How to Give your Dog a Terrible Haircut

It's that time of year when we think of baby animals and their infinite cuteness - so it was serendipitous that I recently received a photo of Szuka's newly-born siblings.  Don't they look like little lambs?!?



Coincidentally, Szuka's looking a little more like her fresh off the farm sibs, thanks to the hack job of a hair cut we gave her (which you might have spotted on my new Instagram account): 

Komondors develop these amazing cords but they need a lot of maintenance to get them looking so neat (otherwise they just look, and smell, like a brown tangle of weeds).

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We decided to keep Szuka clipped short (a puppy cut), but we'd been on the fence about taking her to the groomer for her first haircut, or cutting her fur ourselves.  The only time we brought her to a groomer (we had a coupon for a free bath), she ended up looking like a husky poodle: 

She hates getting a bath, or having her nails clipped, but she's stoic about it.  We do both of these things ourselves at home to make it less stressful for her (and save a little cash).  Hubs thought clipping her fur at home would be a good idea for these reasons, but I really didn't want to have to trim around her starfish.

Look at those sad eyes

When the temperatures became a little more mild, Szuka started to boil and panted all day long.  Outside she would throw herself down, spread eagle, in the snow to cool off.  She was so, so wooly! 

And she had started to develop matted areas, despite our best brushing efforts:

We could see other chunks starting to look more plaited all over her body.  Her long beard was also starting to look (and feel) perpetually damp and dirty.  Hubby calls it her "wormy dirt beard," and she likes to rub it all over us.

I finally decided to just bring her to a pro, only to find that there was a weeks-long waiting list at every groomer!  Well, that made up our minds: DIY!  Szuka did not enjoy the process, but she was a champ.

Major problem, though: the clipper attachments (to determine hair length) wouldn't go through her coat so I used the clippers without one to remove some bulk.  Even then, her coat was just too thick, so I had to use the clippers without an attachment for the whole haircut.  I eyeballed it, which you just know had disastrous results.  A couple of really short patches, a few weirdly long chunks.  It took two evenings to groom her and give her a bath.  After a crushing defeat in a totally fair round of "1-2-3 not-it," Hubby had to tackle the bum region.  He's a champ too.

She looks a little ragged, but she's SO happy now without that bulky fur.  Even though there's still snow on the ground and it's been cool, she's still warm.  Frankly I think she'd be happy totally bald.

Here's a comparison of the before and after:



For the foreseeable future, we're going to keep clipping her ourselves.  It took a lot of time, but Hubby and I are nothing if not adventurous DIYers, and I'm sure we'll get the hang of it.  Here's what did (or could have done) to make it easier:

• We invested in the best clippers we could buy at Petsmart ($170.00 on sale)
• We worked together and took our time, calming her with a steady supply of hotdogs
• We clipped her in the bathroom, with the door closed, and continually swept up the hair into a plastic bag (baaa, three bags full)
• We clipped most of her hair dry (because it was easier), bathed her, then tackled clipping the bum region - that's probably my most valuable tip: wash the bum!!
• We kept grooming scissors on hand to trim any stubborn, matted areas (we like scaredy cut scissors because they have a rounded tip for safety)
• We should have brushed her more thoroughly before trimming
• We shouldn't have waited so long - we will have to trim her more regularly so it's easier
• We could have worked on a surface, like a table, to make it even easier to clip her belly and legs

There are special circumstances that make bathing her, trimming her nails, and clipping her feasible: Szuka is very patient and doesn't fight us, making DIY grooming safe for her and us.  Have you clipped your own dog's fur?  Any tips for us noobs? 

Old New House: For Your Walls

My 1960s Hungarian posters garner a lot of attention.  In fact, when Amy first put in an offer on the townhouse, she asked for the posters to be included!  Trolling Old New House I spotted a neat selection of vintage posters, including these two gems:

1970s Chinese advertisement poster

1940s-1960 Rodeo poster

Old New House actually has a lot of unusual things to adorn walls (white walls!!).  From vintage maps to science diagrams, retro "no smoking" signs and antique train logs.  They also have a great selection of, for lack of a better word, genuine art.  Here are some two more of my favorites:

Girl with Daisy lithograph

 Striking geometric ink drawing (and there's other similar pieces for a bold grouping)

If you've been in the market for something unusual to adorn your walls, see more at Old New House.

This post was sponsored by Old New House, but all words and editorial decisions are my own.

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I'm on Instagram!

I know I'm (fashionably?) late to the party, but I've just joined Instagram (http://instagram.com/danslelakehouse)!  I'm excited about using it for sharing sneak peeks and previews of projects, plus I'm moving my treasure hunting report there.  I've got an open account, so anyone is free to take a look.

I've been averse to social media, but lately I've realized that it will be a great way to connect more with you.  I'm already on Pinterest (townhouse_tanya) and will take to Twitter next week, but I'm on the fence about Facebook.  A lot of changes are on the horizon, actually: I'm considering a migration from blogger to wordpress (yikes!), with a new blog name (Dans le Lakehouse), new url, and new blog design.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed . . . Instagram, though, has proven to be fun and blissfully easy (although, for some reason, hashtags annoy me).  These are some things I thought were worth sharing:

I'm enjoying my new insulated lunchbag set from Island Picnic, so I couldn't help but photograph the very lakehouse-appropriate design (and organic cotton fabric!).  The little sandwhich and snack bags are washable and are meant to replace plastic ones, which is a clever idea.  Island Picnic is run by a mother-daughter duo who sew all of their green products, which is why they piqued my interest: I love family businesses.
 

Did you know mason jars come in vintage-inspired turquoise?  Who among you knew this and kept it from me?  I'm not really mason-jar obsessed, but I impulse-bought a case of these Ball American Heritage Edition jars from Canadian Tire to store dribs and drabs of snacks and baking supplies.  Our new kitchen is small, so I'm trying to maximize cupboard space by getting rid of over-sized packaging.  Leah and Janis, of Island Picnic, advocate storing things in glass, not plastic, and I'm happy to oblige when glass looks as cute as this.  Plus these are made in the USA.

As if cookies ever last long enough to be decanted.

Sadly, it's no picnic here, weather-wise.  A few weeks ago we still had mountains of snow (I had deck stairs at one point, right?):

But then some snow melted, the banks receded and I could see dead grass (hurray!).  We rejoiced and stopped wearing jackets, and then BOOM, we were hit with more.  So disappointing! 



In happier news, something gorgeous (from Modernica) has landed in the dining room.  I need to unearth the dining table from beneath a sea of sewing supplies and moving boxes, and then show you the whole kit and caboodle.  Seriously, it's breathtaking.

This is fun; I'm going to like Instagram.  For those who celebrate, Happy Easter weekend!!  What kind of filter makes a ham look tastiest? #timeforstretchypants.  Argh, I can't do it, it just bugs me.  

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Kitchen Progress: That Sinking Feeling

The kitchen sink and faucet have been installed!  So have the counters.  And the drywall.  You know, when you live with naked insulation for awhile, bare drywall starts to look really fancy.  But don't let that fancy drywall and elegant window frame(lessness) detract your attention from the real showstopper: the faucet.

Do you remember how many moons ago I asked for your help choosing a new faucet for the kitchen, because Pfister had kindly offered to send me one for review?  The one we ultimately chose - the Lita - was not available right away and when it arrived we had already listed the townhouse for sale.  I think there were more votes for black, but Hubby really pushed for silver (as did some of you).  I'm thankful that I was convinced of the merits of the stainless finish - and not the black finish I loved - because we ended up sandbagging the faucet for the lakehouse kitchen, where the black wouldn't have worked with my plans.

The lovely Lita was straightforward to install.  You might remember that it's a pull down model, which is a feature we've become overly dependent upon.  Both the townhouse and lakehouse boasted older faucets with that feature, and it's handy for filling a pot of water on the counter, or winning a kitchen water fight.  We didn't even look at any models that weren't a pull down, we're that committed.  This one feels different, though: it's sturdy and slides smoothly, and then clicks back tightly into place.

It has two settings for spray, which is also a feature we prefer.  The old lakehouse faucet had this feature too, but it was broken, and I really missed it!  Stuff that works properly feels like a real novelty around here.

I'll keep you posted on durability and how the finish wears.  For the $449.00 MSRP (!), I'm expecting outstanding quality, and I hope to salvage the faucet for our phase II reno.  The shape is clean and modern, but not too trendy, so I hope it won't look tired in a few years.  Strangely, what drew Hubby and I to this style originally was the unassuming handle: some are really curvy and seem more traditional, while some really angular ones look exceptionally modern.  This one is so simple.  We like simple.

The sink is also a stunner, but it gave us a little trouble.  It's a beast - much larger than what was there before - but we found it at Costco for $199, which is a good price for a sink this size and quality.  Plus it was fun to put "kitchen sink" on our grocery list.  It's an Atlantis Commercial Grade Pro Series, in 18-gauge stainless steel.  The lower the gauge, the thicker the steel but I've read conflicting reports about whether the gauge really impacts durability.  Reportedly, around the 22-gauge mark, a stainless sink will be more prone to denting, but I think 18-gauge is pretty standard.  We'll see how this one wears.  It does have two stainless steel basin grids with rubber feet, which keeps knives and cutlery from scratching the bottom (plus it makes a good dry rack for the things I hand wash).  Hopefully the basin grids will keep this sink looking new.

We actually bought the sink in Ottawa and drove it up here to Thunder Bay.  I'm sure we measured . . . okay I'm not sure, I just assumed that sinks are a relatively standard overall size because I thought cabinetry was pretty standard.  Nope.  The front of the cabinetry needed to be shaved away to make room for the sink.  The weight of the counter mostly sits on the vertical supports so it shouldn't be a problem, but we can always add horizontal support pieces. 

The sink sits a little farther back than I envisioned, but it's as far forward as we can put it.

This sink has the option of under mount or drop-in and we chose the latter.  Under mount required a frame be built to support it, because it wasn't designed to attach to the underside of the counter.  Bah!  Too much work.  Plus, cutting the hole was tricky enough, without making it pretty enough to show off (it wasn't).  Hubby used a jigsaw to cut the hole and although he did an amazing job, there were some areas where the cut jogged a bit.  Not a problem for installation, just not show-pretty.

More relevant than our laziness, we love the sharp lines of this boxy sink and the rectangular edge looks perfect with our thick, blocky counters.  Hubby and I have been admiring the counters with the sink, and we're so happy we didn't hide most of the fanciest sink we've ever owner with under mount.  (Not that doing dishes in the laundry room sink wasn't fancy).  



As a reminder, here's the old sink and faucet (is the new one freakishly tall, or what?):

Because the new sink's shape and proportions are different than the old sink's, Hubs spent quite a bit of time under the sink playing plumber.  So long, in fact, that while he was on his stomach, fussing, Szuka wandered over and decided his bum would be a good place for a nice, long snooze. 



Disclosure: I was provide the Lita faucet for review, courtesy of Pfister, but was not asked to, or otherwise compensated for, providing a review.  Time will tell how well it wears, and I'll be sure to keep you posted on the faucet, and our new sink, once we've had a chance to break them both in. 

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Wood Behaving Badly - Understanding and Dealing with Wood Movement

Hubby and I installed the kitchen sink and faucet over the weekend (photos Wednesday).  Maybe it's because I spent a couple of days inhaling the cloud of sawdust generated by cutting a giant hole for the sink, but I've been thinking a lot about wood.  In fact, a lot of woodsy things have caught my eye recently:

This streamlined credenza I'm confident we could build (welded legs and all):

This striking front door:

These mod bathroom vanities (which are a lot like what I'm planning for our phase II bathroom reno):

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This nature-inspired table (as tacky as it sounds, I'd like to make a knock-off version for the dining room):

This impossibly chic kitchen:

This painstaking wood plank ceiling:

This inventive take on the DIY tree stump table:

This agate-topped solid wood table I can't stop thinking about:

Wood Movement

We actually have quite a few woodsy projects on the horizon, and while I was huffing sawdust I dreamed up a few more.  The tricky thing about wood, though, is that you can't just slap it together.  Wood expands and contracts (primarily across the grain - width wise) and it can't be forced to stay put.  It sometimes has a mind of its own, which needs to be accounted for during construction.  It was once a living thing, after all, and the cells that held onto moisture for its survival still move moisture, so in humid conditions wood can expand as it sucks in moisture while in dry conditions it can shrink as wood cells release moisture.  Plus, if it hasn't been properly seasoned, even if construction allows for wood movement, wood can still crack or split or warp.  (Of course, this is a simplistic account from a simple DIYer).  Last week I spotted a couple examples of W.B.B. (wood behaving badly, my term for the more accepted "wood movement"). 

Although they rebuilt it, Scott and Kim found that their farmhouse table split along the grain:

Jenny made wood floors from plywood planks (what a neat idea!) but in an instagram shot it looks like one board might have split (to the left of Evelyn) . . . although I might be seeing things because plywood doesn't behave the same as solid wood.  It should be more resistant to W.B.B.

Edit: After posting, I spotted Daniel's DIY kitchen counters, which had sadly warped and developed gaps.

I don't even need to go online to see W.B.B. - our hardwood floors have gaps!

Tongue and groove hardwood flooring, which is seemingly straightforward to install, also experiences wood movement.  When Hubs replaced the hardwood flooring in the closet, he realized the flooring in the lakehouse had been improperly installed.  Typically, hardwood flooring is installed so that there is expansion room around the edge grain.  The baseboard hides any gaps, and the quarter round attaches to the floor, so as the wood swells and shrinks the quarter round moves with it (no gaps!).  In our case, the edges of the hardwood planks were shaved down on an angle to facilitate wedging them tightly against the wall - the drywall was even dented from the force with which the hardwood was pushed down.  We're lucky we don't have any buckling that should accompany this kind of mistake (drywall is soft-ish, so it's likely smooshing to accept the swell of the wood).  Instead, we have gaps, which is kind of the opposite problem we expected. 

Yay.

The gaps might have occurred because the wood wasn't allowed to acclimatize in the house prior to installation.  Maybe it was installed during a humid spell and our dry winter sucked the moisture out of the wood.  Luckily the gaps aren't really prominent, and hopefully they will disappear come summer.  But after the incredible effort Hubby and his Dad put into installing the townhouse hardwood floors, which looked perfect and never behaved badly, I'm crabby about inheriting gaps.

The townhouse floors, I miss you!

These musings on wood movement are relevant to our counter project because wood movement made planning our DIY wood kitchen counters tricky.  On a surface that butts up to a wall, like a counter, it could cause major problems.  If the wood isn't given room to expand, it could push against the walls and cause the cabinet to buckle.  If a wood counter is installed close to the wall in humid conditions, it could shrink and cause gaps between the counter and backsplash in dryer months.  When Hubby shares the how-to of our wood counters, we'll explain how we accounted for wood movement and what our solutions were.

I am by no means knowledgeable about wood, but I've learned enough from Hubs to know what wood movement is, and to be wary of it.  In the meantime, for anyone planning a wood project, here are some tips and, more importantly, resources to prevent W.B.B.

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• Bottom line: you can't stop wood from moving (glue and nails can only do so much)
• Opt for joinery that allows for wood movement, like elongated screw holes
• Allow wood to acclimatize to its environment before use
• Ideally, construct a wood project in an environment with the same kind of humidity level as where it will be positioned once completed
• Factor in the species, the way it was cut from the log, and the humidity, which all impact wood movement (this widget might help, talking with the pros at the lumber yard will too)

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• Realize that the smaller the panel, the less it will move overall
• Research any project to get advice from the pros (not necessarily fellow DIYers), about how to address wood movement for your project's particular circumstances
• Consider plywood (and other manufactured panels), which are more stable than solid wood and are better for beginner projects 

How you deal with wood movement varies from project to project, so it's difficult to provide more troubleshooting tips.  Click here for a great article about why wood moves and how to estimate wood movement.  This article is even more in depth with great photos to illustrate wood movement.  Finally, this article lists which kinds of wood experience more, or less, movement.  There are a LOT of woodsy DIY tutorials out there, but not all of them account for wood movement so I thought I'd chat about it a bit today. 

Worst case scenario, there's always the option to just work with a split and make something totally bad-ass:

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