Friday night lights

Police, ambulance and fire truck lights that is. While lying in bed late Friday night I heard a crack and some rumbling. I asked J if that was thunder and he said he thought so. A minute or so later I heard commotion and noticed cars in front of our house. Nope, no thunder here, just a car that mistook the house across the street for a McDonald's drive-thru. I don't think he got any fries with that but maybe the police were nice and supersized his handcuffs. The gentleman that hit our neighbors house supposedly passed out from coughing (per his wife) but he'd had enough alcohol to warrant a sobriety test right in the neighborhood street and a chauffeured trip to jail. During his short unconscious spell he drove over a 10 foot bush (starting to resemble a tree), up a slight hill and straight into the house. If he had turned the wheel the other direction he would have driven straight into our front door.

Within minutes every neighbor was in the driveway and people were calling the owner because she wasn't home. After 15 minutes or so a cop rang her doorbell and she answered the door. She slept through the whole thing! By this time there were two firetrucks, an ambulance and four police cars lining the street. What a sight to wake up to!

The floor and more

You would think an entire weekend of work would yield a lot of wood floor installed. Nope, the websites really are accurate when they say you can install about 200 sq. feet per day as a DIY job. J got the rooms measured and the first row of flooring adhered on Saturday. That was time consuming but I guess if we want straight rows it was worth it.
We worked for seven hours on Sunday and installed approximately 180 square feet of flooring.

Day 2 finished the rows across the front of the house up to the stairs. J had a difficult time installing the last couple of boards in front of the staircase.

Day 3 brought the wood into the dining room; it is now a little over half way finished. We also put a few more rows down in the formal living until J had to earn his money with IT help. OK, he doesn't actually get paid to help family members with IT issues but he loves me so much he does it for free. Gotta love him.

A Tribute

Today, we salute you, Mr. Kitchen & Bath Vinyl Installer. You showed up for work on day #187 of construction ready to show this house who's boss.

You brought the biggest air compressor on wheels and the mother of all staple guns. This was "Man Work" and the wimpy tools simply wouldn't do.

After all the thin plywood was cut to fit and laid this kitchen floor was smooth as butta. To make sure this floor wasn't going anywhere you started adhering it to the subfloor. Of course, you knew that one inch staples meant they needed to one inch apart, at a maximum; you were weren't getting fired today.

So away you went all bent over stapling 48279 staples into this smooth kitchen floor. Just a few staples along each seam would not be enough action for you, this floor needed to stay for eternity.

While nothing can compare to the feeling of the kickback of the gun or the poof of air that it sends towards you, blowing your greasy, blond locks, we really know you were just trying to impress the other construction crew with your massively powerful staple gun. You made sure everyone saw just how deep it drove staples into the floor "Hey Chuck, look at this staple; now you see it (ka-wham) now you don't." You followed up with the brand name and store name where you purchased your massively powerful staple gun so everyone could be like you.

Oh, but you are a special one Mr. Kitchen & Bath Vinyl Installer; there won't be anyone that can ever copy your level of staple expertise. Your work will be forever cursed admired in the years to come.

Now that I was able to semi-joke about this removal of our vinyl floor in the kitchen I will tell you somewhat of our experience. I mentioned that grouting sucks, well grouting is a mere inconvenience. Ripping up the thin, layer splintering, staple ridden plywood under vinyl sucks. What sucks more is sitting on your duff for a couple hours each night after the kids are in bed pulling out the 27328 one inch staples left in the floor. The other 20951 staples were designed to rip your hands to shreds as they stuck out of the plywood while being pried up from the floor. This has taken the gold medal of "worst project ever" from the cabinet painting project who now proudly wears the silver medal.

Snap, Crackle, Fizzle

Just so you can be prepared.
If you hit the electrical cord while using the hedge trimmer you will not get shocked (as I had originally hypothesized). You will hear a pop and see the a ball of fire fizzle though. It is a good thing the hedge trimmer loses the juice when you cut the cord because once you see the fire fizzle and realize what just happened you will most likely toss it on the ground without thought of what is around you...including your toes.

I now owe my husband a new extension cord and my half-trimmed bushes are a pretty sight.

Finally...The Kitchen

The major renovations are finished in the kitchen. Ignore the vinyl floor, it will be gone by this weekend. I guess one might consider replacing the floor in the major renovations but my kitchen is fully functional so I group the floor in with the rest of the house. Ask me next week and I might feel differently.

So, first a couple of before pictures; this is a shot we took back in April when we put the contract on the house. You can view an after of the desk area a few posts down.

We have painted the cabinets (that fiasco is detailed a few posts down as well), added hardware, installed new countertops and backsplash, installed a new faucet and light fixture above the sink. We will be installing a new light fixture above the island as well but we have to wait for it to go on sale. Everything in this kitchen was installed by J or the two of us together.

We changed out the hideous countertop looking windowsills and changed them to a travertine sill to match the travertine tiles on the backsplash.

We extended the island a foot on the right side and now have a L shaped overhang. I can comfortably fit 3 stools under the island now and have help with my baking without fighting (well, one can hope.) I still have to buy the stools.

A couple of overall "after" shots.

In the picture below you can see the new dishwasher. It is a KitchenAid and is the best appliance in the kitchen, hands down.

5 Short Years

We took a short trip to the science center yesterday. We paid to become members so we can go back and enjoy it often for a lot less money. We took a trip before J left for Korea five years ago and I remembered some pictures I had taken. I wanted to take some pictures in the same location to show the difference five years can make.; you really must click to enlarge these photos!

Matthew was 14 months old when we visited in 2003, he is 6 now. I guess it is official, he is no longer a "little" boy. Unfortunately for him he was born last in the birth order so that gives me full rights to always call him my baby.

Another area of the science center is a train that is set up to run on binary code. Five years ago J didn't have a brain full of computer knowledge (only about half a brain full) and he was trying hard to figure it out. Jacob and Emily sat so patiently watching the train inside the case.

Now, J figured it out within seconds and then the kids to fight for the controls. This picture really captures the family:
Jacob making his face contortion antics (doesn't he remind you of Jim Carrey? That is how we comfort ourselves on face contorting day.)
Matthew is pushing Jacob's creeping hand off the controls.
And Emily is standing there trying to mother the boys and just acts disgusted to be a part of the entire situation.

Tiny Toby

Toby went to the vet yesterday for his initial check-over. He was so calm the receptionist asked me over and over if he had been sneezing or coughing. The only reason a puppy could be so calm is if they are sick, I suppose. They must have passed the word around because the vet wanted to know if I had given him a tranquilizer, and he was serious. Are you nuts?! If I had any tranquilizers around here they definitely wouldn't go to the dog!

Tiny Toby weighs even less than I thought he did. He nearly broke the scale tipping out at 6.8 lbs. I birthed 2 babies bigger than this dog. I think his 2 inch hair adds at least 5 lbs to his appearance.

Toby

First known as Fluffer Doodle, then Nutter Butter. I thought a mid-30's man outside calling Nutter Butter would be a bit too comical for the neighbors so we settled on Toby. For the record, the first names were not picked by the people 10 years and under in the house...no, try the mid-30's male.

Toby is a Maltipoo and 4 months old. He will not shed so that is good for the dog allergies in the house. After his first afternoon at home we have figured out he is most happy when in your lap, follows you around if you leave the room and looks like a white, fluffed out cotton ball when hopping around the yard. He is probably around 8 lbs right now and shouldn't grow much more. He currently looks like a white Benji. We all love him already.

Grout

Grouting sucks.

If we had flat tiles we would have been able to use a float instead of our hands. No, I had to like the beveled tiles.

If you decide to put tile in your house, be prepared. Grouting sucks.

So long slumber

I love nighttime. It is the only time of the day that I can relish in silence and do nothing but sleep. Well, every good thing must come to an end.

Last night I had just fallen into my silent slumber when J crawled back into bed (like I knew he was gone) and he said "did you hear that?!" I was in my non-chaotic, blissful slumber so of course I didn't hear anything. As it turns out, J heard the front door open and went downstairs to investigate. There he found our Matthew walking around in the front yard!! Of all things he imagined I don't think that thought entered his mind on the way down the stairs. He walked him back up to bed and tucked him in.

I asked Matthew this morning if he remembered walking around he acted completely oblivious. I also asked him if he had a dream that he was walking around outside and again, no. I told him what had happened and he thought it was cool, of course. Then he said it would be cool if he had been dreaming about walking outside so he could remember what he saw. Mom freaks out, boy is disappointed because he didn't get to truly experience the front yard at midnight.

Some updates

Jacob's room is the first room in the house completely finished- wallpaper removal, paint, curtains, bedding and most of all- boxes unpacked. I would love to have all the rooms completely finished but I can't unpack and decorate until the wood floors are finished.

You can barely see the flowered border at the top of the wall in the before picture. This turned out to be 2 layers of border of which the bottom layer had been painted over. It was another wallpaper nightmare in our new house. Thankfully it is all done! We have our eye on a new, cool ceiling fan that we will put up soon.

The kitchen. It has been a longer renovation than expected but we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Here is a picture of my desk area, we put up a corkboard in the backsplash area.

We tiled the backsplash today. I think we may leave the spacers in; kind of a new age polka-dot look. The stone will be darker when we seal it. I'm hoping we may get that done before next weekend.

The Rustic Look

If we were looking for the rustic look on our cabinets we hit the jackpot three days into our cabinet repaint. If you would like to achieve this look for your cabinets follow these steps.
1. Get a crazy idea to repaint all of your cabinets.
2. Read all you can on the internet on how to go about your crazy idea. I'll save you this step- Clean with TSP, lightly sand, prime then paint.
3. Wait for the paint store to have a great sale and buy the paint. We used ProClassic paint on our cabinets (which ended up great after the rustic fiasco) and will use it on our trim work as well.
4. Since the paint store is having a great sale, it will be swamped with people like us with many crazy ideas. Don't wait for the associates that usually help you because it will take forever. Go straight to the guy that looks new, or maybe just hired for the day. Take his advice that the ProClassic doesn't need a primer, even though this sounds 100 degrees of wrong.
5. Clean your cabinets, sand ALL of them lightly and start painting. After two coats of paint you will realize that the stain is dissolving your paint in the exact places you've sanded just the day before. This won't work.
6. Head back to your local paint store with one of your cabinet doors for some advice. The associates that usually help you will be available and apologize profusely for the new guy's bad advice and point you to a primer that you must use.
7. Go back home with renewed motivation and prime all the cabinets and boards with 2 coats. Realize again around 8pm that the yellow stain is coming through all layers of paint and primer.
8. Local paint store is closed so take your cabinet door to the blue hardware store. Buy the correct primer (Zinnser B-I-N) and start again in the morning.
9. After all the layers of incorrect paint and primer your doors will be very sticky. You must spend the entire day sanding in order to start painting on the correct primer. This will take quite some time because even with 60 grit sandpaper and a rotary sander only the edges will sand smooth. You will now have the perfect rustic cabinet doors...if that is what you were looking for.

We eventually got everything sanded and re-primed after a couple of days. We finished painting last night and J stayed up to hang all the doors and install the mircrowave. We are installing the hardware today and then starting on the countertops. Here are a couple of pictures.

Kit Kittredge

Emmy and I went to see the new American Girl movie "Kit Kittredge" last week. She had been counting down the days until the movie opened and that morning she dressed her Kit doll in her movie clothes so she could come along too. So, the three of us had an afternoon at the movies, snacking on popcorn.

Now a review.
Even though this movie is targeted towards girls, I would take my boys to see it as well. It was a good movie about the depression era and the children in the movie solve a mystery together while bringing plenty of humor to the story. But, I couldn't help but think of the financial downturn of our country today while watching the financial ruin of many families during the depression. Beyond that I would recommend this movie to girls and boys who are old enough to follow a mystery storyline.

On Fire

A quick shopping tip for you.

When switching brands on diced tomatoes, be sure to thoroughly check the label for anything that might indicate it would be mouth-numbing hot. I usually buy Del-Monte diced tomatoes with green chilies for our quesadillas and salsa. One day at the grocery store I decided to try Red Gold diced tomatoes with green chilies. We moved and I used the new can to make chicken quesadillas a few nights ago. I had already made all the kids' quesadillas when J ate a spoonful of tomatoes. I then watched as he tried to suck air in as fast as possible to extinguish his burning tongue. I was shocked, the other tomatoes weren't spicy at all. He then turns the can around and we read "HOT" on the bottom of the label. Hmm..I really should have checked for that prior to making the quesadillas. Another good laugh in the kitchen.

Update:

We have moved once again making this house #8 in 10 years. This is the first home we have actually got to call our own and we are very busy updating it. We have now purchased 16 gallons of paint. Nine of those gallons are on the walls already so we are over half way! We have painted every day for the last ten days and started our newest project today: painting the kitchen cabinets. We will put in our own countertops this week and then start the tile and wood floors. I can't wait to finally unpack and relax in our new home. I will start posting pictures of this chaotic adventure soon.

Mother's Day

My house is decorated with lovely crafts and pictures from the kids and beautiful flowers from J. This is a portrait of me painted by Matthew. This year I received breakfast in bed except the preparation was done solely by the children without the help of J. After 30 minutes of preparing my feast they delivered the goods. I dined on orange jello and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was absolutely adorable.

Emily made me coupons at school. I am now entitled to a night of movies and popcorn, a massage and free room cleaning. Matthew made a book for Mother's Day at school, complete with his adorable phonetic spelling. According to Matthew I look my best when we go to church, the funniest thing I do is watch them get on the bus in my pajamas, I'm a magician because I find lost things and a nurse because I make him feel better. Who needs to complete a nursing degree? I already have the children fooled!

My favorite entry is about my cooking though. Here it is in Matthew speak.

The best thing my mom cooks is fride rise and this is how she cooks it. She puts rise in a pan and puts chikin and zookeenee and cooks it for two hurs and six menis.

Take years off your life

Want to know how to have a panic attack that will last an entire weekend? Wake-up Friday morning to find this lovely stain across your dining room floor. One sweet princess left her lunch box in her backpack and the apple juice leaked onto the wood floor. However, this was not evident for 2 days when the striking black ghost showed up. If this were our own house I might not have reacted quite as strongly. Oh to the contrary; we currently rent directly from the owner who views this as her mini dream house. I just knew our entire security deposit would be lining her pockets for some time to come. The next week I set out to find a match to the wood and see what repairing the damage entailed.

Want to know how to have a major coronary? Take a circular saw to your wood floors and chisel out 9 boards. Yep, as soon as that blade hit the floor and I saw the sawdust fly I needed the epinephrine. I could feel my entire security deposit fly into the bright white light. Somehow we held it together while J and I chiseled out the boards, measured and cut the new boards and finally glued them all down. As with all home projects, it was not complete without a trip to Lowe's AND Home Depot.

There aren't many pictures quite as disturbing as a circular saw in the dining room of someone else's mini dream house.

At the end of the day we have a dining room floor that is stain-free and our handy work is only barely noticeable. We are ready to floor the new house!

About Birds

While driving to the doctor's office with Matthew we saw a crow and he proceeded to tell me why they are black in color.

"Mom, do you know why crows are so black? Well, it is because of all the seeds they eat...you know, the middle of the seeds? Well, they eat the middle of the seeds and the scarecrows people leave out so then it all turns to black in their stomach. They really have clear feathers so what they eat turns black in their stomach and that makes their feathers look black...but they are really clear. They are colorful when they are babies but then their feathers turn clear. Crows eat the most so that is why they are the blackest bird; because they really have clear feathers."

I just let him talk and he told me this long elaborate story; I didn't have the heart to tell him the crow's feathers are really black and not clear.

Shameless Plug

Kroger (a grocery store here in the South for all you northern folks) is having a design contest for their reusable shopping bags. I designed a bag (as did 9000+ other hopefuls) and I need some votes. Vote for my bag here.

Travel Tips

After completing a 12 hour road trip with three children alone, I have compiled a list of helpful tips.

• State patrol officers now like to drive gas guzzling white Chevy Tahoes or Suburbans. They may also be found having a pow-wow in the median to really try and scare people which then results in highway bumper cars. I bet they are sitting there watching all the whiplash as everyone hits the brakes. "Hey Mike, whiplash in the white sedan; those brakes definitely have the Midas touch." Before long they will issue a neck brace with your citation.
• When highway construction crews don't have enough work they like to drag the orange barrels out and make the highway a one-lane road for miles. I think they are secretly hiding in the woods to see if we remembered our single-file line skills from elementary school.
• Curvy mountain roads and a 9 year old with a book do not mix. The roads were enough to make me queasy and I was the one driving the ship. Poor Jacob was the in the aft of the van where a slight turn of the wheel is magnified like a rocking ship in a thunderstorm at sea. I knew what was happening when he said "Mom, my head hurts really bad" and that was followed shortly by "my stomach doesn't feel so well." Tip- Harry Potter will have to wait until we are on solid ground.
• Illinois makes their road with deep cracks in the right lane and after 45 minutes of driving on the rhythmic road you will really want to take a snooze. Fight this urge with all you've got.
• Swerving around a dead animal while traveling 70mph is quite the thrill ride. If you drive a SUV, I wouldn't recommend it.

I know some thought I was crazy to take a long road trip with the three kids alone but thankfully our career path has given me practice. Road trips started when the oldest was a wee boy and God gave all of our children iron bladders. I thank Him on every road trip when I need to stop only once in 8 hours.

I have entered this post in a blog carnival on About.com; you can receive more information here.

April Fool's

I do not normally pull April Fool's jokes on people but this year was different. This year I schemed for the best way to set up the kids and hubby.
I decided to take a screen capture of the school's website and add my own text "April 1, 2008 School Cancelled." Hubby helped with all the IT geeky stuff and it was an actual webpage. I left it on the laptop (which sits in the kitchen) so the kids would see it around breakfast time. As predicted, Emily was the first to notice the announcement. She immediately said "no, that is just a joke; the school put that on there for April Fool's." I worked on her for awhile to try and convince her but she was standing pretty firm that it was a joke. Matthew came in and saw the screen and running like a wild man, squealing "NO SCHOOL!" I told them a few minutes later that it was a joke but it took even more convincing that I did it and not the school.
The best one of the morning though is the one I pulled on my very loving, won't seek revenge hubby. (Let's hope!) I came in the kitchen before him and placed a rubberband around the kitchen sprayer to hold the handle down. I strategically placed the sprayer to point in the correct direction and then silently waited. Eventually (felt like forever!) he made his way to the sink to wash something. One flip of the handle and cold water was spraying directly at his stomach and his screams were penetrating the house. Just as predicted, he was too stunned to turn on off the water, he just kept getting sprayed while trying to find the source. It was definitely a good laugh. That is until he sought after me to give me a nice big bear hug with very wet clothes.