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Gentlemen...Behold...The Shed

A couple of autumns ago, Erik spent just about all of his free time building a sweet new shed.

Floored

I recently came across the before-and-after photos Erik took of our hardwood floors when we had them refinished a few years ago. The results were so impressive that we didn't want to put the furniture back. It's hard to believe that the house in this photo is a place where real people live.

From Floors Before...

Super Bowl Food

The Patriots are not the only ones who came so close to perfection. The Kevin Faulkolate Chip Cookies I made for our Super Bowl party were also very close.

For dinner, we had Laurence Macaroney with Jarvis Greenbeans.

Since I ran out of time to make it on Sunday, we consoled ourselves with Tedy Bruschetta on Monday.

Oh well. Pitchers and catchers report in nine days.

Next He'll Be Saving the Princess

Erik is getting really good at plumbing. He's removed baseboard heating and a sink, detached and re-attached the potty a few times, and installed some sweet new valves.

While he was working on one of these projects, I saw he had this pamphlet, "Water In Your Life."

Doesn't it look like something that two young men with nice haircuts and dark neckties would bring to your doorstep?

Hello. We'd like to talk to you today about accepting water in your life.

The Blue Room

I am so good at taking before and after photos. Really, I am so good at it. I'm also really good at leaving them on the hard drive and not doing anything with them.

So I'm attempting to redeem myself and make albums of our projects at our house. The first project we ever attempted was painting our living room. You can see the album here.

From The Blue Room

Getting Organizized: China Cabinet

This wasn't really a home improvement project, but I felt so accomplished after I did it that I thought it deserved a post.

I emptied the china cabinet of all the random stuff I had stuck in there when we moved in and then re-filled it with things I actually wanted to have in there.

Whether it was due to us getting married or to a few of our parents selling their houses, a lot of pretty little things came into our possession a couple of years ago. I finally took the time to put them in the cabinet where we could see them and even use them.

My mother gave me the Japanese tea set on the third shelf down. I'm glad it's on display now, but arranging it in there was like dismantling a bomb. I was sweating.

Before, I didn't even know what was in the bottom cabinet because I had crammed so much stuff in there. Now the space is actually useful.

Proof

This slashdot article proves that one person's garbage is another person's treasure. Some of the comments are priceless though!!

Mellow Yellow Kitchen

In October, Erik and I worked on painting and improving the kitchen together for four days straight. And we are still married.

We still have some work to do, but here's a sneak peek.

Clean Floor, Clean Ceiling

The remediation of the former stinky cabinet room is complete.

Not having all those cabinets anymore really gave me the push I needed to throw away and donate so much stuff that I longer need/use/want. It feels great.

While I was decluttering upstairs, Erik was working hard downstairs painting the ceiling.

Cabinet Removal

Erik worked really hard to remove the stinky cabinets from the stinky cabinet room, tackling the worst offender first. The wallpaper that was revealed behind it is really interesting. I try imagining the whole room covered in it and in my mind it becomes a totally different space.

I forgot to take 'before' pictures, so I took one of the main SCU (stinky cabinet unit) just as demolition had begun. It looks like a great place to store all of our gimcracks and gewgaws, doesn't it? You think that because you can't smell it. It stinks. "Like piss," says Millie. So I took every thing out of it and Erik ripped it down. Of course, now I have to put all of it away. Doesn't it seem like I just cleaned that room?

The tall cabinet behind the door (the worst one) and the main SCU had the black wallpaper behind them but the last cabinet revealed a wall covering with a lot of texture, like a bamboo mat. The wallpaper underneath the black stuff is normal and even pretty, which is a little disappointing.

Even with all the cleaning and throwing away I have to do, I'm so happy these cabinets have been exorcised (thanks to Erik and semi-annual bulk trash pick-up in The 'Ville). It's going to take a lot of work, but we are going to make this room into a really nice space.