Humble Home Progress 3

We decided to stay the night last night after John got off work, so we brought the dogs and a bunch of supplies.  It went as predicted--Olivia and John went to sleep pretty quickly, and Lucas visited me sporadically to see what I was doing. He eventually got in bed with daddy and went to sleep.

  I lost track of time. I worked on this nasty upstairs bathroom. Good news is our makeshift plug worked; I didn't detect any methane gases. We are anxious to put new toilets in but we have to wait for the flooring...which is waiting on our paint...
I taped up the nasty baseboards and trim:

gross...

Then I painted, and touched up with second coat:

When it dried, I taped along the wall to paint the baseboards. I put a thick coat of satin "ivory tower" paint and I think it looks a lot better.

We also took out this unnecessary and bothersome door and cleaned up the frame.

At that point, we could officially say the upstairs is all painted!
So I touched up the baseboards in the formal dining room, and used my tiny brushed to get in between the chair railing. Then I decided to start the master bedroom.
  I took out the ugly dusty curtains which had heavy duty rails..with 4 anchors...pried them out, sanded, filled the holes with this cool pink stuff (turns white when it's ready to sand/paint), took off the outlet/switch cover plates (probably one of the germiest of places in a home..yuck) and taped up everything. Was too tired to embark on the painting. Saw the clock was 3:30am, so I moved Lucas over and slept on the aerobed pretty comfortably too!

John took this to prove to co-workers that he 'made me paint the whole house' lol.

But I got up at 7:30am and got back to work. John helped me tape up the tray ceiling since we decided it needed paint too. As I was painting the master bedroom this "seal gray" color, I wanted to do some kind of accent, so I decided to tape off either side of the main wall and paint the center this "soft suede" color. John had doubts because it was hard to get a straight line, but changed his mind when he saw how good it looked: (and that it still felt 'masculine' haha).
Before:

After--getting crazy with the cheese whiz lol...my last minute decision. First time trying a 'design' with tape:

Then we began my least favorite task...another dirty bathroom. But the master bath and half bath ceiliings were painted this wierd orange-y color...which made the room feel small and dark, so we painted the ceiliings white...painting ceilings sucks!
We removed the heavy mirror, filled holes, sanded, and taped--ready to paint walls tomorrow. But we had to come home today to get cleaned up and get better rest. Even with virtually non-stop painting and going up and down stairs (I always seem to need something on the opposite floor..and then when I get there, I forget it. lol) I managed to eat quite a bit. So even though I was exhausted and feet and back ache, I decided to get a quick workout. Back in the AM to hopefully start the big walls/big foyer....scared to use the extended ladder!

The kids ate, slept, pooped, and played a bunch. They love going to "the house" (Lucas cries when we leave saying he wants to stay!)
Olivia loves being in this pack and play...like it's her personal castle...then Lucas jumps in to bug her lol.

 He's getting really good at these puzzles!

  Lastly we took down the ugly kitchen/nook curtains and filled the anchor holes..taped it up and it's ready to be painted...not sure what color yet lol.

 Our messy kitchen...

Tomorrow? maybe..

I'm Jealous

so jealous...i used to play this song at open mics when i lived in Canoga Park CA...I wish it sounded like them. These guys are so talented I can't get over it. They covered my favorite zero7 songs too...wish I had all the equipment and software...it's depressing at first, then inspiring. I wish I had something better to record with than my digital camera. Maybe someday :)

   What this guy does with the layering of all those instruments is amazing, and her voice is spot on!

Stay.At.Home.Mom :)

My true talent:

Everytime I am dancing to this song, I think John probably feels this way about me :)
Olivia was dancing to it earlier but I didn't catch it, so I put up some video of them doing their circus dance from "Coraline" :) Another favorite (of mine too!):

Funny People

Everyone's sleeping and I am watching a movie I happened to record the other night. It's called "Funny People" with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. It's really different...I mean, I guess I haven't watched any real movies lately other than "Kung Fu Panda" or "Finding Nemo" etc, but this movie is really funny and dark. I haven't finished it yet but I recommend it. I know John will enjoy it when he has time off to watch it with me. It also has that girl that is in all those romantic comedies never as the star..Leslie Mann. I just read she's married to Judd Apatow so that explains why she's always in his movies. Anyway, I think she's a good actress.. I especially liked her part in "The 40 yr Old Virgin"--I had a friend that was just like that character lol.

  Okay that's all. :)

If you didn't see my friend on Idol last night...

My eyes look wierd huh? Must be the Red Bull....or the whip-its we did with Demi Moore that night. 

Last August I waited 13 hrs to be initiated into the elite group known as AIR--American Idol Rejects :) BUT I feel fortunate that out of the thousands in line, I was next to Kristine Osorio. We had a lot in common and it made the time go by faster. She's really good! I remember getting the texts every time she got through to the next round--so exciting! Then we went out to dinner before she went back to Amarillo. I haven't heard from her lately, so I'm not sure if she's still in the competition (fingers crossed!) but I know she got to Hollywood :)

Here's her clip from last night:

Damn I can see the weight difference from August til now...15 lbs difference :) I had just started WW the month before.

Here's a little clip of the night we went out to celebrate. We went to a club/thai restaurant and waited a while to get a table but the pad thai was really good.

Her good friend Samantha was a blast too. And Jasmine was another gal we met in line. Also a great singer. I am re-thinking my audition and the choices I made--if I decide to try out next season this summer (which would be my last chance at age 28) I would definitely pick a better song and wardrobe..I don't know why I picked the song I did--especially without my guitar! Maybe I'll get better and give it one last shot :) 

But man how exciting to be right in front of Jennifer Lopez (pronounced "Hennefare Lopayz..taco flavored keesses!") and Steven Tyler! I wish her luck and hope she lets me ride her coat tails! ha :)

A little early..but call in if she makes it! I've never voted on American Idol before, but I would if she made it.  Good luck!

Spaghetti Garlic bread recipe

Today I decided to try this recipe I saw online. I needed to go grocery shopping anyway, but I usually wait for John to be home to help me with L & O which can be difficult in the store. I wanted to surprise him with this recipe so I went alone. It wasn't too bad, but they just got a cold so I wanted to hurry back and let them nap.

   No stores or deli/bakeries had fresh dough to make bread, so I made my own with some rapid rise yeast and it turned out great! I first made John's grandma's spaghetti recipe with mini-meatballs so they cooked quicker. I let the sauce simmer for a few hours and used a little more paste to make it thicker. I made some spaghetti and mixed it in the sauce. Then I made the dough and let it rise for almost an hour. I rolled it out and cut slits on either side. Then I put spaghetti and meatballs and sauce down the center, with cubes of mozarella cheese on top, and braided the slits to close it up. I brushed the top with egg white and sprinkled parmesan cheese, parsley, paprika, and garlic bread seasonings on top. Cooked it for 35 min at 350 degrees.

   John came home from work and has caught the babies cold, so he wasn't feeling well, but he really liked it and ate a couple servings before going to bed early. Lucas won't try it--he's pretty sick. Olivia was sick yesterday and seems much better today. Here she is enjoying dinner:

  I packed some up for John to take to work :) Next time I'll get some good pepperoni or salami from the meat market and make strombolis!

Humble Home Progress 2

John had 2 days off and we spent almost every minute of them on the house! We are both anxious to move in, so we are working as fast as possible.

     We got a great deal on the house....yes...but, the previous owners never cleaned! And the lights in many rooms are so dim (25 watt bulbs!) that I wonder if they just couldn't see the filth they were living in. But for me, I don't want to feel like I am in a hotel, in my own home....so we are re-doing the bathrooms throughout the house. Instead of paying thousands to install new baths, I found a company online that does resurfacing: www.tubsandtops.com  We had a guy come out yesterday morning and resurface the master bath, master shower, and upstairs tub for $600! Look at how clean and white they are---can't use abrasive/bleach cleaner on it though:

 Haven't painted in there yet...and we definitely need blinds...neighbors window looks right in!

John went and bought this ladder that extends to 22' so we can do our big walls soon (gonna be scary to be that high...hope it looks good though!) and I needed it to reach the crown moulding in the office(especially to tape it off--but at least that meant I didn't need to tape the ceiling. It's hard to see with the light on in there because it casts shadows, but we will take it out and put in a ceiling fan soon, since it won't be a formal dining room anyway. The colors are dramatic, and John didn't like it when I first started with the light green, but when I was done, said he took it back :)

And then after second coat: 

I like the colors and think they will look better after the dark laminate wood floors are in. I still want to get that tree branch decal too. The colors don't look exactly like the pictures--they aren't as bright or lime-greeny...it's called "soothing green tea" and "dark olive".

  I finished my second coat of the gray in the upstairs bath, and was about to start taping off the inner bathroom room, with the actual tub and toilet, when I noticed how filthy the walls and trim and baseboards were....caked on pee..obviously a boy splattered his pee everywhere while standing...disgusting. I couldnt' even scrub it off, so I was about to paint the baseboards and trim white, but asked John to take the toilet out. It was a long process.....with multiple trips to the store...the bolts and pipes and everythign is corroded...it was like it was never washed. He was able to take it apart and put it in the garage, but the hole was an odd size so the rubber stopper we bought:



didn't fit....and we didn't want the house filling up with methane and stinking when they installed the floors so we had to just stuff it with a towel. so gross all the wax from the seal, mixed with dirt and you know what...yuck. The carpet is just as gross..we keep finding earrings and bugs and hair and trash...I feel bad for the floor installers that have to haul all this dirt and nastiness away...but they're getting paid well :) The house was built 10 yrs ago, so it's collected a lot of filth. Can't wait to get the new floors and new toilet and paint in. That bath is pristine though! Sadly, the other 2 toilets are just as disgusting (as well as the baseboards.) Anyway, I like the gray I painted in the bathroom. We took down the big mirror for me to paint, and since its old ugly and heavy, we are gonna buy new vanity mirrors to put in there. I was thinking these:

But it'd probably look better to get a white framed mirrors huh? 

Before:

After:

So we are almost done with the upstairs...toilet held us back today. But John has a good amount of time off after the next 5 days, so we might just stay the night on the aerobed, especially since we can use the bath and shower now...it's a little far to drive 45 min each way after painting 12 hours, only to drive back again the next day. And with gas prices going up (thanks Iran!) we should stay up there a few nights to paint...but that means I need to make better choices even though we are eating out since we don't have a fridge yet.

  Oh and we decided to take the dogs with us today so they wouldn't sit in the crate the whole time at home. They enjoyed the house but of course stupid Tyrone had to poop in the house as soon as he came in. They also liked the yard, but it POURED all morning so it was like a sea out there.

  My feet ache, and my calves won't stop cramping. My shoulder blades hurt and my hands are calloused. And now we are home and hungry!

  And I bet you're wondering how the kids did this whole time lol.. Well, we took turns tending to them, but we had a little TV with their dvd's on, and they played with their puzzles and coloring books on the aerobed. And occasionally ran through where I was painting and touched the wet paint...lol, but they did well, and love being at the new house.

Oh I also finished up the guest room closet--and I think it made the room look bigger. I did some touching up of where the previous green paint went over on the ceiling or baseboards. It made the room feel more finished:

new floors new floors new floors....clean house clean house clean house! Soon :)
I'm so impatient...I can't wait til next tuesday when we can get back to work. Meanwhile we just got a notice from our apt saying our lease is almost up (March) and will automatically renew at $500 MORE than our current payment...AND that new management requires renters to buy renter's insurance. Good thing I have a signed copy of my notice that we are moving from a month ago. It's so convenient that they apparently "lost" it. Gotta get outta here and into the house soon!

Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres

I just got back from a walk to the park with the babies, and the channel happened to be on some spanish channel. I put the babies down for their nap and told John was about to go workout, but I got sucked into this show lol. I have retained a little spanish from high school, but its fairly obvious what's happening in this episode---an unwanted pregnancy, and a girl contemplating abortion. It's pretty interesting to watch a show in another language! I also had google translate out, so I could grab words here and there to make sure I know what's going on.. (i.e. "verguenza"--shame, "barbaridas"--lot, "embarazada"-- pregnant, "hijo"--son). I think I am gonna stay for the end or record it just to see what happens, but from the look of it, it seems to be cautioning women against it--although the girl's friend keeps trying to tell her it's safe and legal etc, but it looks like her cousin just died because of an abortion so she may have changed her mind. The episode is called "Madre, No Delincuente." (Mother, not criminal).


This would never have been written for any major American network shows. It would have ended with no regrets and happiness...okay really though, I gotta work out and stop watching telenovelas! enfarto!

Attabator

I was just looking through some of the pics and video Susan took on the days she babysat so we could paint the house, and there are lots of cute ones. This one is of their walk to the nearby park on the bayou. It was around naptime and they were getting sleepy on the swings--the dialogue is particularly entertaining from 1:45 on :) I will have to do some kind of video montage with all the cute clips during her trip soon.

Oh and just a little update---Susan's slumber parties have officially broken Lucas of his pacifier dependency to sleep! It was long overdue, but we were waiting til we were moved into the house since he had already left marks on the walls and door and screamed relentlessly when we tried a few months ago. I am so surprised and glad that it was so easy. His bedtime demands are now just his blankie, his car's pillow and blanket (he has to have his head directly on the odd shaped car pillow lol) and his snake..named 'Snake the snake.' And as long as I read a few books each night, he goes to sleep very easily. It's a big load off our minds, as I was worried it was affecting his teeth. Now that he's fully potty trained, I feel like we have made a lot of progress. I guess as evidenced in this video though, his speech needs some work!

Humble House Progress

For the last 2 days that Susan was here, she graciously babysat the kids while John and I began painting the house. It is such a long process with so many different surprises and extra trips to the store. But it's much cheaper to do it ourselves, and is a fulfilling task--you see results right away and typically get a little better at it each time. We decided to aim for completing all of the upstairs first, so we bought all the different paints we would need for that floor (ended up getting 16 gallons---didn't use it all though). We bought all the supplies we needed, and brought our step ladder and drill and cleaning supplies. I tried to learn from the mistakes I made in VA in painting that house. That house was ~1600 sq ft and all one color. This house is ~2760 sq ft with lots of angles, and I tried to be a little adventurous with the color schemes in each room. Fingers crossed that it will look good. The great thing was that we didn't have to waste time and energy worrying about getting paint on the carpets since they're all goin---I got pretty sloppy!!

   My camera can't really convey what a difference the paint made...so come visit! The fresh paint makes the house look and feel new! The blue carpet still throws it off a little, but as soon as we get this paint done, the floors are out!

A walk thru...not sure what is more accurate to see the results...probably a mix between pics/video...I also wanted to show the layout of the house since the pictures are kinda hard to put together in your mind:

A short one of the upstairs bath:

And the first floor before:

  The first step was to clean the baseboards. I didn't bother scrubbing too hard because they were dinged up and the previous owners got paint on most of them. So I figured after we finish painting, we would do a little touching up with some off-white paint, and then re-caulk the baseboards neatly, to cover up their paint. We will also have to paint a little off-white to cover up where they got paint on the ceilings.

   After the cleaner dried, we taped up everything we could, and unscrewed outlet and switch plates. Then I used this :

which was alright...I was looking for a roller with a flat edge-guard type thing to do a straight edge or corner...guess it hasn't been invented yet. The edger worked fine, but this house has textured walls, and all the corners and areas where walls meet ceilings at all different angles etc, it was all uneven and bumpy. Sometimes I let one wall dry after painting, just to be able to put the tape directly on that wall and create my own straight line. Basically after cutting each wall in with the edger, I had to use a smaller brush to fill in the cracks.

  We were looking for an electric paint roller machine but they only had sprayers at lowes and home depot, so we tried out this roller with a pump tube. It worked pretty well the first time with the "Toffee Crunch" color in the game room, but no matter how much time we wasted cleaning it, it didn't work the next time because there wasn't a complete tight vacuum to be able to suck up more paint, it just kept sucking in air. So  rather than waste precious baby-less time messing with it, we did the rest manually. We are sore in our legs and feet, and have callouses but I say it was worth it :)

   First we did the game room. I decided to do an accent wall for where the TV will be on the wall. I picked a gray color. For the rest of the room (and probably will use it downstairs too) I picked this "Toffee Crunch" color. 

Game room Before:

Game room After:

Music room Before:

Music room After:

Then the little room off the game room, I call the music room, we painted a darker gray. I think it looks good against the white trim and white french doors. The ugly carpet makes it look blue so once the carpet is in, I am sure it will all come together..here's the carpet we chose:

   Oh! Also, when I picked the colors, I was using Behr's color palette, but when we got there and saw samples of how well Glidden's all in one (primer included) covered in one coat, we decided to get it--was also a buck or two cheaper than Behr. So they did color matching with the Behr colors I picked. Glidden worked very well; most colors only required one coat. Only the light yellow color in the kids' room needed a second layer. Their room had these gnarly flames, but we took off the red tape and painted over it all with "Gobi Desert" and really liked the color. I picked this manilla tint color to go with it--I like the combo...but Lucas was PISSED that we erased his flames lol. I am gonna put a better decal on it soon though!

Also, the dark purple didn't seem to adhere very well in the guest room over that horrid green...I started wondering whether the paint the previous owners used in that room was possibly oil-based or something? idk. I put two layers and I think it covered well. When I opened the purple paints for the guest room, I started regretting picking such dark colors. But John and I are trying not to judge anything fully until the paint is fully dry and everything is put back in place, with the new floors.

Still wet and has tape--may have to do second coat on lavender color...

  Today was very overcast and the lights in the bedrooms are dull so it was hard to see the colors. I hope it looks good...dont wanna have to paint over all that dark purple! John started taping off the fairly large closet in the guest room, but I didn't start painting it yet. not sure what color to use yet. Don't want to use that purple. Any color suggestions?

   The hallways we used that "Gobi desert" color we liked in the kid's room. I think it looks really good in the hallways especially with the recessed light. Also used Gobi on the stairway.

   The bathroom upstairs is gonna suck...a lot of painting in between narrow spaces etc...I think I will use that gray color from the game room accent wall. After that, the whole upstairs will be done!

  I am gonna work on my drawings tonight to pick out a final color scheme for the first floor. Once John has some more time off, we will take turns painting and entertaining the babies. It's pretty fun actually! It's really exciting to be transforming this  house together and I'm so grateful we found this house when we did. :) I think having all this room will make me a better wife...I'll be more inspired to clean and organize and cook! The kids and dogs will have room and a yard. John will get his lazy boy! lol. Thank you Texas!

  And thank you Susan for really getting us that head start on this project. We hope to see you in another few months and have the house ready for you to really have a dance party with the kids. :)