Subtle Changes

Well, it's been a whirlwind two days of work, culminating in a sore booty and swollen hands. It's a small price to pay for new doors, installed baseboards, a less smelly fridge and a recognizable guest room. Dad came up from Houston in and around shifts to help me take care of a million little things. It's the little things that finish a room, but it's also the little things that will cause you to drink excessive amounts and spin around in a room pulling your hair out! (Not necessarily in that order!!!) He worked on getting the upper shelves of my ClosetMaid Selectives closet organizer installed (plug for Uncle Bri!) While he was cutting and measuring, I second and first coated the hall closets. (Yes it was in that order. One closet had already been coated once by my SIL Jes.)

As I was sitting on the floor inside the closet painting the walls next to the door, I was considering my logic in painting a wall no one can see. Then, as your mind is want to do during jobs such as painting the inside of closets, it started to wander. And then I was thinking, what if one day, long after I was gone, someone had to hide from the bad guys in that closet. And what if their last thought in life wasn't of their family or loved ones, but instead of the fact that whoever owned the house before them never painted the inside of the closet??? I simply couldn't let that happen. Therefore I had to paint the inside of the closet and thus my ponytail in the process. (Okay, I confess, I've been watching Criminal Minds a lot lately. Great show, but spooks the heck out of me and keeps me awake at night! But it's addictive and I can't turn it off!!!!)

Okay, enough with the morbid thoughts, onto baseboards. Oh wait, I was thinking some morbid thoughts while doing those darn things!! First of all, let me explain a few things. I picked a really pretty, 5 1/2 inch tall baseboard made of MDF. Medium Density Fiberboard for those wondering. It's flat on the bottom 4 inches and then has a lovely curved piece at the top. Unfortunately, this curved part, combined with my fabulous "square" walls/slab, note the sarcasm, means that all corners aren't simply a matter of 45 degree cuts. Instead each piece has to be cut on a 45 degree angle and then coped back. No, my baseboards don't sit and talk to a therapist about coping with their life. Instead, you take a VERY thin saw and cut off the excess behind the pretty front of the baseboard. If you're totally confused, I recommend googling this old house coping baseboard. Bob Villa I ain't! After tons of this tedious work, a very patient Marc and me cursing the man who originally built the house and it's completely un-level slab, we have the results shown in the pictures. I must admit, I love the look!!!



One of the biggest jobs that we did this week was installing the new front and carport doors. (The back door was already replaced by Brant and Terry last month and greatly appreciated!!) When we removed the decorative trim out from around the old doors, the entire jamb fell out onto the floor. Anyone notice a problem with that? There were NO nails, screws, glues, anything holding the door jamb to the walls of the house except for the piddly trim. Hmmm, wonder about the safety of that!! Fear not now, there are a TON of 3" exterior screws now holding the doors and the hinges in place.

The sore booty came in response to the fact that I have no upper body strength! In order to drive the screws into the pre-drilled holes, I had to do a deep squat and lay on the drill. I apologize now to the entire town of Brenham for having to see me in that position!!! My SIL Jess came into town to help and among other things graciously painted the wall color around the door before we put the trim on. I just realized that I didn't shoot the door from that side, but now you'll have something to look forward to in the next blog!!

One of the biggest jobs I completed solo this week was to scrub out the entire fridge from top to bottom with bleach and simple green. This resulted in a sparkling clean fridge that no longer smelled like fish, yuck, but also resulted in sore hands from holding the scrub brush. The fridge, under a minor layer of stickiness, is actually a gem. When new it was apparently a top line model that I was blessed enough to pick up for a steal at $100.





This is a new gadget from Uncle Jeff in Colorado that came down on the last Purvis express jet. It's a organizing bin that the Container Store would be thrilled with. Don't let the lack of labels fool you, all of the little bins are full, with more items waiting. The lack of labels comes from the fact that I have no idea what the difference is between the screws/nails/wall anchors/wire nuts/s-hooks/cup hooks etc. are.

Again, while working with everything, my mind wandered and for those who know me, I went directly to where in the world these names came from. For example why is a 16 penny nail, a 16 penny nail? What makes wire certain gauges? Who was the person who decided that a 1 gauge was a 1 gauge? Why does wire get thinner the bigger the number? Do nails go the same direction? Big number = small nail? These are the things that keep my mind busy at night... On that note, I'm sure there are tons that I've left off, but I will have to cover it on the next edition. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!!

Update

Good Evening, or Morning depending on when you read this-

I know it's been a while since I've updated and no, while I LOVE spending time with Zach, it's not his fault. As anyone who has ever done anything on their house knows, money is finite and I found that out the hard way. Anyway, money ran out, kaput, nada, zilch, zero and as any industrious young (ha!) woman would do I found a way to solve the problem. Actually, it was my mom's idea and huge helping hand that got me headed in the right direction. We decided to have a garage sale and knock out several birds with one stone. While I've been relatively satisfied with my storage company, I would love to end my 7 year relationship with them soon! Anyway, I started the task of going through tubs that haven't been cracked open in years. Seriously, what was I smoking when I bought some of these things?!?!?

Jon and Felicia cleared out their old office, closets and barn and Mom emptied a couple of years of garage sale items out of the bathroom. (I know, odd place to store them, but if you rip out the tub, there is a ton of room in there.) Aside from having to give up attending my staff Christmas party, it was a great weekend and a great sale. We made almost $300, which considering the weather (cold and raining) and the fact that the Cubs were playing the state semi-finals (We WON!!) was an awesome accomplishment. It was truly a blessed garage sale!

As soon as the sale was over and I had regained feeling in all of my extremities (did I mention it was COLD?) I headed to Sutherland's and Home Depot to purchase baseboards, crown moulding and paint. Not to worry, I did have some money left, but not much!

While I was out an about making my purchases, Mom called to let me know that a lady we knew had their fridge on sale on our version of Craigslist for $100. Boom, in one swift move, there went all of the rest of my money. Granted, I wanted/needed a fridge and to get one from someone that I knew and trusted was another blessing. So, after some batting of eyelashes and pleading, Dav & Jes, and Jon & Fel (Zach too, but he really didn't have an option...) agreed to give up their Sunday to help me install (and pick-up) my new purchases. After some grunting and a couple of "darns" my new black side-by-side fridge has been picked up from Old Baylor, hauled to town, lifted out of the truck and installed in my "kitchen." I use the term kitchen loosely seeing as it's currently more of a "stud room." (Now taking applications for cute guys to stand around in my "stud" room!)

We got both the office and the guestroom final coated, my bedroom door closing, high-boy drawers lined, closets and closet shelves painted and several other small jobs taken care of. Nothing spectacular or obvious, but all jobs that had to be taken care before I can move the furniture out of storage or I can move into the house.

Now all I need to do is get the floor stained, trim sanded and painted, doors stripped and installed (love liquid sander!) floor second coated, furniture moved and placed, door framed out, and a couple of other things. So, is anyone else exhausted by that list???? Speaking of exhausted, I have to meet Zach and his mom and dad at Burton High at 7:15. I better start getting ready to head to bed or I'll never be on time! Yeah I know, rarely am I on time, but I still put forth the effort to try! If you're in education, have a great rest of your week, remember just 4 more days! If not, just remember that it's almost Christmas! Fun with family and friends and a legitimate reason to stuff your face beyond reason with fabulous food! Have a great holiday!!