More of the same

I finally finished painting all three rooms in the basement.  I even painted the doors!  I have to admit, they are looking a million times better.  Next John is putting up the molding.  He has never really done trim work before, so I am interested to see how it goes.  Despite all my bitching and moaning, I truly think that this project is going to be worth all the work and money.  We are going to have three extra rooms to use in our tiny house, and we desperately need that extra space.

I think Porgie and Izzy are going to love the new playroom.  Really, just the novelty of getting to go down into the basement is enough to satisfy them.  John's office will probably still look like shit, because he is chronically disorganized.  The guestroom is going to be nice.  I am currently shopping for wall art to spruce up the space.  I briefly considered a slip cover for the sleeper sofa, but decided that they were too expensive. John and I bought that couch used when we first moved in together.  The damn slip cover costs more than we paid for the sofa!

The carpet is supposed to be installed this weekend.  We still have some more work to do before everything is done (drop ceiling, recessed lights, etc.), but I am so eager to get the new carpet and just be done already!  I am counting down the days until I can sit my lazy ass on the couch at night again.

I can talk about other things too

Sorry about all the bitching.  This basement project has consumed my life.  Yesterday John and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary by fighting about that damn basement all afternoon.  But, things are actually moving along again.  We picked out the carpet (for the second time).  John is partly finished with the electrical work, and someone is coming out Thursday to replace the glass in the basement windows.  If we can just stop the money hemorrhage, things would be awesome.

But you know, I have other things going on in my life too.  I have all these adorable little kids who I can also talk about, so let's do that today!

Porgie has transformed into a big kid.  She is tall and smart and so self-sufficient.   All I have to do is cook her food, and she can do everything else for herself.  It is amazing!  But then sometimes it makes me sad too.  She is growing up so damn fast.

Izzy is my little hellion.  The kid is wild and crazy.  If there is trouble in the house, you can be sure it was Izzy's idea.  He is a little rascal, but he is also very insecure.  He worries and frets about all these silly issues, that would be trivial to anyone else.  Sometimes I find myself worrying about all of his worrying.  He gets it honest.

Guppy is adorable and snugly and mischievous.  He still loves throwing food.  I bought him some suction cup bowls to stop this behavior, but of course, that didn't help at all.  He manages to pull the bowl off his tray, then he dumps out the food onto his tray, next he chucks the bowl across the kitchen, and finally, he throws the food on the floor too.  It is exhausting.  I have concluded that if I want him to eat, I will be spoon feeding him until he is at least 24. 

They are awesome little people.  I am so lucky to have them!

I am so over this basement project

Everything keeps going wrong with this fucking basement project.  Seriously, this project is going to be the death of me.  This week was rough for several reasons...

First, I knocked my palm sander off of the ladder and broke it. I was devastated.  That was the first and only power-tool I have ever used.

Then, I noticed that two of our basement windows have broken glass.  How did I never notice that before?

Finally, Lowe's called to inform us that they no longer carry the carpet we ordered.  When why is it on display in your damn showroom?  WHYYYYYYY???

Today was especially bad.  John and I snipped at each other all afternoon.  I felt like I was on the verge of tears over and over.  The project is costing way more than I had anticipated, and I am just sooooo over the whole thing.  I kind of wish we never would have started it.  At a minimum, I wish we hadn't ripped up the carpeting already.

I was naive and thought the whole project would be done by the end of next week.  But now, I have no idea when this thing will be done.  Shit, we don't even have our carpeting picked out yet, and I have no idea who to call about the broken glass in the windows.  I am guessing that the basement will NEVER be done, because we are just going to keep encountering more and more problems.  It is a money pit.

I love talking about my basement

The basement improvement project continues.  It keeps getting more and more complicated.  The room that was originally going to be the playroom, is now going to be John's office.  The electrical panel was located in the closet, so we decided that it would make more sense to make that room a grown-ups only space.  So, now we are in the process of moving everything out of John's current office (the future playroom) so that I can paint.  This room also has permanent marker on the walls.  Tune back next week to hear me bitch and complain!

Improving the basement is a lot like moving.  We have been going through all our stuff and purging all of the clutter.  Clearing out a room takes like 5 hours.  It is painstakingly slow.  The good news is that my van is loaded up with Goodwill donations.  That makes me feel very happy!  I love decluttering.

I also decided to give away my childhood furniture.  It was a white and gold canopy bed with a matching dresser.  I held onto that furniture for so long, because I wanted to paint it and give it to Porgie.  When we pulled it out of storage, I realized that the bed was in bad shape.  The frame was wobbly and loose.  Also the original paint was chipping and peeling.   Then, John and I accidentally cracked a leg on the dresser when we were moving it.  So, I listed it for free on Craigslist and sat it on the curb.  The dresser went quickly, and then someone took all the metal parts of the bed.  All that is left is the headboard and the footboard.  I am kind of sad that no little girl will get to enjoy that canopy bed. 

I am excited about all of the progress!  I think John is fed up with all of my demands, but I really want to get this shit done.  If we don't keep on top of this thing, it has the potential to take FOREVER to complete.

Spending like I am rich, when I am actually poor.

This basement project is quickly snowballing into a HUGE project.  The problem is that I like nice things.  I crave nice things.  And once I get started, there is no stopping me.  Originally, I was just going to paint the basement.  Then I decided that we needed to replace the ceiling tiles.  Before I knew it, we were looking at new carpet, selecting recessed lights, and picking out curtains.  I can't seem to stop!

The crazy part is that we hope to move soon.  Why am I trying to sink every penny in our bank account into the damn basement?  I just can't half-ass any home improvement project.  I have always thought my house was kind of shitty, and I want to live in a nice house!  So I just keep sinking money into this bottomless pit.  Since moving into this house, we have replaced lots of big ticket items (roof, furnace, air conditioning, fence, sidewalk, front steps, landscaping, and MORE) .  We'll never make that money back.  I need to stop.

I have these dueling voices in my head.  One voice says, "What if you can't sell the house?  You might be living here for another 10 years.  Fix it up and make it nice!"  Then the other voices chimes in, "You are going to sell your house at a loss!  Stop wasting your money idiot!"  Blah.  I don't know what to do.  If I could just find a bag of money, everything would be awesome.

Kentucky

As you may remember, we traveled to Kentucky for Christmas this year.  The trip was AWESOME.  I have been spoiled.  I don't think I can ever go back to sleeping in relatives' basements.

We stayed in a suite, which I highly recommend for a family.  It was sooooo nice.  There was a living room, a kitchenette, and a huge bedroom with a door that separated the two areas.  The baby slept great, and he never woke from the noise we created in the main area.  The hotel had an indoor pool, which Porgie and Izzy loved.  We took them swimming at least once a day.  It was wonderful.

We also got to visit family, friends, favorite restaurants, and all that good stuff.  My family has complained that they didn't get to see us enough, which is probably directly related to having such a great experience at the hotel.  Who wants to visit family when you can swim and watch cable television?!

I did learn something new about my kids on this trip.  They are ungrateful assholes.  I had no idea that my kids could be so rude.  They didn't say thank you, they complained about things they didn't like, and worst of all, they acted like nothing was ever good enough.  I heard my daughter say, "Is that all I got?"  on more than one occasion.  And she got TONS of gifts.  It was beyond embarrassing.  We don't normally open gifts in front of other people (we usually get gifts in the mail), so I had no idea that my kids were so lacking in politeness.  We will definitely be working on that one. 

Although the trip was great, the 10 hour drive with three children was BRUTAL.  And the kids were even really good on the drive.  I thought the baby would cry a lot, but he was captivated by the TV in the car.  Despite their awesome behavior, 10 hours is a loooooong time to be trapped in a small space together.  I really shouldn't complain, because it went as well as any 10 hour car trip can go, but damn, it was a long drive. 

Overall, it was probably the best trip to KY we have ever had.  I am glad we went, and we'll be making a repeat trip sometime this summer.

Teenagers are lame

We have three small rooms that are finished off in our basement.  The previous homeowners had 5 children, and they added the rooms to the basement so that each child could have their own room (2 kids on the main level and 3 kids in the basement).  The three oldest kids were in the basement, and they were all annoying teenagers.

Even on a good day, I don't particularly like teenagers.  They are so self-involved and dramatic.  But these kids were even more assholish than the average teenager, because they thought it was a great idea to draw on the walls with permanent markers.  The walls are littered with names and phone numbers and band logos.  When we first moved in, we painted the entire main level of the house (while I was 20 weeks pregnant with Porgie).  We never used the rooms in the basement, so I couldn't muster the courage to tackle those walls.  I just shut the doors and tried to forget about it.  But now, those stupid fucking teenagers are causing me woe.

I applied primer TWICE this weekend.  The red and blue markings still seemed pretty bright, but I figured that the paint would cover it.  I painted the entire room last night.  Of course, the red and blue marker bleed right through the paint.  All that work, and the room still looked like shit.  I went back to Lowe's today and bought a different brand of primer.  After John got home from work, I primed the walls for the THIRD time.  when I finished, I noticed that the entire basement smelled like lighter fluid.  I know that sounds strange, but it really did.  I read the back of the can, and apparently the vapors from the new primer can cause flash fires!  AHHHHHH!   I turned off the furnace, opened the basement window, and proceed to freak out for about 3 hours. I was certain that the furnace was going to explode and kill us all.

The moral of this story is that teenagers are assholes and Kilz primer can kill you.  The end.

It's painting time again!

We have changes underfoot here in Cakerwakerville.  We have an eat-in kitchen and a dining room, which seemed a little redundant when we first moved into our house.  Our previous house did not have a dining room, so we only had one small table.  I was pregnant at the time, so we decided to just put our table in the kitchen and to use the dining room as a playroom for our future children.  Our house has been set-up this way for 7 years, and I am soooo over the playroom. 

I have grown to despise the playroom for several reasons.  1) No-one ever seems to play with all the crap we have crammed into that room.  2) It is a constant eyesore mack in the middle of our living room and kitchen.  3) I have a beautiful new table that can seat 8, but we don't have room in the kitchen to open the leaf. 

The playroom is going to the basement.  We have several rooms that are finished in our basement, so we are relocating all of the colorful plastic crap to the lower level.  We don't go down there much, so I know that the playroom has seen the end of its days.  We are still going to have toys on the upper level, put only what will fit in this cabinet (which I LOVE)...

I have lots of work to do.  I am currently repainting the room in the basement that will be the future playroom.  Then we are going to replace the carpeting.  Next, I am going to repaint the dining room.  This project is going to take several weeks to complete, but I am excited to see the end results!