It isn't time for Thanksgiving - American (November 26) or Canadian (October 12) - but I am feeling thankful today.
Thankful for
...God's grace and love, which never cease to amaze me
...my family, as disfunctional as we are
...my wonderful husband, who loves me - good, bad and strange habits included
...awesome friends - each unique and fabulous, who inspire me
...a good job, one that allows us to not only pay bills, but help others and have fun
...our beautiful home, and all the good memories I already have there and all the ones to come
I am blessed.
Tuesday, September 22
Thursday, August 27
Snapshots of Life
I realized earlier this week that next week is already September. Wow. It seems like it should still be the beginning of August. How did I lose three weeks of time without really noticing? So I'm going to try and be more deliberate about pausing to appreciate the snapshots of life.
My favorite snapshot was first thing this morning. I had rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom, and was brought to a stop by the beautiful scene out our window.
The sky was a bright, midnight blue. Not quite black and not quite blue, like it is right before or after a huge storm. Against this dark backdrop was a cluster of trees. What caught my eye was one brightly illuminated tree. The sunlight was hitting the top of the tallest tree like a spotlight with lasor-beam focus, giving an intensity to the green leaves like I've never seen. It was beautiful.
It lasted only a few seconds, then the sunlight went behind the clouds. The tall treetop when back to it's normal shade of green, like all the other trees.
I was glad I had caught that moment in time, that moment of beauty.
My favorite snapshot was first thing this morning. I had rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom, and was brought to a stop by the beautiful scene out our window.
The sky was a bright, midnight blue. Not quite black and not quite blue, like it is right before or after a huge storm. Against this dark backdrop was a cluster of trees. What caught my eye was one brightly illuminated tree. The sunlight was hitting the top of the tallest tree like a spotlight with lasor-beam focus, giving an intensity to the green leaves like I've never seen. It was beautiful.
It lasted only a few seconds, then the sunlight went behind the clouds. The tall treetop when back to it's normal shade of green, like all the other trees.
I was glad I had caught that moment in time, that moment of beauty.
Monday, August 17
Left, Right or Middle?
Are you a left, right or middle?
Not in your political views...where in the bed you sleep.
The side of the bed doesn't matter much to me. But it matters to Joel. He prefers the left* side, which means I get the right* side of the bed.
But on nights when Joel works third shift, I've started sleeping in the middle. Or I sleep with my head on the right side, and my body diagonal so my feet are on the left side.
I'm sure it looks hilarious, especially when I sleep diagonal. But I figure that if it's just me in our big king bed, I might as well take advantage of the space!
*Note: Sides are based on if you're standing at the foot of the bed looking at the headboard.
Not in your political views...where in the bed you sleep.
The side of the bed doesn't matter much to me. But it matters to Joel. He prefers the left* side, which means I get the right* side of the bed.
But on nights when Joel works third shift, I've started sleeping in the middle. Or I sleep with my head on the right side, and my body diagonal so my feet are on the left side.
I'm sure it looks hilarious, especially when I sleep diagonal. But I figure that if it's just me in our big king bed, I might as well take advantage of the space!
*Note: Sides are based on if you're standing at the foot of the bed looking at the headboard.
Monday, August 10
It's Never Simple
Progress on the house continues, although the changes aren't as obvious as they were in the beginning.
Upstairs it's been mostly detail work, like replacing doorknobs. I still need to hang curtains, put pictures and art on the wall as well as tables. Everything now looks nice, but void of these decor things, it lacks the "lived in" touch.
Downstairs is still a construction zone. The fairly simple bathroom project ended up being a bigger project than anticipated. We started off adding a chair rail and painting, and getting a new light fixture. But the darker red wall color combined with the new vanity light fixture, made the shower area a little dark. The simple solution was to add a ceiling fan with a light. Except the light/fan combinations are bigger than just fans, so Joel had to cut a big hole in the ceiling dry wall to move it over, add a new anchor to hold it to the floor joists, and replace the dry wall. It's just never as simple as you expect!
My task this week is to unpack the boxes of books onto our bare bookshelves, and start unpacking the boxes of photo albums and picture frames.
Upstairs it's been mostly detail work, like replacing doorknobs. I still need to hang curtains, put pictures and art on the wall as well as tables. Everything now looks nice, but void of these decor things, it lacks the "lived in" touch.
Downstairs is still a construction zone. The fairly simple bathroom project ended up being a bigger project than anticipated. We started off adding a chair rail and painting, and getting a new light fixture. But the darker red wall color combined with the new vanity light fixture, made the shower area a little dark. The simple solution was to add a ceiling fan with a light. Except the light/fan combinations are bigger than just fans, so Joel had to cut a big hole in the ceiling dry wall to move it over, add a new anchor to hold it to the floor joists, and replace the dry wall. It's just never as simple as you expect!
My task this week is to unpack the boxes of books onto our bare bookshelves, and start unpacking the boxes of photo albums and picture frames.
Monday, June 22
One Room (Almost) Done
"Moving in" boxes and furniture took us one day. The real work of moving in - the cleaning, unpacking, organzing - is taking a lot longer. Initially I had visions of having at least two or three rooms done by now. But I quickly realized that there are more steps involved in the moving in process, and that things move at a slower pace when you work full time.
So I've changed my view of the house to a work in progress. Ignore the chaos of boxes, paint supplies, tools, furniture, ladders, and cleaning supplies scattered around. Just focus on the one room. And after a couple day's work on the kitchen, I'm proud to announce that its mostly done!
All the insides of the cupboards are wiped out and the wooden doors freshed up with Old English. All the boxes unloaded, all the dishes washed and put away. I can't tell you the total number of cupboards I cleaned, the boxes I unpacked, or the number of loads I ran through the dishwasher or washed by hand, but there were a lot of them. At one point I thought about counting, but decided it was better off not knowing.
The final step is washing the floors and windows, and painting the doors, then it's really done.
So I've changed my view of the house to a work in progress. Ignore the chaos of boxes, paint supplies, tools, furniture, ladders, and cleaning supplies scattered around. Just focus on the one room. And after a couple day's work on the kitchen, I'm proud to announce that its mostly done!
All the insides of the cupboards are wiped out and the wooden doors freshed up with Old English. All the boxes unloaded, all the dishes washed and put away. I can't tell you the total number of cupboards I cleaned, the boxes I unpacked, or the number of loads I ran through the dishwasher or washed by hand, but there were a lot of them. At one point I thought about counting, but decided it was better off not knowing.
The final step is washing the floors and windows, and painting the doors, then it's really done.
Monday, June 8
Weekend 2 Update
This past weekend we made good progress thanks to the extra help from my mom and dad, who came and helped Friday night and all day Saturday. My "to-do" list is always longer than what we have time for, but we were able to complete the top priorities:
-Wipe all wood trim in office and master with Old English wood polish.
-Replace the door handles on the front door, door from the garage to the kitchen, and the door from the kitchen to the deck.
-Rekey all locks.
-Replace light fixtures in master bedroom, eating area, and basement.
-Replace electrical outlets and faceplates in master bedroom.
-Spackle gashes and gouges in guest room; sand down and repaint walls.
-Prime laundry room.
We also did a few things I hadn't planned on - like fixing the door from the master to the deck and giving the front door a fresh coat of paint before putting the new hardware on it. My dad, "Mr. Fix It," also investigated the problem with the icemaker/water dispenser on the fridge.
The other major thing we did this weekend was moving our big items to the house. Joel and I made two trips with the moving truck; one to the storage unit and one to the other house. Besides some select clothes, bathroom and kitchen items, everything is at the house.
The office and the master are done, with the exception of the doors. Those still need to be repainted. Our goal is to finish off the guest room and laundry room yet today or tomorrow. After that, we'll move into the more public areas of the main floor: hallway, living room and kitchen. The hallway and living room will just get touch-ups. The kitchen is transforming to a whole new color (green sprout).
We are making progress, I remind myself when the amount of "to dos" outweigh the "completed" items. Slowly but surely.
-Wipe all wood trim in office and master with Old English wood polish.
-Replace the door handles on the front door, door from the garage to the kitchen, and the door from the kitchen to the deck.
-Rekey all locks.
-Replace light fixtures in master bedroom, eating area, and basement.
-Replace electrical outlets and faceplates in master bedroom.
-Spackle gashes and gouges in guest room; sand down and repaint walls.
-Prime laundry room.
We also did a few things I hadn't planned on - like fixing the door from the master to the deck and giving the front door a fresh coat of paint before putting the new hardware on it. My dad, "Mr. Fix It," also investigated the problem with the icemaker/water dispenser on the fridge.
The other major thing we did this weekend was moving our big items to the house. Joel and I made two trips with the moving truck; one to the storage unit and one to the other house. Besides some select clothes, bathroom and kitchen items, everything is at the house.
The office and the master are done, with the exception of the doors. Those still need to be repainted. Our goal is to finish off the guest room and laundry room yet today or tomorrow. After that, we'll move into the more public areas of the main floor: hallway, living room and kitchen. The hallway and living room will just get touch-ups. The kitchen is transforming to a whole new color (green sprout).
We are making progress, I remind myself when the amount of "to dos" outweigh the "completed" items. Slowly but surely.
Wednesday, June 3
Picking Paint
To help the house fit our style and personality, we're repainting some of the rooms. The fun part of repainting is looking at the seemingly endless rainbow of paint colors to choose from. It's like a super-sized box of crayola crayons: tupelo tree, front porch gray, waterscape...there are shades of colors I never even imagined.
Joel and I are earth tone people, so we're all about greens, blues and browns. Since most of the common areas upstairs are already shades of brown and beige, we're going to do blues and greens in the other rooms. But while I know what general color I want in each room, I'm finding picking specific paint colors to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Will this shade be too dark? Too light? Too much of a yellow undertone? I've found the Sherwin Williams room visualizer to be an incredibly helpful tool. But even with that, I knew I would need to test the paint chip in the actual room. How does the color look with that exact room's natural light? Artificial light? Morning sunlight? Evening sunset? I want the paint color to be perfect.
Armed with a handful of paint chips, I spent at least a half hour in the office and then the kitchen, deliberating the fate of the room's color. I started in the office. I held up the post-it size swatches to each wall in the natural light. Then turned on the artifical light and tested on each wall again. Narrowed it from six to four. Turned the light off. Turned the light on. Narrowed it down from four to two. Recircled the room. Changed my mind and swapped one color for one I had discarded. Turned the light off. Turned the light on. Recircled the room. Narrowed it down to one. Recircled the room. Changed my mind. Turned the light off. Turned the light on. Circled a final time. Went to the kitchen and went through the same process. Then came back to the office and recircled with my final selection: tidewater. It's a light blue with gray undertones.
The best I could do with the kitchen was narrow it down to two colors: great green or ryegrass. Tonight I'll have to make the final decision.
Joel and I are earth tone people, so we're all about greens, blues and browns. Since most of the common areas upstairs are already shades of brown and beige, we're going to do blues and greens in the other rooms. But while I know what general color I want in each room, I'm finding picking specific paint colors to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Will this shade be too dark? Too light? Too much of a yellow undertone? I've found the Sherwin Williams room visualizer to be an incredibly helpful tool. But even with that, I knew I would need to test the paint chip in the actual room. How does the color look with that exact room's natural light? Artificial light? Morning sunlight? Evening sunset? I want the paint color to be perfect.
Armed with a handful of paint chips, I spent at least a half hour in the office and then the kitchen, deliberating the fate of the room's color. I started in the office. I held up the post-it size swatches to each wall in the natural light. Then turned on the artifical light and tested on each wall again. Narrowed it from six to four. Turned the light off. Turned the light on. Narrowed it down from four to two. Recircled the room. Changed my mind and swapped one color for one I had discarded. Turned the light off. Turned the light on. Recircled the room. Narrowed it down to one. Recircled the room. Changed my mind. Turned the light off. Turned the light on. Circled a final time. Went to the kitchen and went through the same process. Then came back to the office and recircled with my final selection: tidewater. It's a light blue with gray undertones.
The best I could do with the kitchen was narrow it down to two colors: great green or ryegrass. Tonight I'll have to make the final decision.
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