The Happy Room

We were able to finish up the Animal Room aka The Happy Room this past weekend. Whew. What a relief. I think it was our biggest undertaking since buying our house. We are VERY pleased with the results. The color is just what we had pictured. On Sunday night we moved Elwood and Herbie into their new room. Since we removed the wall of cabinets we've been on the lookout for some sort of cabinetry/storage/buffet to put in the room. Something we could put the terrariums on. I'd like something that fit into the room (simple, not ornate, possibly modern looking) and would even love to reuse or refinish an item. Not to mention, I don't want to spend a huge amount. Sita was so gracious to donate an old apothecary/canning table for Elwood...exactly what fit the bill. We're still on the lookout for a storage space and something to put Herbie on. In the meantime he's on the hope chest/coffee table that's already filled with items from the wall cabinet.

I attempted to take photos but they do not do the room or color justice. It's not as bright/vivid in the pictures. And given the size of the room it's hard to get good photograph angles. But, I tried my best.

First, when we moved in, this is what the room looked like. Paneling, carpeting, 70's curtains/lighting, and plywood wall cabinets. Between then and now we painted the cabinets but ultimately decided they needed to go.

Now, after the renovation.....Carpeting gone and hardwood floors refinished (done in 2006), plaster gone, drywall installed, new curtains, and track lighting installed.

Primed

Just another update on the progess of the Animal Room. David and Alpa got the crown molding up yesterday afternoon....

Last night we cleaned and scrubbed the room, working to have some order in our house. We also placed foam caulk rope in gaps and proceeded to caulk the entire room.

This morning our bodies decided to rise on their own at 6:45am. We took advantage of our time and primed the entire room....ceiling included.

Time to take a break to let it dry and take another trip to the store to get more supplies. I swear anytime we do a home improvement project we find the hardware store is our second home.

Tape, Mud, Sand....

Quick update on the "animal room." Everything was taped and mud placed on Monday, sanded Tuesday, more mud Wednesday, and sanded/cleaned today. Tomorrow we're on to the crown molding. It's not going to be an easy task, but we're going to "cheat" by using corners instead of mitering. We hope to prime at least the ceiling and possibly walls on Saturday. Gotta keep moving.

Walls Are Up

Throughout this past week David and Alpa have been working on our drywall. Today all of the drywall will be up. Woot! We have walls again!! Sometime this week they'll start taping, etc. As expected, this isn't something that's going to be done within a weekend. Given both David and Alpa's schedules, they've been trying to get some done here and there. I'm thankful for any and all progress. As we speak they're still putting up the final pieces, but I snuck in the room to get a few shots.....

Our Own 1812 Overture

When we purchased our house there was a buttload of carpet and paneling....not really our style. It's overwhelming to think of what you need/want to do. It helps to look back to see what you have done.

~Carpet torn up in all but 1 room - only 1 of those rooms still needs the floor re-done. It's not something I'm looking forward to undertaking due to space, dust, and cost.

~Carpet's been torn up on the stairs and repainted them.

~Kitchen cabinets have been redone.

~Living room and dining room has been painted.

~Stairs/hallway walls have been painted.

~"David's room" has been painted and our bedroom has been painted.

~Made a Willy Wonka door to access an attic from inside and "refinished" the attic.

~Outside of garage painted.

~Downstairs bedroom painted and added new light fixture.

~Siding/insulation applied.

~2 new doors installed along with 2 screen doors.

Even with all that's done, being homeowners, there's always more to do. You get to a point where your "can do" attitude and budget reaches it's limit. We took a year hiatus from us doing manual work (we had the siding done professionally). The downstairs bedroom that we call the "animal room" has been a work in progress for over a year. We had torn down the paneling and refinished the closet for a "litter box" room. But unfortunately the walls were FUBAR. (Google it). We had huge holes and cracks in the plaster. We researched patching and even skim coating. Ultimately it came down to it not able to be repaired and drywall it is. We'd love to hire a professional but the budget doesn't allow for that....not that it allows for any improvements at this time. Thankfully Alpa knows the basics of drywall.

So....we decided to drywall.....BUT the plaster and lathe has to come down first. We were trying to decided what to do yesterday. Originally we were going to drive out of town. But instead on a whim, we decided to take that down last night...you know, use the money we would've spent and put it towards our project. Real....smart....move.

First off....the dust. We knew it'd be dusty and prepared accordingly. Blocked off the door, wore hats, gloves, masks, and safety goggles. We even got it down to science climbing in and out of the window to reduce tracking in the house. But geez. I couldn't see David a couple feet from me. I couldn't help but think 9-11. Yeah, morbid I know, but it put it into perspective. Then, nails. Yeah, being smart I wore crocs. (sense the sarcasm?) Ultimately it was a good choice. They aren't ruined like David's shoes, and I was easily able to wash off my feet. But, those nails are wicked and puncture right through croc rubber. I had a few close calls and one a bit too close, but there was no blood and my tetanus shot is all up to date. (No worries Mama Jan!)

As always we've found that David and I work well as a team. We don't say much. Just a few expletives here and there when plaster came a tumblin' and decided to hit up in the head.

The demolition started out as fun. I kept thinking Extreme Home Makeover and, "Ha! I'm punching holes in a wall with a hammer. This is cool." That lasts able the first half hour. After that your forearms start to ache and you got the taste of plaster in your mouth, and can't see in front of you. Being the smart one, I took pain medication before heading into the war zone.

It was one of those things we didn't really think through....like where we'd put all the shit we'd pulled off the wall. We did some quick thinking and brainstorming. Alpa has a truck so we borrowed that and started throwing stuff out of the window into the bed of the truck. Unfortunately it's not real shovelable, meaning it all had to be tossed out by hand. Back to the drawing board again, we came up with filling buckets first, then throwing them out the window. It helped a bit. We got most everything cleaned up but the floor and called it a night.

BUT, that wasn't the end. Having been going in and out of the window we didn't know what we'd see on the other side of the door. Well, it wasn't horrible. But there was definitely a dusting in the rest of our downstairs. Excellent! So, here we are buck naked at 2am, dusting and mopping our house. Honestly, we were tired, but couldn't help but laugh. By 2:30am we were in bed.

Upon waking we looked at each other and said, "Do you feel that?" It's the weirdest feeling, but it still felt like we were covered from head to toe in dust. And my hair.....not only did I got to bed with wet hair, but also that funk. Whoa. Think Robert Pattinson. Unfortunately I can't make it look so hot.

I went downstairs to clean up the floor in the room. That was a pretty big job in itself. That's when Alpa came to replace me. The guys made their game plan for today. Unfortunately or fortunately I'm not in on the game plan. They've hit a few roadblocks but are moving right along. Additional 2X4's had to be placed along with insulation. But even before that we found additional lathe had to be removed. The plan is to get the drywall tomorrow and continue on. We're not sure when this will end and really I'm ok with that. I don't have an issue with this being an unfinished project. Remember it's looked like crap for over a year. My issue is the dust. If it's contained to that room, I'm cool with it.

So, we missed the fireworks, but needless to say we were making our own 1812 Overture explosions. Not as pretty, but that's ok. Won't be the first fireworks we've missed, or the last, I'm sure.

I'll leave you with some pictures mid-progress.

Clip, Clip Here. Clip, Clip There.

I'd consider our yard an average looking yard. Not too fancy, just well kept. I think it's safe to say that I got the "lawn bug" at an early age. I attribute this to inheriting the gene from my father. I remember long ago being outside with my dad while he would mow the grass. Although I didn't have an actual mower, I'd stay next to him with my bubble mower.
Looking back, I was probably a pain in the ass to my dad, but I enjoyed it. (Thanks for putting up with me Dad!)

Upon acquiring a home of our own we started to add lawn gear. Thanks to my parents we soon had a shed full o' stuff. I was ready to go. I don't think the lawn bug ever went away, just subdued for a bit. I headed into my yard work with a vengeance. I mowed weekly and used the trimmer to edge weekly. If a weed presented itself you'd find me out with my Weed Hound. If the grass grew at all I could feel my anxiety rise. There were many of times where my parents would have to say, "Heidi....chill, if you keep cutting your lawn you'll burn it out." For those days I'd head out with my hedge/edging scissors, cutting here and there. And when my used lawnmower went kaput I almost had a nervous breakdown. It was safe to say that I was having some OCD issues.....as with so many things.

As stated in previous posts, over the past 6 months I've changed some. I'm not sure what's come over me, but I've found that some things just aren't worth worrying about. I'm not totally non-OCD, but I've had a "chill" come over me. The chill can range from how I dress, my cleaning, participating in functions....I could go on. I'm thankful for this and have found that my "chill" has even stretched itself to lawn tending.

There's no doubt that you'll still find me outside mowing weekly and weeding to keep things under control, but I'm not so obsessed. This is the first year I didn't lay fertilizer (gasp!). I attribute that to the fact that it's not real healthy for the Earth, it's expensive, and mostly that the dogs have run of the backyard. Having run of the backyard means fertilizer's not too healthy for them either and the yard is full of yellow spots or mud/dirt pits. This is also the first year I didn't plant any flowers and we haven't put our patio furniture out yet. Not sure if we will or not. It's still early.

So.....I'm still a lawn freak, just not to the extent I was before.

With that being said, I've still got this weird attachment to my trimmer. I use it a lot and needless to say it's beat up. It's literally on it's last leg. I can't believe it considering it's not that old. I must admit, this is my third one. Crazy, I know, but let me explain. The first one went after 1.5 years. It's started to arc and ceased. I went out, got another one. I was using it, a pertinent piece of hardware flung and it was worthless. Thankfully it wasn't that old, I still had the box and receipt, and it was replaced. So, that leads us to where I am now. It's guard has cracked, the tap n' feed no longer taps and feeds, and the cutting blade that cuts excess line went flying tonight. Gah! I spent the evening unplugging, unwinding, winding, and cutting the line to length...yeah, like 10 times. And it's not like it's a fast fix. Quite frustrating. So either it's time to get a new trimmer or you're going to be finding me out with my edging scissors doing the whole lawn. Maybe the next door neighbor will even say again, "Hey! You want to come over and cut my entire lawn that way?" Maybe I'll be able to think of a quick enough comeback this time....hopefully before I shove the scissors up his ass.

I know it will never happen but this is what I want. I haven't ever done research, so I don't know if this is the specific brand or model I'd get......but on those lines, I want one. How many women do you know that have a gas trimmer on their wish list. Ha! It's only a wish, but I can always dream. And hey, if we're dreaming, I might as well dream that my neighbors will cut their grass more often. I'm not asking them to edge or weed, just mow their grass before it hits a foot high. But considering the city doesn't abide by those rules, why should they? Once again, I can always dream.

(Side note: I'm not trying to paint David in a bad light.....I don't do all the yard work. He helps a TON. Fortunately for him he doesn't have the yard bug and is quite content with just a plain ol' mowed yard.)

The Tank

It's kind of ironic that I post this topic almost immediately after posting about trying to be my green. Ah well. With David recent job change where he will no longer have access to a company vehicle we needed to find something afforable for him to go to and from work. You'd think we'd be upset after just getting rid of the Alero and purchasing the scooter, but we're still happy with our choice and getting rid of the Alero and the "negative debt" definitely helped us.

David has wanted an old beater truck as long as I can remember. We were always looking the the perfect truck. Something affordable, that ran well, but nothing amazing. With David's new situation we went on the prowl and found this:



Meet The Tank. He's flippin' huge. I darn near need a step stool to get into him. We got a great deal on it and it's really in great shape with decent mileage considering it's a 1989. The last owner only had it for 5 years and put less than 500miles on it. However, he put a ton of work and money into it. We have the receipts of upgrades/repairs he had performed. The interior has very little marking. The outside needs a bit of a touch up here and there, which David would like to pursue getting repaired. But all in all we're happy with our find. Obviously the rims and tires aren't stock. Those were added by the last owner. This is going to be a to and from work vehicle and not something we plan on riding around all the time. (Remember we're trying to be a green as possible by doing our part. Hey, at least we're "recycling" a vehicle, right?) We think it will also come in handy with hauling anything if need be and barreling through snow in the winter.

Financially, the scooter and truck combined add up to what we were paying total for the Alero. Although we had hoped to lessen our output of money with the scooter at least we're not increasing the output. Good to go. And, even more, David's not really had experience with fixing cars, etc. so he's looking to this truck to get some experience in doing so. Nothing extreme, just oil changes and things like that. Since it's not under warranty or anything it's not like he has to worry about breaking a contract, which will put his mind at ease and allow him to investigate his vehicle more.

David's pumped. He's been waiting awhile for this.

Mo Has Arrived

Our Aprilia Mojito 150 arrived yesterday. David took it out for a test run.

Never A Dull Moment

Boy, have things changed since my last post. And that was only last week! On the "business front" it looks like it's a no go. Everything was fine until we got to the bank. There were no problems with our credit but given the economical situation of our area, heck, our country, loans aren't as easy to come by. And if they are, you have to have a down payment, are paying out of the butt, or some non-attainable options. For instance, not only the bank but the Small Business Administration requires 20% down along with a second mortgage on your house (so if you go bust they can take your home), and it would only be a 10 year loan. Yikes! So, we definitely don't have the 20% down, taking a second mortage on our house would be too big of a risk, and the 10 year loan made for a pretty high payment. In addition, we had hoped to apply for a larger loan for improvements, etc. but they didn't recommend it as we'd have to "prove" a need for it and it'd also make our down payment that much more. So needless to say purchasing a business isn't our calling. At least not at this time. Of course our minds are constantly churning about things we could build our own personal business on and we'll never rule out purchasing a business in the future. We firmly believe things happen for a reason and at this time it wasn't meant to be. So, that's cool. Just go with the flow.

With not having a business to think about we had an enjoyable relaxing weekend which finished with a day spent lounging at Soak City's adult pool and celebrating Viking's birthday and Father's Day with all of the 'rents. Ah, gotta love summer. Getting out, enjoying the weather and getting things done. I feel as though we haven't made much progress on home improvements this summer as we've had in the past. Mind you, it's early in the summer but still. I don't really know if that has to do with money or our mindset. Probably both. My medication has definitely helped me relax and go with the flow. Add on top of that not having extra money and you just kind of let things go. It's not like our house has fallen to disrepair but we're not constantly working on an improvement like we have in the past. Hopefully next up will be insulation and siding. That's going to be costly. Don't really know how that loan situation's going to work out. Ah well, we shall see.

In other exciting news we've been eyeing some scooters. Yes, us, looking at scooters. We've come to the conclusion that we want one and it'd be smarter for a variety of reasons. 1-David has a work vehicle, meaning his personal vehicle sits here and almost is never used. It's a 2004 with only a little over 30,000 miles. We're basically paying on it and have insurance for almost no reason. We'd like to just get rid of it but the buyback won't totally payoff the loan. And it's not like a dealer will just buy the car and not have you buy another car. 2-Even using the Aveo we go through about a tank of gas a week. I'd like to reduce this if possible. 3-it's a little more "green" 4-and you can't deny that they are pretty darn cute. So we found a dealer in Norwalk that deals Vespas and some of the other quality brands. Yesterday we went to check them out and get a quote. It looks like they'd give us a good trade-in amount for David's car. The only roadblocks are that we got to check with the bank to see if they'd take an negative amount left from the car and put it on the loan for a scooter (it's a small amount, but still, it's a negative amount) and we found that we'll have to get a motorcycle license. We weren't expecting this as we had been told we didn't need one. However, there are a multitude of sizes/powers of scooters and the ones we're looking at can go up to 55 mph. Anything that goes over 35 mph requires a license. However, you can get your permit and still drive it. There are stipulations such as only driving during the day, no passengers, and wearing a helmet. As for getting a license, you can take the test or take a class to receive your endorsement which automatically gives you the license. The problem with the class is that looking at the schedule all of them are full 'til September. Bummer. But, we'd at least be able to get permits and drive it alone if need be. As with everything, this is just an idea that we're pushing around at this point.

As for me being vegetarian, I'm still going strong and am enjoying it. As I tell people, eating meat is a non-issue. I don't even think about it. If I had been a huge meat eater before I can see it being an issue, but that wasn't the case. The biggest issue would be fast food places, which are best to avoid anyway, so that's what we're doing. And any place where I think I may have an issue I ask for no meat and they kindly oblige. I'm still gaining information to research and reading making sure I'm eating the right things and getting all of my nutrients/vitamins. And I've already had to deal with people's snide remarks and negative reactions even though I don't really bring it up. For instance my office manager saying, "She's gone off the deep end. How much you want to bet she's anemic?" Of course I proved her wrong and gave her a specific reference as to educate her. She was surprised by my answer but accepted it and walked away knowing that she had made a wrong assumption. The thing is, I'm not out to prove anyone wrong or to try to convert people. I just don't want people to make wrong assumptions or non-founded statements. Something I may have an issue with is becoming adventurous in the kitchen. I can see that most vegetarians/vegans make some awesome recipes and adjust them as needed. Just like the meat situation, I wasn't really a cook before so I don't see myself becoming anymore cook-like with my change. It's just not my forte and time isn't on my side when it comes to cooking. Thankfully there are other options out there that make it easier. I can only imagine trying to do this 10 years ago when it wasn't so readily accepted and you didn't have many pre-made/easier food options available. So far everything I've tried has been great. I absolutely loved the corn dogs and the Boca burgers were delicious too. David's even dabbled with some of the food. He won't be changing over, but I appreciate his interest. This is a good thing that I've done and am content with my decision.

I'm gearing up for Texas which is next week. Hopefully mom and I will have a good time. I have a few things on our "to-do" list including Sonic. I may not be able to eat they're burgers, but I can still get an ice cream treat!

This weekend we're heading up to Cleveland for the Ohio City Run and Crawl 5K. It seems like forever ago we ran in the Half Marathon. It's definitely time to get back on the horse for another 5K. It should be fun.

And lastly, obviously you have all see my last post with David's new 'do. When I walked in the door I saw him trotting toward me. I still had my sunglasses on so I couldn't tell what I was seeing. I couldn't believe he did it but I absolutely love it. I'm still wanting to add a little color to my hair. Not my whole head, but a bright strip of color. Not sure how the boss would like that. According to him he says, "Well, let's put it this way, clients judge us by what we look like. And raises are based on production. That's all I'll say." So in other words he's saying if you want a raise you better not do it because people aren't going to come in because of your hair. Right, I believe this. If anything I can see people liking it. Maybe I'll do it for our cruise. It's only 3 months away. I think I can wait.

There's never a dull moment with us, which always makes for an exciting time.

Ziggy, The New TV

Good morning! It's 4:30am and I'm up and ready to go. I'll be picking mom up here shortly then we'll be going on our little roadtrip down to Akron. It looks like it's going to be a a perfect day. High of 71 but Erika will get to run in the 50's-60's. And no rain forecasted. Beautiful.

Our weekend started off interesting. I got home and David says, "I've got some bad news...." Oh, what now? Our tv went. He was watching tv and "pop!" no picture. He messed with it a little and still nothing. And of course I said awhile back. "Well, when it goes then it will be time for a flat screen." I don't mind getting the flat screen, I just wasn't planning on it this soon! And you know David's going to hold me to it. He brought our little 12 inch tv from our bedroom downstairs so he had something for the afternoon. It looked quite funny I must say. So anyway, we've been pricing them here and there and basically knew what we wanted so mom and dad met us at Sam's club and we made our big purchase. It's a 37 inch Vizio. Not huge but bigger than our previous 32 inch. And MUCH lighter. I couldn't believe how light the box was. And after getting it into the house it was even bigger than I expected. So I guess I'm "happy" with what we got. I'm still sad to see our old one go for obvious reasons, but also because that was our wedding gift from Justin and Cass. Ah well. Of course David loves it. He couldn't wipe the smile from his face. As we drove home he said, "It's like Christmas." He'll love watching sports on it, especially now that we have the HDTV ability. He already played some Madden on it and was thrilled. I did notice a difference, but as for me, eh, I could honestly careless. I could probably even go without tv since I'm not that huge of a fan, but at the same time I understand David's thinking. I'll try to post some pics later, when I get home from the marathon.

Oooh, you know I'm taking my camera today, and will hopefully take lots of pictures. It's time to head out. Hey Erika! I'm sending positive thoughts your way. And don't forget....

We've Got Grass

The little area in our backyard that I seeded last week is already producing some grass. Cool. I have't really ever grown grass or paid attention when my parents had, so I didn't expect it to produce that fast. It will be full and lush before we know it. Just one more little thing to beautify what's around us.

Ah, today is already Wednesday. David had an unexpected call this morning for work so he was unable to run. And instead of getting up as early as we usual do, I slept in a bit and then headed out on my own. It's amazing how your mind and body work. After learning that David had to go into work early I just thought to myself, "I'll just take the day off running." But would I let myself do that? Heck no. You almost guilt yourself into doing it. But I guess it's a good guilt trip in the scheme of things, eh? David's also having the same "problem" as me, so at least I know I'm not the only one guilting myself into running. It's so stupid if you think about it though. Because as you wake you have this, "ugggh" feeling but once you get out moving and afterwards you feel great. I guess if I look at the situation closer it's not so much tough to get out running, as it is to actually wake up at 5am and move. Okay, enough analyzing.

Our break in weather has come but it's real overcast today. I'm just waiting for it to start raining. As of yet I believe we've been in the pockets of no rain. We shall see as the day goes on. But it looks as though the cooler weather is here to stay for a couple days. A few degrees cooler would be even better.

Time to get ready for work. Have a wacky Wednesday!

Garage Frustration

I've got a weird work schedule the next few days here. Usually I work a half day on Friday, but today I'm working all day. The owners are going out of town so we'll be closed today and monday. However, someone has to be present to direct emergencies to the right location, sell Rx's, and OTC type of stuff. I volunteered since I'll be missing all next Friday due to my Florida trip. And since I'll be in the same pay period, I'll be able to earn some of the hours back that I'll miss, by working all day instead of half. Got that? The only thing is trying to stay busy for 10 hours. I don't want to jinx myself, so I'll just say, I know I'll keep myself busy in one way or the other.

Since I had to get up to go to work this morning that leaves me no time for my normal "cleaning hours" today. So last night I worked on my cleaning. As I did that David headed outside to work on our garage door. For the past few days it's been doing the whole, going all the way down, closes, then opens right back up. If you keep opening and closing it, it's been staying closed after a few tries. But that's not fun. In the past we've been able to recalibrate the transmitters with the opener and it's been fine. Well, that's not what's happening this time. And do you think we can find the manual? No. Which leads me to my next thing...I swear we had one at one point and David disagrees...and I've found it impossible to find on the internet. Don't you think you'd be able to find it? They must not post it because in looking at forums I'm not the only one looking for a missing manual. So after searching the house for the manual and then the internet, we started searching the internet for troubleshooting help. I've tried turning the little circle knobs in the back that supposedly control how far the door goes, but that's not working. Not to mention the forum said, "turn the knob on the back 1/8 turn" Well, I have 2 knobs...figuring one is for the up movement and the other is for the down? What one do I move? Or both? After messing with it the door actually worked properly so of course I say, "open and close it again to see if it's right and not just a fluke" then all of the sudden the door stopped working all together. It'd click when you pushed a transmitter but it wouldn't move. Yep, overheated (per the forums). So we gave it rest. A while later tried it again. Same thing...after a few turns of the knobs it seemed to be right, then trying it again it would open right back up. So we're at a loss...not to mention a night of frustration, sweating our butts off in the garage. My confusion is why does it work every so often instead of not at all or working all the time? It's a crap shoot. So David's plan is to come home mow the lawn and try to fix it again. We shall see. Not that I ever want frustrations but I just wish I didn't have it now.

We Break The Rules

As usual, we had a full weekend. With David being on call it was also a weekend full of interruptions. I won't complain though, because those interruptions allow us to pay for what we need/want to do around the house and in our spare time. Of course, I'll fill you in on what all happened this weekend.

Saturday morning I tore down the paneling in the downstairs bedroom (we call it the cat room). It was eventful. Needless to say there was a lot of "Son of a -----!" going on. I swear that paneling was out to get me. I have a few war wounds....ran my head into the crowbar that was on the kennel, paneling fell on my face near me eye, leaving cuts, and my knees are tore up from nails still in the paneling. Ah, whatever, it's down. It will be some work getting the walls into shape. There's glue that was "helping" hold the paneling up, which we'll have to sand and good amount of patching that will need to be done. I took pictures, but I'll post them at a later date when the room is done.

That afternoon I took the dogs and met mom for the Ohio Bike Week Parade. That was fun, but near the end the bike's got backed up and were reving their engines. Not a good situation for the pups. They still had a good time getting out and so did we.

Saturday evening we had both sets of rent's over to celebrate Viking's 5th birthday. Viking could hardly wait to get his licker on that cake. As usual, he LOVED it. And the other's enjoyed it too.

Sunday morning we woke up and David immediately got a call for work. I figured I'd continue to get things done while he did his thing. So, on to the downstairs bathroom. Yep, started and finished today. I headed to Home Depot on my own armed with a list of items, came home, and got started. David helped me get things accomplished between calls. We decided to leave the paneling since it's such a small area and considering my experience on Saturday with taking the paneling down in the other room, it was staying! And we decided also to go with black walls. You may ask "why?" Yeah, I know. The books all say "don't paint a small area a dark color because it makes it look smaller." But whatever. We break the rules. We had extra black paint from the kitchen and it helps us continue our motif onto the other room. We like it and better yet, it's one more room that's finished. Everything is back into place with the exception of the doors for the cabinet. We need to pick up new knobs and then they'll be up. We even used spray paint to change the lightswitch plates, changed the light fixture, and spray painted hooks that are behind the door. Sorry there aren't better pictures. That's what happens when you have limited space.

Before

After

We also finished up David's room today. Once again, between calls David helped by placing the finish around the Willy Wonka door and I went around touching up the walls where needed. We're still searching for appropriate curtains/valences but here's the finished product.....

Weekend Full O' Projects

Boy, what a weekend. I can't believe how much we got done. I guess that happens when you put your mind to it and when you have help from those around you.

Project# 1-The Kitchen
It's done. Well, almost. All that's left is the floor, which is in the plans, but not anytime soon. We've done some work on it since we moved in, like remove wallpaper and paint but to give you a full effect of what all we've done I've posted pictures from when we moved and now....

Kitchen When We Moved In

Kitchen Now

Project #2-David's Vikings Room
We've been working on this for awhile now. I finally had time to paint all the woodwork including the wall cabinets and window frames that are in the room. There are no pictures for this project, as it is still in the works. We wanted to finish it this weekend, but in order to do so we wanted to get all the framed Sandusky pictures out of there before going any further. Since they've been leaning on the wall they've been leaving marks so we didn't want to freshen them up only to have more problems. So that's what leads us to the next project.

Project #3-Sandusky Pictures
David had the chance to hang what Sandusky pictures that we've framed thus far. Originally we were only going to keep the Sandusky items in our stairway, but with the eye of a friend he suggested we put them in our living room since our stairway isn't open and you wouldn't be able to get the full effect of the pictures. And considering we didn't have much decoration in the living room we thought it was a great idea.

City Of Sandusky Map 1883

The Boeckling

Other Sandusky Pictures

In addition to hanging the Sandusky pictures he hung his Marine Corps pictures that I framed a few weeks back. These are located in our hallway upstairs.

Project #4-Painting The Garage
As with most of our project weekends we had a few unexpected projects and this was one of them. The 'rents gave us a bug and all the sudden we were painting the garage. I won't complain because this is something that was on our list of things to do in the future. Hey, it's just getting done sooner than later. Why not do it now when you have time, beautiful weather, and people to help you? This project isn't totally finished yet but hope to have it done within the next 2 weeks or so. The front and side have their first coat of paint, which leaves 2 sides left to do with a first coat and then a final coat all the way around. It will definitely spruce up our backyard and the general look of everything.

Painting The Garage

What a great feeling to get all of this done. And guess what else? We even made it to the movies to see Pirates 3 (frickin' awesome if I do say so myself...we gotta go see it again!), I mowed and edged the lawn, we hung a pleated fan flag outside, took care our friends dog while they were away, and got some clothes shopping in.

Yep, I went shopping and picked up 2 pairs of capris in record time (Only 1 hour of shopping) using gift certificates from Sita and Alpa from Christmas. Remember I'm a power shopper but I don't always find what I want or that fits. So it's not such a surprise that I got something in that short of time but that I actually found something.

In addition, we ended our weekend with a Memorial Day cookout at our house with all the 'rents. And, my house is all in one piece with all clothes washed and folded. Whew! As you can see we've had a very full weekend. Hope ya'll had weekends that were just as fun and fulfilling wherever you were.

I better get going so I can get geared up for the week. Starting tomorrow I will be rising at 5:30am to start morning runs. It's getting too hot to run after work so it's just a little sacrifice I can make in hopes of bettering myself.

We got our Cedar Point vouchers from Sita and Alpa today too...maybe we'll be able to make it to the park tomorrow night.....

Cabinet Update

We're finishing up our activity of cabinet painting for the night and wanted to show how far we've come. As with all home projects we hit a roadbump here or there...for instance we couldn't use the spray painter because of malfunction, so we just ended up hand painting...But this is what we've got so far...

Lined Up Ready to Be Painted

Cabinets Starting To Be Primed

Cabinet Doors Primed

First Coat Of Black Paint

The Kitchen Cabinets Have Been Started

It's Tuesday night and guess what? Our kitchen cabinets have been started. Yeah, I know this was supposed to be done during the weekend but I just can't wait any longer. Hey, I'm determined to see Pirates 3. I also wouldn't mind getting more things done around the house this weekend with it being an extended weekend and all. But we'll see...whatever. It's midnight. I've worked an entire day, come home and run, and sanded all the cabinets (not the doors) and the paneling in the kitchen. Now I just gotta unwind and go to sleep. Tomorrow's my day off...what shall I do? School work? House work? How about a little bit of both??

Now I know why kitchen cabinets have doors...

Loft Update

I figured I'd update you on our loft/attic situation. I finally have boxes in it now! I've been bugging David and he finally helped me move the boxes from downstairs to the upstairs tonight. Of course that was following 5 cans of the Great Stuff Gap Filler. I can't believe he went through that many cans but most of you know he's freaked out by spiders and wants to keep all the creepy crawlers out of our space. The amount of space is amazing...pictures don't do it justice. It's kind of like the Willy Wonka door. It looks so small but it opens to a huge area. I think what helps is that you step down into the area so you don't even feel like you are squeezing through a small whole. And there's plenty of room to move the boxes in and out. Pretty cool though...not too many people can say they have a Willy Wonka door in their house.

So we're moving in the right direction and at this point I'm ready to pitch stuff that we don't need and organize. Only, my body is telling me it's time for bed. Tomorrow is my day off and of course I have many things I plan to get accomplished. First, getting the boxes out of the garage and moving them to the loft, then off to the store to get more boxes so we can organize things that we have shoved into tiny spaces, such as our closets. Oooh, this should be fun.

Hole, Door, And Floor

It is now 12:36am and I thought I'd update you on our situation. We now have a hole, door, and floor in for our loft area. Yay! Thanks to a ton of work from David and Joey. Whew. They kick butt. There are a few things left...like finishing the floor (they ran out of screws) and then fixing some of the wall around the door and making the door more presentable but it looks like by tomorrow evening I may just be able to put some stuff in that space. I'm so freakin' excited. Thanks so much David and Joey. And of course Jen for lending us your husband for the day. Next up....Jen and Joey's backyard tomorrow....should be fun!!

The Door

The Floor Before

The Floor Getting Re-Done

Electrician I Am Not

Earlier this week I came home to find that David changed his lightswitch and outlet in his "new bedroom". "Say what? You can do that and you didn't tell me?" So his honey do list grew a little bit. On Saturday we headed to Lowes to get some items and a few new switchplates to spruce things up (mind you, we prefer Home Depot for home improvement stuff, but I have to say Lowes has The Depot beat on home decor stuff). I took a nap thinking the things would be done when I woke up. Well, that's not exactly what happened. Something wasn't right and at the same time we were planning on having his 'rents over for game night. Needless to say game night turned into trying to get the light and switches on our stairs to work in addition to a new outlet in our bathroom to work. After hours of tooling, with the help of his dad, and me staying out of the way, the bathroom worked, but not the stair switches. We have older wiring that isn't marked as what is what and the switches were VERY old. So we headed to The Depot this morning and had some help from the guys. We purchased one of those cheaper electrical sets with all the testers and ohm meter, etc. and thought we'd be able to fix it. We took a detour on our way home to see my 'rents as it was Kara's birthday yesterday, so they were all coming over to open presents. We had fun doing that. Kara's such a sweetheart and it was good to see them all including Tara, Joe, and Allysen too. After that we headed home and David dug in again. I spent some time outside working on the yard to stay out of his hair. I came back in after about 1/2 hour and still nothing. He was using the detectors however, the sensor detected that all the wires were hot. Huh? Back to the Internet we go trying to find answers. At this point I jump in totally green and start fiddling with it. Somehow David and I came to the conclusion of installing the upstairs switchplate upside down and what do you know, but it worked! I'd like to thank the guy at The Depot or the Internet, but this was pure luck. And of course looking back Alpa even had that idea, but no, they had tried everything and just wanted to give up last night. I couldn't blame them considering they started at about 4pm and were still going at it until midnight. David said, "I'd like to say it was worth it, but I don't think it was." But I do. I love my quieter switches and beautiful switch plates. And now I can actually dry my hair without my dryer coming out of the outlet because it was previously installed upside down and had lost it's tight grip. One more thing that we can check off our list. However, I must say it was never really on our list to begin with. Hope everyone else had a productive weekend too!

A Change Will Do You Good

It was a working weekend this weekend. In addition, David was on call. They had already asked him to take care of something on Saturday morning. Then he got 3 calls (so far) this weekend. Even though they're a pain we won't be complaining about it when he gets his paycheck. And next week he won't have to be on call. Good to go. In between calls on Saturday, while I was at work, David borrowed his dad's truck and got my parent's retired recliner to add to our living room. You know what that means....changing the room layout. It seems as though we have so much room, but feel so limited. Mostly because we have the hot water radiators that take up one wall. Don't get me wrong we have come to LOVE the hot water heat, but sometimes you just wish those things weren't there. Anyway, David and I sat for about an hour discussing different set up options and tried to move stuff around to figure out exactly what we wanted. Of course we had a few sped bumps.....moved the computer the the opposite end of the room only to find that the cable wouldn't work for some reason. Good thing we were smart enough not to take everything apart and we just scooted everything across the floor. I'm sure it looked funny. This is what we came up with.....

It wasn't until I took the pictures that I realized we had a few too many greens going on. Mostly because of St. Patrick's Day and that can easily be changed. Even though the couch seems back so far we've added one more seat the room and opened it up tons, which I love. Of course that just gives David an even bigger excuse that now we really need a bigger tv. And I just politely tell him that "Sorry. We're going to Hawaii." And not that we have people over that much but now I feel more comfortable that we can actually have room for people. We can also have room to add more chairs if need be. So we spent a few hours doing that.
Saturday evening we had David's 'rents over for a game night. We finally got to play Disney's Scene It. We blew Sita and Alpa out of the water. Oh well. Sorry. It was kind of a buzzkill because I was really excited to play and had been waiting for awhile. I just have to find someone that knows all the stupid things your brain holds on to that takes up space, just like me. We then played Imaginiff and I won again. Say what? I've been on a roll. Don't know what's up with that.
We had something interesting happen last night. All the sudden Viking was barking, going nuts. So I immediately awaken to pounding on a door. Then David jumps up and I say, "we better see what's going on." As we scramble to make ourselves presentable I peek outside to find the police pounding on our neighbor's door while another individual is looking around the outside of the house with a flashlight. We both go outside and verify with the police that they weren't pounding on our door, just the neighbors. They say yes and we head back to bed. It wasn't until we went back up that I realized it was 3:30am. We have no idea what was going on. Our neighbors weren't home and they haven't been all day. They are a really nice family and I hope everything is okay. Isn't it amazing that in just a few seconds millions of thoughts can go through your head....Is something really going on or am I dreaming? Is someone breaking in? Who needs help? What the???? We'll have to see. Today was spent not doing too much. David woke up and within a few minutes received a page for work. So while he was out doing that I cleaned the house up a bit. The rest of the day included grocery shopping and napping on the couch. Our lives are so exciting aren't they? I can't complain because it's nice to have some down time every once in a while. Now it's time to work on some more school work before I get ready for the week. Hope everyone has an enjoyable Monday.