Quick question

So, we have been slowly adding to our collection of framed stuff to hang on the walls.. Its an expensive venture but well worth it. I am planning to get some old family photos reprinted and framed as well, particularly these:



Aren't they cool? The girl sitting in the dirt with a gun is my grandmother...

So the question - to crop or not to crop? The shadows of the photographers are kinda cool on one hand, a part of the story. On the other hand, that's a lot of dirt...

Okay, one other question, would you frame them in the same frame or separate?

Here's one more that I love! May put this one in baby boy's room...

For love of a pin nailer.. (continued)

We've put that handy pin nailer to use on another issue - cabinet crown molding.

Why I insisted on included crown molding above the upper cabinets? I don't know. Having those cabinets go straight to the ceiling would've been just fine... but, you know, hindsight...

We (I?) fretted about the process for months off and on. Remember what our crown molding motto is? "Cut close and caulk". Yeah, doesn't work so well on stained molding. Remember Franken-corner? Oh the horrors... Anyway, I'll spare you the drama and details but we made one hugely smart decision on this crown molding: to cut it out and assemble it on the ground, not in the air like we normally would. This way the corners look perfect.. Certainly there are gaps and imperfections in other places (small ones, August is still a perfectionist), but the corners are PERFECT.

And we of course used the pin nailer to attach the pieces, so you can't even see the little holes.

For love of a pin nailer

Alternately titled: Look at what we did in the month of June!

We have done some fun stuff these past few weeks, such as FINALLY getting started on those pesky cabinet doors. In retrospect, the process we selected to make our very simple doors is NOT very simple. Well, it kinda is simple but its VERY time consuming: cut out panels -> stain front (x3) -> stain back (x3) -> polyurethane front (x3) polyurethane back (x3) -> cut out frame pieces -> assemble -> stain (x3) -> poly (x3). Doesn't take a math whiz to know that all those "x3"s equals a very drawn-out process. Regardless, we have pushed about half of the doors through about half of that process... And here is where I mention the nifty tool we needed to "expedite" things - a pin nailer.


It literally nails with pins, headless pins at that. They are TINY. So, here's a shot of pin nail use in the cabinet doors:

This way, the pins hold the doors while the glue dries, no need for dozens of clamps. Here's the doors underway... Frames still need staining.

Not the greatest excuse for being late to work..

Here's a sad situation: 6am on a Tuesday morning in Colorado in March, no warm water AT ALL, and of course soggy 70s carpet in the basement. What does that spell? A busted hot water heater. First we tried to shop-vac all the water up. that was futile effort, plus you can imagine the nastiness that was under that carpet. (I know I know, it looks so nice from where you're sitting..) We ended up cutting all the wet part out and throwing it out the back door. And then we spent a day deliberating about what to do. And then, one semi-warm sponge bath later (I boiled water on the stove just like Ma Ingalls), we called a service guy. He got the new one installed in just a couple of hours and we've been back in business ever since. This set us back a cool $1k, which is about $400 more than it would have cost us to do it, but, like I said, it only took him a couple of hours.

Baby Room!!

One thing we did a few weeks ago: paint the baby room! My parents were here in April and were kind enough to basically knock this entire project out for us. At that time, we didn't know the gender, so we went with a nice taupe/gray color.. neutral... This is a-okay with me because I'm not thrilled with pink or blue or with the idea of repainting it for when we sell. So, gray it is.. Don't get too upset though, I promise to use a bunch of stimulating colors in the accessories. Well, I also want black furniture.. but aside from that.. :) Jail-cell chic?

Mom hard at work Getting there
Ta da! Check out that brand new overhead light.

UPDATE!!!!

So much for taking a week off, eh? I see its been over 2 months. I have excuses: At first we weren’t doing ANY work on the house, so there was nothing to blog about. And then we were doing so MUCH work on the house that I didn’t have the energy to blog about it. However, this week I am travelling on business – internationally! – so I plan to right the situation. Okay, its just Canada, not that exciting. Toronto, no less.

Now for a little ranting: This is an international flight. I did have to show my passport. And it is 3.5 hours long. But, it’s a tiny little plane. I’m on row 16 of 18 total, and there are only 2 seats on each side of the aisle. They aren’t even serving crackers. The over head bins aren’t big enough to hold carry-on suitcases. Thanks goodness for plane-side check! I feel like I’m on one of those regional jets from Dallas to JAN. If I have to fill out a customs form, I don’t believe I should still have to pay the $25 luggage fee. I do harbor a grudge against United, ever since I flew to Asia in 2003 on a plane that obviously hadn’t been renovated since the late 80s. They showed movies on a pull-down projector screen. So that, and the strips of glow-in-the-dark tape along either side of the aisle on this plane, is all the proof I need to conclude that United is the suckiest of all airlines. Too bad its hub is in Denver.

Anyway, back at the house, August has a list a mile long of odds-n-ends to tie up while I’m away. You should know that we *HAVE* started the cabinet doors, although very recently. Before that we renovated the two guest rooms from ceiling to floor. They look great. Now only our master bedroom remains in old-lady style.

Check back tomorrow for details on these and other exciting projects!

Taking the week off

Now that its Friday I think its time to admit it: there will be no significant blog posting this week. Nothing going on house-related, and plenty going on with the rest of our lives.... Oh, you thought we didn't have any other lives? Well..... that's generally true.