Friday, January 26, 2007

The waiting game

We are ready for guests...and have none yet. Of course, we told everyone 630, so no one is really late, Im just not used to be THIS ready THIS early. Its been a crazy day, starting at 5 am with the puppy yowling. I worked from about 615 until Hubband got home at 1100 and then took a "lunch" break, did the dishes, ate breakfast, cleaned the counters, started the food for tonight, and helped Hubband load stuff into the attic. Then it was back to work for a frantic couple of hours, finishing out my day and back to cooking, cleaning, vaccuuming, trash out, bathrooms scrubbed, dog scrubbed, leaves raked.... we're tired. And, since no one is here yet? Playing the waiting game, trying to amuse ourselves into wakefulness until the party starts.



The Red Room

We have finally painted ONE room of our house, the foyer! Its the "red" room in our home, and we're very proud of it. The decor is not quite fine tuned, obviously (huge expanses of bare wall), but we like it. :-)


Sorry about the messy living room.... have had a rough week and getting the paint done was our victory last night!


Had to include the obligatory Priscilla pic, and look! She's sleeping with Obie! Actually, they were nose to nose and snoring but when I turned on the camera it woke her up....

Sunday, January 21, 2007

I Wish This Were Me... Don't You?

Laptop Block

I dont generally get writer's block in the sense that I run out of words and stare at a blank screen. I do, however, go through periods of time where I hate the thought of a computer monitor or tv screen.... during these times, my eyes rebel, my hands cramp up, and I find myself turning to any little "necessary" job just to avoid sitting down to the WORDS, the IMAGES, the FREQUENCY, HELP! Im sure all of you have noticed a distinct lack of written words lately on this blog. That's really the only reason. Ive neglected emails and procrastinated on work and avoided my blog while doing dishes, taking the dog out to go potty, folding laundry, and reorganizing the refrigerator for the 10th time in a week (ok, so that last one hasn't happened... yet).

Today, I came to the computer armed to WORK. I had gotten 8 hours of (broken) sleep, eaten 3 donuts, drunk 2 cups of coffee, and was feeling sufficiently guilty in every other aspect of good diet and healthiness to revel just SITTING. Of course, I got here and ended up playing a computer game for 2 hours, talking on the phone to the Queen for 1.5 hours (until the phone died. Stupid phone), chatting with my Mother-in-Law online, and generally wandering around the house aimlessly avoiding the one thing I had promised myself to do today: SIT AT THE COMPUTER AND GET SOMETHING ACCOMPLISHED.

Now, here it is 9:30 at night and Im still about 4 hours away from finishing the work that HAS to be finished today or I won't make my deadlines tomorrow. Hubband has a 6:50 am class tomorrow and Im on a tight deadline for a calendar that has to be completed by Wednesday. Furthermore, we're having about 15 people over for dinner and vespers and a last "run-thru" on Friday night (the "youth" are doing the church service this week), which means that we have to this week paint the foyer (its primed), clean the house, shampoo the carpets, vacuum the furniture, organize the final building materials that are scattered around the house, shop for the meal, cook the meal, clean up after the meal, cook for potluck.... and still make that deadline, probably have my annual review at work, put out the gastro calendar, revise the new product profile I wrote last week as needed, etc. Im off to a great start, eh?

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The Last Gasp of Our Camera Battery

THREE CHEERS!

And that's what we call COUNTERS, ladies and gentlemen! GRANITE SLAB COUNTERS THAT ARE MINE! MINE! MINE!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

BOOYAH!

In September:
October:

November:December:
And finally have reached.... KITCHEN STATUS!


You'll note that we still have no counters.. hopefully our counters will still come today (although its getting late), if not... it will be tomorrow. The place is quite the mess with unpacking and finishing in progress, but look! Cabinets! Handles and pulls! Drawers! DISHES! STOVE! FRIDGE! wheeeeeeeeee!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Disbelieving Bee

The new year has come and gone and I haven't felt the urge to post much. Ive been sick (as detailed in the last post), we had family here for about 10 days (which was SO much fun!), and the kitchen renovation has been progressing throughout!

We tried to have the cabinets installed before C-Mom arrived for the Christmas holiday, but with Hubband's foot surgery and finals and the Elf's visit, as well as unexpected delays caused by weather (hard to install an electrical switch box in pouring rain) and/or shoddy work by previous owners (water running down the roof and into the laundry room because they neglected to install flashing when they put on the addition).... we didn't get a single cabinet in place until after the holiday.

Finally, this week, we got all the cabinets hung! We had a minor problem that required re-leveling of the wall cabinets yesterday, but by 3 am we had an Island, we had cabinets, and we had moved into the pantry cupboard!

This morning we finally had our countertop guy come to template. Before he arrived, Hubband put the backing on the Island and we decided how we were going to mold it out after the counter is on. We'd been told that from template to install was usually 3-4 business days, so we were thinking we'd probably have counters by next Thursday or Friday. HOWEVER!!!!! When our lovely Counter Man left after templating today he told us that they'd be here on Tuesday, Wednesday at the LATEST. TUESDAY PEOPLE!

If you've never lived without a kitchen--doing dishes in the bathroom, cooking only microwaveable food, tripping over sawhorses, piles of dish boxes in the bedroom, kitchen/dining furniture spread all over the house (the dishwasher is in my office)--then you probably have no concept of how exciting this all is to me. I walk in the room and there is a kitchen. This afternoon after work I will be unpacking all the dishes, pans, bowls, utensils, and miscellaneous kitchen gear that have been in boxes since June.

I almost can't believe we've finally reached this point. The point where all that's really left is to install the new pot lights (recessed into the ceiling, not made from pots), hook up the plumbing after the counters are on, and tile the floors. Now all that's left is to finish the laundry room renovations, do the bathrooms, rip out the carpets and install new flooring, and paint every room in the house. Not much, eh?

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Good Training

I am in my office, catching up on a little paperwork and a little office work. Hubband is out in the kitchen putting in the last of the base cabinets. Yes, people, we have cabinets! I would post photos, but our digital camera is on the fritz so the only pics I have are currently still on advantix film in my Elph. I digress.... While we were eating dinner, we flipped on the old zombie box and clicked around. I asked him to check on the SciFi channel and see what was on. He said that just for that alone, he would never be sorry he married me. We chuckled, clicked to SciFi, and found zippo on. I asked him to go to "my" channel (the Food Network) and we found, voila! Iron Chef America! We finished eating and he left to return to cabinets and I to the office to work, so I turned off the TV and .... he yelled at me from the kitchen to turn it back on. I have succeeded in training the Hubband to enjoy the Food Network even when Im not the one watching it. I feel very accomplished. Which is nice, cause I have a horrible sinus infection. And did I mention that I had food poisoning earlier this week? Don't you wish you were me?