Day 11

6.00 - home from work, change quickly, head down and install the new dryer vent. Praise God I had all the right parts and finished that up in about an hour.
7.10 - my cute interruption arrived... I find it almost impossible to say no anyway, but with a face like this, how could you? Anyway, Jane and I chilled out, had dinner, watched Jeopardy, kept Suzie from licking her face, marvelled at those crazy furry black beasts that kept checking her out, discussed many important topics, giggled at each other, and generally just enjoyed the company.

8.30 - Jane goes home and Reenie heads back to the Project. Tonight I managed to paint the last column, touch up the light purple wall, paint the joists and boards above the washer and dryer, install curtain rod #1 and hang shower curtain (it will make sense when you see the pictures), and got a bunch of purple paint in her hair. Goodjob.

On a totally unrelated note, as my little dog Suzie spent the evening following me around, she brought with her a terrible smell. Let me explain, Suzie tends to have gas... and its bad news when she does. I was reading this dog health book a couple weeks ago and it says that often larger dogs swallow a lot of air when they are eating because they are bending to the floor to eat, so it is recommended to raise your dog's food dishes so they aren't bending down so far. Always willing to try something to end the gas, I checked out raised food thingies for dogs, many of which run in the $40-50 range... yeah, no way. Instead I found 2 little wooden stools at Michael's for $6 each (and I used a 40% off coupon, so they were even cheaper) and started using those. Suzie's been eating off those handy little stools now for over a week, and I didn't think I'd noticed much difference... until tonight... Last night I took the stools away to paint them and tonight is the worst farting night I've experienced in a long time... which means that I think the stools are working!! They are now primed and I will be painting them tomorrow so as to return them to use and return the air around here to its usual freshness. How's that for a fun tangent? :D If this experiment proves true, $6 Michaels stools are totally worth the hype.

Edit: I should also note that these magical little stools double as a wash-your-hands-please stool for my shorter visitors, and since Suzie's eating spot is right outside the bathroom door, it couldn't be more convenient. Definitely worth the hype.

Pictures at last

BEFORE...

Notice the ugly dark brown panelling on the left, and the dark brown cabinets on the right (which are barely visible), pile of dirty clothes on floor. Don't look too close at the ever present hanging underthings there for the world to see (clearly they are Donal's ;).


This one makes it look even worse than it usually does... note the box of christmas decorations, the cushions pile with bedding, more panelled wall on the right, furnace on the left, blah white wall.

WORK IN PROCESS...

painting the stripes on the panelling...

yes, I'm type A enough to label each strip to make sure i kept it in the right color order :)

The newly painted purple cabinets, the spray painted silver knobs and hinges, the light pink wall underneath and the newly installed wire shelves. stay tuned for when its all cleaned up and organized.

Lex vacuuming behind the washer and dryer (note the bland whiteish walls)

The finished stripes - wow!

my lovely assistant posing with the step ladder, Suzie in the crate behind her, the stripes from the other direction, and the light green wall behind it, and messy painting stuff on the floor

Day 10

I think somewhere my days got mixed up, but its too late to figure it out now. Sunday I slept in, which was glorious, then got up slowly, drank my slow Sunday morning coffee with Jesus and the BOC. Then I started back on the Project. I got the wall behind the washer and dryer primed and painted light purple. Realized the dryer vent pipe had come disconnected and when i went to reconnect it, I found parts of it were disintegrating and had holes... time for a new dryer vent. Thats on my list for today, stop and pick up a new one and reconnect it so i can move the washer and dryer back into place. I also need to paint the trim above the washer and dryer dark purple, and figure out how to install a curtian rod over the pipes there.


The rest of the day was donated to the LT Superbowl Party, my least favorite LT event of the whole year!! I got there at 3.30 to set up, then Mass, then party... and after clean up, we didn't leave until after 11... thats a really long day, not to mention this whole ordeal over a game i couldn't care less about. It was nice to visit with the kids and Core, and Pretty Boy Floyd played at halftime (an up and coming band with Emmet -my brother-, Nick -my cousin-, Dan Mish -my brother in law in law to be-, Evan K -my best friend's little bro, and Joe C -my best friend from middle school and high school's little bro). They were fun to watch and had a very excited group of fans. Good times. At one point Maryn and I were standing in the gym watching all of it happening, realizing how much neither of us appreciates the entire event, and i had a great thought- I wish Suzie was at the party. I could just imagine her excitable little self running from teen to teen, attempting to french kiss them, lusting over their snacks, and then running to the next one. Gosh that would have been fun and just imagining it made the day a bit better. Mostly I'm glad its over and was sincerely grateful to realize on the way home that it was my last LT Superbowl Party ever. God is good!!

Day 9

What a great day!!! Saturdays are awesome anyway, plus it meant a considerable amount of time to work, plus the best part - Alexis came to hang out and help. Good friends are such a blessing- especially friends who are tired enough from their own busy, toddler filled lives who take the time to come help- I can't tell you how much that means to me!! And let's not forget the heroic Love Doc who allowed his honey to come to Reenie's while he held down the fort and negotiated the day with Love Child 1 and 2. It was so nice to work with someone else and it was amazing how much we got done in a few hours.

Progress of the day: last coat of spray paint on cabinet knobs, reattach cabinet hardware, put cabinet doors back on, remove shelf lining from 1970 and put in new liner, touch up cabinet doors... and it looks amazing! Also, taping and painting the pink and light purple stripes, scoot out washer and dryer, vacuum cobwebs, lint, etc; wash walls, think through and come up with a way to cover the ugly maze of pipes above the washer, remove all the painting tape to reveal the AWESOME looking striped wall, visit and catch up with my good friend. And we did a pretty decent clean up job so its ready to rock and roll tomorrow.

Suzie spent most of the day in the crate so she could be with us. She doesn't deal well with the separation and kept standing at the gate in the doorway moaning and being sad... she usually follows me wherever I go and couldn't handle not being with me. So she alternately watched and napped while Alexis and I worked. There is something really great about a little dog who can't stand to be separated from you, even by a little gate in the doorway.

Then Alexis headed home to her honeys and Reenie showered and raced down to Monroe for Gram's 80th birthday party. more on that later.

To summarize: Friends are one of God's greatest gifts! Thanks to all the Loves for today! Striped wall is AWESOME! I'm feeling like I'm close and may manage to finish this project sometime...

oh yeah, pictures are coming soon, I promise. I'm still one of those dinosaurs using film, so I've just gotta drop it off for developing and then I'll post...

Day 8

I knew Friday wasn't going to be all that productive. Kara had invited people over to our place at 8 pm to meet / hang out with her internet BF Steve... so time for The Project was limited. I managed to install the under cabinet wire shelves, yay!! and take some measurements for the under stairs shelves. Not huge successes, but getting those wire shelves in felt like some progress anyway.

Non project related, it was fun to hang out with my friends- Maryn (my future sister in law in law), Nick and Jen, Kara, Steve from the Internet, and later Elizabeth R. My team kicked butt at Catch Phrase and it was nice to just have some down time at the end of a busy week.

Day 7

Ben and Ellie came for dinner, they are so much fun and bring me so much joy! We discussed the Grouchy Dog (Maggie), how much Ben loves Suzie, how much Ben's dad works cuz he's the dadd. We ate dinner, played with the playmobile people (the new fav garage sale find) in the castle and dollhouse, fed Suzie endless treats, hung out with Suze while we played and she chewed a bone, and finally cleaned up when mom got back. Suzie was chatty as usual and Ben kept telling her over and over again how much he loves her. She responded to his exuberant hugs by dropping the bone and sneaking a face full of dog kiss. Ben just laughed and said, "She really loves me and kissed my whole face!" Too cute. Ellie still isn't sure, she gives Suzie a wide berth, but is excited and says over and over again "Shuzie" and then backs up quickly if Suzie actually comes. So funny.

The project: First I had to go find my drill, i'd left it in the garden shed a month or so ago, oops. That meant trying to open the door that always freezes to the ground, lovely. but i really needed Phyllis (the drill) to install the shelves. So I finally got the door open and there she was, waiting to be rescued. I experienced some setbacks installing the under-cabinet shelves. grrr. although the cabinets are 12" wide and thats the width of the shelves, the wall at the one end (which I'm fastening the shelving to) is only 11.25" wide... grrr... after exploring and contemplating some other options, the answer is to stop at Lowes and buy a rod to fasten the shelves to. So I got one of the shelves trimmed, painted the dark purple and blue stripes on the stripey wall - which looks really cool. Painted the two posts (purple), touch up the cabinet hardware with another coat of spray paint. Dropped into bed exhausted and sore.