our 15 minutes of fame!

We're featured in an article in the New York Times today about stepfamilies:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/garden/19step.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I was interviewed several weeks ago, and they sent the photographer over last week. Here's the picture they used of us (one of thousands that Danielle Austen took).

Easter 2007

Everyone who is anyone was there....

color-challenged

The color that looked *absolutely fabulous* in the dining room looked absolutely hideous in the living room when I painted it yesterday. I tried to like it, I really did - I tried to convince myself that maybe with the lampshades up, or with the pictures up, it really wouldn't be so bad. But the denial wore off and I was faced with the ugly truth that I would have to repaint. I had really wanted the living room and dining room to be the same color... but clearly that is not possible, if I want a dark dramatic color in the dining room and and I'm not willing to let the living room look like a dungeon.

So, off I went to Lowes today, and dropped another $86 (that paint is expensive!) on basically the same color I had in the living room before - It's Valspar Signature "Straw Hat". But I am leaving the far wall of the living room in "Wooden Spoon". Here you can see the two colors, although it's hard to tell on the computer. They are very close in tone, but Wooden Spoon is merely a darker shade of Straw Hat. You can see in the picture that the two colors are very different in intensity (the blotch to the left of the window is Straw Hat, the rest of that wall is Wooden Spoon). But to the right of the window, you can see how subtle the difference is when they are on adjacent walls.

and they said it couldn't be done

Here's the dining room - all finished! The total cost was $417. I used Valspar Signature "Wooden Spoon" (eggshell) on the walls above the wainscotting, and Behr "Creamy White" (semigloss) on the wainscotting and trim. Dave orginially predicted the project to cost $500. I thought he was way off and was figuring on just over $100, maybe $200 at the most. Boy was I off. Plus I will probably need to change the window treatments, so that will bring us up to his original projection.

Now on to the living room. I am undecided on the color. I really want the same color in the living room and dining room (wooden spoon), to join the rooms together and allow the two spaces to flow, especially since the dining room is so small. But it is a pretty strong color and I'm afraid it will be too dark. So I think I will try it on one wall and see how I like it. Normally I would say I could just repaint (heaven knows I do a lot of that), but with Easter fast approaching, I feel pressure to make up my mind quickly.

How it's going

In answer to Erica's question, here's how it's going. We got the chair rail up, which unfortunately was the easy part. I have some sheetrock repair to work on this week, patching up the hole where the old air conditioner went through the wall, and some various cracks at the corners of the thresholds. This weekend we should finish the molding - in between Ethan's championship basketball game, Ethan's 3 baseball practices for 2 different teams, a softball practice for me and Dave, and un umpire clinic for me and Dave. And Dan and Sara's tennis lessons. I think there's a free 20 minutes in there somewhere, when we should be about to bang out this molding project. Easy Peasy.

Don't worry - it will be done by Easter and you will be enjoying roast leg o' lamb (with Nonno's famous garlic infusion) in a beautiful diningroom. It will be so nice, in fact, that I may have to go out and buy a new set of dishes..

Dining Room Project

It snowed on Friday. My 9th grade science teacher told us it always snows on Saint Patrick's day, but this year it snowed a day early. Anyway, that forced us to cancel our first softball practice of the season (GO ROGUE WARRIORS!), so I decided to start a new project. I hope to finish it before Easter.

We're going to put up crown molding, chair rail and shadowbox molding in the dining room. Actually, Dave is going to put up the molding. I am going to paint when he's done.

So here are the the before pictures.

We spent $150 at Lowes yesterday on the crown and chair rail moldings. And we spent $217 today at the Home depot on the shadowbox molding, painting supplies, adhesive, and one can of paint for the lower half of the walls (Behr Creamy White, semi-gloss, which is the same paint we used on the built-in bookcase and trim in the living room). The top half of the dining room walls will be Cracker Bitz, same as the hallway. And, I'm thinking of painting the living room that color too.

Yes it's an awful lot of Cracker Bitz. It might be dark. We'll have to see..

say hello to my little friend..

Here's Dave holding the little gray mouse he caught in Sara's room. We managed to lure him out from behind Sara's dresser in the direction of TicTac, as it was our plan for her to take it from there. She stared at him as he sauntered past her. The mouse was not scared of TicTac and she was not the least bit interested in catching the mouse. So much for our huntress.

Then Dave got the little guy trapped under the radiator where we spent the better part of an hour chasing him from one end of the radiator to the other. We finally got him to come out and Dave trapped him with a plastic container. Sara and Dave took him down to the woods at the end of the road to let him go, but not before giving him a couple pieces of cheese... which he chose to stay and eat instead of running away.

I hope he doesn't find his way back to our house... and I hope he didn't leave a little mouse family behind...

Valentine's day at our house

oh look, the valentine fairy has been here...

Super!

Sara made a Superbowl cake. She has no particular allegence to the Colts but she wanted to use blue icing.

Later today we're having a superbowl party - just the 6 of us and Grandpa K. I will be rooting for the Bears because that's where Mike and Carolyn live... other than that I know nothing about either team but I figure, I have to pick one. I think it's some kind of rule. Dave is making a grid and there will be prizes for who comes closest to the score at the end of each quarter. More pics of the excitement to follow...

Office Space

Here's the new office, which isn't all that new anymore but as Tracey said it's time I posted something. This is the desk that Dave built for me, and the matching bookcase. I still need something for the wall over the couch to break up all that tomato-soup red... just can't decide on what yet. Plus I'm broke, so it'll have to wait.

Next project - Dave is building me shelves for the closet, and a new filing system will be created to replace the "just throw it in the drawer" system we've been using for years.

if you blinked you missed it

Look! Snow! ok it only lasted for 5 minutes but at least I caught it on film as proof that it really is winter.

Oh by the way, Happy Birthday MOM!! :)

Think locally, warm globally

Today Dave and I got the Christmas lights down. It was in the 70's and sunny. My kind of January weather!

Although it is confusing the heck outta my poor daffodils and forsythia.

Christmas kinda snuck up on me this year..

Here's our tree, finally! You may not be able to tell in the picture, but the bottom set of lights are white, while the rest of the tree has colored lights. This is the new trend this year - all the fashionable trees in Paris, Milan, Beverly Hills, etc. are decorated with mismatched lights. It's sort of like, shabby chic for trees.

No, it is *not* because I accidentally bought the wrong lights, and when I tried to go get another string, every single one of the 5 stores I went to was sold out of lights. No really, I meant to do this.

But next year I'm going to put the tree up a little earlier than 6 days before Christmas...

the other weekend goal

Dave and I accomplished the second of our two weekend goals - getting rid of the dubious distinction of being the only house on the street without Christmas lights.

true love

True love is building a desk for someone, simply because she likes her laptop computer at exactly 29", and the standard desk height is 30".

Isn't he sweet?

This is one of our two goals for the weekend.

Tracey, is this what you meant by beige?

OK so I didn't *exactly* followed the advice of my sisters-in-law... in an Trading-spaces-moment I decided to paint one wall red. The other 3 walls are "buckskin pony" which is a golden tan.

Dave is building me the desk as we speak, and when everything is in the room (curtains up, rug down, art on the walls) I think it will be very cool.

I hope so anyway.

Boy that sure is red... LOL!

What color???

Here's the couch we bought for my new office. I can't decide what color to paint the office. I had originally wanted a dark color, like brick or maroon. But the room is only 9 X 14, so I'm worried that I won't want to spend 8 hours a day in such a dark room.

The hallway color (Cracker Bitz by Olympic) looks great with this couch, but do I want the same color in the office as I have in the hallway? Isn't that an awful lot of cracker bitz?

I do NOT want white. Or anything remotely suggesting white. I want color - but I can't decide how dark I want to go.

so, what would you do?

Week 20 (yes, you've been reading this blog for 20 weeks!)

Handrail is coming along... looks much better with the ballusters in place. There is one more balluster that Louie has to order, that is longer than the others, for the landing. Other than that though, it's a feat of engineering brilliance.

Louie says he never wants to install another handrail as long as he lives... !

More handrail drama

Today, Scott and Louie stopped by to work on the lower section of the handrail. It took them 5.5 hours to get this far. The starter step is 2" more shallow than the standard size, and because of this, the stock pieces from LJSmith took some major reworking to fit.

ok but... that's the last straw

This has nothing to do with our addition, but I thought I'd share this movie trailer. Apparently the original director's cut of Office Space was too scary for general release.

Office Space, Recut