Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Two man at a time show

In my previous post about this kitchen renovation being a one man at a time show, I was wrong. I was giving Brent credit for working but I am here to toot my own horn. See this picture? I did this all by myself. I tore up the sub flooring in this section. Hard work? YES but I can do it. I cannot expect only Brent and Glen to get this project done for me. I help where I can. And see this? These are the cabinets that I alone sanded and have left to stain. NO ONE is helping me with this task. So, now no one can say that I just sat back and watched while my wonderful brother and husband did all the work.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Weekly Bowling Scores 2/22/09

Jenny 125 / 146 / 173 and she wanted me to mention she got 4 strikes in a row
Terrie 99 / 146 / 109 and I blame Jenny for my low scores.
Brent 129 / 123 / 134

Anticipation part 3

So in this case, no news is not so good news. Glen has done what he can do and now it's up to Brent to do his part. He got the sink out yesterday, which took him about 3 hours because it was leaking and he had to fix that. I sanded all the cabinets and doors down on Saturday and Sunday and now we have to pull up the old linoleum. That's going to be a tough job. I was really hoping we could have the sing out on Friday so we could prime and paint the kitchen but that just didn't happen. Hey, this isn't Extreme Makeover Home edition where we have 300 people working. It's pretty much a one man at a time show here. On the bright side, I got the closet painted and lined the shelves and even put some stuff in there. I will finish putting things away tonight.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Friends

After 4 months, I think these two may just decide to like each other after all. Taz is now the same size if not bigger than Paisley. He is heavier. Taz is about 6 months old and Paisley is 7 years old. She is smaller than the average cat. I think they are both so cute!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Anticipation part 2

**Siiiighhhhhh**
Since Brent thinks the professional way to do the floor is to take out the cabinets, I decided to go with my original dream of getting rid of the pininsula bar and put in an island. It's not going to cost me that much more for an island so I figured now that we've come this far, we may as well go for the dream instead of be sorry a few months down the road. Ths close and ceiling have been painted. I am working on painting the shelves that go in the closet now and then tomorrow they will be cut to size and installed. The doors will go on and then by the end of the week, I will move my "stuff" in there. Then we will paint the walls and then do the floor.

Weekly Bowling Scores 2/15/09

Terrie 137 / 120 / 159
Brent 157 / 179 / 133
Now that I've had a taste of the 180's, I am dissappointed when I don't get at least 140 but I guess if you average my three games, it comes to 138... close.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Anticipation part 1

One would think that I am extremely anxious to get this kitchen all done with all the photos I take measuring each step of progress. Well, wouldn't you be? The ceiling has been installed and mudded. They will be back again tomorrow to finish mudding and then texture the ceiling to match the other half. Then I can start to prime and paint. We went and picked out our flooring yesterday. I am doing all the upstairs except for the bedrooms and baths. You'll just have to be patient to see what kind of floor we're doing.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Decisions, Decisions

In case you're wondering about the progress of my kitchen, it's still a mess but the litle stuff that you don't see has been done and the new lighting is in. After work on Friday, I went up to check on everything. Glen was measuring for the new location of the fridge and where to move the wall to. I told him instead of moving the wall, let's just trade places with the pantry and fridge. He liked that idea because that would mean less demo and construction. Then, after looking I suggested we move the fridge to where the old wall oven was. That would give me a HUGE pantry and would make it even easier to run the water line to the fridge for the ice maker and water dispenser. Then we realized that the space was too small BUT if we make new cabinets for the space next to the stove, that would give us the room we needed. We figured it would be less expensive to make those two smaller cabinets (upper and lower)than remodel the existing cabinet that used to hold the wall oven, to make that a useable cabinet for pots and pans etc. Just trash that cabinet and there you go!
The old pantry was on the left and the old fridge was on the right.
The new Pantry, with the new fridge going to the left of the window.
And in case you're wondering where all my food and everything else I had in the upper cabinets has gone:

The funny thing about all of this is after we went and paid for our appliances and measured for them, we were still on the fence about where to put the fridge. We went to lunch and made the decision and then Brent opened his fortune cookie. It said: "Begin nothing until you have considered how it is to be finished." We had a pretty good laugh at that.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Day two



The entire dropped ceiling is down. Waiting for the electrician to install the new recessed lighting. Glen will be tearing out the Pantry closet to make room for my new larger fridge.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Let the DEMO begin

I never thought this day would come but after nearly 24 years, that day is TODAY. Here is a picture of the current state of my kitchen.

Good bye to the 80's dropped ceiling. I will never miss you!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Need Tech Support


Like my new mini netbook? I placed it on a regular size sheet of paper to show you how small it is. This paper is 8.5x11. The netbook has an 8.9 diag screen, small enough to fit in practically any purse. I love it but I have one problem. I cannot seem to get it to connect to my internet. My other laptop connects just fine to my router but upon start up, this one says Wireless network connection signal strength excellent then it will suddenly tell me the connection has limited or no connectivity. I go into look at the details and it tells me the problem occurred because the network did not assign a network address to the computer. Not being as technically advanced as I would like to be, I just can't figure it out. If anyone has any suggestions, please help.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Done enough to show

My office/craft room is now ready to show off but look quick because this is probably the last time it will ever be seen this clean! What can I say? I constantly have projects going and the counter tops are NEVER clear.

One door leads to my craft closet, the other to a storage room under the stairs where the furnace and water heater. You don't get to see that room since I haven't cleaned it. It's nothing special anyway. My craft closet is in need of some organization again.

Brent put up some shelves above my washer and dryer so I could have a little "Dutch nook" with all my knick knacks and such.
This is my office area...where I spend 8 hours of my day M-F

Now just an FYI, I've had this space for several years. It was just painted a real gross peachy color. It just looked dirty to me. I wanted to spruce it up a bit by painting it red and adding a few extra touches. I just made the valance above the window. In case you can't see it well, it's red toille. My magnet board now has a frame around it where before it just had some bright green ribbon around it. I've added a quote on there in vinyl lettering that says "Open your mind to change but don't give up your values". Another quote I have on the other wall in that corner says "Energy and persistence conquer all things". These are just a couple of reminders to help me get through each day when the going gets tough.
I do have one more wall to finish putting on the touches. It's the wall just to the left of the washer and dryer. There is a counter there with a sink and a nice big wall to put some more pictures on. I have to find a few more favorites and then will hang them under another quote that says "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

Weekly bowling scores 1/27/09

Brent 128 / 152 / 126
Terrie 115 / 186 / 146 Whoot Woot. I did it again.

Is anyone listening?

I received this in my email the other day. Many of you may have already seen it but I think it's worth posting on my blog.
Read carefully. It will give you a good way to combat the tide of turning from God in our nation.
The following was written by Ben Stein

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.


In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein