Blurred Vision

Between training class, homework, painting, visiting family, and just pure exhaustion I have been quite the blog slacker.

My bad!

I don't ever mean to slack off this much, but one day turns into 3, which becomes 5 and then before I know it, it's been a week and a half with no blogging!! Holy goodness!

This week, McStudly and I vowed to do absolutely nothing beyond what was absolutely necessary. Needless to say, we've only been doing dishes in the Puhl household. We worked so stinking hard the last couple of weeks that we are pooped! So this week has been relaxing, catching up on our backlog of tv shows (our poor DVR was at 96%, which I didn't think was possible), eating yummy meals at home again (after eating out so much due to our rush), and just enjoying each other's company.

It's been so nice. It's already Thursday and I am SO glad we've spent most of the week relaxing. We didn't get everything done that we wanted to before his mom got into town, but we were close! I know I'll be forgetting something, but here's a quick version of what we did in just 2 weeks:

- prime everything

- paint living room

- paint kitchen

- paint spare bedroom

- catch up on laundry that's WAY overdue

- new faceplates on all outlets and switches (except in the master bedroom)

- fresh paint on window sills and doorways in the kitchen and living room

- switch up a bit of the decor for fall (and to go with the new orange wall)

- dust EVERYthing (also long overdue)

- vacuum everywhere

- BIG bathroom clean downstairs

- TOTAL bathroom wipe-down upstairs (again - long overdue, but our toilet is kept clean, I'm not that gross!)

- dressers de-cluttered

- kitchen table de-cluttered (it collected quite the random mix while we were getting all of this work down around the house)

And, as is with any Puhl House remodelling project, we ran into a few setbacks along the way (thankfully, there was no need to call the Home Owners Insurance this time around):

- primer was spilled on the carpet (have I mentioned how clumsy I am?!). We had to stop everything we were doing to clean that junk up... scrub. Rent a rug doctor from the local grocery store (thank goodness someone had thought of that) and steam the rest of that mess outta there. Luckily, we acted fast and furious and you can't tell ANYthing was spilled, now - SCORE!

- Austin, our McPup, was spending one of our paint days over at my parents' house with Luke, their Labrador, frolicking through the backyard care free. Well, apparently something either bit him or somehow infected him, because he came home with a bump on his side. We checked him for ticks, and found nothing. Then, a week later, the hair feel off on that spot. Eek! Then it seemed like it was getting a little bigger. I took him to the vets immediately and they thought it may be something as simple as ringworm and gave me some ointment to put on his boo boo twice daily. It seems to be helping a little, and I think the hair is finally starting to grow back, BUT the samples they took turned out negative for ringworm. Who knows what it was! He never really reacted to us touching it or anything, but I'm glad he's finally getting better. My poor little puppy!

- I bought some white touch-up paint for the ceiling and trim and such. Well, I didn't pay a ton of attention and accidentally bought sating finish, instead of flat. Needless to say, the ceiling now has a few shiny spots. It's a little weird, but it's only temporary. I finally bought some flat paint and we'll be fixing that oopsie pretty soon. Nice, huh?!

- I bought the wrong size blinds for our windows. :-( My bad. Luckily Lowes is awesome and I just returned them for the right ones, but it was still a bummer, for sure!

- We didn't even think to check for the studs in the wall when putting up the curtain rods. Let's just say it ended up not happening, and we now have 4 new holes to patch and paint over. Awesome, right? yeah... we didn't think so either. And we're way tired of our nosy neighbor looking into our house through our deck door. Creeper!!

We still have a little bit of work to do, like painting the trim and window sills in the spare bedroom, and replacing all of the outlets and switches (we ended up just putting the faceplates on the old ugly ones to save time last week). And the blinds and curtains need to be hung, too, so we'll have to get that taken care of sometime, too, I guess.

Basically, a TON has been done, but there'e still a lot left to do. I will leave you, today with pictures of our yucky old green kitchen. It looks like green threw up in there because it was EVERYwhere! Way too much green, and not the nice pretty green, either. Check it:

Home - Pt. 1

It's where we live. Where we're making memories. Where we fight. Where we make up. Where we laugh. Where we cry. Where we learn. Where we build our life.

It's home.

And I've been saying for SUCH a long time, now, that I would take you on a tour of our home, but I've been slacking. Well, I FINALLY remembered to get the "before" pictures from my Big Sister and I can FINALLY show you! I know you're just tingling with excitement, so here we go.

Reminder: this is what the house looked like the day we moved in, so there's nothing... no furniture, not nothing and that HIDEOUS wallpaper got pulled down OH so fast!! So - feel free to comment on how tacky everything looks, okay? I will not be offended in the least. And then later on at some point, I'll show you some of the little progress we've made. :-)

So today we'll start with the hideous main full bathroom. Oh. Em. Gee. It's horrendous. Are you sure you're ready for this?

This is the view from our bedroom entrance. *shivers*

From the hallway entrance.

You see that lovely splash of color sitting on the back of the toilet? Yep - that's the wallpaper's MATCHING shower curtain. *gag*

SO that's that. Home not-so-sweet home. It's MUCH sweeter now, of course, but... we'll get to that later. I'll be showing more of our home over the next few days, so stay tuned!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And guess what - I WON!!! Mrs. Stethoscope's giveaway, that is. Free food! I like never win giveaways. I am SO stoked, you have NO idea. Go check it out so you can be jealous of me and my awesome cookies. Yumm-O!!

Uh Oh Bunny!

I'm glad I didn't write this post yesterday. Why? Because yesterday, I was INFURIATED!!





... and that's putting it mildly...





You know how there are times when you get upset and it almost seems like you're yelling at someone that's not even the problem? Like, you're talking to your husband about what happened practically knocking him over because you're SO worked up over it, but it's not even his fault?



Poor McStudly.



That's how I was on the phone with him yesterday as he was filling me in...







As many of you know, we've been having a teeny (ha!) bit of work done around the house, lately, due to "The Incident". Well, said work around the house, though stressful at times (meaning like 95% of the time, but who's counting?!) has been slowly progressing.



Yesterday morning, the painters arrived. It was finally starting to feel like things were getting done! We picked out this grey-beige color for the Master Bedroom, a color called "biscuit" for the hallway/stairway, and a color for the living room that they aren't actually painting... bu we got a little carried away. *bats eyelashes*



It was FINALLY happening! That BLUE (not "blue"... "BLUE!") color on our bedroom walls was finally going to be g-o-n-e, and those awful, sorry-excuse-for-a-patch-job spots weer going to disappear under our fresh coat. Gone forever!





Alas, things are never so simple.





I talk to McStudly around Noon-ish, and he informs me that me much anticipated bedroom color looks like a lavender purple color instead. *sigh* But maybe it'll go away aw it dries... our bathroom color looked pink while we were painting, but now hasn't the tiniest hint of pink in it. So I remained hopeful.



On my way to Physical Therapy, I talk to him again. He was now returning how where the painters were gone for the day.





Lord help us all... I wish I had pictures.







DISCLAIMER: I am well aware of the fact that some of this may sound petty. It's stuff that's very easy for me to get over, and, in fact, and not nearly as tiffed about today as I was yesterday. But the fact of the matter is that these people are professionals. They do this stuff for a living. They were subcontracted out to paint, and so you'd think they would do a good, professional job of that, right? So this is where the majority of my frustration comes in, and some things may seem a bit forgivable. But for someone who's lived in a pathetic mess of a house for almost a month... I am ready for this to be over, and I anticipate those involved to do a thorough job!







McStudly arrives home to find trash left on our floor. No... not typical "we just painted your house" trash - I mean they left their candy bar wrappers and lunch trash ON OUR FLOOR! Yeah... that's just super professional, now, isn't it?



It gets better. And I'll even say it slowly for you, so you can really get the full effect.





There. Is. Paint. On. Our. Hardwood. Kitchen. Floor!!





There were spots of paint in at LEAST 10 places on the floor. I stopped counting then, because that's when I found paint on our STAINLESS STEEL trashcan. You know - one of those $130 ones that you buy at Bed Bath & Beyond so that your insanely curious dog can't get it open?



Yeah. That one.



FYI - the ONLY thing they even PAINTED downstairs was the ceiling. It's not like they had to maneuver around all of this furniture or anything...



Oh yeah. All of our furniture was left in a pile on TOP of each other in the middle of the living room floor. No, that's okay. We don't LIVE here, or anything. We can just sit right on TOP of our PAINTING!





So let's take a walk upstairs, shall we?



*this one is my fault*



My bedroom color is purple. There's no getting around it. It looks like it's about to be turned into a friggin' baby girl's nursery!! Oy that sucks. So McStudly and I will be painting our Cathedral bedroom ourselves, this time...





... this is where we continue even more...



There's no clean line. I mean, you know that clean line you expect from professional painters? Where there's a clean distinction between wall and ceiling? Or, heck, wall and baseboard? Yeah. Not there. It's on the ceiling, the baseboards... it's very... umm... purple in there.





But don't worry, they painted the top half of our LIGHT SWITCH to match it!



That pretty nice little touch-pad that can turn the fan up and down, as well as dimming the light? Yeah... they got friggin' paint on that too... and the electrical sockets. So don't worry - it may be purple, but at LEAST it's coordinated?!?!





And it's a freaking good thing we're getting new carpet, cause there's paint on the floor up there, too... in several places.





My favorite part? You ready for it?



You remember that brand new bedroom furniture that we bought just a few months back? Yeah. You guessed it - paint on the edge of the headboard and along the mirror on the dresser (at least it appears they were nice enough to at least attempt to wipe it off for us).





How thoughtful. *blank stare*





And... there's paint splattered on the glass of one of the bedroom windows.







I'm just so irritated!!!





So this morning, one of the guys returned to finish the job - you know, paint the hallway, etc. We didn't say anything to him - because he was kind've strange. OH... I TOTALLY forgot to mention what happened with him the first day. But let's just say that my dog apparently could moonlight as a drug dog, cause this dude WAY smelled he just smoked a doobie, and Austin did NOT appreciate that (nor did I!). But what can you say to someone like that? I'm not all that intimidating in person. Over the phone I can hash it out with the best of them, but when they look at me, I lose all momentum.



Anywho - he returned this morning to finish the job (minus the mary-j cologne, this time). But we discovered why my bedroom may look purple -





He started painting the hallway... MINUS PRIMER! He never primed it! Remember how dark my blue walls were? No WONDER it looks purple. youfrigginidiots





Needless to say, the minute he walks out of my house today (McStudly's supposed to call me) I will be calling the company that subcontracted to them.







UNACCEPTABLE!!





So go ahead. Let me have it. I know some of that was completely ridiculous, but the camel can only hold so much straw - eventually... even the lightest littlest feather can break it.





And I'm pretty sure I had a LOT of feather weighing that puppy down!





*******



So I need advice - what would you do? what would you have done during the painting? What should I have done differently, or what should I say when I call the main contractors?

Slackie McSlackerpants

I know... I know. I've been super busy!



The Grandparents' Visit:



They're gone, now, but it was SO great to have them in town. McStudly and I felt horrible that the house was such an awful mess while they were here, but we still had a good time with them. I took off work early a few of the afternoons so that we could spend some time together and it was lovely!



We went to downtown Annapolis and got some yummy Ice Cream. Walked around the docks and just relaxed in the beautiful weather. We also took Grandma out to dinner for her birthday on Tuesday. Happy birthday!!



McStudly was able to spend a lot of quality one-on-two time with them (haha) and it was really good for him to be able to catch up as much as they did. They'll be back in the area in a few more weeks for the results of the testing that brought them into town in the first place, and hopefully by then we'll have a nice put-together house for them to stay in. At least that's what we're aiming for! :-)





The House:



Speaking of the house, it's still in the same condition that it was last week. Carpet chunks missing. A walkway of bathroom rungs along the floors And I still can't walk around without shoes on, for fear of hurting my tootsies. No fun! But we at least have the companies lined up to do the work. One of them has already completed their estimate and are waiting to hear back from the insurance company to get to work, and the other should be coming out to make an estimate sometime this week, we believe.



Keep praying for us - having the house the way it is has proven quite stressful, and allows for Austin to constantly be getting into things. Ugh!! Hopefully this will all be over soon, and we'll be better off than we were before "the incident". ;-)





Youth Convention:



The trip to Virginia with the church's youth group proved to be quite an adventure. You get that big of a group of hormonal little humans together and there's bound to be some kind of drama. All in all, though, it was a lot of fun. I got to know some of the students a little better and think I built a little more of a relationship with them...



And a few of the girls seemed to really enjoy getting to meet "Bon Qui Qui". (my version of the Bon Qui Qui from that old MADtv skit. If you haven't seen Bon Qui Qui and King Burger, then you definitely need to check it out: "Esscuze me?! Don't you see dat I'm havin a convuhsation? Don't innarupt. Rude!" Oh... good times).



I have to admit, though - during the concert on Saturday, by The Afters, they did a little mini-Beyonce. No really. They started going "Alllll the single ladies..." and yes... they did it. And it's been stuck in my head ever since!!



The kids especially liked how I knew the little dance she did. I don't think they expected that. "Sarah, you are not white!" (I think that was supposed to be a compliment? Any other thoughts?!) We were laughing... and I was just a dancin' fool. It was good times, though. When you're sleep deprived and surrounded by teenagers, you tend to do some crazy things, that's for sure!!



We all got back in one piece, and there wasn't too too much drama to speak of. Thank the LORD!







Anything/Everything else:



Not much else is going on. The NFL draft is over, and Dallas drafted a WR from Oklahoma. That's the perfect mix of our favorite teams. Cowboys and Sooners... what a combination! :-)







And I almost forgot!!! A little over a year ago, My Dog Ate My Phone. No really... I'm not even kidding you. It was ruined. It was my favorite phone ever!! I got the original EnV before it was cool. AND it was orange. I LOVED that phone!! For real, man! But after the dog ate it, since I didn't have insurance on it (I know... I know: ALWAYS buy insurance!), we couldn't afford to pay full retail price for any of the Verizon phones (do you know how inSANEly expensive they are at full retail price. It's riDONKulous!). So I bought my Pap Bear's old Pocket PC (which I hated, btw) and used that until McStudly got a new phone. Then I used Mcstudly's old phone...



...until YESTERDAY!!!!!



I FINALLY got a new phone! And I LOVE my new Blackberry Storm. It really is awesome. I never tend to pay $200 (thanks to my two-year agreement) on a cell phone, but after going a year and a half with old hand-me-down phones, and not liking ANY of them, McStudly and I both thought that I had earned it.



We thought that we could do the whole "Buy-one, Get-one-Free" deal that they were having and get him a new phone as well, since he's not crazy about his Dare, but there's a catch (if course) to that deal. You have to either be adding a new line, or have both phones up for an upgrade. Since neither of those applied to us, my McStud will have to stick to his only one-year-old phone for another year until it's his turn.



But for now, here she is:

Meet Hally. (As in Berry - as in Blackberry... see? I'm pretty creative, I am I am.)

Isn't she pretty? I LOVE it! So far I have yet to figure out how, but I am also allowed to put songs onto my phone from my computer.. and don't worry, I DEFinitely bought insurance on this lil' lady. I am SO not playing that again! That'll save some money on not having to download ring tones, eh? :-)

And it really is neat how the screen clicks. *sigh* Yay for Verizon's two-year renewal agreements!! Soon I'll be purchasing a little silicone case-age for her as well. Probably pink. Of course... cause Pink, like Berry? I know... I'm awesome. :-P

Well, that about updates you on most things. How are things with you guys? I'm trying my best to catch up with everyones' blogs. I can't believe I went so long without reading/writing anything.

How did I EVER manage?

Gettin' Down to Business

So after calling the Insurance company Thursday evening, we had QUITE the quick response. Our Adjuster called McStudly Friday afternoon, and they had someone at our house Saturday morning.

They came in and we quickly discovered that the damage was even worse than previously thought. I'm SO glad we called them!! So we signed a few papers, wrote a check for $250 (thank GOD I set our deductible as low as possible), and they got to work. And by work, I mean they began wreaking havoc on my poor little house. :-(


BUT... there's a little twist in our story - Do you want to good news first, or the bad news?


Okay, fine. We'll start with the bad news and get it out of the way.


They brought in these mega jumbo-fans to "dry out" the house. In our tiny little two level, 2 bedroom 1.5 bath townhome, we are the current foster parents of 9 of these bad boys... AND two huge-mongous dehumidifiers that seem to have the power to suck the blood RIGHT out of my body, through my nose, of course. ...stupid little devilish heaven-forsaken pieces of you know WHAT!! *gathering my wits*

We were told we had to keep these puppies on for 3 days. 3 FRIGGIN DAYS!! *sigh* So they've been on. And let me just say how much sleep I got the first night: 0 hrs. 0 minutes. and possibly about 27 seconds. Yeah... NADA!! I tried going to the spare bedroom, the only haven I currently have in this place. Nope. Didn't work. I went downstairs to sleep on the couch. Nothing. Okay - that is where I finally got the 27 seconds of sleep. Oh Emm GEE!! I was a BASKET CASE that next morning (just ask McStudly... he'll tell you, I'm sure). ha ha


Anywho - the bad news is shown here:


The giganto-hole in our ceiling to dry out the rafters.

The lack of carpet where my dining room once lived.



Our new dining room table??



Beautiful new bedroom/hallway flooring technique.



Our successfully remodelled bathroom - the entryway.



A sidewalk in my bedroom??



Papa dehumidifier dwarfing the size of our bathroom.



The newly remodelled bathroom, sink-top decor.



At least they left the throne in for us.



Yeah... very child friendly, eh?



One of the foster children at play. (This one's name is Moe)



Stanley counting to 10 before going to find the others.



So, yeah - that's the bad news. It's ugly. It's giving me a headache (literally... all the Claritan and Excedrin in the world cannot work as well as just leaving my house, right now. It's totally ridic!


Howev', there is a bit of a silver lining, and then the good news. Are you ready for it??


Silver Lining:

We finally got the spare bedroom organized!! If I had a before picture, you'd be thrilled. It looked like one of those storage places you can rent month-to month and put whatever you want in it. Seriously. It was so stressful that we only ever went in there to get Austin in and out of his crate. That was it. It. Was. Awful.

Although it's not "finished", it is SO many leaps beyond what it was (sorry... forgot to take before pictures!). So, now it looks like this:


Our pretty new futon that took a degree in Rocket Science to put together.



The desk that was left with the house... eventually we'll move the TV onto an entertainment stand and actually use this baby for our computer... but that's down the road a bit, since for now we have a laptop.



That fun shiny spot on the closet door (which hides all of our boxes and other things until the attic is done) is where the previous owners thought they could "touch up" the off-white doors with white primer. *sigh*



This is currently my FAVorite spot in the house. Seriously... and a copy of "Adam" by Ted Dekker - the book I plan to start reading as soon as I can get a minute to relax! And yes, we are OU fans - GO SOOOONERRSS!!!




The Good News:

I know this is what you've been waiting for, so I'll get right down to it. Because of the little mis-hap, those guys came in Saturday morning and started firing off all kinds of what-if's and kinda-sorta-maybe's and were very nice to answer any questions we had. Well, they started out by telling us that they had to remove the padding from under the carpeting, because it was have to be replaced, to avoid molding, etc. Fine by me. And I just through in a "If you want to take the carpet, too... by all means, you will not be breaking my heart!"

This carpet that came with the house is nasty!! It's got this dark ring all around the edges of the rooms and it's not quite the color it was originally (thanks for Mrs. Smoker that sold it to us). We thought we'd try, ya know? But the guys told us that "unless there is furniture stains, from the water, or delamination under the carpetting, we can't replace it. But I'll see what I can do to work with you all..." Whatever that means...

A friend of mine (Thanks Renee!!) came over to help me load up the Escape and make a dump and Goodwill run. When we returned... that's when I got the awesome news!!!

The carpet had to be replaced. WOOHOO!!! Apparently there was delamination (???) and they had to cut out the carpeting (as you could see in the pictures). And since they cut out the carpeting, they have to replace the ENTIRE bedroom, the ENTIRE hallway, and the ENTIRE 1st floor's carpet. SCORE!!! So basically, we are getting all new carpeting for only $250!! .

And That's not all - We can pay the difference and have them replace the carpet on the stairs as well, but if the carpet that they find won't match what's already on the stairs, they have to replace it for us for FREE!! So that's what we're hoping for... but if we can't get that, we'll bite the bullet and pay the difference.

That ooogly laminate flooring in the bathroom? Yeah, we had planned on eventually tiling and whatever whatever. Well, they have to replace the laminate in there, now. SO - instead of having them put in new laminate, we can just pay the difference in cost, buy the tile, and have them tile it for us. SCORE AGAIN!!!


So that's awesome, right? One little "oopsie" (little is DEFinitely an understatement...) by McStudly and we get new carpet, new tile, new baseboards, and a freshly painted 1st floor ceiling all for only $250 and some change. How sweet is that?? Yeah - I'm pretty stoked. Or at least I will be once it's all said and done with.


So for now, McStudly's grandparents are staying with us starting tonight and they've already seen the damage to the house. They're so laid back they just laughed and said it was fine. "We've lived in worse. Don't even worry about it!" How great are they? *sigh*

So I'll keep you updated on the status of things, and let you know how it all turns out. They probably won't start doing any of this stuff until the grandparents leave on Thursday. Until then, we'll keep relying on our bathroom-rug walkway (you can see in the above pictures) and looking forward to finally turning these beasts off Tuesday afternoon.


Oh!! I almost forgot to tell you!! Since they are going to tile the bathroom for us, and the new vanity we planned to purchase down the road will be a full two-sink vanity, not this weird on with the open area underneath, we're going to go ahead, bit the bullet, and buy the new vanity and sink-top as well. Just get it over and done with already!! We'll definitely be taking a BIIIIGG break from ANY home remodelling in the near future once all of this is finally completed, but our house will definitely be a-buzzin' for the next week or two. THAT is pretty much all we can count on at this point.




Well, that's the update on the whole sitiation (pr: sit-chee-AY-shun). What do you think? Wanna sign up and do one of those "house swap" type-a deals? No? Well you're sure missing out!


Catch you guys later. Toodles! :-)

April Showers

I almost don't even know where to begin. If I seem a little spotty, please forgive me. My mind is in about 5 gazillion places, right now.

*sigh


So as many of you know, we've been doing some home-remodelling lately. We've hit bump after bump in the road, but things were finally progressing. So imagine, if you will, that we've finally taken about 5 steps forward. Well... now think 8 steps back.


My Husband has been living the "Manly Man" dream in wanting to do things himself. I'm not allowed to do them, but it's not due to any fact other than he just wants to be able to do it. Fine. Whatever. I've got PLENTY of other things to do around the house...


Yesterday, McStudly had plans to install the new light into our bathroom. That's fine, but I couldn't keep myself from worrying - so I called.

Honey, I know you're going to laugh at me, but I just have to say it - please don't forget to turn the breaker off before you install the new light.

*sarcastic silence*

"Babe. Seriously. I'm not stupid."

Okay - that's fine. I just had to say it. Laugh at me if you want, but I feel better.

(end of conversation)



Well, apparently it shouldn't have been... in installing the new light, he ran into a bit of a snag and had to make a home-depot run in order to take care of it. While at the Home Depot, he decided to go ahead and purchase a new shut-off valve for the water supply to our new toilet, since the old one was, well, old and needed to be replaced anyways.

Upon arriving home, he decides to switch jobs and install the new shut-off valve instead. (Some of you probably see what's coming. Unfortunately, I didn't know what he was doing, or I would've said... well... you'll figure it out)

He starts taking off the old valve and SQQWOOOOSSHHSHHHSHHSHHSHHHHHSHHSHHSHHHHHHHH (that's my squirting water impression, for those of you not following).


Apparently, Mr. Manly Man himself forgot to SHUT OFF THE WATER!!! He thought that shutting it off on the shut-off valve... the one he was replacing... would shut all of the water off to that pipe. ???


Natural reaction - he sticks his finger in the pipe. I don't blame him. I would've done the same thing... oh wait... no. No I wouldn't have.


ANYwho - he has his finger in the pipe and calls... My Dad. Mr. fix-it-yourself. Probably the best choice, really. So he finally figures out that he has to take his finger out and go shut off the main water... but he doesn't know where it is.


He runs down to the utility closet... then down to the basement and finds three water lines. Shuts ALL 3 of them off. (again - probably the best choice, at this point) But, by this time it had been probably around 5 minutes since "the incident" started. So you know what that means...


Water - EVERYWHERE!!



So I happen to call, and he answers the phone like this:

"I feel so stupid."

Why? What happened?

"I can't believe I didn't that..."

What? You did what? WHAT HAPPENED??

"Ugh - I feel SO stupid!"

Would you PLEASE tell me what happened?!


As he starts to relive what happened, I BUST out laughing... what else can you do? But then he tells me how bad it is.



As you can imagine, 5 minutes is a LOOONG time to have water BURSTING out of an open pipe. It was ALL over the place... literally.


Bathroom - covered in water





(with the new shut-off valve finally in place)


Bedroom - carpet totally wet and soggy at the door and along the entire wall that meets up with the bathroom



Hallway - carpet completely wet and soggy outside of the bathroom door




*sigh* I wish that was where it ended.


Moving downstairs:

Dining room - water rushing down through the new chandelier, through the fire-sprinkler, ALL over the dining room table, ALL over the carpet





Utilities closet - it's raining men in there

(Sorry - it's a bad pic, I know)


Living Room - let's just say you can see all of the seams of the dry-wall on the ceiling. AND where any screw-holes may have once existed.







(the chandelier and one of the sprinkler heads)


(the cieling where the dining room meets the kitchen)


(the floor next to the utilities closet)



Now, McStudly WAS quick to not only turn off all of the water, but also flip the Main Breaker to the entire house. Than the Lord... I didn't need him getting electrocuted on top of all that had already happened (which was my first concern when he answered the phone the way he did and sounding all delirious).



Our HomeOwner's Insurance will be earning it's keep in the near future, that's for sure. Unfortunately, there's no way it'll be done by... TOMORROW, when his grandparents fly in!! But at least they're not staying with us until Monday evening. We'll have a few more days for clean-up and getting the house livable, again.



I'm just glad it was nice outside. A neighbor's kid ran the dog while we cleaned up and when we checked to make sure we wouldn't get electrocuted, we cut the power back on so I could cook some dinner.

On the plus side - the new light is almost installed int he bathroom, and the new toilet (and shut-off valve!) has been installed. I also got a lot of re-organizing and re-arranging in the spare bedroom while McStudly, a Neighbor Man, and Papa Bear worked.






Oh yeah - AND it looks like I no longer need to mop the bathroom floor!! :-P

It's Crunchtime!

Sorry I've been missing in action lately, minus the random song lyrics, etc. Things have been REALLY crazy around our house, what with getting ready for the grandparents' visit, and all.


The Bathroom is FINALLY painted. HOORAY!


At last count, the following had already been completed:

- remove all wallpaper
- remove almost all remaining wallpaper adhesive (thanks to the tip to try using fabric softener diluted in water - works like a charm when combined with a little elbow grease!)
- sand walls where needed
- patch/spackle nail holes and any other places as necessary
- take down ugly huge-mongous mirror
- remove medicine cabinet
- take out ugly bathroom light that's been with the house probably since it was built (ick!)


And now we can add the following to the list:
- prime
- paint
- temporarily take out toilet and replace wax ring

- remove all wallpaper and adhesive from behind the toilet, prime, and paint

- put toilet back and set in place with new bolts and bolt covers (my dog tried to eat the old ones)

So what's left to do before Saturday? Well, I'll tell you:
- hang pretty new light
- replace old mirror with new one
- replace medicine cabinet (might to just put it back in, due to random/weird measurements)
- purchase and set up shelving
- install newly purchased toilet in place of old icky one
- buy new bathroom rugs
- buy a few candles, etc, to put on shelves
- buy and hang a hand towel holder
- buy and hang a toilet paper holder
- buy and hang a "regular" towel holder
- install new white light switches to replace the icky yellow colored ones
- install new white outlet to replace icky yellow one
- install new white outlet and light-switch covers to replace gold ones (eww!)
- install new white vent cover to replace icky yellow one
- scrub floors, and remove the stubborn wallpaper pieces that have re-attached themselves from the walls to the floor
- scrub the tub, since it's gathered nastiness over my neglecting it for other tasks
- scrub the sink, since it's caught in and every bit of dust and dirt from the remodel




So, needless to say, we've got a lot left to do. And that's just in the bathroom! Take a look at what we have to do in other areas of the house -

Spare bedroom:
- clean out closet
- move storage boxes into closet (as much as possible)
- re-arrange what little furniture there is, including Austin's crate
- purchase and "install" (??) futon
- purchase something to put the TV on
- possibly throw out the old crappy desk that's in there (if we can find something else for our filing section)
- replace backplate for light switch (it's currently gold - ??)
- put in tall standing lamp from downstairs

Living Room:
- buy new tall standing lamp
- buy new curtains for window (to replace the too-small single curtain I have had ghetto-ly covering it since we moved in
- straighten up the built-in bookshelves (UGH!)

Kitchen:
- there's not really anything that could save this kitchen, right now...

Master bedroom:
- hang new ceiling fan
- possibly re-arrange furniture (not likely - that junk is heeeeeaaavy!)
- get all folded clothes out of baskets and actually put away (quite a feat in our house)
- shoes in closets, instead of right by the door, where they are easily accessible
- persuade McStudly to let me buy the new bed set I want from BBB.

All over:
- MAJOR cleaning
- scrubbing of the previous owner's nastiness on the windows, etc (she was a smoker, and I haven't gotten to do this since we moved in)
- vacuum (again)
- mop hardwood (and probably sweep again)
- dusting



So a lot of it is basic cleaning stuff, but with all the bathroom remodelling and painting we've been doing, it hasn't been done as often. Last weekend I did a good clean sweep of the downstairs, to clean off the dining room table (well, almost all of it), sweep the kitchen, wipe down the stove (which I don't typically let get dirty), straighten up mail-drop area, sweep laundry stairs and mudroom, scrub downstairs bathroom sink... etc etc. McStudly vacuumed (what a lovey, right?!) for me and has been tremendously helping with other things as well. He's even off work this week (oh yeah, did I mention he's finally on terminal leave from the Air Force? Another post for another day...) and muscling everything around the house while I'm at work, to get it done before arrival day.

AND I have a friend or two coming over Saturday morning to help me with the final scrub-down before they get here that evening (THANK YOU LADIES!!! Any others want to join us? Lunch will be MY treat!), so that will be MARVELOUS!!!




So I guess that's it. Definitely do-able, as long as we get to work and quit the lolli-gagging! A note on the picture front: so far, there's been no luck with the finding of the bathroom pictures. Hopefully they'll turn up becuase I REALLY want to show you how much better the bathroom looks. Sheesh! But if not, I guess you'll only get pics of the finished product. *sigh



Well, I guess I'll catch you cats later... I gotta get to work!

You've GOT to be Kidding Me!

So we did it. Last night we primed our bathroom walls. It was a much anticipated event and I was SOOO glad we were finally to that point.

That is... until it happened. We started priming, and soon found that our primer would start to glob together instead of priming our service. It didn't do it in all areas, just the areas that our brush rolled over more than once. HELLO! It's PRIMER!! This is NOT supposed to ruin your service that you've worked so hard to prepare up to this point. It's supposed to make it BETTER!!


I, along with McStudly, was completely and totally irritated with this crappy excuse for a product. When we went to buy the stuff, we naturally were headed for the KILZ. But the Lowe's guy (what an idiot, for reasons other than this) told us that 1-2-3 Primer would be better.


What a load of SHITACKE MUSHROOMS!! It was AWFUL!!

So we tried to just finish the rest of the walls carefully. Minus the vast damage to the main focal wall in the bathroom, the rest of the room turned out fine. But how frustrating!!


Being the person that I am, today I googled "1-2-3 Primer" and called the company. No joke. we don't have money to just throw away on crappy products here, people. I need something that works and works right! HMPH!!

Anyways, I spoke with a real person relatively quickly, and come to find out, it wasn't the primers fault... not what I wanted to hear... but at least it wasn't our fault either, right? Well... kind've. When I told him what happened, the very well educated man, who actually knew what he was talking about (thank GOD!) responded with "eh - ma'am? Was there any wallpaper removed from the wall?" DOH!

"Yes, but we washed and treated the walls as we were supposed to, so that shouldn't effect anything... right?"

"Well," he says, "that's not entirely true. You see, even after you've treated the walls, a small amount of adhesive can still remain, unseen by the naked eye, and then when you go to apply a water-based primer, it slides instead of sticking to the surface, creating your 'globbing' effect." (I kind've liked how he used my oh so technical 'globbing' term)

"Oh..." Boy did I feel like an idiot.

He gave me an easy way to fix this problem, and suggestions for the next time we would be in the situation. Apparently, there's a product called "Cover Stain" that would help with the globbing, if we didn't want to scrub with a paint thinner, and then on any future walls that were covered in wallpaper, we should first use an oil-based primer. It would stick to even the adhesive, and prepare the surface for you... then you can go ahead with your top coat.


Did any of you guys go to painter's school? Because how in the WORLD are you supposed to know this stuff?


Well, anywho - we now have even MORE work to do with the almost non-existent time-table that we're working with. McStudly's grandparents will be here in... *counting*... 10 DAYS!!! They won't be staying at our house for 12 days, but their flight lands in 10 days!! So we wont' have much time to work on the house once they get here.


AAAHHHH!!!! My head is on fire! My head is on fire! Anybody live in the Ft. Meade area and willing to help a sister out??? I mean, I know it's Easter weekend and all, but did I mention - AAAHHH!!!!


In all actuality, I'm a bit of a paint-snob. I don't want anyone else to help with painting just because if it gets screwed up, I don't want someone else to be "inwardly" frustrated at. So unless they're professionals, and I could get my money back... ha ha... I don't want help with painting. BUT I do need help with the organization and decluttering of our spare bedroom, moving furniture around in our master bedroom, and re-priming our walls. So if you're in the area and up for that, help a sister OUT!


Thanks much. And for those of you begging for pictures (Lindsey!), I looked last night and can't seem to find the pics we took when we bought the house. Big Sis will look at her home computer and HOPEfully still have them, or you may be deprived of our hideous wallpaper job. *sigh* I know... disappointing it is, but trust me... I'll do what I can to make up for it.





Toodles!

Making Some Progress

Not much, but some progress has been made on the bathroom project.



The walls have been completely rid of wallpaper, and as much residue as we can muster has been scraped off the walls, as well. We've washed, spackled, sanded, and are now ready to prime the walls.



That means: We're SO CLOSE!!





We did make an executive decision and decided to replace the toilet altogether. That thing was just NASTAY!!! The majority of the nastiness was NOT from us. There's not way we could have accomplished that much in the 6 short months we've lived in this house. And seeing as how the toilet has probably been there since the house was built, it was just time.





So we pulled out the old toilet, and took it to the landfill about 15 minutes away (thank the LORD we have an SUV!). We took the long windy drive up the "landfill mountain", dropped that sucker off, then wound our way back down to normalsville for a trip to Lowe's.



We seriously spent about 45 minutes debating on which toilet to buy. And I must say - the one that said "Able to flush an entire bucket of golf balls" was just SCREAMING for me to call it's bluff. But alas, we decided on a nice new throne and loaded it up for the trip home. It's not sitting in it's box on the middle of our bathroom floor, waiting for us to finish painting, etc. I just wish we could do everything now... not just painting. It would be SOO nice to tile and replace the molding now, too, but one step at a time, right?



*sigh*





We'll get there. But this will be a VERY nice change, that's for sure!! A new toilet, a nice paint job, a new light, and a new mirror... I'm pretty sure it'll chance the look of the room drastically, and that's what we're looking forward to, for now. At least his grandparents, when they come to visit, will have a decent bathroom instead of the poor excuse for one we've had thus far.





So there you have it. We've made as much progress as we could make before priming and painting. so hopefully, it's all downhill from here. Wish us luck!! I'll take and post a few pictures soon. I'll try to get some mid-way pics and then some after pics... then eventually you'll see it through the whole process. But right now, I can't find the pictures.


:-(









Seriously, though... you'll get to see just how fabulous that wallpaper job really was. Trust me - you'll see why we were so eager to fix it.


Toodles for now!

I'm Tired and Bored

For real. I've been dealing with people all day that have reminded me that "common sense" is none too common. And it's exhausting.


I just wish I was at home priming my bathroom walls. It's all I really want to do. Is that so much to ask?

I'll be sure to post pictures when the bathroom is complete, but it'll be a pretty long time before that happens. We're just trying to get it to "semi-complete" status before McStudly's grandparents get here in a few weeks. So far so good.

We've accomplished the following since Saturday:
- remove all wallpaper
- remove almost all remaining wallpaper adhesive (thanks to the tip to try using fabric softener diluted in water - works like a charm when combined with a little elbow grease!)
- sand walls where needed
- patch/spackle nail holes and any other places as necessary
- take down ugly huge-mongous mirror
- remove medicine cabinet
- take out ugly bathroom light that's been with the house probably since it was built (ick!)



What's left to do before his grandparents get here? Well, let's see:
- prime
- paint
- hang pretty new light
- replace old mirror with new one
- replace medicine cabinet
- purchase and set up shelving
- temporarily take out toilet and replace wax ring
- remove all wallpaper and adhesive from behind the toilet, prime, and paint
- put toilet back and set in place with new bolts and bolt covers (my dog tried to eat the old ones)
- buy new bathroom rugs
- buy a few candles, etc, to put on shelves

- buy and hang a hand towel holder

- buy and hang a toilet paper holder

- buy and hang a "regular" towel holder

And what else we'll do in the long run:
- re-tile the bathroom floor and replace quarter-rounding
- eventually (probably) re-tile the shower walls
- replace vanity with a darker wood colored double-vanity (which will require plumbing changes, etc, to include a new second sink and new faucets, etc)
- possibly replace bathtub with a nice new soaking tub
- replace all molding around doors and floors


I think that's it for the bathroom. We've got a long way to go, but not too much work to do before it's at least looking at lot better than it was. I'll post before and after pictures when we get to the "okay" point, and then pictures when it's completed later down the road when it's... well... completed. Ha!



Anywho, I should probably go find something else to do... something OTHER than blogging since I've been randomly doing so more than I should've already today. What about you - any remodelling plans or ideas coming up?