Wednesday, April 25, 2012
talk about indecisive
i realize i will never hear the end of this from Rundle, but i found a photo today that offers even more ammunition against me regarding my indecisiveness:
yeah, we lived with both lights for almost 2 weeks because (1) Nacho only had time to install 1 of the new lights when he got back from Moser's and (2) say it with me everyone.....i wanted to make sure i liked it! i know! how did i ever get married? a lot of booze and a double dare!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
i got Pot ting Bench
haha! you were thinking something else weren't you? shame on you!
after several weeks of a little weld here, a little weld there, Nacho finished my custom potting bench this past weekend. unfortunately i don't have any 'before' pics boooo. but the before was a combination of salvaged pallets sitting on top of salvaged landscape bricks. do you see the theme here? as proud as i was of my salvaged goodness, i just was not confident in it's abilities to withstand a flood & that is something we have to plan for in anything we do here. so beholdmy new potting bench!
i've got shelves for storage, a wire rack for hanging, & a wire grate (in the middle) for soil to fall through to a collection bin. pretty nifty eh?
i still get to shout out some slavaged goodness because the boards that we used for all 3 shelves are leftover pieces of our deck build. that stuff is pretty heavy on it's own, so this thing is unlikely to go anywhere & has already proven it can withstand a flood or two. the wire backing is leftover cattle/hog confinement wire from the gabions. i hate to waste anything.
so props to Nacho for a nice build & to moi for outstanding Management! now i'm free to get my garden on!
after several weeks of a little weld here, a little weld there, Nacho finished my custom potting bench this past weekend. unfortunately i don't have any 'before' pics boooo. but the before was a combination of salvaged pallets sitting on top of salvaged landscape bricks. do you see the theme here? as proud as i was of my salvaged goodness, i just was not confident in it's abilities to withstand a flood & that is something we have to plan for in anything we do here. so beholdmy new potting bench!
i still get to shout out some slavaged goodness because the boards that we used for all 3 shelves are leftover pieces of our deck build. that stuff is pretty heavy on it's own, so this thing is unlikely to go anywhere & has already proven it can withstand a flood or two. the wire backing is leftover cattle/hog confinement wire from the gabions. i hate to waste anything.
so props to Nacho for a nice build & to moi for outstanding Management! now i'm free to get my garden on!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
enlightened
technically we are still remodeling the kitchen. like many people, i could say we are "mostly" done & we are and have been for some time. and like most people, we still have that laundry list of little things to complete. you know, the stuff that never gets done.
my biggest frustration in this entire project was lighting. i was not at all prepared for how expensive lighting is. "shock" is not an adequate word to describe what i felt every time i'd find a light that i loved & then saw the price. i mean, i get it, lighting is important & you want to get it right, but good lord getting it right is expensive.
so i just kept collecting little samples & hoping for the right light to come to me
we have a fortunate friend in Brandi because she was able to get us our final dining room light at a good price. and while it was not my 1st choice, in the end, it really is the better choice! as chance would have it, i actually saw my first choice installed in the Barrington Beach House project on This Old House (sikp to scene 8 about 21:24 if you care), and while it's still a beautiful fixture, i'm much more pleased with our choice & think it's more appropriate for our space & style.
the other area i struggled with was the island. finding lighting that i love was never the problem. finding it at a price i was willing to pay was! okay, i can justify god knows what for a faucet, but $250 for a light fixture is just ridiculous right? yeah. so to the InterWebs i went! i follow several diy "mommy" blogs & got some great ideas. my best came from The Splurge or The Steal. i located a similar fixture at Lowes for $30 but, unfortunately, they didn't have a brushed nickel model. so some hammer spray paint later, i had these!
not bad. this got me by until i could find something more to my liking (style & price point). and it was Home Depot that came through for me at $99 each!
so i was not in complete love with this fixture, just a mild crush. but like all solid relationships, we started off friends & then something just kinda grew out of that. a little more googly googling & i found the standard height for a fixture over an island is 30", so of course, the hardware that comes with a light would be set for that that right? nay! our "out of the box" height was either going to be 27" or 33" - one was too high, the other too low! so thanks to our good friend Barry, we were able to cut the pipe & he tapped a new thread to get baby bear juuuust riiiight at 30".
so we have a "finished" product. def. finished = until i see something more shiny! actually,
we are in what i hope is the home stretch of lighting. we have LED light strips under the cabinets & that gives us good lighting for the bamboo counter tops. we recycled our old puck lights that once served as under cabinet lights, and now live on top of our cabinets for temporary up-lighting - i plan to replace those with LED strips just like the under cabinets.
however, we still need pot lights around the perimeter areas: stove, fridge, & dining shelving. you might notice in the pic above that we do have LED pot/spot lights in front of the windows, 3 to be exact, one for each window. in essence, it has come to this:
thanks to the IKEA online planner, i can at least attempt a lighting layout. items in yellow represent existing lighting (like the island & dining table). green represents lighting in question. see what i'm saying about 1-4? is it enough? too much? am i even close on spacing/positioning? i'm not too worried about 5-8. those will likely be spot lights like the ones currently in front of the windows. 6-8 highlight the shelves & the boxer art & 5 will highlight new boxer art for Baxter! so i'm down to 4 lights & then one more item off the check list - aka Home Stretch!
my biggest frustration in this entire project was lighting. i was not at all prepared for how expensive lighting is. "shock" is not an adequate word to describe what i felt every time i'd find a light that i loved & then saw the price. i mean, i get it, lighting is important & you want to get it right, but good lord getting it right is expensive.
so i just kept collecting little samples & hoping for the right light to come to me
so i was not in complete love with this fixture, just a mild crush. but like all solid relationships, we started off friends & then something just kinda grew out of that. a little more googly googling & i found the standard height for a fixture over an island is 30", so of course, the hardware that comes with a light would be set for that that right? nay! our "out of the box" height was either going to be 27" or 33" - one was too high, the other too low! so thanks to our good friend Barry, we were able to cut the pipe & he tapped a new thread to get baby bear juuuust riiiight at 30".
we are in what i hope is the home stretch of lighting. we have LED light strips under the cabinets & that gives us good lighting for the bamboo counter tops. we recycled our old puck lights that once served as under cabinet lights, and now live on top of our cabinets for temporary up-lighting - i plan to replace those with LED strips just like the under cabinets.
however, we still need pot lights around the perimeter areas: stove, fridge, & dining shelving. you might notice in the pic above that we do have LED pot/spot lights in front of the windows, 3 to be exact, one for each window. in essence, it has come to this:
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Post Attachment
i found this how-to today & since i already have an adobe.com account, figured i'd give it a shot. i've actually had plenty of uses over time for attachments to a blog post & can think of other places this could come in very handy!
for my first "test" document, i'll use something that has made me immensely happy on the worst of work days:
for my first "test" document, i'll use something that has made me immensely happy on the worst of work days:
Thursday, April 5, 2012
recovery
ahhhhh! got back into the pool this morning after almost 2 weeks away from it. i promised Nacho i'd wear ear plugs because i still can't quite hear, everything is still muffled in both ears. uggghhhh! i also promised to only do the kickboard, no actual swimming. and of course i stuck to that right? riiiiiiight! i did at least start out sticking to the plan (wink wink nod nod). so TheGirls (that's the retired ladies i swim with, not my boobies), were excited i was back & very curious about how i'd been - i just adore them. i foolishly told them about my promise to only kick board - i would pay for that later this morning.
as i said, i did start out keeping the promise. my trusty kickboard & my newish Zoomers & kicked away. i have this prominent bone on the top of both feet. i have no idea what it is called, but it does get aggravated if i wear tight shoes & my Zoomers were just that, tight because they are newish. so it became clear at about lap 13 that i was not going to get a mile in & i am OCD enough that i cannot swim less than that! soooo why not try a little breast stroke? i mean my ears were kinda getting wet just doing the kick board & putting my face in the water to replicate my usual freestyle breathing, so why not? there's where the promise went out the window. when it became obvious that the ear plugs were staying in on breast stroke, then why not try freestyle? and the promise was a memory at that point. i was so excited to keep my "deal" and still get my mile in! i did at least lay low enough that i didn't try any kick turns. i have a feeling my ear plugs would not have stayed in with turns - but really, i'm sure they do cuz don't people do this all the time? shhh we'll find out tomorrow.
i was so excited that (1) i got back into the pool, (2) i didn't get any water in my ears, and (3) i got back to see TheGirls.......who all threatened to tell Nacho i didn't keep my promise. and none of them were happy that i'd "pushed too hard" as far as they were concerned? did i mention how much i adore these women? not only are they just the best inspiration because the youngest is like 70 & they all swim or walk EVERY DAY, but they are like the aunts and grandmas i either never had or don't have immediate access to anymore. just the best. except that they are tattle tales! well, thank goodness for blogging, cuz i beat 'em to it!
oh, and weirdest part of all of this? so i'm done swimming, get out of the pool & remove the ear plugs......AND I DON'T EVEN NOTICE THE DIFF! it all still sounds the same ear plugs or not. awwwww when will this end?
as i said, i did start out keeping the promise. my trusty kickboard & my newish Zoomers & kicked away. i have this prominent bone on the top of both feet. i have no idea what it is called, but it does get aggravated if i wear tight shoes & my Zoomers were just that, tight because they are newish. so it became clear at about lap 13 that i was not going to get a mile in & i am OCD enough that i cannot swim less than that! soooo why not try a little breast stroke? i mean my ears were kinda getting wet just doing the kick board & putting my face in the water to replicate my usual freestyle breathing, so why not? there's where the promise went out the window. when it became obvious that the ear plugs were staying in on breast stroke, then why not try freestyle? and the promise was a memory at that point. i was so excited to keep my "deal" and still get my mile in! i did at least lay low enough that i didn't try any kick turns. i have a feeling my ear plugs would not have stayed in with turns - but really, i'm sure they do cuz don't people do this all the time? shhh we'll find out tomorrow.
i was so excited that (1) i got back into the pool, (2) i didn't get any water in my ears, and (3) i got back to see TheGirls.......who all threatened to tell Nacho i didn't keep my promise. and none of them were happy that i'd "pushed too hard" as far as they were concerned? did i mention how much i adore these women? not only are they just the best inspiration because the youngest is like 70 & they all swim or walk EVERY DAY, but they are like the aunts and grandmas i either never had or don't have immediate access to anymore. just the best. except that they are tattle tales! well, thank goodness for blogging, cuz i beat 'em to it!
oh, and weirdest part of all of this? so i'm done swimming, get out of the pool & remove the ear plugs......AND I DON'T EVEN NOTICE THE DIFF! it all still sounds the same ear plugs or not. awwwww when will this end?
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
about last week
1 week ago today i celebrated my 43rd birthday. good god 43! to quote a movie, "you're really IN you 40's now". and i celebrated it in a style only i could.....NYQUIL SHOTS FOR EVERYONE!
yep, you heard that right. i managed to avoid the latest flu bug that has caught most everyone around me. nacho had it a couple of weekends ago & i missed it even in my own home. unfortunately, i think i unwittingly got it the Friday before when Cookie & i did our usual round at the nursing home. they'd been on a 2 week quarantine where we could not visit. we got the ok to come on the 23rd, and the following Sunday i didn't feel so good. i went to work on Monday & felt fine but by the afternoon i knew there was no way i going to be in the next day. the irony is, i'd considered taking a "sick" day for my birthday & hanging out with my girls from the pool. i have long had a theory that i don't fake sick days because karma would visit me & i'd actually be sick. guess what? meet karma because i rocked a 102 temp on my bday! this would not deter Nacho though. after playing his 2nd game in hockey playoff that same night, he came home and made me a cake. a cake that i could not see how i would ever eat given my state. but i did cuz he did. that's commitment people!
i remained in bed the entirety of last week and am only now "getting better". i use that term loosely because, unlike most people, my flu bug did not go respiratory, it went auditory. i sit here today with a double ear ,infection. WTF? i've never had an ear infection my entire life. not as a baby, not as a kid, not ever until now & in both ears. it was quite the surprise when i woke up last Thurs & couldn't really hear anything & then realized i could, it was all just incredibly muffled. that was nothing compared to the raging pressure/pain in my ears. so i'm on antibiotics until this Sunday. i'm hoping the muffled sounds & constant ringing will end soon. it made working today practically impossible. but i can say i have a new found respect for babies. i now truly understand why they are so miserable when they have an ear infection. i cannot imagine having to deal with this & unable to tell anyone what it is like or what i need. so if you have never had one & you have a baby who gets one, gimme a call cuz i think i can translate for them.
oh, and before i forget HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! thanks to everyone who did call, text, email, yodel best wishes. i may not remember due to the nyquil induced coma, but it doesn't mean i don't appreciate it!
yep, you heard that right. i managed to avoid the latest flu bug that has caught most everyone around me. nacho had it a couple of weekends ago & i missed it even in my own home. unfortunately, i think i unwittingly got it the Friday before when Cookie & i did our usual round at the nursing home. they'd been on a 2 week quarantine where we could not visit. we got the ok to come on the 23rd, and the following Sunday i didn't feel so good. i went to work on Monday & felt fine but by the afternoon i knew there was no way i going to be in the next day. the irony is, i'd considered taking a "sick" day for my birthday & hanging out with my girls from the pool. i have long had a theory that i don't fake sick days because karma would visit me & i'd actually be sick. guess what? meet karma because i rocked a 102 temp on my bday! this would not deter Nacho though. after playing his 2nd game in hockey playoff that same night, he came home and made me a cake. a cake that i could not see how i would ever eat given my state. but i did cuz he did. that's commitment people!
i remained in bed the entirety of last week and am only now "getting better". i use that term loosely because, unlike most people, my flu bug did not go respiratory, it went auditory. i sit here today with a double ear ,infection. WTF? i've never had an ear infection my entire life. not as a baby, not as a kid, not ever until now & in both ears. it was quite the surprise when i woke up last Thurs & couldn't really hear anything & then realized i could, it was all just incredibly muffled. that was nothing compared to the raging pressure/pain in my ears. so i'm on antibiotics until this Sunday. i'm hoping the muffled sounds & constant ringing will end soon. it made working today practically impossible. but i can say i have a new found respect for babies. i now truly understand why they are so miserable when they have an ear infection. i cannot imagine having to deal with this & unable to tell anyone what it is like or what i need. so if you have never had one & you have a baby who gets one, gimme a call cuz i think i can translate for them.
oh, and before i forget HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! thanks to everyone who did call, text, email, yodel best wishes. i may not remember due to the nyquil induced coma, but it doesn't mean i don't appreciate it!
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