15 Minute Man

As promised, Rich was over on Monday to help Mike with the drywall in the hallway and downstairs bedroom. And would you believe it only took 15 minutes to fix and get a first coat on everything?!

Rich was just leaving as I was getting home from work - amazing. But, it's as he said - small stuff, easy to fix.

Hallway

Downstairs Bedroom

The two of them are getting together again tonight, first to put another quick coat on the downstairs bedroom and maybe some sanding in the hallway - should only take another 15 minutes or so. Then they'll go over to Rich's house, where Mike is helping him tape up his Jeep in prep for painting. Everybody wins - I love it!

The drywall, if finished this time around, will have to dry for another couple of days before it can be painted. It may turn out to be an all-paint weekend for Mike, who'll be painting the Jeep and now possibly these two rooms. (Although he may also help his parents, who are moving back to the Cape. If so - paint can wait until next weekend.)

And the big exciting news from yesterday - we both went to my ultrasound in the morning. And it is definitely a boy. =) We're so psyched!

"HI EVERYBODY!"

Motivation Strikes Again!

Amazing what a new blog format will do! Proof positive - this Saturday. Mike was pretty busy with winter time vehicle maintenance - you know, winterizing the boat, tuning up the skid steer, fixing the heat in my truck, putting a new chain and sprocket on the 4wheeler.... standard fall/winter stuff.

He came in around noon after finishing up the boat and I casually mentioned the hallway drywall and asked if he wanted to finish it up or if our neighbor Rich could come by soon to do it. (Since it was half done already and just needed another skim before it could be repainted for good.)

Well, somehow this led into a discussion of our downstairs guest room soon-to-be baby room and before you know it, I'm pulling out my paint color scheme and Mike's in the room inspecting the drywall! And wouldn't you know it, soon after that we're taking the old twin guest mattress and the desk out of the guest room and hauling it to the dump!

When we got back, Mike was back out in the garage to fix my heat. But me - I completely cleaned out the guest room. (save for the heavy stuff) Curtains, nick nacks, junk we'd been storing in there - everything.

Of course, it pained me to mess up the upstairs office after just having cleaned all the Halloween stuff out of there the previous weekend! Now it looks like this:


Ok, back to the bedroom:

Then I figured I might want to start a list of things we need in here. A new door for sure - this one was bought as a temp and doesn't match all the rest of the house's wood doors. Plus, it's taken a lot of abuse. We actually lived in this room during early renovations and this door separated us and our stuff from the dusty gross and unfinished house beyond.

Of course we need outlet covers - 5 of them. And one outlet has yet to be installed! Plus two switch covers and one switch for the closet light... oh yeah, and a closet light. Closet doors too.

Window trim and curtains.

Then there's the floors. Unfortunately the floor is super soft in this room. You jump on it and the whole room shakes. You can see the floor buckling - it's terrible.

That evening our neighbor Rich stopped by and of course he got all excited when Mike mentioned drywall. Especially when the two of them came in to look at the room and the hallway. There wasn't much that needed to be done. In fact, Rich asked if he could come over some evening this week! Mike suggested Monday. Great, done deal.

So in one swoop, we go from stagnation to motivation.... it's funny really. When we decide to move - we move QUICK. I think that's what has really allowed us to make such great progress over the years.

Anyway, tonight the guys will be working drywall. I have my dance class, so timing is perfect. Maybe if we're lucky, Mike will be able to paint this weekend. That's a lot to ask for a short week with Thanksgiving stuck right in the middle - but you never know when motivation will strike!

New Look!

Notice anything different about me?! (Me, the blog that is.)

No? Well, no accounting for poor memory or visual impairment. I've spent the better part of the last couple hours completely re-vamping the site!

New template - new customizations - and, hopefully, all the same old features. Unfortunately, to implement all this good and new stuff, I had to delete all the old widgets and recreate them. So if there are any links that don't work or something seems amiss, let me know.

It feels great to finally have a site that's not... well, the same 'ol blogger template. Makes me proud to show off the 'ol blog again. I was beginning to feel a little shabby after recently reading through several awesome blogs.

Feedback welcome! Ideas welcome!

Now I just need some new projects to post about.... Oh Mike!.....

Sweet Rhapsody

Sweet Rhapsody, Mirage Lake, and Star Shine... oh yeah, and the blue is Coastal Mist, but I doubt I'll use that one.

I couldn't resist checking up on boy/girl neutral colors at Behr.com. Teal has been in my head since the beginning - I'm not a pink-for-girls and blue-for-boys kind of person... and I'm definitely not a yellow kind of person either. So when I saw this color combo, with my main color's name of "Sweet Rhapsody," I just fell in love.

Behr has sample rooms you can point and click your paint into to experiment with. I have to say I also like the idea of doing an accent wall in the darker Mirage Lake teal color. The Star Shine would go on the ceiling - appropriately.

Of course here I am thinking about paint when I should be thinking about the logical first step in that downstairs bedroom - drywall. It has yet to be fixed. Then there's the hallway, right outside the room, with drywall half done. All that should really be taken care first since it takes so long - the mudding, the drying, the sanding, the dust everywhere.

I don't know if I want to hassle the neighbors into coming over again to do it this time. They've done so much for us this summer. Although if they find out that Mike did drywall on his own, we'll be in big trouble. Don't ask - I'm guessing it's some drywaller perfectionist pride or something.

One step at a time.

HalloWeekend

Let me tell you - it's tough to throw a party pregnant. Especially one so involved as our 6th annual Halloween bash - think about it, 6 years worth of accumulated decorations, creepy-theme treats to make, a costume to get yourself into, and then of course there's all the normal party prep including cleaning, yard work, rearrangement of vehicles, shopping....

I've barely yet recovered. And honestly, I had trouble relaxing during the party because I was just so pooped by the time it got started! Not even the virgin jello shots could cheer me, but they did help.

Anyway, as promised, pictures!

Our graveyard tablescape featured spanish moss, gravetones, and creepy skulls and hands reaching out from the moss.

Ghosts in the graveyard - actually white chocolate covered strawberries decorated with black icing.

Mike made the cheez pumpkins - semi soft smoked cheddar shaped into balls with a pretzel stick stem and crushed peanut rocks underneath. The lines on the pumpkins were drawn with a toothpick.

The jello brain - substitute vodka for the cold water in the jello recipe and make sure to spray the brain mold with non-stick spray!

Me in my 40's girl costume, complete with victory rolls.
(All thanks to this great 40's hair in 5 minutes tutorial from You Tube!)

Mike in his zoot suit with John G

Best costume went to my girl Keely - she's a tree! Complete with bird, squirrel, and tire swing!

And here's some people out in the living room, dancing with jello shots. That bright light back there - that's the strobe.

Now that the party's done, I'm happy to be able to relax. As of yet I have no plans for the weekend either - and that's just fine with me.

No Budget Transformation!

Remember the other post when I said I was going to steal some furniture and a rug from my guest room for the mudroom - temporarily of course, for the party?

Well - if it sounded a little bizarre to you, it did to me too and I had no clue what the consequences would be. But despite my misgivings, I did just that Saturday. Mike gave me a hand in the AM and we brought in the white rug and my little teal couch and a coffee table. The rug was a bit too long, but I hid one side with the couch and had to admit, it looked pretty good and comfy!

Then I put up the curtain rods - and let me tell you, the make-your-own-double-rod idea came out fabulously and easily!

Since the windows aren't trimmed out yet, and I know window treatments should be at least 4" up and 4" over from the window trim, I measured out 6" (2" trim) and installed the brackets.

To create the second rod, I just installed the smaller second rod brackets butt up to the first ones. This way, when I finally get curtains, they'll hide the brackets.


If you remember, I had already bought my sheers at the Linens 'n Things closing sale, and boy was I psyched about getting those up. And the minute I got down off my chair and stood back and looked at the room, I just couldn't believe it. The transformation was incredible - it looked awesomely comfy and the sheers were perfect and the rods were straight.


You don't want to know what my guest room looks like, but since we lock the cats up in there during the party - no one will have to look at it anyway.