Our List

So now that we've gotten the house to be a lot more liveable and less "ew" (as in, I don't even want to sit on the carpet because it's disgusting, but now I can roll around on it like a dog), I think it's time that we share our plans for this house. Some of them are minor, and some of them are pretty big (and maybe not even feasible). I think it will be interesting to track our progress and see how things evolve.

(I started this list a few weeks ago and we've already managed to cross a few things off!)

Downstairs:

• Touch up / clean ceiling and trim (we are messy messy painters!)
• Take off extra slats from blinds
• Build a new desk for the den
• Add extra trim around the door to deal with the awkward paint issue (Pictured below)
• Paint sidelights and front door
• Install different tile right inside the front door
• Recover our lovely yellow chairs (these things are SO comfortable, but they are sad looking) (Pictured below)
• Get a rug for the den
• Hang up more pictures / decorate in general
• Fix up the half bathroom (new sink, new toilet, paint, and new fixtures, and fixing the weird holes in the ceiling)
• Replace the kitchen sink and faucet
• Add some sort of window treatment to the window above the sink (getting blinded in the early morning hours when I'm just trying to get my coffee is not ideal)
• Replace the 2 fans in the family room with more low profile ones
• Get a new ducted range hood
• Find something to store our sheet music in
• Add a rod and shelves in the laundry room
• Eventually redo the kitchen counters

Upstairs:

• Repaint the railing and spindles; get a new railing for the upper part of the stairs
• Paint paint paint! The stairwell, hallway, 3 bedrooms and the bonus room (walls and ceilings)
• Fix cracks and some drywall issues in the bonus room
• Install new blinds
• Redo the hallway bathroom (floor, vanity, toilet, paint)
• Redo the master bathroom (total redo and redesign)
• Get our closet organized with shelves, drawers, etc.
• Eventually add a sectional and big new TV to the bonus room
• New light fixtures in the hallway / stairwell
• Install light fixtures in all 4 bedrooms' ceilings (this one should be interesting - we'll have to explore the attic!)
• Fix the sliding closet doors
• Decide what we're going to do about the closet in the bonus room (right now it's too long and narrow to be usable 5 years down the road)

Garage:

• Fix the atrocity that is the outside of the garage. We look like hillbillies.
• General clean-up and organization on the inside
• Epoxy-coat the floor
• Add storage, peg board, etc.
• Get a chest freezer
• Remove the utility sink that is weirdly hooked up to the water heater

Outside:

• Expand the fence
• Tear down, move, and rebuild the existing shed. It's in an awkward place and it's huge. Also, it's looking kind of shabby. We'll give it some love.
• Add in flower beds
• Tear out existing "landscaping" that is in the middle of the backyard.
• Tear down covered patio and get rid of concrete. We're planning on putting a new patio in with a pergola. This one will be longer and narrower so it doesn't cut into the yard so much.
• Replace the back door
• We need to tear out the existing hot tub pad
• Landscape everything
• Switch out mailbox and post for something non-rusty
• Tear out the lovely bunch of sticks that make up the tree right next to the driveway. I hate this thing! (Pictured below)
• Replace crab apple tree with something else (maybe a magnolia?)
• Plant a veggie garden
• Repaint / reside the house (brown's not really our color)
• Add a porch onto the front of the house (crossing our fingers that this is actually possible!)
• Install landscaping / house lighting

Comfy But Sad Chairs

Not Exactly Sure Where to End the Paint...

That's Some Great "Landscaping" Right There

I'm hoping that we'll be able to work on a lot of the inside stuff this winter. And next summer we're really hoping that we can start our garden with at least some herbs. This will definitely keep us occupied, but the good part is that nothing is urgent and we have some small things to do so we can build up our budget to do the bigger things!

Clean Laundry

Well, we're back at it. We knocked out a nice little weekend project and figured this would be a good time to start posting again. The laundry room is, I hope, finished (unless Leslie decides to hang a few more pictures or something). So yay for one room being done!

Leslie had suggested putting in a rod and some shelves in the laundry room so that she could store a few things and hang clothes. This seemed like a nice little project, so we did it! The best part was that we spent only about $40 total on this, most of which went towards picture frames and a basket.

We had taken down some white shelves in the bedrooms and I had kept them in the garage hoping they would come in handy. I'm glad I did. I cut the old shelves to fit into the space and added a lip under the front to give it a nicer look. The shelves are just particle board painted on three sides, so I took one of the shelves that was pretty marked up (crayon markings, highlighter scribbles, rings from wet drinking glasses, etc.) and cut off the finished edge to use under the new shelves. The end result was pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Ripping the Edge of the Shelf

Trimming the Lip

All Installed

Leslie wanted to have a basket for dirty dishtowels, so I spaced the shelves around a basket she picked out at Home Goods. The top shelf will then be for the iron and probably a few other miscellaneous items. She had a metal "I Love Lucy" sign that we hung as well.

Finished Corner

The rod was even easier. Leslie wanted a place to hang clothes that need to be ironed, so we just bought a dowel and mounting brackets that you typically find in closets. The total for both was about $7 at Lowes. It was a simple matter of screwing the brackets into the cabinet and the wall and there you go!

Leslie also picked up a few frames and put some old greeting cards that she had gotten from her mother in them. These, along with the "Lucy" sign, all add a nice touch to the room and help it look finished.

And there you have it! Our $40 weekend project. Leslie loves how the room looks and the changes add some good functionality. Definitely an afternoon well spent.

In other news, we're hoping to have a more routine posting schedule. We're thinking every Tuesday and Friday for now. We'll see how this goes and maybe make a change later if these days don't work out. But hey, at least we're trying to update more frequently!

We have also unofficially renamed the "bonus room" to the "rec room" because we aren't that creative and most of your ideas weren't that practical (trust me, I'd love to call it the Room of Requirement, but I also want my kids to avoid being complete nerds... at least for the most part). So there you have it. And sorry, but no prize for anyone. It probably wouldn't have been a very good prize anyway...

And lastly, here's a picture of Leslie and Ellie all curled up on the couch. This has no relevance to the rest of the post... it's just cute.

Thanks for reading!

Goodbye New Friend

Yesterday was a tough day.

When we first got Ellie she was sick with an upper respiratory infection. This wasn't terribly surprising to us since the shelter has a lot of cats in a fairly small area, which makes it very easy for things to get passed around between them all. After a day or two she started doing nothing but sleeping and wasn't her playful self. So, we took her to the vet, got her some medicine, and within a week she was perfectly fine.

Bernard was, as far as we could tell, going through the same thing as Ellie. We brought him home and he was all kinds of curious and excited to be in a new home. Then, after a day or two, we noticed that he wasn't as energetic and seemed to have the sniffles. So, like with Ellie, we took him to the vet and they gave us some medicine to give to him and said he would be better soon. Well, he wasn't. We took him back in to the vet after a week and a half of basically no improvement. They checked him out and found that he had worms, which they figured was the reason he wasn't getting better - he was probably just too weak from the worms to fight off the infection. This also wasn't much of a surprise since he was brought in off the streets before we got him. They gave him a pill for the worms, different medicine for us to give to him, and set up another appointment for a week and a half later. He continued to remain basically the same, with nothing but a few days of being energetic enough to get up and walk around the house. He wasn't eating much, but was at least eating. This was all troubling, but we just figured that, because he was so young, his little body was simply having a hard time getting over the upper respiratory infection and worms. Until yesterday.

Leslie came home and found him seeming weaker than normal, even though by now "normal" was pretty bad. He stood up and started walking, then staggered and fell over. We rushed him off to an emergency animal care center, since it was too late in the evening to take him to our vet. They took his vitals and asked us some questions. Turns out he had lost a quarter of a pound since the last time he had been weighed - down to 1.75 lbs from 2 lbs. His temperature was way below what it should  have been and his heartbeat was irregular.

The next step was to take x-rays of his chest. The vet came back to us, showed us the pictures, and explained what was going on. There was a lot of fluid in his chest, he was septic, and obviously very weak. He explained that the chances of Bernard making it, even with treatment, were very slim. About 5% slim. He could go at any time. It was also probable that there was some underlying condition, and that all these things were being caused by something more serious. So, we had a decision to make: try to treat him overnight and hope that he somehow bounced back, or to put him to sleep via intravenous anesthetic. We didn't like either option. In the end we decided that it would be best to put him down. We took some time to say goodbye - hold him, pet him, kiss him. Then one of the technicians came in and gently ended his pain as we held him.

We only had him for a month, but he was part of the family. He loved to curl up on us, usually climbing to the highest point he could before settling down. Ellie wasn't a fan of him right away but they became buddies before long. Even as weak as he was he would always try to be near her. We just hope he was happy and that the short time he spent with us was good. We were glad to have him and will miss him.

Seems Fair

We've been up to a few fun things lately. Partially as a "part 2" to my birthday, since we didn't get much of a chance to celebrate since I was working odd hours.

Now that I think about it, we never talked about my birthday at all. As I said, we didn't do a ton since I had to work that night, but it was still a nice night. We went to a little BBQ place not far from the house, which was delicious (and very reasonably priced). We forgot to take pictures... and our fingers were probably too covered in sauce to take pictures without getting our phones pretty dirty. Anyway, after that we went home and Leslie surprised me with an ice cream cake! Always a good way to celebrate birthdays. Well, except for the lactose-intolerant people out there... they should celebrate with something else.

After doing some work around the house we got a bonfire going in our little fire pit and enjoyed the evening with some leftover wine, bacon, and chips and salsa. Since we haven't gotten a chance to go camping yet this year this made for a nice substitute. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see any stars, but it was still a great night.

We also got a chance to go to the Indiana State Fair, which was lots of fun. It's probably pretty typical of state fairs, but it was fun. We got to see all the animals, which included cows, sheep, horses, and, Leslie's favorites, goats. They also had lots of rusty old rides that neither of us really felt like risking our lives to ride. And, of course, there was lots of fair fare. We enjoyed corn dogs, fried macaroni and cheese, an elephant ear, and even brought home some flavored popcorn. It was a lot of fun and we'll look forward to going again next year.

Leslie's New Best Friend

This Little Piggy Went to Market

Elephant Ear!

Cheers

In addition to all this fun, we've been dealing with some unpleasantness as well. Bernard, the newest member of the family, has been sick. This is, of course, no fun for him but is also not a lot of fun for us as giving a cat medicine isn't usually an easy task. He's starting to feel better, but isn't nearly as energetic as a kitten should be. So, we'll continue to give him his medicine and hopefully have him back to his playful little self before long. But, sick as he is, he's still pretty darn cute.

"Hiding" Under the Table

What a Goofball

"Everything the light touches..."

And that should do it for now. Thanks for reading and we'll be back with more later!

A Crowd of Changes

We've made three changes recently (eh, get it?!). Nothing major, but it's something!

Probably our most notable improvement was the upgrade of the kitchen sink. The sink that was here was very shallow, as seen below, and wasn't great for washing a large number of dishes. We managed to get a used sink from Leslie's sister since she's remodeling her kitchen. We then picked up a new faucet set at Menards (gotta love 11% rebate weeks!) along with the various consumables we would need, like plumber's putty, silicone, and so on. Overall, the project wasn't too hard and was completed in a day. It's very nice to have such a large sink now, especially compared to what we had.

Out With The Old

Silicone Border

Ready To Drop In

Bye Bye Little Guy

Hello New Sink!

Shallow

Deep

The other changes we made aren't nearly as drastic. The first is that we've added some artwork above our mantel. This is the work of Leonid Afremov and it fits in the room quite nicely. Or at least we think so.

Art!

And the last little improvement we've made is to fix the toilet in the guest bathroom. It was running and was in need of a new flapper. It was just one of those little jobs that I had been meaning to do, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. The old flapper looked ridiculous... no wonder it wasn't working. Anyone else think it looks like a weird hat?

Unflappable Flapper

That's about it for this round. We'll be doing more and hopefully updating more now that I'm done working a weird schedule. Stay tuned!