Roughly 170 people gathered to marvel at Woody and I parading around freshly scrubbed (yet thoroughly sweaty). Apparently when you wash, apply industrial-strength foundation and get an elaborate hairdo, you are married. I always thought marriage involved jordan almonds, hoop skirts and spectacular meltdowns. But clearly I was mistaken.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sweatier than demolishing the kitchen, but more fun
Our absence from the blog can be explained thusly:
Roughly 170 people gathered to marvel at Woody and I parading around freshly scrubbed (yet thoroughly sweaty). Apparently when you wash, apply industrial-strength foundation and get an elaborate hairdo, you are married. I always thought marriage involved jordan almonds, hoop skirts and spectacular meltdowns. But clearly I was mistaken.
Roughly 170 people gathered to marvel at Woody and I parading around freshly scrubbed (yet thoroughly sweaty). Apparently when you wash, apply industrial-strength foundation and get an elaborate hairdo, you are married. I always thought marriage involved jordan almonds, hoop skirts and spectacular meltdowns. But clearly I was mistaken.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Let the sock races begin!
The first coat of high gloss went down on the refinished floors today to be followed by a coat of semigloss tomorrow!
I donned a pair of Woody's socks (smoother than my fancy running socks) and tried a slide down the hallway...no dice. Maybe the second coat will have me gliding from living room to kitchen with nary a snag. Even better, if we polish it extra well maybe Woody and I can treat the hallway like a giant hardwood Slip n Slide. Bellyflopping on pine will probably feel better than the shearing away of tender abdominal skin that resulted from surfing the yellow plastic wave on some gravelly schoolyard lot. Which is the only way I experienced Slip and Slide.
I donned a pair of Woody's socks (smoother than my fancy running socks) and tried a slide down the hallway...no dice. Maybe the second coat will have me gliding from living room to kitchen with nary a snag. Even better, if we polish it extra well maybe Woody and I can treat the hallway like a giant hardwood Slip n Slide. Bellyflopping on pine will probably feel better than the shearing away of tender abdominal skin that resulted from surfing the yellow plastic wave on some gravelly schoolyard lot. Which is the only way I experienced Slip and Slide.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The best Ped Egg ever
In getting ready for the sandals that I have not yet found because they do not sell cute vaguely Grecian/ flat/ pale blue and/or pale pink not satin women's shoes in size 11 (is that too much to ask? Sheesh), I decided to get my feet showworthy. Now, I could have chosen the Ped Egg...
But then I thought, "Rachel, this is your wedding day, are you really going to prepare for the most specialist pretty pretty princessest perfectest romanticist day of your life with something sold on TV???" The answer, of course, is no. No, the only place to truly prepare for bridal bliss is... at Greenville Rentals. For the paltry sum of $40/day you can rent yourself a only slightly less cute drum sander to blast away your callouses and any pesky toes you may not want:
Sure, it's a little awkward to get into position but once you have it laid flat and your scraggly heels against it, it is only slightly more excruciating than having your eyebrows waxed. And, really, you must do anything, I mean ANYTHING, to be a pretty pretty princess. I am that dedicated to having THE MOST PERFECT DAY EVER!!!!
After I swaddled my bloody stumps of feet with gauze and trotted off to try to get into those size 10 Kenneth Cole pumps I bought back into 2001, Woody put the drum sander to other uses:
This is hard work. Very hard work. This is why Woody looks like he is in a contractor version of Footloose. Woody popped more ibuprofen each night than I saw my rowing roommates down in college. But all the hard work turned up beautiful floors! Take a look at the foreground of that picture -- no clods of drywall spackle, no blue paint, no Dr. Pepper cans ground into the flooring. It looks clean! Really clean! Check out the before (lower half) and after (upper half) difference:
Maddy found herself a sunny spot in the master bedroom and settled in...
The living room looks huge...and at last clean...
Since Woody was breaking his back sanding our floors, I decided the least I could do was put together a casserole of enchiladas. While I tried wearing giant ear protector things like Woody in solidarity, I found an apron worked better in protecting me from molten enchilada sauce:
(Here Madison is wondering why I would ever agree to a photo with a face that greasy or a smile that maniacal. But hell, I had just stood barefoot in our living room for the first time in two years, you would be maniacally happy too.)
But then I thought, "Rachel, this is your wedding day, are you really going to prepare for the most specialist pretty pretty princessest perfectest romanticist day of your life with something sold on TV???" The answer, of course, is no. No, the only place to truly prepare for bridal bliss is... at Greenville Rentals. For the paltry sum of $40/day you can rent yourself a only slightly less cute drum sander to blast away your callouses and any pesky toes you may not want:
Sure, it's a little awkward to get into position but once you have it laid flat and your scraggly heels against it, it is only slightly more excruciating than having your eyebrows waxed. And, really, you must do anything, I mean ANYTHING, to be a pretty pretty princess. I am that dedicated to having THE MOST PERFECT DAY EVER!!!!After I swaddled my bloody stumps of feet with gauze and trotted off to try to get into those size 10 Kenneth Cole pumps I bought back into 2001, Woody put the drum sander to other uses:
This is hard work. Very hard work. This is why Woody looks like he is in a contractor version of Footloose. Woody popped more ibuprofen each night than I saw my rowing roommates down in college. But all the hard work turned up beautiful floors! Take a look at the foreground of that picture -- no clods of drywall spackle, no blue paint, no Dr. Pepper cans ground into the flooring. It looks clean! Really clean! Check out the before (lower half) and after (upper half) difference:
Maddy found herself a sunny spot in the master bedroom and settled in...
The living room looks huge...and at last clean...
Since Woody was breaking his back sanding our floors, I decided the least I could do was put together a casserole of enchiladas. While I tried wearing giant ear protector things like Woody in solidarity, I found an apron worked better in protecting me from molten enchilada sauce:
(Here Madison is wondering why I would ever agree to a photo with a face that greasy or a smile that maniacal. But hell, I had just stood barefoot in our living room for the first time in two years, you would be maniacally happy too.)
Like that scary quarantine scene from E.T....
Remember when the bad guys tried to wrap the entirety of Elliot's house in Glad Press-n-Seal in E.T.?
I swear, one little alien and everyone's wearing masks and running fog machines...
That said, our house looked a lot like a 1982 Spielberg flick this weekend:
We were going to invite Drew Barrymore over to do some lines and raise some hell, but we hear she stopped doing that stuff when she turned 11.
All of this taping and plastic means that we are having the floors refinished! The last turn-our-life-upside-down task in the house renovation! In preparation we had to move all our cra,er,stuff once again. Now most of it resides in the middle bedroom
And in the back bedroom, which we sadly had to kick friend /kitchen cleaner/ giant fishtank mover extraordinaire Eric out of as a result. This week Woody's dad and crew come back to B'ton to sand all the nastiness out of the floors in the master bedroom, hallway, living room and dining room. Bare feet! In our own house! Soon!
I swear, one little alien and everyone's wearing masks and running fog machines...That said, our house looked a lot like a 1982 Spielberg flick this weekend:
We were going to invite Drew Barrymore over to do some lines and raise some hell, but we hear she stopped doing that stuff when she turned 11.
All of this taping and plastic means that we are having the floors refinished! The last turn-our-life-upside-down task in the house renovation! In preparation we had to move all our cra,er,stuff once again. Now most of it resides in the middle bedroom
And in the back bedroom, which we sadly had to kick friend /kitchen cleaner/ giant fishtank mover extraordinaire Eric out of as a result. This week Woody's dad and crew come back to B'ton to sand all the nastiness out of the floors in the master bedroom, hallway, living room and dining room. Bare feet! In our own house! Soon!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Back in Black, er, Blue
Two years ago, when Woody and I started working on the house, we made it our mission to vanquish as many of the truly awful color choices made by the former residents of poor embattled 517 as possible with flat white paint. This has been/is an uphill battle. For while these folks were not fastidious in their cleaning habits, they could find nooks and crannies to paint that you didn't think existed (Primary blue on the baseboards? Really?). In fact, I am now convinced that these guys commuted to work in Vegas from B'ton:
Except, maybe not, since if they lived here their irises and pupils would be blue as well. (Incidentally, if you haven't seen the sadly canceled Arrested Development's take on the Blue Man Group, you should. Check it out here.)
Ironically enough, we went from blue....to blue in the dining room. Remember this horribleness?
(The wall color, folks, I'm talking about the wall color, not the chick in the shrunken fleece zip-up.) We've gone from Cookie Monster blue to a blue with a less manic/bingey vibe:
We extended the nice slate blue from the kitchen into the dining room. (It will go up on the left wall as well once some finish drywall work is done.) A view of the windows onto the street:
The only remaining spots of Cookie Monster blue cling to the hutch and the backs of the French doors...but their days are numbered.
In other high gloss news, Woody has finished painting all of the cabinets in the stove surround!
The whole effect is much more regal and grand than, well, us. But as soon as one of you compliments us on our kitchen (and you will...), we plan to brush it off with a "What? This old thing?" and act as if we had always had more than a hotplate and coffee maker indoors.
Except, maybe not, since if they lived here their irises and pupils would be blue as well. (Incidentally, if you haven't seen the sadly canceled Arrested Development's take on the Blue Man Group, you should. Check it out here.)Ironically enough, we went from blue....to blue in the dining room. Remember this horribleness?
(The wall color, folks, I'm talking about the wall color, not the chick in the shrunken fleece zip-up.) We've gone from Cookie Monster blue to a blue with a less manic/bingey vibe:
We extended the nice slate blue from the kitchen into the dining room. (It will go up on the left wall as well once some finish drywall work is done.) A view of the windows onto the street:
The only remaining spots of Cookie Monster blue cling to the hutch and the backs of the French doors...but their days are numbered.
In other high gloss news, Woody has finished painting all of the cabinets in the stove surround!
The whole effect is much more regal and grand than, well, us. But as soon as one of you compliments us on our kitchen (and you will...), we plan to brush it off with a "What? This old thing?" and act as if we had always had more than a hotplate and coffee maker indoors.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Like pancake makeup for our yard...
A truckload of mulch has made everything look better at 517 O'Neal. Woody and I have spread wheelbarrowfull after wheelbarrowfull over sandy patches, weeds, gaping maws of toxic waste, etc. Once the mulch is down our yard looks wholesome and approachable. Not like an informal auto repair center, which is what our back yard used to be. (Nothing like using a TREE to pull out engine blocks. I imagine this skill will be useful to the fine former resident of our home when he finally gets on "Survivor: Hot Rod".)
In fact, the mulch has been so successful that I am contemplating using it as wedding makeup to mask a few of my more cavernous pores. I figure foundation in "Pine" will make my eyes really pop.
Woody did an amazing job also laying down mulch outside our bedroom window around the Japanese maple:
We also had the lovely day lilies Nancy brought over flower today!
This pretty flower is actually in our yard. Unbelievable, I know.
In fact, the mulch has been so successful that I am contemplating using it as wedding makeup to mask a few of my more cavernous pores. I figure foundation in "Pine" will make my eyes really pop.Woody did an amazing job also laying down mulch outside our bedroom window around the Japanese maple:
We also had the lovely day lilies Nancy brought over flower today!
This pretty flower is actually in our yard. Unbelievable, I know.
PB & M
Our brand new carpet in "Peanut Butter" was installed a few days ago and Madison has already installed herself as its accompaniment.
Peanut Butter is, really, the best name for a carpet color. We had "Sandy Bottom" installed on the steps and upstairs and moaning "Mmmm, sandy bottom" while wiggling your toes sounds much less healthy than doing the same while wiggling your toes in peanut butter. Which is what I do to keep my heels silky soft and my cuticles supple. Moaning "Sandy Bottommmm" sounds like a Cinemax-goes-to-the-beach feature.
More pictures of peanut butter:
You may notice that there is a large hole cut out of our beautiful drywall. Apparently using a perfectly innocent fiberglass tub as your utility sink is not a good idea. Don't do it. Don't put drywall mud down an unassuming residential drain. For real.
Peanut Butter is, really, the best name for a carpet color. We had "Sandy Bottom" installed on the steps and upstairs and moaning "Mmmm, sandy bottom" while wiggling your toes sounds much less healthy than doing the same while wiggling your toes in peanut butter. Which is what I do to keep my heels silky soft and my cuticles supple. Moaning "Sandy Bottommmm" sounds like a Cinemax-goes-to-the-beach feature.More pictures of peanut butter:
You may notice that there is a large hole cut out of our beautiful drywall. Apparently using a perfectly innocent fiberglass tub as your utility sink is not a good idea. Don't do it. Don't put drywall mud down an unassuming residential drain. For real.
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