that I don't have multiple construction zones 24/7. Home feels like home when I get there, rather than a to-do list. Theres still plenty to tackle, but I'll get there eventually.
My wallet surely appreciates the lul. Though it feels too long since I've last seen my buddy Mary at the Home Depot paint counter.....

-Lindsay

The Kitty Loo

I'd posted before about my grand plans for getting the litter box out of the house. Turned out, the execution of these plans was much simpler than I'd anticipated. Score!

I started by priming and painting the toy chest with some leftover paint.

Action shot! First one I think. 

I then read the directions for the cat door at least three times. They didn't make much sense to me, but I decided to jump in and blindly follow along. First up drilling some holes:

Measure, mark, drill, take picture.

Then, using a jig saw to cut from hole to hole.

I love me a jig. Dance or power tool.

Attached the door, plopped down a plastic container that fit (I stole it from the pantry and now have one shelf in UTTER DISARRAY. Or not.), and put in a mat to catch errant litter.

Directions worked! Behold the Kitty Loo

I ordered a patio pet door, which took two weeks to arrive and came broken in a million pieces, thanks to the huge footprint on the box about 2 inches under the 'Fragile' warning.....smooth move UPS.
Luckily I had enough random stuff on hand to macgyver a pass through for the cats which doesn't let too much air in or out. I am SUPER glad that it's held up for a couple weeks, as the temps have been hovering around 100, and the second door doesn't get here for a few more days. If it arrives broken again, the macgyver door will have to last even longer. And UPS will be getting a good amount of in-person flack. I aint afraid of no ghost brown shorts.

Packing blocks + Gorilla tape + plastic bag = cat door play toy

"Imma stick my paw through here and see what happens...
Attack!! Ah! I did NOT see that coming!
Oh wait. Yes I did....
let's do it agaaaain"

In the winter, I will make some sort of a connecting tunnel between the box and the door opening. To ensure there's no smell or errant litter in the house, I'd really like to avoid putting the box right up against the door opening. We shall see.
I thought I'd have to do a similar tunnel year round because of one cat's allergies, but he seems totally fine with the setup thus far, and probably just didn't do well to whatever pollin was floating around before.

Moral of the story: you cannot smell the litter box inside at all anymore, whether it be a new 'present' or the scent of the litter. Praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster



-Lindsay

Hide the litter-box plans

Even 'cat people' hate litter boxes. I don't know about crazy cat ladies, I don't associate with any....wouldn't want it to rub off.

I have been trying to figure out the best and least stinky/dusty/grit on the floor way to have my cats' litter box in my place. Ideally, I would get a sliding door pet insert and put it out outside.

$137 at home depot

The box would be off in a corner during any non-freezing cold weather. My test run of this plan was foiled by little man Mr.Beans who has acute allergies, asthma, and cystic fibrosis (among other health issues), and instantly reacted badly to so much time out in the pollen filled air.

a bad Beans day. the ears say it all.

He does ok with open windows from time to time so, I'm going to have to make a more enclosed outdoor solution that prevents him from lounging out on the balcony for hours on end.

It needs to look better than the setup above, as it will be visible from inside and not hidden away in a garage that I don't have.

nice s*%t box

I've seen some Ikea hacks, but ultimately, I was waiting for a cabinet to materialize in a cheaper manner than buying brand new.
My upstairs neighbor, who was renting and is moving out, threw an obscene amount of stuff in the dumpster yesterday, including a great toy chest I am now scheming on how to use for a cat box.

just like this, but without handle holes

I am both thankful for the bounty I found next to the dumpster and her impending absence. She was not very friendly or considerate. While we all can appreciate Billy Joel from time to time, she would blast it at 3am on a Tuesday in her bedroom right above mine, and screech along loudly with a friend (notable quotes I could hear from above 'I must not be good, cuz I didn't die young: I'm old and still aliiiiive!'). This is just one example in a battery of charming behaviors involving various repetitive loud noises, perma-junk/trash on her front balcony, and offensive incessant smoking. But I digress and will put away the hater-ade for today.

I'll use the chest in a similar manner to this Ikea hack, but with the lid opening on the top:

Fatum Kitty Loo

I'd like to perhaps make the back wall plexiglass to allow more light into the box, but will experiment before cutting a big hole for that in the actual box.

Other than that, all I anticipate needing is some paint: to shine up the scratched n dented outside/seal the inside from potential out-of-box incidents, and a cat door

Pet Door, $20 from Home Depot

So it'll be a pretty nice little project, I'll go to Home Depot, maybe trim out the thing with pallet wood, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.

Frank