Recent Accomplishments

This room....

is no longer the spare bedroom.

It is now....

the office.  One side of the room anyway.  The other side still has the white shelves and containers of stuff.  But hey, big giant desk is out of The Bedroom.

Speaking of The Bedroom....

Ta Daaaaa

My new dresser.  See the mirrors?  Hubby made that for me.

It is 3 separate mirrors that he attached together, and hung as one.  Those are 3 $10 Wal-Mart mirrors, as opposed to the $100 mirror that actually "goes" with that dresser.  Then he installed a wall mount for the Tv/computer monitor.  Pretty nifty!

Special sneak previews....

I found the perfect color curtains for the living room.  Eventually it will be painted to match the curtains.

My project this weekend while Hubby is finishing up the caulking is to paint this dresser.

And these.....
have to wait until we finish cleaning out the shop because Hubby needs to get to his table saw.  But when it's done, we will have the coolest bedroom ever.

Well, second coolest. 

Maybe even third.

Not Just Another Pretty Face

Hubby has proven once again that he is not just super sexy, but also brilliant.

He has solved the pocket door problem.

This is a wall mounted sliding door.  And it doesn't cost much more than just buying a regular door.

Problem solved and no new walls have to be destroyed.

The Perfect Solution: Pocket Doors

If you don't know, this is a pocket door:

It slides into the wall, instead of opening into the room.

This is our bedroom door:

And this is Hubby's closet door:

The doors hit each other when opened:

A standard door stopper thingie that screws into the baseboard (which you can see in the picture) is only 3 inches long and is too short to stop the problem.  I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on new doors only to have them end up marred the same way.

I discovered Pocket Doors the other day.  That would solve the problem perfectly.  

The only thing is, for the installation of pocket doors......you have to tear out the drywall to remove studs and insulation so the door has room to slide into the wall.  

That would be the wall we just put up.

I can't help it that I didn't see the show on HGTV that featured Pocket Doors until just last week.

Hubby is giving me death looks every time I mention it.

A Voice In The Dark

The other night Hubby and I came home after being out for dinner and a play. Surly Teenager was away, so the house was mostly dark and quiet. It was just us and the dog.

Hubby gets in bed and I am standing at the other side putting on my pj's. Haylie is lying in the hall, right by the bedroom door. Hubby stretches and yawns. At the same time, Haylie stretches and groans.

And from somewhere else in the house I hear a gruff male voice say something.

I froze.

Hubby looked at me and asks if I heard something.

I nodded, and I am pretty sure my eyes were bugging out of my head.

Whispering, he asked if I had heard a voice say something or if it was just the dog. I whispered back that I had heard a male voice but couldn't tell what it said or where it had come from. He jumped up out of bed and grabbed a gun and a flashlight. I grabbed a hammer in
one hand and his smaller pocket gun in my other.

Hubby went room to room checking doors, looking out windows, and in closets. He started at the furthest room, the family room and worked back towards our bedroom. I stood in the doorway listening and ready to call 911 if necessary.

He came back towards me saying he didn't see anything and I asked about the girl's rooms. He was doing those next.

Lazy Teenagers room is right next to ours, so he did that one first. Nothing. The hall closet. Nothing. That left Surly Teenagers room. He goes in. Nothing.

I start to relax and step back into our bedroom.

Then suddenly, the voice again and Hubby yells "Jesus Christ"!

I almost peed my pants and I stopped breathing expecting to hear gun shots next.

Nothing.

Then Hubby starts laughing, as I run in the room and look around. I didn't get it, I didn't see anything amiss.

He says "I almost shot the computer".

And then I got it.

We have parental controls on Surly Teenagers computer to keep her from being tempted to stay up all night chatting and playing virtual pool. When it is 15 minutes to signing her out, it flashes a message asking if more time wants to be added. She had the volume up full blast and
the speaking option was enabled. So the computer had asked out loud about adding more time.

Hubby promptly disabled that feature.

Cross Your Fingers

I am giving Lazy Teenager a ride to a job interview this afternoon.

It is at the zoo. They have a bunch of positions open, are known for
being good about hiring people (kids) that don't have a steady
employment history.

If she gets on there, she will be a City Employee and they have pretty
good benefits.

Here's hoping!

Poor Little Kitty

Rest In Peace

12/2007 - 01/2009

Inquiring Minds Want To Know.....

Is the bedroom finished?

Well of course not.

Is the furniture moved back in?

Well of course not. Ok, some.  Just enough to keep me from committing Hubby-cide. 

Did Hubby notice my hair?

Well, I left the bottle and scissors in the bathroom, but he claims he would have noticed.

Did I cut off too much?

Surprisingly, no. It is right at my shoulders. And surprisingly even, considering I did it myself with a mirror.

And in other news.......

Hubby is working on some silvers to go with his ever increasing forehead.  

Home Alone

Left alone with these:

Can result in this......

Before:

After:

Twenty bucks says Hubby doesn't even notice until he sees it here.

Looking Forward

A few things for 2009:

*moving back into my finished bedroom
*getting to goal weight would be nice
*breast reduction/lift and have my insurance cover it
*trip to Ohio to visit my BFF after her knee surgery, so I can yell at
her to do her physical therapy. I will be good at this, since I am a
bitch. (Right Baby-Puppy?)
*finish painting the house before it gets crazy hot outside
*Surly Teenager will be liscensed to drive (clear the roads!)
*Lazy Teenager will be 20! 20! How can she be that old while I am
still so young?
*once Hubby is paramedic certified, hopefully he will get a job at a
Fire Station that will pay for him to go to the Fire Academy
*finish paying off our debt snowball
*a new (to us) car

Hmmm. I am sure there is more but that is all I can come up with off
the top of my head.

Back to work...

Ugh.

I had almost forgotten how much I hate the sound of the alarm clock in the morning.

Until it went off this morning. 

 

Yes. That is the dog.....

Project: WILL THIS BEDROOM EVER BE FINISHED

We have color!

BONUS!

Surly Teenager with a haircut.

Not the huge change I was expecting, but it does make her look older.

And no highlights.

Project: Finish The Bedroom

Progress for the day:

Ceiling paint touched up around edges

Repainted to cover old water stain spot

Cool new thermostatic remote controlled fan installed

New air register installed

Window trim, with cool rosette blocks, routed and installed

All baseboards routed, measured and cut

Tonight: All baseboards will be primed.

Tomorrow:  The walls will be painted, the baseboards will be painted and installed.  If I am still kicking after that, the windows will be primed.

New bedroom door and closet doors have to wait for the budget to recover a little.

Project: Finish The Bedroom

Well Hubby got his new toy after all.  Rusty was a total no-show today.  We finally called and got his voice mail and told him to never mind.  We will finish it on our own.

This is the shed project that we now have to stop work on so that we can get the bedroom done by the end of the weekend.

Messy side

Clean side

All the stuff from the empty side, outside.  We put down 4 sheets of plywood to cover the old floor, and have about 2 more sheets to go.  

It would be nice if we could get the bedroom done tomorrow and then the shed done on Sunday.

HA!  Well a girl can dream.....

Project: Finish The Bedroom

Day Five: No new toy for Hubby.

Rusty showed up.  He touched up a few places on the walls and ceiling.  And then painted the ceiling.  

Today will include paint the ceiling spots he touched up yesterday, hang the ceiling fan, paint the walls and do the trim.

He may actually be able to finish today.

Hubby went to match the paint we bought several years ago, so there would be 2 gallons of each color.  The green, Barnyard Grass, was no problem.  The blue, however, had gone bad.  Apparently we had bought it on sale as a discard, it did not have the color formula on it.  We think we have matched it pretty close with Windjammer.

In case you are wondering what Hubby and I are doing while Rusty is hard at work on our bedroom, we are not just sitting around and playing video games all day.  Well, okay, we did do that one day.  Surly Teenager got Rock Band for Christmas from my sister, so we did kind of goof off one day.  Anyway, we are cleaning out the shop and finishing the floor out there.  Hubby found some good shelves on sale at Sears that he ordered.  He was originally planning on buying a work bench and then building shelves.  But will now build the work bench, since he bought the shelves.  

In other news:  Lazy Teenager and The Boyfriend finally got kicked out of the apartment by Mr. Nice Guy.  I gave them a ride out to The Boyfriend's grandparents place yesterday.

Then last night Lazy Teenager comes knocking on the door.  The grandparents won't let her stay there because they are not married.  She has called all of her friends and no one will let her come stay.  She doesn't have anywhere to go.

It killed me, but I did the right thing.  I did not let her stay and I did not give her money.  I gave her some suggestions.  I told her I loved her, and that I hope she understands.

She was very mature about it.  She was crying a little, but no screaming fit.  She didn't even slam the door when she left.  This may actually be the point where it all sinks in and she gets the message and starts to make some better decisions and take some responsibility for herself and stop making excuses about everything.

I managed to make it through the night without calling her every hour to make sure she is okay.  

Project: Finish The Bedroom

Day Four: Nothing. 

Rusty cancelled on us for the day due to an unexpected doctor appointment.  

Hmmm.  I don't know.  As soon as Hubby's phone rang yesterday, I KNEW he was calling to cancel.  He has finished up to the texturing, which was the original job, and been paid for that.  The painting and trim was an add on.

Supposedly, he will be here at 10am.  So we will see.

Hubby is hoping he actually does not show up.  And why?  Is it because he likes painting rooms so much, he wants to do it?  Is it because it will save us some money to finish the room ourselves?

Nope.

It is because if he doesn't show up, Hubby will have an excuse to buy a new toy.