House for Sale

Never, when we were building/buying our house, did I intend to be selling it so soon! But with the economy the way it is and Bill's job now in OKC, we didn't have much choice. I began early in the summer packing up the clutter/closets and sending it up to storage. I touched up paint where I could and kilz-ed all the artwork on the walls. We asked my friend, Cheryl, who had just signed on with Ebby to be our agent. She walked through a few times and helped us with things to do to make our house more appealing. We listed the house officially on June 20. The next day, we had a showing and an offer! After deliberating, negotiating and more showings, we opted to take the offer and signed all the paperwork by the end of the month. We certainly didn't think it would all go so smoothly or so fast. Now it's time for the hard part....packing it all up and moving it out by July 30...our 15 yr wedding anniversary!

Uppercase Decorating

I have recently been to a couple of house parties sponsored by Uppercase Living. It is this really cool new product used to decorate your walls or any other surfaces you can dream of. I recently pucrhased this expression and was able to put it on the wall all by myself. I am nitpicking it now as it looks a little uneven. But until I get Tiffany here for my own party, I am not touching it!

I see in our future.....

......a brand new roof! Yep, the hail storm we had in February destroyed our roof along with everyone else's in McKinney! The adjuster and roofer came out yesterday and delivered the news. The photo shows the chalk marks the adjuster made on our roof....kinda hard to see....just squint your eyes! LOL!

Our New Bathroom Cabinet.

By Guest Blogger: Bill Mullen

Last week Steph had mentioned that she wanted to clean up the clutter in our bathroom vanity. We have a large two sink vanity that easily accumulates stuff like hair spray, hair gel, toothpaste, and the normal stuff. We have a built in medicine cabinet, but it is not very deep and does not hold much... (Editor's Note: I use a lot of ellipses, most of the time incorrectly) So she asked me to build a cabinet. I was not sure if my scrap wood would make a good door, and I was worried about how it would look, so I figured I would get around to it sometime.

On a side note, I had noticed a gift box that a coworker had been given from the company I work for. I had seen it sitting in his office for a long time. It was propped up against the wall outside his office, where I could see it every time I walked out that way. I always thought that I could make something neat out of this box. I never thought of a wall cabinet, but I will get to that.

I was leaving work on Friday, and the box was in the hallway by the exit door with a 'Basura' sticker on it. Some of you that work in an office may recognize the basura sticker. It is a sticker that says trash in several languages so the housekeeping staff will know that it is trash and to take with them when they empty the trash. Basura means trash in Spanish, and the sticker, even though it says trash, are not called trash stickers, they are referred to as basura stickers, and everyone knows what you are talking about. (Editor's Note: I tend to go on and on about minutia...) I was leaving work on Friday and there was the box with the Basura sticker on it. I grabbed it and put it in the trunk of Boomer (Editor's Note: my car is called Boomer, cause the stereo is loud and 'booms' the girls when they sit in the back seat). So I drive home with the box in the trunk.

When I get home, I put the box in the garage, and it hit me... I could make a cabinet out of the gift box. Now that may sound strange, but I took lots of pictures so you could see what kind of gift box it is. You can't see from the picture, but the box is a very stiff cardboard, like the back of an entertainment center. The top of the box is a rusty metal. I have a closer image.

Before I get into the box construction, I have to elaborate on my carpentry skills. I have very little, and I am winging it. I got some very useful but extremely dangerous tools from my step dad Joel. Shout out! I will most likely lose a finger or appendage eventually, but so far just a torn fingernail. Here are some photos of my workshop.

The table on the left is a table I fabricated out of a pallet that I salvaged from work that a server was shipped on. (Editor's Note: I get most of my stuff out of the garbage, because I fancy myself an environmentalist. {I am actually really cheap}). The table in the middle is a loaner table saw from Joel. Shout out. The table on the left is a piece of plywood on a pair of $14 saw horses.

I told Steph my idea, and she said go for it. (Editor's Note: she thinks all my ideas are crazy, most of the time she is right). I asked her what she will want to put in the cabinet. She gave me a list, and I started measuring to determine where the shelves would go. I had some nice plywood my brother Steve (shout out) had given me from an entertainment center he built when he was single. He is now married to Keri (shout out) and moved to Missouri. The shelves for the entertainment center were a good size to rip (Editor's Note: rip is what you do when you cut wood on a table saw. {At least I can sound like a carpenter}) into the right size for my shelf. I measured some body wash and toilet paper, because the body wash is the tallest bottle to go in, and toilet paper will take up one shelf by itself.

I don't have a picture, but when I put in the shelves for the body wash and the toilet paper, there was a lot of wasted space. So I got creative and added a couple more shelves and a divider with two smaller shelves. I got the shelves in, and by this time, was getting pretty handy at measuring the wood and installing into the case. I anticipated screwing through the back into the wall studs. However, the new shelves added some weight to it, and when we start filling it up, I was worried about the cardboard holding the weight. So I measured out a back plate to put on the back of the box to screw into the wall stud. This would give the box some much needed support.

I found the spot on the wall and got it ready to mount. I used my handy dandy stud finder, and screwed the cabinet into the stud. It was surprising how sturdy my support made the shelf. You can see the screws in the middle of the back of the cabinet.

It turned out really well. I am torn about painting the shelves and the cardboard to match. So take a close look, and let me know in the comments if I should paint it. Also, add to the comments if you have any ideas on a color that will accent the rusty door, or I could leave it as is. It doesn't look bad, and the different colors reminds us how much of a hodgepodge it is. Here are some more pictures.

Thanks Steph for letting me post!

Check out my blog at WPMDataSystems (I hope to post more often soon!)

Good Morning to Us!

We were awakened at 6:45 this morning to the sound of rain, thunder, lightning and HAIL! It sounded like someone was throwing baseballs on our roof! Bill woke up and said, "Is that hail? The poor cars.", then went right back to sleep. I, being curious, had to get up and check it out. As I was walking downstairs, I met Sydney in the hallway, and then Emyley and Hayley followed right behind us! My dad was already up and in the front room and told us that it had been hailing for awhile. Then he went back to bed. Then a couple minutes later, my mom joined us downstairs! I guess hail is a "girl thing" since we were the only ones interested while the men-folk were sleeping! LOL! And since I had just been awakened by the storm, it took me a good ten minutes to think to grab the camera, so actually, there was a lot more on the ground before I took the pictures...the road was completely covered when we first got downstairs. But it is melting fast and at least we finally got some rain.

Everybody's Doing It....

So why shouldn't we do it, too? Remodel something in our house, that is! ;o) My parents are finally doing a major overhaul in their way too small kitchen and dining room. My in-laws are totally redoing a house. My friend, Danielle is installing wood floors. My friend, Stephanie just redid her hallway. And can't forget Joni's new wood floors last spring! So, why shouldn't we join in on the fun, right?

Last May when I went home for my reunion, we all picnicked at one of my old friend's houses. It was a new house that they had just built and being out in the country, they opted to have stained concrete flooring in their downstairs. Bill and I instantly thought, "hhhmmmm!". I have wanted wood floors for forever because I think it would enhance my country decor...lol! I just cracked myself up. Anyway, we saw this staining concept as an inexpensive way we could get rid of carpets and hopefully some of the allergens in our house.

Once we got home from that trip, Bill was instantly online looking for the stain, found it and ordered it. The plan, such as it was, was to try out the stain on our sad little patio. One catch, though....Chloe. How would we keep her off of the patio while it is drying? Well, time went on, and it got pushed to the back burner.

Well, anyone with a new puppy knows how hard it is to housebreak! Chloe just wasn't getting it, and I just wasn't spending enough time with her on it. Nighttime was the worst and we would wake up to really gross messes in our family room. We invested in a very easy to use carpet cleaner, but it just wasn't getting it all. Gross, I know! Then the little light bulb flashed over Bill's head....what about pulling up that nasty carpet in our family room and using our stain on that floor???? I was very hesitant at first, but the idea started growing on me....especially as time went by and Chloe still wasn't getting it. But, again, since the family room is Chloe's room, when could we find a time to empty out the furniture, pull up the carpet, stain the floor, let the floor dry and put all the furniture back without Chloe's help?? So, again, time went on....

Then it happened! I called the vet where we board Chloe to make reservations for her to stay while we went to Okla for part of the Thanksgiving break. It never dawned on me that they would want a vacation, too. DUH! Anyway, turned out instead of boarding her from Friday-Monday, we were going to have to board her Wednesday-Monday. So, opportunity just knocked for us, and we decided Wednesday night we would prep the living room and Thanksgiving morning we would add the first coat. Again, best laid plans....

While Bill was working on Wednesday, I moved as much furniture as I could. I left him with the tv stuff and the couch. He got home early that day and went to town. He had the rest of the furniture moved,










the carpet up and










the first (and only) coat of stain on the floor before dinner!











Easy as pie, right? Well, not so much....We learned a few tips along the way....

• Supplies are very important - a nice clean roller brush is needed to spread the stain.
• Getting the floor nice and clean is a really good idea before applying stain.
• Measure out your space before you decide to stain to ensure that you have enough for two coats.
• Don't try to do it all in one day as there may be some suprsies when pulling up carpet for the first time....nail strips, pock marks in the concrete, what to do with the space under the base boards, how to trim off where the concrete meets the linoleum of the dining room, etc.

All in all, though, we really do like it. It definitely needs a second coat applied with a nice roller brush to even it out. We still have one nail strip down where the family room meets with dining room. We re-arranged our furniture and then re-arranged it again once we put up our Christmas tree. A lot of our spots are hidden now. Hopefully after the holidays, we can get some more stain, send the puppy off for a day and get it evened out. Chloe is doing really well now, and the doggy door we added helps, too, but that's another blog for another day....