Oh How Long It Has Been: Small Projects=Big Differences

So I realize it's been...well a while. Quite a while but it's time for some updates. We have been plugging away at the house, mostly working on small projects but they add up big time! I still need to take pictures of some of them but here's what we have been up to aside from yard work:






Re-purposed shelf brought up from basement




-installing the wood stove (MB only)

-sealing off the fan boxes in the 2 spare bedroom up in the attic (MB only)
-finishing the patio (again, MB)
-Taking out the AC's
-cleaning the basement
-organizing my shoes
-moving some stuff around
and finally hanging some art work

I was looking around our house a few weekends ago while we were on a 'small projects' bender and decided I was discontent with following MB around mopily. I'm a go getter kinda girl I can't just stand by and watch everyone else do everything. So I picked up a broom and started cleaning. Now, at LEAST once a week I clean the house, but this was the basement. Because our basement floor is not 'finished' it collects dirt and just plain 'ol dirtiness like a magnet (hence the dirty kitty paw prints on my white comforter. grr). I took to the push broom like white on rice and by the time I was done, there was a heavy cloud of god only knows what in the air and a sizable pile.

Next, I decided it was time to tackle what MB refers to as my 'pile of shoe vomit', or something along those lines, all over the basement floor. You see when we finally moved our clothes upstairs (a glorious day let me tell you), my poor shoes remained down in the basement, strewn across the floor as I toss them out of their bin looking for the shoe I'm holding's mate. MB helped me move some summer clothes that were hanging up in the basement and I started assembling a hanging shoe organizer my mother had given me years ago that I had never gotten a chance to use. I filled that quickly, then set up two more larger racks for boots and less used shoes. By the time I was done, everything was neat and organized (much more my style) and we had the basement floor back.

I also took to reorganizing some bins of my childhood stuff I had taken from my parents (almost entirely books) and doing some labeling.

The last and very important task was persuading MB to help me move a, well what shall we call it, rack maybe (?) from the basement, upstairs and in the back room. This thing was made cheaply by MB to organize and provide shelving in the closet of our very first apartment (which we hated and only remained in for about 2 months). This then was moved to the back room in our last apartment and used as a counter for my indoor herb garden and a shoe rack on the bottom. It had since been moved into the basement and was housing all of our serving dishes. Problem was, being in the dirty basement, stuff was getting dirty so I decided to move it elsewhere.

We removed all items from it, wrestled it upstairs and then I set about cleaning it. I wasn't ENTIRELY sure what I was going to do with it other than use it for what it had already been used for, but I happened upon some spongy red cabinet liner left over from, well lining our cabinets (we really like red accents in our kitchen for some reason). I set about lining all of the shelves and then re arranging everything I put back inside of it. I put our wine rack on top so we could get the wine out of boxes in the basement and to where they belong, and used some decorations I had put together for our Oktoberfest party and VIO-LA! You have a nicely re-purposed and oh-so useful new accent piece in the back room. It looks a whole heck of a lot better and it's incredibly functional.

I Have To Blame, The Wedding.

So whats my excuse this weekend? Wedding. ANOTHER wedding. Thankfully the last of the season but because MB was IN this one it took up the whole weekend. It's funny when I look back on my crazed nights of painting until late at night, the feeling that it HAD to be done. Now, well I'm just lazy. The house is livable, why do I need to kill myself? The honest truth is I don't. Our house projects are now aloud to take on the slower more realistic pace they should be at. The sense of urgency is gone.

Friday and Saturday were a wash so that left Sunday. Well Sunday was a bit of a wash too as we HAD (per my orders) to go out to my hometown and attend the fair with my two partners in crime and fellow hometowners, Jackie J and Mary K. After stuffing our faces at the fair, watching some gorgeous Belgian Draft Horses haul so cement blocks and stopping at my parents for a quick hello, we finally made it back to the house. MB was itching to work on the stone wall and I needed to clean our filthy house.

About 2 seconds before I started dishes I got the urge to call MB's mom and find out more about patio furniture sales. See she had been pressing us to take a trip to Lowes for about 2 weeks now. She had spotted chairs that match our patio set for a really cheap price. She had called earlier that day and said she was getting us chairs because they were $10 a piece and that could not be turned down (highly agree). MB told her to get two because the backs were a different shape from the ones we have. She THEN called back and said we now had 3 chairs because there was one sad and lonely chair left and the guy said he would give them all to her for $15. Five bucks a chair is not bad at all. This got my thinking, we really SHOULD go check out the end of season sales (I also had not slept very much the night before and the thought of cleaning the house, for once, did not appeal in the least). Most places don't want to carry this years models into next year and therefore they are willing to get rid of things at ridiculous prices (i.e. $5 chairs). When I called her she said there had been wicker sofas (which is what I REALLY wanted) the week before but they were gone at that particular store this week. She told me I should check out the one in Worcester.

OK now I had to go. I talked poor MB who had made some very nice but very small amount of progress on his wall (it is VERY hard finding the right sized stones to go in the right spot. It's like a giant puzzle really). He agreed and we tried Home Depot first. We drove all the way out there and I asked the kid where the patio stuff was. "It's all gone." Well that sucks.

We decided it was worth the drive to Worcester and headed to Lowes. It was now already around 5pm (and i was getting crankier by the moment) and when we got there the pickings were slim. Problem was, nothing was marked correctly or at all and it was hard to tell WHAT was on sale and what wasn't. MB quickly got distracted looking at chainsaws (for our new wood stove of course. Essential accessory) and I went and hunted down a sales person. As we were waiting we spotted some really nice stuff down an aisle as apposed to tossed in the middle of the floor as the other stuff was. Lo and behold, we found some very nice cushions. We really needed more seating but also another table. I was originally thinking of arranging a wicker couch on the edge of the patio and then a 'coffee table' in front of it. This would work perfectly, I reasoned, because we could then take said couch and put it in the backroom during the winter. But alas, we did not find such a thing. But the cushions were good.

The salesperson arrived and we got almost no clarification. He was with a girl who worked there who when asked what was on sale, confidently proclaimed "any patio stuff!". "Noo," clarified Wayne, the original rep for this particular area "only some stuff." I held up a small table and he said it was marked down to the appropriate price. "But I'll give it to you for $40". Ehh I was all set. We found out the cushions were in fact on sale. Thank god at least the trip wasn't a total waste. Then, as were were rummaging around in the aisle we find a 30in square table that matches our set. SWEET! He tells us the same thing, well its "marked down" to $50 but Ill give it to you for 40. OK whatever, we'll take it. This works out good. We get to the register and the kid looks at the scribbled and initialed "$40" on top and said "sooo, do you want is for $40 or for the $25 it rung up as?" Well sweet! So all told we walked out of there with a new table and 7 very nice patio seat cushions for quite a cheap price. This now marks two weekends in a row where we have totally made out on end of season stuff. Bargain shopping to the extreme.

You know I can't say I understand it. Personally, I believe the outdoor season is just beginning! The weather is gorgeous, it's cool, there are no bugs. The summer sucks but the fall in New England rules. But hey, if they want to give us a bunch of outdoor stuff to get rid of it because in their minds the outdoor season is over, well they can just go right ahead! :)

My Totally Bad-Ass New Outdoor Skill

As I have said many times before, or should I say given the excuse many times before, this year is the year of the house. That means our poor neglected lawn is well, poor and neglected as supposedly next year is the year of the lawn. Alas, this does not work out entirely well in the long run and therefore the time came to tackle the weed garden (weed as in big ugly things that invade my gardens, not drugs, we don't do drugs in this house, or ANY house for that matter. So get your mind out of the gutter and move along) and with MB working on the patio and the Fall weather I enjoy so much making it's first appearance, it seemed a good enough time as any to direct my energy to the outside.

It may have been a long weekend but it might as well have been a one day weekend. After spending our ENTIRE day on Saturday driving to West Springfield over an hour away and buying me a car finally, MB went off to obligatory Bachelor party while I hosted my two partners in crime, Jackie J and Mary K. As soon as they found out what car I ended up with (an '08 Scion) they tried to kick me out of the car (we were on our way to the store for champagne and the ever important junk food). I'm still not sure what Jackie's issue with this was but Mary was insulted because she expected me to get a Corolla like her. Ever after I explained that Toyota MAKES Scions and I NEED a hatchback, she was still upset but I made them get over by saying that if that was the way they felt they were banished from ever riding in it and they got over it quickly.

MB reappeared on Sunday, less than phoenix-like around 1:30pm and immediately declared he was taking a nap...he did not so much as stir until 3:30pm. Needless to say that day was shot.

This left Monday and we had a lot to do in this amount of time. I had at least spent a productive day Sunday cleaning the house and doing laundry but MB was now behind on his patio progress. He proposed ME mowing the lawn over breakfast. I have never mowed the lawn. He tells me it's easy. Now let me just defend myself here by saying it's not that I ever had anything against mowing the lawn at my parents house, but my dad only let me use the ride on mower for hauling logs and brush with the trailer. My parent's yard is much more vast then even ours and my dad for some reason felt that I would roll the tractor and therefore, did it himself.

MB started by mowing the front lawn and I began tackling the weed garden. My poor hill garden that we dug up months ago had now been completely taken over by giant things posing as grass but that are really weeds. I pulled and yanked until you could actually see the few bushes and plants I had planted and ALL the weeds were annihilated. About this time MB got a call from his brother and MB informed me that S&S (his brother and his brother's girlfriend), would be coming to deliver a patio umbrella to us. A generous hand me down from MB's parents. I continued my war against the weeds to our other gardens an MB took off to get some tool. After chatting with S&S for a few minutes I convinced MB to come to Bemis Farm with me. He had noted that they were having a huge "yard sale" and said we should check it out. With tress and bushes %75 off I agreed.

We ended up FILLING the back of my car (soon to be gone Mazda Tribute) for under $100. We got 2 arborvitaes for the edges of the patio, a gorgeous small leaf rhododendron (there was no price on it so they gave it it up for $10!!), a few smaller perennials, small mums for $2 a pop and 2 small strawberry pots for $4 a pop. As well as more than satisfactory replacement for all my indoor herbs that died (see right) and a new rosemary plant simply because, we are very found of rosemary.

All told it was very productive. After I deposited the new perennials in the newly cleared hill garden it was no longer avoidable, I needed to learn how to mow the lawn. I was so nervous I would do this wrong but MB gave me a crash course. Sure enough I was very hesitant to start but I quickly got the hang of it and began mowing in a large sort of circle, square working from the outside in as I had seen my father do a million times. When I was done I was obnoxiously proud of my totally new bad ass skill. Is there anything I can't do? Oh yes plenty but we won't go telling my ego that.

All told the yard isn't looking too shabby. I'm going to have to keep up with it more frequently but hopefully by the time the patio is ready for it's big reveal I'll have the rest of the yard in great shape. I tend to shy away from yard work in the summer because I hate the heat. However, when the air starts to change and get cool and crisp as it did this weekend, there aren't many other places I'd rather be!

The Stupid Car Issue

I would like to preface this blog by saying this: looking for a car is much like looking for a house. Do you want new or used? What features are you looking for? What is your price range? Can you afford the car/house you want? Very similar and VERY stressful and frustrating.

So here is the REAL reason the weekend was kind of a wash. I need a new car. Well, new USED car that is. I am now driving a car that is technically my parent's car, that was given to me to get me through college. I commuted so I had a very nice hand me down 2001 Mazda Tribute. This car and I have been through an awful lot but alas, I'm ready to drive it off an effing cliff! It has, since January of this year, been breaking once a month, sometimes TWICE a month. It is for this reason and this reason only that I will NOT be buying another Mazda.

Now I have never owned anything other than an SUV and it pains me severely to know that I wont be able to get what I REALLY want which is a Honda CR-V. You see, I have done my research, ohh have I done my research. The first and most important piece of research I did was reliability ratings because I need a car that is not going to break on me like this one is. This narrowed it down to a Honda or a Toyota. Next I needed to find out what I could afford and what I liked. I called my bank and took car of financing NOW I just needed to do some test driving to see what I liked.

I walked into a Honda dealership with my two partners in crime last week, Jackie J and Mary K. The poor sales guy. I told him I wanted to drive the following cars: a Honda Fit, a Honda Civic, and also, if he had them, a Toyota Matrix, Corolla and a Camry. He had the Hondas, no Toyotas. I then proceeded to test drive the fit and the civic with Jackie and Mary testing out the back and Jackie taking VERY helpful notes based on HER opinions (pros: "blue lights" cons:"big nobs!" and "Mary can't see out her window"). I found very quickly that I liked the fit, HATED the civic. It was like driving a go-cart especially after driving SUVs and trucks my whole life.

Next was a stop at the Herb Chambers Toyota in Auburn. The guy at the Herb Chamber Honda set this up for me. but the "rule" was I could buy a new car from them but if I bought a USED one, it had to be from salesman #1. "Why?" "Cause I said so". HAH! Yeah. ok buddy. I made an appointment to test drive some cars the next day, Friday. I was pretty far beyond annoyed when I showed up and said cars I had been expecting to drive were not waiting for me and I had a salesman who had been given NO information on what I was looking for. We walked around the lot aimlessly. No I had no intention of buying a car from them. This was research. I needed to know what I liked and what to cross off the list. MB showed up and the FIRST THING THE SALESMAN SAID was "are you willing to give this young lady some money to get her in the car she wants." :O I almost effing hauled off and hit him. I puffed like a frickin' blow fish at that. How DARE he have the audacity to ask him such a thing?! He officially lost me there. MB just smiled and said "we'll see what she likes and then we'll talk about it." :) Playin the game, I love him for that. I ended up HATING the Yaris before i even drove it which was sad cause I thought I was going to like the hatchback. It looks like a bubble.

The problem here was the salesman did not listen when I said I was just test driving and I made the mistake of telling him I was looking for a used car under a certain amount of money. If I had NOT shared this with him we could have test driven some new cars, found out what we liked, and been on our merry way. I test drove a '05 I think it was, corolla and instantly knew the Civic was now out for good because it drove so much better. There were no used Matrixs for me to drive which I should have insisted on driving a new one just because, and then came the Scion. Salesman #2 REALLY wanted me to buy this car. It did help me realize that I really wanted a hatchback. A separate trunk really doesn't do it for me. So I drove said Scion, really liked it, MB liked it (from the backseat anyways) and then they were closing and salesman #2 panicked. He told me he would get me good deal. I said I'll do some research and think about it. It was supposedly a 'smart price car' which I didn't know at the time. They were asking a new car price for an '08. I did some research, had nightmares about cars, and called them the next morning.

I asked to speak to THE sales manager, I got Omer instead. "I'm not coming down there and wasting my time if you cannot get this car under $13,000. It is NOT worth near what you priced it as and I'm not paying it." "you come down I take care of you." HAH!

So there we were, wasting all our damn precious time Saturday morning at a dealership with a bunch of sleazeballs. I swear they all go to sleazy idiot class together. Once again, here is where they make their mistake though. They take one look at me and think 'nice girl, easy sale'. Then I whip out research, and stats and THEIR OWN INVENTORY and throw it in their face and they turn white. I am probably the farthest thing from an easy sell. MB sat back and watched all this with mild curiosity. I made it through salesman #2, Omer and then I got manager #3. He was as laid back appearing as Omer was obnoxious. "I can't sell it to you for that much. BUT I have a car that meets most of your criteria." It was a 2 door black yaris. "Oh my god are they kidding, don't even drive it Linds" MB said. I amused them, then came back and laughed in their face and told them it doesn't meet ANY of my criteria expect the price. Come to find out, the issue was they had bought the damn Scion on trade in for more than it was worth! So I basically did more research then they did and they didn't like it. There were a lot of, over the head, behind the back deal attempts going on but in the end, I refused to pay and they refused to budge.

NOW salesman #2 was really panicking. He was trying, he really was, but I was becoming less and less interested. He then made the mistake of insulting me. I had to leave, I had WASTED my entire morning, a fact which made me very ready to effing strangle stupid Omer for (I'm blaming him for lying to me), and I need to be at my best friend's baby shower in 2 hours. I was turning things down left and right. I wasn't buying a car that day ANYWAY but this did not deter salesman #2. "Well you have champagne taste on a Budweiser budget so I think your going to have to reconsider your options." I turned and glared at him. I was done right there. I wanted to point out to him that I in fact, probably spend less money on my weekend bottle of cheap champagne then anyone does on a 6y of Budweiser but I kept my mouth shut and left.

This, right here, is what I have been wasting all of my precious time doing. Looking at fricking cars and talking to slimy, stupid salesmen. Monday I had had it and MB and I trotted over to Barnes Auto nearby who MB had been pushing me to all along. They have a good reputation and they aren't pushy. In all honesty I never intended to buy a car from a dealership but merely test drive them but I know I'm looking for very difficult things to find. The two cars I really want haven't been on the market long enough to find used ones. We spent MAYBE 30 minutes at Barnes. We told them what I was looking for. They only sell a few cars and they buy them at auction. So now, after all the time I've wasted, at least I know what I want and I have someone else on the hunt for me.

What have I learned? That I AM, in fact, as formidable as I delusion myself into thinking I am. ALL dealership car salesmen are COMPLETE idiots, cannot be trusted and are very slimy, but really this was just a confirmed fact, I did know this already. and finally, I am not wasting any more time LOOKING FOR STUPID EFFING CARS! It's wasting my time I could be spending my my lovely house and THAT just cannot stand.

NOW, lets see if I ever get a car.

What Long Weekend?

So this past weekend SHOULD have been a productive one. After all, MB and I both took Monday off. Saturday I had a baby shower but MB used the free time to move ALL of the gargantuan stones from the driveway, up into the patio circle. Nuts. He's just, plain, nuts.

He rigged up a plank over our stairs so he could use his wheelbarrow for the small stuff and then he just hugged the giant stones and carried them up the stairs. Someone needs to remind this kid that he is NOT in the Highland Games. He seems to have forgotten this.

Sunday, I can't even remember what I was up to Sunday to be honest. Something important I'm sure. OOO yes! I remember! MB and the ever helpful NA took a trip out to Shirley and picked up some MORE stones from some lady. These are smaller and of a different color but when they are mixed together they will look great. They trucked them back to the house and piled them next to the OTHER big 'ol pile 'O rocks to make and even BIGGER, big 'ol pile 'O rocks. Me? Well with copious amounts of caffeine floating through my system, I decided, hey I'll workout. Now my oldest sister is a freak of nature and I had originally THOUGHT she hated running as much as I do (i.e. rather pull my own pinkie fingernail out then go for a run). I love to workout, hate to run. I'm not built for it. MB, now HE is a runner, he's thin with long limbs. Me? Not to much. I'm built for strength cause I've got a long torso...stubby little limbs you get the idea. Well any who, I digress, my older nutcase sister had taken to adding short runs onto her workout...she's now up to running 6ish miles a day with her wacko friend and is so obsessed she now has a be-water bottled belt and new sneakers and his running a half marathon. This, cannot stand. I refuse to be outdone!

So, instead of doing something productive, I decided, OK do a half hr on my elliptical and THEN do some weights and THEN, go run for 5 minutes. Just 5. Next week, maybe 8. OK Easy Peasy. I do my home workout and then head outside, iPod in hand. I find a nice little side road that is relatively flat, and end up running flat out for at least 10 minutes, then walk back, then workout some more. This, this was not smart. I could barely walk for 2 days after. Note to self: no more consuming massive quantities of caffeine and then working out. Bad combo.

MB and NA came back with the stone some time during all of this and I decided I was finally going to hunt down the stupid rope and metal hooks I had bought MONTHS ago for a clothes line. I had an epiphany while I was working out (runners high perhaps?) and triumphantly located the missing items in a bag full of seeds I had planted, well, months ago. I then attempted to string up said line/hooks between two trees in the far end of our backyard. MB had to help within 2 minutes because I forgot how to do a pull knot/slip knot. Some girl scout I am. It worked and I now have a lovely little way to dry my clothes, save energy, blah blah and it unhooks so that MB doesn't 'clothesline' himself when he mows. Insert hysterical laughter here.

Monday, stupid Monday. I convinced MB that we should just go and get our cell phones over with. We have been sheltered under our parental phone plans for too long and it was time to end it. Plus we desperately needed new phones. Our parents had better phones than us. This, ended up taking ALL day. We got nearly nothing accomplished, except now we have phones that work and I have an extra bill each month but this was the right thing to do. We are now both OFF our parents' plans on the same together. How grown up are WE?!

There is a much greater reason that our weekend was highly unproductive but this will be revealed in my NEXT post as I do not have enough ranting room to fit it in it's own post. Oh no, it deserves it's own subject line.

The Hole for the Patio & the Blue Bedroom

I would like to preface this blog with one comment directed at my "brother in law": No, I did NOT paint the bedrooms for children. There will be more about my 'child' dread later but moving on...

So this was a busy weekend! Saturday morning we woke up a bit late and groggy. MB headed right over to his friends NA's house to help him move some things in exchange for NA's help with the patio. Me? I ate a slice of cold pizza and started out painting the spare bedroom the lovely blue you see here. "Russian Blue", our only none food titled paint. However, we are fairly convinced our cat Lulu is part Russian Blue so we chose it partly in honor of her. I had it done in pretty much no time but somehow managed to get a good smear of paint on my leg and my arm. A fact I neglected to fix before putting on a knee length dress and heading out in the world to do a million errands. No wonder I got odd looks.

My plan was this: I needed to stop by Wings Over Worcester to pick up a gift card they had generously donated to the blood donor center (where I work). I knew NA and MB would be hard at work digging out the patio so I thought I would get a gaggle of different types of wings to try and feed them to the boys for lunch. OK, no biggy. HOWEVER, first I needed to make at pit stop and Babies R US first and get a baby shower gift. There will be separate blog about this later but this took me longer than I expected. MB called me while I was out and told me he had decided to invite our friends over. Okk. Now I had invited NA's new wife Jen over and their adorable 2 year old but MB added to the mix with his 'girlfriend' AC and his fiance Ashley (note here that we are one of the few left of our friends who are not engaged or married. They are dropping like flies let me tell you). That was great except that I had not idea what we were going to serve them and I still needed to clean the house. Now I was in a rush.

I got back with my loot to find MB's brother had stopped by on his motorcycle to check out the progress. It was at least 2:30pm by the time I got back and MB and NA had sure been hard at work, they nearly had the thing done! Funny thing is, after I fed them lunch and MB and I settled on smoking some beef ribs for everyone, they asked my option on the shape of the patio.

Now we know how this always goes. I get asked, they say no, they do what they were going to do ANYWAYS, and I throw my hands up in the air. More or less. Now I believe the original plan had been to make the whole thing a rectangle. Then the back was formed into a semi circle and the flat part was to be square. Well I pointed this out as they had it mapped for a round patio and I was told that left no room for the mower. OK. I said it was too small and it looked kinda weird. Why can't you make it an OVAL instead? Well then I got another lecture on the mower not fitting and when I said it would be too crowded they said well you don't want it too spread out and proceeded to move the patio table onto the spot to prove this. I was unconvinced so I gave up and walked away.

I got back after running all over creation to gather sustenance and spirits for our little gathering, then managed to do what little ladies do best: multitasking. I cleaned while I cooked and cooked while I cleaned. By the time I was done, I still hadn't gotten a change to shower but I was presentable (minus the paint smears) and so was the house.

MB and NA continued to work pretty much up until we ate and low and behold they had the entire thing dug! They had done a great job and I was thoroughly impressed. The boys went elsewhere to clean up for dinner while Jen, Ashley and I stood and stared at the hole. "It's too small." "Yup it's definitely too small." God I love girls :) they saw it the same as I did. It would be too crowded, especially since there would be a big wall in the back and a fire pit built into it. You don't want to sit too close to a fire. Boys just don't get it sometimes. Ashley just smiled and said "you know what, that's fine, let him realize he was wrong and then you'll be right." Exactly. ;) The way I see it and we discussed this, was that the wall would be be built first. If, once that is done, it's deemed too small, it can be expanded. It is very nice and round but I think it would look better an oval but hey, it still looks great.

We moved the patio furniture back onto our dirt patio and had dinner there and then went to our present fire pit way up in the back yard by the woods and s'mores. It was a great time but I can't wait until the patio is done and usable and we can make our s'more right out the front door!

Sunday was incredibly lazy. I got almost no sleep the night before, was up very early and then finally poked MB around 10am to please, please , please make me homefries! I spent the whole day in a half awake daze as we lay around watching the food network and doing not much of anything. This is very difficult for us. Even when we are tired/hung over and it's raining, we STILL feel the need to do something. We researched anything to do, ended up driving out to Amherst for the hell of it, spent about 20 minutes walking around ( I had wanted to go to the Yankee Candle Village and make candles but I got shut down. humph.) then went to where we REALLY wanted to and trotted over to mecca: Whole Foods. It was a good day but we got absolutely nothing done. I think our Saturday was busy enough to make up for it though.

The Stone is HERE!

Now just LOOK at that stuff! Pretty cool huh? MB called me last night in the middle of my workout to tell me he has located some stone on Craig's List that some guy is trying to off load it'll be cheaper, blah ,blah. He's going to do whatever we wants anyways so why does he tells me? Not sure. Perhaps he's excited and I appreciate the sentiment but it's his money, he SHOULD get to do what he wants. I say yeah cool, I'm so not cutting my workout short to look at some rocks and email me I'll check it out later and call him.

Shower, make dinner (mm Cajun shrimp and pepperjack grits a new fav in our house. Look I TOLD you I'm obsessed with food so just humor me OK?), JUST about to start dishes, TOTALLY forget to call him, so HE calls ME. He tells me all about it. Apparently this guy had bought it for a job and had a few ton extra (how funny does that sound? No really, think about it) and needed to get rid of it ASAP, he would deliver because he needs the truck for his next job. He even kindly provided where he originally purchased said stone so that MB could do his researching thang and see how good of a deal it was. "And there's mica in it too so it might be easy to split." "Cool" (in my defense, I'm washing dishes now. I HATE, LOATHE ENTIRELY, doing dishes more than anything else in the world so I wasn't awful chatty), "I called him and he can deliver it tomorrow so I think I'm going to have him do it. Maybe with the money we save we can do a granite front on the fire pit." Well that sounds cool but I so cannot be bought with flashy things and continue to do the stupid dishes.

I go to bed (pass OUT more like as I was so tired, I didn't even wake up when MB got home) and then I get a call this morning at work at 9am from MB. "Well, there's a big pile of stone in the driveway." Cool. "I didn't have him put it in your spot," Aww. "You didn't have to do that, I certainly could have parked elsewhere. Where is it then?" "In my spot." Oh boys. Sometimes they are chivalrous let me tell you. It's always a means to end though with them ;)

So now we have a very big hole dug in our yard that is starting to take shape (I PROMISE I'll remember to take a picture this weekend or something) and a big 'ol pile of rocks in our driveway. I made MB take a picture and send it to me (above). They look an AWFUL LOT BIGGER than what I had expected or what MB had been looking at and it is beyond me how we are going to build this thing (I DID promise to help with the building, just not the digging. I don't dig holes unless I plan to climb in them myself) and carry these frickin HUGE rocks! Should be interesting. I'll keep you posted.

The Finishing Weekend: The Office

I have to tell you, between moving my clothes into my closet and moving damn near everything else into the office this weekend, it kinda felt like 'moving in' all over again. It was so worth it though.
I finished the second coat "cinnamon stick" (I never tier of telling people it's name) in the office in record time on Saturday evening. I decided, mostly because it was late, that we deserved a treat and proposed a trip to the Sahara restaurant. MB had been chipping away on the digging out of the patio (he unearthed what he called his 'manhood rock', I call it a boulder, but still, Scottish men and their rights of passage). By the time I was done and showered it was 8pm and so we called ahead to make sure we weren't too late. There was NO ONE there. This seems to be a trend with this place. We can't understand it. It's this fairly large, dark and soothing Lebanese restaurant in the heart of Worcester with a ceiling painted with clouds and baby angles and big chandeliers with very dim lights attached. It's a cool place but there were literally only two other people there that night. Really, it doesn't make sense. Perhaps it's because there is a very 'fancy' and expensive seafood restaurant right across the street, or because the college hangout is right down the street. We'll never know but I can tell you this, the food is damn good! We got the feeling the waiter was also the chef and bar tender. We are still trying to figure out how exactly this place survives when it is always empty but who knows. After a meal of pita with oil (they use this herb blend of mint and oregano in the oil and on the salad and on the veggies and its soooo good!), salad, the BEST stuffed grape leaves and some kibbee for me, lamb skewers for MB, we were stuffed and on our way home. I know this seemingly has nothing to do with my office but to me it does. Plus, I find it valuable info on some level. When we got home I was so beyond tired I sat in my 'Lindsey chair' and struggled to stay awake while MB cracked the bottle of Glenfitich whiskey I bought him for Christmas. He told me it was excellent. We had both found it in an issue of Bon Apette and I had studiously purchased it as a Christmas present. Glad he enjoyed it. Me? I had a perfectly good bottle of spumantie champagne (my favorite) in the fridge and yet was too full and lazy to drink it. Such a pity.

Moving on, Sunday I hit the ground running as usual and after finishing my closet, decided we were moving things into the office. We had stopped at Home Depot on our TV shopping excursion and purchased the brushed nickle switch plates that we now have for all of the bedrooms. I should have taken a picture they look so nice. We installed them (I started, MB finished as I couldn't line them up and then MB pointed out how I had gotten red paint on EVERY SINGLE plug in the room. Oh well). Then we transferred up the desk from the basement and I set about moving and arranging the rest of it. This is more my thing than MB's. I LOVE to organize and I LOVE having my 'office'. Do I need an office? Not necessarily but it makes me feel better and it's easier to keep everything organized. I've already written one book that needs to be sent out to publishers (I have someone else working on editing it), am working on another, and run a little cookie business on the side so yeah, I do need an office darnit!

I think it looks so great and I can't wait to sit down and do things! MB says he has a large black and white picture of, Mt. Kilimanjaro perhaps? that would look good in there and I concur. Slowly but surly we are actually 'moving in' to the rest of our house. We just take it one room at a time! Next is the spare bedroom which has somehow turned into the cats' playroom. They wont be happy when we move stuff in there but really, we don't have anything to move in there yet! Unless you count a blow up mattress and mirror. The end result to this of course is that we now have ROOM in the basement! I can't tell you how much of a difference just moving the desk upstairs made. There are no longer ANY moving boxes left in the basement as I have emptied them all. Well, that's a lie there is a box filled with our paintings and pictures but that's about it. Whats left are our large rubber bins which actually BELONG in the basement...and my shoes..still not sure where those are going to go. Full shoe closet in the spare bedroom anyone? ;D

The Finishing Weekend: Closets

I'm starting with closets because...well I don't really have a reason. Perhaps because MB finished his closet first on Saturday? After some grumbling because he didn't want to go out to his home town for a cook out, I finally persuaded him and we got out the door. We stopped at Home Depot, big mistake. It was PACKED. Tax Free Weekend. We had forgotten. MB needed some random things and I visited my paint girl and got the "Russian Blue" (in homage to our cat Lulu how HAS to be at least part Russian Blue) for the spare bedroom. I had grandiose plans in my head that because I would be putting the last coat of paint in the office when we got back from the cookout, that I would also be able to get the first coat on the spare bedroom. This plan, never came to fruition.

We stopped at the cookout for a bit and debated on going to a second party we were suppose to make an appearance at but decided to opt out and go strait home. I finished that last coat of red in the office RECORD TIME. I honestly think I did the whole thing, cutting and rolling, in little over an hour. I'm getting better. Meanwhile, MB had taken Friday off and gotten the first coat of poly on his closet. He then sanded and put the second coat on and then hung the bar. So his closet, was done. Mine? Not far behind. Somehow, he guilted me into sanding my own closet because "the sander has the bag attached." Don't get me wrong, I'm not bad at sanding, I just hate it. Anyone who works with wood often enough learns to hate sanding. It gets in your eyes, up your nose, in your lungs and here you have this great project, your so ready to be done...and then, there's always a ton of sanding to do. I gripped but did it anyways, muttering darkly about how I'd have an asthma attack and then he'd be sorry but I finished and he put the first coat of poly on for me so I could finish the office.

By Sunday it was nearly finished. MB began putting his cloths in his closet right after breakfast while I did a quick sand on mine and set about putting the last coat of poly on (he rubbed it with mineral spirits for me). MB made the mistake of exclaiming that he didn't have a lot of clothes. To this I responded "oh goody so I can use your closet!" This is a dangerous subject for him. He said I was not to take over all the closets in the house as he mother had done at their house. I then explained that, unlike he who wears a uniform daily, WE had to come up with a different outfit every day and THEREFORE, need more clothes. He seemed to find this no excuse what so ever. Boys.

Anyway, I finished the poly, we went out to run some errands, came back and MB hung the poll. My closet was ready. It took me a little while to hang my clothes but I got there eventually (see photo). Yes of COURSE I color coordinate my clothes, doesn't everyone?! I still haven't moved everything in and there will be drawers in the middle part which MB has yet to make but still, my CLOTHES are in my CLOSET! Do you know how great that is?! I have been trotting down into the basement every time I need to get dressed/change. This has gone on for ..oh my goodness, FIVE months now! No more checking my clothes for spiders daily or running up and down the stairs a million times trying to put together my outfit. No, today, for the first time, I was able to get dressed in my room (hiding in the corner where no one could see me because we still don't have blinders on our windows but still). Plus now I have a beautiful closet to organize everything. I honestly, don't even know where to start!

The Finishing Weekend!: Intro

WOW! That's all I have to say. I feel like we accomplished so much this weekend because, well, we did! The big thing was that we FINISHED a lot of projects and I can't tell you how good that feels. So, because there was so much done in such a short span of time, I have decided to dedicate a single blog to project.

What did we get done? Closets, office, new TV and MB put a HUGE dent, quite literally, in our lawn (patio project). Not to mention we made one of the most bad ass smoked whole chickens (see photo) ever. Yesterday had to be my favorite day; we got almost everything done yesterday, the weather was GREAT ( cool, cloudy and windy, just how I like it!) and to top it all off, our neighbor across the street (the "Fergs", totally cool, very fond of them) Jen, came over and dropped off a huge bouquet of hydrangeas from her gorgeous tree because she was pruning it. (also see photo) I seriously have to take a picture of this thing, I honestly lust after it. I secretly think she wanted to scope out what was going on but I'm certainly OK with that. :D

The worst part of this weekend was that because it was tax free weekend here in Massachusetts, it was an S show from start to finish. After two trips to home depot and one to get our TV I had had enough of just people in general to last me quite a while thank you. Good news was that we had only ONE social event this weekend (a little cookout to meet my friends new baby) and NEXT weekend we have ZERO! :) Just think how much we can accomplish then!

In-Development & a psychology lesson about boys' minds

We are now in the middle of a planning bonanza. MB has been using up vacation time a few days at a time and making vast strides in his efforts.

The plan for the weekend is finish the closets. Very important. It will be so lovely to hang my clothes where they belong! Yippee! Also, I'm going to finish the second coat of "cinnamon stick" in the office so that we can move things in and get them out of the basement!

On the "cleaning out the basement" front there is also the beloved switch to natural gas. MB had the trusted family plumber come check out the house today and he told us about this AWESOME heater that, well it's not just tankless it's condensation using? I don't know, I'm not positive what to call it but it's soo cool! I'm in love already. It super efficient and doesn't take up much room and you never run out of hot water! Great for my legendary hour long showers (hey, I'm a Pisces, I love water, nothing I can do about it). Here's the link if your interesting in bringing a little awesome into your life as well. http://www.navienamerica.com/rearning/tank.aspx?skin=tank

Any-who, that should all go down pretty soon. They need to run the gas line up to our house first (there is middle school down the street so luckily we have gas on our road) and then when we are almost out of oil, MB and his uncle are going to cut the tank in half, rip it out and get the stupid behemoth out of there! That leaves a nice big space in our basement although our cat Finella will probably be upset as she has taken to napping on top of it. Cats are so bizarre.

ELSEWHERE, MB parents dropped off our Christmas present a few (5) months early. Some friends of theirs were selling a very nice metal patio set and they got it for us! It's very nice but now it's just sitting in our yard looking a bit odd and lonely. This means MB's patio plan has been kicked into high gear. Today he went and scoped out some stones and there have been catalogues at our house for a week now. He wants natural stone. OK. You see the thing is I don't really care, well I do, but MB will inevitable, do whatever it is he wants to do. If I happen to disagree it will just mean he'll puff up like a blow fish and pout until I go "fine do whatever you want" and then he's happy. The thing is, even though he's going to do whatever he wants, somehow, I have to be involved in the process. It's a lovely gesture but purely for show and the purpose behind it is beyond me. I say "I don't care". He says, "tell me what you want". I tell him. He disagrees. I throw my hands up in the air and say "why did you ask me then!?" He doesn't know. This is how many thing are accomplished in this house. It's certainly not mean or combative but rather funny. You should see us, on the rare occasion that we eat out, trying to decide where to go and what to eat. It takes HOURS...but I digress.

So here we are looking at stones, or least that's the plan. Last night I was suffering from a kidney infection, NOT in a happy bunny kinda mood if you get my drift and we looked at catalogues but I couldn't even tell you what I saw. So inevitably, this is up to MB, I'll just be there to help out. The major issue with this project now is this: MB has decided to dig out the patio by himself. This, I'd like to point out, is mental. He assumes, with pick and shovel in hand, he will be able to dig our large patio out of the hill in our yard. All by himself. The guy at the stone place concurred with me today (bonus points for HIM). But MB has his mind set and therefore, the madness continues. He has about 3 people offering him heavy machinery that he can borrow but no, it's too much of a hassle and then he owes them. Psh. I'm OK with this though, you know why? I'll be right in the end. :) I want nothing to do with the madness and MB has been informed of that (I'll help laying the stone of course) and I know, when he gets to it, he'll realize he needs the help of large equipment. You should have seen us trying to dig up the small little strip of land next to our walkway for our herb garden. HAH! That was hard enough. Or when MB got it in his head that we needed to move a bush down by one of the trees in our front yard. The hole digging was no easy feat. No I think this is going to be a nightmare but we will just let him find out for himself.

*P.S. that is NOT what our patio will look like I just stole a picture offline :D

Vacation: My Stepford Awakening

So I just returned from a very nice, and very un-restful vacation to visit my sister and my two adorable nephews in North Carolina. I had a great time as I have an awesome, fun family but I'm rather sunburned and I gatta tell you, I MISSED New England! I know this may sound nuts but one of the weirdest things that has now been cemented in my mind is the lack of originality in NC. My other sister lives in Colorado and it is much the same problem there.

What problem you ask? The SAMENESS! For those of you who have not been to either place let me explain; almost all houses are set in developments. And not like the kinds you see here in New England where a bunch of houses go up in a neighborhood that look similar. No, I'm talking they create little 'villages' with everything from schools to grocery stores and hair salons, all in one neighborhood. It's like Stepford and it's creepy. It doesn't seem to bother either of my sisters but it bothers me. Wheres the creativity?! Where's the freedom and sense of adventure when everyone you see, talk to, deal with, are all within a square mile of you?! And yards? Not really. Every house is practically a carbon copy of the next, everything is new and everything is the same. You can't even paint your house the way you want because it has to be within an agreed upon color! My sister doesn't live in a gated community but she might as well. There is a sense of isolation, being cut off from the rest of the state, let alone the world. Perhaps it's just me but I was feeling rather claustrophobic by the time I left.

What does this tell me? Why it tells me I belong firmly planted in New England, yes sir. The lack of separate houses I saw was disturbing to say the lest. Here you have houses in every shape, form and function. Yards and property all look different. You have to put in a little more effort to get where your going, and meet new people, and see what you want to, and DO what you need to but God it's worth it. Now our house is a ranch. There are a million ranches in this country, but it's still DIFFERENT! the plot is different, the set up is different and now the inside is very different. A ranch is a box which use to scare me but it I've learned that it's a creative blessing, a blank canvas that we get to up our unique spin on. It may not look like anything special from the outside, but every day is looks more beautiful and spacious from the inside. Inner beauty is what counts right?!

As you can see I've had an awakening of sorts. Yes vacation meant my weekend was, for the first time in a very long time, NOT spend doing a single thing to the house BUT I gave me a new appreciation for it and I couldn't be more grateful. My sisters have beautiful homes in their own rights but those places are not for me. I want history and creativity, not new and un-inventive.

There has been a development on the house however that has nothing to do with me. MB took a nice little trip up to Maine to fish with his brother and his buddy last weekend but before leaving, took 2 days off and worked on the closets. The built-ins are looking amazing and his closet is almost finished with one clear coat on it already. I'll try to remember to take a picture and post it soon! Also, he had a landscaping buddy come price out the patio he's been dreaming about and give him a price from excavation. I'm excited to see what it's going to look like when he's done!

All and all I'm am SO damn happy to be home! :) I think my next vacation will be spent here, there aren't many other places I'd rather be.

Seeing Red and Cutting Out the Oil

So I'm very excited because I think this post will OFFICIALLY, bring us up to date! No more jogging my fuzzy memory for details of things I can't seem to remember the time lines of. This entire thing has been a whirl wind to say the least. I'm sure I skipped a few important points along the way but at least I can post progress as it's happening now.

Although progress on the house has slowed from the original frantic buzzing it started with, it is now picking back up. MB has been talking to a plumber about switching our home heating over to natural gas (to the dismay of our neighbor who works for an oil company "don't do it man!") as our old oil tank needs to go and we want something more efficient. Especially since there are huge incentives for switching over AND, the master plan is with gas heating...comes a gas STOVE (insert ooohs and aaahhs here). Very exciting but SO far off it's depressing to think about it so I wont. He has ALSO been chatting (at a wedding this past weekend) with one of the guys that works with him part time about cutting a patio into the hill. We have this big huge yard and it's very un-usable. So, MB has is dream of cutting a patio into the hill. Great idea. Personally, I'm more concerned about trim on our windows and those silly little privacy things called doors but hey, I'm not here to dictate the schedule apparently.

Well this past weekend I was bound and determined to tackle painting the office so we can finally move all the damn office stuff that's sitting in our basement, to where it belongs. We had decided to paint this room red, much to the chagrin of MB's mom. This, being the major place we differ, other than the backroom but that's a battle for an entirely different day. you see, this office has one window, a former OUTSIDE window (or exterior if you want to be all official about it). Said window now leads into the very dark (although it shouldn't be with 20 effing windows) backroom. I see her point but upon announcing my plan to paint this room red MB's mom immediately countered with "Oh NO! you don't want to do that! No, it would be way to dark. No definitely don't do that." She repeated this several times but I was stubborn and stuck my tongue out at her theoretically speak and bought my red.

Now red was a battle. I LOVE me some cranberry red but MB is heavily against this. I was only able to get an agreement out of him by pointing out that his room at his parent's house is a brick red and met him half way at this brick red. So, we decided to go with "cinnamon stick". I pointed out to MB this past weekend that all of our rooms will end up food. I'm convinced I did this on a subconscious level as I happen to be OBSESSED with food. I love making it, eating it, thinking about it. It's the first thing I think of when I wake up and the most soothing thing I can think about when I go to bed (except for bubbles. I think bubbles are very soothing as well. Seriously, try it once). Therefore, we ended up with an herb in our bedroom "prairie sage", a dessert, one of my favorites as a matter of fact, in the living room with "banana cream" and now "cinnamon stick" in the office. I, personally, see no problem with this.

So I have convinced myself I'm getting pretty good with whole painting thing, not bad for a girl who mere months ago was scared of a paint roller in an very unnatural way. I may be getting cocky but I'm competitive and I need my 'thing' so painting, as much as I loathe it sometimes, I have taken on as my thing. Oh there's painting to be done? Oh that's OK, Lindsey can handle that! So Saturday I informed MB in no uncertain terms, that I WAS painting the office the next day so I didn't know what HE was doing, but that's what I was doing. This of course left him to finish the built-ins in my closet.

I laid out my tarp and began cutting the paint in the ceiling. It doesn't look beautiful because the ceiling and walls aren't seamless but, ehh, whatever. About half way across, and I have NO idea how this happened I got RED paint, on the ceiling. I panicked. I bolted from the room and grabbed a wet paper towel. MB sauntered in to find out what the f-bombs were about as I smugged the paint into the ceiling making it look worse. It now looked like I was trying to wipe up the evidence of a bloody incident on top of the ceiling. Arterial blood splatter perhaps? MB watched this with only mild curiosity. "You'll just have to paint over it, no big deal. your just making it worse." I gaped. I was appalled. I don't DO painting over! It should have been right the first time! I was just beginning to feel rather smug with myself about my totally bad ass paint skills and sure enough, I mess it up. I'm still pissed about this but I plowed on and finished cutting, dawdled a bit, helped MB rip some boards (i.e. stand at the end and act like an extension of the table, whoo-dee) and then finished rolling. It DID come out pretty cool. It's darker than I think either of us expected but I love it. It does make the room darker, I understood where MB's mom was coming from with that but I really like it. It's the only color that breaks up our pallet at all but it still 'goes' with other colors. I love it. It will look even more amazing once the antique white crown molding and baseboard go up too.

Now, just one more flipping coat to go and then we can finally move stuff in!

The Housewarming Party: D DAY and the woodchuck fiasco

Saturday, June 5th: 5:30am

I was up. Ohhh of COURSE I was up. I never even took a chance to say, change out of my pyjamas, or put in my contacts, or brush my teeth for God sake! No I literally hit the ground running, ponytail, glasses and all as today was the day that 50 or so people would flood our unfinished and unfurnished home. I had S@#! to do! I can't even remember where I start, I think it was sweeping our new beautiful floors in all the bedrooms and living room to get them ready for presentation. I then, waking MB in my mad dashings around, began moving random things in our "bedroom" backroom into the real bedroom. I was freaking out about by now. The backroom is where we were to have everything set up for the party as people could transition seamlessly from outdoors to inside. By 6:30am it was already hot and I was sweating my butt off. I had a lot to do and people were slated to arrive by 1pm. Great.

I think somewhere in this MB picked up on my panic and he set to work immediately as well, I'm not sure doing what because I didn't see him or pay much attention to him but I'm sure it was useful. I started putting felt tips that I had purchased on one of my more recent trips to the beloved Home Depot, on all of the furniture that would be going in living room and bedroom. MB helped me do most of this and at around 8:30 we began moving stuff into the bedroom. I put our beautiful new nightstands that MB had built prior to us buying the house 1st (picture included, taken by my mother).

I believe these were the product of pent up creative energy on MB's part. I had gotten a call one night when I was about to go to bed, MB: "I think I'm going to built night stands." Me: "Uhm OK." MB:" Yeah. I'm gunna build night stands." You just don't question it.

After those we moved our silly little yard sale dresser, the bed frame, and eventually the bed. I started throwing sheets on this somewhere in between random trips to and fro the basement. I put my beautiful shaker table in the living room first as I am shamelessly proud of it (picture also included courtesy of me :D). Then the couch. This took a little finagling with felt cups but it was there and that was it. We have a big chair, the Lindsey chair as I'm often to be found curled up in it sound asleep with half a glass of wine on Friday nights, but we did not have time to move this from the basement. I then set about cleaning the couch, vacuuming my life away around 10ish?
I made a cake somewhere in there. I swept the floor in the kitchen and cleaned it as best I could and then set about vacuuming the backroom and setting it up. This took forever. It was so hot, already about 86ish degrees and there I was, sweating my butt off in a tee shirt and pyjama shorts, glasses, a sloppy pony tail and in desperate need a shower. And I had people coming in about 2ish hours. I set up the two tables, put table clothes on them and began trying to set things up. It was an hour from my mother's arrival so I literally, and this is probably the funniest thing looking back, took to cleaning my bathroom before jumping in the shower, spray bottle and scrub brush in hand and literally, cleaned my shower while I took a shower. I was still straitening up my bathroom and finishing making the bed while dressed in a Velcro towel and a towel on my head. I'm sure it was quite the sight. My mom showed up just I finished dressing myself and slapping some pathetic make up on my face.
Now, my mother is not use to seeing me so harried before a party. I LOVE to throw parties and plan them and all that good stuff. Yet here I was with almost nothing done and people coming in an hour. We had moved furniture in THAT MORNING, I still hadn't even had a change to admire the effect. I set her to work cooking bacon and hard boiling eggs, for potato salad and I started setting up the things she had brought.
Now while all of this was going on, MB was smoking a brisket. If you have never had one of these, and are not of the vegetarian persuasion (full respect here) you NEED to have one. They are amazing. Now, I had noticed a small woodchuck hanging out under our back room addition a few days earlier. While I was in there setting up I heard a commotion. MB had been attacked my said woodchuck. He sprayed it with the hose he was using but was a bit concerned. This woodchuck did not look so good. He sauntered off, a little wet and very sick looking at a slow pace into the garden. I told MB to call animal control. He said it wouldn't be animal control it would be the EPA that would handle it. I told him to call the EPA. He said no, they wouldn't do anything. I was pretty pissed off to tell you the truth but I was very quickly distracted and didn't get a chance to even FIND my cellphone let along use it. The next time I saw the sickly little woodchuck he was laying in our hill garden in the sun, very strange and looking half dead.

Meanwhile, people started filing into the kitchen as I was trying to finish the things I was making. I had my cousin making pudding for punch bowl cake, my mom on the bacon and someone else, doing I can't even remember. I have NEVER been that unprepared before a party, especially of such magnitude. However, I think it came together well.
People camped themselves in our garage due to the relative lack of shade in our yard, something I did not understand not ever having a garage before but hey, they seemed happy. MB entertained the folks outside while I entertained inside getting things put together. It was HOT. Like tropical humidity hot. It even threatened to rain once but somehow, split and missed us.

People came in two waves, most of the family around 1pm and our friends mostly at 5pm. As I had barely been outside someone asked me how I felt about the woodchuck. "What woodchuck?" APPARENTLY, as MB had not called the EPA, as some of his family were arriving the woodchuck charged MB for the 2nd (3rd?) time. Well he, for reasons unbeknown to be, had a shovel in his hand and therefore, to protect himself and his family, proceeded to whack the thing in the head and kill it. I, needless to say, was pretty furious. especially that I seemed to be the last to know of this! Now, I realize that the thing was obviously not OK. It was sick. But I was convinced, and proceeded to ream MB out for this, that the poor woodchuck probably had babies under our backroom and it was just trying to protect them and now they would die and if I happened to find said babies, MB was crawling under there and rescuing every damn one of them. Turns out there were no babies but still, I was mad.

The party went incredibly well and everyone seemed to love the house. Our friends were there most of the night and two friends stayed behind to help us clean up (one really. The other was for entertainment). At this point, MB was fairly drunk and so was AC (the friend/girlfriend/coworker from my last post). As AC's fiancee was so generously helping me clean, they decided, having been seated around a large fire in our backyard for the past 2 hours drinking beer, that it would be fun to sneak on top of the roof of the garage and 'scare' us. Ashley caught them before they even made it to the window. You see, when your drunk you think your being incredibly cleaver and stealthy. Not so much. Anyways they finally left around 1:00am and it was finally over. I have included more pictures I took the next day of a reluctant MB (he's not fond of pictures for some silly reason. He's very photogenic so I can't understand WHY) in our living room. This was the defining moment in our journey so far and yet, there was still so much to do. I was SO excited to go to sleep in our actual bedroom that night I can't even tell you. And to actually sit in my living room?! SWOON! It's lovely :)

The Mad Dash!

There we were. 4 days in counting until the big day. D Day. The Housewarming Party. Now let me explain a bit here. We had originally set this date back when we closed on the house because the only plan was to re do the master bedroom. Oh we would DEFINITELY be ready by then! The house would surly be presentable. (snigger) You see, we have big families, MB especially and his family is very prevalent in our lives and EVERYONE wanted to see the house. Not to mention we have a large group of friends we often entertain with and we were convinced their social lives were ruined because of us.

Well instead of entertaining a stream of people every single weekend while we were trying to work on the house, we deiced to stave them off by having a big reveal party! Now, 4 days before the party MB had JUST finished the floors. Something, that until it was done, I hadn't realized was causing me such an ucler. But now, I was faced with the fact that we still needed, what was it? 14 coats of paint overall? Yeah, not gunna happen.

I decided to prioritize. I literally sat down at work one day and made a list of all of the projects. #1. heat registers (the metal thing that covers the pipe of heat that runs across the exterior walls for those of you lucky brats that do not have this), they were out. There was no way they would be sanded, primed and painted twice before the party. #2. spare bedrooms? Nope those definitely weren't going to be done. luckily, although I can't remember the time line for this as it's all a bit blurry, MB had finished priming the spare bedrooms but there was no way, wall, ceilings or closets would be painted for the party. OK so this left the living room as the "big to do" (heh. Drive By Truckers Album. tehe.)

Now by this time i had been desperately calling all the people who "LOVE to paint" short of the Home Depot "Paint Girl" (but don't think I hadn't considered it). I was faced with painting all of the trim around the windows and doors, painting the ceiling white (again), cutting and PRIMING the walls and then doing two coats of paint...in a mere few days. Now I work full time. That doesn't leave me with an awful lot of time to do these things. I had spent my whole previous week up until almost 11 every night painting. looked like this would be a repeat. Plus we had nice new beautiful floor to protect upon pain of death. So poor Mary (see girls weekend 2 days earlier!), who is self admitted not a good painter, showed her cute little face to help paint ceilings on Wednesday. Matt took painting trim, I took babysitting Mary and cutting the primer into the walls. Mary worked very hard but i ended up finishing. I finished priming the walls on Thursday and then Friday, I left work early. I HAD to. I was out by noon and had to, of course pick up MORE paint.

Now i was always told paint is the cheap thing. 'Oh it's a cheap way to change a room around/spruce it up.' HAH! Tell that to me nearly $400 deep in paint with still 2 more rooms worth to buy. Well any who, we had very smartly gotten what we needed for the party on Thursday night so I could get stuff done for the party Friday. I had a room to paint, a few dishes to make (we thankfully made it a pot luck because I knew there was no way I could make food for 60ish people given the circumstances) and a whole house to clean. Somehow, I got it in my head that, why of COURSE i could finish the second coat on all the trim and cut and paint the entire living room and hallway that night and have plenty of time left. I start at around 2:15 painting trim. Somehow, MB had to work this night. Of course. He would be home at 9pm. No biggy, i had plenty of time.

I finished the trim and got my paint. Now up until this point I had never been the one to put color on the walls. Everything else had been the same color (white) and MB had given me only a quick lesson in cutting in color by hand without tape. I took a big gulp and C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y slid the angled brush into the crevice between the upper wall and ceiling in the hallway. I think my heart stopped. this was by far the most terrifying thing I had done yet. you get paint on that ceiling and your screwed. There's no going back. I jumped that hurdles and stood back and was assaulted by a whole new litany of fears. It was YELLOW. I mean YELLOW! Insert panic attack here. Now, in the scheme of things, this was nothing to panic over. But I did. It was just so striking to actually see color on the walls. And yellow is a very tricky color. Suddenly i was panicking that we had picked the wrong yellow. There was nothing I could do so I plowed on at my painstakingly slow rate.

As I did so I began to silently fume. At some point, I had stopped to attempt and prep my potato salad. I had boiled and strained potatoes and hard boiled eggs. I had attempted to cut up some vegetables. I may have fed myself but then again I may not have. the panic was starting to seep in even before i realized it almost in equilibrium with the fading light. The darker it got, the later it got and the less I seemed to have gotten done. This turned to annoyance and later anger that stupid MB and his stupid work were leaving me to do this all by myself. We hadn't moved anything in. I had so much cleaning to do. I still had a million things to cook. I do NOT like to be unprepared darnit! I'm a professional! I have things done when people get there, I have it together! Yet here I was faced with the realization that maybe I would have nothing together. There were also a million stupid little obstacles I hadn't prepared for. Like I forgot I would have to cut the paint in around all of the windows and doors and outlets. That took forever. It got to be almost 9pm and by this point, I was murderous. I began 'fantasizing' that MB would walk and the first thing he would say was that he hated the color, it was too yellow. This, in my fantasizing nightmare, was then followed by a complete storming rant from me and a karate chop to the face. By the time 9 o'clock came and went, in my mind, this is EXACTLY what was going to happen. MB was going to hate it and when he told me such, he would get a earful from me. This never happens. I'm a very peaceful person, very anti combative but I'll admit, the pressure was getting to me.

I started rolling the paint on the walls, feeling almost like it was starting over and it was now 9:45pm. MB was NOT answering his phone. His friend AC (and I can't believe I called him, I NEVER do that!) was not answering so I called the only person I could; AC's fiancee and my buddy Ashley. She too was painting (I will back her up here, she offered to come help me paint during the week but the poor girl was already doing the same thing and working so hard to help her brother that I turned her down) and she had no idea where the boys were. AC (her boyfriend or as I like to say, MB's boyfriend (he's married to his job, I'm just the mistress)) hadn't called her either so I gave up.

When MB sauntered in a little after 10 I was poised and ready, waiting for the line so I could take my paint roller and run it right up his body. I was nearly done rolling at this time. I had one wall left (rolling takes FAR less time than cutting). "This looks awesome huh?!" were the words uttered out of MB's mouth. I deflated, although, I will be honest here, there was a part of me that was a bit disappointed I didn't get to let him have it. I nodded, put down the roller and walked away saying I had had enough and he could finish which he did. I walked into the kitchen and deflated again. There was so much to do, the kitchen was a mess, I had about 1/3 of a potato salad done, a dessert with multiple parts still left, a house to clean and oh yeah, we STILL hadn't moved our stuff out of the back room where we were suppose to be housing all the food for the party the next day!

Now this, this is where a lesser person would have burst into to tears. But ohhh no, not this girl! I sucked it up, finished cutting the vegetables I needed, tossed everything for the potato salad in a bowl and stuffed it in the fridge, took a quick shower and went to bed. I know myself well enough to know that I was of no more use to anyone that night. I would be up at the crack of dawn. I would have it done. It would be awesome. I didn't really get a chance to stand back and appreciate my hard work (although since then I promise you I have, many a times, gloating most of it) in the living room. I actually LOVE the color! We got it just right. It looks amazing in every light but if you had asked me that night, I would have told you to got take your yellow and stick it where the sun don't shine! :D

Thank the God's on Mt. Olympus..the floors are DONE!

I have the up most respect for MB almost entirely because he's not afraid to take things on and do them himself. Independence, I'm a big fan of it. Well we were now a weekend away from our big housewarming party and I was being kicked out..sort of. MB decided he was going to take it upon himself, with his entire Memorial Day weekend, to sand and finish ALL of the floors...by his lonesome. This seemed slightly mental to me, like his time line of putting a coat of sealer on the floor at about 1am I think he figured it. However, when MB gets an idea in his head you don't question it.

The problem with this whole endeavour was that our only bathroom (tiny and ugly as it is) sits smack dab at the back of the hall...past all of the floors that were being re done. 3 bedrooms, living room and hall in all. Therefore, I couldn't be there. MB can pee outside. Me? Not so much. So I was told to find a place to put myself. Find a little salvation. So on Wednesday of that week (admittedly a bit late), I got a epiphany: I would call for a girls weekend! Two of my life long best friends just HAPPENED, by the grace of unknown forces, to be available the entire Memorial Day weekend and, why yes, they would LOVE to go up to Maine! So here I was, getting all excited; we found a great hotel for a cheap price right in the center of where we wanted to be, I got to take a little mini vaca which it been quite some time since I'd done so AND, the peice de resistance..when I got back I would have FLOORS!!! Brand new (not really sanded) shiny floors! We chose to not stain them, but rather seal them and keep them light. As I hoped around giddily, poor MB looked like he was planning for a funeral.

We took a trip to our other home, Home Depot and picked out the gigantic can of sealer. MB was going to do 3 coats. Now, since we started painting and this had become my task, I'd grown rather fond of "the paint" girl at Home Depot. thin, very tom boyish with the most dazzling blue eyes, way too much black eyeliner and always a paint splattered bandanna in her hair. She is cool shit. No doubt about it. She knows her stuff, shes honest and "dude [she] LOVES color!" I'm thinking of adopting her..she looks like she could use a good home cooked meal at least. lol well she helped us out and we took the big step and purchased our paint color for the living room. Pale yellow. This was BY FAR the hardest color to pick. We had a rough idea of all the colors we wanted and we knew we wanted them all in the same family so they would flow together. There have GOT to about 78 shades of pale yellow..at Home Depot alone. I came home with a STACK of paint swatches one day and through processes of elimination we picked "Banana Cream", I'm sure partly for the name but it beat out quite a few others.

Anywho, so there I was setting out for a great weekend with my two girlfriends ( and it WAS a great weekend let me tell you! BEAUTIFUL weather, good company, just awesome) while poor MB took on the roughest task yet. Now the saving grace here was MB's dad CB to the rescue yet again. He held off a little vaca of his own (he made some silly excuse but I think he wanted to help MB) and came to help MB sand the floors. They rented a sander and an edger and one worked one and one worked the other. While I was laying on the beach, walking around eating ice cream and getting my nails done I did think often of poor MB and his task. I kept my phone conversations short because when he's grumpy he's not fond of chatting. Luckily his family entertained and fed him during a party but he still worked his skinny tail off.

Monday night I was sent to stay with MB's parents as the floors still had to dry but I was DYING to see the floors! I went to work the next day and practically bounced in my seat with anticipation. When I got...I couldn't believe it!!! They were so shiny! I almost cried. The moment I, for some reason, was holding everything against, was there. We had floors. We could move things! (although we waited because it's easier to paint when there's nothing in the room and the sealer needed to set) It was a weep worth thing let me tell you. Just look at the pictures and you will understand my excitement and joy. HOWEVER, this did not negate the fact there were STILL, all told about 15 coats, after you break down cuttings in, ceilings and 2 coats of paint, and heat registers, i forgot to mention those, that needed to be done (?) in 4 days. NOT going to happen.