Month: May 2008

My goal before our furniture was delivered was to complete painting in the living room and dining room. I had planned to paint the walls, the ceilings, and the trim. The trim turned into a nightmare. I thought a good sealer coat would be enough to cover the stained trim and I would still be able to use a latex paint. Wrong. Sometimes the stain bled through; sometimes the paint cracked. I tried numerous paints and methods before giving up. I even had the guys at Sherwin Williams stumped. I had a painter come in to give me a quote – he said $27,000 for all trim, doors, and windows – and then Wade decided to figure it out.

Wade set up on the mantle with four different paints. We think he found a solution. Sand with an orbital; two coats of Zinser BIN, lightly sand, one coat of Sherwin-Williams Pro Block; one coat latex semi-gloss.

This project is much larger than anticipated, but I think the results are looking good. I still have the Pro Block and semi-gloss to go:

Wade and I have most of our pictures back on the walls. I wasn’t sure what to do with the stars Jamie gave me for my birthday last year. The stars are red and blue which I didn’t think would look right on my red walls. Wade pointed out the obvious – paint the stars. I now have gray and white stars and love them! They are still hanging at my backdoor, just in a new house.

I got some sad news today. Melissa and Chris had to have Taylor put to sleep. Shortly after adopting her they discovered some heart problems. Over the last year the problems have gotten worse. Taylor was having trouble breathing and the vet tried a few things, but couldn’t decrease the fluid around her heart.

Our house in Milwaukee is slightly smaller than our house in Anderson. More importantly, there is radiant heat which leads to less wall space. We also lost a walk-in attic. All of this has motivated Wade and I to sell, donate, and throw out. We decided to keep a running tally of everything we sell and then use that money to buy new stainless appliances for the kitchen to match our fridge. As of today, we have sold a refrigerator (came with the house), a dresser, a rug, a dog house, a set of TV trays, two televisions, a microwave, dishes, glasses, pots, pants, etc. It is nice to be back in an area with an active Craig’s list – perfect for the larger items. I still use eBay for the smaller things. Our current total is $696. My guess is we’ll get another hundred from the remaining items. I am going to wait to sell our current appliances until the new ones arrive!

Wade and I have one room 90% done. The kitchen only needs the track lighting removed and can lights installed, but that is a later project. For now it is done – painting, decorating, etc.

In celebration – we now have three fish in our tank. They were named for some of my current favorite things – Johhny Cash and an old movie favorite – Tango & Cash. We have two black mollies (Johnny and Cash) and a dalmation molly (Tango). We are not taking bets at this time on their life span.

Wade and I only met the Peppler family a couple of times during the house buying process. It probably isn’t a fair evaluation, but we decided we don’t like them. The more and more issues we find with the house (all little things) only cements our feelings. To this end we have created a new phrase, “We’ve been Pepplered.” We use this whenever we find something done really weird to the house – clear unpaintable caulk EVERYWHERE, drywalling around a ceiling fan mounting bracket, glass windows replaced with plexiglass, etc. None of it is a big deal – no holes in the wall or anything major. But it is always an inconvenience that makes our project just a little harder. We can’t even really say it was previous owners because they were in the house for ten years. We have been using the phrase freely and I know we are going to get caught – most of our neighbors seemed to really like the Pepplers and I have already seem them out once around town. Oh well, we’re having fun with it for now.

The girls got up around 7:45 am so we all got up then. We made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and then set up to decorate the sugar cookies we made last night. We were almost done when Anthony returned from Madison. The five of us piled into the car for a trip to the zoo (which is just down the street). We had a good time and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of animals. I’m curious to go back in the winter to see what they do with all of the animals in the snow. Tina kept us entertained with her funny teeth.

We grilled burgers and hot dogs for dinner and ate in front of the tv. The girls had bought some new movies for the trip and hadn’t watched all of them yet. The movie of choice was “Golden Compass”.

It took five guys two days, but Wade and I are moved in. By “moved in” I mean there is stuff everywhere and nowhere to walk or sit. The movers couldn’t take the mattresses up the stairs. Our small hallway makes too tight of a turn. They felt bad because they weren’t able to reassemble any of the furniture they took apart (desks, table, etc). To make up for it, they did get my mattresses in the house. Don’t tell anyone – I know they weren’t supposed to do it this way.