Home fixing: Day 1

Today's plan was to go to the house and start on a couple little projects. After a quick stop at Lowes, it was time to get to work. The previous owners used wall anchors for everything, so I wanted to get those out to start prepping the rooms for paint. Some of them came out quite easily while others were so stubborn that I just cut the top off with a razor blade. Then came the spackle. I'll smooth them out later. I'll also address the giant chunk of plaster that fell off the wall in the kitchen. I pressed against it and it splintered into a bunch of chunks. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to fix that, too.

I figured that while I was at Lowes, I might as well pick up a new front door lock kit. Shlage has some nice stuff, so I went with them. Thanks to the gift cert from our realtor, the kit only costs me $6. Oh yeah. I had a little bit of trouble with the catch plate on account of the wood being so old, but I think I figured it out.

I also started removing tile from the basement floor. I'm not positive that it contains asbestos, but I would discount it. I took the safe road and wore a dust mask and broke as few of the tiles as possible. Thanks to a flood a few years ago, the glue wasn't holding on at all.

I never got to the pipe insulation, but I figured that spring is eoming and I have some time to take care of that.

On a totally unrelated note, Shelby has been getting sassier every day. Her big thing now is to jump up on our laps when we're sitting at the dining room table. She gives a small warning by putting her paw on our leg, but jumps up as soon as you look at her. She sat on my lap this morning for about 10 minutes before I left for the house. She looked comfy, so I opened Photobooth and took a couple pics.