Sherman’s Big Boy Room March 22, 2008

After many weeks of rearranging and angst (woe and strife) and blood, Sherman’s room is 90% complete (as in, suitable for photographing). I still need curtains, and something for the walls (I’m hoping to find something cute on Etsy but I haven’t looked). As I type this, I’m listening to him squirm on the monitor in his big boy bed, since our *&#*!%$#& video monitor is infrared and we put it too high on the wall to see anything in the dark. Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in the morning. But it’s weird to not be able to watch him. Anyway, for your home improvement pleasure:

view from the far corner

view from the closet

view from the rocking chair

view from the doorway

Also, the kitchen floor is done. I still haven’t been able to mop it, but I love it. I also love getting everything that belongs in the kitchen back into it. Photos in Flickr.

and last night I dreamt of plastic-covered doorways March 18, 2008

Well, there have been no further bloody episodes (knock on wood). Sherman’s new room is painted and totally cleaned out. One of Train’s co-workers went with me to Ikea and Target this weekend (mostly to help carry/lift) and we had a great time. It was a really nice break, and Train was able to finish the painting while we were gone and Sherman napped. (I was stressing Friday night because I certainly couldn’t go to Ikea-the-kingdom-of-self-service alone, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to convince Train to go with Sherman and I after a morning of painting.) Hopefully the furniture will get put together this week, which is Train’s Spring Break. Our plan is to have Sherman in his new room and big boy bed Saturday night. Sans blood.

Speaking of Spring Break, it absolutely could not have come at a worse time. Literally, any other week this year would have been a blessing. Our daycare provider works when teachers do. So if there is a holiday or break, she is off too. Which is fine, because Train can keep Sherman.

But it also means that as the kitchen floor replacement project is reaching critical mass, we planned to take a week off from the progress to avoid having Hector working while Train and Sherman were home. Remember Train was planning on ripping out the old stuff himself, and having Hector begin his work immediately after.

We found out Sunday night that Hector wouldn’t be available next week (3/24), so if we didn’t want to push this into April, we needed to do it this week. Train’s brother could help him rip out the tile, but that still left Sherman. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law’s Spring Breaks are not until after Easter, so they couldn’t keep or take him.

So, we decided that I would take off St. Patrick’s Day and keep Sherman entertained while the boys ripped out the tile. We were out of the house by 8:30 for a wholesome McDonalds breakfast, and even by then Sherman was already in the way. (So in other words…thank goodness for me.)

After breakfast we spent a good hour and a half at the mall playground which was thankfully quiet even though it was Spring Break. Then we had a nice lunch at Chick-Fil-A and 90 minute nap in the stroller while I bought some summer clothes for Sherman and enjoyed a milkshake and magazine. (And let me say that Train and I are so entrenched in an only-eating-out-on-weekends schedule that paying for food three different times in a single day makes me hyperventilate a little even now.)

By the time we got home, the tile was gone, subfloor exposed, and everything had been taken to the dump. Two discoveries: (1) in the foyer, the ceramic tile was installed on top of linoleum and sticky tile. Which explains why that tile held up marginally better than the kitchen (where it was installed directly on the plywood subfloor) and why it wasn’t quite as cold. (2) In the kitchen, the previous owners (grrrr) installed tile in the entire room BEFORE installing the cabinets. So the cabinets are on top of tile. WHO DOES THAT? We were afraid it would mean we would have to take out the cabinets, rip out the old tile, and reinstall them.

When I got home from my 20-week OB checkup, Hector was there. I had actually worked myself up into quite a state on the way home. Clearing the stuff off the floor in the kitchen and foyer was challenging enough (including emptying my china cabinet), and if I had to empty all of the lower cabinets and ALSO find a place to put the actual cabinets…I wasn’t sure I could handle it. I can’t live like that, folks.

Of course, my beloved Hector said we wouldn’t have to do that, that he would make it work. I’m sure he will and it will look great (if you’re interested in the details: since we are adding a layer of Durock under the tile, it will sit higher than the old tile, so even if every trace of old tile can’t be hidden, it will be literally covered by new tile). I said it was a good thing, because if we were going to have to take out the cabinets, we were going to replace the countertops and sink. I could actually see the steam coming out of Train’s ears. He was holding Sherman at the time and I’m surprised Sherman wasn’t scalded. Oh well, crisis averted.

Hector should start putting down the underlayment today. Hopefully this will all be done by the weekend. It doesn’t solve the problem that Train will have to entertain Sherman all day and keep him out of the way while Hector works (I’m pretty sure Hector won’t mind taking a break during naptime), which sounds like a miserable Spring Break. But it will be done soon, and I’m especially thrilled that it will be in time for Sherman’s birthday party.

lay it on me March 14, 2008

As if there isn’t enough going on around here, what with the second son and the moving of the bedrooms, and the big boy bed I haven’t told you about, we are hoping to have our kitchen floor replaced by the end of March.

When we bought our house in November of 2005 (when I was pregnant with Sherman), it was vacant. Our suspicion was/is that it had previously been a boarding house for mostly construction workers. We also suspect that they did most of the work on the house themselves. The kitchen floor and cabinets seemed new; the bathroom vanities were new; the basement full bath seemed almost entirely new.

Of course, we’ve since discovered that they perhaps did not take the pride in their work as we might have hoped. The bathroom vanities are caulked to the hilt, making it impossible to cleanly paint around them (especially in the dark colors I prefer). The sink in our bathroom has mysterious gouges (where perhaps someone left their hammer in the sink and then…rattled it around) that cannot be cleaned. The shower in the basement bathroom was installed without a trap in the drain, meaning sewer gases can come straight up into the house. Thanks guys! And thanks, home inspector!

But most noticeable of all was the ceramic tile in the kitchen and entryway. It was a nice, light neutral color. There were already a few cracked tiles when we moved in, but we weren’t overly concerned. Then as we began moving things into the house and actually walking on the tile, the problems began. Namely that the grout would pop up and out in chunks. I typically vacuum the floor instead of sweeping before mopping (we have hardwood floors and two dogs, come on) and I would vacuum up chunks of grout from between the tiles (and still do). More tiles inexplicably cracked, without major trauma like dropping a heavy bowl or brick or anvil. The bright white grout turned black. The light-colored stone showed every single spill and spot. It is always cold in the kitchen - where there is an exterior door and three large windows - especially in the winter, where it’s usually FIVE DEGREES colder in there than in the living room, which is just around the corner and also where the thermostat is.

(notes in Flickr)

One of the most heavily-trafficked areas of the kitchen, next to the trash can and sink. you can see the cracks and the nasty grout.

This is what the grout looks like under our kitchen table, where no soul has ever stepped. It all looked like this when we moved in.

Our foyer/entranceway. The kitchen is through the door on the right; on the left are stairs down to the basement and up to the top level. I’m including this picture to show you how the hardwood meets the tile and why I am stressed that the tile I picked isn’t going to look good right next to the wood.

Turns out the tile was installed directly on the plywood subfloor, giving it absolutely no room to flex with pressure (such as…the weight of a human). The crawlspace underneath the kitchen was not insulated, so basically we were feeling all of the cold air from under the house seeping up through the subfloor and tile. You literally could not go into the kitchen in the winter without at least socks on, even standing on a rug.

Some of you may remember my beloved neighbor Hector, who is a contractor by trade and a tile specialist. He replaced and re-tiled both of our upstairs showers when I was on maternity leave with Sherman (one leaked, and one was just ugly). He has replaced three sets of exterior doors for us (with Train’s help). He shimmied up into the attic to check our attic fan. He installed a frost-free water spigot in our carport. He installed the toilet in our bathroom after Train discovered a broken floor flange. He’s wonderful. He also has the same house as us, down the street, so he always has good ideas on what works in our house and what doesn’t.

Any time Hector has come over in the last few years, he would shake his head and cluck over our kitchen floor. “I feel sorry for you,” he would always say. What a waste of time and money to get new tile and not install it correctly, just so that it has to be re-done three years later. “We need to fix this!”

Well, we’re finally ready. He came by a few weeks ago to measure and work up an estimate and give us suggestions on what kind of tile to look for. We talked about doing the work while Sherman is at daycare, and doing it in two stages so we only have to keep him out of one part of the room at a time. We can get a darker grout so I’ll basically only have to mop when shoes begin sticking to the floor. On Hector’s suggestion, we’re going with 16 x 16 tile, which I am inordinately excited about.

Train brought it home, all 25 boxes, Wednesday night. Train is going to rip out the old tile, at Hector’s suggestion, to save money. Supposedly it should just pop right off since it wasn’t really grouted down to begin with. Hector has also convinced Train to do the crawlspace insulation himself, so that will save money too.

Once the old tile is gone, Hector will start immediately putting the new stuff in (I’m hoping…really it all comes down to everyone’s day-by-day schedule). So ideally we will only be “inconvenienced” for a few days. The trick is that Train’s spring break begins on St. Patrick’s Day, and it would be impossible to (a) rip out tile while keeping an eye on Sherman and (b) even worse trying to keep him out of Hector’s way while new stuff is installed. So we may have to wait one more week until we can get started, but of course next weekend is Easter so that means we’ll lose some time. We also have set Easter weekend as our target date for moving Sherman into his new room, which still needs to be painted and furnished. Nothing like having a lot going on at one time.

after the math March 4, 2008

Like I said, the move went nicely. Train’s brother helped move the furniture, and the car is packed to the gills and ready for a trip to Goodwill tomorrow. Even my upstairs linen closet got cleaned out, and I really pared down my (embarassing) collection of tote bags. There are still some random things in the upstairs room…mostly things we shouldn’t have or don’t want anyway so it’s hard to decide what to do with them. And the laundry/storage room is totally unacceptable because the full bed and Christmas stuff are just sitting there clogging up the feng shui. But hey…that can wait until Mom comes to visit so she can help me figure out what to do with that shit. I’m reluctant to clean out my Christmas decorations because I may use more as Sherman gets older, but the fact is that out of two Rubbermaid tubs and two boxes, I probably use one tub’s worth of decorations. So, there is hope. Also, there’s empty shelf space in the closet and on the bookshelf, so I don’t feel like we are already stuffing ourselves into this room.

The new basement office is pretty cozy and several times in the last few days we have found all five of us (including the dogs) in this tiny room (admittedly that’s probably because we’ve had so much to do in here).

So, ta-da. Here’s our most recent extreme home makeover. Notes in Flickr, just click on the photos.

Like I said, I am waiting on a few things to go in this closet: namely a gift wrap / gift bag organizer that will hang from the rod.

Train put shelves on the sides of the closet, which is usually wasted space for me since you can’t get to anything. I. LOVE. THEM. They only cost $90. (ACK!)

I love these double shelves. For some reason the closet in the “old” office didn’t have them although the other 2 bedrooms do.

trading spaces, gestation edition February 29, 2008

In order to make room for Sherman’s new sibling, we plan to move him into a new room and give the baby the “nursery”, which is the smallest bedroom and right next to the master. We’ve decided to go ahead and set up his new room with a big boy bed and give him time to get used to it, moving him to the new room at night after my parents’ next visit in April (after his 2nd birthday). At first I thought we needed to do either the bed or the room first, then the other, but it worked for other people so I’ll give it a shot.

This weekend we plan to get everything out of our downstairs extra bedroom (that only get used when my parents visit in the winter, when my dad decides to sleep down there with the dog because he coughs so much) and move everything from our upstairs office into that downstairs room. I am so excited. We have been slowly clearing out the office and it will be so nice to have an empty room to paint and fill up with Sherman’s new furniture. Not that we have decided what exactly to get him yet, but anyway. De-cluttering! Organizing! Arranging furniture! I’ve been looking forward to it all week.

So here are some before pictures so you know what I’m dealing with. Notes in Flickr, just click on the photos.

This is the downstairs bedroom. I cannot tell you how sad I am that I am going to have to space-bag that comforter set. I absolutely love it. I bought it from JCPenney when we lived in our first house, literally the day that my aunt and uncle came to visit Washington for a week. We had just finished painting our guest bedroom the weekend before and I wanted things to be nice. I managed to find this set and it was just what I was looking for. I’m depressed that I won’t get to use it on a bed…like, ever again. I even bought it in a queen size so that I could use it for a bigger bed in the future, and put this full size bed up on risers so the comforter and skirt didn’t hang on the ground.

Barely visible behind the bed is our cedar chest. It’s full of stuff from mine and my mother’s childhoods. It’s too full to fit anything else in there. My mom keeps saying to throw her stuff out but I want to keep it. This may get cleaned out though, and if it doesn’t “work” in here it may move to our bedroom.

We are giving the two dressers and the nightstand to one of Train’s coworkers.

The closet. Half of this stuff has to go somewhere else because I have to put the stuff from the office closet in here.

This is the upstairs office that will become Sherman’s room. We’ll take down the shelf. Walls will be blue. Because really…what other options do you have for a boy? The nursery is green so that’s taken.

The closet and bookshelf. The bookshelf will go downstairs with the desk and sofa. The closet…I want to get most of that stuff out of there. I might be okay with leaving some stuff on the shelf of the closet but probably not. Sherman accumulates enough stuff I’m sure we will need the space.

The loveseat will go into the “new” office.

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have “after” pictures of the downstairs room. Train keeps pressuring me to pick a paint color for Sherman’s room because I can’t decide between, like, 6 different blues. Usually it’s not a big deal but these colors are all so gorgeous. I ordered a dinosaur comforter which hasn’t come in yet, but it’s mostly blue too, so yikes. I’m thinking most of the other things in the room will be red and orange. I’m thinking bed, small bookshelf, dresser or chest, glider. Mom thinks we need to get, or at least save room for, a child’s table or desk, and she thinks he isn’t going to have floor room to play in his room. But he has the living room and family room where all of his toys are, where he spends most of his time now, so hopefully it will be fine.

hail to the redskins…wait, what? February 5, 2008

Well, I survived the Super Bowl party.

painted by Train

The party mainly consists of Train’s work friends and our random couples-with-or-without-kids friends in the area, and usually some of our college friends can make the trip from somewhere in Virginia, even though it is a crappy Sunday night game. Why why why? If it’s GOT to be Super Bowl “Sunday”, can we move the President’s Day holiday to the Monday after?

Train always wanted to have an “annual” something and at our first house there simply wasn’t enough room. We bought this house in November of 2005 so the 2006 Super Bowl was our housewarming party, when I was about 7 months pregnant. 2007 was stress time, because although this time I could drink, my mother-in-law didn’t come like I expected, and Sherman was 10 months old and didn’t have a bedtime or a sleep routine. I remember barricading myself in my bedroom with him watching Baby Einstein. Ditto was trying to do the same with our niece, but she was only about 4 months old and still sleeping all the time anyway. We have a split-level house and the noise travels all over the place.

I was dreading this year’s party. Actually, it really snuck up on me since Train ordered and mailed out the invitations with only minimal guest list input from me. I had to keep asking if so-and-so had even been invited. I hate the stress of whether or not we will have enough food, if the house is clean enough for guests, if the house has been completely disinfected after the guests leave, if Sherman will behave, what to do with all of the leftover food. At least we didn’t have to worry about leftover beer this year - since the preseason purchase of the kegerator, most everyone knew not to bring any extra.

I said I wasn’t going to clean, because the house is always so disgusting after the party, and really does anyone actually notice the spots on the kitchen floor when they are standing around crunching chips and dropping brownie crumbs? But of course my inner OCD got the best of me and by Saturday afternoon I was mopping, Cloroxing the refrigerator shelves, and windexing the french doors.

This year I once again couldn’t drink (although Train fixed a great cranberry/raspberry alcohol-free punch) but I was more confident that Sherman would be able to go down a little late and stay asleep even with the noise. He usually goes to bed around 8. I figured it wouldn’t hurt him to stay up until 9, since most of our guests are usually gone by then.

Of course, he spent his entire (regularly two hour) afternoon nap time goofing off in his crib. And then Mrs. MIL (Train’s mom) brought mini M&Ms, and by about 4:00 Sherman was running laps through the kitchen and living room. As Ditto’s husband would say…he was off the heezy.

And of course, the new teachers at Train’s school this year are all fresh out of college, so our basement was one big frat party and they stayed until the bitter end, so I had to keep going down there to ask them to be quiet. Yes, me, even though they were Train’s friends, isn’t that always how it goes?

But Sherman had a terrific time. There were a good number of kids there (including a few dreaded “older” ones…these kids always seem so BIG and NOISY and…ACTIVE in my house, especially when they are ricocheting off the 3 basement couches three minutes after they walk in) and there were more than enough toys to keep everyone occupied, so the parents were even able to have a little break. I have no idea what Sherman ate all night, except that every time I saw him (which was pretty infrequently) he was munching on something, and eventually he dropped all pretense and just started pulling snacks off of people’s plates (hey, it’s his house). I did see Triathlete sneaking him some cake icing about an hour before bedtime. So basically Sherman was totally glassy-eyed and too junked-up to actually respond negatively to any of the kids, so that worked out well.

Triathlete plays with the kids

Kat and Robert brought the charming George who did really well for so much excitement. With all of his aunts and uncles I suppose he is used to it.

Around 8pm I thought Sherman was hitting the proverbial wall (actually leading me up the stairs to his room and Goodnight Moon), but he wandered downstairs to where the real party people were and I heard lots of cheering and clapping and Sherman giggles. After no nap and all of that excitement, he went down at 9 and we didn’t hear a peep out of him, even after the Giants comeback and the drunken roars that floated up the stairs.

enough toys for you?

On Monday morning we woke up to realize we had forgotten to turn the heat back on after the party, and it was 65 degrees in our room, which is upstairs. Train’s brother had spent the night in the basement, but he said he didn’t get too cold.

I spent most of yesterday cleaning up…another round of vacuuming/mopping, wiping down the counters, packing up leftovers and dishes to be returned to their owners, emptying coolers, putting the household junk back in its collection spot on the kitchen table, scouring the kitchen sink, some quality time on hands and knees trying to get jello droplets out of the basement carpet (tell me how you spill a jello shot? I mean…that takes talent), etc. I can say that each year, the day after Super Bowl is the day my house is the absolute cleanest. Train had taken off work too, but didn’t even make it to 11am before he went in, feeling too guilty about leaving his assistant alone for the day with some double PE classes.

Good night, George!!!

best by February 5, 2008

How much attention do you pay to expiration dates? I find myself obsessed with them lately. Not only for obvious reasons…getting products that are “past their prime” out of the house, but the sheer fascination (and embarassment) of how long stuff stays in my house.

This weekend, in a fit of pre-Super Bowl freezer purging (more on that tomorrow when I upload photos) (Super Bowl, not the freezer purging) (although it does look damn good and even Train said so), I threw out a ton of stuff. I felt guilty about it because even more than I hate clutter, I hate wastefulness. But Oprah says your home is your sanctuary, and going into our freezer (and the standalone freezer in the basement) was depressing me and probably affecting my spirit. Or something.

It’s mostly, of course, not my fault. When my parents come to visit my mom goes grocery crazy and we end up with a freezer full of Weight Watchers fudge bars, cube steak, frozen dinners (which I can’t stand but Mom always says I need to try), and chicken with actual bones in it, like we know how to cook that. And that’s just the stuff we don’t eat, the leftover detritus.

Anyway, beyond that, I threw away doggie ice cream with a 2006 expiration date. That’s downright embarassing. (I always forget, when I buy it, that it doesn’t digest well and then I never give it to the dogs after the first tub) If dog ice cream has gone two years past its expiration date, that means it’s probably been in your freezer about three. Yikes. That’s older than Sherman.

The other day for breakfast, we had two bottles of pancake syrup in the fridge and both had expired in 2007. That stuff really must not last long.

Whenever we have to buy a new bottle of spices (you know, when a recipe calls for 1/16th of a teaspoon of lemonwater bouillon or some shit), I have started writing the purchase month and year on the bottom of the bottle with a Sharpie, because (a) we don’t use a lot of spices in our cooking and (b) I know it lasts forever but damn, we’ve had that ginger a long time. That way if I ever get organized enough I can look up the shelf life of some of these to see what is poisoning us.

This is why I don’t wear makeup. Or even have it in my house anymore. I think I would rather eat something expired than put it on my face. I could never use it fast enough and I would start to freak about the germs and the oldness and I just had to get rid of it.

Hot dogs are supposed to be eaten within a few days of opening if kept in the fridge. Oops.

I’ve been taking prenatal vitamins leftover from a big bottle I got near the end of my pregnancy with Sherman (refusing to buy any more prescription vitamins that made me sick anyway). I kept them because the expiration date was March 2008 and I figured I could at least use some of them. Now I worry that they aren’t as “effective” and got me some new ones.

Even Neosporin has an expiration date. The little tube I keep in my desk at work has a little EXP 6/08 on the end…what if I forget and use it in July?

What about stuff like sour cream and yogurt which is basically…already spoiled? How long can that sit in the fridge?

One thing I am super-anal about is milk. If it’s even getting close to the “best by” date, or I even suspect a whiff of something “not right” (especially if we have an unopened half gallon still in the fridge) I don’t hesitate to dump it down the drain. Train hates this…but WTF does he care, he doesn’t drink milk.

My dad’s mom was notorious for having expired stuff in her kitchen. These are my grandparents that lived in Key West when I was growing up, in the house where my parents now live. Grandma would buy things for when we came to visit (which was once a year, if that) that she and Grandpa didn’t really eat…ketchup, salad dressings, and namely COKE. Any Coke devotee knows that Coke tastes different everywhere you go - I’ve always thought it had to do with the local water where it was manufactured - so Mom and I weren’t real wild about the South Florida taste to begin with. Grandma would buy it on sale and keep it for us. I remember getting out a can with an expiration date 5 years past. Gag. Of course, since it was my dad’s parents he wanted us to just grin and bear it (not the 5 year thing, but like, ketchup that was past its prime) (ketchup that my mom or I would always stick on the beautifully set Christmas dinner table, in the middle of her heirloom china and Waterford crystal, which became kind of a family joke although it drove my grandmother INSANE) but my mom could never just let it go (I can totally relate to these tiny power struggles now that I’m married). I remember after my grandmother died, when we were cleaning out the cabinets beneath her termite-chewed china cabinet, we found a few 12 packs of Coke that had exploded in the cabinet (this was before the house had air conditioning). What a mess.

Today we’re told that the phthalates in baby shampoo, powder, and lotion are seeping into our kids’ skin and they cause-reproductive-problems-in-animals-but-the-FDA-still-says-it’s-inconclusive-if-they’re-dangerous-for-people-but-if-we-find-out-we’ll-let-you-know! It’s freaking BABY LOTION. And now you’re telling me it’s dangerous to put it on my BABY? WTF Johnson’s??? This phthalate thing is really starting to get to me. I’ve already decided that I’m going to replace all of the Playtex bottles Sherman used with something phthalate free because the whole thing gives me the heebie-jeebies. Now I’m thinking I should just douse him in water instead of giving him a daily bath. And forget the lotion. Ugh. I get so overwhelmed with these reports of all the environmental “toxins” we are exposed to now that our parents were not exposed to and I just wonder where it’s going to end. Everyone either has cancer or has someone close to them who does. This can’t all be a coincidence.

art snob January 14, 2008

I have a hard time decorating the walls of our house. I prefer photos, but I get frustrated at how quickly they become outdated when you have a toddler running around. I feel a constant need to update them and I simply don’t have time for that. We do have a big photo collage in our living room of about 13 personal photos of varying sizes, with the center one being a 16×20 of our 2006 Christmas card picture. Every time I see it I am reminded that I need to get a new photo but by the time I get upstairs to the computer I am distracted by the laundry that needs to be put away or the little boy whose new favorite game is “slam-the-door-to-my-bedroom-and-scream-in-delight-until-Mommy-opens-it-since-I-can’t-open-it-myself-repeat”. The other art in the living room is two similar-looking square abstract painted canvases that I bought at Ross because the colors go nicely with our red furniture and brown/tan/red Target rug.

In our bedroom, I have a large wedding photo and an atomic clock on the wall. In our “office”, diplomas (Train and I graduated from the same college, so our degrees, tassels, honor medals, and almost-identical handshake photos are framed disgustingly alike). In the dining room, four mirrors in a row.

My problem with buying generic art like what’s in the living room is that it has no meaning. It really was just to try to fill up that big empty wall. I feel like a fraud when I buy stuff like that. I would prefer to buy a painting of something I love. Or something painted by someone I love. Of course, it needs to match the room it’s intended for. And it can’t be super-expensive.

In my Key West re-cap post, I mentioned that we spent a few afternoons at an art show near my parents’ house (at least, I think I…did, yep, there it is). We ended up with three prints plus some small photo-size prints. I say “prints” because we definitely did not buy any original paintings…we stayed in the “under $60″ range.

This first one is my favorite, and I think Train’s too:

This is a watercolor print of the Bahia Honda bridge on the way to Key West. It’s an old railroad truss from the Overseas Railroad. There is a state park on Bahia Honda that is one of my favorite beaches in the world. I just love this beach and I love this bridge and I could stare at this painting all day. Here it is hung in our bedroom, where I think it goes nicely. Artist Rocky Ferris. We paid $40 for this plus $20 (!!!) for shipping. I have no explanation other than I HAD to have it.

The next one is a photo on canvas:

This one is over the toilet in my newly painted purple bathroom. I have always had a semi-theme of seashells and the purple in this one stood out. However, I think it needs a frame. What do you think? My mom bought me this one as a Christmas present, I think it was about $40.

The third print has no explanation:

Something about the colors in this one just hooked me and I kept going back to it. It goes NOWHERE in my blue/green/purple upstairs or my red/brown/black downstairs. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, since we don’t even have a lot of hall space where I could put it. But I WILL find somewhere. I hemmed and hawed about it since it doesn’t go with anything, but my HGTV-obsessed mother berated me that “people worry too much about what matches instead of what they like.” Says the woman who can get away with decorating her whole house in fish and palm trees. But she’s right. I loved this print so it should be in my house to make me happy. This one was $20.

With the purple matting, I originally thought about putting this in the purple bathroom, but it didn’t seem mellow enough for that room. The artist had the original print matted differently, which I thought really brought out the colors of the painting. Here is some amateur photoshopping to show you how I want it matted:

Otherwise, we bought some small 4×6 prints of Key West landmarks…Schooner Wharf, Blue Heaven, and the sunset celebration. Not sure yet what we’ll do with those. Train is thinking we should do a “Key West wall” in the man room, so we may collect more things.

updated bathroom December 19, 2007

Finally, some bathroom pictures from our remodel this weekend. The color didn’t photograph exactly right but it’s a huge improvement. Notes in Flickr.

I didn’t mean to end this with a bad pun December 17, 2007

I had one of those weekends where I did a ton of stuff around the house on Saturday, expecting to have an easy do-nothing Sunday, and ended up working my ass off both days. Plus, all weekend we waited for some severe winter weather that never came, except some hellaciously cold wind Sunday afternoon and evening.

Train gave me an early Christmas gift by repainting our guest bathroom. This room has had its share of drama. My parents offered to paint it this past spring during one of their visits. I knew I wanted purple. I tend to pick dark paint colors, but I am easily swayed into going with a lighter shade. This time, it was my mom who convinced me to switch, and we ended up with a bright purple.

It didn’t turn out as I expected, but hey, anything’s better than white, right? And I didn’t have to paint anything. (I never do, because Train has convinced me that my painting skills, like my kitchen skills, are more beginner than expert.) While the toilet was out so the walls could be painted, Train installed some gray vinyl tile.

My mom also bought us a new medicine cabinet for the bathroom. We replaced this one (white wood framed, clunky, triple door)

with this one (beautiful, shiny, frameless mirror bi-door)

It was so sophisticated, and I loved it.

Until the big mirrored door fell off one day, shattering all over the sink and leaving huge gouges in the vanity, clock, and newly painted wall.

Yikes. We contacted the manufacturer, who sent us a new door to attach. Train put it up, but after a couple of weeks, we noticed the door sliding off again. Rather than risk it (since this is the bathroom where Sherman takes his baths), we took the door off and have just had open shelves there since about September. Normally there wouldn’t be much in the cabinet, but my parents leave all of their toiletries and stuff up here so they don’t have to tote it back and forth, and it was starting to look like a garishly purple CVS in there. I wasn’t sure what else to do, since this style of cabinet was really the only one I liked at Home Depot, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy the same model or brand again (the company did refund us the full purchase price even without a receipt).

In November, Dr. P and I went to Kat’s housewarming party, and her bathroom was the PERFECT shade of purple. I demanded that she give me the name of it (Behr’s Iris Petal). She did as soon as she got back from her Thanksgiving trip. 

When Mom and Dad came back for Thanksgiving, Mom and I were able to stop by Lowe’s. I had been meaning to go but never got around to it, and even when Train and I went to Lowe’s I would forget to look at the cabinets. Lo and behold, they had the perfect style in the Kohler brand, with a much better door attachment, so of course I bought it right away.

And it sat in our front hallway for about a month. I wasn’t sure how to tell my parents that we were going to re-paint (I feel bad that they wasted their time), and Train refused to hang the new cabinet if he was just going to have to take it down to re-paint after they left.

This weekend was the first since my parents left that we haven’t had anything planned, so Train agreed to repaint the bathroom and hang the cabinet. And, since he had to take the toilet out again, he said he would replace the toilet as well. EEEEEEE!!! We replaced our master bathroom toilet in October when we painted that room (an American Standard Right Height Elongated Bowl Cadet, thanks for asking) and I love it. But we ended up having to pay our contractor neighbor to install it since the floor flange was broken, so we didn’t replace the guest bathroom toilet then since it had cost more than we expected.

So Friday we went and bought the paint and the toilet. He spent Saturday morning taping and painted in an hour after Sherman’s nap that afternoon. It looks FABULOUS. Absolutely wonderful. While neither one of us use that bathroom much, I am in there a lot for Sherman’s baths, and it is much more grown-up and suitable to my taste (I have brushed silver accents in there - tissue box, toothbrush holder, etc).

On Sunday morning he installed the toilet, which was easy, and then the medicine cabinet, which was a bit more of a pain, but it looks great. I guess nothing is going to be easy with these cabinets. I had forgotten that my original intention was to buy a second Kohler cabinet for our bathroom (we have the same ugly tri-door cabinet as what used to be in the guest bathroom) - Train put the ix-nay on that for now, but I know he’ll come around.

I haven’t taken any pictures yet because I’m not sure how to broach this with my parents. I think my mom knows I wasn’t thrilled about the paint color (I actually didn’t realize how much I hated it until it was gone) but still…what a waste of time for them. At first I was thinking that perhaps they wouldn’t notice - but it’s pretty obvious to us, then again we see that room every day. So who knows. I don’t know if I should mention it when we visit (they know we put in the new toilet and cabinet) or just wait and see if they notice when they come in February. And then feel like crap.