Bathroom Makeover

We did a little work on the powder room awhile back, and I forgot to post the pictures.  Basically, we installed beadboard, a chair rail, and new baseboard and painted.  The paint is Valspar Blue Lagoon (satin) and Behr White Fur (semi gloss).


Before, a beautiful shade of builder's white

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Installing beadboard with the air nailer

The board, rail, and baseboard all came in a trim to fit kit from Lowe's

A casualty of removing the old baseboard. 

Blue Lagoon



All done except for adding a print or something.  The color is a bit lighter in real life.



A House Full of Crazy

So I've hesitated to write about our neighbors because I don't want to judge them too harshly, but seriously, that is one house full of crazy.  The sum of our encounters with the neighbors boils down to this:

- Something is off about the mother and three kids.  They're beyond strange.  They speak in very high, shrill voices and seem to be slow in a way that points to mental health issues.
- The 12 year old son scares me.  He stands too close, tries to touch us, and says creepy things that remind me of certain episodes of Dateline or Oprah. 
- The kids are home schooled by the mother, which is particularly alarming since in the past she's asked us what we mean by words like "sushi," "extension," and "pruning"
- BB caught the mother looking in our window. 
- On trash pick-up days, the whole family waits in the driveway for the garbage collectors.  If they're running behind, the family waits it out, and take turns walking to the middle of the road to watch for the truck.  I can hear the alarm in their voices from my office. 
- I've never seen the mother wear pants.  I don't mean that she's wearing skirts or dresses.  I mean that she's wearing enormous t-shirts.  Enormous, but still not quite big enough.
- One of the first things they said to us was "We're not prejudiced."  Good, but sort of a strange way to introduce oneself.
- Their hygiene is in question.

We avoid them when possible.  A little longer than two weeks ago I had the windows open and could hear someone's smoke detectors sounding.  I noticed again the next day, and the next.  It's been constant since then.  We have no vacant houses nearby.  Last night I was pulling some weeds between our houses . . . the alarms are coming from their house.  They've been living in a house with constantly sounding alarms for weeks!  How can that do anything other than drive them even further down the path to craziness??

Project 2011, January 31 - Goodbye splinters!

Dinner - Again with the soup.  Mrs. Grass.  Hello sodium.

C's Dinner - acorn squash, peaches, rosemary chicken and brown rice

So about 10 years ago I bought this large wicker chest to use as a coffee table, which I sold when we moved to LV.  Anyway, the chest came with two square wicker boxes inside that I've been using as end tables ever since.  When we got our kitty, he insisted on scratching them, and they're now really splintered and ugly (and unsafe for a toddler that likes to stick things in his mouth).  Yesterday we finally upgraded to this:

Avington Side Table, $89.99 (currently on sale for $69), Target

We bought two, but they're bigger than I'd expected, so we've only put one together.  Might take the other back.  Like the two other Avington pieces we own (TV stand and coffee table), it's very sturdy and was easily assembled.  Some of C's favorite hobbies are taking the newspapers and CDs out of the TV stand drawer and banging remote controls on the coffee table.  So far they've survived unscathed. 

In assembling the new table, I noticed a glaring difference between BB's methodology and my own.
He - believes instructions are just "one man's opinion" and feels nothing done without the aid of power tools is worth doing
She - reads and follows the instructions to the letter, including the part where it says NOT to use power tools and where it recommends counting all screws, etc, prior to getting started to make sure everything is there.

Of course I'm right, right?

Project 2011, January 21-23 - F is for Failure

Dinners - turkey sausage/pasta bake, Lucille's, leftovers 

C's Dinners - Turkey & green beans, salmon & broccoli/cauliflower mix, mango/yogurt puree & beef roast & carrots

Enrichment - Learning from failure.  Okay, so obviously it's not something I set out to do, but I have a very real fear of failure, and it holds me back.  I know that growth emerges from uncomfortable experiences and often failure, but I avoid them both, which means I rarely try new "scary" (to me) things and if I get the slightest whiff of failure I abort the mission and never try again.  This weekend was a series of minor failures, but I'm forcing myself to try again on all fronts.  Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to take bigger risks.
Failure #1 - I chose an awful paint color for the bathroom.  Then I kept using it after my test spot was ugly.  (Behr Winter Lake)
Failure #2 - Clearly cutting the paint in along the ceiling is not my forte.  Strike that.  It is not currently my forte.
Failure #3 - This is pathetic.  I was going to call my aunt and ask her for kolache tips, but I chickened out (we're not close in any way and neither of has ever called the other, but it would be nice to forge a better relationship).  I'm not really sure what scares me about this. 

So, although I don't trust my ability to pick a paint color or edge the ceiling, I'll be painting the rest of the house.  Lucky for me BB is utterly color blind. 

I can't have C growing up thinking that it's okay to let life pass him by and to stop dreaming altogether out of fear.  So, no matter how uncomfortable it is for me, I'll let him see me try and fail and try again.  And hopefully gain confidence. 

Project 2011, January 19 & 20 - Home Improvement?

Dinners - breakfast burritos & apples, spanish-style halibut and spinach & pineapple

C's Dinners - Beef stew & pears, mango/pineapple/banana blend & broccoli & lima beans

Enrichment - worked on updating our powder room - last weekend we removed the baseboards and everything attached to the wall (tp holder, etc).  Now we've installed new baseboards and started with the installation of wainscoating.  I'll post pictures when we're done.  This has been a learning experience . . . lesson #1:  tile chips rather easily.  Lesson #2:  expect the walls to form something other than a 90 degree angle.  Lesson #3:  builders don't necessarily use acutal wood for baseboards, and whatever it is that they use smells bad and probably causes a multitude of health problems when you breathe the particles. 

We also went to another Gymboree class and were shunned.  This was one tight-knit group, and clearly they weren't excited to welcome any newcomers.  The theme was social interaction, which just makes the whole ordeal laughable.  Anyway, "thank you" to Rylen's Grandma, who was the only person to willingly speak to me and encourage interaction among the kids.  I'm going back to the Sunday class.  Thankfully, C is too young to notice.  I think.

Refeathering the Nest

The house looks so drab now that the Christmas decorations have gone back into storage.  In an effort to perk things up a bit, I've located these goodies...

at West Elm:



Herringbone Bed, $399-$699


at West Elm:



Sweep Armchair, $499-$599


at West Elm:

Perennial Pillow Cover, $29

at Restoration Hardware:

Palladian Urn Table Lamp, $439

at Restoration Hardware:

Antique Planisphere Chart, $995

from Etsy seller MayDae:

Vintage Scalloped Plates, $24.50

at Urban Outfitters:



Dance Steps Rubber Bath Mat, $16


at Rugs USA (save 20% with code WSJAN20):

Surya Caesar Rug, $55-$1840

at Rifle Paper Co.:


Animal Parade Print, $24



Hoarder Inventory

Current inventory of the backyard of the hoarder that lives behind us:

2 bed frames, full or queen size
2 dining tables
2 pair sandals
1 tarp
1 grill
1 bookshelf
5 5-gallon buckets, some with lids
miscellaneous bits from the front of a car, 1 headlight, etc.
1 large birdcage, sans bird
6-8 small bags containing what appears to be aluminum cans

Why, oh why, couldn't our back fence be higher?

Brocade Home

What do you think of this from Brocade Home?  If it were only about $150 instead of $349 it would be in my entryway.

and if I ever had a dressing room, I think this would be appropriate, also from Brocade Home

Is that a glass of whiskey?  I'll take that, too.

The Joys of Home Ownership

We took a mini-vacation over Labor Day weekend to visit BB's family in Nebraska - from Friday until Tuesday.  So, thinking myself wise, I decided to clean the house on Thursday night so we could come home to a nice clean house and less stress.  This is pretty much how that turned out:
Thursday, 3:00pm pick C up from day care
3:00-4:30 play with C and coax him to take a nap.  Fail at the coaxing.
4:30 feed C peas and clean up. 
5:00 start to prepare dinner, realize C has a low fever probably from his 6 month shots. 
5:03 give up on dinner.  Cuddle with C and administer Tylenol.
6:00 BB home to help round up the kitty and take him to the vet.
6:15 after much yowling and scratching, the kitty is kenneled and I'm off to the vet's to board him and then pick up Jimmy Johns.
7:20 home with dinner
7:40 bath time for C
7:55 C pees on our bed, soaking it down to the mattress. 
8:30 finally get all the bedding stripped and into the washer
8:45 B hears gushing coming from the laundry room and enters to find our laundry room closely resembles Atlantis.  Damn.
8:46-11:45 Clean up the laundry room.

So my house was left dirty, with the notable exception of the laundry room, which is cleaner than ever.  Thank God the laundry room isn't upstairs.

Evicted!

It's a bad day for pigeons in my neighborhood. The pigeon guy has evicted the tenants of three nests on our house. They're pretty likely to move next door, but I don't care, as long as they stop pooing on our steps and driveway. Adieu, pigeons.

Scorpions, Spiders, and Ants - Oh My!

Um, do you remember when I complained about spiders?  That was nothing.  The other day I was on my way to the laundry room - barefoot - when I spotted a scorpion on the floor .  Being a self-preservationist, I ran.  I thought the damn thing was dead, but when I finally gathered the nerve to return, it had moved.  It so happened that we had a bucket in there, so I slammed it over the scorpion, topped that with a big container of laundry detergent and ran away, screaming.  I could hear it banging around in there.  I was home alone, but for the cat, and emailed BB and called the exterminator.  Both said not to worry, but really, those are horrible creatures.  In the end, BB and I coordinated an attack when he got home - we wore boots (ready to stomp), BB armed himself with some harsh bug spray, we stuffed rugs against the cracks under the doors to prevent escape, and I grabbed the swiffer to corral it if necessary.  There was a lot of screaming, but we killed it.  In Three Stooges manner, we killed it.  Scorpions:  Another reason no human belongs in the desert.  I'd post a picture, but it was so scary that I didn't take one.  By the way, the scorpion matched the color of our tile and carpet.  I'm genuinely scared now, and C is unlikely to ever get to move from our room into his own room, which is near the laundry room.  That happened on a Monday, and then on the following weekend I saw an enormous spider that looked similar to a daddy long legs with thicker legs and a bigger body.  I have the creeps just thinking of it.  Again, BB had to kill it for me, as it had penned C and I into our bedroom.  Then there are the giant ants taking up residence in our back yard.  Gah!

Spiders: Evil Incarnate

So I'm off to the dermatologist in an hour for my first ever skin check.  The increasing number of freckles and wrinkles should've prompted me to go sooner, but it took the appearance of spider veins (!!) to get me to make an appointment.  Chances are good that I'll feel to vain (ha!) to bring them up when I should really be concerned about sun damage, but I hope to discuss it with the doctor.  Oh, also the mystery lump on my head.  Yikes!  Why didn't I do this sooner?! 

Then it's the weekend!  We have no real plans, and since my magnificent baby C started sleeping through the night (please let it be a trend!), we don't even have to use the weekend to catch up on sleep.  Instead I'll be preparing for the exterminator to come on Monday.  What preparations are needed, you ask?  Well, for those as anal as myself, it means cleaning places that rarely see daylight in the off chance that the exterminator may peek there (hello, baseboards behind the washer and dryer!).  The exterminator may be my favorite guest, actually.  Anyone who can ensure the absence of the horrible desert bugs we have here - especially the outdoors roaches and the freaky spiders - is tops with me.  Since we try to be as green as possible, and have a baby and kitty to worry about, we opted to use an eco-exterminator.  I hope it works! 

Loss of Control

So I'm still pregnant.  I'm not due until Sunday, but I'm scheduled to be induced next week.  It's so frustrating for me to know that my kid will be exposed to Pitocin and probably Cervadil when I've done so much through this pregnancy to avoid exposing him to anything that could harm him.  Now I'm reading of possible links between Pitocin and autism (one of my nightmares) and the increased odds of needing an epidural or even a c-section and decreased odds of successful breastfeeding.  Of course, BB is totally calm about it all.  In home ownership news, we went to sign the papers this week only to find several mistakes.  Now we're delayed again, and hope to have the keys on Tuesday.  Yes, you guessed it, the day I'll be induced if I haven't already gone into labor.  I can tell you for certain that focused anger (at the title company in this scenario) does not cause one to go into labor.  Nor does annoyance, frustration, anger, or constant calls from nosey and needy mothers.  If I had control over anything in my life right now, most of it would be different.  Alas, I do not.  Thus ends my rant for the day.  Carry on.

Hurdles

So we were supposed to have already had our appraisal and inspection on the house, but the lock box went missing, and apparently it takes FIVE days to replace. Anyway, we're finally getting back on track, and have the inspection today. We've been this far on a house before and had it all go to hell, so I won't believe it's ours until we clear these last hurdles. I'm sort of dreading this. In better news, tonight some fabulous ladies from BB's office are throwing us a co-ed baby shower! How sweet!! The past four years of working from home have rendered me socially awkward at best and socially inept at worst, so these kind of things make me nervous. I haven't really missed alcohol since I've been pregnant, but a drink would be good tonight. I know these are truly good people, though, and that might loosen me up a bit. Here's to them!

At Last

We've found a house!! It's not perfect, but we can make it a home. First things first, though. Let's get through the appraisal and inspection...