It was TIME to clean up the basement storage area – couldn’t  deal with all the

• folded moving boxes stacked and scattered throughout
• boxes full of “mysterious” yarn – what was where?
• miscellaneous boxes full of “stuff”

So it being a fairly coolish day (in the 40s) but since my storage area is shared with the furnace for the apt above it (the other one on my floor) I knew it would be warm and toasty while I did some work. 

Digression:   warming tactics in the home

I am HOLDING off turning on my heat – I have to pay for my heat – its gas and its baseboard heaters and its a very drafty apt.  Unfortunately I dont have the exact costs per month from last year cause the Electric company “guesstimated” my gas for FIVE months from Jan to May and then WHAMMY hit me with a HUGE bill of the actual costs – one lump sum that I am still paying off slowly month by month .  ARGH!  So I am determined NOT to give much money to them this year .  SIGH I will be swaddled with many layers of sweaters and wearing gloves and hats as much as I can.  

In efforts to keep the gas bill down, I bought two Lasko Ceramic Pedestal Heaters with Remote Control .

One is in the Music Room – the very front room that faces due west and towards the river – so you KNOW it gets the Western Wind off the river – and one of the windows has no storm window (BIG sigh, for landlords who don’t invest in their property).  I have heavy damask curtains with heavy blackout/insulated liners which are drawn across both windows and do help to keep the wind out fairly well.  However the front door is right outside the door and there is an internal front door into the hallway. 

Last year I had my carpenter create above the door modling a type of  “sill” out of another piece of molding and a couple of hooks so that i could hang a curtain rod on it with curtains to block the wind coming in thru the door

because the Piano is RIGHT next to the door!  [can you say chilly!]

The apt also has three windows on the long “hallway” of the Southern side of the building (Its a shotgun or railroad type apartment).  They are mostly blocked by the evergreens that line the boundary of the next door neighbor’s property (a very exclusive “park” which borders the street I live on which is full of lesser type buildings!).  I have lined all the curtains – actually doubled the liners as  – you know it – these windows, while having storm windows, are full of drafty holes as the windows are VERY OLD (double hung and lots of holes between the storm window and the building).  I don’t expect to ever see these replaced  – although it would be very welcome and a miracle if they were.

Last spring I bought insulated shades as well for the windows so now they have triple protection – the storm window, the shade and the liner and curtains. 

This is the other helpful item I bought – and something I have never used – an electric blanket.  I put it on the bed last night – but the instructions said not to use an extension cord – unfortunately, I have a loft bed and there is no plug up there – so I will go to the hardware store and see if there is a Heavy duty extension cord I could get – other than that I may have to drill a hole in the bed and string the cord down to the ONE plug in the room (remember this is a VERY old house) and then PRAY it reaches.  SIGH

oh one more thing – since I am on the first floor and the furnaces are in the basement I am seeing some “residual” heat helping the apt – however, its only in the back of the apt – in the den and kitchen because the furnaces for the upper floor two apts are under the kitchen/den area.  So at night it becomes a bit more toasty as the tenants upstairs turn up their heat while home.  My furnace is under my bedroom/music room , in fact the chimney for the furnace (there is a mantel for a fireplace in each front room – we think that there must have been gas stoves in them – but cant find any stone hearth – so its a mystery.  Anyway, the “works” for my furnace come up thru that chimney = but since I dont have mine on yet, there isnt much warmth yet.

Here endeth the digression.

So spending sometime in the basement next to a warm furnace was not undesirable – and since I have been so wordy about my heating issues – here are photos to tell the story.

BEFORE

Looking into my storage space.  Folded moving boxes have already been stacked and stored in back corner (way back behind the boxes on the left side of the photo).

AFTER

Ok, so it maybe it doesn’t look THAT different – you can see in the next photos the real work.

Yarn Inventory BEFORE 

and AFTER

All boxes opened and all yarn redistributed according to manufacturer.  Yarn taken from old style moving boxes and put into new smaller easier-to-handle boxes with lids and handholds on each side.   (from ULINE – a great place for supplies)

Whew!  It was good to do this. 

And now I am inspired to tackle my books!  – I have books still in boxes in the basement but they were haphazardly packed by a very uncooperative moving man during the move and I am missing a lot of my favorite books – mostly my mysteries (i have a huge collection of paperback mysteries).  Now that I am organized in my study, and seem to have a bit more free shelf space than I thought, I want to sort thru them.  (They are off to the left of the photos at the top).

After all that excitement, I fell asleep on the sofa watching Law n Order and woke up around 3 – and now its time to go back to bed.

Knitting photos soon – current projects are:

• Red Sweater KAL and Ariann KAL Sweater – Ariann in Rio Red Inca Alpaca
• Zimmermania KAL – Totem Jacket
• My own design Aran Sweater for nephew -need to steek for sleeves
• BWAbbey KAL sweater – just received pattern in the mail.  Need to shop stash for yarn.