A Little More Holiday Cheer

Let's all remember what we were doing this time last year, aside from packing:

Wrapping It Up

We leave for home in just about 5 days. We're all three excited about seeing friends and family for more than just one day here or there. We will be in Jackson for the week of Christmas and then Columbus for the next week. (hello?!? big Golden Triangle New Years Eve!!) So let us know if you'll also be in the neighborhood, we'd love to catch up with any old friends.

No major developments on the kitchen project. Except we did score a fabulous microwave for $100 on craigslist... Used of course but you can't even tell. It matches our range too! Now we have only the dishwasher left, but that should be easier to find.

One other recent purchase - a snow shovel! Its sunny and a balmy 4 degrees outside. Quite cold... Freeze-your-face-off cold. Got about 6 inches of snow, and more on the way, and no chance of it melting off until maybe Thursday. It was inevitable though. How long can you live in Colorado without a snow shovel? We made it just 2 weeks short of a year....

Way Overdue

We've done a lot in the past few weeks!

New table saw:

Stacks of wood everywhere:

One chair down, one to go:

Baseboards in living room:

Skiing for Thanksgiving:

Charlie Brown tree in front yard:

Fabulous week with Hanna:New programmable thermostat:

Cozy Christmas tree inside too:

Curtains done, not sure what's next

Well, the curtains are done - check that off the list! This turned out to be a rather easy project. Maybe not too cost effective, because I used 11 yards of $10/yd fabric. Some money savings strategies I used to recover some of the thriftiness of the project:

• I ripped the thermal liner out of the old curtains and reused it. It was in good condition, and another $5/yd for the new stuff...
• Home made curtain rod. These things are expensive in the 120-inch category. Ours is a piece of 3/4" conduit, spraypainted black with the high temp paint left over from the fireplace insert project.
  
• Thrift store mounting hardware and finials. Though the ReStore didn't have any long curtains rods, they did have some really short ones. Our "finials" are just a couple of shorter curtain rods stuffed in the end of the conduit.
• Christmas decorations! I can't imagine what tree they would hang on, but those mysterious items from the last post are Hobby Lobby Christmas ornaments (half off!). I was originally going to make the finials out of these, but on second thought I just decided to hang them on the ends. This way i can change them out whenever I like...

The grommets posed one last problem for the budget on this project. I needed 4 packages of 8 and they cost $10/package. That's $40+tax - over a dollar a piece for a ring of plastic! I scoured the internet for some alternative but found none... Mom suggested that I go with rings instead, because there are many much cheaper options. Unfortunately I had my heart set on the grommets by this point. Hobby Lobby was running a 40%-off-one-full-priced-item coupon last week. So yes, I went to Hobby Lobby on four different days buying one package each time - that's $24 for some grommets - still over priced in my opinion! (They did work fabulously though.. sooo easy)

Curtains in the making

So Many Candles..

Happy Birthday to August!

Some Pics for Mom

So, most of this post is for my mother who wanted to see pictures of several different things. First, the couch that is nearly done:

Next, the free chair. It must be reupholstered to somehow coordinate with the yellow couch. And I think it might need a cushion... Not sure yet.

Or maybe I should just sell it on Craigslist and use the money towards













Next, the sort of kitchen table light that I'm looking for. You can get something similar from Lowe's for $90. But really, $90? Is it worth that?









And finally, my first knitting project that I actually completed. Yes, its just baby socks, but this time I made two of them, whereas in the past I usually make "one" of things and then get bored. Or, 6 inches of something and then quit.. etc etc...

That's all for now! Cabinet construction project just barely getting started!

Fall In the Mountains

Its really getting cooler - frost on the windows every morning but still very pleasant in the day time. I've been spending a good amount of time in front of the fireplace with its new mantel in our new chair that we got for free the other day. The fireplace has an on/off switch and I LOVE it. Anyways, with the holidays coming up so soon, I wanted to share the newest Dale family Christmas tradition that we started last year. Its very simple. All Christmas gifts must:

• Cost less than $10
• Come from a Thrift Store
• Be home-made (eg. crafts, artwork)
• Be something you already had. (re-gifting, etc)
  

They can fit into any category or be all of the above. Its that easy. The result is a fabulously creative, non-commercial Christmas. It fits us perfectly as we are basically all grown-ups, especially since Andrew is now married and can no longer be considered "the baby". This year is going to be even better because the Colorado thrift store selection is head-and-shoulders above Jackson. People throw away better stuff here.

Making a Mess

This weekend we decided to start the kitchen demolition. The old kitchen had those empty sheetrock boxes above the cabinets.. That's 12 full inches of wasted nothingness, which I intend to reclaim. Also above the peninsula I want to see straight through to the dining room. No wall of cabinets. So there's some ceiling patching that has to be done. Everything went fairly smoothly. A few wires had to be re-routed. We also decided not to actually finish the process because there will be a few more wiring changes, new recessed lighting, etc, that would actually be a lot easier with big holes in the walls. Here's some shots of the soffit removal process:

The Slow Transition to Stainless

Well, after much stalking of the Denver craigslist, my kitchen conversion to stainless steel is 50% complete. Money-wise, its much more than 50% b/c the fridge and the oven are the two big ticket items. Both of these I bought used, with much deliberation. I insisted on getting a counter-depth fridge which, for no apparent reason, doubles the cost of the new ones. Being "counter-depth" its about 6 inches thinner than a regular one, and my tiny kitchen needed those 6 inches back. And so this week I finally found the stove I want at *almost* the price I wanted. It has a double oven, the smaller one for baking. It did an excellent job on a frozen pizza last night without having to warm up the whole big oven. Now all that's left is the dishwasher and microwave

New Mantel

Mantel old vs. new. What do you think??












More pictures!! Here's one with some vases, the chair, and the dog, for scale. My little vases look sad don't you think? What should I put on top of this mantel?

Here's some close-ups of the moldings we used. Note that this is the same crown molding that would put up on the ceiling and the same baseboard that will go around the whole room.. of course the rest will be painted white...

Abby's Night Out

Even though Wednesday was Abby's birthday, we didn't plan any sort of celebration because.. well, she's a dog right? She doesn't know what day it is... However, what I did do is leave the garage door open (while she was out in the yard), then forget to close it when I let her in, then continue to be absorbed in a very complicated homework assignment. When August came home, maybe an hour or so later, he says "Where's Abby?" and from my desk I go "uh I don't know..." "The door's open"... AAAGH. "Was she wearing her collar?" "uh.... no?"

(We've gotten in a bad habit of taking it off her because she makes a lot of noise jingling the rabies tag as she scratches her neck at 2:30 in the morning...)

So, the hours from 5:30 - 6:30 were spent making laps around the neighboring blocks, whistling, calling, etc.. - all the while knowing that Abby never really goes anywhere when she's out alone. She's a pack animal. Unless of course if someone were to walk by, and especially if they had a dog of their own. In that case I have no doubt that she'd follow {harass} them all the way home and never think twice about her old pack.

Around 6:30 I went in to make some flyers. Of course the printer is out of ink. By #4 they are completely illegible. I put up those 3 on nearby stop signs, and then drove to Kinko's where I bought 100 more copies. At this point August is convinced that she's been kidnapped by a bad person to be turned into a cage fighter. Or at least picked up by someone who loves her so much they just keep her.. (ha ha.. yeah right..)

By 7:30 I'm taping up the 1st of the new 100 flyers and my phone rings. Its a neighbor from 3 houses down, and I happened to put one of the original flyers on the stop sign right in his yard. Coincidence?? :) Turns out he was in his yard when Abby made her escape. No doubt she headed right for him to say hello. He promptly loaded her up and took her to the Humane Society, which I did not think to call because we were absorbed with whistling and calling until well after they closed... They did post her on their "Lost&Found" website later in the evening..


So August retrieved her at 9:00 am the next morning. They did not lecture him on responsible dog ownership as I assumed they would, but she did have to be registered as a canine resident of Longmont (cost: $25/yr). This I find hilarious, since I'm not sure what city services she uses. I suppose she used the humane society, but we had to pay an additional $55 for her overnight stay.

Regardless of the fees and wasted paper (what can I do with 100 "Lost Dog" posters?), we were very relieved to find out that she was safe and very thankful that God had answered our many fervent prayers! Other morals of the story:

1. Dog collar is now a permanent fixture, even though it now makes twice the amount of noise as she has to wear an additional "City of Longmont" tag.
2. We should probably get to know more of our neighbors.
3. Is it safe for me to have children? Will I get absorbed in something and not realize they've wandered out the front door? Maybe we should have them implanted with some sort of LoJack tracking device, just in case...

Birthdays All Around

Dear Abby is officially two years old. Not that she acts her age or anything... What is that in dog years? 14? She may be a little bit developmentally challenged. We love her though.

Its been a busy birthday week, my new sister-in-law yesterday and sweet Papa tomorrow - its his 90th! Too bad only perhaps one of the three will see this post.

Regardless, a very happy birthday to all!!

Staining

Well, I keep putting off blogging about our latest project - the mantel - because we were supposed to be done.. um.. several days ago. However we are not.. so I'll update anyway, don't want anyone out there to think we're slackers.

Noticing that the fireplace looked kinda wimpy, we decided to build it a new mantel.. They do that kind of stuff on HGTV all the time. Plus, it gave us a chance to try out August's new [very old] radial arm saw. The construction really didn't take that long, better part of a saturday.. Since then we've done 4 coats of stain with several days off in between. Hopefully we'll be able to put the finished product up soon!

The Weather

Immediately after Labor Day it turned fall here in CO. This is very bizarre to us all. Its been in the 40s at night, and so naturally my Mississippi-born internal clock thinks that the holidays are just around the corner. I fully intend for our living room to look just like this in a few months. Okay maybe not, but there will be snow on the ground - what a nice idea huh? And there is a fabulous blue Christmas tree already growing in the front yard. Oh, and our fireplace has an on/off switch. We already fired it up once the other day, and I'm in love.

Speaking of dimmer switches

BD is so right! Check out the dimmer switch masterpiece:

We have wood floors!

We have had a fabulous Labor Day Weekend with 2 visitors - Wanda and Bill. We have done some of the usual tourist stuff - national park, Coors, etc - and also some house work. The recessed lights are DONE and the carpet is gone!! The recessed lighting turned out to be quite simple. Well, maybe not so simple for August who did all the work in the attic. Actually all I did was change the layout several times and screw in the light bulbs. The upgrade is really nice though, and the can lights are not that expensive.

One thing we did learn: dimmable fluorescents may sound like the coolest thing since sliced bread, but they are not. Not yet anyways, we need to give them a few more years to refine the technology. They don't dim all the way, at about 30% they just flick off. The light itself is too "blue", and as you dim them it turns more blue. And, they cost $12/piece. This compared to the incandescents at $3... So, we took at $60 worth back to Lowe's and bought the regular ones...

Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Living Room Work Continues

For August and I, this whole house renovation process is basically about answering our own questions like:

• "Can we scrape popcorn ceilings?" (yes)
• "Can we install a whole house fan?" (yes)
• "Can we keep a landscaped yard looking nice?" (several things are dying... more on that later...)

So now we're at "Can we install crown molding?". We attempted it once before at my grandparents house. Including my dad, that makes 3 engineers, we didn't even get one junction to work right in several hours. We ended up paying to have it done by professionals. Later we realized that we didn't have the ideal saw, and on top of that, the one we had was broken and also missing a piece. This time we at least had the right tools: fancy Dewalt compound miter saw and angle measure. It still took us about 8 hours just to hang the stuff. Here are some tips we discovered:

- Measure corners, they are probably not square. Divide this angle by two for exterior corners. For interior, divide the measurement by 2 but cut the complementary angle... That's 46 degrees for a 92 degree corner, which we had several of.
- If you are going to have joints in a long stretch, make them near the corners, because its waaaay easier to manuever a smaller section into a corner. Of course, avoid joints if at all possible.
- Try fastening the corner pieces together on the ground, especially if you have wavy walls and out-of-square corners.
- Get a good stud finder and mark those studs before hand. Its hard enough to hold the molding and the nail gun over your head. Don't complicate the issue by trying to find the studs at the last second.
- Choose painted molding. That way you can make some mistakes, caulk and repaint them, and no one will be able to tell the difference. Case in point: Franken-corner. Here's a good shot of him:

We fought this corner for quite some time, as you can see. Definitely the worst of the worst. However, a little caulk, some fresh paint, and voila:


So the moral of the story is: yes, we can install crown molding, provided we can caulk the fool out of it. If you get right up on it, you can of course still see the mistakes, but from regular eye level, it looks flawless. We are majorly indebted to the inventor of caulk.

Let's take a look back at that check list. We are getting there! orange peel ceilings -> paint ceilings -> paint ceilings again? -> 2nd coat of paint on walls -> hang crown molding -> paint bay window -> install recessed lighting -> pull up carpet!! -> install new mantel -> install baseboards and quarterround

Home Visit

August and I are just back from a good long visit to Mississippi. We saw a bunch of people and overloaded on sweet tea and other fattening foods. We also attended August's 10 year high school reunion. Isn't he old??? Here are some pictures that I stole off Facebook, but they are just too good to be buried on there.