Furniture Face Off

On a previous post, you'll see the couch placed on the far wall of the living room. This was Mike's suggestion. I wanted to try it on the opposite wall from whence it started. So of course, on Monday, Mike moved it where I wanted it.

But I have to admit, after starring at it and thinking about it for Tues-Wed, I couldn't help thinking that I didn't like it. It divided the room - which I thought I wanted when I envisioned the arrangement. But in practice, it was too much of a division and left little room for Mikey to play on the floor, which is what I really wanted for him.

And on Thursday I couldn't shake the thought as I sat at my desk, leisurely working on a non-mission-critical project. Then, I had a crazay idea. Mikey was at day care that day... I could rush home at lunch, put down the old rug, and rearrange the couch. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became.

When noon came around, I was on my coffee induced mission home. Arrived in 15min, vacuumed the floor, carried the rug up from the basement, put down the carpet pad, put down the carpet, moved the couch back to the far wall, and vacuumed the carpet. I was back to work by 10 after one and sweaty as hell. But I was lovin the results!

Then, the call came in. I hadn't even gotten to the office - I was just getting off the highway in fact, when my phone rang. Day care. Mikey was running a fever. And wouldn't you know, I had to get back to the office, make a host of phone calls, turn around and go back past my house to day care, pick up the poor baby, take him to the doctor's, pick up a sandwich (5 dollar... 5 dollar foot looong!) (Gimmee a break, I hadn't eaten lunch and was ready to pass out.) and returned home.

Yeah - teething plus double ear infection plus a cold... equals one unhappy baby.

Luckily for me, Mikey took a nap around 5. And I should have relaxed. But no, I got my 5th or 6th wind and got back to moving and arranging and re-arranging furniture. I put in the chair, then one end table, then the second end table... moved the end tables several times until I liked them. I added the lamps, cleaned up a bit, and then stood back to admire the result.

I loved it.

Mike got home, visibly impressed. He wanted to bring back the entertainment center and get the TV going again. But I just didn't have it in me - no way I could lift up that thing. Not to be deterred, Mike called our neighbor, who was happy to lend a hand for a few beers.

Couch - TV - lamps - end tables - rug... not the new rug of course.

And look at all the room for Mikey to play!

And from the opposite angle.

And from the side.

All that remains is the bar and some smaller items. And of course, when the rug arrives next Wednesday, everything is going to have to be nudged out of the way. No big deal.

Despite the exhaustion from all the running around, the site of that room just made me so happy. It's so funny, I said to Mike, "It's like we have a real living room now!!" And it's true. It doesn't feel like a stinky old house. It feels grand!

And we watched TV on the couch for the first time in weeks and weeks. It was awesome.

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The Return of the Kitchen

After last week's maddening living room schedule, last night seemed so tame! But, it was still significant enough to mention here because I got the kitchen back! Yes, there's been a chair in there for nearly a week - and the cat food has been underfoot for more then two. Both were moved to their proper locations last night, much to my relief.

We still haven't figured out our furniture configuration yet. And other then the couch, and now the chair, there's nada in the living room. Oh, I lied. There was a floor lamp in the kitchen that I moved back too.... but other then that - nada. I'm counting down the days until the arrival of the rug.

Mike also moved the two extra boxes of hardwood down to the basement. (Remember not to store your excess hardwood on the basement floor - it will ruin it. Concrete to wood moisture transfer or something along those lines, I think.) Anyway - this gave us back the hallway!!! Which, we've only had the use of half of for the better part of a year. Boy did it feel good... and strange... to walk down the hall without having to squish yourself past 12 boxes of hardwood.

Next step - I dunno. I'm still in a tizzy from Sunday.

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V-Day

Sunday. Yes Sunday. I had my goals. Mike had his doubts. But in the end it all came together so perfectly.

We were all up and movin by 7:30 and I was out the door with the baby by 8:30. Meanwhile, Mike got right to work, calibrating the nailer and preparing those all important first couple of rows. I was back by 10 and by noon, we were half done.

Yeah, we were MOVIN! I lay out the courses, Mike nails them, Mike marks the end piece, I cut it, he nails it, and we start on the next course.

And I tried my best to keep Mike down on the floor, since all the ups and downs tend to be what holds up the process. And if I was getting something, or moving something, or even laying out my courses, I was running, rushing, or sliding across the new flooring. (Always fun in the sawdust.) It made all the difference in terms of time.

Here we are at the halfway mark.

Here we are sometime just before lunch.

We kept on speeding along until about 1 when we ran out of nails. At that point we went out, picked up the nails, picked up the lunch, and were back, fed, and back to work by 2. I said at that moment, "I bet we'll be done by 3:30"

Mike was skeptical.


We were done with the main body of the floor at 3:30. All that remained was the difficult last sliver. Yes, you can see in the above pic how the drywall pulls away from the plywood. Turns out, there was a small section in the middle of the wall where trim just wouldn't cover the gap. So Mike had to cut a very very thin piece of hardwood, cut the drywall, and glue and squish the very very think piece of hardwood in there. Easier said then done. But still, he was even finished with all that by around 4:30.

Meanwhile, as he worked on all that, I began cleaning. So as soon as he was finished with the difficultness, we were able to just slap on the trim - which was all stained, dried, second coated, and dried previously. (Very good idea.)

That big long piece is the final trim board for the opposite side of the room. And no, there's not a big triangle of dark wood flooring... that's just a shadow people.


By 5:30 we were bringing the couch back.

And by quarter of six we were sitting on it.... and then we had to rush out to go pick up the baby.

WE DID IT!

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Trim'N

We're well on our way to living room glory, once again. Last night Mike measured for, cut, and first coated the trim - as planned. He even planed the old window trim and re-installed.


*Yeah... when first trimming out the living room windows - I believe the first things in the house we trimmed out - we forgot to take into account the tilt-in cleaning feature and ended up with trim block. Realizing our mistake, we purchased a planer. (Which at the time we wondered how much we would ever use, but soon were praising for its versatility of use in a house where nothing is ever square, straight, level, plumb, or perfect.) And in trimming out the rest of our windows, planed the trim accordingly.... but never fixed the living room windows. Until now!!

Urg. I just left the computer for a minute after hearing the dreaded cat puke warning signal. Unfortunately, with my office fulla couch parts - I couldn't find the even more dreaded cat output. (The two cats have been munching on drywall and this morning I actually had to clean puke off of the newly installed window trim, baseboard, and plywood in the living room. Another reason to trim and trim fast!!)

Anyhoo. The rest of the trim is down in the basement, drying away. Tonight = second coat!

And perhaps if there's time, more hardwood prep to make tomorrow go as smoothly as possible. I'm so excited. I'm dropping off the little one right after his first feeding. Mike will start work at the same time, then I'll be back to join him, and we'll do as much as we can in the 8 or so hours we have!
Here's what Mike's accomplished so far! Ooooo! Behold doorway glory! (Doorway Glory, awesome band name!)

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The Thursday Report

And the report is - all is progressing well. Last night, Mike actually decided to get a jump on the most difficult part of the hardwooding process - the beginning. We're actually hardwooding up to and into the basement stairway, you know, behind the door, so that's where he began. The first pieces needed to be cut, placed, and face nailed. Not so easily done, but great to accomplish ahead of the big Sunday day.

Meanwhile, I accomplished my goal - re-installing all the outlet covers, switch plates, and recessed light trim. I cleaned up some of the paint mess, but the rest is just a lot of trash... and the trash hut is blocked by a snow bank, so I had to leave it for later. (Maybe we'll get enough melting today!)

Tonight will hopefully be the trim - I know Mike's not looking forward to it, but I reminded him last night how critical it is to getting the furniture back in the room. We cut and first coat tonight, second coat Saturday night, and we'll be set.

And speaking of critical to getting the furniture back in the room, I ordered the rug. Unfortunately, the earliest arrival date is 2/24. The latest is 3/8. I'm hoping that because the rug is sold by a Boston based Walmart reseller, it will arrive closer to the early date then the late date. Still, I'm not waiting 12 plus days to move in some furniture. That couch is going back downstairs, come what may.

I can't wait until Sunday!

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Back to Green

This living room project has gone incredibly smoothly so far. I'm not sure what it is... maybe we're just sick of living sans living room... but Mike and I continue to work together, hunkering down to do what we need to do to finish quickly.

On Tuesday night, Mike brought home the ceiling paint and painted the ceiling. Wednesday night, he brought home the green and we traded off. I cut in, he rolled, then I cut in a second coat, and he rolled out a second coat. We were finished with the green and all cleaned up and to bed by 11pm.


It really feels like our living room again, now that the green is back on the walls. Warm and comfy cozy.

Tonight I told Mike we should measure and cut the baseboard trim, and then stain it. The trim will need to dry before applying a second coat, so if we start tonight and 2nd coat tomorrow night, the trim will be ready for installation by Saturday. Mike doubts we'll be able to finish the floor in one day... but I'm cautiously optimistic. Plus, with the trim finished ahead of time, we'll be one step closer to bringing the furniture back in.

That's the worst when you finish the floor and you want to bring in your furniture so badly... but you have to wait two days for the trim to be stained and installed.

Also tonight, I'm going to task myself with re-installing all the switch plates and recessed lighting trim. I've got to move all the painting/drywalling accouterments down to the basement too. Technically the window trim and all the curtain rods could be re-installed as well, but it's not necessary, so I'm not going to worry about it. We don't need to kill ourselves before the weekend arrives.

And the rug. Yeah I've got to order that thing. Already it's not going to arrive in time, but I'm not going to let that stop us from bringing in the furniture. Even if it's just the couch.

It's the home stretch and I'm psyched! Got to keep up that motivation level up there!

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Change of Previously Changed Plans

Yes, after some more reconnoitering, Sunday became a hybrid of the first plan and the second plan - resulting in a jam packed day of progress on all fronts.

Turns out our neighbor Richard really needed an excuse to get out of his house for a while. So he came over early in the AM to finish up the drywall in the living room with Mike. With the heat turned up, the pea coat dried in no time at all, allowing the guys ample time to prime out the entire room - walls to ceiling.



Meanwhile, I lined up a babysitter for next Sunday (thank you mummy bread) so Mike and I can tag team the hardwood. (After flooring the upstairs, baby's room, and the mudroom together, we're two unstoppable floor installin machines.) What a fitting way to celebrate VDay, right!? This tight deadline will also provide some much needed mid-week painting motivation, because it all has to be finished and dry come what may, come what Sunday.

The color will be the same... yeah, Mike again tried to convince me that the white would be better. No.

Since he and Richard started so early, Mike found himself with a free and clear afternoon. So he invited over some of his good guy friends to help him put the cab down on Dodge #2, take down the scaffolding, and load up the trailer. And believe it or not, even all that went smoothly! And now the cab is on...

The scaffolding is down...

And the trailer is loaded up with the old cab, plus some other metallic junk destined for a scrap run...

And still the guys were finished by around 5 - leaving Mike and I plenty of time to take the baby down to RI for a visit with the fam.

Everything just worked out so perfectly! I can only hope for some repeat good luck this coming week and weekend.

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Kink in the Weekend

I was right about the pea coat. That is, in fact, the next step. But our neighbor is actually headed up to Maine for a hunting trip and our other drywalling neighbor has some pressing family matters to tend to... so we're on hold for a bit. And that's fine. Both those guys are doing us such a big favor. They're allowed to take their time.

So Mike's going to take advantage of Sunday's nice weather to take care of Dodge #2, who's cab is still lifted up on that crazy contraption in our side yard. (As you'll recall, the blizzard halted all vehicle work.) His plan is to lower the cab onto the frame and move the old cab onto the trailer so it can be filled with scrap metal and eventually hauled in for scrap. And then he can take down the crazy scaffolding and clean up the side yard.

Our friend Shawn may also come by to work on/pickup our old boat, which he purchased back around the time of the blizzard, but hasn't been able to pick up due to weather, scheduling, and trailer issues.

Meanwhile, Mike will trade our Big Bear 400 quad for a new boat trailer, on which he'll be putting our new boat.... and if the trailer comes, the boat better be ours. The seller has been going back and forth - sell or no sell - for some time now. But now he wants to sell, so we've got to grab it before he changes his mind again.

Never a dull moment, right? Of course, we're both dam sick of living in shambles, so you bet your butt we're going to be working like mad next week/weekend to get it all done.

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The Pland Sand

Today is sanding day! Yup, our good neighbor Dana came by on Monday to slap on another coat of mud, hitting the new drywall patches and all the old mistakes in the living room. And now that it's been drying out for 48hrs, he'll be back today to sand it out.

I'm not sure if this is the last sanding or not, but I'd guess not. If I remember correctly, after this initial sanding, we've got to do a pea coat and sand again before we can paint. And unfortunately, since our perfectionist neighbors fixed even all the tiny problemos, we have to repaint the entire room and the ceiling.

I hate painting ceilings.

The living room was the first room we painted... or I should say, I painted, since back in the day I did all the painting. Hard to believe. But this time will be the last time unless I decide to someday change the colors... which, after all this, will be a while.

I've also picked out a new rug! Check it out! (The 8x11 of course.) I hope to purchase not this week, but probably at the end of next week depending on where we are in progress land. I bought the rug for the baby's room from Walmart and was actually quite impressed with the quality and affordability. Our old rug I just love in terms of design... but it's so thin and notsocomfy. (What do you want - it's a $100 8x11 from Ebay? It owes me nothing.) Plus we have a baby playing on the floor to think about. The rug in his room is so super thick and I'm hoping that this one will be similar.

The old rug will find a new home in the basement, undoubtedly, which is perfect. It'll help define a "not junk" area.

So we're still on track for painting this weekend. I couldn't have planned things better.

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Ply Down, Walls to Go

Yes, it's down! Wow. World record. Our neighbor was supposed to come over to do the drywall, but once he came down and saw Mike making such progress, he decided to just let him go at it and save the drywall for tomorrow.

And here's the final result. Awesome to behold isn't it? So tomorrow - the drywall. It needs another coat of mud - and then it's going to need to dry again. And then sanding... and then painting.

Next weekend will be all about the paint and prime, or prime and paint. Woa, totally backasswards there. And if all goes swimmingly there, the following weekend will be all about the wood. Sweet.

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Living Room Week!

Welcome to LIVING ROOM WEEK! Probably the best week I've had in quite a while, actually. This sickness is finally leaving me, house work is being completed, and best of all, Mike and I have a special event in Boston to attend at the end of the week. Everything has been generally good.... note I'm not claiming that this is the best week ever or anything like that... but "generally good" is pretty good after a slew of "very bad," "horrible," "sick," and the ever-popular, "Uuughsph" weeks.

First lets rewind to last Sunday. Mike completed the leveling to a point of less then perfect, but more then adequate. And, I might add, no cracks in the upstairs drywall or hardwood floors. The same afternoon, I was able to get a break to remove the living room window trim and a large section of drywall that needed to be replaced.

Upon removal of said drywall piece, I was shocked to find a portion of the exterior wall that had been left uninsulated. How we managed to forget one little portion is beyond me and this was definitely contributing to the whole downstairs heat problem.

I also found some nifty souvenirs in the wall from when we originally demolished the old plaster walls that I'd completely forgotten about.

This "No Snake" sign I created to help guide and inform all the confused snakes that kept getting into the basement. (at that time a dirt crawl space)

I hoped to encourage natural snake control with this "Mongoose OK" sign... but never saw any mongooses. Both signs I left in the wall for future renovators.... funny that I got to take one last look before the wall went back up again.

On Monday, Mike cut a new sheet of drywall to replace the damaged one. Monday night, he removed the pipe - put in originally in hopes of a wood stove. (We still hope to add our wood stove someday... just a little differently.)


Also he cut a new piece of drywall to fill the void left by the pipe, insulated the wall portion that had been previously neglected, and then screwed both pieces of drywall to the wall.


On Tuesday night, Mike started on the plywood - managing to install 3 sheets. (Note that each cat couldn't resist getting his and herself into Tuesday and Wednesday's picture.)

On Wednesday our neighbors Dana and Rich came over to tag team the drywall while Mike and I were at work. Though we really just needed a couple of areas fixed, these two are perfectionists and taped up ALL the problem areas.

And that brings us up to date. Next, after the mud dries fully, the guys will return to sand and all that good stuff. Then the entire room will need to be primed and repainted. (Yes, they fixed a lot and the entire room will need to be repainted. No way around it.) At the same time, Mike can continue installing the subfloor.

Timetable? No clue. But this is a heck of a lot farther then I thought we'd be at this point. Just goes to show how much you can accomplish when you do a little every night.

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Just a Little Bit of HIstory Repeating

Sometimes just for fun I take a look back at posts from this day in history last year - or even the year before or the year before. Ironically, at this exact time last year, we were doing the floors in the baby's room. And I mean - near to the day same exact time kinda time. Isn't that incredible?

Last night Mike began leveling. I was watching Mikey, so I'm not quite sure what was going on beneath the living room, but it sure sounded productive, what with all the hammering, sawing, etc etc. He quit for the night around 8 - good thing too, I was exhausted. Actually, I'm still exhausted.

Yes, I've got this cold thing. I sound terrible - I'm coughy, siffly, achy, moody, and tired. Extremely tired. And outtofit to boot.

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Let the Inconvenience Begin

It was so much less of an inconvenience to be inconvenienced a few years ago when we had less stuff and no baby. Now the mudroom is fulla tables and hutches, the upstairs is fulla couches and pictures, and the kitchen is fulla miscellaneous - including liquor. Looks like we just had a rockin party, actually.


Woo-hoo we partied so hard, the living room just exploded all over the house! I wish that were the case.... there'd be less dust.

But the guys really accomplished a lot. Besides moving all the remaining major furniture, they took up the entire old floor and nailed the subfloor to the joists. No plywood yet, but already the floor feels stabler... stabler? That might not be a word. More stable. Yes, more stable.

The next unfortunate task is the leveling of the room. *sigh* With everything removed from the room, the slope and bow of the floor was so painfully obvious that it couldn't be ignored. Why a slope? Apparently, the foundation is low in one corner - as in they didn't pour it level. Why a bow? Apparently, one of the studs is jacked up too high.

How to fix it? It's difficult. Mike will have to break out the lazer (yes, lazer) level and shim, trim, and jack his way to tranquility. He's not looking forward to it. I haven't half a clue as to accomplishing something so tricky, so I'll be no help. (But apparently I'm no help with anything anyway and Mike's done the entire house by himself, but that's another story.)

I suppose that crazy task will be tackled throughout the rest of this week. We're hoping we don't royally mess up our upstairs drywall/flooring. If we do, I'm going to have a conniption fit. I'm so petrified of the very notion that I tried to convince Mike not to level anything... but of course he can't take that for an answer.

Meanwhile we've tentatively scheduled our neighbor/drywall man for this week... pending completion of the leveling process... which will undoubtedly cause mad wall crackage.

As for the weekend - it's all up in the air depending on how the next few days pan out.

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Missing All the Action

It's a sloooo day. Relaxing in fact. Soothing. Yeah.... soothing. So soothing in fact that I deleted the earlier blog I posted this morning in favor of the greater good. For those of you who missed it, yeah, I was pretty miffed. I could get riled up and miffed off again pretty easily - I'm still not very happy with my situation, but I'm going to give giving a second chance and see what comes of it. Karma and all.

And I really think blogging about it will make things worse, so I'm ending the story there.

The weekend. Where should I begin? We cleared out all we could from the living room over last week and Saturday. A timely HD coupon worth 0% for 12mo's found itself well used on everything I could think that we'd need to finish the downstairs - front door trim, stairway trim, hallway trim, plywood, baseboard trim, mudroom closet doors, mudroom trim, french door trim, caulk, and an eyeball. (Recessed light eyeball trim.)

Of course, due to a certain someone's late coming Saturday evening, plans for riding on Sunday, and inclement weather for Sunday night/Monday/the rest of the week - Mike had to run around like crazy taking all the measurements for all the crazy trim work first thing Sunday morning. I couldn't even help him write it down... I had my hands fulla baby.

And he wasn't too happy about that - like it was all my fault that his plans nearly screwed up an entire winter's worth of projects riding on this one opportunity for 0% financing that by the way expired today so it all had to be purchased over the weekend.

Ok, moving on -whatever. We made it, we purchased, and who knows what we forgot and how badly we measured. Already I know we missed window bottoms. The good news is that in all the confusion and miscellaneous woods and trims, the lady at the register missed a big chunka stuff. We definitely made it out of there with more then we paid for.

That evening, after riding, Mike started pulling up the old wood floor, finishing about a quarter of the room before it just got too late. He was tired, I was tired. Little Mikey was tired.

Today is really the big day. The day to take up the rest of the old floor and put down the plywood. That's a full day right there. I'm sorry I have to miss out, although happy to have a sloooo and soothing day. Next order of business drywall.

Pics to come!

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The Last Splinter

Walking across the living room from the kitchen... doo be doo be doo.
In slipper socks.... comfy comfy comfy.
Then out of nowhere - extreme foot pain! (Great band name, Extreme Foot Pain with their new #1 smash, "Giant Splinter")

I collapsed onto the couch, put up my foot and wouldn't cha know, there was a giant jagged piece of wood sticking out of it. Yes, somehow my foot caught and pulled off a bit of the old and damaged hardwood floors, which somehow lodged into multiple layers of foot skin - through a thick and comfy slipper sock. And it was extremely painful. After removing the giant jagged piece, I had to hobble into the bathroom for the tweezers to remove the rest. Even now I have a little red dot on the bottom of my foot to show for the whole ordeal.



For me, it was the last straw.... the last splinter. These floors have to go. I'm not waiting for Mike to finish this vehicle madness anymore. He's spent more then the last two weekends trying to put his camaro back together, which, he rationalized to me, was because he needed to be able to move it in and out of the garage so he could get the truck in there to be able to work on it. Uh-huh. The motor was already in the TA - why not just.... no, no, I'm not even going to get myself started on that rant. Sometimes you just have to hold your tongue in favor of the uneasy Vehicle Peace Treaty both parties have been trying to uphold since the end of summer.

*The Vehicle Peace Treaty acknowledges that both parties have the right to own his/her selected vehicle(s) and purchase parts for said vehicle(s) using not unlimited but moderate fundage as needed for irregularly scheduled maintenance and emergency breakdowns. Both parties agree not to bitch and/or nag about the amount spent on or choice of vehicle(s) by the opposite party. An unlimited amount of time will be given to work on any and all vehicles in breakdown situations and is ineligible for matched babysitting makeup time. Work on any and all vehicles will not be considered free time and therefore is ineligible for guilt trips. Both parties agree that each has chosen their own vehicle(s), rendering all complaining about said vehicle or the state of said vehicle or the amount of time needed to fix said vehicle null and void.

You get the idea.

So I'm breaking my own promise to myself to finish the vehicles first. And Mike, who's actually quite sick of dealing with the vehicles... not to mention the cold and snow... jumped on the idea and ran with it. Today he's going to install the last of the reinforcing beams under the living room floor. Throughout the remainder of this week, we'll move all the furniture... somewhere. Probably mostly the mudroom.

And if luck is on our side, we'll be able to complete the plywood this weekend and get started on the drywall. (Not sure at this point if Mike has remembered that we need to repair and replace some of it... and repaint. He'll remember once we move that couch and there's a big ol' warped piece of drywall starring him in the face.)

Before pics comin' atcha!

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Entering Our 100th Year

Our house was built circa 1910. I'm not sure of the exact date, though I should probably look into that, huh? At any rate, 100 years!

I think of 'ol Herb Allen, the man who built our house. His father actually lived right next door, and if I remember correctly, sold off a chunk of his land so Herb could build his house. (Can you believe there's a book about our village taken from mostly diary entries of a local resident? It's terribly boring reading unless you're super interested in the mundane people who lived in our neighborhood 100 years ago.)

I take that back - there are a few interesting anecdotes. One involving Herb himself. He was a thrifty and conservative type of guy - one who was distrustful of the day's latest novelty, automobiles! But his wife was persistent and finally convinced him to buy one, which they drove to the town's annual 4th of July festivities. But Herb was also stubborn and once they had arrived, refused to get out of the car. Bad idea. He was struck and killed by a stray bullet shot from one rowdy reveler.

His wife soon moved out of the house, but kept ownership and rented it out right up until the early 1950's. In desperate need of renovation, the house was purchased by Robert Thompson and his wife, who overhauled the entire property right into the early 60's. (How do we know that? Newspapers we found in our windows - ancient insulation - were dated 1955. Behind the bathroom tile, a date of 1960-something.)

The Thompsons owned the house until they passed away in the early 00's - and in 2004 we purchased it from their sons when it was again in desperate need of renovation.

And that brings us right up until today!

In honor of the centennial, we'll be planning a huge party/open house this summer. I hope to feature Herb's story plus before pictures in every room and a video. And of course we'll have a big BBQ and all that fun stuff too.

I had kinda hoped we would be done by now... well, not done because you're never done. You know what I mean... at a point. And I suppose I can at least hope that the hardwood floors in the living room, plus the farmer's porch will be complete by mid-end of summer.

Speaking of which, all this snow as of late has pushed back completion of Dodge #2, (although Mike did get the transfer case installed - everything's ready for the new cab to be lowered on) so we may be moving on to the hardwood sooner than expected. Plus, after talking with our plumber friend, (yeah, our heat downstairs is still fickle) Mike decided that the easiest and best solution would be radiant heat.

What is radiant heat? Well, basically, you run flexible plastic tubing beneath your floors. Hot water runs through the tubing just as it does through the radiators and heats the floor. That heat then rises, warming your home... not to mention keeping your footsies nice and toasty. Since it's not copper, it's economical. There's no soldering or any of that either. Just a few connections to the regular heating system, and off you go.

Mike discovered he could order all the materials through his work too - bonus! So he already has everything on order... and he's feeling mighty excited to get started. Once the heat is finished, which should be a simple procedure, why not just keep the ball rolling? Tear up the old floor, slap down the plywood, and install the hardwood. Mike and I are hardwooding machines and it wouldn't take more than a few hours to complete the entire living room once the plywood is installed.

Stay tuned!

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All I Want For Christmas 4

The yearly tradition continues! Want to see what I wanted in 2008? Click Here What about 2007? Click here. What about 2006? Click here.

And now for 2009:

Ok here we go:


1. New Downstairs Bathroom: stand up shower American Standard Champion toilet, small vanity, stand up shower, mosaic tile, river stone floor tile

2. Kitchen: Fix drywall and repaint, new cabinets, new windows plus trim, new LG double french door, double freezer drawer refrigerator.

3. MudRoom: reinstall wainscot, laundry cabinets, laundry closet doors, dining set from IKEA - the white round table and the wickerish chairs, window trim, french door trim.

4. Living Room: Fix drywall & repaint, flooring, trim all round, reinstall that one crooked window, Sony 32" HDTV, carpet pad, re-arrange furniture, fireplace?

5. Hallway/Stairway: banister, stairway trim, top stair step, stairway track light with dimmer, octagonal window

6. Mikey's Room: fix closet light, install window bottoms

7. Office: Closet organizer, door to the attic crawl space, bigger area rug

8. Bedroom: new mattress, new HDTV, more drawers for my Closetmaid set, door for attic loft space, window and closet door trim

9. Upstairs Bath: BUILD IT - frame it, electrify, insulate, drywall, paint, design, , pretty tile, skylight, Corner Jacuzzi tub for two, new vanity, stand up shower, American Standard Champion toilet

10. Garage: Drywall and paint, Two garage doors, storage system with shelves, addition on back of garage - build

11. House exterior: new clapboard siding on the remaining 3 sides, trim out farmer's porch, window boxes, green shutters, lampposts, more nice plantings, a shed, chimney overlay, chimney cap, another chimney to vent wood stove, hammock, new driveway (ie, repour it)

12. Basement: finish it off with a bathroom (toilet, vanity, stand up shower), bedroom (twin bed, dresser, small closet), work room, and rec room (comfy dark colored furniture and rug, pool table, air hockey, HDTV and storage unit). And I want my wood stove hooked up down therez.

Not much I could check off this year, but hey, we're still making progress. The yello truck is fixed for real now - runs perfect and the dam check engine light is finally off. Meanwhile Mike got his transfer case and hopefully he'll be installing it next weekend if not this.

I'm itching to get this wood down in the living room!

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Oh Christmas Tree

Believe it or not, I was down one truck again this holiday long weekend. The yello 4Runner (#2) mysteriously crapped out on the way to the ATM machine on Black Friday. (No, I wasn't about to do any shopping.... in fact, that trip to the ATM was the one and only thing I had to do outside of the house all day.)

I was pretty depressed about the whole situation when I got back home.

So Saturday I called my mom on a whim to get myself back into the holiday spirit. I asked her if she would pick up Mikey and I and bring us down to Kmart to pick up a Christmas tree. (Yeah, I fell victim to their weekend sale, as advertised on TV!) She was free and agreed, although as soon as she arrived at my house, we began to wonder how this would work.

I mean, the woman drives a Honda Civic. So here we are, two women, a baby, and soon to be the proud new owners of a 7 1/2 foot artificial pre-lit Christmas tree... in a Honda Civic?! Oh boy. We had no clue how we were going to make that happen, but luckily, when we got to Kmart, we both liked the 6 1/2 foot tree better then the 7 1/2 foot tree.

Let me stop there for a second for a little tangent/disclaimer:
I am a Christmas person. I love the lights and the trees and the cards and the music and the giving and getting of perfect gifts for everyone. Oh, and did I mention grandma's cookie recipe? Love it. But when you get down to the real vs artificial tree debate - no contest.

And I love real trees... the going to the tree place, the selection of that perfect tree, and of course that delicious deciduous smell. But let's face it - (and I've spoken to this point before regarding the purchase of trees for planting) TREES ARE EXPENSIVE. That's fact numero uno. You go into that tree place with a boatload of cash and you come out with nothing left and a tree you're going to burn in the annual beach-christmas-tree-burning party in under a month.

An artificial tree pays for itself in two to three Christmas's depending on your artificial tree selection and of course whether or not you got it on sale like I did.

Then there are the environmental concerns... you know.... all those trees, wasted. And yes I know they're grown and harvested just for Christmas... but why not just grow them and then just leave them, I say. And though I love seeing those trees go up in a massive dry fireball of new year's joy, that annual beach-christmas-tree-burning party isn't the safest, most environmentally friendly thing either.

An artificial tree is forever... or at least a whole buncha Christmas's. And did I mention the pre-lit feature? So awesome. Think they look fake? Look again. Kmart had some excellent choices at a great value. (Too bad you guys missed the sale.)

Now returning us to me, my mom, my baby, and the Honda Civic... we had just picked out a lovely 6 1/2 foot tree along with a few other trinkets and were now headed back out to the car. Well, wouldn't you know, a 6 1/2 foot artificial Christmas tree box will not fit in a Honda Civic trunk. And just so you know, the back seats in said vehicle do not fold down individually for easy trunk expansion. They fold down as one. Not an option when you have a car seat smack dab in the middle of your back seat. And no, we didn't think to bring a bungee cord, strap, rope, or any other type of fastening device to allow us to hang the end of the box out of the trunk.

You should have seen me wrastling with this thing to get it in the front seat. I think my dad may have some choice words with me... I may have smudged the car in places trying to stuff the box in. But finally I was able to put the seat in the fully reclined position and lay in the box. I was even able to fasten the seat belt on it. And me? I sat in the back with the baby.

So the moral of this story is obvious - don't drive a Honda Civic. Cars are nice and all... but seriously people - how do you go to the dump? Or pickup free furniture on the side of the road on a whim? Or take off to IKEA and load up with flat packed items? And BJ's?! You'd never manage to cram a month's worth of bulk goods into a Honda Civic. It's just not possible. Plus how do you tow your boat, rv, or trailer? I could never do it, myself.

Despite the drama, arriving home and setting up/decorating that tree was the best therapy I could have bought for $107. We haven't had a Christmas tree in at least 2 years now - pathetic for a Christmas lover like myself - so setting up this new tree really felt like "the first Christmas" tree. Plus, Mikey seemed to enjoy it too....



And after all the excitement of Kmart, he napped long enough for me to unpack and put on all the ornaments and arrange the presents underneath. Take a look at the final result!

The only thing missing is a star or angel at the top. I have a beautiful harvest angel that I bought on one of those tree-less years, but it turned out to be too big for this cute little tree. Hopefully I'll find something good by the end of the season.

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