End of work week

Sort of. I’m done with my shifts at the club, but I felt like I worked TWO shifts today. While the inside-house paint project is done for a couple of months, the deck isn’t entirely finished. I stained the decking last week but hadn’t finished the railing. Since we used as much of the OLD railing possible, I had to get paint to cover the old paint job.

I picked the paint up today and got all of the new railing covered. Tomorrow I finish the old section of railing and then I’m honest-t0-goodness done with paint until after my EMT exam. We’re going to have some company on Friday, so it also means that the deck will be completely finished by then.

The weather was just about perfect for painting- sunny with a light wind, even though the internet weather was calling for rain. Being this close to the mountaintops makes just about all weather forecasting irrelevant. Mostly we look at the radar and then see how things roll in. I was a bit more than half through with the paint job when the wind kicked up and some cloud cover cropped up. When it finally felt like it might rain, I checked the sky and could see sun and blue sky just to the other side of the clouds and decided to gut it out. Sure enough, barely sprinkling.

It’s funny here how you can always see around the weather. This summer has been beautiful – temps of about 70 and sun pretty much every day. We’ve had more rain than they usually get this time of year but everything dries so quickly that you barely notice it.

Tomorrow we have erranding to do and then it’s all school and relaxation for a couple of weeks.

End of the week roundup

The inside upstairs paint projects are DONE. That includes touch ups where we changed lighting fixtures. There’s a guy outside right now hanging a gutter on the back of the house because they old owners didn’t have one. Gutters are the last home improvement for (at a minimum) the next year, if not more.

In terms of current home improvements, I painted the front deck post and have started painting the front deck bench. The benches were a gift from my in-laws for our wedding. When they’re pushed together and the backs are flattened, they become a picnic table. Very cool, but also makes restaining a challenge. I’m going to do it in two parts.

All that remains is the railing on the back deck and the back deck bench. I’m very happy at the prospect of being DONE for a while.

In related news, I got an 83 on my exam which I’m pretty happy about. First exams suck because you’re never quite sure what the test is going to look like. I’m excited about class time in July.

With any luck, our plans today will include a trip to Frisco for BBQ and maybe seeing The Proposal.

House project, phase 1 complete (lots of pics)

Paint project upstairs is finished. Colors used: Sherwin Williams – Cavern Clay, Lemon Verbena, Golden Gate, Dormer Brown.

View from the front door. All the walls used to be the same color.

I’m really really happy with how the colors have turned out. I’ve said it before, but the Sherwin Williams paint chips are – without fail – balls on accurate. The color on this chip is the color on your wall, period. I pay a little more for the paint but I am never, ever surprised. Also, SW does a good job of sending out coupons and giving you deals if you’re on their Preferred Customer list (which you can do at any store by giving them your mailing address). Their deals are typically 20-30% off – I got all of

Left LR wall from the front door. New color: SW Dormer Brown.

the paint for these projects at 30% off. I used their Cashmere line, Low Lustre (if you care).

My tools for this project were the Shur-Line 9″ roller with padded handle and extendable arm, Shur-Line Edge Like a Pro, a 1″ paintbrush, latex gloves and Ziplock bags. I did a better job using those supplies (and no tape) than the “professional” who painted this place last. The only thing that required tape was light outlets and the one edge of cupboards because there wasn’t enough wallspace for the edger.

New color: SW Lemon Verbena.

I maintain that the edger is the single best paint tool innovation since the roller brush. It takes a little use to get the hang of it, and you need to wipe off the guides after every pass, but it is completely and utterly worth it. You CAN wash and reuse the pads, but I’ve been just pitching them after I’m done with the color.

The Ziplocks are invaluable between coats. Instead of trying to wash rollers and pads, sticking them in the zips until I’m using them again. It also makes for easy disposal when I’m

View from the dining/kitchen entry

finished – keeping me from getting paint all over myself when taking off the rollers. Buying a box of gloves is also much more practical than getting the little packages from the hardware store. Then you can just dispose of them whenever you’re done without feeling pressured to reuse them.

The basement project will be a lot more work and is going to be postponed until probably August, when I’m done with school.

View from dining/kitchen entry.

We’re having some folks over for a ‘deck-warming’ tonight. Mostly the house is squared away (hence the photos) but I’ve also got to review for my exam tonight.

View from kitchen/dining entry. New color: Cavern Clay.

Dining room from kitchen. Cavern Clay on the left Golden Gate on the right.

Golden Gate. Kitchen buddha matches the paint!

View from dining room. The mask covers our thermostat!

My fave shot of the dining room. Cavern Clay.

New sliding door.

Baseboards have been stained, we have to get paint for the railing.

Our mountain view from the deck.

Our room. Dormer Brown on back wall.

Gratuitous Piper shot!

This project is close to done!

Got the clearcoat done on the deck – now I’m just hoping that it doesn’t RAIN.

I’m painting the last living room wall today! I’m not PLANNING on painting any of the other rooms, but since my exam got postponed, I’m not making any promises.

We have been in the midst of minor home renovation.

Hence blogging not returning to normal. I’m also waiting on Dreamwidth to get their multiplatform posting sorted because then I guarantee more blogging.

The small deck for the front of the house is done, save for a second coat of stain.

The door is installed, the trim is stained, and now I’m just waiting on Spouse to patch the wall. Once he patches, I can paint the wall and we can hang the casement trim. Our new rugs are here and (mostly) placed. Slowly but surely we are going to be tweaking this place – and ideally within the first year rather than waiting 8 like we did at the old place.

Lazy (ish) weekend

Spouse flew out on Saturday – left here Saturday morning – and I spent the afternoon in Frisco getting my hair cut. Terah is amazing – the red tones are finally out of my hair and in a way that looks natural (and flattering). Love her, love her work. Then I returned some sunglasses and made a trip to Target. I picked up the tax software so that, as soon as the office is squared away, I can get the taxes done.

Last night I did laundry, watched Prom Night and No Country for Old Men, and relaxed on the couch. This morning I cleared all the dishes out of the basement and put in a frozen quiche for my breakfast. Piper’s outside and I’m watching the NCIS marathon on USA. It’s far less blood-pressure threatening than any of the Sunday news shows. 

My huge goals for the day are to 1. eat breakfast, 2. load dishwasher, 3. go to work, 4. give Piper a bath. Huge. Impressive. I know.

I took a picture of the office after my first attack. I’m clearly nowhere near done.

Note also: hideous curtains.

Home again.

Today’s trip to Edwards/Avon was more productive than expected. After dropping off Spouse, I drove to the optical center I’d googled (Vail Vision) and picked out new glasses. The website is kind of crap but the facility is great and, should you need glasses in the Eagle-Vail Valley, you should totally go there and ask for Daniel. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 5 and this was the absolutely LEAST painful glasses shopping experience of my life. He got a sense of what I liked and actually WENT AND FOUND THINGS FOR ME. Not only that, he was honest about how he thought they looked. I had a new pair of glasses in something like 10 minutes, which is a world’s record. And I love them. Daniel, you totally rocked it!

After that I made a trip to Avon for Home Depot and picked up supplies for the basement and windows. I picked up whitewash for the basement walls as well as window shades (bamboo) for the windows downstairs, in the kitchen, and in the master bath. I’m pretty excited about how the basement is going to look when we get done tweaking it. I’m REALLY excited about replacing the window coverings in the master bath and kitchen. My weekend work will be cut out for me, as Spouse is leaving town on Saturday.

Interesting fun fact: I believe that there is not a single house located in Avon. There are many, many townhomes and condos but I didn’t see a single house. Very weird. Also, they put a Walmart Supercenter and the Home Depot into what used to be airplane hangers. They are the very largest incarnations of their particular chains that I have ever seen, ever.

Piper got to make several trips into stores (because Colorado is awesome!) and met a French Bulldog. And when I was coming out of the furniture consignment shop, I was telling her where we were going to go next when I looked up and there was a couple standing there. Don’t mind me, I just talk to my pet like a crazy person. Piper didn’t mind the conversation. She DID mind the car wash and having to sit in the car while I was in the bookstore and grocery store. Luckily, being Piper, she got over it the next time I looked at her.

My goal tomorrow is to take (and post) a mess of Before photos so that I’ve got them done. And then there is unpacking, window treatmenting, and potential whitewashing.

Here again, gone again.

But just for the afternoon. Spouse has another meeting out of town and I’m going to ride along because there’s a Home Depot. Home Depot = bar shelves (possibly). I’m also measuring the last of the windows for covering. Then I’ll probably spend all weekend putting up window coverings and bar shelves. I swear this house is going to be done very soon. Mostly because I’m getting tired of tinkering with it.

Still not obtained: tropical wall mural.

Home, sweet home.

I’ve been back in town for about 24 hours. Guest rooms are made up and I have removed the ugly shelves and hung more photos  and a couple of frames that don’t have photos in them yet. Not 100% finished with the Photo Project, but I’m pretty close.

I have photos but have been slacking, so I’ll post them tomorrow when I’m at work. Since we’re post-Super Bowl I’m predicting above-average slowness.

Spouse and I are drinking beer and watching Supertroopers. It’s one of those movies that should stop being so funny once you’ve gotten to the point where you can quote absurd amounts of dialogue and yet somehow it hasn’t. We still laugh our asses off  through the entire film.

Our bar is the next project – mirrors and shelves for the back bar and grass skirts to decorate the front of the bar. Tiki motif, here we come! We’ve already got the talking parrot so there’s no turning back. Next big investment? Tropical wall mural. Oh yes.

All women should know how to use power tools.

My dad made sure my sister and I had a basic knowledge of tools growing up and insisted we take shop in junior high. I can change a tire but using power drills has been much more useful.

Today I decided to hang the pot rack. It’s steel (and a bit heavy) so hanging it myself was a challenge from a leverage standpoint. And then I tried drilling into the studs. I drilled the first set of holes and then started to set the screws. The screws got about halfway in before balking. In the meantime, I’m trying to make sure the thing is level and not going to pull out of the wall, so I’m holding it up with my rib cage and shoulder, alternately. I have to back the screws out, get a slightly larger drill bit, and tried again. Same result. I begin to think that our wall studs are reinforced with concrete. Same bit, a bit deeper, exact same result. The screws came with the rack and are nice enough, but they have rounded ends which, by this point, are starting to strip out. Frankly, I was relieved the thing was ON the wall but while I was out running the rest of my errands I picked up another set of flat head wood screws. I came back, drilled out a couple of holes with another drill bit and then the bit broke off IN THE WALL.

I fetch some needlenose pliers and gently twist the bit out. I decide that the next drill bit up won’t be TOO big and give her a go. The flat head screws go in much better, although I had to crank them all down with a screwdriver for the last few turns. The end result is that it’ll take an effing AVALANCHE to get this thing off the wall. When the new paint project happens, we are PAINTING AROUND IT.

Awesomely bad ass pot rack and the new credenza.

Not a fantastic picture, but if you look closely you can see the parts of the wall that need to be patched from the ugly shelves. I am a rockstar because I hung it myself and it’s balls-on level.

New lighting! But first the ugly old stuff.

Old lights in the kitchen/dining area.

A closer look at the old stuff.

My least favorite ceiling fan, ever. Except the one left in the basement.

Our new lighting. It makes me much, much happier.

I don’t think you can tell very well from this picture, but if you look at the chandelier you can see that the base is offset from where the hook is. The hook is directly in line with the other two lights. For whatever reason, the old owners had the ceiling fan over where the base is – which made all of the lights look a little more weird. It’s a very long room so it stuck out oddly.

As you can see, the other set of UglyShelves remains. Those mothers will be dealt with upon my return!

A view from the other direction.

All that really remains now is the paint project. I haven’t decided when I’m going to get that ambitious.

There are no Leadville photos today

It was cloudy when I went to the bank and by the time I was finished we had snowflakes. Undeterred, I made my way to Breckenridge for an appointment and a swag hook. Breckenridge is a lovely town but has heinous parking. I was tempted to get something to eat but, having found great parking for my appointment, couldn’t find a decent place to park near Main Street. I was unwilling to walk for blocks and blocks due to the snow and having Piper in the car. Understandably disappointed (Breck has a ton of great shops and cool dining options) I headed back to Frisco.

WalMart did not have what I needed (but they did have McDonald’s) so I jumped over to Silverthorne’s Target. I got some of what I needed there but FINALLY tracked down the swag hook at True Value. For those of you who DON’T know what a swag hook is, its the hook you use with a lamp or chandelier to hang the excess chain. Now that the last of our lighting supplies has been purchased, I will probably have before and after pictures this weekend.

I would have spent a bit more time in Silverthorne but the winter storm advisory weather came in with a seriousness. There’s supposed to be a couple of feet of snow tonight. While the weather looked dodgy at Silverthorne, once I got to higher elevation it mellowed out (as I had predicted).  There was almost no blowing and the roads, while snowy, were not especially icy. Any pictures I would have taken today would have been all snow or all clouds.

Spouse and I plan on spending some time tonight couching and watching TV/movies. Probably I’ll read through the rest of book 6.

Today’s adventure involved big rocks

I was in Glenwood Springs for most of the day. Nice city, really bad parking. On the way HOME from Glenwood Springs, we were on the Battle Mountain Pass and suddenly being waved over to the oncoming lane by a county sheriff. There was a chunk of mountain, bigger than the sheriff’s SUBURBAN, in the middle of the right lane. It had just fallen off the side of the mountain and landed in the road. It was ENORMOUS. It would have squashed Spouse’s truck. Luckily it had fallen before we arrived and it didn’t appear that anyone had been hurt. I expect that Battle Mountain was a BEAR during rush hour tonight.

In Glenwood, I picked up light fixtures to replace the really old (really ugly) ones in our kitchen/dining room. Once this section of the house is done, I think this place will finally feel like home. The pot rack shows up next week and then I’ll have the befores and afters.

There was also a great health food store which carries Greek Yogurt (though they were out) and I got some fantastic premade vindaloo sauce recommended by the owner. We had it for dinner tonight and it was GREAT. I picked up ingredients for meals the next couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to the house stuff being done and being able to actually just cook and look for work. Go bison burgers!

Piper got into the garbage yesterday and has had bowel distress since then. We’re hoping she worked her way through it because we had to leave her in the garage all day today – not my favorite thing. I also picked up a trash can that locks, so we won’t be having a repeat performance.

I also learned that City Market – a big chain of western grocery stores – is owned by Kroger – a big chain of midwest grocery stores. That provides a little cushion of familiarity, at least with regard to SOME of the more esoteric things I like to buy. No guarantees, obviously, but it provides a little reliability with regard to staples. Interestingly enough, I’m going to have to keep a cooler in the back of my car in case I have spontaneous trips over the hill. That way, if I pick up some grocery items I can be sure they stay cold on the way back to town.

When we got back to town, I dropped Spouse off at a meeting, came home, put away groceries,  cleaned up after Piper, and caught up in GoogleReader. I haven’t transferred my pics of the day yet, so that’s probably the last task before bed.

Check one thing off the list

I have officially unpacked all of our books. Spouse had a head start before I arrived, but I unpacked the last 9 boxes. That’s right. We still had 9 boxes of books remaining after he’d unpacked and filled almost three bookcases worth. *sigh* The perils of being an English major.

If I like a book, I’ll read it over and over again. There are many books on my shelves that I reread at least once a year. Spouse is of the read-and-discard persuasion. I don’t think he’d ever purchased a non-textbook before he met me. Luckily we have similar tastes in reading (fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fic, et cetera) so that anything he purchases, I’ll probably read. I tend to lean hard on urban fantasy as well, of which he’s not as much a fan. I have a photo of the six cases of books we gave away, which will find a home on the fridge shortly. Go to the effing library already!

I haven’t unpacked the office but I got the credenza/buffet settled and unpacked the books, which means I can feel at least a LITTLE accomplished tonight.

No place like home

I really, really like our new house. In terms of size (and including the basement) it’s about the same size as our old house (if you exclude the basement – which we didn’t really use with any regularity). The layout is nice and while the light fixtures and paint could use some work, there’s a lot less that we need to ‘do ‘ to it to make it feel like us.

The only drawback to the house is the kitchen. Great appliances. I love that there is a door into the kitchen from the garage, I love that the kitchen/dining area opens onto a small deck. I like the really big space. Unfortunately the kitchen has about half the cupboard space of our old house. I have put every single thing that we’re unlikely to use regularly into a box and stored it in the basement or above the garage, and our cupboards are still busting at the seams.

Yesterday I was in Avon and kind of tooling around on my own. I took a left and ended up in a little shopping area. I found a consignment furniture store that had a fabulous buffet/credenza. I’ve been looking in a lot of places and, frankly, the options are expensive. This was a pretty good deal – worth considering – so I brought Spouse in to check it out. We’re picking it up on Saturday! It’s large enough to hold pretty much all of our dishes, silverware, servingware,  pots, pans, and small appliances. I am very, very excited. It’ll also be really handy for having guests over and not having to clutter the table with food dishes. And now is the time I start thinking about paint.

We’re parceling out the paint project. The wall with the ugly shelves will need repair, so it goes first. The sliding door wall need the door replaced, so it goes last. I also promised Spouse that I would take pictures of the house and then hexdec the Sherwin Williams paint into the photos so we know what it’ll look like.

I have photos from yesterday, which turned out to be a gorgeous day. If I find my camera cord, there may be posted photos.

A Blafair to Rememblack

It was  a LOT of work today, but I hung most of the rest of the photos, plus a mirror. I also got the floors cleaned, made two of the four bedrooms presentable for general viewing, cleaned the kitchen and dining room, and made food!

Of all the things we put up, I’m possibly happiest about the framed Ganesha series above the entryway table. I bought the handpainted (on cloth) prints when we were in India two years ago and have had them sitting on a shelf since then because I couldn’t find the right frame. While in Target yesterday, I found precisely what I’d been looking for. I also rehung the kitchen Buddha (even though there are no pictures). For our wedding, my mom’s cousin gave us a lovely framed and matted copy of our wedding invitation which sat on our mantle in Saginaw. It’s hanging on the wall nearest our bedroom with a photo from our honeymoon where Spouse and I are in costume. I also FINALLY framed the photo from the Cubs game, with our awesome behind-home-base tickets, and got that hung.

In TV notes:

The Mentalist- I was oddly disappointed by this week’s episode. I’m not sure if I was expecting Red John to remain a sort of elusive background shad0w-character, but I was fairly meh about the storyline. Loved the character development with re: the team and Jane. Love Jane all the time.

30 Rock – Hilarious. The title of this post is from the episode. Tracy Morgan plays the funniest character possibly in the history of television.

Grey’s Anatomy – Dude. WTF with this Denny thing.  OVER it. I’m also kind of annoyed by the Mer-Christina feud, though it produced my two fave moments (Sheperd and McArmy bonding; her intern friend busting her out for being insincere). I also love Lexie/Sloan. It was also nice to see Meredith having a divergent opinion from Sheperd which was ABOUT MEDICINE. Surprisingly little (and refreshing!) rship drama for them this week. Also, still love Christina/McArmy.

Private Practice – I’m not really sure what to say about the introduction of the jackass doctor. Like, I don’t really care about him and I don’t really care how any of the characters feel about him, and I guess maybe I find the whole ‘friend opening competing practice on the floor below’ to be unbelievable enough to just not care about the ‘drama’ it causes. I do like that the show is tackling challenging medical issues (this week: vaccinations vs. autism) and talking about it like rational people but from both sides.

Damages – I have mad love for this show.  I adore Timothy Olyphant and I’d be watching just for him, even if it wasn’t great. I felt like the Patty flashbacks were a little much, but they’ve got to catch up those people who weren’t watching last season. I dig the connving and backstabbing and I heart Ellen forever.

Psych – Still consistently funny!