Day 13: Is a home really the most dangerous place

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 13: Is a home really the most dangerous place

From the moment we step outside, we are on guard for potential accidents. Auto collisions, pedestrians getting hit by moving vehicles, potholes, loose stones, stairs, falling objects and more.

Some of these accidents, if severe enough are published in a newspaper, an online site or they are even screened on TV. But what about the accidents that happen at home? They do say that a home is the most dangerous place.

The Living Room

Quite by accident, we found a Chippendale end table. It was a little too big for the intended spot, but the color matched our existing furniture so well that I didn’t hesitate to buy it. 

What a mistake that was. I can’t tell you how many times we stomped a toe against one of its legs or banged a knee on one of the corners. In the end, beautiful as the end table was, it had to go. For its replacement, we bought a round table. It’s small enough not to pose a threat to our toes and its round edges are much kinder to passing knees.

The Bathroom

When Margaret redecorated her bathroom, she went to Home Depot and chose beautiful baby blue glossy tiles for her backsplash and floor. The salesman who helped her mentioned that while this was a great choice for a backsplash, it was far from ideal for a floor. 

Because of the glossy finish, the floor would become extremely slippery when wet. Margaret paid no attention, she loved the baby blue tiles and to hell with the consequences. 

It took exactly four days for Margaret to slip and fall on her baby blue tiles and end up with a navy blue knee. She promptly had the baby blue floor replaced with non-slip rough texture tiles.

The Kitchen

The most dangerous place in any home is the kitchen.

Fed up with a nearly blunt potato knife, Betty made her way to Canadian Tire and picked out a new knife. Come lunchtime, Betty started peeling potatoes and subsequently slicing them in half. 

Unfortunately, Betty (used to putting effort in slicing a potato) put too much oomph in her action slicing not only the potato but a section of her hand between her thumb and index finger. Eighteen stitches later Betty came home and threw the new knife in the trash. She told me that the attending doctor had quite a laugh when she told him what had happened.

A doctor had quite a laugh with me too. Yes, I had an accident in the kitchen too and the culprit was not a slippery floor or a knife, it was a can of pineapple.

A can of pineapple you might wonder. Indeed. Dieter and I had gone grocery shopping and when we came home we started unpacking the bags. Dieter crouched in front of the fridge while I placed items on top of the door. He reached for the items and placed them in the fridge.

Everything went fine until I placed a can of pineapple on the door. The can slipped off the door and landed with its rim on my socked left foot. Jeez Louise, the pain … I can’t begin to tell you how much pain that 500 ml can caused me.

When I was able to move, I hobbled to the lounge where I fell in one of the chairs. When I removed my sock I was greeted by a rather large bump on my left foot …

A few days later, the blood in the bump spread to the rest of my foot and now my foot looked like this …

No bones were broken, but walking was rather uncomfortable. In slippers mind you, because I couldn’t get into any of my shoes.

On the upside, I didn’t need a bone density test because this accident had proven that I have very strong bones.

The Bedroom

Well, we won’t go there but I’m sure quite a few accidents have happened there too. Not in my bedroom, but in general.

Day 110: A Visit to Home Depot

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 110: A Visit to Home Depot

Now that spring has finally sprung in Toronto, Dieter and I took a trip to Home Depot to buy flowers for the balcony. It’s a trip that I love, although it’s also a bit frustrating. There are so many flowers to choose from, but that I can’t have because many them are toxic to cats. Since I put safety before beauty I stick to petunias.

The petunias were on special actually with a sign that said ‘2 for $11’. I couldn’t believe my luck, two whole trays for $11! As it turned out, the sign was a bit misleading. It wasn’t two trays for $11, it was two baskets for $11 and each tray contained three baskets.

In addition, we also bought two hanging baskets with petunias, a basil plant (because I love, love, love basil), two tomato plants and potting soil.

Total cost: $135.

Before leaving Home Depot we also looked at a new chandelier for the dining room. The chandelier we have in the dining room now is beautiful, but a big pain in the you know where. It’s one of those crystal chandeliers with lots and lots of bells and cleaning them takes hours and hours.

First, the chandelier has to be disassembled, then I wash the bells in hot water with detergent, then to give the bells their shine I rub each individual one with lemon juice, and then the chandelier has to be assembled again. Like I said, it’s a pain, so we decided to look for something else.

While Home Depot had a number of nice chandeliers on display, none of them actually stood out. A few of them were very nice but were made up of crystal bells, and I’m not falling for those again.

Next, we wanted to look at ceramic tiles for the kitchen and balcony. Dieter found some very nice tiles for a reasonable price, but before buying, he would have to measure both areas to know how many square meters we need to cover.

While in the tile section, we also looked at backsplash tiles for the kitchen and that’s where I got into a spot of trouble. I saw some beautiful white and blue glass subway style tiles and got all excited because the price was a mere $5,99. I was all ready to put the tiles in the trolley when Dieter took a closer look. The price of the tiles was not $5,99 per box, but $5,99 per tile. Oh, well that changed things a bit.

It got better though, before leaving Home Depot, I went to look at the kitchen displays. With the first one I saw it was love at first sight: beautiful white cabinets, a generous granite sink, drawers that smoothly opened and closed, it was a dream. I looked at the price tag and saw $2,000. Hm, a bit expensive for six cabinets and a sink.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” I turned to Dieter.

“It is,” he nodded, “but way out of our price range.

“$2,000 isn’t that bad,” I said. “It looks like really good quality.”

“$2,000? Mom put your glasses on,” he said. “This kitchen isn’t $2,000, it’s $20,000!”

Since I couldn’t believe that this kitchen could cost that much I dug into my bag for my glasses and had another look … Dieter was right, these six cabinets and sink were indeed $20,000. OMG!

A cab took us home, we lugged the flowers and soil upstairs and placed everything on the balcony. The soil on the ground, the trays with petunias on the ledge and the baskets on hooks in the ceiling.

And would you believe it, Halley was scared of the baskets. More than just scared, she was petrified. She was fine with the soil and immediately rolled around on the bag. She didn’t mind the trays with petunias, whom she sniffed. But the baskets … oh no, she wanted nothing to do with those.

Dieter picked her up to let her get acquainted with the flowers and … oh no, she struggled to get out of his grip. 

Fortunately, her fear didn’t last long. After only a few days she realized that those flowers meant her no harm and now she quite okay again to go out on the balcony and enjoy the sun. She loves to roll around on the floor and would you believe it, her white coat stays spotless. You try doing that in a white outfit …

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Is it a good idea to do it yourself?

My family are big believers in DIY.  Our motto is … “If you want something done right, do it yourself”.

It started with my grandmother who used to wallpaper and paint.  She was so good at it, she quickly became in demand among family and friends.

My mother made most of our clothes.  Nobody could ever tell the difference between her creations and store bought items. 

When our house was built, my father dug and prepared the foundation.  Dad had done such a good job, the builder said that this wasn’t just a foundation for a house, it was a foundation fit for a fortress.

When my ex and I bought our first house, it was only natural that I tried my hand at wallpapering.  Of all, grandma claimed there was nothing to it.

That wasn’t quite right.  I struggled so much with the first strips of paper and the glue that I nearly pasted myself to the wall.  When I’d finally hung the strip, I noticed it was upside down.

Over time it indeed become easier and along the way I also learned how to paint, do flooring, install a back splash and do minor repairs around the house.

My son took an interest in DIY projects from a very early age.  If I remember correctly, he was only 6 when he handled his first paint roller. 

He gradually took on more and more tasks until eventually he wanted to try his hand installing hardwood flooring.  It would be his DIY exam.  Unfortunately he failed miserably.

Perhaps it wasn’t his fault.  Perhaps it was the poor quality of the boards and the lack of decent measuring and cutting equipment.

He had watched a couple of videos on YouTube and installing hardwood didn’t seem all that difficult.  It was a matter of laying down the boards, clicking them into place and voila, that was it.

Sadly for Dieter it didn’t go so effortlessly.  The boards didn’t click and there were gaps.  Dieter, ever the perfectionist, got very agitated, had a couple of one-way conversations with the good Lord and great Carpenter in the sky and eventually threw in the towel.

To cut a long story short, we called on our neighbor, a contractor who has done flooring (and other projects) for a good number of years.

The first thing he asked was “Where did you buy the flooring?”  When we said “Home Depot” he grunted his disapproval.  In his opinion, what we had bought was nothing less than crap and the number one reason why Dieter’s work was less than perfect.

He took us to a specialty store, guided us to the wood section and then left us to pick a color.  The first thing I noticed was the thickness of the boards.  The Home Depot boards were barely 8 mm thick, while these boards were 16 mm.  In addition, the color was better and the shine was better.  Yes, the new boards were a bit more expensive than the Home Depot boards, but this was really quality flooring.

Which brings me to another thing my family is really good at … speaking in phrases.  One of my parents favorite sayings was … “Goeie koop is dure koop”, meaning, buy it cheap and it will turn out expensive.  

Next Monday the new boards will be delivered and the works can start all over again.  Until then, our place looks like a bomb hit it, and due to lack of a proper bed I’m sleeping on the floor. 

Pictures of the project to follow …

$2,000 faucets

It started so innocently.  My son saw beautiful faucets in Home Depot that were on special … $59 down from $99.  Unable to resist a bargain he bought them and brought them home.  Little did he know those faucets were about to cost us close to $2,000.

The first problem arose when the new faucets didn’t fit the current vanity table in the bathroom.  Oh well, the table was old and in need of replacing, so why not go for a new cabinet?

Off we went to Canadian Tire to have a look around.  We saw reasonably priced vanity tables, complete with a sink, but … they were rather small and I didn’t particularly like the design.  

So, we went for a separate vanity table.

Of course, now that we had a new table, we really should go for a sink as well, so … off we went to look at sinks.

It didn’t stop with the sink of course, we also bought new lighting and a new mirror.

When the vanity table and the sink got installed in the bathroom yesterday, we hit a snag … the piping didn’t fit.  Since neither of us are qualified plumbers we had to rely on a professional.  $210 later, the pipes were connected.

Everything look great.  The new vanity table, the sink, the lights, the mirror … except, now that everything looked new and improved we really should finish the job and go for a new floor.

Off we went again to Canadian Tire to look at floors.  I liked simple, square white tiles, but could have those.  According to the sales person they were not suitable for a bathroom, because their shiny finish would make them slippery when wet.  To cut a long story short, we found a nice tile that wouldn't have us slipping and sliding all over the place.

Of course, now that we had chosen a floor tile, we needed cement and grout, a bucket to mix the cement in and tools to spread the cement, a tile cutter, spacers and a sponge.

Were we done?  Yes, we had everything.

At the checkout point something caught my eye … a washing machine.  It looked so cute and was so reasonably priced.  We needed it, it was a nice deal, so … what the heck, why not?

So, all in all … if Dieter hadn’t gone for the faucets, we wouldn’t have needed the new vanity table and sink.  If we hadn’t gone for the new table and sink, we wouldn’t have gone for lighting and a mirror.  Neither would we have needed a new floor.  If I hadn’t seen the floor, I wouldn’t have seen the washing machine.

$59 faucets that turned into $2,000 faucets … oh well, the bathroom needed renovating anyway.