To my faithful reader(s) I would like to apologize for the delayed post. As alluded to previously there has been a lot of stuff going on. This has caused a couple of month delay in this post. Not to leave you in suspense I shall just tell you, we are moving to Chicago. We are very excited but it's incredibly stressful. Everything will be changing, including this blog. I'm not sure if I will just transition it to my new little teeny tiny apartment life or just hiatus it until we are back in a house.
Nonetheless there has been a lot of work happening on the house because we are going to sell it. This is also sad and exciting. I have loved working on this place but I would be completely lying if I didn't say that I am excited about taking a break. I can't even remember what it is like to just live in a space vs. working on it. I think once we get settled I will miss it but for now I am dwelling on only the positives in the future. I have enough negatives in the present (ie. where the hell are we going to live? is anyone going to hire me? will we be able to sell our house? do we have enough money/time to fix the house? etc. etc.)
Anyways, I will try to do a better job at updating as we work on projects. If I don't, don't hold it against me. The sole reason will be due to my sanity hanging by a thread!
Monday, December 22, 2014
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
More Lights
Ermygersh there has been soooooooo much going on lately. I can't even begin to tell you about it. I can't even... What I will tell you is about one teeny tiny project we have done in the midst of the out-of-controlness: We updated our bathroom light fixture... ta daaaaaa.
Actually, let's hold on the reveal because I want you to be prepared. First, I have a signature bad before photo (again, in the dark). It is the light that my super handsome-o husband is holding.
Second, we totally half-arsed it. As you will see here in the after shot the wall behind it needs to be patched. We will do this eventually but putting this light in was so annoying we just said screw if for now. This was because there was no light box. Jon had to go to Lowes Depot to get one and run the wires through. Whilst perusing the aisle guess who shows up, our electrician... awkward... Anyway, we got the thing up and I am just celebrating that for the time being, gosh stop being so judgmental!
Actually, let's hold on the reveal because I want you to be prepared. First, I have a signature bad before photo (again, in the dark). It is the light that my super handsome-o husband is holding.
Second, we totally half-arsed it. As you will see here in the after shot the wall behind it needs to be patched. We will do this eventually but putting this light in was so annoying we just said screw if for now. This was because there was no light box. Jon had to go to Lowes Depot to get one and run the wires through. Whilst perusing the aisle guess who shows up, our electrician... awkward... Anyway, we got the thing up and I am just celebrating that for the time being, gosh stop being so judgmental!
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Mustachioed Couple
This is a stretch for my housey themed blog. However, it has to do with my bathroom and it's fun!
I leave early in the morning to go to work so my husband is usually still in bed by the time I am gone. I like leaving him surprises. One day last week I decided to leave him a mustache on the window and this is the result. That is all. The end.
I leave early in the morning to go to work so my husband is usually still in bed by the time I am gone. I like leaving him surprises. One day last week I decided to leave him a mustache on the window and this is the result. That is all. The end.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Martha Freaking Stewart
After making my flag wreath (documented in a previous post) I realized that my home always needs a wreath welcoming guests. I have had my flag wreath up since the 4th of July and I was in desperate need for a change with the new Fall season. Last year I had bought some felt to make leaves out of but never got around to do it (like most of my projects). This year I thought I would actually do something with this felt so pinterested "how to make felt flowers." I came across this: How to Make Felt Flowers
I thought these were so cute so I was determined to make them. Unfortunately, I did not have a needle and thread so had to steal them from my mother. I spent an entire evening after work making these felt flowers. I thought that maybe I would get a wreath form and cover it in twine and then add them. The next day I went to Michaels and found a form but was unable to find the kind of twine I wanted (I'm sure they have it, I just HATE asking people questions in stores... it's a stupid complex). I did however go to the yarn section where I found this really warm looking grey yarn. I was sold.
I came home and covered the form in the yarn. I then tried to attach the flowers with small pins that I had bought. They were way too small to hold the flowers, which was super frustrating because I went back and forth on them about 34 times. Luckily, I remembered that I had some leftover pearl pins from a project I did years ago. I stuck those into the middle of the flowers and voila it looked great. I said that one of the learnings I have from this is that, like cake decorating, every craft looks better with pearls. :)
I promise you that this photo does not do the cuteness justice. It's super cute in person!
PS, I loved this yarn so much that I wanted to do something else with it. I had just bought some lanterns that were on sale so I thought I would try and cuten them up a little. End result:
Front porch with wreath in the door window and lanterns near the flowers (I need to get better at photo planning, ie. not taking them at night!):
I thought these were so cute so I was determined to make them. Unfortunately, I did not have a needle and thread so had to steal them from my mother. I spent an entire evening after work making these felt flowers. I thought that maybe I would get a wreath form and cover it in twine and then add them. The next day I went to Michaels and found a form but was unable to find the kind of twine I wanted (I'm sure they have it, I just HATE asking people questions in stores... it's a stupid complex). I did however go to the yarn section where I found this really warm looking grey yarn. I was sold.
I came home and covered the form in the yarn. I then tried to attach the flowers with small pins that I had bought. They were way too small to hold the flowers, which was super frustrating because I went back and forth on them about 34 times. Luckily, I remembered that I had some leftover pearl pins from a project I did years ago. I stuck those into the middle of the flowers and voila it looked great. I said that one of the learnings I have from this is that, like cake decorating, every craft looks better with pearls. :)
I promise you that this photo does not do the cuteness justice. It's super cute in person!
PS, I loved this yarn so much that I wanted to do something else with it. I had just bought some lanterns that were on sale so I thought I would try and cuten them up a little. End result:
Front porch with wreath in the door window and lanterns near the flowers (I need to get better at photo planning, ie. not taking them at night!):
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
The Great Flower Wall of Annie's House
As you may recall from my previous posts, the outdoor spaces of my house have been a pretty giant headache for me. One particular headache, well, and back ache, hand ache, arm ache, leg ache and any other ache that one could possible have, was caused by the flowerbed wall along the front of my house. The crazy thing is that it wasn't even a project I had originally planned to take on. I loved that wall. I thought it added cute character to the house. What wasn't cute about it is that the idiot who built it, built it above the brick line... and then they filled it with dirt. So there was dirt sitting against the brick. Brick is porous. So guess what happened? Water damage. I don't mean to be a martyr here. I actually knew about this before I bought the house. It came up in the inspection report. (Another fun thing likely caused by this stupid wall was termites. They were not active but had the problem previously likely because, again, there was dirt up against where the foundation meets the brick).
Anyway, we had talked about tearing this thing down for a while. We had done a few preliminary digs to see how much work it would be and we actually did think it would be moderately difficult. When we dug down the front the cement just kept going. We knew they had put a footer in. Knowing there were going to be some challenges with this job, my mom and I waited until Jon was gone for the weekend to try it (this honestly was completely unintentional, I just wanted to get it done and I wasn't willing to wait. I might be a touch impatient).
My mom and I began on a Friday afternoon. We had bought a new sledgehammer and had rented a jackhammer from Lowes Depot. We took swing, after swing, after swing. We did this almost non-stop until it got dark. At which time, I was so intensely exhausted, I realized how much more difficult this wall was than we had originally thought. As I said, when we had begun we knew there was a cement footer under the wall. We didn't, however, realize there was rebar inside of that footer. Which made getting the cement out even more fun. Additionally, we rented the smallest jackhammer possible and it was still so heavy. And it got heavier and heavier as the evening wore on. Something I learned from this experience is that a jackhammer will allow you to continue hammering into one hole without moving. The issue with that is that the thing will get stuck and it's nearly impossible to move. This happened over and over again until we got the hang of it.
We quit for the day. I called my now husband and said I am in so much pain. I don't know how I did that for so long and I can't believe I have to get up and do it all over again. We weren't even close to being finished. The issue was that when I woke up the next day, the pain was intensely worse. Every single muscle in my body was incredibly sore. However, I am not what you would call a wuss so I popped a pill or 2 and started all over again, spending my entire Saturday doing the same. And then again on Sunday.
We worked on this until Sunday until the very last minute before I had to return the jackhammer to Lowes Depot. I'm not joking when I say the last minute. I had no time to fix my hair, wash my face off, nothing. I ran in there with this heavy thing. The cashier looks at me and just says, "Did that thing beat you up?" I couldn't stop laughing at him, because in all honesty, it did. I mean, it kicked my ass. My ass has never been beaten so badly.
In all honesty, we didn't even finish the thing that weekend. I don't feel too bad about that though as some of it was hidden. And, because when I say that there were footers, I mean there were footers. There wasn't just a straight one under the wall. There were what looked like cement out of buckets in the corners of the things that went down at least 3 and 1/2 feet. So, I think we have an excuse. We did however rent it one more time when Jon was there. There is a part of me that regrets doing that just because it was mine and my mom's thing but I also have a weird complex about claiming projects. I want to be the bad ass girl who can do things men can do (suck it men).
After weeks, months, maybe even a year or so we got rid of all the rubble (don't get me started on the disposal methods in this area). We are now wall, water, and termite free people. I am pretty proud. And I also got some awesome photos with my kickass mother during it. :)
Anyway, we had talked about tearing this thing down for a while. We had done a few preliminary digs to see how much work it would be and we actually did think it would be moderately difficult. When we dug down the front the cement just kept going. We knew they had put a footer in. Knowing there were going to be some challenges with this job, my mom and I waited until Jon was gone for the weekend to try it (this honestly was completely unintentional, I just wanted to get it done and I wasn't willing to wait. I might be a touch impatient).
My mom and I began on a Friday afternoon. We had bought a new sledgehammer and had rented a jackhammer from Lowes Depot. We took swing, after swing, after swing. We did this almost non-stop until it got dark. At which time, I was so intensely exhausted, I realized how much more difficult this wall was than we had originally thought. As I said, when we had begun we knew there was a cement footer under the wall. We didn't, however, realize there was rebar inside of that footer. Which made getting the cement out even more fun. Additionally, we rented the smallest jackhammer possible and it was still so heavy. And it got heavier and heavier as the evening wore on. Something I learned from this experience is that a jackhammer will allow you to continue hammering into one hole without moving. The issue with that is that the thing will get stuck and it's nearly impossible to move. This happened over and over again until we got the hang of it.
We quit for the day. I called my now husband and said I am in so much pain. I don't know how I did that for so long and I can't believe I have to get up and do it all over again. We weren't even close to being finished. The issue was that when I woke up the next day, the pain was intensely worse. Every single muscle in my body was incredibly sore. However, I am not what you would call a wuss so I popped a pill or 2 and started all over again, spending my entire Saturday doing the same. And then again on Sunday.
We worked on this until Sunday until the very last minute before I had to return the jackhammer to Lowes Depot. I'm not joking when I say the last minute. I had no time to fix my hair, wash my face off, nothing. I ran in there with this heavy thing. The cashier looks at me and just says, "Did that thing beat you up?" I couldn't stop laughing at him, because in all honesty, it did. I mean, it kicked my ass. My ass has never been beaten so badly.
In all honesty, we didn't even finish the thing that weekend. I don't feel too bad about that though as some of it was hidden. And, because when I say that there were footers, I mean there were footers. There wasn't just a straight one under the wall. There were what looked like cement out of buckets in the corners of the things that went down at least 3 and 1/2 feet. So, I think we have an excuse. We did however rent it one more time when Jon was there. There is a part of me that regrets doing that just because it was mine and my mom's thing but I also have a weird complex about claiming projects. I want to be the bad ass girl who can do things men can do (suck it men).
After weeks, months, maybe even a year or so we got rid of all the rubble (don't get me started on the disposal methods in this area). We are now wall, water, and termite free people. I am pretty proud. And I also got some awesome photos with my kickass mother during it. :)
My awesome friend Ellen helped for a while too! Totes women power this weekend!!
Sweet outfit I have on, I know. Hotskies! And who can't resist cotton balls in the ears??
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
All of the Lights
My bestie (who I would totally insult right now but am in fear of losing my one and only reader) was giving me a hard time for not posting for a month. I think it was mostly because she was tired of hearing me complain about how bored I am. Finally, she said you need to blog! You can thank her...
When I first moved into the house one of the worst things in here (there are OH, so many) were the freaking ugly, disgusting light fixtures. Every single fixture was horrendous. I wanted to rip them out immediately and replace all of them. My mom encouraged me to do it because she said they are pretty easy things to replace. Coming from my mother, that doesn't mean much. She builds walls, tiles, does minimal plumbing, etc. so her credibility on "easy" projects is very low. However, I thought I might as well try to put in new ones because the oldies were really just so horrible.
I called her one evening to come over and help. I believe the first one we removed was the master bedroom ceiling fan. It was one of those black and gold, early 90s fans (I think my brother had the exact same one in his room). We turned the electric off and carefully took the thing down. I realized at that moment how truly easy it was to remove them. We then had to put the new one in. Now, I will tell you that doing this was a learning that the ceiling fan box that claims, "Installed in 10 minutes!" is clearly for the experienced electrician, doing this every single day, and is in a race to complete it with the failing result of being murdered. I'm pretty sure it took us about 2 hours to install it. The thing is that it's a fairly easy install, it's just exhausting holding something heavy up over one's head. Plus, you have to put the right piece on at the right time or you have to take the whole damn thing apart which may or may not have happened once or twice during the process.
The other bad thing about ceiling fans is that there isn't one I have found that is actually really our style. All of them are pretty ugly so our happiness level with the result is moderate at best. But it's leaps above the previous fan!
The Before Fan (a little too late, the blades were thrown out! bonus is a mom cameo!) and After Fan:
This is our guest room. This old fan was so good. When you turned the fan on the strings would hit against the light globe to a nice rhythm. Also, the center of the blades were some sort of wicker! The new fan we are thinking about getting different globes for. They give off a weird yellow cast.
Before and After:
This is our guest room and our favorite of the okay ceiling fans.
Our hallway. The first non-ceiling fan fixture installation!
Aaaannnnd the biggest change, and our favorite by far! The ceiling fan blades were pointing downward! The after light took us forever to pick out but I still LOVE this light!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
TBT - Knocking Down a Flag Pole!
Another vintage post for your reading pleasure! Doesn't everything sound better when you call it vintage?? Happy throwback Thursday!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Flag Pole Down
This weekend has been a great success with regards to the yard. Jon was out of town so that helped a bunch. Jon was out of town so that helped a bunch. He typically hurts this (although there have been times when he has done a lot of work when I was working my two jobs and I couldn't help. So, I don't want to be accued of not giving credit where credit is due!) because he works a lot and never wants to do it and I am a wonderful wife and watn to spend time with him. He was out of town helping with some familial obligations so I decided to go out and get some work done. One of my favorite things is to work on something when he's not around so when he arrives it's a surprise. I think I like doing this because I LOVE surprises so I enjoy making them happen for others, no matter how small. However, this weekend was not small (albeit not THAT exciting).
As luck would have it, my mother called me on Saturday morning to ask me about coming to a Labor Day party on Monday. We got to talking about how Jon was out of town and how my yard is a horrible fricking disaster that I'm sure making my neighbors secretly hate me. She said well, I was planning on working on Rebecca's house today (my sister-in-law still owns a house from her former single life that my mom has been helping to fix up because she is the in-house maintenance lady ha) but I think I'm going to come help you. She stated that under the guise that it would be more fun but I think she just feels embarrassed that people she knows from church live by me and know we're related. Regardless, she headed over with her tools and we were underway ripping out the weed garden section of my yard around the flag pole. Yes, you read that right, the flag pole. The previous owner was in the military so I imagine he found it very important to proudly display the American flag. I, on the other hand, am lazy and don't have any motivation to do so. Therefore, it is a gigantic, rusty eyesore. Anywho, we worked on it for about 5 hours together less a lunch break and then she headed home.
The following morning I received another early morning call from my mom. Her ambitious self was on the phone asking me what I was doing that day. She said, want to take out the flag pole? Let me provide some additional details about this thing. The pole is screwed into a brace taht is cemented into the ground and with rusted screws it has been extra protected from movement. Jon and I have been dreading this task as we figured we would have to jack hammer it out and somehow keep it from falling on our house. Also, the pole is about 40 ft. tall and seemingly made of very heavy plumbing pipe. I begrudgingly said ok thinking that this was heading for disaster. A 65+ year old woman and a weak, lazy 27 year old are going to end up in the hospital and a hole in the roof of the house. However, I had apparently underestimated the magic materials that my mother would bring with her. Wetried to unscrew the screws but very quickly confirmed that the rust made it impossible. So, my mom whipped out this spray and voila, the screws twisted out. Soon, we found ourselves on the last one. As it loosened I began pushing on the pole and it began to fall... AND in the opposite direction of my house! Success! Until... it hit the tree limb and got stuck. Because I live in a town very similar to Mayberry, a neighbor man who lets us borrow his tools all of the time just happened to be walking by. He insisted on helping us and after a few short minutes the pole was safely on the ground... sans any personal injuries! This was a big win when it comes to my morale. Now I'm on the real mission to finish tearing out the flipping yard so that next year we can begin planting and no longer look like we live in an abandoned drug house. I really only have two more secionts left and I think I can get them done in the next week or so. Hopefully, I will have a fantastic update soon!
Oh, and btw Jon was surprised. He kept asking how we did it and I think is not-so-secretly happy that he didn't have to be a part of it. :)
Me pretending to hit the pole as it was stuck in the tree (great art direction by mom).
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Flag Pole Down
This weekend has been a great success with regards to the yard. Jon was out of town so that helped a bunch. Jon was out of town so that helped a bunch. He typically hurts this (although there have been times when he has done a lot of work when I was working my two jobs and I couldn't help. So, I don't want to be accued of not giving credit where credit is due!) because he works a lot and never wants to do it and I am a wonderful wife and watn to spend time with him. He was out of town helping with some familial obligations so I decided to go out and get some work done. One of my favorite things is to work on something when he's not around so when he arrives it's a surprise. I think I like doing this because I LOVE surprises so I enjoy making them happen for others, no matter how small. However, this weekend was not small (albeit not THAT exciting).
As luck would have it, my mother called me on Saturday morning to ask me about coming to a Labor Day party on Monday. We got to talking about how Jon was out of town and how my yard is a horrible fricking disaster that I'm sure making my neighbors secretly hate me. She said well, I was planning on working on Rebecca's house today (my sister-in-law still owns a house from her former single life that my mom has been helping to fix up because she is the in-house maintenance lady ha) but I think I'm going to come help you. She stated that under the guise that it would be more fun but I think she just feels embarrassed that people she knows from church live by me and know we're related. Regardless, she headed over with her tools and we were underway ripping out the weed garden section of my yard around the flag pole. Yes, you read that right, the flag pole. The previous owner was in the military so I imagine he found it very important to proudly display the American flag. I, on the other hand, am lazy and don't have any motivation to do so. Therefore, it is a gigantic, rusty eyesore. Anywho, we worked on it for about 5 hours together less a lunch break and then she headed home.
The following morning I received another early morning call from my mom. Her ambitious self was on the phone asking me what I was doing that day. She said, want to take out the flag pole? Let me provide some additional details about this thing. The pole is screwed into a brace taht is cemented into the ground and with rusted screws it has been extra protected from movement. Jon and I have been dreading this task as we figured we would have to jack hammer it out and somehow keep it from falling on our house. Also, the pole is about 40 ft. tall and seemingly made of very heavy plumbing pipe. I begrudgingly said ok thinking that this was heading for disaster. A 65+ year old woman and a weak, lazy 27 year old are going to end up in the hospital and a hole in the roof of the house. However, I had apparently underestimated the magic materials that my mother would bring with her. Wetried to unscrew the screws but very quickly confirmed that the rust made it impossible. So, my mom whipped out this spray and voila, the screws twisted out. Soon, we found ourselves on the last one. As it loosened I began pushing on the pole and it began to fall... AND in the opposite direction of my house! Success! Until... it hit the tree limb and got stuck. Because I live in a town very similar to Mayberry, a neighbor man who lets us borrow his tools all of the time just happened to be walking by. He insisted on helping us and after a few short minutes the pole was safely on the ground... sans any personal injuries! This was a big win when it comes to my morale. Now I'm on the real mission to finish tearing out the flipping yard so that next year we can begin planting and no longer look like we live in an abandoned drug house. I really only have two more secionts left and I think I can get them done in the next week or so. Hopefully, I will have a fantastic update soon!
Oh, and btw Jon was surprised. He kept asking how we did it and I think is not-so-secretly happy that he didn't have to be a part of it. :)
Me pretending to hit the pole as it was stuck in the tree (great art direction by mom).
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Wall-Done
One of my most favorite projects thus far would have to be the hole we put into our wall. This is likely due in part to the fact that I didn't have to do anything, it was handled completely by professionals (Jon's amazing uncles). I also love it because it made a huge difference in our house. We have a "cozy" (my favorite word for very, very small) 1100 square foot home, so needless to say there isn't a lot of room for entertaining. From the day I bought this house I had the idea that I needed to open it up to help with the flow when entertaining. And isn't opening things up all the rage these days?
El problemo with my plan was that I wanted to open the space up between the family room and kitchen, and that my friends, is a load bearing wall. Not to be discouraged, because I have the motto you can do whatever the eff you want as long as you're willing to pay for it, I forged on with the plan. Well sort of. Jon and I are what you might call indecisive procrastinators. Real projects terrify us and even though we have been together for something like 10-15 years (I mean it's somewhere in there who keeps count at this point anyway?) we are afraid of commitment. Lucky for us, we had someone nudging us... aka saying, "Are you going to do this stupid project or what??"
Because I was smart enough to know that I shouldn't touch a load bearing wall lest the house should collapse, I think the project really started when I asked Jon's uncle at a family party how much it could cost to brace a load bearing wall for a pass-through. He didn't really give me a direct answer and I thought that the question had sort of died. However, I think that either at another party or via a phone call the project was brought up again and the next thing I know his uncle is at our house assessing it. He gave us a quote and Jon and I, the procrastinators and non-committers that we are, didn't call him back. That's when we finally got the call essentially saying are you doing this or not? So we said... ok, completely terrified of what we were starting.
One thing about this plan was that it had originally begun as a fairly simple rectangular opening, I had no grand plans. I'm a pretty simple, modern style-ish person so I was cool with that. Then one day my mother threw this giant wrench in the plan. She said, "Why don't you consider doing something fun like columns?" I was thinking that's kind of gaudy for my taste. I'm not really into a Grecian style (I mean who is under the age of 75 or really rich people with poor taste?). I said no way. The subject came up again at a later time and I said, "Mom, do you really think a Greek column would go in my little 1960s house?" She said, "I was not talking about Greek columns! Google some photos of Crafstman style home columns." Oh goodness, did I fall in love. I loved the column style and the built-ins that typically accompanied them. How in the hell do moms always know everything? It's not cool.
The process began, and moved along pretty quickly. Although, this was not without a major fight where I got mad at Jon for not communicating the measurements correctly. The pillars were supposed to be sitting on top of the built-ins but I could tell partially through the project that this was not going to happen. However, it all worked out in the end and I am really happy with the result.
Some photos for your enjoyment...
This is what I came home to the first day they began the work. I was soooo excited and scared.
The same day I went down to the creepy room in the basement where we were keeping our sweet little Lola. I think she was a little stressed and took it out on Jon's parents' old couch...
In-progress, sorry it's a tad blurry but you get to see Jon's uncles in action!
Ok, the official before photo... (ignore the really messy coffee table)
Annnnnnd the after!!!!
El problemo with my plan was that I wanted to open the space up between the family room and kitchen, and that my friends, is a load bearing wall. Not to be discouraged, because I have the motto you can do whatever the eff you want as long as you're willing to pay for it, I forged on with the plan. Well sort of. Jon and I are what you might call indecisive procrastinators. Real projects terrify us and even though we have been together for something like 10-15 years (I mean it's somewhere in there who keeps count at this point anyway?) we are afraid of commitment. Lucky for us, we had someone nudging us... aka saying, "Are you going to do this stupid project or what??"
Because I was smart enough to know that I shouldn't touch a load bearing wall lest the house should collapse, I think the project really started when I asked Jon's uncle at a family party how much it could cost to brace a load bearing wall for a pass-through. He didn't really give me a direct answer and I thought that the question had sort of died. However, I think that either at another party or via a phone call the project was brought up again and the next thing I know his uncle is at our house assessing it. He gave us a quote and Jon and I, the procrastinators and non-committers that we are, didn't call him back. That's when we finally got the call essentially saying are you doing this or not? So we said... ok, completely terrified of what we were starting.
One thing about this plan was that it had originally begun as a fairly simple rectangular opening, I had no grand plans. I'm a pretty simple, modern style-ish person so I was cool with that. Then one day my mother threw this giant wrench in the plan. She said, "Why don't you consider doing something fun like columns?" I was thinking that's kind of gaudy for my taste. I'm not really into a Grecian style (I mean who is under the age of 75 or really rich people with poor taste?). I said no way. The subject came up again at a later time and I said, "Mom, do you really think a Greek column would go in my little 1960s house?" She said, "I was not talking about Greek columns! Google some photos of Crafstman style home columns." Oh goodness, did I fall in love. I loved the column style and the built-ins that typically accompanied them. How in the hell do moms always know everything? It's not cool.
The process began, and moved along pretty quickly. Although, this was not without a major fight where I got mad at Jon for not communicating the measurements correctly. The pillars were supposed to be sitting on top of the built-ins but I could tell partially through the project that this was not going to happen. However, it all worked out in the end and I am really happy with the result.
Some photos for your enjoyment...
This is what I came home to the first day they began the work. I was soooo excited and scared.
The same day I went down to the creepy room in the basement where we were keeping our sweet little Lola. I think she was a little stressed and took it out on Jon's parents' old couch...
In-progress, sorry it's a tad blurry but you get to see Jon's uncles in action!
Ok, the official before photo... (ignore the really messy coffee table)
Annnnnnd the after!!!!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Way to Handle It Like a Man
This is a whiny post today.
I was so excited when we got our electrical completed in the bathroom that I was feeling motivated to get this baby moving. So I decided to call some other contractors. I had a plumbing company come the week prior to evaluate the work and give me a quote. They came and evaluated it (after rescheduling 23 times in one day) and told me I would get my estimate the following day. It never came. I honestly didn't follow-up with the guy because he told me that I needed to have a heat run moved to move the toilet. That is fine but I figured I might as well call a plumbing and HVAC company. Therefore I never followed-up.
When the day came for me to be motivated I decided to call a dual plumbing/HVAC company, that which I will call Dionysus (know your Greek mythology? I don't, I googled it to be funny but I think it will end up only being funny to me). I talked to a man who refused to listen to me. He kpet telling me that they could do the plumbing but couldn't move the heat run because they would have to rip out all the dry wall. I repeatedly told him it was in a gutted bathroom and an unfinished basement so the entire run was exposed. He kept telling me they couldn't do it. Finally, I stopped him and said so you're telling me that a completely exposed run cannot be moved? There is no dry wall anywhere near it. He said, oh it's exposed? We can do that. You ever see a comic when a character has a fizzle above his head? That was me. He then proceeded to tell me that it would cost me $80 for a plumbing estimate and another $80 for the HVAC. I am not spending $160 on estimates so I hung up in annoyance.
I had not lost faith yet though and thought well if a plumbing/HVAC company is going to charge me separate estimates I might as well try to get the original estimate from the guy who had looked at the work previously. I called him and left a message. He called me back a few minutes later and said, "Oh, I remember you. I hadn't forgotten. We've just been really busy." I basically told him no problem. He then proceeded to continue telling me how busy they were and then followed-up with something condescending like, you know, because we're really busy we really won't be able to get there for a while. And I mean it really looked like you needed a plumber two weeks ago so I'm sure you don't want to wait. He then proceeded to tell me how busy they were again. And then told me he would get the estimate next week. I didn't say anything until I just said "Ok, bye." He could tell I was angry.
Here's the thing, I get it that companies get busy. I really am a very understanding person. However, if they were so busy he never should have wasted my time coming to evaluate my work (but I'm sure he determined once he did that the job was too piddly for him). The other thing is that he didn't need to talk to me like I was an idiot. I know that I really need a plumber in there, but thanks for telling me in case I had forgotten. I was so angry I couldn't help but wonder if he was being so condescending because I am female. I am not a person who questions that with men very often. I have worked on many house projects with many men who were nothing but professional. When this guy was at my house looking at my bathroom he kept calling me on of those pet names like honey or sweetie. It originally didn't really bother me because I feel like he didn't mean anything by it, you know it's just what old men say (even though he wasn't THAT old). But after this phone call it infuriated me. Dont' refer to me as someone less than you and don't ever talk to me that way. He totally ruined my motivation buzz.
I began crying totally irrationally. Way to handle it like a man, Annie. I'm not sure if I'm being overdramatic about it which is part of what drives me crazy about the situation. Do I have a right to feel angry and upset? Maybe this guy would have said the same thing to my husband. I'll never know. What I do know is that I'm finished dealing with contractors. I immediately called my husband and told him he was handling the rest of them on this project.
I was so excited when we got our electrical completed in the bathroom that I was feeling motivated to get this baby moving. So I decided to call some other contractors. I had a plumbing company come the week prior to evaluate the work and give me a quote. They came and evaluated it (after rescheduling 23 times in one day) and told me I would get my estimate the following day. It never came. I honestly didn't follow-up with the guy because he told me that I needed to have a heat run moved to move the toilet. That is fine but I figured I might as well call a plumbing and HVAC company. Therefore I never followed-up.
When the day came for me to be motivated I decided to call a dual plumbing/HVAC company, that which I will call Dionysus (know your Greek mythology? I don't, I googled it to be funny but I think it will end up only being funny to me). I talked to a man who refused to listen to me. He kpet telling me that they could do the plumbing but couldn't move the heat run because they would have to rip out all the dry wall. I repeatedly told him it was in a gutted bathroom and an unfinished basement so the entire run was exposed. He kept telling me they couldn't do it. Finally, I stopped him and said so you're telling me that a completely exposed run cannot be moved? There is no dry wall anywhere near it. He said, oh it's exposed? We can do that. You ever see a comic when a character has a fizzle above his head? That was me. He then proceeded to tell me that it would cost me $80 for a plumbing estimate and another $80 for the HVAC. I am not spending $160 on estimates so I hung up in annoyance.
I had not lost faith yet though and thought well if a plumbing/HVAC company is going to charge me separate estimates I might as well try to get the original estimate from the guy who had looked at the work previously. I called him and left a message. He called me back a few minutes later and said, "Oh, I remember you. I hadn't forgotten. We've just been really busy." I basically told him no problem. He then proceeded to continue telling me how busy they were and then followed-up with something condescending like, you know, because we're really busy we really won't be able to get there for a while. And I mean it really looked like you needed a plumber two weeks ago so I'm sure you don't want to wait. He then proceeded to tell me how busy they were again. And then told me he would get the estimate next week. I didn't say anything until I just said "Ok, bye." He could tell I was angry.
Here's the thing, I get it that companies get busy. I really am a very understanding person. However, if they were so busy he never should have wasted my time coming to evaluate my work (but I'm sure he determined once he did that the job was too piddly for him). The other thing is that he didn't need to talk to me like I was an idiot. I know that I really need a plumber in there, but thanks for telling me in case I had forgotten. I was so angry I couldn't help but wonder if he was being so condescending because I am female. I am not a person who questions that with men very often. I have worked on many house projects with many men who were nothing but professional. When this guy was at my house looking at my bathroom he kept calling me on of those pet names like honey or sweetie. It originally didn't really bother me because I feel like he didn't mean anything by it, you know it's just what old men say (even though he wasn't THAT old). But after this phone call it infuriated me. Dont' refer to me as someone less than you and don't ever talk to me that way. He totally ruined my motivation buzz.
I began crying totally irrationally. Way to handle it like a man, Annie. I'm not sure if I'm being overdramatic about it which is part of what drives me crazy about the situation. Do I have a right to feel angry and upset? Maybe this guy would have said the same thing to my husband. I'll never know. What I do know is that I'm finished dealing with contractors. I immediately called my husband and told him he was handling the rest of them on this project.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
TBT - Old Blog Post
I'm sure you can tell by my fabulous writing skills that this is not my first blog. I think I have had 3 others and maybe a Live Journal for half a second at like age 13. They were pretty short-lived so I was going through my posts. I found two entries that were house related so I'm going to include them this week and next week. Happy Throwback Thursday!
July 13, 2012
That Poison
The list item I am currently working on is tearing out the m***** f****** yard. I apologize for my bad language which is not typical of me (except lately for some reason, I've been using the f word a lot. Sorry mom!) but if nothing else deserves such bad language, my yard does. My house was an estate sale, and no, no one dided in the house. Apparently though the old lady who lived in it before us lived to garden. Much of our yard has been gardened and it's infuriating. The reason is that I'm sure at one time was lovely but from what we have been told, she got sick the last one to two years of her life and couldn't keep it up. The house was then on the market for almost a year and her family definitely didn't see a need to keep the yard up. All of these things +2 years of living there with minimal work done to it (unbelievably there were more important projects to work on first + our wedding) = a jungle in the midst of Northern Kentucky).
This Spring/Summer we have been in a good position to work on it. Jon and I have been really bad about wearing any protective items because we're tough and awesome, or so I thought. I have been warned to stop wearing flip flops while shoveling (I know, I know) and to watch out for the poison ivy (which I have never experienced so am clearly not allergic to so why wear long sleeves in 104 degree weather??). Well, one particular day I tore out this fairly small area that was just jam packed with horrible greenery. The next day I found this weird bump on my toe and then broke out on my nose (infuriating because I'm 27 and should not be breaking out). I then found a few bumps on my arm. I started panicking about what I am allergic to now as I had literally just recovered from hive attack after being exposed to a laundry additive that makes your clothes smell good (I can't help that I'm a delicate little flower!). More and more bumps started showing up so I asked Dr. Mom to look at it. She immediately said, "That's poison ivy." I mean duh, I should have put that together but I honestly thought I wasn't allergic. My mom is smarter than me though and is a poison ivy expert because if she stands near it and the wind blows I swear her eyes sweel shut.
As the hours and days passed, the rash continued to spread... my chin, the sides of my face, neck, my arms, literally covering my stomach (including the inside of my belly button, vom) and thights, and my bikini line ( I swear I had shorts on). My hubs kept encouraging me to go to the doctor but I kept saying no because I'm stubborn and well, just plain dumb. The reasonn I was saying that is because by the time I really realized how bad it was, parts of me were already healing. However, for those of you fortunate enough to have never experienced this atrocious reaction, there are not words to describe how truly miserable it is. When you have one bump it is really annoying but when it is covering your entire body you want to rip off every piece of your skin. Again, I am dumb. Finally, only when I developed an unrelated case of bronchitis did I go to the doctor. While I was there, I showed her part of my rash (PART, mind you) and the horrified reaction from her really made me feel better (I for realsies love my doc). She shot me up with some steroids and I'm not back in the game.
This story was just to illustrate the use of mfing and why I hate working on my yard. I will forge on though b/c I'm a bad ass... and also because I now shower with Dawn after every single time I do yard work.
July 13, 2012
That Poison
The list item I am currently working on is tearing out the m***** f****** yard. I apologize for my bad language which is not typical of me (except lately for some reason, I've been using the f word a lot. Sorry mom!) but if nothing else deserves such bad language, my yard does. My house was an estate sale, and no, no one dided in the house. Apparently though the old lady who lived in it before us lived to garden. Much of our yard has been gardened and it's infuriating. The reason is that I'm sure at one time was lovely but from what we have been told, she got sick the last one to two years of her life and couldn't keep it up. The house was then on the market for almost a year and her family definitely didn't see a need to keep the yard up. All of these things +2 years of living there with minimal work done to it (unbelievably there were more important projects to work on first + our wedding) = a jungle in the midst of Northern Kentucky).
This Spring/Summer we have been in a good position to work on it. Jon and I have been really bad about wearing any protective items because we're tough and awesome, or so I thought. I have been warned to stop wearing flip flops while shoveling (I know, I know) and to watch out for the poison ivy (which I have never experienced so am clearly not allergic to so why wear long sleeves in 104 degree weather??). Well, one particular day I tore out this fairly small area that was just jam packed with horrible greenery. The next day I found this weird bump on my toe and then broke out on my nose (infuriating because I'm 27 and should not be breaking out). I then found a few bumps on my arm. I started panicking about what I am allergic to now as I had literally just recovered from hive attack after being exposed to a laundry additive that makes your clothes smell good (I can't help that I'm a delicate little flower!). More and more bumps started showing up so I asked Dr. Mom to look at it. She immediately said, "That's poison ivy." I mean duh, I should have put that together but I honestly thought I wasn't allergic. My mom is smarter than me though and is a poison ivy expert because if she stands near it and the wind blows I swear her eyes sweel shut.
As the hours and days passed, the rash continued to spread... my chin, the sides of my face, neck, my arms, literally covering my stomach (including the inside of my belly button, vom) and thights, and my bikini line ( I swear I had shorts on). My hubs kept encouraging me to go to the doctor but I kept saying no because I'm stubborn and well, just plain dumb. The reasonn I was saying that is because by the time I really realized how bad it was, parts of me were already healing. However, for those of you fortunate enough to have never experienced this atrocious reaction, there are not words to describe how truly miserable it is. When you have one bump it is really annoying but when it is covering your entire body you want to rip off every piece of your skin. Again, I am dumb. Finally, only when I developed an unrelated case of bronchitis did I go to the doctor. While I was there, I showed her part of my rash (PART, mind you) and the horrified reaction from her really made me feel better (I for realsies love my doc). She shot me up with some steroids and I'm not back in the game.
This story was just to illustrate the use of mfing and why I hate working on my yard. I will forge on though b/c I'm a bad ass... and also because I now shower with Dawn after every single time I do yard work.
This is a VERY small sample of the ridiculousness of the yard (this is also after days of working on the area). You can barely see it but in the very back of the photo there is a thing that looks like a bush in the left hand corner. That is where the culprit resided.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Decked Out
Speaking of decks, I'd like to tell you of another project related to it. As mentioned previously the deck was one of my first priorities as it was the first one I had ever owned or lived with...? I feel like to say it was in a state of disrepair may be a little dramatic but I'll just say it hadn't looked like it had been maintained for minimum 5 years. It was majorly splintered, the stain was obviously coming off and many of the floor boards were loose. I knew I had to spruce this baby up so I
did some research and looked for the first long weekend available to tackle
this project. I bought the house in late March/early April so I planned for
Memorial Day.
Let me tell you, I am so happy we did it on a 3-dayer. Remeber me talkign about how happy I was that this thing was so big? I cursed myself for feeling excited about that in the middle of this project. As I had mentioned I'm pretty sure this thing hadn't been touched for minimum 5 years. Therefore, every inch needed to be sanded. It. Took. For... Ever. At one point our poor next door neighbors were having a Memorial Day cookout and invited us over. We are positive that was done in order to get a break from the sanding for a few minutes.
We spent countless hours in the sweltering heat sanding and sanding. Some of you may be wondering what took us so long. We had rented a floor sander to make the main floor part easy. But it was the railing. All of those rails. Those flipping rails. I'm pretty sure most people don't waste their time with them but I wanted it all sanded! After days we ended up getting the worst part finished (sanding) and moved onto painting. We made a little bit of a mistake in that we purchased color that was a little more red than we had intended but 3 or 4 years later it has grown on me a little. We ended up painting the majority of the deck that weekend but had to touch it up a few days later that week.
I can't seem to find an after photo immediately after finishing it soa photo of it today will have to do! (See the before photo in the previous post).
Let me tell you, I am so happy we did it on a 3-dayer. Remeber me talkign about how happy I was that this thing was so big? I cursed myself for feeling excited about that in the middle of this project. As I had mentioned I'm pretty sure this thing hadn't been touched for minimum 5 years. Therefore, every inch needed to be sanded. It. Took. For... Ever. At one point our poor next door neighbors were having a Memorial Day cookout and invited us over. We are positive that was done in order to get a break from the sanding for a few minutes.
We spent countless hours in the sweltering heat sanding and sanding. Some of you may be wondering what took us so long. We had rented a floor sander to make the main floor part easy. But it was the railing. All of those rails. Those flipping rails. I'm pretty sure most people don't waste their time with them but I wanted it all sanded! After days we ended up getting the worst part finished (sanding) and moved onto painting. We made a little bit of a mistake in that we purchased color that was a little more red than we had intended but 3 or 4 years later it has grown on me a little. We ended up painting the majority of the deck that weekend but had to touch it up a few days later that week.
I can't seem to find an after photo immediately after finishing it soa photo of it today will have to do! (See the before photo in the previous post).
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Let There Be Deck Lights
Photo of Deck From Online Listing (Arrow Added)
When I bought my house, one of the main features that I
loved was the deck. It was enormous (to
me at least). I had never lived in a
house with a deck so I was pretty psyched about the prospect of a nice outdoor
entertaining space. One of the cool features of the deck was that there were
two lights built into it on the railing.
They weren’t super cool lights but that didn’t matter, a light was a
light.
I went ahead and put an offer in on the house, we
negotiated, and made a deal. I moved
onto the inspection stage where quite a long list of items were flagged. I was
overwhelmed with the amount of work required and ended up walking away from the
contract. The sellers came back (I like
to imagine in a panic, because of course, I was in control of the situation) and
essentially said we will fix everything, just buy it. I said okay but you need
to give me a new electrical box. They agreed and the rest is history.
I moved into the house, excited about my first home with
millions of projects to tackle. One of the first things I purchased was an
outdoor table and chairs because of my deck excitement. However, I was sorely
disappointed when I tried to turn the deck lights on with no luck. I tried
changing the lightbulbs and that didn’t work. I then thought maybe I should check
the wires. At some point, and I’m not
sure if it was when they were fixing one of the electrical issues or if it was
when they replaced the electrical box, but the electrical line for those lights
was cut off. I was bummed but still happy with the deck so I just overlooked
it, assuming at some point we would just remove the lights.
Fast forward 4 years of living in the house. We are in the middle
of a bathroom remodel (more on this project in a later post) and needed to get
a bunch of electrical things moved/added.
When the electrician came to provide the quote, my husband also asked
him to check an outlet on our deck that was also non-functional. He said he
would look into it.
Today, while I was at work the electrician came and did all
of the fun work we requested. I pulled
my car around back, got out of my car and looked at the deck. To my shock and complete and utter elation,
the deck lights were on. I mean I think I almost teared up. After 3 years of
thinking (for some reason) that there would be no salvaging these things, they
were on! Apparently, when the electrician fixed the outdoor outlet this also
fixed the deck lights. What an amazing
surprise! I think I need to plan a party. J
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
A Wreath and a Break-in
This really doesn’t qualify as a house project but it will
be hanging in my house, so close enough. I’m not a huge crafter but I like to
do them at times when I become especially inspired. And by inspired I mean I
see a photo of something I want to copy. A few weeks ago in one of my too many
hours perusing Facebook I saw a photo of a 4th of July clothespin
wreath. I thought it was really cute so I
was determined to make it. However, as
all projects go, I procrastinated. Realizing that the 4th of July is
less than a week away I decided I needed to get ‘er done (vom). Anyhoo, I spent
yesterday buying the supplies and painting all of these little pins by
hand. I was told I just should have done
them with spray paint but I like the brush strokes and there is just something
kind of relaxing about painting. It took me all afternoon but I rate this as a
great success. I am very pleased and usually I’m a tough critic of my own work.
If it’s not perfect, it’s terrible. So this is obviously perfect. J
Also, random home story…
A few weeks ago we had a bricklayers move an exterior window
in our master bathroom. The bathroom is
completely gutted at the moment and we are moving the window in order to
install a bathtub. On Thursday I pulled into the driveway, when it suddenly hit
me that I had no access into the house.
My husband had taken my car to the shop so I had stolen my mom’s car. I
never grabbed a spare key so I was shut out.
I spent about a half an hour at my parents’ house looking for a key to
my house to no avail. I finally returned
back to my house in hopes of finding an unlocked window. I angrily stomped to
the backyard to see if one of the windows on my deck would let me in… when I
saw my uninstalled bathroom window, duh. I proceeded to un-wedge the window,
drag a chair over to the gaping hole and very ungracefully slide through. I was
so happy I was actually inside of my house. However, I’m even more concerned
about how easy that was. Hopefully no one decides to un-wedge in before we can
get it fixed! I think it’s time to buy a fake rock to hide a spare key.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Never Ever Ever Ending Lists
About a week ago I returned home after a little trip to
Switzerland and Germany. I think I am
just now starting to get over jet lag. This sounds like a good thing but to me
it is not. For some reason I think the 6
hour time difference provided me with a large amount of energy and I’m starting
to lose it. I think the other contributing factor to my increased energy level
is that, while I had a great time, I was so incredibly happy to be home. My
husband and I have had a pretty crazy couple of months with a lot of stress,
and coming home from this trip just felt like a relief that we could
relax. Anyway, the reason I bring this
up is because I have been knocking out project after project…none of which are
of any excitement. You’re welcome.
Aside from the bench, I have cleaned the family room, guest
bath, and guest room from top to bottom. I grocery shopped and washed all of
the dirty vacation laundry, plus some. I started cleaning out the office
closet. I edged and raked the dead grass out of the yard. I weeded the garden
and sprayed the cement cracks to kill tiny shrubs. I laid grass seed where an
electrical line was run from my house to the lamp post in my front yard (a
loooong time ago). I went to Lowes Depot
and bought a manual tiller, 2 types of weed killer, a stud finder, and several
types of flowers. I came home to plant the flowers and pulled the old dead
plants from my pots and planted my new live ones… Ok, I have to admit that I
knew I had done a lot but this seems kind of insane. Also, I just realized that
in my previous paragraph I talked about how I was happy to be home to relax so
that made me laugh. But I am not surprising myself. I am not a good relaxer.
I am so happy to get these things completed but there is
just so much more to do on my “do it now” list. These include: get rid of the
rock pile on the driveway, clean out and plant grass on both side yards, weed
the backyard garden and put down mulch, build the rocks up around the well to
make a fire pit, clean out the fence area and lay down grass, build stair step
garden where the old barbecue was that we ripped out, test the ceiling in the
basement for asbestos, move exterior master bath window (happening Saturday!),
and clean the rest of the house before Jon’s friend comes and stays with us and
realizes that we are complete slobs.
Ugh, there are not enough hours in the day.
It’s funny too that I feel like I have accomplished so much
and yet things still appear to be a gigantic mess. Oh, well. I guess I have to
admit that things do look at least a LITTLE better than yesterday. Just keep
swimming.
Ok, so this photo has zero to do with this post except my mention of Germany. My projects weren't very fun so I thought I would include a fun picture. This is a photo of me holding a donut. Yes, you read that right, a donut! In the shape of a pretzel! That is why Germany is cool. :) (Random learning in Germany: Germans really do love their pretzels as much as we think they do!)
Monday, May 26, 2014
Taking It Out on a Bench
I had a little bit of a rough day today. The typical methods of licking my wounds include drinking, eating, or laying in a comatose state until something good comes on TV. However, today I decided to try a new method and take it out on a bench.
When my sister-in-law sold her house we helped her move. She was in a giving mood that day and offered me her tired outdoor bench. It was covered in peeling stain... and spiders. While I feel like I never have time to fix something like this up, my hoarder self took over (as usual) and I scooped it up. It has been sitting in my barage (basement/garage) for about a year but it has been on mind as the weather has turned to summer.
In the midst of my crying my husband suggested that I lay down and I said no, I might as well get something done. So I sauntered to the barage and dug the damn thing out from under the pile of artwork that had been stacked on top. I grabbed my little hand sander and started sanding my little heart out. Surprisingly, the stain came off easily and it smoothed right up. While I am usually a very frustrated worker, as in I start something and I get tired so I just give it up and never return, today I jammed it. I sanded that thing until it looked pretty good (sorry I don't have any before photos).
I primed it and it is now sitting there happily drying.
This post doesn't really fit the bill of the normal post here. However, I thought I would share because the time spent on this was intensely therapeutic. As I cried into my primer I started to feel better. And this is another fantastic, and unexpected, example of why home projects are the greatest.
Don't judge the mess behind this bench. We are in the midst of spring cleaning the barage and it's super out of control
When my sister-in-law sold her house we helped her move. She was in a giving mood that day and offered me her tired outdoor bench. It was covered in peeling stain... and spiders. While I feel like I never have time to fix something like this up, my hoarder self took over (as usual) and I scooped it up. It has been sitting in my barage (basement/garage) for about a year but it has been on mind as the weather has turned to summer.
In the midst of my crying my husband suggested that I lay down and I said no, I might as well get something done. So I sauntered to the barage and dug the damn thing out from under the pile of artwork that had been stacked on top. I grabbed my little hand sander and started sanding my little heart out. Surprisingly, the stain came off easily and it smoothed right up. While I am usually a very frustrated worker, as in I start something and I get tired so I just give it up and never return, today I jammed it. I sanded that thing until it looked pretty good (sorry I don't have any before photos).
I primed it and it is now sitting there happily drying.
This post doesn't really fit the bill of the normal post here. However, I thought I would share because the time spent on this was intensely therapeutic. As I cried into my primer I started to feel better. And this is another fantastic, and unexpected, example of why home projects are the greatest.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Uhh, Really?!?!
Imagine this. You just moved into a new house a few months
ago. All of your cute little neighbors 40 years your senior invite you to a
yearly block party down the street. You
stroll down to the party the day of and make polite chit chat with all of these
people you hardly know. You begin
talking to two men who start to do that thing where they are talking about you
right in front of your face because they want you to react to something but
they don’t want to say it to you directly.
I don’t recall the exact conversation but it was something like, “Haha
yeah she’s working a lot on that house. I wonder if she’s going to keep that
headstone.” And the two men chuckled whilst I stood there in a state of
confusion and social awkwardness regarding how to respond to such an odd presentation.
In mere seconds my thoughts went from what are they talking about, to suddenly, my mind flashing to the end of my driveway side yard. There lays a large rectangular chunk of granite… I mean they are joking right? NOPE. My now husband and I hurried back to our home to flip this behemoth over… to find that fricking piece of granite was a headstone! W.T.F.!?!?!?!????!!!! ? ! ? !
Now before you get all “Ew, OMG I would HAVE to move out of
there,” I have to tell you a little more.
To clarify, there is no body buried on my side yard. This is a classic case of cheap, old stubbornness.
The story the neighbors told is that this headstone was for the sister of the
woman who lived in the house until she passed (not in the house!). There was a misspelling on this headstone so
instead of just telling the headstone company to dispose of it, she kept it. To
decorate her garden. So now I get to deal with it. Yay me!
I could not handle the weird as hell yard décor so I had to
get rid of it immediately. However, I’m not sure if you know this. Granite is
ungodly heavy. I mean, seriously. I am really, really strong but this was too
much. However, I am not one to just give in, because like the owner of this
headstone, I am excessively stubborn and I had my sights set on disposing of
this thing. I wasn’t able to lift the damn thing up so devised a new plan. I
tipped my big garbage can dumpster on its side and rolled the granite into the
garbage can. Victory! Well, until we
tried to push the garbage can back to standing. My husband and I pushed,
rolled, shook, kicked, wedged, and every other verb you can think of to try to
stand the damn thing back up. It didn’t
work. Finally, my sweet, sweet neighbor Mark found us exhausted on the driveway
and asked if we needed help. He had the
magic touch and we got it on its feet!
The next struggle was actually moving it up the driveway to
the street for pickup. This again was a team effort but we succeeded. We were
praying and praying the garbage men would take it… and not call the cops so we
covered it up with leaves. I once filled a garbage can completely with dirt and
they refused to take it because it was too heavy. Ok, wusses, if a girl can get the can to the
street all by herself you should be able to pick it up.
Learning from this “headstone disposal” project: Garbage men
WILL take a headstone that is extremely heavy if in the dumpster thingy… but
they won’t be happy about it. They left
me a note basically saying don’t ever make your garbage that heavy ever
again. And as long as there are no
additional death markers in my yard, I can definitely comply!
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
You Can Ring My Bellllllllll, Ring My Bell
I recommend listening to this song as you read this post. Don't even try not to dance.
While I am often inappropriately proud of myself, I'm pretty sure nothing compares to the first home project I did completely on my lonesome. My mom is the master of home improvement projects so I have relied on her help or her flat out just doing it for me countless times. I can't remember why, but I decided that I wanted to take on one project without her: installing a new doorbell button. The original one worked but the button was cracked and I was terrified of death by doorbell electrocution. Now I get that some of you experts out there know how incredibly simple this is, but I was shocked to recently find out how some people at work thought I was AMAZING because I had done this. I mean I totally ate it up, but I was secretly surprised by their reaction.
At the end of the day, the entire project probably took about an hour. I went to Lowes Depot (I don't know which, but I live at both of these stores) and purchased a fun little button that lit up. I brought it home, turned off the electric which I'm not even sure anymore was necessary, followed the instructions of taking off the old button, and wiring the new one. I mean dear lord you would have thought I had just completed brain surgery. I was strutting around the front yard like nobody's business. And I am not even exaggerating a little bit that once I turned that electric back on and the button lit up, I rang that bell roughly 20 times. Luckily, I wasn't married at this point for anyone to try and tell me how to do it or to become annoyed at the beautiful song of the doorbell which button I installed.
While the strutting has stopped, the internal pride continues.
Weed Like To Know if I Should Tear You Out
Clever, eh? Whatever, I'm exhausted. I just spent like 2 hours trying to identify a plant growing rampant in my "garden" (definition: dirt bed next to my house filled with unidentifiable green things and few flowers).
This started a few days ago while trying to clean out my insanely horrible side of the house. I found these super pretty little plants with heart shaped leaves and really pretty purple flowers. I thought oh my goodness I must rip you out and replant you in places that can be seen by people that don't try to cover you up with a trampoline 2 feet from my garden/bedroom window ahemneighborsahem. Anyhoo, I replanted a few of these little guys next to my backdoor steps and one in front of my mailbox. Looking pretty, I was far too proud of myself and continued on with my day(s). Back at it, soon after, I was walking in the back of my yard only to find these same little flowers growing in the middle of my grass. A split second of me thinking, "How did this flower get here?" turned into: OH MY GOD IT'S A WEED! I began researching to find something called "creeping charlie." I then ran to begin ripping the just replanted weed flowers out of my yard so my neighbors wouldn't think I'm completely insane.
Cut to yesterday I was back to working on my side yard, cleverly shaded by the monstrosity that is the trampoline, I began tearing out stumps of bushes my hubs and I had cut out last year. These things were huge so I began using my favorite gardening tool, a reciprocating saw. I was gleefully sawing away when I realized there was a rubber pipe that had sneakily shown up in the dirt. I have a gas furnace so I immediately thought, gas line, stay away from that. I began to use a shovel to dig up the stump when suddenly the line popped out of the ground with a nice clean cut it in. It's as if someone had used, say, a reciprocating saw to cut it (who'd have thunk?). Thinking I was milliseconds away from blowing my dog, me, and my sweet little home up, I called my emergency "help, I might blow up my dog, me and my sweet little home" line, aka mom.
She arrived to share with me that this was the line that had gone to the gas lamp post that we had dug out a few months back. The gas line had been shut off long before (confirmed with a contractor at my house for the OTHER lamp post). She then helped by ripping out the stumps, essentially with her bare hands, like a boss leaving me there like a chump. In the midst of that she told me that those little flowery plants were not creeping charlie but probably a viola or something.
Shyeah right mom, whatever. But this statement did to me what mom statements do. Which is completely deny that it could possibly be accurate but put a little bug in my head that mmmmmaybe you need to look into it. So that led to this evening. All alone to take care of this house by myself as my husband galavanted to Boston to watch the Reds play at Fenway park, I decided to SLAVE over trying to identify this plant. After googling 5 million different types of descriptions I was finally led to *drum roll* a wild violet.
I literally know nothing about plants so I thought is a wild violet a weed or a pretty little plant. Yes, it's a weed but yes it's a pretty little plant that people leave in their yards for ground cover. Who knew gardening was so complex with grey area. I don't know what I'm doing, give me a definitive keep it or rip it out answer, dammit internet. This has left me to where I am now, procrastinating the decision by writing this blog. You have come to live another day you little weed plant.
Welcome Home!
My dreams of making my sweet as pie little home my perfectly complete sanctuary are totally lost 4 years after purchasing it. I don't know why it ever crossed my mind that this abode would ever be to my liking. First of all, I come from a long line of project-doers who never complete anything. And by long line, I mean my mother. Second of all, I can be a procrastinator. This especially happens after long hours of working on something and it not being completed. Or, after 5 minutes of trying something that I am not immediately at expert level doing.
Although my home is nowhere near complete, I do have to say that I have completed many a project... with mixed results. But, although I hate to say it, I have learned more than I ever could have imagined about flag poles, 1960s bathroom construction, and actually about myself. It's all about the journey, right?? Or, something like that, yadda yadda yadda.
This is my house before I bought it. You can tell by the half cut-off words in the top left-hand corner and weird little icons in the top right (a listing photo).
Although my home is nowhere near complete, I do have to say that I have completed many a project... with mixed results. But, although I hate to say it, I have learned more than I ever could have imagined about flag poles, 1960s bathroom construction, and actually about myself. It's all about the journey, right?? Or, something like that, yadda yadda yadda.
This is my house before I bought it. You can tell by the half cut-off words in the top left-hand corner and weird little icons in the top right (a listing photo).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
