My new closet

So I’ve been so handy lately and that is not generally me. I finished installing our floor about 2 weeks ago and vowed to myself no more do-it-yourself home improvement projects until winter (when I have to be inside). That vow didn't last too long. About 5 months ago we went to IKEA and we bought some stuff to organize our closets and we made another trip on Labor Day and I bought some more. Well I decided to tackle the project. I always start strong and then finish wishing and promising I’m not ever going to do anything like that again. My closet is not that big but it is really deep so I decided all of my clothes were about to burst out if I didn’t do anything. So I split my closet in half and put two smaller places to hang clothes and with the other half I installed a pants hanger, tie/belt drawer, sock basket and another shelf. I’ve pretty much filled up the entire thing and am wondering if I made anymore space or just made it a little more organized or maybe I should get rid of some clothes?? Oh well another home improvement project down the drain… there will probably be more in a while (I’m thinking basement office or more closets). Until then NO MORE projects I promise! But I always feel proud to have completed something I wouldn’t normally do. Do you see my dilemma??

Before

All my junkFinished ProductAll my clothes put away

delema solved

THANK YOU to all those who helped us in our predicament by voting for our new kitchen/dining room flooring. Hands down everyone in the bloggerhood voted for the darker of the two woods. However those who saw the options in person voted for the lighter wood. So we decided that although your help was much appreciated we thought best to go with the lighter wood. As we soon discovered deciding on the color of wood was the least of our problems! We thought this to be a project that might take a day and a half at the most – well we started Thursday evening worked on it ALL DAY Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday… I thought it might never end! It didn’t help that as we were finishing up the floor I decided it would be a good idea to paint… PAINT are you CRAZY!?! Yes, yes I am. So we painted as well. For three days our entire kitchen was in our living room- it was a dreadful few days! Done at last, done at last thank God all mighty we are done at last!

help i'm in a pickle..

We have decided to put new flooring in our kitchen & dining area. It has been narrowed down to laminate flooring, we've agreed on the the grain & style - now we need your help in choosing the color! Please let us know what you think. One is a light-ish wood color (josh thinks it looks like a gym floor) and the other a darker maple-ish color. Our cabinets and dining table are a very rich dark redish brown (not cherry). PLEASE VOTE FOR THE ONE YOU THINK LOOKS BEST!

Lighter

Darker

Hodgepodge Of A Post

So this has been a long time coming. I am a real slacker and haven’t posted much of anything lately but I promise I am still alive and have been doing things too. Since I don’t want to bore with all the details I will keep it short and sweet.

December 31st –

We finally broke down and bought a new car for Kayla. Her old Buick is still running but it was time for a new car. She has wanted one for a long time and we finally got the guts to buy one. We bought it from The Sherm’s Store in Ogden. The manager is in my ward and gave us a really good deal. It’s a 2007 Toyota Highlander. I love it and I think Kayla loves it even more than I do.

After putting ourselves into debt we went and saw I Am Legend. I didn’t know that it was such a suspenseful movie but it was and I liked it. Kayla watched the majority of it with her faced covered by her coat. But ever since our first date (December 31st 2002) we have gone to a movie. It is kind of a fun tradition that we have.

We also went and celebrated the new year with the Cave’s. It wasn’t much of anything. We watched Spider Man 3, ate some food, watched the ball drop then went home. It was still fun to hang out with them though.

January 2nd --

So we decide to redo our kitchen cabinets. It was such a long process because we used oil paint that took 16 hours to dry. We added a bead board insert in the middle of all the doors then painted them a brown-orange color… It is a little too orange for me. I am not a fan but it is still growing on me. It really does look OK but I don’t want ever re-paint them again. After they were painted we drilled holes and added handles and that took FOR EVER. Take a look, here is a before and after picture.

January --

Our friends, the Cave’s, came over for dinner. We were going to build a snowman but by the time we made it outside the snow was too hard and would not roll into a ball. That’s OK we just played in the snow for about 10 minutes then went inside. Wyatt was so cute. He looked like the camouflaged stay-puff marshmallow man. We have this snow suit from my parents and this is the first time it has been used. It was hard for him to move but he liked to lick the snow and throw it too.



January 9th --
It snowed like no other. I was amazed how much snow I had in my drive way. It took me 2 hours to shovel it all. The neighbor let me use his snow blower but it only blew the first 8” off the top. I had to shovel the rest. We had about 13” total from the storm. The next day I could hardly move!! Just two days before this huge storm I took in my parents snow blower to get fixed so I could use it. He called and said it would work but I would have to shut off the gas after each use. My mom told him just to keep it until he could get it fixed all the way. My dad told me I could have it but it would be a family snow blower. I told him that was fine but I was going to store it at my house. It was just a few days too late. Now that it is fixed it won’t snow anymore.

The joys of ownership

I know that you probably know what I am going to write about from the title but here goes anyway...So ever since we moved into our house we have had this weird humming sound that comes from the showers when the hot water is on. We just recently we noticed that our water pressure was way low and our washer would not work on the hot water cycle. It would just get an error and stop working. So we looked in the owners manual to see what the error meant: "Low hot water pressure or leak" I was grateful it wasn't a leak. So my mom asked a plumber in her ward what the symptoms were if you have great cold water pressure and nothing for hot. He said we needed to shut off the water, take off the pipe and drill out the build up. So i did just that. My first impression was how did the water even get through all that junk in the first place. There was not even a small hole. Nothing and it was solid too. So needless to say i got it all fixed and drilled out. I actually felt quite accomplished because i saved myself some money by fixing it on my own. The washer works great now and there is no longer a humming sound in the shower. Now i have so much pressure i am going to have to clean the drain because it doesn't drain fast enough now. Oh the joys of home ownership!

Hand prints in the cement

So we finally poured cement for the fence and we also poured a little bit of cement to put the hose on so it doesn't have to sit on the grass any longer. The pad for the hose was a last minute thing because we had so much left over. We decided to put our hand prints in it. It brought back lots of memories from my childhood when my parent poured cement and we got to put our hands in it. It was really quite fun. Kayla, Wyatt and I all did our hands (and Wyatt's feet) Roxy did her paw print by just wanting to be part of the action and my parents were there to place their hand prints too. It was just a fun thing to do.

I'm finally putting up a fence

So about a year ago we got a nice brick fence along the back of our property but it was only for 90% of my property. The owners of Sparrows put up a nice retaining wall fence but they stopped at their property line which was about 15 feet from my property line with my neighbor. So needless to say we have had a crappy chain link fence there that has been falling down with every gust of wind. I went and purchased the vinyl fencing now it is just the hassle of installing it. My dad and i have been working on it and we are to the point where we can pour the footing but it is supposed to rain so we are going to have to wait until after the weekend. BUMMER! But i will be so excited when it is all competed because then i wont have to go out there and keep picking it up and it will look so much better. Roxy will finally be able to run in the back yard and we wont have to worry about where she is. Your work always seems to be so much more worth it when you do it yourself.

Labor Day, and we did just that.

So for labor day, Kayla and I both didn't have to work. It makes it nice to have some free time every once in a while so that you can catch up on the chores around the house. And that is what we did. I was able to clean out the garage a little bit and also work in the bathroom. I'll have to take some pictures of that for a later post. Well as part of our "labors" we went to Target and bought the Dyson DC17 Animal vacuum.

First off, let me just say YECK! We vacuumed our house with our old vacuum and then did it with our new Dyson and I thought i was going to puke with all the dirt and Roxy hair that it picked up. However, i was so impressed at all the power it has and how it left our carpet so soft and actually clean! I can't believe i put Wyatt on that stuff as filthy as it was. I would HIGHLY recommend buying one to anybody! They are expensive but worth every penny! And ladies if you are hesitating spending that much just think a guy becomes motivated to do more stuff around the house if you have a fun "toy" to use. I know i sure am!

The theater shelves are finally done!

So ever since the Parade of Home 2006 I got this wild idea to turn our basement into a home theater. Every one of the new houses we walked through had one and I loved it. Hence I wanted to build my own and it has been approximately 1 year in the making. My brother-in-law helped me build a wall and hang sheet rock and my dad helped me finish the sheet rock and start the shelves. The shelves were the finishing touch and really pull the room together. I love the room so much and would probably spend all of my time down there if I could. Come over and lets watch a movie in my finally finished home theater (You’re all invited)
At first I thought that I had tons of DVDs but these shelves are barely filled, so I guess I’ll have to buy more. It seems like every Black Friday I always end up with about 10 new ones. I guess the morale of the story is that always get these wild ideas after seeing something I want. Next stop…I’m thinking the kitchen cabinets :)

Up and running!

I finally have my pond going. It had a huge crack in the plastic liner and it kept draining itself. But I've sealed it and filled it back up. So far so good. We'll see in a few days if it is still holding water. My dad helped me build this pond last year. When we bought our house we had dead grass, dead trees and ugly landscaping. Now it is almost the way we want it. The only things I need to finish are the fence and pour a cement pad for Roxy's kennel so we can leave her outside during the day. But that will take all summer guaranteed. I love to do these kinds of projects around my house but sometimes after they are started I don't have the drive to finish them. I have tons of plans for both outside and inside the house. One day I will have enough money and time to finish everything I want to do. I think probably when I get everything done, and the way we like it, it will be time to sell the house and move. Oh the joys of home ownership.
The fence project is going to take a lot of time and money to complete. Last fall the businesses behind our house put in a nice 8' cement sound barrier wall but little did we know that this wall was going to end 15' from our property line. So we 90% of a nice fence and 10% crap. Kayla and I tried and tried to get them to finish the extra 15' but they wouldn't. We went to the city, we called the builder, and even offered to pay for it. The company was not very accommodating. We would have had to pay about $3000 for this extra chunk of fence. I could do so much more with that kind of money so we opted not to do it. We are going to fix it with a vinyl but again it is all about time and money -- and in this case the know how. One day!