Category: Random Thoughts (Page 1 of 2)

Here it is already the 13th day of the year 2010!  I suppose it’s a little late to make New Year’s resolutions, but as I looked at our blog and realized how long it’s been since I’ve written any post at all, well, I think I can sneak in a late-breaking one!

There are always so many things to do, and time seems to play Houdini regularly.  I always say that if I won the lottery and didn’t have to work another day, I’d be plenty busy with things I want to do.  So many interests and so many options.  Kick the voice-over business into gear.  Get some regular exercise.  Set up a house-cleaning routine and try to win the dust battle.  Get out my camera again.  Finish the trim on the hardwood floors.  Replace the doors.  Go flying.  Some people would be motivated by a long list of things to do.  I get overwhelmed!  I can’t help it.  I have just enough of an obsessive-compulsion to start 1,000,000 new things, but plenty of ADD to keep me from finishing any of it!

But there is one project I did both start and finish in the same weekend!  For quite some time now, I’ve been complaining about our laundry/utility tub.  It’s kind of gunky and the faucet was getting so corroded that for quite some time I’ve been unable to turn on the Hot water at all.  So just like with the year only one week prior, it was time for out with the old, in with the new!

I have to say it went relatively well.  I thank my parents, uncles, grandparents, etc. for raising me to be somewhat handy. (No…not handsy 😉 )  The vanity kit came complete with sink and plumbing parts from Lowes.  I only needed two compression shut-off valves and one drain pipe coupler and I was in business!  Sometime over a delightful beverage I can fill you in on the adventure of trying to get it home in my BMW, or the acrobatics involved in trying to cut a hot water pipe that was still somewhat pressurized (remember, I couldn’t open the faucet valve…), or of the battle between [sink] legs and [my] toes.  But for now I’ll just post the Before & After photos.

Forgot to take the photo before I started the project.  So here’s the old sink, legs and faucet inside:

And a closeup of the old faucet…yuck!

And finally, the new vanity and faucet:

Okay, so I’m on a roll.  And this isn’t necessarily “in chronological order”, but I thought I’d just make a short post here to let you know where our summer has gone.  The end of August is less than a week away and students and parents all around us are all preparing to return to school.  The big Get Together (Minnesota State Fair) is about to begin.  It’s hard to believe it isn’t June anymore!

As I think back, most of the summer seemed to revolve around our big summer vacation.  I spent the majority of May and June researching and planning for our R Family Vacations Alaska Cruise in July.  We had an amazing time on board, and would love to tell you all about it if you’re interested.  Just ask!  By the time we got home, though, it was near the end of July already!

Other summer highlights included seeing several shows at the Guthrie Theater.  We’ve been season ticket holders for several years now, and have seen some amazing shows.  In May/June alone we saw 4 shows, including 3 by Tony Kushner for the Kushner Celebration.  The facility and shows have been great, and in fact, this past weekend we saw Ella, the first show of the new season.  It was a pretty amazing concert/play chronicling the life and music of Ella Fitzgerald.  It’s still playing, and I’d highly recommend it.

Jeff did some running too, including the TC1-mile and the Minneapolis Half Marathon.  He’s now getting ready for the Twin Cities 10-mile race in early October.

Other than that, we’ve just been keeping busy around the house.  We hope you’ve had a great summer too and look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon!

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately working on getting web sites and blogs updated for my business and I realized that I haven’t really been posting on the personal site.  Why is that?  Well, most probably because I’m a bit ADD and I tend to like to start 1,000 projects and am not really too good about sticking with or finishing any of them…

Case in point:  Our hardwood floors!  In October of 2005 (yes, nearly 4 years ago) we embarked on the task of some home improvements that involved removal of some horrific old carpet in the living and dining room areas of the house in favor of some solid oak hardwood flooring.  The following spring, we had another go of it and put the same hardwood in our bedroom and the upstairs hallway.  Finally, I don’t even remember when, we finished off the den.  But I use the term finished loosely!

Yes, the flooring is in, and for the most part seems to be doing fine (knock on wood).  And most of the baseboard trim has been put back up.  But… only some of the newly-required quarter-round has been mitered and nailed in place, and the transition from the kitchen/entry tile still hasn’t been done!

Excuses?  Well, several.  But mostly I was having difficulty envisioning how to properly get those last bits done.  And I know it’s trim, and sloppy trim is just as bad (or worse) than having no trim at all.  And there’s always a distraction!

This past weekend, however, the weather outside was gorgeous and was perfect for having windows open and tackling the project again.  I decided I could remove a pesky stair riser, get a new toy (er, ah, tool) to flush-cut the pesky subfloor, and replace it with a better fitting one and that would resolve my trim dilemma there.  Then, that same flush-cutting tool could be used to even up the ends of the boards by the sliding glass door so I could at last actually place the transition piece that has been sitting on the floor for years.

I went to the friendly neighborhood Home Depot where the friendly staff pointed me in the direction of a new oscillating tool from Dremel…the Multi-Max!  I was able to use the tool for a few flush-cutting jobs enabling me to solve both problems.

Did I finish?  Well, no, I ran out of both time and steam.  But I did make some good progress and I think I may actually finish this coming weekend.  You’ll have to stay tuned to find out!  🙂

So this morning I’m listening to a pre-recorded bit of the Derek & Romaine (Sirius 109 / XM 98) show from last night when I hear probably the funniest statement I’ve heard all day.

I’m listening to a lengthy discussion about why a lesbian may or may not want to date another lesbian that has kids.  Romaine, Derek and several of the bitches (um, er, listeners) express their various points of view and the general consensus was that, while not always a problem, having kids around can make dating or having alone time a bit challenging.  While people in their teens and twenties probably can’t be bothered with their other half having to divide her attention between the relationship and the kids, it is something more of an adult should be willing to do.  But even while willing, there can still be challenges…after all…

…a car seat doesn’t fit so well on the back of a Harley!

Memorial Day is here, and is the last day of our little spring vacation.  We both needed some time off, so we spent some time in South Carolina visiting Jeff’s family and the end of last week here at home.  The trip to South Carolina seemed to go quite quickly, but it was good to finally see his brother Joe’s new house and to visit with the niece and nephew.

While we didn’t get a whole lot done once we returned, we did get some things out of the way on our list.  We bought new kitchen faucets and had our countertops measured.  We got some samples of Zodiaq and think we’ve finally settled on the color we like, and we selected a new sink.  Now we wait for the quote to come in before ordering.

Jeff decided that since the plans to re-do the upstairs bathroom fell through, he should at least paint it.  It’s now flax and sports new picture frames with art, towels and rugs (only one is shown in the photo.  It looks quite nice, but now really underscores the need for new flooring!  Someday we’ll get to that, but I’m not sure when!

Meanwhile, I finally attacked some of the trim for the hardwood floor we installed in October of 2005.  Yes…coming up on 2 years ago!  But with few bugs outside, nice weather and finally being mentally ready to attack the project, I finally got at installing the quarter-round in front of the baseboards.

Of course I couldn’t get very far without running into issues I created because it was the first room I installed the flooring into.  Those included never really finishing the transition between the hardwood and the tile, or figuring out how to fill the gap created by the bowed wall on the living room side.  What I really needed to do the job was a new table saw.  One quick trip to the new Home Depot down the road and I had a new power tool.  And boy..did it ever make the difference to rip floor boards the long way with the proper tool versus trying to use a jig saw!  I managed to get the last row of [partial] boards installed right up near the tile, and used the other halves to fill in for the bowed area of the baseboard, and installed quarter-round throughout most of the dining room.  By no means done, but on the way!

I told Jeff when it’s finally all done, we need to have a T.G.I.F. party (that can stand for Thank God It’s Done, or… Thank God It’s a Floor).  Stay tuned, but don’t hold your breath!