Bungalow Dreams

Washing rocks (no, that's not a euphemism)

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:29:50 -0800

On Saturday I resolved to clean up the "plant bed"** at the front of the house where we removed the big ugly bushes (See entry: 12/15/2006 Clearing (yard) clutter).

Here's a cruddy before picture:

Note the dappled grey/green/white "plant bed".

When I was about half way into the project Marc came into the front yard from the back yard (he was working on his own project)

Marc: "Babe, what are you doing?"
Me (Chirping cheerfully): "Washing rocks!"
Marc: "Are you serious?"
Me: "Of course I'm serious! Come here and admire my ingenuity!"

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The Proposal

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:49:28 -0800

Not at all house related... but,

Last Saturday Marc proposed to me... and I said yes.

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Rejiggering of Bathroom Plan

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:55:26 -0800

So over the holiday I was sick. When I'm sick I can't sleep. When I can't sleep I make plans. Wild outrageous, if-we-had-tons-of-money plans. So over the holiday I struck on a plan that simplifies the plan for the bathroom.

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Ho Ho Ho Holidaze

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:04:29 -0800

Christmas came, Christmas went. It wasn't pretty. About two weeks before Christmas I got food poisoning.. and then my body decided that all food was bad. So I spent the entire holiday sick and not eating. It's a great way to lose weight... as long as you don't mind the not eating.

In better news.. Santa was good to us and brought us a tablesaw! Sweet! Count on the fat guy to generate lots of Christmas cheer. It's a Ridgid tablesaw that folds up on an integral dolly and stores really well. We plan to get -tons- of use out of it.]]>(click for more)

Clearing (yard) clutter

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:58:22 -0800

On the last day of my vacation (ie, last Sunday) we finally cleared out the overgown, scraggly, balding bushes at the end of the walkway. I have always known that getting rid of them was the "right" thing to do... but Marc thought it was just a bunch of work for no real reason. Despite this he agreed to help me and we spent about two hours on Sunday morning hacking down the bushes.

Ta-da:

Before:

After:

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Dogs 2, Christmas Tree 0

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:38:56 -0800

I've never had dogs before. More specifically I've never had to live with something with the curiosity of a five year old that had no thumbs so investigated things with their teeth. The dogs knocked the tree over twice today. It's not a good day to be a dog.]]>(click for more)

Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:46:39 -0800

For the last year I threatened to do it. I hated the three pine trees in the front of our house. All year long (in fact since we bought the place) I said that at our first chance we'd cut them down and make them into Christmas trees.

Ta-da.

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Starting year two - review of goals

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 09:36:51 -0800

Wow.. has it really been a year? One year ago today we closed on the house. Shortly thereafter I setup my five to seven year plan

Annual things to do:
- Schedule termite inspection
- Replace batteries in smoke/fire alarms
- Check/clean out gutters

Here's our progress so far:

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High on caulk fumes

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 18:06:04 -0800

I finally feel like a renovator. I mean I kinda felt like it when we sanded the bedroom floor.. but Marc did all that work. And I kinda felt like it when we painted the bedroom... but painting really isn't renovating.. anyone could do that. Finally, today I feel like a renovator.

Yesterday I scraped and sanded and dug madly at the bathroom tub grout and removed the funky caulk that had black mold growing on it. Today, for the first time -ever- I used both grout and caulk. The tub looks 100% better.

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Goals for Vacation

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:57:31 -0800

I have next week off. I figure if I make plans now I have a better chance of achieving them.

Things to do:
- Get final paint color for diningroom
- Paint Diningroom Ceiling
- Paint Diningroom walls
- Fix "3A - Wood rot, Front of house, rafter" from Pest Report
- Fix "3F - Wood rot, rim joist" from Pest Report
- Dig funky grout and caulk out of bathtub and re-grout/re-caulk

Bright Green Turgid Drama

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 11:35:02 -0800

Ok, I lied when I said "I've finally decided I don't care. Even if it isn't perfect, it'll be tons better than butterscotch." I do care. The green swatches I painted in the diningroom aren't perfect. The more time I spend looking at them the more I'm convinced that they're not -right-. *sigh* This means more thrashing about for the perfect color.]]>(click for more)

Butterscotch bad, Avacado good!

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:21:17 -0800

Among his many and varied presents to us (note the sarcasm), Mr O painted the diningroom butterscotch. Not the lovely golden color of butterscotch hard-candies. No, he instead choose the color of butterscotch chips. You know.. like the kind you would add to chocolate chip cookies if you were making them with butterscotch chips instead. He painted the ceiling.. and the walls with this color.

As usual for the course he did a piss-poor job at it.. and the color before (bright mint green) shows through in places where he didn't get in all the nooks and cranies.

I'ts butterscotch. In the family of beige. Meaning it was ok enough to live with for a while.. but evertime I thought about the color it made me grind my teeth. Too much orange I think. I've intended to paint the diningroom since we moved in. I even got paint chips when Mom & Dad were visiting in May.. but none of the colors seemed perfect. I've finally decided I don't care. Even if it isn't perfect, it'll be tons better than butterscotch.

AND I'll get a white ceiling. I know designers think ceilings should be painted "to bring another color element to the room" but I think that's just WRONG. Ceilings should be white. White and only white.

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Stylish Folding chairs

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:31:48 -0800

Ask the Decorator posted a gathering of not-so-ugly-you-want-to-die folding chairs... And WOW! I want that!

Mission Style Wooden Folding Chair Set $149 for 2 For sale at Touch of Class

Resisting Temptation

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 11:47:55 -0800

I'm ridiculously pleased to be spending the Holidays at home this year. I don't have a horror of a family.. and I do wish I could actually be with them. But the first year of home ownership doesn't leave an extra $1,000 at the end of the year for buying tickets to fly to Montana for Christmas.

So this year is totally different from any other year. For the first time -ever- we'll be putting-up/decorating a Christmas tree.. and decorating the house and baking Christmas goodies (still struggling with this one... goodies are the polar opposite of "getting into shape". I may have to research Christmas goodies that are actually good for you).

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From the heights of happiness.. to the depths of tragedy...

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 09:47:57 -0800

We can't remodel the kitchen.. but we can tweak the bathroom towards happiness. Mr. O (or some poor schmuch who owned our house before Mr.O) painted the toilet paper holder. It looked like crap. I've spent a whole year with it looking like hell.. and I finally decided that I had the ways and means to make it better. Behold:

Before:

After:

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