Visionbedding.com- A Customize Look

Being in the remodeling mode, I have been looking at my eldest son's bedroom and thinking that I may need to revamp this room too. There are holes in the wall from darts gone astray and black basketball imprints where my son was too lazy to get up and use the half court outside.

One website, Personalized Gifts and Home Decor Vision Bedding.com offers some real neat products where you can customize your teen bedding with your own artwork, digital pictures, or designs. As an artist, this is an exciting alternative to buying the run of the mill comforters in the store. Not only do they have bed sets in different sizes but they do blankets, pillow shams and duvet covers. Starting prices are as low as $49.97. They have fantastic examples of every possible theme from sports to wildlife to abstract design.

My mind is just a whirl with the possibilities I can do with my son's bedroom. I am looking at faux painting techniques for the wall and now I can go to visionbedding.com for a customize look for his bed. How cool is that!

The Verdict is In

The results came back from the lab. The carpet was negative. The linoleum in the bathroom specifically the glue- positive for asbestos. I was hoping for two negatives but if one had to be asbestos, then I am glad it was the latter. My husband already tore out the carpet so contamination would have been rampant. The bathroom floor is still intact and at my insistence will remain so until we get ready to install the new flooring.

I just don't get it. My husband is a scientist so I am wondering why I have to keep explaining to him that there will be serious consequences if this asbestos is not taken out correctly. I know when he took samples to be sent to the lab, he did not take all the precautions necessary and I think it is because he just didn't believe we had an asbestos issue.

In fact, the contractor and the owner of a local flooring store had told me originally that since my house was built in the late 70's, I didn't have to be concerned about asbestos being in my house either. Is this a man thing?

I use to work in a lab and had to deal with phenol, xylene, and propylene glycol which by the way is an ingredient in some of our foods, lotions and other products that we use. These are toxic carcinogenic chemicals that I had to work with on a daily basis so I used a hood because I did not want to inhale any of these things.

My husband is a researcher and works with herbicides. He's very comfortable with them and deems them safe since he's done the chemical residue studies on various crops. I know he is careful when he is out spraying but I think it is this mentality that is contributing to his lack of concern over the asbestos.

We have respirators and spray suits and have read about safe removal so I know we are capable of taking out the asbestos ourselves but you can bet your bottom dollar that I will make sure everything will be done by the book.

What I Can Do For the Earth

It's been bothering my conscience for a very long time. Everything I do is contributing to the detriment of the earth and I need to make some serious changes to offset this.

I was just watching on PBS, a National Geographic program called Strange Days on Planet Earth, "Dirty Secrets". It was about different species of animals dying from mysterious illnesses or other unknown causes. Researchers investigated and found that the causes lead directly back to us. Bacteria linked to sewage that had been dumped into the water was causing serious diseases in fish and had the potential to wipe out 50% of the population or more. What was especially horrifying to see were baby albatrosses that had died because their guts were swollen with plastic garbage. Apparently the currents from the ocean were carrying tons of garbage from our coastline and putting it out thousands of miles in the middle of the water where it floats forever. The plastics will take hundreds of thousands of years to disintegrate. Adult albatrosses hunt for food in this area and they were bringing back the garbage to feed their young. The documentary showed scientists pulling out old pacifiers and plastic beads from young bird corpses. It was sickening to say the least and heartbreaking for sure, but it is not just the birds that are being affected. The fish and sea life beneath the ocean are being greatly affected in detrimental ways too. It made me sit up and take notice.

It has been a slow process but we have been converting all of our light bulbs in the house to the energy saving flourescent ones. We, of course, have been recycling paper, glass and aluminum but unfortunately, we can't recycle most plastics. Our thermostat was set to 64 degrees through the whole winter. I about froze to death but our heating bill was a lot lower. There was a time we were composting and I am definitely going to go back and do it again to reduce our garbage load. I'm also buying some cloth shopping bags so that I do not have to use plastic at the grocery store. Driving is a big problem. I consolidate my errands so that I can do it in one trip but living in the country makes it difficult to conserve on gas. We need a new vehicle next year and will be looking for a gas efficient model.

Since I have been remodeling my house, I plan to save all my old doors, windows, and two by fours and give them away to someone who can refurbish and use them .

I also want to pay attention to the products I use. At present, I am using all green cleaners in my house so they won't add any more toxicity to the environment. I just learned about bioplastics where potatoes can be turned into plastic silverware, carpet, fabric and recyclable plastic bottles. The UK and Japan have already been using this technology. Cornstarch can be used to make styrofoam like products too. The beauty of these are that they are biodegradeable, toxic-free and recyclable.

Each person, whether they want to or not, makes a big negative impact on the environment. I want to do what it takes to lessen my carbon footprint and just think if everyone did a little bit, it could make a huge difference.

Faux Painting

I just finished the base coat on my small bathroom. It's a light yellow shade. Now I am going to attempt to do a faux technique and cover my walls with burgandy, 2 shades of beige and maybe a green color too. I am using a kit that I had ordered. I saw the original demonstration on Youtube.com. They had a sponge palette of 5 different glaze colors that they loaded and put on the wall. Then they had another pad to blend the colors in. The results were spectacular and seemed not too complicated. You can get the rag, sponge, color washing, marble, brick and etc. effect. The site is called Murals and Faux Painting, Inc. I took some before pictures and will show you the after shots.

Ran Out of Paint

My toilet tank cracked in the middle of the night and started to leak. Luckily, I was awake and heard it so a big flood was prevented. Now we don't have a toilet in the small bathroom. I decided to start painting since it will be easier to do the wall without the toilet in but I ran out of paint. I am going to have to make a run to Lowes tomorrow.

Also had to find a toilet replacement that was not going to take 8 weeks. We found one but it's a slightly different shade than my sink. We ended up buying a sink too so that they would match.

I sent in my carpet and linoleum samples for asbestos testing. Let's hope that my house is asbestos free.

The joys of remodeling.....

Aloha Friday #28

I was over on Kailani's site, An Island Life and just participated in her Aloha Friday. Post a question on your blog, leave your link below, and visit Kailani's and other blogger sites to answer their questions.

What do you do for relaxation?

Usually, I read or paint or remodel my house.

Asbestos Paranoia?

I have been trying to convince my husband that we may have an asbestos problem with the old linoleum. Unfortunately, my husband already has removed the carpet and pad in the spare room and the carpet pad was glued to the sub flooring. I have been reading that asbestos could have been used in that glue. Am I being paranoid?

Our house was built in 1978. Around that time, asbestos was banned in some construction materials but these still remained on shelves and were sold. It is possible for even houses built in the 80's to have used asbestos products in their walls, tile glue, insulation and etc.

Asbestos is a group of minerals that are found in nature as bundles of fibers. These can be separated into threads and are resistant to fire, heat and chemicals. Because of these qualities, asbestos was used in many industries.

Problems arise when asbestos containing , for example, linoleum is sanded, scraped, or sawed during the remodeling process. It causes the release of tiny microscopic fibers into the air. Inhaling these fibers can cause scarring and inflammation to the lungs (asbestosis), mesothelioma (cancer) and other asbestos related health problems. Symptoms may not show for 10-40 years.

I would like to get some samples from our house tested by an EPA approved lab. My husband thinks I am overreacting to the situation. My friend's mother was diagnosed with mesothelioma. She and her husband had done some remodeling of houses over several years so I feel that there is a cause for concern here.

My main worry is for my kids, not for myself as they could develop symptoms of asbestos related diseases in just a few years and have their lives cut short.

Since my dad was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and his brother too, we also have a possible genetic predisposition that would make my kids perhaps even more susceptible to asbestosis.

I just found this out, unbeknownst to most people, asbestos is still in wide use today. There never was a total ban on it. EPA attempted a stricter ban in 1989 and it was over turned.

Can't Catch a Cat

My cat has been having an eye problem the last few days and I decided she needed to see the vet. I have been trying to clean the eye but my cat has not been very cooperative. I set up the appointment for 5:00 yesterday. Sage was in her bed in the garage, I barricaded the cat door so she could not escape. I called my husband home from work to handle her as I have to limit my exposure to cats because of allergies. She immediately spread her legs out making it impossible for him to get her into the pet carrier. Then she clawed him and managed to escape out the cat door. I don't know why he didn't use cat treats to entice her into the carrier instead of manhandling her. Unfortunately, he didn't wait until I was free to help.



She came back a little later and wanted to be petted but it was too late to take her in. We will have to attempt a cat capture another day.

Payperpost

I finally was accepted by Payperpost. The whole process took a little over a week. I had tried a few times before but was rejected because of not having enough posts and probably because there were google adsense ads on my blog. I finally removed all of that, got a custom domain name , added a lot more posts and got the word today that my blog was approved.

There are over 50,000 bloggers already on Payperpost and more joining daily. It is the largest site for sponsored content around and requirements to join payperpost are:

Blogs must be at least 30 days old with 10 posts.
You can accept 3 opportunities a day but the posts have to be preceded by a non sponsored post.
You choose the opportunites you are eligible for and then have 6 hours to write and post on your blog. Posts are then reviewed and hopefully approved within 72 hours. If not, you have the option to edit and resubmit the post.
In 30 days, your post is reviewed again to make sure that it has not been removed and then payment is made.
There must also be disclosure of paid posts somewhere on the page.

While you are waiting for blog approval you can add the payperpost direct widget to your site. Advertisers can contact you directly and basically hire you to write about their services or products. Minimum is $5.00 per post or you can set your price as high as you want.

Payperpost is very user friendly and already I have several opportunities available. I am excited to be a "postie".

Selling Off Girls Boutique Inventory

I still have a lot of new Gymboree, Indygo Artwear, Rosalina, Anavini, Lipstik and other boutique brands available in my Ecrater store. I will lose my storage room as it will be part of the master bedroom once I get the remodeling done. I am trying to sell off all of my girls boutique clothing and educational toys. I have some Mamas and Papas, Zome, Made by Hands, and Cmetrick puzzles left. Until the end of April, I am offering an extra 15% off of all of these items. They are already heavily discounted. You will have to let me know that you saw the discount on my blog and I will paypal invoice you accordingly.

Mom's Weekend

I just came back from Mom's Weekend at the University and it was fun. There were a ton of activities scheduled for the occasion. We went and saw a craft show, viewed grizzly bears that the university was studying and I also wanted to see the vet college where they had a bunch of booths with various animal clubs. Managed to obtain some freebies like dog and cat food samples, leashes and frisbees. On display were raptors like a peregrine falcon, golden eagles, and a screech owl that had been injured from car accidents or shootings and could not be released back into the wild because they were blind in one eye or permanently injured in some way. Made it to the Art Exhibit and saw some unusual moose and caribou paper mache heads covered in beads and other fascinating materials. Then we hit the movie, "Leatherheads," too to round out the day.

It was great to see my eldest. I do miss him but he will be home for the summer in a few weeks. I baked him his favorite, peanut butter cookies and brought some healthy snacks for him too as he will need them studying for finals. Not too much longer!

So Many Choices for Remodeling

Went shopping for shower bases,tile, hardwood flooring, and paint and stopped at Lowe's and Home Depot. I usually do a lot of shopping at Lowe's just because the location is a lot more convenient. It's next to the mall and it's on the main drag through town. This weekend, however, we decided to stop at Home Depot on the other side of town. I was amazed at how much inventory they carried. They had a big selection of engineered hardwood flooring and bathroom fixtures. I was very impressed. Right now it's just chaotic trying to decide what colors to go with, sizes of tile, laminated vs hardwood or engineered hardwood flooring and bathroom fixtures. There are so many choices.

I wanted a shower base that we could tile over, my husband doesn't. They are pretty expensive but we have really hard water even with a water softener and I thought a plain base would show the mineral deposits a lot worse than tile. As a compromise, we are looking at sandstone bases which come in different colors and in granite patterns. They are a superior product to fiberglass but are about as pricey as the bases you can tile over.

On the flooring, I am getting conflicting feedback on engineered flooring vs laminated. All the sales people say go with the laminated hardwood. They sell the most of that particular product. Our contractor said to go with the engineered flooring because any little bit of moisture is going to cause big problems in the laminate. My brother had laminated flooring in and it started to buckle then chip. He replaced it with engineered hardwood and is really happy with it.

It's so confusing and I just hope I pick the right products that I will be happy with as we are going to have to live with these decisions for a very long time.

Tagged by Melinda

I was tagged by Melinda from melindazook.com so I chose to do the 7 random things about me:

1. Green is my favorite color. My bedroom furniture is green. My living room is green and the outside of my house, barn and garage is green.

2. I meow to my cat everyday and she always responds and I am just amazed at how smart she is.

3. I watch reality shows more than the TV sitcoms just because these are real people reacting and not something that's been scripted and that is what makes it fascinating.

4. I like bugs and will go out of my way to save them rather then squash them. I have saved many a spider by letting them out the door.

5. My dog likes to be brushed and so I try to do it at least 4 to 5x per week.

6. I exercise about 5 times per week and can't survive unless I get that time in.

7. I enjoy being at home with my kids. I am busier then ever but at least I am the boss of me instead of someone else!

I don't usually tag others but this time I think I will tag:

It's A Woman's World
Open the Door
Leaf Float Down River
Sosuna-O-Lata

Ballroom Dance Class

Tonight is my ballroom dance class and I am looking forward to it. We are going to start the Salsa and that is a dance I have not learned. This is the 6th class that we have taken so far. We took one back in college less than 30 years ago, then last year we found out dance classes were being offered nearby. So we signed up for three 6 week sessions. This year, we are on our second session. Our best friends also signed up and that has made it so much fun. We have learned the Swing, Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango and Cha Cha.

The only problem is that if I don't practice dancing every week, I tend to forget some of the steps. One variation starts to blend into the other and then it's gone. Senior moments, I guess. Every session we review what we have learned over and over again but it is still easy to forget things. The benefits are that it gives me a lot of exercise and what is wonderful is that my husband and I can continue to do this into our twilight years. We've gone to some ballroom dances where 80 and 90 year olds were out burning up the dance floor. It was really sweet to see and hopefully our hips, legs and knees won't give out and we will be able to last that long too.

Making Old Furniture Look New Again

The contractor came and went. He said he was tied up for about 4 to 5 weeks so I was a little bummed as I was hoping he could start sooner. As it is my house it totally torn up and I have 3 rooms full of junk in my living room and my son's bedroom.

To save money, I decided to refurbish my old bedroom furniture. It was starting to look it's age, after about 20+ years. The laminated wood was looking terrible and I decided that I would paint it and give it a new look. I have 2 night stands, a dresser and a chest of drawers. I am also going to do the mirror and the headboard too. After much trial and error, I decided on thyme green for the main color. The walls, I think I will rag in two different beige colors. Anyway, here are some photos from start to finish:







First I sanded the surface, then use two coats of primer and finished with two coats of latex satin paint. I painted some ornamental grass as the design in the beige paint that I will use on the walls. I am a little concerned about the primer as it is supposed to stick to expecially slick surfaces and I found it not to be sticking as well as I had hoped. However, after the latex coat was on, it seems to be holding up well. We will see how much wear and tear it can tolerate.