Life on the Mason Dixon Line » Home Improvement

2012 Photo-a-Day

Susan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:17:41 +0000

Several blogs I subscribe to have a photo a day challenge or a theme each week for a photo. I am going to be posting my pages as the year progresses. This will not detract from any surprise you may receive for a birthday or Christmas gift, it is more of the mundane things that I forget about, but really make each day into a life. My end goal is to have an 8×8 soft cover album printed at the end of the year with all 52 pages, then I will mount it into our hard cover family album for that year. I keep telling Paul I am desperate to carve out space for myself in our small house and chaotic life. This is my new attempt to do that, even if it is ad hoc and only 2 dimensional.

Of course I got behind quickly (very similar to my athletic races these days), but am not caught up, have a custom template that I love and am ready to share! Some things will overlap, some will be new (like you probably don’t need a play by play of Maggie and I making a car trip to the store to get me a Diet Pepsi on my work-at-home Tuesdays), and some are too big to share in the photo-a-day/page-a-week project (of course I am talking about my grandmother-in-law shanking my tire story).

Would love any suggestions for photo ops, questions you have about our daily do-ings and requests.

January 1-7, 2012

Post not for kids’ eyes

Susan — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:11:24 +0000

Jack Frost is a bastard. My mom gave us some of these spider plants when they were babies over a year ago. Others came from Paul’s work. He watered them regularly all winter. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but since they were all over the house, he had to bring them to the kitchen, water them, wait for them to drain the water, then return. I arranged the porch for its summer “look” and WHAMMO! Jack Frost kicked their ass. Now they are dying.

Three poor unsuspecting victims.

Bastard.

Any Polack can fertilize a lawn!

Susan — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:23:45 +0000

Apparently not. I “helped” Paul a few weeks ago by spreading the fertilizer while he mowed. How hard can it be, right? As with most projects around the house, Paul will be needing to spend a little time correcting my home improvement efforts. Either that or we are going to have some v e r y jealous neighbors.

[Disclaimer: I am Polish so I am allowed to say that. No Poles were harmed in the making of this blog post.]

Recovering from the holidays

Susan — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:21:56 +0000

Most everyone who reads this blog knows what insanity exists in our lives in December since Paul and the kids all have their birthdays in a 2 week stretch, then Christmas and New Years. The last couple years we have started the year by bringing our lives to a screeching halt in January. We plan nothing, do less and love it. Until I get antsy and start making lists. This year was no different.

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’m in love with my brother.

Susan — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:38:02 +0000

For Christmas Stephanie and Roy gave me a label maker from Brother, and I am madly in love. After a fabulously productive Saturday night together, I know this was a match that was meant to be! Let me introduce you to my love:

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.

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?

Product Review: Homax Caulk Refinishing Kit

Susan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:08:47 +0000

One of the projects I worked on while FUN-employed was to patch some crap spots in our bathroom, remove the caulk and replace the caulk. Then of course paint. When I looked online for how to remove caulk, several tools were recommended. I consulted my dad, the Do It Yourself Puba and he wisely said, “Any project looks better when you use the right tools.” So off to Lowe’s I went.

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!

I have the BEST husband in the world!

Susan — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:57:59 +0000

Imagine a stressful work week at a job where you are not really happy. Then your ding dong wife has a month of vacation and gets to do NOTHING?! Talk about potential to be crabby. Now add this unemployed wifey wanting you to do home improvement projects at night when you come home. After you cook you and her dinner. Double crabby potential. Multiply that by 4 days and it is Thursday night. If you are Paul, Super Husband, here is what you do:

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.

Yes, our marriage can survive home improvements

Susan — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:07:51 +0000

Paul’s patience was tested through several trips to home improvement stores and even more instances of changing my mind. Let’s just say I HATED our old light fixtures. I don’t want to overstate it, but seriously–they were hideous. [no offense to anyone who might have them, they just didn't go w our stuff or the brushed nickel color I painted all our doorknobs this winter]. Here is the final result:

Overhead light before picture

Yay for matching brushed nickel!

Then our TV died. I felt so bad for Paul. He was “working from home” during the Tour de France one day. He settled onto the couch with his dogs and his laptop, turned on what should have been the pre-race show and saw NOTHING. He could hear Phil Liggett, but the screen was black. For some reason my $200 Kmart TV that still has a VCR player built in was not good enough (even the kids agreed w Paul). So my techno-geek went into uber-research mode–not during work hours, Wes, I am sure. We went to retrieve the winning TV the following Monday. [note--we did plug in the crappy TV for awhile b/c it is $35/day to stream the Tour on your computer. RIP OFF!]
Trouble was, the winning TV was clearly a winner—it was back-ordered since March or something crazy. So we got the runner up. Which didn’t fit into the space that we have and when we solved that (sort of), the central channel (some silly speaker thing in the surround sound magic) didn’t fit. It was 4 nights worth of MADNESS. Here is one of the classic moments:

Note the Runner Up lurking behind Paul giggling and mocking.

Sanders Hanukkah, part 2!

Susan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:12:59 +0000

Paul and Susan on Christmas morning

This post has pictures that represent Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Just to recap, we had 9 celebrations in 11 days. For some reason I also thought that was a good time to do a home improvement project of painting all the door knobs. Which also means the latches, screws, etc. You probably realized that. Wish I would have…

Christmas w Steph, Roy, BizNKids, and MomMom, Dec 26

Point of interest on this photo–I THOUGHT both eyes were crossed. I did a redo for Paul just now, thinking my eyes were crossed again. No such luck. My sister was like this all the time from birth and had surgery to make her normal. Perhaps I had preemptive surgery to make sure mine did not wander…EVER!

Anna--Dec 26 Christmas; celebration #9

I just love love love this photo of Anna. You get glimpses of what she will look like as a young woman, yet she still has that baby look too.

Tripp gets a robot for Christmas!

Sleepy Becca posing for pictures

The robot Tripp got for Christmas was very cool, it even danced to a Duran Duran knock off song (sounded like the song, but like they changed it to not have to pay royalties). But then it started to somewhat stalk MomMom. Kind of scared us. Rebecca was SO sleepy, but she always wants to get a good picture. And the truth still holds–sometimes the kids like the box the toy comes in rather than the toy itself!

New Year’s Eve 2009. Basic math I should have realized when I bought the sparklers: [(Sleepy kids x bad weather so they didn't get any exercise for days) x (Paul has been w said kids for 80 hours x Susan has been sick for 80 days)] x fire sparks shooting off a stick = probably not a good idea. Not to mention I had accidentally sprayed some grass (and a little driveway) with my door knob project so Tyler of course wanted to prance there w his sparklers. He was drawn like a moth to a flame. (get it–flame??)

Skinned squirrels in the refrigerator. Seriously. Ugh.

Paul took Tyler hunting w some friends and their kids. Tyler was a little loud (lucky for the squirrels), but the others were more successful (unlucky for Susan). We had 6 dead bodies in the fridge. It was like The Soprano’s. Paul made fried squirrel, scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits and squirrel gravy for New Year’s breakfast. They say that how you spend NY Day is how you spend your year. God help me.

Call For New Projects

Paul — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:00:29 +0000

Susan has had several home improvement projects that she has wanted to do lately and I am really starting to like these projects. We had a tree fall recently that we needed to cut up and some more trees that she wanted to cut down. Out of this I was able to get a new chainsaw. For a long time now she has wanted to put up some loft storage in the garage which we did last weekend. Out of this project I got a new cordless drill.

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.

Good Choice This Weeked

Paul — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:30:20 +0000

This past weekend Susan and I made the hard decision not to do the White Lake Half Iron distance race. Now that the weekend is over I think we made a good decision. I left work early on Friday and did a 44 mile ride and have started building back some fitness after being off so long sick. Susan went to the doctor Friday and he gave her some antibiotics and told her to get some rest. She did a lot of sleeping Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday she was sounding much better. Sunday morning she was feeling good enough that she wanted to go for a ride. We took it easy and she still isn’t 100% but she is headed in the right direction now.

With me just getting back and Susan being sick I am not sure if either of us would have finished the race. Skipping the race allowed me to get in some easy training and get some work done around the house. It also allowed Susan time to sleep and get better. Even though I wish we could have done the race I think we made the right choice. Now the goal is to get Susan 100% as soon as possible. We have our first ride in the mountain planned for Saturday the 23rd. Her asthma gives her a hard enough time in the mountains without a cold.

The Best Mother’s Day EVER

Susan — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:45:19 +0000

Awhile ago I typed out what my ideal day was for a thing on Facebook. Today pretty much fulfilled that. I got to sleep in, Paul made my favorite breakfast (from a recipe of my mom’s) while I cleaned out and organized our garage post-project (more on that in a minute). We rode bikes and did some yard work. We ate Mexican food on the patio on a gorgeous Carolina day w no clouds. I talked to my mom and hung out w Paul’s family, then friends of Paul’s stopped by. Shortly after we got home from dinner in Asheboro, Anna and Tyler were dropped off. They both made me cards that were so cute. Anna made me a bracelet of various color beads and had a poem about what the colors mean. Tyler had a picture he drew framed for me. Wow. It is my first Mother’s Day and I just don’t think it can be topped.

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.

Race Weekend, Plan B as in…

Susan — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:40:56 +0000

…BUILDING!! Instead of racing the White Lake Half Iron Triathlon, we are going to tackle a home improvement project we have been talking about for over 6 months! Our house is about 1200 sq ft and with 2 kids, 2 cats, 400 pounds of Labradors, and 2 6-foot adults…needless to say we are crowded. Paul and I have mercilessly pared down, purged and simplified, but we still have lots of stuff. So we are going to build loft-like hanging storage in the garage.

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!