Summerizing!

Today, after I finished the series of artist books workshops, I paid some attention to the home front.  Since the temps suddenly went up to the 80s, it clearly was time for summerizing.

The attic fan kicked in several days ago, so I had to climb up and remove the solid panel I put in the opening over the winter, and replace it with the screening one I created to fit.  

And while I was climbing anyway, put back the sail in the window, now that the window has been safely replaced.  Just two tension rods, piece of striped fabric slotted through, sways in the breeze, nice.

Down two flights, I decided to get my cabana on, and a neighbor kindly noticed my getting out the stepladder and nipped up and installed the two hooks for me, and hung the newly threaded canvas up there.  I stapled it down the sides against the wind, and it was done.  

And I had to search to find my lovely blue solar light, which has been safely indoors away from renovations and snow, and neighbors borrowing ladders and tools and chucking them back into the storage area with energy, and is now re installed out there.

Least scenic, but most vital, on the patio, I dug down, removed leaves and debris and riddled out the condensation pipe for the air conditioning.

For reasons known only to them, the builders made this pvc pipe (not the metal one you see sticking up, that's different) emerge from the house wall several inches below grade, thereby assuring that it would rapidly fill with debris, back up, and cause flooding indoors...maybe they had an arrangement with plumbers, come to think of it.

As you see, I made a sort of French drain with screening to protect the opening, and rocks to mark where it is and keep the screening in place. Every year I dig it out and re do it, after a winter of earth and leaves drifting into the pipe.  

Like many of my inventions, there's a definite Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson (hands across the ocean) touch. But they do work.

We are now Officially Summerized around here. And now I'm thinking about a bit of house painting.  

I like the half and half wall effect I did on the stairs, since the main needy area was the bottom half of the wall, and the contrast looks pretty good. 

I may do a similar thing with the downstairs bathroom.  Paint from the middle, more or less, downward to floor.  This will cover a lot of areas that could use it, while sparing me the task of emptying out all the art from that miniature gallery.  It's at least eight years since I got all the towel rails in the house replaced with ADA-compliant grab bars, and I still have not painted the resulting patches on the wall. 

You do know this is a good idea? not to fail to paint, I mean to replace towel rails with grab bars? installed by a real contractor who knows what they're doing. Since people if they fall in the bathroom instinctively reach for the towel bar to break their fall, it's good if it doesn't tear out of the wall on their way down.  You don't have to be old and decrepit to consider doing this. Also grab bars inside showers and on stairs here and there in addition to banisters.

I can do this bathroom painting with a minimum of prep, always a big feature of my home decor plans.  And it won't involve climbing.   I took a look through my paint supplies, and I must say, I had a great idea when I last used them, although I say it myself.

I marked them with the name of the area where I'd used them. This is much better than a color name.  No need to remember what color it looks like on the wall.  So I think my Staircase color will do nicely for the bathroom, give a continuity to the downstairs.  It's very similar to my Laundry Area color, so that saves squinting to see what color is which.  And I don't want my brilliant Kitchen and Spare Room Front Wall bright green in yet a third place.

So that's us.  As usual, after hours of climbing and running up and down many flights of stairs carrying fairly heavy stuff, I am ready to Just Sit.  Until I get another great idea.