Ankle Detour -Accessibility

First, the ankle:  good news.  No surgery, no cast, just six weeks moon boot and doc said I can start weight-bearing to tolerance.  A knee-scooter Roller-Aid is a superb alternative to regular crutches, saved my hip, neck, and shoulders.  At Day 11, the swelling/sprain/bruising limits me to just a few steps with cuff crutches, but enough that I can put the roller-aid in the trunk and crutch to the door of the car.  Tylenol is doing a good job on the pain.  


The two things I've missed most:  being able to walk to the hot tub, and over to the lakehouse.  It's sunny today, and I'm crafting a plan how to get over there.  Obstacles to address:  gravel driveway, 60 feet of uneven ground wet grass, and three steps.  Hmm, I've already figured out how to do steps, and it dawns on me I could take the golf cart up to within the last 15 feet, bypassing all that uneven ground.  Hmmm!  We have a plan!  (I used to scoff at my dad for rambling around the properties on an old golf cart instead of walking, but now I'm grateful it's here.)


One big reason to go over:  I want to test out the space for accessibility.  I've designed this house with aging-in-place ideas:  door widths, outlet height, flow of floorplan.  Now that I'm on the tryke, it's a perfect chance to see how well it works.  


Oh!  And grab bars!  I've become a big fan of grab bars.  I had planned to at least include the blocking in the walls to put them in later, but now they're going right as I build.  Being able to use your arms to get up and down to the toilet is KEY when you're on one leg.  They come in cool styles now, so I'll match them to the faucets and they'll simply be part of the room design.  


I'll let you know how the house tour goes.  
Eager to be back on both feet, 
Kimberly
PS:  Addendum:  accessibility is great!  Love the new floorplan!

Facing another detour: broken ankle

Dang nabbit!  The project had momentum again, I was getting things done, enjoying being over at the house, and then broke my ankle.  I mean, really??  All I did was roll my ankle off a 3/4 inch difference in flooring.  I heard a pop and it dropped me to the floor.  I yelled a lot for the next several minutes, and hauled out choice swear words I haven't heard in a while.  Haven't met with the orthopedist yet, don't know what I'm in for, but I choose to believe it will heal swiftly and well.  I'm baffled though:  how did I attract this?  


so:  remodel lesson:  if you cut away a portion of flooring, drop back in a scrap of wood to keep the floor level even.  Before we framed the utilibath wall, I cut out a swath of vinyl flooring and the subfloor sheathing underneath to expose the car-decking foundation floor.   In the doorway section of that wall, there's a 3/4 inch drop from flooring to car-decking, and I just rolled into it.


I was unpacking my new toilet!  So happy it arrived!  As soon as I can set it on the drain and bolt it down, I can have a working toilet in that house for the first time since March!  


This is just a brief detour ... this is just a brief detour ... this is just a brief detour ...

Bathroom floor is finished! What do you think? It's soft underfoot, and I really like it.

Paper Bag Flooring - in progress

Oh I'm having fun! The bathroom is done (paper only, no varathane yet) and I've started in the bedroom. I feel like a seven year-old playing 'mudpies.' There's no rushing here, it's all in the moment. It works best when you sort of fall in love with each piece, patting it gently into place. I'm learning lots of techniques how to vary the color and texture, blend edges, and how to 'layer the stones.' The diluted glue is like milk, so it washes up easy and I can stop and start, a little bit at a time. Miss Luna approves!

Paper Bag Flooring

To lower the allergen load, I tore out the carpet in my bedroom and bathroom. Very helpful! But that was three months ago, and 'particle board subfloor chic' is getting really old. Even if I used pathetically cheap $1 sq.ft. laminate, I just don't have the $250 to spend on the floor right now, so the plan was to paint it a soft tan-white for a cottage-y look. I've been hesitating, knowing that such a uniform color would show every last speck of dirt.

Then I remembered an article I'd read about making flooring from brown paper bags. Googled it, found a bunch of articles and pictures, and thankfully the directions were all the same. Tear paper bags or brown construction paper, crinkle it, spread polyurethane on the back, lay it down, overlapping pieces to cover the floor. Size and amount of overlap determines the texture, whether large, stone-like pieces or smaller, uniform leather-like texturing. Add several coats of poly on top for a durable finish. What a cool idea! I'll post pictures once it's done.

Picking Up

Is it "getting up again" or "picking up again"? I chose Picking Up to acknowledge the conscious choice, to pick 'upwards' as my next direction of movement. Only three blogs in 2010, and the year is half over. Wow... doesn't that just describe my year so far? I've been ill, without energy, carefully picking my way through each day. Assembling my energy carefully, methodically, learning to put whole days together again. I'll be fine, no worries, I just need to get my adrenals functioning again. So I choose Up. I pick Up.

The renovation sat mostly idle over the winter. The joy of the project had been abraded away by two unscrupulous contractors I'd hired. Every time I walked in the house, my spirits fell. Overwhelm, disappointment, resentment, injustice. The electrical contractor, who took 102 days to complete a 5-10 day rough-in, finally arrived on Day 225 to complete the corrections from the failed inspection. With his presence finally banished, I needed to shift my emotional response to the house.

Yesterday I did a clearing, and it felt so good! I brought myself to a hyponotic state, and did strategic visioning of being excited, invigorated, and creatively back in the joy of working on the house again. Then I walked around the house with incense, wafting it over every electrical box and fixture, "I allow, accept, forgive, release..." Finally I ran through a hypnotic forgiveness process, cutting the ties with those who are unable to support my vision.

Ahhhhhh.......

Addendum: see Snopes.com

Well, after checking Snopes.com, there's some question about Copp's credibility and conclusions. Still, there's some useful info here, so apply the info as makes sense to you.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/triangle.asp

Find the Triangle: How to Survive an Earthquake

Different from my usual posts, this was too important not to share widely. May you never need it, and if you do, may it save your life. ~Kim

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE 'TRIANGLE OF LIFE'

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries.

I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something. I am amazed that even today schools are still using the "Duck and Cover" instructions- telling the children to squat under their desks with their heads bowed and covered with their hands. This was the technique used in the Mexico City school.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Almost everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when buildings collapse ARE CRUSHED TO DEATH. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. That position helps you survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next

to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs. Concrete slab buildings are the most dangerous during an earthquake.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Almost everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until

structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads and horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the

building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and lying in the fetal position next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did 'duck and cover,' and ten mannequins I used in my 'triangle of life' survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the

results.

The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the 'triangle of life.' This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe , and it was seen in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

Spread the word and save someone's life... The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared.

Spring Heart

Every February there's a point when I breathe relief to know Spring is coming. I live near Seattle and this winter has been dark. Not cold, but DARK, with day after day of gray, cloudy sky.

The renovation bogged down and came to a grinding, wet halt this winter. It's cold in there, the skylights are leaking, and it's cluttered with debris. My team left, along with my budget cushion. Some good progress though: I found a lovely new handyman who repaired the hole in the bathroom floor and reframed a window hole, so now sparkling new windows are in too.

Now I have two signs that Spring is indeed coming.

Last week members of my local Master Gardener group came over to help restore my greenhouse. After three years of neglect, the blackberry only needed one more gulp to devour the inside. A few hours later, the greenhouse was sparkling and clean, ready for new growth.

They're going to use the space to raise plants for the Plant Sale. They're thrilled, and believe they're getting the better end of the deal. I know better.

Even if they don't know it, they handed my sanity back to me on a platter.

The greenhouse showed me how quickly things can turn around when you gather new team, offer to help others, and ask for help too. Plus, there's almost nowhere else on earth I feel as content as I do in a greenhouse. Knowing it will soon be filled with fresh soil and green seedlings lifts me in a way I can barely describe. Refuge, joy, ease, safety, bliss.

Second sign of Spring? A crocus blooming in the grass. As if it knows that old lawn will soon become new garden. The garden and I, we're on the same page... Spring is coming.