Flashback Happy Halloween

So for any of you who doubted that I ever did Halloween here's a picture circa 1980 to prove that yes indeed I DID Halloween. And all out in fact. See that fancy hand made outfit and wig mom made!! How could I possibly live up to that as an adult. I have 13years of halloween pictures that shows off her fancy work.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Mini Caramel Apples

When this holiday suggestion showed up in my inbox I thought it was such a great idea. So tonight I finally gave it a try. The recipe is here from family fun magazine. I still think they are cute and they taste yummy, but I had trouble getting the caramel to stay put and not just drop to the bottom of the apple and pool at the bottom of the cups. Perhaps I added to much water to the caramel, if I try it again I'll have to try to keep the caramel thick and maybe that will fix the problems. I still think they are super cute, not sure if they will hold up to taking them to work to share, so might have to keep trying.

Fireplace Re-Tile... Part 1

When we had the floors redone this is how they "finished" off things around the fireplace. This needless to say did not sit very well with me. They intended for us to add another layer of trim where the gap was, the problem with this is then there would be 2 trim pieces showing: the new and the original beat up trim on the floor. So to resolve this newly created situation we decided we'd take on re-tiling the fireplace.

Current/Original Fireplace

Samples for new fireplace

So given our tiny fireplace, and non existence of the current tile size anywhere. We went to multiple stores, sketched out multiple options with various tile sizes until we'd settled in on a plan. We found a trim piece that will go along the top of the fireplace and use 12x12 tiles elsewhere. A friend at work pointed us to All Natural Stone in the area. They were really nice and helpful. So we've finally settled on the small tile on top in the picture on the right. Kyle will be off this week to order. I'll be very happy when we finish up home improvement for the time being.

My 1st iPod

I know I'm a little late to be drawn to the Apple light. I've had plenty of MP3 players. And I even like the black sansa one I have right now, but the cute iPod nano in pretty colors has been taunting me for some time. I've been looking at them every time Kyle dragged me into the apple store. Finally I was thinking maybe eventuatlly, but what color? I've been in a pink mood of late, but the iPod pink in person is VERY pink, but I really liked the blue so I finally settled in on color.

This last week had been an incredibly rough week for a lot of reasons, and I've barely been holding it together. Friday Kyle meets me at work with a surprise. The iPod!!! For sure I have the greatest husband! I got a pink folio to protect it and a speaker dock for my scrapbook room. I heart my iPod. And I'm slightly regretting my last laptop purchase since it has vista on it, maybe I should have bought a mac. So I may be converted yet, for now I'm testing the waters with my pretty new iPod.

2nd Anniversary

The last few months have been pretty rough dealing with the house. This weekend we took off for Napa to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. We started out stopping by Andretti Winery where we are part of their wine club. They are really great people and it's a really nice little winery. Then we swung by Clos Du Val where they have the BEST peanut brittle. No wine here (we've sampled before and just need to restock on peanut brittle.) We then swung by the hotel to check in, our room wasn't quite ready so we picked up a quick snack at Bouchon Bakery and headed back out for more wine tasting. We hit the Miner Family Winery (nice but a little corporate for us), Then onto Plumpjack (I really liked it here, they had a cute gift shop, a laid back setting, and kinda santa cruzy vibe). After that we drove by Saddleback but they are only available by appointment, lastly for the day we hit Elizabeth Spencer (very cool small little place with nice smelling wines). For dinner we ate at Hurley's. It was amazing even if I had to go with my second choice of
Heirloom Tomato Salad and Roasted Chicken {lemon preserve, caramelized pearl onions, fresh English peas, “macaroni & cheese"} instead of the butternut squash ravioli.

Day 2: We decided to head up to Calistoga and to the "old faithful geyser". It kinda felt like a set from a Chevy Chase movie, but it was fun. They also had fainting goats and babies. The babies were adorable, even if Kyle was disappointed about the lack of fainting. We had lunch at the Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery, yummy. Looked around town and then off for more wine tasting. Charles Krug a Peter Mondovi family winery. I thought it would be similar to feel to the Mondovi winery... nopsi... it was small and the people awesome!! The guy who ended up helping us INSISTED I try the Cabernet w/ dark chocolate. A discussion of dark chocolate, cheese and the wonderful things in life ensued. I must say there is a definate difference in the taste when you have dark chocolate on your pallet mixed with a Cab wine, or port. Kyle bought a bottle of the port (and the guy have me a a bunch of chocolate!!!). Then we went to Beringer (beautiful grounds), and rounded out the day at Whitehall Lane. For dinner we went to Napa Valley Grille where we'd had a wonderful dinner a few months ago for a friends birthday and wanted to return. We had an appetizer, cheese plate (sooo good), and each got a salad.

{The End}

Napa Valley Porto Potties

Amongst the fields and fields of bountiful grape vineyards of the Napa Valley I spotted them. While taking a quick spin around the Opus One Winery there they were. Hard to miss with the contrasting blue color against the fields of lush green, and so ironic while we at such a winery as Opus One.

We Have Floors

It was a long day... and a long time coming. When the flooring guy came he insisted the flooring still looked defective. Kyle insisted it was going in and it was going to happen today. So they sent out a home depot manager and he took a look and felt it was fine and gave the thumbs up to go ahead with the installation. So now we are working on the baseboards and have some touch up work from where things were destroyed during demolition that we need to sort out. We also now have a new issue around the fireplace. There was an existing trim piece that the flooring guy insisted shouldn't be removed (at this point I think this was a mistake). He insisted that there be a gap left between the flooring and and old trim with a new trim piece put on top in the gap. The problem with this is that it doesn't completely cover the existing trim, in fact it just barely covers the edge of the existing trim so you have 2 layers of trim. ..... But at least for now we have floors and have cut about half the base.

Floors this Week...... no really

My mom helped me out by painting our baseboards (smoothly) with a coat of paint, and I gave them another coat over the holiday weekend. They are scheduled to come out and install the flooring Wednesday (finally!!). We picked up the new flooring a while ago and snapped together a few pieces and to our "unexperienced" eye it looks much better. After that it will be our turn to give it a go as DIY-ers a shot. Baseboards here we come, then we can move back in and be done with this whole ordeal. At least this is the current plan.

hide and seek

We got home and this is how we found the cat. Quick grab the camera... Then we made sure he was ok. Perhaps we did that out of order, but we figured he was fine... He was.

Bessie is getting BIG

Forcing Kyle to take the leash I snapped this photo. He doesn't really like dogs... but seriously not even puppies? Oh well. I still think they are cute together.

There's a hole in the bucket

What would a weekend be without a home improvement post? When it rains it pours... isn't that how the saying goes? Just when we thought maybe we were finally on track for our floors (on the installation schedule for July 9th, yes!! Finally!! Take 2) Kyle noticed a little water coming from under the sink. After a closer look, there's a hole in our garbage disposal. Anyone care to guess what hubby is doing on his day off Monday? Let's hope THIS goes well. There is really only so much "rain" we can take.

3mo..... still no floors

No picture today.... I am totally breaking my posting tradition. Perhaps that will alter the universe and put us back on course. Well worth a try. Where did I leave off this bed time story? I believe with bumpy base boards. The contractor agreed to take back the old ones, bring us new ones and thought it "was best for all parties involved to sever ties". Since apparently we have ridiculous high standards and the base were done properly. Ummm yeah ok, it's us, fine just leave. It may take up to 30days to refund the money for the work they will no longer be doing (we'll see how that goes). Kyle and I have decided to tackle the installation and painting of the baseboards. After making the decision we were both incredibly relieved. Today the new replacement floors should hopefully arrive at home depot for us to pick up and get acclimating to our home. We can then go about scheduling the installation (again) and hopefully be on our way to putting our lives back together.

While doing a bit of research on the web I discovered our homeowners association has a web site (who knew... or I don't read the news letters nearly close enough.) Here's any entry in the meeting meetings regarding our favorite subject of late.

"ITEM VIII - New Business
A. Insurance Claim for water damage to 5 units on Huxley Court
The Board reviewed the repair proposal from Carter-Gough Construction for 5 units damaged by an overflowing toilet. The repair cost will be $43,292.43. The association has filed a claim with Allied Insurance and will also consider subrogating the expense with the owner of the unit in which the toilet was located."

Pet Sailor

As I may have mentioned we like dressing up our kitty in fun pet outfits. We got him a tie for christmas that he actually seemed to enjoy, or at least didn't seem to mind. This weekend while we were doing our usual Target shopping I saw this cute sailors outfit. See doesn't he look happy? He's been wearing it all day. He's all ready to set sail.

Textured Baseboards - WTF

Another day another problem. Yesterday when I came home and took a look at the baseboards they were super eager to paint (even though our floors are still probably a couple weeks out) I noticed something right off. They were textured. I thought maybe I just hadn't been terribly observant and all my baseboards were, so I quickly checked... no I hadn't been imagining things all the rest of the base in the house completely smooth. These textured. I sent Kyle to check with our neighbor to see if they did theirs this way... no theirs were smooth, although I found out through the course of our conversation they didn't paint the bottom third because they assumed the rug would cover it (nice!!). We've had it. I've been doing pretty well up until this point. This was my final straw. Overpriced installation for the fooring- fine we'll find someone else, bad job pulling out old floor - fine we can fix it, subfloor needs to be leveled - fine pay to fix it, first batch of floors defective - return it order more, TEXTURED BASE BOARDS... What could they have been thinking? That's it... ENOUGH!!

"Pergo"-tory continues

Our Downstairs... In our garage.... Still.

yup it's true pergotory continues. We are quickly approaching the 3month mark since the disaster that damaged our floors. I think Kyle and I switch off loosing it. The latest: pergo agreed the floors were damaged and agreed to replace them (after several phone calls from home depot), we have returned our old floors to the store, and are now waiting for the new floors to arrive. We have a pile of baseboard in our living room waiting to be painted and installed, pending the arrival of the flooring. *fingers crossed* by 4th of July?!

BTW: Thank you Peter's daughter for the awesome pun!! You rock and brought a small chuckle to an otherwise glum day!!

Poets & Pirates

This weekend we went the Kenny Chesney Poets & Pirates tour at AT&T park. The concert started at 4 with a new band, followed by Luke Bryan, Gary Allan,. Leann Rimes, Brooks and Dunn, and finally Kenny Chesney. It was quite an experience. Kinda like a huge frat party with music. The people watching was fabulous (if you are into that kind of thing). The people watching was so amazing that the music was almost secondary. Today I am exhasted. I'm not cut out for late nights of loud music and drunk masses.

Seeing Red

Anyone else getting tired / frustrated /bored reading about our floors? Well too bad :P until they are fixed it is consuming our lives!!! And as if it hasn't gone on long enough, things have been delayed now indefinitely. Well perhaps that's a bit overly dramatic, but let me back up. Today the installers showed up to install the floors. YAY!! at last floors. The day we've been waiting for, for quickly approaching 3 months. The floor has been leveled. We have the materials. They prepped the floor, they started work and then..... the head guy calls me down to take a look at something he had "concerns" about. What was this concern? The joints didn't close properly. Did I want to continue? Everything in me was screaming just put the flooring in the way they are, wrong and all they look so beautiful!!! But the rational perfectionist devil sitting on my other shoulder calmly asked if this was just the way this brand/ particular floor went together. His response no, it's wrong, with all the floors he's laid he can assuredly tell me it shouldn't be like this. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP. OK... So Monday the tech comes out to take a look and assess the situation... we should know more then.... wait haven't I said that before.

One step forward, Two back

So it turns out your floors need to be relatively level before laying new flooring. ;) And well.... ours weren't even close... D'oh. So this means all that $$ we saved (nearly $1500 by changing contractors to be exact, just in case anyone was wondering about such things) has now been spent to fix the drastic imperfections in our concrete sub floor. (I can only imagine what a predicament we'd be in if we'd stayed with the original contractor). So here we are with a couple concrete flows across our downstairs leveling it out. Actual honest to goodness floors are supposed to be laid soon.... real soon.

Uncle Kyle

My sister-in-law had her first baby and she is precious. I was a little apprehensive about spending time with the baby, since we still haven't really decided if we ever want to take that plunge (and have pretty seriously entertained the idea of not). I fully expected to be surrounded by little ones via friends and family but this was the first baby I've spent time with as an adult. I have to admit it was a bit intoxicating, she just melts your heart and makes me "almost" want one of our own. I wish they lived closer so we could see her grow and develop.

New Floors...... So Close Yet So Far

The flooring saga continues... We "fired" our original flooring contractor (who was a sub through the general contractor) And have opted to have home depot come out and do the installation. This means we have to wait even longer for our floors. They didn't order the pad that goes under the flooring AND the threshold pieces "allegedly" didn't get processed and have been reordered. We also aren't sure if we are going to have to do something about the ridiculous amount of remaining glue remaining on the concrete from the previous floors. Oh and as if dealing with the floors downstairs isn't enough, the thin piece of real hardwood laminated on the flooring upstairs is spontaneously popping off in a couple of places. Nice. We were thinking of doing the upstairs at some point, in the future, later, down the road. *sigh* I'm tired of my furniture living in the garage. Hopefully we will have a better idea of the new time line tomorrow.