Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Office/Playroom

We're continuing to make progress on our office/playroom remodel. It takes along time...especially all the prep work...caulking, drywall, mudding, etc. Now that we've got most of that behind us, the painting is definitely coming along. We've got two coats of paint on all the trim now. We've decided to go ahead and paint the laundry room too while we're at it. Allen's priming one of our walls now, but the American Tradition Tintable Primer we got seems really watery. I wasn't sure about the woman in the paint department at the Lowes where we went (she was not very happy)...so we might try to take it back. We're not sure. I wanted to have things done (things always take longer than you expect) before my next blog about this, but I've had several people ask about our progress, so here are some new pictures. You can compare with those in my previous blog if you want.


Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Fun with Aluminum Foil

Everett had a little fun this morning while I was working on the computer. Why is it that the minute you're occupied in something they are getting into everything they are not supposed to? It was funny though to see him in the kitchen with all that shiny foil. I had to use this as a photo opportunity. It made his life kind of flash before my eyes as I thought about one day showing his wife/kids about what Everett did when he was little.







Saturday, January 13, 2007

Demolition Begins

It's Saturday and we're in the process of remodeling our playroom/office. Allen has taken off almost a whole wall of chair rail and about half a wall (below the chair rail) of drywall. It's good to get it started but we've got a long row to hoe. It's interesting and somewhat scary to see what's behind your walls...especially when your house is older.

On the list for our playroom is new shelving/cubbies for books and toys, new carpet and new paint. We're starting with the painting, which means patching holes in our walls and doing some drywall work first. We're trying to decide between buying shelves from Ikea or making them ourselves. I'm voting for Ikea, but we're heading there tonight to see if the ones we like online are really what we would want. We were thinking about doing hard wood floors, but now we're thinking about berber carpet, just because we're constantly on the floor playing with Everertt and carpet is just so much more comfortable.

Here are some photos of our demo work:









Also, here are a few photos of our new desk:



The best part...a cabinet that holds our towers and all our cords.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Rachel Ray

I love the new Rachel Ray show. It's so much fun to watch with so many good tips, advice, and of course great recipes. I think it's really changed the way I cook. I used to make so many recipes with those canned soups. I guess I never thought there was another way. It feels so good to use more fresh ingredients now and like RR says you actually know what your putting into your food and it's so fast too. Maybe all of you out there already knew all of this but since we just have basic cable, I've never watched much of the Food Network before. I will say that the shows of RR's I've seen on the FN were really scripted and this one is so much more real. It comes on at 3pm...which is usually right in the middle of E's nap, so I usually catch it. You can't print the recipes until after 4pm and I'm usually sitting at the computer waiting to print the day's recipes...unless it has mushrooms like today's recipe did. :) Yesterday she had a ton of great recipes using leftover chili. I haven't tried any of them yet, but I'm planning to. You can get them off her website, http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/. Just check out Thursday's recipes.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Return to Normalcy

I feel like things are finally back to normal after the holidays. We had a great time with my family in Atlanta for Christmas. Brian and Kate and the kids and my mom all stayed with us for about 5 days or so. We went down to Andy & Shelby's house for Christmas dinner. It was nice that Allen had so much time off over Christmas...it was a much needed break for me. Everett had a blast playing with all of his nieces and nephews. I think he's kind of in withdrawl now from all the attention he was getting. You can see tons of new photos on our flickr site.

Lindsay and Michael's Vietnamese reception was here in Atlanta last Saturday. It was fun getting to see them again and having Allen's parents stay with us. They all stuck around on Sunday because Allen got installed as a deacon at Intown. It was a nice service and I'm so proud of him. It's such a perfect fit for him and I know he'll do a great job.

We now are back to working on our house projects. On Saturday Allen and his dad went all the way to Acworth to pick up a desk we bought off of Craig's List. It is perfect and it was only $75. It's got tons of drawer space and a big cabinet on the left which holds our 2 towers. Now Everett isn't getting into all of our cords. It's marvelous! Also, we took a ton of stuff to Goodwill...no more TV's in our playroom, Kate! :)

Now we're going to finally start painting our playroom and kitchen and we'll be working on shelves for our playroom. I'm really looking forward to finishing these projects and it looks like we'll have some time the next several weekends to get a lot accomplished.