Thanksgiving Week

It may seem that all I do is paint, but I do have a few other things going on in addition to the joy of rentals. For example, on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Hailey and Makayla had half-day at school. That made it a perfect day to recruit my intrepid helpers for a few hours of labor at the duplex.

This neglected yard needed some attention between snow storms.

 

Today was a warmish day for November-maybe 30 degrees, perfect for a little outdoor exercise.

I offered to pay these two for their work so they could go to the mall and buy some Christmas presents for their mom.

Hailey and Makayla dug right into the work, and it wasn't long before 

 

we made significant progress.

Hailey makes a great leaf tamper-downer.

We picked up leaves, rocks, logs, branches, a dozen gallons of dog poop from that dog-they-weren't-suppose-to have, as well as silverware, legos, socks, gloves, a pair of pants, cups, books, a couple of cookie sheets, a few dozen toys, and a set of keys.

We filled both garbage cans and could have filled a couple more.

Hailey is hanging on to a pair of sunglasses, a swimming mask, and a dog toy.

She's confident she's getting that dog for Christmas. I'm not going to be the party pooper who tells her differently.



 

Next stop: the mall, where we ate some of that healthy mall food for lunch. After some serious shopping, Hailey and Makayla each chose a gift for mom. They knew exactly what they wanted to buy, having spotted it last week when we were shoe shopping (and it cracked me up to see what they chose). I'd tell you what they bought, but I've been sworn to secrecy.



Makayla is hopefully holding a wish list from Build a Bear.

 

Our next stop was the motorized animals kiosk, where for a small fortune these two got 30 minutes of fun, with Grandma chasing behind.

We made an early visit to Santa, who Makayla initially declared a fraud because "he didn't have the right shirt on", but after Santa showed the girls a few magic tricks, Makayla solemnly announced, "He is real. He knows magic." For the record, Makayla wants a puppy, Hailey needs an ipad. Dream big girls!

 

 Santa gave them some antlers, then we checked out one more gift shop at the mall and headed home.

 

Stan and I did our annual early morning service project with Rotary Club, loading sacks with Thanksgiving food for distribution. This year they invited high-schoolers to come help.

 On Wednesday, Makayla, Hailey, and I hit the movies. We saw the 3-D version of Penguins of Madagascar.

The first five minutes of the movie were delightful. Then it disintegrated into a hyper-active mess. I highly don't recommend it.

 

We had a sleepover Thanksgiving Eve so that Amy could go to the late movie with friends. Hailey thoughtfully woke me up at 4:30 am because she is pretty sure that's the time she usually gets up.

Thanks, Hailey, there's nothing like spending the holidays in a sleepy haze.

 

 We had Thanksgiving dinner at Cliff and Diane's. There's Megan, David, Grandpa, and Kent chatting about the upcoming diet-killer.

Makayla was unhappy to be at the boy table. That will change in a few years.

Here's post-dinner Hailey, suffering through the effects of too much L-tryptophan. 

 

Of course, Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without the football game. Except for me. I totally skipped the game.

So fun to have these two in the house. I kind of like that little photo bomber, too.

We went to a swanky restaurant

and ate swanky food.

We checked out Scheels. They still have a cool fish tank.

Of course we had to ride

the Ferris wheel.

 

Megan and David pretended they hardly knew each other at the bottom

but the top was a compleeeetely different matter.

 

Alas, all good things must come to an end.

All too soon the turkey was eaten, the dishes washed, and these two headed from the frozen tundra of Billings to the frozen tundra of Rexburg.

See you two in a few weeks, Butlers!

 

Anatomy of a Remodel: Week 16

We have dubbed this week "The Week of Painting."

 

In other news, Stan fixed all of the broken outlets and replaced all of the overhead lights.

This became

 

this,

 

this set of unmatched kitchen lights

 

have been restored to the original matching state, and that cheap white light

 

has been recycled to replace this broken light in the downstairs bedroom.

 

Perfect!

 

We discovered a couple of more interesting un-improvements left by the old renters:

the place the-dog-they-weren't-suppose-to-have tried to scratch through the door from the garage to the house,

and the reason none of the doors in the house will shut. All of the middle hinges are missing, making the doors hang unevenly. Can anyone explain that to me? I keep looking for the cameras, thinking surely we're being punked.

  Stan bought new hinges, put them on, and now all the doors work perfectly.



Our most consuming work of the week was the painting. 

Making sure every line in the old paneling is now completely covered with paint was quite the chore.

That hole in the ceiling was there when we bought the place, but the cover no longer stays in place. We're working on a solution.

We staying late painting till Saturday night because

 

On Monday the carpet was laid.

This now looks like

 

 

 this. I should have taken a close-up of the new carpet, but I didn't think to. It's a carpet with several shades of brown speckles, perfect for hiding spots.
This is looking toward the back wall,

and looking from the back wall toward the front of the room.

Looking into the bedroom from the family room.

 

and into the family room from the bedroom.

 The downstairs is now officially finished. Upstairs we have closet doors to replace, the back sliding glass door to replace, lots of painting, and some bathroom repairs. I'm hoping we can take the rest of the week off to enjoy Thanksgiving.

 

 



Anatomy of a Remodel: Week 15

This week we made significant progress.  Stan finished dry walling the old brick wall

 

and he textured it. No more fires in a fireplace that doesn't have the ability to vent to the outside.

 On a side note, Stan and I have caught up on all the BYU devotionals, conference talks, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, and audible books.  Gotta love the modern technology.

This is the fireplace in the upstairs living room. I really like it, I think it adds character to the room. On the other hand, I always felt the downstairs fireplace wall made the room seem dark and old, probably due to that weeping mortar. 

 We've also ordered carpet from Lowes, and Stan ripped out all of the old padding. Lowes came and measured the space for the carpet today, and we hope they can work us in within the next two weeks. I'm just relived Stan's arthritic knees won't allow him to lay the carpet himself. I'm sure the thought has crossed his mind.

 I continue to make note of all of the missing light covers,

all of the broken things,

all of the things needing to be cleaned.

I've almost finished painting downstairs. The color isn't pink--it's more of a taupe-y brown. I just couldn't capture it on the camera.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to the fine craftsmanship of  whoever finished this basement before we bought it. Finally, something to shake my head about that doesn't involve our renters. This is the bedroom, with its perfectly centered light,

and this quality rustic molding along the ceiling, complete with carefully matched seams.

Some things are just not going to get fixed this time around, but I'm certain there will be other opportunities.

(Please ignore the dusty spider webs all over the popcorn ceiling-I'll be getting to that shortly.)