Remodel Day #4

Day 4 began in a whirl for me. I had a massage scheduled for 2 pm, we were scheduled to feed 2 missionaries, hubs was teaching a real estate class until 5 and was at least 1/2 hour away and missionaries were to eat from 5 - 6 and be on their way. I had steaks to cook out and I have no clue how to use the BBQ! I mean I can move it around the patio but turning on the gas tank and the actual igniting of the fire is beyond this chick's scope! Besides, like they always tell you: If you learn how to "do it" (whatever it is), then you "own it." Welllll, this gal ain't "owning" cooking out! I barely want to "own" cooking in! As my friend, Bertie, says the only reason I have a kitchen is it came with the house! I adore fast food resturants, ordering in and nice restaurants too. I've cooked for 47 years and hubs deserves to take this "hot grandma chick" out on his arm - "arm candy"!! Hah.......trust me, that ain't so and Sophia Loren has nothing to worry about! But I digress.

The missionaries ended up grilling the angus steaks I had and Love Bunny missed a fiiiiiiine meal, let me tell ya. Steak, potatoes, salad from our garden, corn on the cob and watermelon. Ooooh, let me correct that; he missed a fiiiiiiiiine HOT meal! Missionaries were gone before he even got home!

All this going on while Contractor Bob is measuring, cutting and hammering away. (Oh, an aside here.....some of you sweet little chickadees think hubs is doing the remodel; Love Bunny is NOT doing the construction; we hired a contractor we know personally. I wouldn't trust hubs to be diligent in getting it done in a timely manner, which in actuality means he won't listen to my nagging to "get this job done!" Remember, we're married - annnnd want to STAY married. Need I say more?!?!?!)

You've seen this house before so I won't add descriptions, just use your imagination as to what is happening to the living room/kitchen/dining area wall to enclose it and "define" the rooms a bit better. It's also providing wall space on which I'll hang more "fluff", move our grandfather clock into the LR and can then get a non-working fireplace/mantle in our family room. That'll be "eye candy" also. Squeeeeeeeallll!!!!

Earlier in the morning I decided to wash off the patio from the grease drippings and bird droppings. I moved all the chairs, pots, the grill and the infamous bicycle of hubs that he insists sits out there till he finds time to clear enough room in his shed to hang it in there. Well, 2012 is just too far away for me so I put it in the yard and when the sprinklers came on last night it got wet. I thought he was going to keel over. Now, don't those guys doing the Tour de France cycle in rain?!?! Yep, so what's the fuss all about?!?! It's wet; deal with it, guy! *Sigh*.........................

Then after hosing down and scrubbing the patio, I turned the hose on the window and surrounding areas of the house washing the spiders and earwigs outta their little hidey places. Whoooooooa, chicks, it was fearsome, let me tell ya!! Then I "attacked" the window, which in reality is a breeze because....................... of these 2 little items below. That's a window squeegee and a lambs wool window cleaner. Washing a window with these 2 little things is not only the fastest, easiest way to do it, it is actually fun. You dip the wool washer in plain water from the bucket, swish it over the whole window QUICKLY and then take the squeegee and wipe the water off. I've never had to do a window 2 times and they're clean with absolutely no film on them. It does it all efficiently and quickly. I absolutely love these 2 little items!! They're supposed to have been made in Italy but the handle says made in Oakland, Ca. and it's called Ettore, as you can see on one of the closeups, with a very specific little "aviator wings" logo. They're the absolutely, unequivocally best thing I think you'd ever find for cleaning windows - nothing but water and they're squeaky clean. A bit pricier than most but I've had these for maybe 8 years and it shows no signs of use or abuse. You can get them at commercial cleaning supply companies. Well worth it in the time it saves you.

Remodel Day #3 and Gripes!

Nuuuuuuu, my sweet chicks, no gripes about the remodel; it's coming along just fine. I'll talk about the gripes further down.

Mr. Bob, and his name is Bob Robinson of Nampa, Idaho, if you live nearby give him a call. He's very reasonable and has been recommended for doing nice work. He seems to be right on, or even ahead of, schedule with this tiny remodel. We're thrilled with the progress anyway. Remember, he is doing this "on the side" from his day job. So he starts about 4:30 in the afternoon and quits around 8 - 8:30 pm. Today he will put the "plywood arch" on that header and then maybe sheet rock and tape. If all goes well tonight, he'll then mud/texture(?) tomorrow. But it's looking good and giving us a clearer view of what it'll look like.

One person said they wouldn't like the "closed in" feeling of it and that they liked the openness of a house with several rooms. Well, if I had one of those open log homes up in Sun Valley, so would I!! I love that look where you have huge rooms all open but all defined as the living, dining, kitchen, family/great rooms but in a small house it just doesn't cut it for me. However, if Bruce Willis or Arnold would come down off the mountain and switch with me - straight across switch - I'd be more than happy to take it over and even clean those big houses. I'd be singing a happy tune, let me tell ya!

But for this house it just looks too small to do that so we'll "define" the living room a bit more. I tend to be a bit more "formal" in there also. "Formal" being a highly relative term here! It's in no way "Formal", just a lot less "informal" than the small family room. Remember, my little cherubs, this is our last, scaled down, senior, live in till we die house!! You'll understand this when you retire and are near to 70 years old! :-)

Since I couldn't "clean" house yesterday (it would do absolutely no good!) and couldn't think of too many things I wanted to do, I decided to prime and spray paint this little reading lamp since there was hardly any wind. It was brass and I've had it for many years. Tarnishing was taking over as its primary "color" so I spritzed it white and am quite pleased with it. I'm soooooo loving spray cans of paint now - quick and easy beyond belief! I may become the Miss Spritz Queen! I'm lovin' it that much!!!

~*~

Now the gripes.

Why is it that when we find something we really love - a new found thing or something we've used for a long time - they decide to stop making it or they decide to stop distribution in MY area?!?!?! This has happened to some frozen foods we've loved for years, to a mouth moisturizer, to a shampoo, conditioners and hair sprays, to salad dressings!! WHY?!?!?! I love certain things and don't want to give them up. The vanilla tasting dry mouth moisturizer is now a minty spritzer and not a "open your mouth and put luscious drops of a creamy vanilla taste on your tongue" type moisturizer! I loved it, but not the harsh minty flavor spritz they've forced upon me! I also loved Revlon's Outrageous shampoo. It was so wonderful smelling and great for hair. I'm not even sure they make it anymore. Same with the conditioner. Hair spray? I like a certain one with a level 7 of hold. Nada, zip, zilch........no where to be found anymore. I've even had my daughter and granddaughter check in Calif. and Seattle. Why do they stop making something that is so great and does the job exceptionally well. Not to mention the salad dressings!!!!!!!! Yesssssssssss!!!! I loved a certain lite Italian dressing but can't find it in the stores at all - from Idaho to Calif.; I've checked and it's no where to be found. *Sigh*............ Why don't THEY keep their paws off of MY things?! I tell ya it's enough to make me start a revolution. Viva la revolución!!! But excuse me while I go vacuum up the wood chips and eat breakfast. Revolutions seem to take more outta me these days and those little bits of wood are hurting my tootsies, don't ya know?!?!?!