Backyard Stuff

I've been spoiled this week with fling-your-windows-wide-open-weather. The patio furniture has slipped out of the shed, the dogs are panting, and there's color in the world again. It's only right that we should grill out as many evenings as humanly possible.

Of course, grilling out happens in the backyard, and every time I go out there, I am reminded of the lovely mess of dirt trails my dogs have created. Last weekend, we ordered 2 tons of flagstone and it was delivered Monday. We didn't have a chance to dig into the project much during the weeknights, but when Saturday morning rolled around, Jesse was quick to bust out the wheelbarrow and start moving it from the driveway to the backyard.

As it turns out, rock is really heavy. Poor Jesse did the bulk of the lifting (and by "bulk", I may or may not mean all of the lifting). We still have more in our driveway to move, but it's coming along nicely. I'm hoping for some productive evenings this week and with any luck, this project will be wrapped up in a week or so.

Saturday

Today has been great! The only downside is that it always goes by too fast when the weekend rolls around.

Jesse and I went to get some zoo manoo from a friend this morning so that we could do some work on the gardens and get them all "tucked in" for winter. They keep chickens at our friend's place, so I had a lot of fun petting them and checking out their little coop. I realized today I've never held a chicken before. They are actually pretty snuggly little creatures. (Although one of them did poop all down the front of my hoodie.)

Anyway, after the chicken escapade, we came home and got the gardens layered up with poo, leaves, mulch and good stuff like that. We ate a quick lunch together at Chipotle and then Jesse headed to work. I decided to stick close to home and try to get some things done around here. I have been searching thrift stores for a chair to go in the garage at my art desk. Thanks to my mom, the search is over. She had an old chair in her classroom that she never uses, so she passed it along to me and I gave it an aqua blue facelift this afternoon. It's funny; I actually remember this chair from when I was a kid and used to walk down to her classroom after school was over. Now it's in my house! It is perfectly ideal for what I had pictured in my mind.

We are getting close on the garage. Mainly it's just details (like the chair) left. The only biggie still to do is getting epoxy down on the floor, but I think Jesse plans to do that on Monday because he's on school break next week. Hopefully that means I will have completed "after" photos to post soon!

Our Week

We worked on the garage a lot last weekend. The walls are pretty much done...need to finish painting the ceiling and get the epoxy down on the floor. After that, it's just organizing and cleaning. It was kind of sad when we were working on it. Jesse pulled the shelves out and laid them in the driveway, so I was working in the front yard painting them. From there, I could hear our neighbors having a really big fight (not the first time this has happened). They yell so loud that you can hear what they are saying through all of their walls - closed windows and doors. It's always kind of sad, but it was exceptionally bad this time, because eventually the argument turned into crying. I could hear both of them sobbing. It was just heartbreaking. It was the sound of that delirious, hopeless cry where the pain is all consuming. It was an odd day I guess - I'm outside enjoying the beautiful weather and working on something trivial in my house, and ten yards away two people are in emotional anguish in theirs. It made me think a lot about kindness, about neighbors, about life in general, though I have yet to come to any conclusions.

Anyway, here's some of the work...

This week, Jesse's mom was in town. She surprised us with an "early Christmas" since we don't get to see that side of the family very often during the holidays. It was a lot of fun. The dogs also really enjoyed having company. (What could be better than 2 more hands, just ready and waiting to pet them??) Bean took a minute or two to realize that he didn't need to be scared, but once he realized that, he got to business giving out kisses and thumping his tail. I was somewhere in between healthy and sick all week, so I did a lot of party-pooping and sleeping while she was here.

This weekend brings the realization that I have a ton of yard work to do. In fact, I'm slightly embarrassed at the state of our yard. We have plywood and all kinds of junk sitting in the driveway from when we were working on the garage, and I've got leggy zinnias in the front yard still hanging on despite the chill in the air, honeysuckle that needs to be tamed, and a number of other issues. That is only out front...the back yard is a whole different mess, courtesy of three dogs. I don't know what we will do with that - I think we might need to look at putting some pavers in.

Sunday Jesse is doing another trail race. I am hoping I can go too, but I guess it will depend on how much of the yard gets tamed before then!

In any case, being it's November, the holidays are just around the corner and that makes me happy. The perfect season for baking, holiday crafting, annoying cds on repeat, and celebrating life. I leave you with a shot from the surprise stockings from Jesse's mom. (Monkey was pretty sure that one belonged to her.)

Garage

The garage is coming along! As you know, it's been a very slow process. The summer was busier than anticipated and this fall has been non-stop crazy. Nonetheless, we decided we really want to get this project wrapped up before winter arrives.

I think I finally have a bit more motivation, because we are getting to the fun part of painting and getting everything organized and arranged. Jesse is very gracious to me when it comes to decorating and lets me do pretty much whatever I want as long as I make sure that pink and/or flowers are kept to a minimum.

Most of our house is very earthy and neutral which seems to suit us well. But, since the garage is in many ways its own entity, I decided to deviate quite a bit. I chose a color called "frolic". It's loud, obnoxious, and slightly uncomfortable. Somewhere between a yellow neon highlighter and pukey pea soup. Our garage is basically our gym, our work room, and our laundry area, so I want to create a space that makes you want to get up and move. Anyway, since painting one wall in the garage, I have been debating if I still want to keep on track with this crazy color. Tonight I decided I do, when I opened up the garage, half forgetting there is now paint on the wall, and it made me happy and smiley because it's so darn bright and cheery in there. It's kind of a slap in the face coming from the contemplative tone of the rest of the house, but a good slap.

However, I realized tonight that if we are going to make it work, I need to have a big picture plan. So I got out my trusty crayons and drew like I was in kindergarten again. This is my plan; frolic on the walls, white shelves, aqua blue paintings, and some hot orange tossed in for good measure. The idea is that after it's all said and done, the gray and black of the treadmill, tool chest, and other random manly things will tone it all down. We'll see. It could fail miserably. But, I figure, it's the garage...not like I'm decorating our living room in neon. So, this is my plan:

And this is the first "frolicked" wall:

I am hoping to have a productive weekend, so with any luck, I will have more photos to post soon.

Around Here

Besides night time trail races and lots of marathon training, the Canuck has been busy in the garage. I have helped approximately 1% to this point. (As in, I lifted and held one piece of drywall while he screwed it in.) I guess that's okay, as I imagine my work will come when it's time to tape and mud. I love plaster, spackle, and anything else of that general consistency. Drywall mud is so delicious....I can hardly wait to plunge a trowel into it.

The ever tough 1% ...

The ever tougher 99%....immigrant labor is the best!!

In other house news, I should have kept my garden savings calculations up to date after all. The garden got off to a slow start this year, but it has really perked up lately. I have been freezing tomatoes (lots of romas this year!), making salsa, trying to think of ways to use cucumber, and finding new recipes for kale.

This has to be one of my favorite summertime visuals.

And, with that, I just realized I haven't watered the gardens for some time. I should be off. In the meantime, I'm hoping your summer has been full of sticky popsicle hands, fresh lemonade, and good company!

While the Canuck Is Away....

I have tried to be half productive while the Canuck is away.

The day he left, I took Bean to the vet. He's been having some insane itching. Poor pup has some ferocious allergies. He is all drugged up now with a prescription doggie antihistamine, and I have had the privilege of rubbing ointment on his butt hole every day, and spraying his tummy, feet, and inner thighs down with a cortisone spray two times a day. Bean doesn't really enjoy this process, and let's be honest - there are things I would rather do than smear my dog's corn hole with gel. However, all of this fuss seems to be bringing him some relief, so for now, I will happily continue.

Right now, I am waiting for the 1st coat of paint to dry on our new front door. Our old wooden one had slowly been warping, and in the past month, hit the point where we could hardly even lock it. We finally sucked it up and bought a new one.

On the list of other malfunctioning household items is the lawnmower. Last time I mowed, I didn't think it was going to make it. I managed to squeeze it out and get the yard done (though a rather sloppy job), but it was a struggle the whole time. Today I am waiting for my brother to swing by and drop off his so I can mow in peace. Maybe when the Canuck is back, he can work his magic and figure out what's making ours so unhappy. I am not attempting that one. I have many visions of me chopping off fingers and/or limbs as I am testing the motor, so I added it to the list of "scary jobs I'm too chicken to attempt".

Anyway, hopefully by the day's end, I will have a nice pretty front door, and nice pretty short grass! And if I'm really lucky....a clean house, fresh laundry, and a whole host of other small projects complete - like tying up the honeysuckle vine out front, and putting a fresh coat of high heat paint on our fire pit. We'll see.... I figure if Jesse can get up at 4am, run miles and miles in the really cold snow...I suppose I could probably accomplish a couple things around here before he gets back.

And on that note, since I need to leave for the shelter later this afternoon, I better get back to business this morning!

Sweet Memories

I was bummed about the fact that we seemed to have lost all photos of our first ever house together in the move a few years ago. Yesterday when I got home, Jesse told me he had something that would make me very happy, and sat me down in the front of the computer to pull up the photos of our old house! I was very excited! The photos he found even included the ones he took the day we had the inspection done (before we closed and actually owned it). I had forgotten how nasty ugly it was when we bought it...and oh the horror of cat urine! We both joked that we don't know what we were thinking buying it. We had to remind ourselves that we were trying to buy for less than 140k, it was the middle of the housing boom, and most houses we looked at in our price range were literally crumbling off their foundation. This house was terribly ugly and wretched stinky, but since most of the stuff was cosmetic in nature, we snatched it up.

I had forgotten what all we did to it and the many long days working on it. One time I even fell asleep against the living room wall, holding a reciprocating saw in my hand. That was the night we were putting in the wood stove...if I remember right, it started snowing shortly after Jesse got all of the holes in the ceiling and roof cut, so the snow was just falling right into the living room. In fact, I believe at the point I fell asleep, Jesse was on the roof and I was waiting for him to come back down so we could start putting in the pipe. As I dozed off, I remember telling myself to stay awake, and thinking a) not smart for Jesse to be on the roof while it's snowing and b) not smart for me to be holding a reciprocating saw while feeling so sleepy. Somehow, we managed to get the wood stove put in that night and didn't have any trips to the ER. We also painted every square inch of wall and ceiling in that house. After that was done, I remember one Friday night, turning to Jesse and saying "I think we should paint the house this weekend!" (meaning the outside) and off to Home Depot we went to pick out paint. The next day I painted all day while Jesse was at work, and somehow managed to lock myself out of the house in the process. I remember thinking about how I could pee in the shed if I really had to go before Jesse got home. To this day, we still joke about the grand idea I had to paint the house in one weekend. Or the image of the Daytona loaded up with hardwood planks. There was 500sq feet shoved in there because we didn't have a truck, and we couldn't afford the delivery fee. Man, we did so many projects, and we did them all with such ghetto flair. That little hatchback served us well though. It was a very sad little car if I do recall. I remember driving behind Jesse one day, whom I could barely see through the thick black smoke, and praying that the Daytona didn't spontaneously burst into flames and kill Jesse. It lived through that day, and finally died on a mountain. Rest in peace, little buddy. Perhaps it is in used car heaven, right next to the beloved Dodge Aries. Anyway, we (and our cars!) worked hard on that house, and by the end of our time there, it had definitely become "home".

Ahhhh, little house...

how I miss you and all your sweet, ghetto, sweaty, stinky, cozy, loving memories...

Still fixing it up...

It is the perfect morning. It rained last night, so everything is nice and cool, the birds are singing, and all nature is quiet and content. I just came in from picking a pound and a half of sugar snap peas, Jesse's favorite garden veggie. Hopefully we will find time to relax today. Yesterday was a busy work day. Our replacement windows arrived, so we started in on that project. We also bought beadboard for the ceilings in the bedroom and office when we ordered the windows, so we started putting that up as well.

In keeping with our house projects theme, we measure the level of difficulty by the swear scale. Putting in wood floors = 3 sh*ts. Gutting the bathroom = 8 d*mns, 7 sh*ts, and 1 b*tch. Yesterday I was cracking up, as the scale officially tipped. We had a record number of f bombs, too many sh*ts to count, and many sons of b*tches. The project is not even done yet, and it is by far my least favorite. And judging by the colors flying out of Mr. Nikkel's mouth, I think it's safe to say he feels the same way. (In fact, for the record, of all of the "colors" that flew yesterday, I was only responsible for one. Not that I can blame him though, as Jesse really was doing most of the work.) The first window we started on had a lot of wood rot around it, so Jesse replaced most of the frame while I hung out in the other room and assembled a new desk for the office. The rot of course did not help, nor did the fact that our new neighbors had hired a professional to install replacement windows on their house on the very same day we started in on ours. That dude worked significantly faster than we did.

The first window we started on (well, actually Jesse did most of this by himself). Lots of wood rot in the frame....booooo....

On to the next, which went a lot faster, but still had some issues.
Nailing in some new flashing.

This is the reason we bought beadboard for the ceilings. You can't see it very well, but the old popcorn ceiling is alive and well in our office and bedroom. (Thankfully not the rest of the house though!) It is also starting to chunk off in random places, and may or may not contain asbestos. Putting up wainscot to cover it seemed a lot easier than doing an asbestos test and ripping it all down, then repainting the ceilings. Plus, if the test was positive, what a bugger that would be with masks, suits and the whole ordeal while doing the demo. You can also catch a small glimpse of the brass and glass light fixture straight from 1982 in this photo.
A self-photo taken while I was bracing up the paneling and Jesse was nailing it in. After the first failed attempt at holding the beadboard up while one of us nailed, Jesse created "the swooper". It is basically a t-shaped brace (which I am holding). The idea was that I would "swoop" under the paneling to raise it up and hold it in place while he was nailing to relieve some of the weight. Swooping action is much easier said than done, however, and I have the bruises to prove it.
We only got two panels of beadboard up, and the trim is still not back on the windows in the office. Plus, we have some major cleaning and organizing to do in there. Once we are finished completely, I'll post some of the after photos. Don't hold your breath though, because it may be a while before we get around to finishing it. We still have 5 more windows to install and beadboard for the bedroom. And we are debating about repainting all of the trim.

Poor little Horton was scared all day. Since we got him, he has always had a major fear of windows. I don't know what happened to him, but at some point, something very bad involving windows went down. When we first got him, you couldn't even adjust the blinds without him literally trembling in fear. I have never seen a dog literally shake in fear besides Horton with windows. I hate to think of what he went through or what those people did to him. He has come a long way since we first got him, and you can even adjust curtains in his presence now. But, there is still some sort of fear reaction in him, and yesterday was all just too much for him to handle with completely removing windows. Needless to say, he stayed as far away from the action as he possibly could.

Monkey was a different story. She wanted to be close. She decided it would be a good idea if she collected all of the toys she could find on the floor and line them up nicely on her bed. She did it so precisely in a neat little line.

Once she had her toys lined up in a row, I joked to Jesse "Isn't that a sign of autism in children?". (Monkey is a bit crazy.) No sooner had I said than, and we turned around to find her eating paint chips off the paint brush. She's not doing herself any favors in the joke department. (Don't worry, I took the paint brush away from her right away.) Actually, for as much as we make jokes about her, she's actually very smart. She just needs a job to do, or else she'll find one of her own...like lining up toys and eating paint chips. This is one reason I think she would enjoy agility, (which is still on my list of things to sign up for).

Anyway, the weekend is flying by much faster than I would like.

Later today I'm off to the shelter. I am heavily campaigning for a third (possibly fourth) dog. Jesse's question every time, is "But when will it stop?" and my answer is always "300 lbs." =)

Bedroom is Finally Done

Most of you have probably heard (read) me lament our bedroom decorating dilemma and how the windows in the corner throw the whole thing off and how I just can't figure out a way to arrange the furniture or decorate to make it look nice. Well, I am happy to finally say that is no more! The bedroom is done and I am finally satisfied.

A few months ago, I thought I had the problem-solver idea to paint a mural in the corner opposite the windows to try to balance it out, but the walls are textured, and I couldn't get any clean edges and it didn't look good, so I ended up painting over it. Then I spent months trying to think of a new idea and we rearranged, and tried all kinds of things, but basically, we just kept the bedroom door shut all the time because it drove me nuts. Last week, it was really getting on my nerves and one night I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up trying to think of new ideas, and it finally dawned on me that I could still do a mural; I just needed to do it on something else first and then apply it to the wall. So, off to Lowe's we went looking for something cheap that would give a clean edge when cut with the jigsaw. We ended up with some good old quarter inch MDF, (which side note: one time a guy at Home Depot told me that it didn't exist...and he called me "sweetie" at the same time...ugh). Anyway, so I stenciled the design on, and then passed it off to the resident handyman who cut it out for me (and even painted it today while I was grocery shopping). We put it up this afternoon (and I got to use the brad nailer, so I'm extra happy) and I love it. Just how I had pictured it. Plus, I had a gift card for this snotty decorating store, so we got some free accessories. And now, the room is clean, nice, balanced....ahhhh.... and I'm so happy. Jesse is too, I think, because now he knows he doesn't have to listen to me grumble about the stupid contractor who decided to install the windows like that, and how we have never invested the time or money to make our bedroom nice and how we always put all the other rooms first and how I hate that our bedroom is full of junk and looking shabby and I just wish we had a nice bedroom... Blah blah blah...every husband's dream right there.

Anyway, here is what finally shut me up:


Some of those free decorating accessories...


The mural...


The fabric in there...

Pergola Progress

Just needs stain on a few more boards...

Around Here

As Jesse mentioned, he is on vacation this week. It's only been two days so far, but I am really enjoying having him around more. No 3am alarm clocks, no worrying about being up past nine o'clock...I could get used to this. Anyway, Jesse started working on the back pergola today while I was in class. I plan to help out tomorrow as soon as I am finished with school stuff. I only have three weeks left this semester, which I'm pretty happy about.

Working hard....


Still working hard...


Break time....


Not working so hard... (but look at the snow fountain cherry tree all in bloom!!)

Home

The front pergola has been going up this week. I'm pretty excited about it and have been looking into some vines that I can grow up it. It also makes me very excited to do the back one. Jesse is so handy.




This is the "after" of the kitchen cabinets...though my "before" is apparently on the other memory card, so I don't have it right now.



While Jesse was working on the pergola, I got my seeds in, which reminds me that I need to go check them this morning and maybe water. I also tried to clean up the backyard a bit. Our ornamental grasses needed to be cut back for spring, so I got those done. Abe helped. His latest thing has been "jungle Abe" where he likes to go crawl in between the grasses and then he will peer out at us from behind them. It's really cute, especially right now since everything is still brown and he looks all camouflage. Anyway, unfortunately, I had to cut back his hiding spots, but he made sure to supervise while I was doing so.

Rodent Free

Well, 20 traps, 2 boxes of poison, 1 electronic repellant, and 2 nights with my parents later, we are in a rodent-free home. (Or so we think.) None of the traps Jesse set caught anything, but the poison we put outside and in the crawl space got eaten, and there were no signs of new life. We cleaned like we've never cleaned before, and plan to keep some poison outside under the deck (where no animal bigger than a couple inches can get), as well as a couple other strategic places, so hopefully this will not happen again! Although, through this ordeal, I have heard a million mice/rat stories from other people about their battles. Pretty funny, some of them. (Though I'm sure not funny to them when they were going through it!)

More later...for now, I need to get ready for class.

Operation RAT TRAP

So anyone who read Jesse's latest post knows we discovered a little problem in the kitchen. We were talking the other night, about how it's embarrasing to say you have a rat in your house. It's like saying you have lice. It's not really your fault, and in reality, it could happen to anyone, anywhere, but it just sounds like you are dirty. We clean all the time around here. And the kitchen never has crumbs and crap out. And I know the little rat just wanted a warm place, and since our deck is so low to the ground, we can't see under it near our house, but apparently, there must be a little hole big enough to let something in...like a rat. And our kitchen just happens to have an outside wall, against the deck, so when the little rat got in, he discovered that he had found a nice place to make home. I won't go through the updates of what we have done so far to get rid of the beast(s), since Jesse covered the basis there, but I will tell you a story.

The house has been quiet since the electronic rat repellant thing has been put in, and no signs of life near the trap, and no scratching sounds coming from the wall, so we have been thinking we are heading in a good direction. Beginning to feel somewhat relaxed, this afternoon, I begin in on my homework, which involves cutting, so I had the scissors out. Eventually, I decide I'm done cutting, and it's time to put the scissors away. We keep them in a drawer in the kitchen. So, I open the drawer, and lay them down - when I see movement in the drawer. My hand is still in there, when life goes into car-accident-slow-motion, and I see the rat an inch from my hand. Then, life suddenly speeds up again, SCREAAAAAAAAMMMMM and withdraw hand, whilst jumping back three feet and watching the rat run behind the drawer.

Needless to say, the problem is not solved. Thankfully, the other night, we pulled all of our silverware out of the drawers, just in case. I have to go to class soon, but when I get home tonight, we are launching Operation Rat Trap. I'm pulling everything out of the kitchen and putting a trap in every drawer, every nook and cranny I can find, and then I am bleaching the snot out of our house. Rat gestation period = 19-22 days. Mission must be accomplished ASAP.

A Little Predictament

So this morning, I get up and realize I have no clean pants to wear. No big deal, I'll just stay in my pj's and bathrobe until I can get some laundry done. So I go out to the garage where our washer and dryer are and I start some laundry. I put my hand on the doorknob to come back into the house, push push...door won't open. I realize it's locked. This lock is special because it was here when we moved in, and we don't have a key to it, so generally, it stays unlocked, but on occasion, the little thing gets turned, and it locks. Hm. This is kind of embarrassing since I'm in my pj's and bathrobe and just woke up, but there is a key hidden outside. I'll go out the garage door, get the key, and come back in through the front door. So I run outside in my bathrobe, freezing cold feet in the snow, and get the key, go to the front door, hoping no one is seeing this fiasco. I get to the front door, put in the key, turn the locks, push push...door won't open. I then realize that last night, I had slid over the little chain lock, and this other little sliding lock that's on there. I can't get in through the front door. The back door - oh no wait, we just put a new lock on it and haven't hidden a key for it. So I dart back into the garage and shut the garage door to think a bit. I know, I'll just call my mom, she has a spare key. Wait, that won't do me any good, she has the same key I have at this point, and besides that, I have no phone. So I sit, staring at the door watching my breath hover in the air and shiver a bit. How long can I wait out here? After all, I can start the dryer to warm up a little. I can put on some dirty clothes to keep warm too. I can just wait until Jesse gets home. Problem is, Jesse is in Canada. Scratch that. I could go to the neighbor and use their phone to call a locksmith. How much would that cost? Maybe 50-75 bucks, and about half my pride seeing as I just woke up, have not combed my hair, have not brushed my teeth or even put on clothes. Beyond that, most of our direct neighbors have left for work. Now, Horton and Abe are scratching and whining at the door, as if to say "Why aren't you coming back inside?" I yell back to them "Hang on boys. I'll figure it out!" So I sit, watching my breath again, and start looking around the garage for ideas of how to get this door open. I'll pick the lock. I find a bobby pin and some other random things, try them all, and have not even a slight bit of luck. Alright, I'm getting desperate. I'm just going to knock the door knob off. It's so silly to have a lock with no key anyway, and we can just buy a cheap knob to replace it. I grab the hammer, and as it turns out, door knobs are much more sturdy than you would think. Well, I guess it's all metal inside too. If I could get to where I could at least see that part.... So I grab the chisel, thinking I'll get it loose enough that I can maybe disengage the inner parts. Chisel chisel chisel...nothing. So at this point, the sucking up of pride, going door to door until I find someone who is home, and using their phone to call a lock smith seems like my best option. I peer out the garage window, looking for signs of life at the neighbor's. All cars gone, so I consider what house to begin with. That lady with the muscle disease should be at home! But wait, she is bed ridden, she won't be able to answer the door. It's awfully cold out there too. I'll be walking around without shoes in the snow, in my bathrobe. Is there some simple solution I'm missing? I glance around the garage, looking for ideas - when it hits me I never really liked this door anyway...and I am in a garage full of power tools....and besides that, replacing the door with a cheapie would be no more expensive than calling a lock smith....and Jesse did get a nice new drill for Christmas...plus I could use the sawzall...



And I'm now blogging from inside my home. When in doubt, use power tools.

Fun Fun Fun

A month or so ago, a very dear friend of ours "donated" a chunk of money to our furniture fund, saying it was needed for our rest and that people should do more nice things in the name of God so that he actually gets credit for something good instead of church hypocrisies. At first, it was kind of hard to accept, because you have the whole guilt of "but this money could do so much good for such and such cause" or "but we already have so much and new furniture isn't a need, just a want". Anyway, our friend insisted and we eventually (very happily) accepted. So, after debating for a while over it, mainly over size issues and arrangement issues, (you can only fit so much into a 700some square foot house), we finally decided and will have nice, new furniture next week! We are very excited, as our furniture history has gone like this: In Tennessee we had a hand-me down love seat that my mom sewed us a slipcover for, in Texas, we had some funky Mercy Ships bamboo furniture that had bugs crawling out of it, and in Colorado, we bought a $25 couch from the thrift store and staple-gunned khaki fabric to it to cover the ugly and stained plaid that it was. Here, we upgraded to new furniture, but it was new furniture as in the "find the absolute cheapest that works and get it furniture" type of furniture, which has served us well for its time. (Thank you Ikea.) Even so, it wasn't exactly "adult-house" furniture, as a friend of ours came over one day and was like "Awesome! That's the couch I had in my college dorm!" (At least we had special cushion covers that were blue that my mom made us, instead of the ones you buy with it). Anyway, so this is our very first "you can actually choose what you like, consider looks and comfort, and get that furniture" type furniture. We have finally entered into the world of nice, new, fully upholstered, fully cushioned, not slip covered, and not homemade upholstery furniture!! I'll take some photos once we have it all set up. For the time being though, you'll have to settle for this description. It's a couch and a chaise lounger in a creamy white color, (which we have decided, we will strategically place throws over near the corner where Abe will rub against it by the window to keep his hairy marks off, but even if it gets some hairy marks, it's special fabric that is apparently super easy to clean stains and what not out of).

More Bathroom

The bathroom is getting there...and we are tired. We decided that today will be a no bathroom work day. Jesse got home from "regular" work not too long ago and is napping. I might join him soon. Last night we had thunderstorms, which means Abe was up all night, which means I was up all night.


Jesse got all of the plumbing finished up, so we put on the last of the cement board and I finished up the tiling.


We bought a cheap wet saw that came in very handy, although it was groaning a lot toward the end.


Yesterday we were able to grout. That means we just need to caulk and let that dry, then we can finally have a regular shower again!

The bathroom has pretty much occupied all of our time outside of work lately. I feel like the shower was the major hurdle, and now it's easier/smaller stuff left...although nothing is ever as easy as it's supposed to be in the world of house projects! We just need to paint, tile the floor, put in the vanity and sink, and change out the wall cabinet. Hopefully we can have it wrapped up within a week or so. This week coming up is pretty busy though, so I'm trying to be realistic.

We are taking N to the zoo this week, so that should be fun. I am excited to see the sea lion show. Jesse had another shift bid at work unfortunately...we now have just one day off together. (Which is still much better than when we had no days together, so I'm not complaining!)

Anyway, that's life for now...bathroom, work and school!

Today

It has been a day full of bathroom work. I am just pausing for a bit while Jesse fits in one more pipe. Kind of a one man job, and our bathroom is small enough that I figured I should just get out of the way until he's done....then back to it! Here's a few photos of the progress...



Cleaning up so we can finally bring in the new bathtub! (What you did not see on the "before photos" were the scratches and brown stains all over the bottom and sides of the old tub.)


Yeah!! Seven water leaks and forty-two profanities later, the tub is in!


Jesse decided to take advantage of the brief thunderstorm we had. (This is day three without a shower for us.)


Thinking about tiling, with the help of Abe of course.


While Abe likes to be part of the action, Horton is a little unsure of the banging and noise. He has been hiding out by his bed all day long.

Slowly making tile progress...


Shew! It's hard work supervising all of these projects!

Bathroom Bonanza

The bathroom project is finally under way! Jesse has been working like a mad dog the last couple days. I have unfortunately not been able to partake yet, as I've been either at work or when at home, needing to work on school. I worked very hard today to get my assignments turned in so that I can have all day tomorrow to help in the bathroom and I am looking forward to it. It's been really hard to focus on school knowing that fun house projects are going on just a few feet away. Anyway, it's been going (fairly) well so far...a few glitches in the system here and there. It's usually not a good thing when you wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of gushing water, as happened last night. The hot water valve popped off, which consequently sent water spewing straight out into the bathroom...poor Jesse, I think I scared the crap out of him. I woke up first, yelling "JESSE!!! WATER!!!" and we both went flying out of bed. Thankfully, little damage was done (outside of stealing our much needed beauty rest). =)


Before Photo A.


Before Photo B.


The wonderful discovery of mold growing all over the insulation and studs.


Jesse sporting his brand new respirator (courtesy of the mold discovery) while hacking away at where the tub used to be.


Coach Abe steps in to give Jesse a pep talk.