Three poor unsuspecting victims.

Bastard.

Fido the Fit before his much needed---and deserved-- trip to the spa after keeping us safe through 14 hours of snow and ice on our trip back from Indiana at Christmas after only 12 hours of visiting (really 6 b/c we slept some too).

The house and pets took a beating too. Check out this picture of Bluesy amongst the chaos of leftover Christmas crap-o-la. No matter how ruthless we are at cleaning out before the holidays (and the kids were REALLY thorough this year), there is never enough room for all of our treasures. We are very good, after all!

Waiting for Santa was exhausting!

Paul takes a much deserved nap. So tired--this is even DURING a Carolina game with the kids playing all around him.

The pets have to handle so many schedule changes: Paul staying home from work, then the kids are there all day of some days, then all of us leaving for days at a time to travel, coming home late from parties (ok, late for us). Their whole world gets turned upside down. Barton and Katie even forgot they were not supposed to like each other!

Sign the Apocolypse is upon us.

I started feeling the old twinges of needing to make a list today though. This year we are not going to take on any major new projects. More like just finishing up that last 2% of the projects that never get done. We will keep you posted of course! Stay tuned.

I love being organized and having organized surroundings. I am sure Paul and the kids would help me maintain that if only they knew where to put things right? Before I had ghetto hand written labels or perhaps labels I typed and laminated, but I am THE worst cutter in the world. It never comes out straight so the ghetto-ness is in full effect. So I redid all of the existing labels and added a few. Last night was the perfect night to do it b/c Paul went to his friend’s house to play guitar and the kids were at Robin’s. I was alone. For hours. With my Brother. OK, the dogs and cats were here too, but I created  “dog food” and “cat food” labels first so they were ok with it.

The other bonus is that I will no longer be the household St. Anthony, Patron Saint of Lost Things. I know we did this to my mom (sorry, Mom!!!) and now I know how annoying it is to be asked to find socks, shoes, school papers, backpacks, etc.I also give the equally annoying answer, “where did you have it last?”

I love reusing items so labeling is key. Side note to emphasize my point: My favorite column in Real Simple Magazine is the “New uses for old things” [did you know they have a BOOK OUT WITH 869 NEW USES?!?!?!]. As you see here with Brother’s home, some may mistake it for an old shoe box, not the resting place of the Holy Grail.

Although, now The Others know where it is and I might have to share it… crap.

Chris from the Greensboro store’s paint department recommended the Homax kit:

Homax Caulk Refinishing Kit

Not only did it have a tool to remove caulk, but it also had a separate tool for applying the caulk! All for $5!! It kicked ass for removing the caulk.  I used it when applying the silicone caulk and got the opposite result. It looked like butt when I used it on the silicone caulk. When I used it on the latex caulk (long story why I used 2 kinds of caulk), it was back to kicking ass instead of looking like ass. Interesting findings. I am glad I bought it even if Paul did laugh at me. He recommended I use a screw driver. Funny thing was my dad said he often just used a screw driver.

Maybe the moral of the story is not buy the proper tools for the job. Instead it is girls really do marry their fathers!

Laundry Room "renovation." We had one shelf that had all that stuff on it. Paul moved the shelf up, then added the 2nd one. DOUBLING our storage space--WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

Not to mention he is funny and super-cute:

Paul wears his goggles instead of sunglasses on our way back from an open water swim practice.

Now I am looking for new projects to do around the house so I can get some more tools . Right now I have a couple tools in mind that I would like and I am sure I can find more. I want a torque wrench for working on the bikes (I may be able to get this one without a house project).  For the loft project we borrowed the Blue’s electric stud finder/laser level and I really liked it. If anyone has any ideas for projects that can get me these tools, or any other cool tools you can think of, let me know.

About our home improvement project…Usually I hear about couples arguing constantly over home improvement projects. Ours made me love Paul even more! I have seen Lance Armstrong side (cocky athlete), Martha Stewart side (cook EXTRAORDINAIRE!), work side (too smart for most ppl’s good), but to see the Bob Vila side, WOW! You can see the photos of him working (I really did just stand around most of the time like I predicted in my previous post) by clicking here. I was drawing 3D pictures and trying to get exact measurements and things. He had the whole thing in his brain for months and executed the plan perfectly! We only made 1 trip to Home Depot–the initial trip! THAT has to be a record!

Also at that link are some photos of chillin and grillin at Paul’s mom’s house for Mother’s Day. Healthwise…I am feeling much healthier and more ready to start the work week than I have been in a long time.

I think it will be a lot of me standing around waiting to hold 4×4 beams in place above my head on a ladder while Paul measures and makes the cuts with the circular saw we got for our wedding shower.   So I plan to take pictures to post as we go so stay tuned!

Sunday morning jam session

I wanted to add some pics to our site. Not much to say really. Paul has been playing his guitar a lot lately, which has made Anna want to play too. It makes Tyler sad he destroyed his drum set.

Paul, dogs and Barton (L corner of the couch)

The cats have really relaxed quite a bit in the last few months so there are some cute pictures of that too.

Lizardhead (Tyler's Webkinz) on Paulhead

I love this pic of Anna

Goal update: I am doing well at “active recovery.” Better than we are doing at completing unfinished projects, that is for sure. Taxes are done, Anna and I had some girl time (pic here too),

veggies suck but I learned that you get a TON of spinach for only a few calories so that is what is helping me get that goal checked off. Journaling is sketchy, but I have the rest of the week to get 1 more entry.

Tyler and Bluesy bonding

Still on a book slump, but I started Purpose Driven Life this week so perhaps it will be a hit. Everyone else in the world seems to love it according to the critics. Paul’s mom suggested that perhaps because I am on a slump I should write my own book (see bucket list to the right).

1. Finish wiring back speakers in living room. See above.
2. Change handles on Tyler’s dresser. My old dresser, they all broke off–not sure what the deal was there. It was fine, then we moved it and it was not fine. Kind of like the stroke of midnight for Cinderella. You would think this was an easy task–NO handles fit the current holes. We bought several kinds, then finally just took measurements to Lowe’s and I went through EVERY HANDLE THEY HAD. So we need to drill holes, but when we had time to do that, the drill was under the house where Paul left it one afternoon in disgust over project #1.
3. Susan’s mtn bike. Paul has been fixing it up for me for a year. Last thing is putting on new tires. FYI–sitting in a shed year round for about 8 years is not good for tires nor tubes. Who knew??
4. Paint touch ups. Amazing how many things you don’t see until the can is hammered closed and the brushes are clean.
5. Finish peg board and bike maintenance shelf. Paul thinks we are done. Little does he know how much more purging, I mean organizing we can do to his shelf! Muuuuaaaaahahhahahahahhahahahh!!!

So that is our lil list o’ fun. Does that make you feel any better for not getting a call back from us?

UPDATE 2.11.09: Paul did the handles last night, then Tyler vacuumed out the drawers. He is fired UP about chores! (Tyler, not Paul).  1 down, 4 to go!

Now Paul has gotten into the act. He purchased several sheets of peg board and put it up in the garage. Then he hung his bike maintenance tools (there are 4 shelves of a workbench full of them). We did this on Sat afternoon so while the kids played outside and Paul did that, I spent all that time cleaning out and organizing the garage! AWESOME! Here are the lessons we have learned:

1–Home Improvement Formula: (# hours spent on project) x (1.79) = number of trips to the home improvement store. It took us 5 trips.

2–We have found the limitation to the Honda Fit (see Laminate Flooring post). We wanted 8×8 peg boards cut in half, and after waiting 38 minutes (literally, I know I exaggerate, but I am not here) for some guy to have 27 cuts made (I counted, thinking of the entertainment you, the reader, would get out of this) we went to the car only to find out 4×4 sheets will not fit in the car.  So we returned to the store for additional cuts (this still counted as 1 trip in the formula). At least we made the man cutting the wood smile.

3–There are always unexpected surprises when you clean out a garage. Like bike tools you have been looking for, toys you didn’t know you had, and dead squirrels. Yep–I moved the steam cleaner and there it was. I think I wet my pants. Tyler offered to pick it up for us. Paul again saved the say with a Wal-Mart plastic bag and plenty of anti-bacterial soap.

Stay tuned for the building of loft storage for the garage! Whooo hoooo!!!

Graham Blue from High Country Flooring did the work and he was great to work with. If anyone is thinking about doing their floors we would highly recommend him. Give him a call at 828-406-9221.

You can see pictures here.

Susan Pulling Out the Carpet

The Original Carpet Color

What a nasty nasty thing it is to tear out carpet. We skipped our run to do demolition. Which started out as PARTY! Just think of the word: DEMOLISH. How excellent is that?!?! When I first moved into the house, I stepped on the threshold and the carpet tackstrip (the wood strip thingy with nails in it that looks like a midevil torture device) was poking through the carpet and I stepped on it. Let’s just say I probably scared the children.

So that was where we started. Paul gave me the first tear–at that section. It was cool for about 15 minutes. Then we saw all the dirt that accumulates under the carpet and padding. Then we saw the color the carpet originally was. In the words of Everybody Loves Raymond, “Holy CRAP, Marie!”

Needless to say, this is one of those “character building” tasks. Like moving stuffed animals from the school library (Susan) or a job cutting paper (Paul)–THIS is the kind of thing that makes me glad that this is not my everyday job.

We don’t sell the padding by the square foot, it is $25 for a 100 square foot roll.

Since we were short on time we didn’t even bother trying to explain to him how a roll that covers 100 square feet is the same as selling us a box of flooring that covers 12 square feet…it’s all sold by the square foot.

When we got out of there we were worried {{Susan edit:only Paul was worried, not me}} that everything wasn’t going to fit into the car (we had 62 boxes of flooring and 8 roles off padding). Surprisingly everything fit into the back of the Fit. The suspension was completely compressed in the back and the bumper was about to drag the ground (see the picture) but we made it home without any problems.

Tonight we start ripping out the carpet and getting things ready. Elliot’s brother Graham is coming this Thursday and Friday to put the flooring in.