Year 2 - Day 249 - September 7

It has been raining FOREVER. I am beginning to think it will never stop. This section of our gutter pours over all the time. Before the hurricane, we got the extension ladder out and Mike climbed up there to clean it out. Surprisingly, there was nothing up there. I'm thinking it is just not tilted enough to drain quickly.

No, I'm not out in the rain taking this picture, we have two sets of sliding glass doors on an L shaped portion of our house, so we can see across the deck into the ktichen. :)

Year 2 - Day 191 - July 11

It's here! It's here! Our brand new stove! It's so nice to finally be rid of the 1987 special. Although, what are the chances that this one will still be going strong in 24 years? I'm so excited to have a glasstop again. Or maybe I'm more excited to have a window to see the food. Or maybe I'm excited to have a burner that is as big as the pots. Or maybe I'm more excited to have the hidden element back again so that if I spill something in the oven it's easy to clean. I just can't decide which feature I love the most!

So now that we've determined and solidified that I do love the stove we picked out, a few facts. When I bought my townhouse appliances, the sales guy was SO helpful. He taught me a lot, and he actually saved me some money with his knowledge. I came out of that transaction really liking Sears. Between our washer/dryer hunt last fall and this oven purchase, I now have done a 180 on my Sears feelings. We have wanted a stove for awhile, so every time there is a sale nearby we go and check it out. I had my eye on a similar model for quite some time, mostly because it's the one we had in the townhouse and I loved it. However, when we stopped by the Sears in the Columbia mall to look at it last week, this one caught our eye. While we were looking at it, a young salesman came over to us, TURNED HIS BACK TO ME, and said directly to Mike, "Sir, do you have any questions?" Mike said not at that moment. I'm glad, because the dude ticked me off. Seriously? Later, after we had finished bouncing between 2 other stoves & this one, we TRIED to get someone to come talk to us. I finally got a lady to come over, but she answered us in one word sentences. I got so annoyed that we just left.

Fast forward a couple days to 9pm. After doing the research to pick which one we really wanted and seeing that the next sale was going to be nowhere near as good as this one, we decided to pounce. It made me glad that we were going to another Sears to ensure that neither person from Columbia would get our commission business! We checked the website & saw that our local Sears was open just for another half hour and we raced to the store. We walked directly to a woman and asked to buy the thing, and she still wasn't very friendly because she wanted to sell us a more expensive one. Really? We just walked in basically off the street and gave you a sale and you're going to pout?

Oh well. We got the stove we wanted, and it's a Kenmore so Sears was our only option, and I love it, and that's the best part. :)

Year 2 - Day 190 - July 10

Happy birthday to meeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to a lovely brunch this morning with my friends. Then, we went to my in-laws for a cookout and had a birthday dinner with his side of the family. It was lovely and relaxing. We finished the light and put it up yesterday, but I forgot to take a good picture and post it! Plus, the faucet project was way more exciting by the evening. This is the old ugly gold light, painted oil rubbed metallic bronze. I know it just looks black in the picture, but it isn't. I think I have to do this with the dining room now too. ;)

Year 2 - Day 189 - July 9

Allow me to share with you the master bathroom faucet. It liked to drip, but it was in such bad shape that it was impossible to just replace parts. So today, after visiting with friends for the afternoon, we did this to it.

 (Excuse our dust.) Then we did this.

Now it doesn't drip. We're happy. The cat is sad.

The end.

P.S. When we were under the sink connecting the supply lines to the new water lines to the new faucet, we hooked the left to the hot and the right to the cold. Logical, right? Wrong. The supply valves were on opposite sides. Luckily we got the flexible lines so we could just make an X with them to ensure that the hot goes with the hot handle and vice versa!

Year 2 - Day 188 - July 8

Here’s the beginning of our lamp project … old 1987 style gold lantern lamp, taken apart for beautifying. We scuffed it up with steel wool & then took it outside to spray paint. Cross your fingers!

Year 2 - Day 186 - July 6

More than a year ago, we bought our new house. The first week, maybe even before our furniture was here, we picked a nice green to do the kitchen/family room area. Even before it was done drying, I decided I did not like the color. The light in these rooms varies so much throughout the day, and the angles make lots of shadows. I liked the green in the shadows, but not the light. I decided recently to change just the family room. We went with gray (grey? I can never remember which one to use. It’s one of my serious grammar issues.)  walls and white trim. I like the gray on the chip, but it of course changes a lot with light too. At first, the only place it looked not-white was on the ceiling where we smudged a little. Then it changed colors several times throughout the day as it dried and the sun moved and went down. In the evening it’s almost purple. It definitely shows its tint next to the white switch plate covers! Oh well, it works. It is at least a nice calming color!

Year 2 - Day 111 - April 22

For the last couple days on and off and for several hours today, I worked on my second bedroom transformation.  This is my new crafting zone - far away from the computer room & desk we've been sharing for quite some time.  Here's the transformation from their house to our guest room version 1 to what it looks like today.

Their Version (Their son's room):

Our first version (Following their footprint, because it made sense at the time)

I don't have pictures of the other half of the room, but that's because it's pretty empty with no curtains, just the shades that were left behind.

The new version: (The walls are still white - but the iphone camera changed the colors every time I turned my body.)

I have most of my things within reach of the crafting desk (it's small, but it'll work for now).  With the current layout I do have the Cricut & Big Kick on the other side of the room but that's ok.  The room is a weird shape - where the dresser & 3rd window live is the space left between the stairwell and front wall of the house.  The 3 windows are evenly spaced, even though these pictures wouldn't have you believe that.  We don't completely love the bed in front of the window, but the closet doors swing out, so it couldn't go between the windows and this was the only other option to give me the crafting space.  Considering people sleep in there less than once a month, we can live. :)

Year 2 - Day 55 - February 24

Hopefully my husband isn't scared of heights, because we now own a really tall ladder!!!!  It's not "Little Giant" brand, but it's that style of adjustable ladder.  We ordered from Amazon earlier in the week, got free shipping, and it appeared on our porch today.  Fantastic service!  Hopefully nothing ever happens in our life again that would require a tall ladder.  It'd be nice for it to be a shiny insurance policy, right? :)

Year 2 - Day 19 - January 19

I know this might be silly, but I live in complete fear of forgetting to shut the garage door.  I am better at KNOWING I didn't forget these days, so I don't turn around to check ... but I still worry about it a lot.  And it amuses me, because I really don't fret about things constantly!

Year 2 - Day 7 - January 7

This ugly spot has been on our bathroom ceiling since we moved in. I have always assumed it was an ugly patch job over the textured ceiling. That is until this morning when it started dripping! Luckily, a plumber came over, found the problem, and fixed it. An elbow joint had come off a pipe. I'm guessing it had happened before and that's why the mark was there.

So now that the source of the problem is taken care off, we need to do something about the ugly ceiling!

Day 350 - December 16

We had a little more than an inch of snow today.  It was the worst right around dismissal time, so the kids got home really late.  I shoveled the driveway just so that it didn't turn into a chunk of ice over night.  The huge amount of cracks in the driveway made shoveling difficult.  Since there's just an inch out there, I was just going to push the snow out onto the grass.  But the cracks make the driveway uneven so every 18 inches I was hitting a bump and couldn't continue to scrape.  The driveway is on our list of "fix this when you have some extra money laying around..."  It'll probably be on that list for awhile. :)  Now we just cross our fingers for a delay tomorrow!!!!! :)

Day 324 - November 20

They're here!  And they work! We were going to wait out the year because our home warranty would cover any problems until March.  However - with the leaks of the Black Friday ads and then the competitive sales earlier in the month to beat Black Friday, we decided to go for it.  We called my parents and had them give us the Consumer Report best buys, did some online research, and compared prices and models at 3 stores.
Best Buy - Their sales were all on pairs only.  A lot of the pairs had one highly rated machine and one that didn't perform so well.  We don't care if our set matches in that way - we just want them both to work.  It was going to be expensive to mix and match.

Sears - Do their appliance people work on commission?  They asked if they could help us and we said we were just browsing.  One guy stalked us the whole time and kept interjecting into our conversations.  Then when a woman talked to us, that guy was making under his breath comments at her until she snapped "I get it - they're yours."  We left shortly thereafter.  If their prices had been a zillion times better than the other options, we would have sucked it up and bought them there, but other stores were competitive so we didn't feel the need to put up with the crap.


Home Depot - They had a good set (sold seperately, but we did wind up getting the set) for a good price.  The salespeople asked us if they could help and when we told them we were still researching, they left us alone.  That did happen with 3 different people, however, they all left us alone after asking.  (There were big "We don't work on commission" signs up too.)  Eventually, we narrowed it down to 2 sets and decided to ask some questions.  We were also simultaneously searching for information online.  What did the world do before smartphones?

Eventually we wound up with these.  The LG steam washer and dryer.  Their reviews are very good, so hopefully they live up to the hype.  We got them at a great, great price. They are going to be $50 cheaper on Black Friday, but we didn't have to stand in line to get them. :)

Day 323 - November 19

I'm currently washing my last thing in our old washer and dryer.  The washer is at least a decade newer than the dryer (if not more than that), but it has issues with filling and then not running.  It doesn't happen on a regular enough basis to call a repair guy (or use our home warranty) and we can' figure out what triggers the problem.  The dryer is just awful.*

*Even though the machines aren't great - the whole reason I'm using them tonight is to shrink a new sweatshirt before we get the good ones.  Sometimes it's good to have the ability to shrink stuff! ;)

Day 320 - November 16

For months, we've had a drainage problem with our dish rack.

My mother pointed out last weekend that we didn't have a drainage problem but rather a directional problem because the bottom piece was upside down.  After feeling stupid for not noticing and then not thinking about it for a week, it's fixed now.

Not exciting, I know...but it's been that kind of day.  Just plodding along.

Day 309 - November 5

It's here!  It does fit because the piano & desk are kind of the size of a china cabinet or buffet, however, after looking at an empty room for 6 months, it seems like there is SO MUCH in there!  We christened it with 3 of the 4 parents tonight and a couple pizzas. :)

Day 269 - September 26

This is an example of the way our house looked before it was our house.  It's in the powder room and has a topiary friend just a few feet away.  I'm sure it took forever to do ... but it isn't really my style.  The only thing keeping it around is the fact that bathrooms are a pain in the butt to paint. :)

Day 220 - Aug 8

One last project - a mini one.  I bought a box of brushed, silver looking knobs at Home Depot and replaced the old fashioned ovals in the whole kitchen.  The older knobs were not a nice color, and since they were all tightened differently, the ovals all pointed different directions.  The cabinets are still a tad old-school, but the knobs alone make a difference, I think.

Day 219 - Aug 7

Project of the day - make the rain barrel disappear!  When owner #1 built the deck, he probably had the drainspout doing something similar to this, and then going under the deck steps to the grass.  However, owner #2 decided to hack the drainspout off at the mid section and have it pour into a self made rain barrel.  This rain barrel did not have a good seal around the spout, so it was leaking and making the deck and wood under it gross.  In addition, the spout was really high up, so there was always 6 inches of gross bug infested water at the bottom.  So now there's a pretty drainspout that goes out to the back yard and the rain barrel is elsewhere for the time being.  If we decide to get another one, it will be more professional than the one that was there.

Day 218 - Aug 6

Evidence of my parents arrival - tools.  We stocked up on things at Home Depot and Target today, including towel bars for the upstairs hallway bathroom.  Several times a week I get out of the shower and realize I forgot to grab the towel from the rack on the back of the door, so this will solve that problem.  Oddly enough, even though we own a TON of screwdrivers, none of them were the right size to get the little screws out of the towel bar.  The tiny one we had fit, but didn't have enough strength to turn the mini screw.  After a trip to purchase yet another screwdriver, we were able to finish the project.  After all that - the screws wouldn't go all the way back IN!  But hey, we have another screwdriver.

Day 214 - August 2

When I woke up this morning, my big plans were to grocery shop and lay around all day.  Unfortunately, since we were both home we decided that was probably not the smartest thing to do and so we spent a lot of time working on the awful bushes on the side and back of the house.  Double unfortunately, we do not own a pickup truck.  Our trash contractor won't take yard waste and we have too much for a car! (Not to mention, we don't particularly want to fill our cars with yard waste.) :)  It's bagged and piled, and now we just need a plan.  But as you can see, now I have my feet up on the couch, so there will not be a plan tonight.