Home Sweet Home

March 31, 2009

9:47 PM

This month I haven't been online much, but I have spackled, nailed, drilled, sealed, and scrapped. First up, finish putting together the bar stools and mount the wall art. When I finished D commented on how much the dinning room reminded him of Italy. Perfect. We also ordered and assembled the new dining room table just in time for my parents visit. It was not fun each of those chairs came in 11 pieces not including screws, nuts and bolts.

I was really not pleased with the craftsmanship with the craftsmanship of the table. On one chair the screw hole was not all the way punched through the wood so I had to hack away at it myself. On another the rung wasn't sanded enough for it to fit in the chair leg slot. It looks pretty, but it took over five hours to get it assembled! Had my parents not been visiting that day I would have called up the company and ask for new pieces. Just to show how needlessly complicated this project was, here are the screws for one chair before it's assembled.

We also finished putting unpacking the kitchen. I'm impressed all our dishes, pots and pans fit. I was sure we'd have to make our third trip to good will this year. We still mig

Next up was the bathroom. For some reason the lady who owned the house before us had epoxied a small hook to the tile right next to the shower. It was only two feet off the ground, not high enough to use. We got a paint scrapper and I spent the day shipping away at the epoxy. I was surprised I managed to get it all off with only a minor mark on the tile! I also learned a valuable lesion. Glasses are no substitute for safety goggles. Ah well. Sorry, no pictures of the bathroom.

A parting picture, lily enjoying the fish tank. I love this picture, she has such a guilty expression.

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Progress is Sweet

February 16, 2009

8:20 PM

This weekend was dedicated to taxes and more unpacking. I'm happy to report success in both ends. The living room is now 100% box free! We need a DVD stand still, but it's a livable Living Room. Or California Room if we're keeping to the theme. The Dining Room (the Venetian Room) is closer to being unpacked, but we still have a couple boxes left. Two boxes to go into the computer room, but the big hold up there is the stools and other bags intended to be donated to GoodWill. They take up a lot of room, but we haven't had a chance to get go to Good Will.

Speaking of the Computer Room, it's closer to being box free as well, though it will take a couple more dedicated days to be functional. Both it and the Guest Room are the only two rooms without a location theme. D has a bunch of New Mexico decorations, so that's one option for the computer room. I was also thinking of the World room since that's where we will do our work. Perhaps I'll just leave the two rooms theme-less for now. The problem with the guest room is it's small. It barely fits the dresser and the bed, so it's hard to decorate it with anything other than a lamp or a wall hang. But if we have too much stuff in that room it will make an already small room feel cramped rather than cozy. I'm sure we'll figure it out.

I'm sure we'll come up with something. I am looking forward to posting pictures once we get that DVD stand. And a Dinning Room table. We found one we loved, but the chairs were so uncomfortable. Once we're unpacked I'll start on the home repairs.

All and all a very good weekend, though I didn't get much research done, but hey, taxes are done now. I finished them a month earlier than last year. One less thing to worry about next weekend.

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Mr. Fishie

February 11, 2009

4:10 PM

Look what we got last weekend!

We started down this path of wanting fish when we were looking at houses. The house we bought has a wet bar. Since neither D nor I drink, the wet bar is not only outdated, but useless. That's when D had the idea of adding a fish tank to the bar, making it the "aquarium center" of the house. I'm so jazzed, we've been talking about getting a fish tank for a while, figuring it would help entertain Lily while we were out.

We went with a Grecian theme, even though it's in the California room. (Yes, I've named my rooms after places – I'm a dork, didn't you know that?) We wanted to go with a Lost City of Atlantis feel. We tentatively dubbed the beta "Mr. Fishie." To help ensure Mr. Fishie lives out a normal fish-ie life we're only letting the cat have supervised visits. Even though we got the best snap top lid we could find, I'm skeptical that it will truly work to keep the cat out if she ever wanted in. She can open doors and drawers, you know. So far Lily just likes to watch Mr. Fishie eat which is good for Mr. Fishie. Actually, she seems more interested in Mr. Fishie's food than Mr. Fishie himself. Cats can be so weird.

And now some pictures