Vacation.

I'm finally on vacation. Yesterday was my first official day (weekends don't count) so of course I had to hit up Disneyland with my mom. It doesn't feel like real vacation until you've been to the Happiest Place on Earth! Pics from that later...

Today is the first day of vacation that I'm at home with no plans, which means I can do whatever I want! So far, this includes:
- Waking up when I felt like it
- Farting around on the internet in bed until about 9:30am
- Farting around on the internet while eating oatmeal in the dining room in my pajamas until about 10:30am
- A quick visit to the post office and library (need to get books for my next trip!)
- Lunch with the hubs
- A wander through the paint section of Home Depot with the Hubs, on a quest to find the best grey color for our bedroom.
- Paint samples of colors in our bedroom. Oh, was I supposed to wait to do that?

Did you know that you can get incredibly cute little sample jars of paint colors? I've seen them before but always felt like they were a waste of money - but I really don't want to end up with a color I hate in my bedroom. We narrowed our choices down to two colors and they quickly mixed up the sample jars for us. I got a free Valspar sample in the mail a while ago and it came with the cutest little paint tray and roller that are perfect for putting sample colors on the walls.

Here we have Behr Dark Granite and Suede Grey.

I'm not actually crazy about either color - the Dark Granite seems pretty dark and the Suede Grey has a tinge of purple to it that I'm not excited about. I'll let them dry and put on another coat and see how I feel.
Update to come!

Weekend Recap: Patios, Pits and a Contest!

There's something about a long weekend that gets me and the hubs all excited about projects! And this weekend was a big one. We've been talking about ripping up the grass in the back yard between the house and the garage to make a patio and this seemed like the perfect weekend to get started. Between the electric tiller, several shovels, and plain old man-power we were able to get the grass out and dig deep enough for our patio base.

Here's the space before - we've got a nice big piece of grassy space to the right of the back door, so we weren't concerned about getting rid of this square. It's just begging for a fire pit or some patio furniture.

I promise, I really did help. But we only have one electric tiller so while the hubs did some tilling, I did some research. Someone has to provide the brain power. 

We started by using the de-thatching attachment on the tiller to thin out the grass. As it got thinner, we put the tiller attachments on and ripped it up. Once most of the grass was out, we attacked it with shovels. And more tilling. And more shoveling...
The hubs's parents came up on Sunday to celebrate the his birthday - and to help dig our hole. They were fantastic! We wouldn't have accomplished as much as we did without their help.

We found all sorts of treasures in the grass and dirt as we worked. My favorite is the little elephant. I know we found at least three more marbles in there, too. They were everywhere!

That's as far as we got with the hole this weekend but we also spent a considerable amount of time between Lowe's, Home Depot, and the internet deciding exactly what we wanted to put in the hole. I had no idea there were so many kinds of brick pavers and choices for patterns, or that I'd even care so much when the time came!
In the end, we decided on Harvard Pavers from Lowe's. They're a nice light red that will fade in the sun just a bit over time but won't be too dark against the light blue/grey of the house.
The fact that our pavers are still sitting in the garage didn't stop us from setting up the fire pit and roasting up some hot dogs for dinner. And a fire pit isn't a true fire pit without some mallows.

And now, on to the contest! I had no idea that this space would require quite so many pavers! So for those of you still reading, I've got a little prize for the person who can guess how many pavers we bought to make our patio! Here's a visual aid - my own little Mayan Ruin of bricks!

You have until Friday, June 3rd, at 7:00p.m. (PST) to place your guess by commenting on this post. The person with the guess closest to the number of bricks in the pile wins a $5 Target gift card! One guess per person, please.
I'll even throw in a brick if we have any extras. And you gets dibs on the first s'more next time we fire up the pit. How's that sound?
Happy guessing! Good luck!

And he's a plumber, too.

You remember the other night when the hubs discovered he was a firefighter? Well, tonight he's being a plumber. We've had some water backup in our hallway bathroom and over the last week it got worse... and then even worse when we ran the dishwasher the other night. Let's just say you do not want to see the nastiness that has been stuck in our tub for a few days.
I'm so incredibly lucky to be married to a man who doesn't mind putting on his coveralls and crawling around under our house to snake pipes at 8pm after a full day of work.
And now he's cleaning the bathtub. 
Definitely a keeper.

How I found out that I married a fireman.

My husband just ran out the back door, fire extinguisher in hand, where he leaped over our back wall to put out a fire in our alleyway. Our neighbors had somehow spilled (poured?) gasoline and it caught on fire (or were they trying to burn it off...?). They were tying to extinguish it with their garden hose but the gas and fire were just spreading - toward our back wall, the power pole, and dry brush that had collected in the corner. After using up our first household fire extinguisher, the hubs ran back inside for the second one and it did the trick.
Don't ask me why our neighbors were playing with gasoline... or how it caught on fire... 'cause I don't know. But I'm pretty sure the hubs just kept us from calling 911 and what could have been a very unpleasant situation.
Thanks, babe. It's nice to know I've got my own volunteer fireman!
And readers, however few of you there are, please please please be sure you have at least one of these in your home, somewhere easy to access - because you just never know.

 

Image via...

Happy Saturday!

Yay for the weekend!
It's another gorgeous sunny day so we've spent most of it outside. The hubs (finally) mowed the front yard so our home doesn't look like a little house on the prairie. I like Laura Ingalls Wilder and all but I don't really want to be her.
I did a ton of weeding, fertilizing and pruning and Sammi even got a bath. Our big tree is starting to drop its leaves and all those little pokey round ball things so I'm going to have to start raking on a more regular basis. Those things hurt when you step on them!

Yesterday I put the final touches on the entryway paint job - just need the hubs to cut the baseboards so we can install them and we'll be done!
Here are the pictures I promised -

Before - it all starts with a little scrape scrape scrape...


Getting rid of the hideous beige...


So fresh and so clean!


Images by me. Please don't use without asking first. 'Cause they're just that awesome.

[insert craftiness]

The hubs recently asked if we could put a large white board on the wall in our home office. He's trying to get (and stay...) more organized. Since wall space in the office is limited, I suggested chalkboard paint on the closet door panels instead. He was so excited about the idea, I got right to work!
Boring old paneled closet doors before:

And fantastic chalkboard panels after! (Please excuse my messy desk...)


We got our chalkboard paint the local Home Depot hardware store, sold by the quart for about $10. Most hardware stores will have it in their paint section. I lightly sanded and primed the doors then did three coats of paint. Looks great and is super fun to use!

p.s. Can you spy the cats in the first two pictures above? They're always underfoot!

It's an umbrella! No, wait, it's a clothesline!

It's that time of year again! No, I'm not talking about the World Cup or Wimbledon... It's the time of year when the weather is warm enough to hang your laundry on the line and actually have it dry by dinnertime!
We had to buy new clothesline after my rope from last year got dingy in the winter rain and windiness. This year we upgraded to the plastic lined - it should withstand the weather a bit better. After discussing the "ideal clothesline" with the hubs - and a little search on amazon.com - he ditched his effort to simply hang some line between the house and our tree and went in pursuit of pure greatness.
Despite the loads of crap taking up space in the house and garage when we moved in (we filled a dumpster!) there were a few small treasures - like the large yard umbrella laying against the garage wall. The cover was dirty and faded but otherwise in great condition. Within a matter of hours, the hubs had transformed this large yard umbrella into a fully-functioning clothesline just for me!
First he magically turned the umbrella frame inside-out. I don't know how he did it because I'd fallen asleep on my lawn blanket in the sun.
What I was doing:

What he was doing:

Then he carefully drilled holes in the umbrella frame and strung the clothesline through the holes. Pull them tight and tie them together!


I'm not sure how long our assembly will last but it held an entire load of clothes with room to spare. They're out there now, spinning in the breeze.

My man has great ideas!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's project!
I won't spoil it for you but here's a little riddle as a hint:
What do you get when you cross a plastic wine barrel with a shovel handle and a drill?

Dear Mr. Clean,

Thank you for your magic cleaning powers! I don't know what is in these little white rectangles of cleanliness and I don't care. They have single-handedly changed the look of my kitchen simply by whisking away the nastiness that was my counter tile grout.
There are probably more chemicals in one rectangle than I'd ever want around my pets or husband but again, I don't care. The change in my kitchen is worth it - you with your white eyebrows and tanned bald head are welcome in my house anytime. Mi casa es su casa. Come and clean it.
xoxo,
me.

p.s. I am so excited to try out the Extra Power Magic Eraser next time around! I had no idea they existed. They're already on my shopping list.
p.p.s. Please exercise caution when using the Magic Eraser. They are highly addictive and will provoke you to wipe down every interior and exterior surface of your home, including your hose wheel, and especially that nasty spot where dirt collects in between the window and its frame. I would suggest starting your Magic Eraser use around 9pm so as to dissuade you from cleaning for the rest of your life. At some point, you will be too tired to continue and will be forced to put them away. Until the next day.

Attitude Adjustment.

Just when I was starting to get annoyed at my husband for trivial little things that don't matter - like not bringing in the trash cans from the alleyway; or leaving the dishwasher door open or his dirty dishes on the counter - he goes and does something totally awesome without me even hinting or nudging or flat-out asking that it get done.
After dinner tonight, he completely cleaned up the dishes (I didn't even find a rogue spatula on the spoon rest or a wadded up napkin on the table!) and then he went outside. Thinking he was going to putter around in the garage, I was surprised a few moments later to hear the hose hitting the side of the house and find him doing this:

Yep, that's my hubby cleaning the windows. He even took the screens off, sprayed them clean, and laid them out to dry.

What can I say... I married a keeper.

Not to be outdone, I grabbed the Best in Glass and some paper towels to do the inside and now all of our back windows are clean and shiney! Maybe this will inspire me to do the front windows tomorrow...

And a few other random shots -
Pantaloup in her usual spot, peeking over the windowsill to check out the outside world:

Toys we find in our yard when we garden, leftover from the previous owners. These sad little guys got washed off the windowsill:

These little flowers are popping up all over the bushes in the backyard and they smell amazing.

I am household handywoman.

Hear me roar.
As Chris dropped me off at the house after lunch, he jokingly said,
"So, are you going to install that new showerhead for me?"
Well... now that you mention it... Maybe I will! So I did.
Super easy, totally simple, no tools involved.
Boo-yah.

Planting Plants

I was going to write this great post all about the plants we planted... But we got rather bogged down. Literally. It's pouring outside and there's no way we could plant anything today.
We were able to get our new tangerine tree in the ground last weekend and it's still going strong!
Chris in the hole he dug for the tree.

Doing the "stamp it into the ground" dance:

All tucked in and ready to grow!

Next up, the blackberry bush.

Update: the blackberry is in the ground! And probably drowning right now in all the rain... Hang in there, little buddy!

Dogs 'n Dirt

I should have put the camera in sport mode - Sammi was going crazy! He was so excited that I came outside that he started going his crazy-figure-eights:



Chris pulled out a small tree/bush to make room for citrus - oranges? clementines? grapefruit? - and just had to hang out in the hole for a while.

Anticipating Molly.

Fresh sheets on the bed, an empty closet, and drawers waiting to be filled.

A Space to Call My Own

Most of today was spent moving into the office. I'm almost settled!
(The other part was spent taking another load to the thrift store, going to two different grocery stores for Chris' food - he's gotten particularly picky since re-starting the South Beach Diet - and figuring out my closet space. I think I'm settled there, too.)


Sammi has definitely settled into his spot at my feet!

And I just had to share this picture of my Mickey - doesn't he look so happy and content, perched on top of my cute red shelves? I've had him since I was very little and he still plays a song when I spin the doohickey on his butt. *hugs*

What's a break without a little paint?

I think a room in our house has been painted almost every school break this past year...
From the living room last May, to the hallway bathroom in October, to the guest room over the long weekend in February... And now I'm on Spring Break and we've painted the office!
The baseboards went in tonight, which means we can officially move the furniture back in tomorrow and figure out how we are going to mesh Chris' stuff with my stuff. We may end up drawing a line down the middle of the room if he gets too messy...
Here are some some before and afters:

My own personal handyman, getting ready to finish ripping out the cabinets. These cabinets had shelves to the ceiling on top - will try to find a true "before" picture when we get our photo storage unit up and running again.


Nasty carpet under the cabinets:

And up it comes! The carpet was just stapled into the floor but those popped right out with the right tools. The wood floor was still in good condition, too. Yay!

(I'm working on getting some of those sexy coveralls for myself. They seem to be harder to find in women sizes. Especially smaller women sizes, like myself.)
Prep - lots of spots to patch, and a coat of primer. This seems to be the routine when painting in our house...


I'll get better pictures tomorrow when the sun is shining (assuming it doesn't rain...) but here it is! With two coats of Pensive Sky and Camembert baseboards - definitely an improvement.



I'll be spending quite a bit of time tomorrow getting my stuff out of the guest room and into the office - so more pictures to come! I know Chris is itching to get his computer set up...
But for now, a good night of sleep. There's lots to do tomorrow!