renos update

You know I've been busy on my kitchen. This is a picture. Again, nothing elaborate, but definately much fresher. The color of the wall is "tweed" and it's actually a green/brown. It matches the rest of the house very nicely. I hope you like it. Also, I hope in the near future to get new counter-tops too. Everything in good time, eh?

Months ago I got a new dishwasher. I am happy to announce I've used it two times and that was to see if it worked well and was hooked up properly. Even with a new dishwasher, I'm still green. The dishwasher is purely for esthetics. ;-) It helped my kitchen a lot getting rid of the old one. I'm sure I'll use the dishwasher when I have lots of guests and during the holidays. But day to day, I don't use it.

Also, I never posted a picture of my newly painted bedroom wall. I only did this treatment on one wall. We like it. People have asked if my bedroom is as small as it looks in this picture. The answer is yes. Our bedroom is small, yet adequate. In this picture, I hadn't decorated yet, so it looks pretty plain.

Kitchen

You won't be hearing much from me for a few days. I'm seriously depressed. My mom and aunt are visiting my sister in North Carolina. It's just wrong. It has been years since any of my family has visited me. Something lame like, "you live so darn far away."

Ok, so seriously I'm not depressed. But I do long for a familial visit. Oh how I do. Just to hear someone say, "this needs more salt," would be so nice. Anyway, I guess I'll forgive the wrong done to me, that is, no one visiting me like I'm some kind of disinherited child.

Now back to my first train of thought. You won't be hearing from me for a few more days. The kitchen is getting a makeover. My kitchen is dated. However it's a delightfully functional kitchen and I simply love the clean L-layout. It's totally practical and I am totally practical.

I can't wait to show you a picture of my freshly painted kitchen. I'm not getting new cupboards or anything, but I have been busily painting them. Just give me a few more days and I'll show the fruit of my labor.

And just in case it needs clarifying, Mama and Auntie, I hope you have a great time with Stacie. She is so spoiled. Do you realize if you'd left to come see me on Thursday you would be getting here tomorrow? Sucks to be you eh? :-)

Seriously though, I hope you are having a good time.

reno update

Here are some photos of our work this week. It's coming along, eh?

Chaos Continues

Our house renos are coming along, yet slower than I'd like. Lord willing, tonight we will move back into the living room. This ongoing chaos explains the absence of postings from me. Perhaps soon I'll show you pictures of my butterscotch and pumpkin colored living room.

We have moved back into our bedroom, yet all the finishing work isn't done. It looks good. I'm pleased.

Our refinished hardwood floors look spectacular. With that completed job, the parental anal retentive level has increased enormously. "Eekk, get those shoes off."

I know of people who live for years with reno projects in process. I'd admire their ability. I'm afraid I'd lose my mind.

In other news, shortly we'll pick Deborah up and take her to the dentist. The poor child is getting an appliance that will keep her from sucking her thumb. Yes, our little 7 year old still sucks her thumb. She says it's juicy and taste good. Alas, she's getting protruding teeth, so this habit needs to be attacked. This will bring the grand total of kids in this house with metal in their mouth to 3 out of 3. (I told Gordon he gave our kids bad genes because my other two have great teeth.)

That's it for now. Stay tuned for updates. :-)

chaos

Close your eyes... Imagine... Tranquil green meadows, a turquoise lake, melodious songbirds, blue skies, warm sunshine. Awhh. Peace and beauty.

Now snap out of that sweet daydream and enter my reality. A full house of furniture shoved haphazardly into 2 small bedrooms; clothes needed, yet unreachable; library books overdue sitting in a bag in the far corner, right behind the stereo that's on top of the dresser. This is my life this week and perhaps next week too.

Nerves are raw, emotions taxed, clothes wrinkled-the ones we can find. Yes, chaos.

As I've mentioned before, we are giving the house a little (doesn't feel little) makeover. This week the hardwood floors are being refinished. Was it not for the fumes, I'd invite you for a sneak preview, -- oh but the piano is in the front door and that makes visitors ill-at-ease: "Here just climb over. Put your left foot here, give me your hand and I'll pull you..." That's the part that makes people cringe.

The kitchen is barely habitable for the sofa standing against the wall and the chairs on the table. We are coping though and it's not as bad as I had imagined. My beloved is helping me lots by taking us out to eat and bringing home fast food.

Poor Lucy. She's stressed right out. She threw up all evening Monday and now she's hiding under a bed.

If all goes well, we can move the furniture back where it belongs on Saturday, but we probably won't as we still need to paint and install new baseboards. We haven't agreed on paint colors yet. Last night I said, whatever, just choose something. It will be a surprise for me.

All this to say, you won't be hearing much from me as the computer is hiding behind the dining table, 6 chairs, and a curio cabinet. This little update is from the library.

So,... wish us well. Only the excitement of the house changes is keeping us sane. But the floor looks great.

A Re-Made Bathroom

When Kent and I lived on Hastey Street, we got a man to redo our master bathroom. He was a "professional," yet he was "out of work." He made a royal mess out of it and charged us 2 1/2 times his estimate. To complicate things, the man was a member of our church and a preacher-on-the-side. All the signs were there, but we didn't see them. We thought we would all be winners in this arrangement.

Let's call the professional Ralph. He was about 5 feet tall, at best 5.2.

Ralph worked on our bathroom for days. We looked at it daily, looking forward to it coming together and being a bathroom we could be proud of. We got less and less optimistic as the days went by. I was ready to throw the man a bone and be done with him when I saw he had textured the walls by putting sand in the paint. It was shaping up hardly better than it had been before he started.

The day came when he was "finished." We paid him more than double his estimate, but were very unhappy with his work. Trying to be "christian" about the whole thing, we didn't even mention our dissatisfaction. Kent and I were both striving to have a good attitude. We didn't talk about Ralph, but Oh, how we wanted to!

The bathroom was an expensive mess. The shower was the most disappointing thing. The shower door was directly in front of the nozzle. We had 2 options when showering; we could 1) get in, shut the door, hold our breath and try to be absorbed by the wall till the ice cold water warmed up, or we could 2) open the shower door, turn on the water, then slam the door really quickly. Then, when the water warmed up, open the shower door-- spraying the floor yet again-- and jump in aerobic style as quickly as possible to minimize the pool of water on the bathroom floor. They were poor options, but we chose to spray the bathroom floor with every shower.

Lest you think that was the only problem with the shower, let me assure you it was not. As I mentioned, Ralph was around 5 feet tall. And, the height of the shower nozzle was perfectly suited for someone 5 feet tall. Kent and I were forced to do back bends or knee squats to wash our hair. We were seriously unimpressed, but we tried very hard to be "christian," striving to rise above every urge to complain.

One day Kent came out of the bathroom wearing a disgusted look. "You know, every time I take a shower I wish I had Ralph, like this," he said bitterly as he clamped his hand as if squeezing a set of balls.

Our ban on talking about Ralph was suddenly lifted. I roared with laughter. It felt good to be set free to complain, unrestrained.

Insignificant Stuff

I apologize dear reader who expects up to the moment updates. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I feel dry and used up. That's sort of a lie. I picked up 2 Francine Rivers books at the library and haven't finished the second one. Oh my goodness she's a good writer. Anyway Mrs Rivers has intentionally pulled me from my blog. She's pulled me from my kitchen too, yikes it's a mess.

Hannah's bratty friend returned and when she saw Hannah's room, she wrinkled her ugly little nose on her ugly little face and said, "Kind of weird. It doesn't match." I saw dots. Green, orange and glow-in-the-dark pink dots. I thought Misty's idea was good, but I heard it after the fact. Misty said I should say, "kiss my polka dot arse" to the little brat with no taste. But I was real mature through the whole thing.

My kids often tell me stories about how messy some of their friends houses are. One particular house, I've been in the foyer of several times, but never been invited in. But the kids carry on dramatically about how awful it is, and if the foyer is any indication of the rest of the house, it is pretty bad. Yesterday Gordon actually was invited into the living room for a cup of coffee. I was interested beyond propriety to know what their house was like on the inside. Gordon never struggles for words, really. But as I quizzed him, he said, it was chaotic. I pressed and he said slowly and pensively, "Take our house, put 4 times as much stuff in it, then spin it on its axis." I got the idea.

Francine Rivers really has me sidetracked from my regular duties. But there is more going on too. I really am stretched right now and have a number of projects on the go. I'm sorry for not updating as frequently as I like. Perhaps soon I'll tell about some of my projects.

Have a good evening and a great Wednesday.

Not much happening

I've had a busy weekend. Hannah and Rachael went to Winter Camp. We had to fight the weather to get there, but we went and returned today safely.

While they were gone, I gave Hannah's room an update. A friend had remarked that Hannah's room was babyish, and that didn't set well with me, so I made it more 9-year-oldish. The whole makeover cost $4. Isn't that amazing? I left the initial yellow paint but with stencils I created, I painted glow-in-the-dark pink, orange, lime green dots in varying sizes. Now one wall is polka dots. It's so cute and Hannah loves it. Now we just need that bratty little friend to come over again. This time she will be green with envy. That project dominated my weekend.

Church was painful this morning. 36 people were there. 18 months ago we had at least 100, and it was vibrant. It's anything but vibrant now. Pastor preached about being in the wilderness and he might as well been speaking straight at me as that was how I felt. Church isn't what it was. I pray this wilderness period doesn't go on a long time. I was encouraged by the sermon, very encouraged.

On the drive today, Gordon got side-tracked in the middle of changing lanes. For some reason he kept driving in the one lane but his turn signal was on. I crankily said, "You need to pee or get off the pot." Just as crankily he retorted, "You need to be kind or shut-up." I laughed.