Weekend Projects

Well, we are at it again. Must be the winter blahs!! We suddenly have a multitude of home projects going on at once. Now don't get me wrong. . . Home projects are right up my alley--I love to get stuff accomplished to improve our place!! But we haven't had any for quite a while, so I am out of practice! First things first, we had a great time in Wichita Friday, just me and the old man!! Enjoyed a sangria over good conversation and shrimp for lunch at Red Lobster and then got all our shopping taken care of--crabs and a toilet (though not the kinds that are associated together). We exchanged 4 crunchy, frozen, and then thawed little crabs for 4 new ones. The crustaceous king at PetSmart told us that probably the crabs had died over territorial "disputes" I nearly laughed out loud, but I was able to control myself. So we picked out some more, the boys are sure these are bigger and tougher looking than the first ones, and I bought another hidey-hole for them, so they might all find a "territory" all to HIMself (near as I can tell, they are all men--testosterone--it's all the same) and leave each other alone. I can see that the territory thing might be an issue, because they certainly can't urinate on their spot and expect it to "hold water!" HAHAHA Ahhem, anyway, on to other things.

We also got the toilet. The toilet has been a winner from the start!! If you are in the market, bypass the Jacuzzi Maxima and go for the American Standard Champion 4. (I wonder what job title the toilet namer gets!!) It flushes and it is still clean!! Plus it's quiet. It's a match made in heaven! We did buy a different seat that is NOT made of plastic, and it is much more comfortable!

Saturday found Jeremy working on a foot rest for our breakfast bar. You can see in the picture the wall underneath the bar has been rubbed off by the black seat covering on the bar stools. It is ugly and has been paining me for months. Right before Christmas I did some researching on available things to put at the bottom to keep the chairs from bumping up against the wall. I found several ideas--mostly metal (which is actually what I initially had in mind) like what you would see at a restaurant bar. Then I saw one constructed of wood, which is the idea that we finally went with. Once again, J was able to construct his plans from the ideas taken straight out of my brain. It turned out great and I think it will be just the ticket. He finished it today and installed it. Yesterday I repaired the dents in the wall and repainted it. I painted our front room with a light gray paint and then used a gold colored glazing to sponge over the entire room years ago. I absolutely LOVED the effect, and had just enough leftover when we remodeled the kitchen to repaint the part of the room that got sheetrocked. Unfortunately, the technique was used on the bar wall too. I tried to make it work with what I had around, but ended up painting it the same color as the kitchen walls, which worked out fine. (the picture makes it still look speckled, but that is just the wall texture)

We picked up some carpeting in Lowes to put down in the other half of this big room. We were going to recarpet it in June after wheat harvest, but with the new desk coming within the next few weeks, we didn't want to dismantle that sucker to carpet. J carpeted Grant's room several years ago and did a fine job, so we decided that would work out good here too. He will lay that sometime this week, and then we will refinish the original hardwood floors in the little hallway by the bedrooms. I will show pictures later so those of you who haven't been to my house will understand.

I am still trying to clean and declutter from the last several years of our lives. You know how easy it is to just stuff things somewhere and forget about them. Our how easy it is to start throwing things in a certain place, like in a drawer, and then you have a disaster. I worked over my laundry room drawers Saturday while Cami slept. They were filled with nails and screwdrivers and loose nails and extension cords and little outdoor flags and nails and velcro pieces to keep the floors from getting scratched and plastic light switch covers. Did I mention that there were NAILS everywhere?? Spilled in every drawer along with screws and other hardware parts. OH MY!! I found some little plastic tubs and filled them with stuff and then used my new favorite gadget to label them. I took this baby, brand new in the package, down to the church Thursday and WOW, what a cool little toy! We labeled all the kitchen cabinets that were reorganized. Then I took it into the Sunday school classroom that needed overhauled and labeled everything in there, and well. . .I just couldn't help myself. I brought that sucker home, refilled the label tape and started in again. Of course, I didn't label the outside of the drawers here, but I must admit. . . I seriously thought about it!! (Hey Becky. . . How about this--- Hi, my name is Melanie and I am an organizational FREAK!!) I also bought this cool 12 X 12 storage box with 3 drawers on Friday to organize my scrapbook papers in. (I had got one for the classroom at church and then decided that it was so slick, it might help that mess of a drawer too)! So I cleaned out that drawer too. Now I can see the bottom of the drawers, and I don't even have to dig. Martha Stewart would be proud!!