There’s only so many hours in one weekend, and, unfortunately, I only have weekends home. We painted all of the dark color (Carob Chip – a dark chocolate raspberry color) and primed all of the trim. We’ll be painting the trim a very light beige, but didn’t have a chance to do that this weekend. Priming and taping took a lot of time. (Why, oh WHY did we not do this while we had Leah? She was free child labor!)
Behold the mid-painting pictures:
This weekend we’re finally getting some actual, visable work done on the kitchen. The bathroom has been in a state of in-progress for a very long time, and I’ve harbored much loathing for the clownish kitchen colors since we bought the house. Behold the before (there was some test painting going on, but you can see what it looked like before – the green and red):
Here are some random (and I’m not kidding when I say random) photos from the few days it’s been since I blogged. (sorry, no fun stories this time)
David got a few things done around the house. He fixed the trash can. It’s one of those with a pedal, and the pedal hasn’t been lifting the lid. It’s been like this for a month or so, and I was STILL stepping on that pedal. He finally fixed it for me and it works like a dream. Yeah, coat hangers and electrical tape:
He also mowed. It was time:
We’re trying to teach Jake to fetch (consistently). He’s got the idea – we throw, he retrieves – but he gets tired of it after two throws. On the third, he settles down to chew whatever it is we’ve thrown:
We went to Elayne’s second wedding (to the same guy). They were married quickly and rather privately in March because his visa was expiring and he didn’t want to leave her to go back to Colombia. They had their [already planned] and big wedding this past weekend. Elayne and her dad:
On the way home, the clouds were crazy interesting:
And… the ongoing saga of the bathrooms. So, here’s what the paint looked like when we moved in (it’s HORRIBLE):
And here’s David mixing paint just before we painted the room a solid, non-barf-inducing color:
Dave at the window, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.
I’m visiting my parents in Waynesboro, and I’ve left my husband home alone for a week. Hopefully, David will spend some time in this particular location while I’m in PA. =)
(hint, hint, D!)
wet, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.
Our once lush and green backyard has turned into a muddy wasteland. Between the “huge” snowstorm’s snow (1 or 2 inches) and several days’ worth of freezing and regular rain, this is what I see when I look out over the backyard. It’s gonna be worse in a couple of days – it’s supposed to rain today AND tomorrow. Ugh. Our basement is starting to be wet.
disintegration, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.
Tonight, Dave started setting up to work on the bathroom – he poured some of the stripper into a styrofoam bowl. Within 30 seconds, this is what remained of the bowl. So… note to us. Paper is the way to go.
wood, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.
We’ve got a lot of work to do in our house, so we try to chip away at it as best we can amidst our busy schedules. One of our biggest projects has been/is to redo the downstairs bathroom.
When we moved in, every piece of wood in the bathroom was painted a bright (ugly) gold color. In the rest of the house (with the exception of the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom) , the wood was already stripped and refinished. These old houses have such amazing wood that I can’t fathom why someone would EVER paint over it.
We have started the process of refinishing the wood in the bathroom. Tonight, after coming home from dinner at David’s folks’ house, we spend an hour stripping and scraping.
This is a picture of some of the amazing wood grain we’ve uncovered.
What a great weekend. =)
Dad and David are upstairs working on a small room/big closet we’ll be using for a library. We inherited this project from the house’s previous owners – heretofore, this room has been closed-off and unused. Now that my dad’s here, though, the boys are making this a liveable, useable space. These guys started off with an unfloored, barely insulated, plastic-covered mess, and are slowly but surely turning it into a real room. I’ll post more pictures as they get farther along in the process.
I stayed home and am working from the dining room table today. David is playing DDR and the floor, the chair I’m sitting in, the table, my computer – all are vibrating in rhythm with the songs David’s jumping around to. =)
In other news, we’ve joined Angie’s List and are busy getting electricians to come give us estimates. We’ve got a long list of things we’d like to have done, but it turns out that electricians are pretty dang expensive. We’ve narrowed the list down to three must-haves, but are still going to get estimates on the rest.
The neat thing about Angie’s List (angieslist.com, if you don’t know about it) is that we can not only review what folks think about various contractors and the work they do (members leave reports on all the work they get done and all the companies they’ve dealt with), but we also get discounts when they do come to do the work. And, turns out, if we mention that we saw them on Angie’s List, they’re really responsive. Quick to do estimates, quick to schedule work. It’s as if they’re teachers who are being observed by their principals – they’re on their best behavior because they know they’re going to be reviewed and critiqued, and that the report will be available for all the city to see.
I feel… powerful. =)
Staying in touch with my scattered-far-and-wide family.
Things I’m Reading… Sites I’m Visiting…
