Some Days It's Rough Being a Pumpkin...

I know, I know, it's not pictures of the house, or a cute set of anecdotes, but it's Zach, in a pumpkin suit, come on, it's precious! He's growing like a weed and wearing out Mom and Dad with his antics. At last count he was up to 7 pounds 2 ounces, so that's great. He's ahead of where he needs to be, which is good since he was so skinny. His chicken legs are starting to fill out finally. Anyway, more about the treasure uncovered in the backyard in the next update. Enjoy!

Sissi's backyard

My first guest blogger, I'm so excited!!

Okay, between being "forced" to play with Zach ;), the state capital for school meetings and teen-sitting, my poor house has been abandoned. Since I signed up for a 30 year mortgage, though, my thought is that I am going to have plenty of time to work at it and on it. However, Dad has been faithfully plugging away the past two weeks without me. Below are the results of his efforts.

Before working on the patio it looked like this:

Tuesday it was such a nice day I got distracted from the painting inside and was looking around for a place outside to sand a door when I tripped over the patio. Some 9 hours later I had found the patio as well as areas to plant flowers.

But after dinner I started to shovel out the entrance to the patio and found down 4-6 inches under the dirt and roots a brick sidewalk that extends to the corner of the house: Notice the before photos don't show any evidence of it. The sidewalk appears to have been buried for decades.

We Interrupt This Blog for a Baby!!

Zachary David, son of Fel & Jon, was born at 10:49 am on October 12, 2009. He weighs in at 6 pounds 10 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. Mom, Dad and baby are doing great!!!

Latest Edition

That's it! I'm officially quitting my day job and starting life as a lead singer for a cover band. I cannot tell you how fabulous I sound when I'm wailing away to my iPhone while working. I'm telling you, I think I've missed my calling! (Just FYI, I can also dance really well while working.) It's a sight and sound to be behold, let me tell you!

Aside from the wonderful entertainment, things have been slowly turning around at the house. Bit by bit it's finally starting to look like a home, not a scary insane asylum, it's former occupation! I've attached several pictures in loo of a long blog today. Hey, they say a picture's worth a thousand words, which means this is one of the longest blogs ever! 7,000 words at current count!

The new knobs are featured in the first picture. There was a moment of frustration at first. The original holes are too small by about a 1/4 of an inch all the way around. So, after dragging out several tools, the dremmel won out. (I would just like to point out that removing the bits from the dremmel is counter-intuitive! Instead of lefty-loosie, it's right-tighty to UNDO the bit!) After sanding out the hole, I put the knob in and it didn't fit! The backset wasn't right! What the hey?!?! NOOOOOOO!!!! Oh, wait, I put it in wrong. Quickly Dad, Marc, was able to set it right and as you can see, it looks fabulous and even makes the filthy door look good!

The next picture is a shot of the crazy living room. Instead of a relaxing gathering place, it's become a storage closet, painting station, toolbox and general dumping ground. I know that one room has to have that desig nation, but I was sure hoping it would be the garage, not the living room. I guess I would have to have a garage though to make that work.

The next two pictures feature the master bedroom. Notice the fabu paper blinds that cover the windows. A steal at $5 each at Home Depot and from the curb you'd be hard pressed to call it paper. Now, the real scene stealers are the new electrical devices featured. Notice the gorgeous new ceiling fan, one of my great deals, and the new outlets. I know, new outlets, what's the big deal right? Let me tell you, they're a huge deal! It means no more running around looking for the little adapter thingy (I'm sure that's the official name.) that lets you plug in a grounded plug.) If you're confused, check out this quick electrical lesson here: http://www.howstuffworks.com/question110.htm The old 2 prong outlets didn't have a ground, which could result in a nasty shock. The way things are going, it was only a matter of time until one of got it good! Thanks to Dad and Sara's hard work, the plugs are now safe and shock risk has been minimized.

Office paint shows off my office and it's lovely array of drywall. Please also note my fabulous cutting in job! Thank heavens for crown moulding, that's all I can say! It covers up most, if not all of my sins. I would also like to point out that you should be willing to take chances on paint colors in rooms. It's just paint and all in all, it's $40 and if you really hate it, cover it up. Several people told me that they were surprised at how much they liked the wall color in the office. They thought they were going to hate it and ended up really liking it. (They were sweet enough to keep the comments about not liking it to themselves until it was up.)

The final two pictures are of the master (green) bath. One features the new shower and faucet combo and the other is of the stripped vanity. I had to peel off layers of paint, both latex and oil using a heat gun and a putty knife. Didn't learn about the paint scraper until the job was done. Oops. While it didn't come off perfectly, I was able to sand it down and remove the rest of the paint blotches and knife dings. I guess that's why people build things out of real wood instead of fake junk...

Anyway, I need to get going. I've been working on trying to get my grades to post for the first grade reporting period and I might as well be nailing jello to a wall! At least I think I'd have much more success that way! I'll let you know if I ever get my lawn mowed or the bedroom door finally refinished...