Getting This Done!

You know how getting a friend to workout with you makes you go to the gym all the time? We have that...but they are our "house-remodeling-partners". Every Wednesday, our neighbors Jeff and Keri come over to our house and we work all day on a project. Saturdays, we end up at Jeff and Keri's rental helping them with a project. It is really awesome!

So far, our list of accomplishments include: a full roof of shingles cleaned up, a bathroom ceiling taken down (including insulation), all the old molding taken out of both houses, our front porch pried off, old nasty pink carpets hauled away, and last but not least our whole second floor has the carpet and sub floor removed and is almost ready for some remodeling! Ready for the pics? Remember the bathroom before?

And here is is now...taken down to the old flooring and siding.

Gone is the acoustic tile drop ceiling. We will raise the ceiling back to 9" and add a bathroom fan/vent. If you look closely, you can see some of the smoke damage from the fire that occurred in the 1940's.

Also gone is that faux wood wall paneling! I think I have every right to say that I HATE THAT STUFF.

The master bedroom! No more pink carpet!!! This room is going to be so cool after we refinish the floors. The sun pours through the windows during the winter months and the trees block the sun during the summer months. Now we just have to strip through the layers of wallpaper...no fun.

Fresh From the Cow's Teat...Or Not

Our cottage cheese is from Utah, heavy cream is from Portland, and the buttermilk hails from Washington. Thank goodness I am out of dairy products because this website is strangely addicting...

LEAVE MY WIENER ALONE!

For those of you that have not had the privilege of meeting our dog Inchie Squinchie, consider yourself unlucky. I mean, not to brag or anything, but she is possible the most athletic wiener dog I know and she is Jack's best friend. So you can imagine how devastated and scared we were when she was attacked by two pitbulls last week.

We were just coming back from the park and the Inch was on her leash running next to our bike (The secret to keeping your wiener dog athletic...do not let them get fat) when our neighbors two dogs rushed out after us. I saw that they were tied up and did not think much of it UNTIL their leash broke and they rushed us in the middle of the street. The big male pit grabbed Inchie but wasn't able to shake her before I started screaming and coming at him. Inchie got loose some how and took off down the sidewalk and right into my friend Keri's arms. She scooped her up while her husband persuaded the other dogs to quit chasing her with a steel pipe.

Inchie was left with a large fang mark in her coat with stitches underneath. A drain that was about the size of her protruded out of her side for the weekend but that was removed this last Monday. She is 100% now and back to digger squirrel hunting...she has also become aggressive towards larger dogs. Great.

I was left in the middle of the street with a broken leash and a screaming child. Oh yes...there have been nightmares and an overall anxiousness to get back to Inchie whenever we are gone too long. What can I say...best friends.

Spring Is Here!

I share this post with you in hopes that I will not get comments about what a bad choice I made. Both LJ and I strongly disliked the tin/shed/two-by-4 awning that was hanging off of our house. Not only does it look a little ummm....how should I say this...interesting, it also blocked out tons of light to our dining room. I wanted it gone from day one but we were not sure what was underneath.

We found out this weekend! Here it is!!

Before:



After:

It took all of an hour to tear down and I like to think that it makes the house look like a Queen Anne again. I am sure there is something about "great lines" or some other design phrase that Anne could come up with. I just love the fact that I can bask in the morning sun while drinking coffee in the dining room.

Pizza Time!

Hmmm I think I should be proud?

Until June...

Message-in-a-cookie, $19.95

I would love to tell you that I made these cookies but I can't because these adorable cookie cutters are on backorder until June. After that, watch out world. No on will dare have a baby without a box of "It's A Boy" cookies around...

Been A Little Busy..

A 3-layer white chocolate macadamia nut cake with huckleberry filling and a white chocolate buttercream frosting. 11 eggs and 20.5 ounces of white chocolate later, I ended up with this. I told the lady that I was making this for that I don't use fondant because hand painted white chocolate leaves taste SOOOOO much better!