And So It Begins....

This message was sent to me and with just a couple of switches, I want to share it with all of you:

As we move into the New Year, we look back on all of our struggles and triumphs of 2008 and realize we have much to be thankful for. Let us give thanks for our families, our friends and our health. Give thanks for those we love and for those that love us and have loved us. Remember with a happy heart those we lost and celebrate those that are still with us. Let us pray for soldiers that are defending our country and their families, those that have lost their jobs or their homes. No matter what your political orientation, let us pray especially hard for the new President to give him the courage, the strength and the wisdom to lead our country into a new era of prosperity and peace.

While we make our New Years' resolutions with true determination to stick with what we want and know we can achieve, remember that our resolutions' success or failure do not define who we are. We are defined by our actions.

Please join me in this coming year to strive to be kinder, more giving, to laugh more and cry less and to live life to the fullest no matter what the circumstance. Remember that to have a friend, you must be a friend....and to you, my friends, I wish you all a Happy & Healthy 2009!

~*~

A 3 Minute Celebration....

We've Got Lots To Be Thankful For...

Wishing you & yours a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!!

Love Them Rubber Biscuits...

We didn't actually plan it this way, but after a long first day of floor staining, we needed to get out of the stinky house and take a break. We had gotten tickets to a concert that we couldn't wait to see and they have a restaurant there, and dinner and music was just what we needed! Where? The House Of Blues at Downtown Disney! So, one center cut pork chop, some wild mushroom pasta and a piece of chocolate mousse cheescake later it was almost show time....







Oh...didn't I tell you what the concert was? Here's a hint.....

Hmmm...don't know yet? How about these brothers in this cop car....anything?

No...not these brothers.....

These Brothers.....!

What a great show...all of the classic Blues Brothers music and some new stuff thrown in. The show was Sold Out and I was surprised to see a much younger crowd...guess the parents of those kids passed along the Blues Legacy! They were selling the new CD after the show and Zee Blues (Jim Belushi) was signing each and every one...very cool guy. I think seeing this sold out crowd would have made Jake very happy...

It was so great to see Dan Ackroyd in his Elwood Blues role..lots of dancing and harmonica playing and he never took off his sunglasses..not once! Elwood's not moving quite as fast as he used too, but he is one slick guy.

If you've got an extra minute, and you're a Blues Brothers fan, click on a couple of the songs in the player. They did them all and it was the 1980's all over again...okay, okay, I'm old...whatever. :)

A woman once asked Elwood if he and Jake were police officers. Elwood answered..."No Ma'm...we're musicians."

Knock On Wood

And so it begins! The floors are in and being prepped for oiling as we speak. There are some uneven edges and there has been one very quiet guy here all morning planing down the edges so nobody gets bumped. And, he is using little pieces of sandpaper and hand sanding the entire floor. No kidding!!

Anyway...here's the entry foyer...(no baseboards yet)






the steps up to the living room......

the family room......(these walls are very textured...3 kind of a sand color with a shade darker glaze and 1 dark green with a black glaze. I know, but it's neater than it sounds)

And out of all of these boards, this is my favorite. We used it in the foyer right as you come in the door. It's pretty long, but I had to show you the close up of the saw marks and nail holes! Love those. Now we have 3 more days of oil..one coat per day...and hopefully carpet & baseboards next week. Dare I say...almost finished??? Ack.

New foyer light...just a touch of saloon, right??

And since I can't get any of my Fall or Halloween stuff out, I made this cool box for one of my Ebay winners. Look at this little girls face...priceless! She looks like she wants to beat the snot out of somebody...

So, there you have it...another day and a bit of progress. I hope, I hope, I hope.....

Gator Country (and I don't mean Molly Hatchett)

Busy day yesterday...floor installation guys, woodworking guy, electrician guy...busy, busy, busy! The Hub came home at his usual time, and was just sitting down on the back porch to do his afternoon crossword puzzle and sodoku (nerd alert). Then I hear him ..."Hurry! Hurry! Look out back...look out back!"

I look out our bedroom glass door and here's what we see....uh, yeah. 6-8 feet of Florida gator, heading right for the beach! He came in a bit closer after this was taken, but from here, we were about 100 feet or so from where he was. This is taken from the deck that is off of the upstairs bedroom.




There had been some otters playing in this shallow area and we saw the fins of some big shallow carp, but he just sat there. After about 10 minutes, he turned and headed back out to the deeper part of the lake....no luck this time.

Kinda creepy, but this lake is full of people on jet ski's and tubes all the time. We have a boat, but there isn't enough money anywhere to get me in that water...or any water, actually. Just remember...in Florida, if there's water, there's gators.

Oh...and sorry for the Molly Hatchett crack. For those of you that get it, it's pretty funny, right?? :)

Jake

Orange kitty. Orange crate. Can't get much cuter than this....

(By the way, that's not his Orbit gum.....)

I Am Just So "Board".....

In the last "renovation that is taking a lifetime" installment, we were deciding on which wood to use for the floor. While I was strongly in favor of the Guinness Oak (partly because it would have been done by now) after talking it over with The Hub, the Granary Oak is the winner. It is beautiful, very distressed looking with lots of saw marks and worm holes...just what we were hoping for!







Without going into all of the gorey details, the wood was delivered...and put in the family room.
Of course, this all had to be un-bundled (?) and moved upstairs to the living room. Yea...why not?? It had to be spread out and stacked just a certain way to allow it to adjust to the climate in our house. No, seriously.....





So, The Hub moved it all and stacked it just so...and installation begins tomorrow!! Or, so they tell us. The installation crew was here most of today doing the prep work and that must mean installation is really going to happen, right?





And, that's where we are. Should take the rest of the week to install and finish and then we move on to carpet and base boards! Yay.

Feelin' A Little Crafty

Even here in hot and sunny F-L-A we are getting ready for Fall! We had a "cool front" pass through over the last couple of days and it's been pleasant outside. Still about 85 but very low humidity and lots of breeze.

I love Fall & Christmas and live through all of you that have changing leaves and frost on the ground. Halloween is my favorite holiday I think and I made a couple of Halloween pieces to get things started...

This is a plain wood frame from The Dollar Store, painted black over orange and sanded to give it that distressed look. Then covered with a mixture of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. I used a piece of scrapbook paper for the background, stamped out a small tag and added some aged cheesecloth and sweet annie under the glass...

Aren't these the cutest little witches ever?? This is an altered image from Kris Hurst at Blissfull Elements ...I have her image CD's and use the pictures for tons of stuff.

All little witches have to have rules...

I don't completely agree with the "No turning boys into toads" thing, but whatever....

These little putka pods look just like tiny jack pumpkins..and they are covered in cinnamon, too..

And...here's the back. Just left in it's pristine, found condition...can we all say "1980's country stuff"??? Just a thrifted kitchen cutting board...

"Happy Fall" !!

Deadliest Catch

Have you ever seen this TV show on the Discovery Channel? These guys go out of Alaska into the Bering Sea to makes lots of money in a short time catching giant Crabs for seafood purveyors. Not just big crabs...giant crabs!



It's no secret that The Hub & I love to visit Alaska and a lot of folks spout off about the incredible seafood you get there...since everything is fresh and all of that. Thats probably sounds good to a huge number of you...but not to me. I don't eat seafood. Ick...it gives me a shiver to even write about it 'cause that means I have to think about it. Ick.

Anyway...we get a weekly email from Great Alaskan Seafood and they had some sort of 8 hour special this past week that got The Hub all wound up and he ordered Colossal King Crab Legs...weighing in at about a pound each. They arrived packed in dry ice and took up most of the freezer space for a few days. We wanted to share them with friends so we got them thawed out and headed over to their house for dinner (since we still don't have our kitchen set up *sigh*)

The seafood company included a wonderful recipe and the legs were cooked and served and everyone was happy. I had a piece of chicken.

But, before they were all gone, I managed to get this picture so you could see just how colossal they were! I don't know...it just kind of creeps me out to think about breaking your food open to eat it. Kind of like "peel and eat" shrimp...you have to pull their legs off in order to eat them. That sentence just doesn't sound right...pull their legs off. Ick...

But...dinner with good friends and we did have Key Lime Pie for dessert and I don't have one complaint about that!

One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor....

Prayers & good thoughts to all of our fellow Americans facing difficulty and tragedy after Hurricane Ike

~*~

For those of you that are new, read a few posts back and you will find out that we have been having HUGE floor problems. The rest of you will get this, so here goes...

Okay...we picked the floor we liked. Granary Oak. Reclaimed from the outside planks of an old barn somewhere. Solid wood planks. In the showroom, it looked like this: random width, random lengths, rubbed oil finish...

See the cool markings? Those are saw marks and there are nail holes and patches...lots of character and perfect for what we are trying to do here.





Part of the screw-up at the floor place was the fact that the salesman didn't have the first clue of what he was showing OR selling. He just thought oak was oak was oak. No. And, he didn't know (or neglected to tell us) that what he was showing us was the end result...and when delivered to our home it would look like this:

While this is absolutely beautiful (see the marks??) it is unfinished. Just wood. And, after talking with the new installer, the entire process..from delivery to being able to put furniture on it will only take about 3 weeks. And that's including the 7 or 8 days that we won't be able to walk on it. Never mind the fact that this is for the front foyer and the Daughter's bedroom is right off of that foyer. Oh...and the kitties?? Just locked up somewhere, I guess.

So...to prevent me from completely losing my mind, we have been talking with the manufacturer and they are sending some finished samples of another oak. Guinness Oak. This is reclaimed from antique vats at the Guinness Brewery in Ireland. Looks kind of the same...maybe not so much color variation...but still beautiful.

But...this is an engineered product. It's been thinned down and placed on a special backing allowing it to be put down on the floor without anything extra being done. Still wood, but not nearly as solid as the Granary Oak planks.

So..what to do? We are this far into our home makeover (since June 1st) and another 3-4 weeks won't matter, right? Or, do we save our (my) nerves and go with the finished, down in 2 days Guinness Oak? The foyer will be the focal point and that Granary Oak is really nice, but we do have some overstuffed furniture in the family room so a lot of it will be covered by that anyway.

No decisions made today...waiting for the Guinness samples to arrive (wonder if they come with a beer?). But, once we decide about this, things should fall into place, the floors will be done, the new carpet can go in and we can have our house back!! How very optomistic of me...

This is the last big project, if you don't count the staining/installing of the new stair rails, the repair to the ceiling for the replacement of the old AC vents, sealing the tile by the back door and outside on the threshold and...and...and....

Repeat after me: Almost finished. Almost finished. Almost finished.....

My New Motto

Powerful Women's Motto:

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders & says...

"Oh shit....she's awake!!"

Have a great weekend.... ;)

Take Just A Minute...

An unspeakable, unimaginable tragedy...say an extra prayer today...

Thanks A Bunch, You Guys **sigh**

After spending time at my own little pity party, I am amazed to receive this award...from 2 girls whose blogs I always read and enjoy! Many, many thanks to Tonya and to Tara for thinking of me! I have been on an extended mental health break and want to share this with everyone that has been looking in on me...how special you all are... :)

So...with that being said and shared, I thought I should show you guys the completed kitchen and bathroom. Come on.....we went from this......

to this......

Okay, this is the kitchen, just bare bones. If you read the post below, you will know that it is impossible for me to get to my kitchen stuff (pots, utensils, food...all of it) so it just sits here looking beautiful. Are you kidding me with those white outlet covers....do they really think we want white in there???

I am loving this sink....

And, from peach wallpaper with a seashell theme and lucite handles (what ever happened to 1978??)......

to this.....

This sink is also copper and not as "red" as it looks here...

We are thrilled with the way these both turned out and that's what threw us into a frenzy about having the rest of the downstairs done. With these 2 new "rooms" it just didn't seem right to leave the rest undone. Kind of like putting new shoes on with dirty socks...

So, there you have it...it's only taken 13 weeks for me to be able to show you those pictures! Worth the wait, I think... :)

Thanks again for the special awards...give yourself a treat and visit Tonya and Tara...let them know I sent ya!

I Was Lost and Now I'm Found...

Hello?? Hello?? (tap, tap,tap) Is this thing on???

Hmmm....where were we?? Oh, right...new kitchen and bath. Just for the record, here's what is going on 13 weeks later........................

the living room

the dining room

looking at the front door

the front foyer

the family room

the game room (note the buried pool table)

even the indian can't find his way out of this

Seriously...this is still going on. A few changes along the way and an unfortunate series of mishaps have pretty much put our entire lives on hold. See...when we started all of this we were going to renovate the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Then move to the 2 bathrooms upstairs. Well...the kitchen and downstairs bath turned out so beautiful that the rest of the downstairs looked like part of another house! So, instead of doing the other bathrooms (which are fine, just ugly) we decided to finish the downstairs. That included new doors everywhere, new carpet, new paint and oak floors in the foyer and family room. Let's go over some of the events that led to the pictures you have just seen...

Of course, who could forget our girl Fay...Tropical Storm Fay?? We were very lucky...our only outside damage was some screen panels blown out on the porch.



But...the new doors were installed a couple of days before the storm and they weren't caulked in. The rain came in and the humidity inside the house was about 76 %, so the drywall is now peeling in the freshly painted living room.

The super duper 2 drawer dishwasher wasn't installed properly so during a "come and see our new kitchen" bar-b-que everything being put in the garbage disposal or mixed with the water running into the sink drain was backing up in the shower. The plumber came out the next morning and fixed everything! Except now the dishwasher won't drain...into the shower or anywhere else. Waiting on that...

The shower door in the new bathroom was clicking...clicking so loudly that we were afraid to open the door in case the glass shattered. And, when you ran the water in the sink, it emptied into the cabinet below....something about "not enough epoxy".

The wood for the floors was delivered and the installers came and started to pull out carpet and spread glue. I went upstairs into my own little world and didn't go back down to check on anything. The Hub came home early from work so that I could go to work (oh, yeah...also started a new part time job) and all I heard was, "That's not the right wood". You got it...the wrong wood was delivered and using a crowbar they had to rip up all that had been installed. They walked off the job and left wood everywhere and we don't have any idea how long we will have to wait for the stuff we ordered to get here or when it will be installed. That helps to explain all of the furniture that is spread out all over. And the coats and towels are from the guest closet that we had to empty so they could put wood on that floor, too.

And that leads us to the fact that the kitchen is not yet put together because all of the family room furniture is now in the room where the kitchen stuff is and we can't get to any of it.

Heard enough?? Nah...let's keep going....

Thinking that all of this would be finished, I opted to take on a part time job for two reasons, really. One, Real Estate sucks and gas prices don't make me want to drive around and show property to lookers. And, two...after being trapped in this house for over 12 weeks, I am just a little cuckoo. So, when I got a postcard in the mail from Coldwater Creek announcing the opening of a new outlet and clearance center just about 15 minutes from our house and asking for interested parties to join their sales team, I jumped at it! Of course, the 40% off outlet & clearance prices sealed the deal for me. I am now an official "Creeker" (no comments from the peanut gallery about age) and so far it's been fun to meet and work with some very cool ladies.

These are just the highlights...there's been so much happenig in the last few weeks and I was just absolutely swallowed up by it all. I felt like there was nothing and too much to share all at the same time. I haven't read blogs or visited anyone and I know that sounds selfish in some ways, but we all have different ways of coping when life starts spinning and you just can't step off. On a good note, my Mom is doing well and so is the rest of my family, so in the big picture, messed up paint and renovation delays don't mean a whole heck of a lot...but, Holy Crap, it's driving me crazy!!

I have gotten messages...both comments here and personal ones from my extended blog family and I find it so incredible the ways lives intertwine and just how small our world is. To my friends, I can't thank you enough and it's good to be back! :)

Love ya....