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Paint It White

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Maybe the funniest thing about painting the fireplace was MK’s Dad. Not that I fell over a bunch, not the bruises, not the empty wine cellar. Almost the three trips to the store for more primer. But no.

MK often calls his Daddy to fill him in on the hard work we’re doing. And to ask him the right way to do it. Or redo it. He mentioned that we decided to paint the fireplace. Remember when I asked what was worse than yucky brick? I answered smelly wet brick. MK’s Daddy answered “PAINTED BRICK”.

Thank goodness he doesn’t have to live here, right?

So three coats of primer later, the fireplace is white. And the walls are white. And the room is empty. So it’s a giant empty white basement.

We have plans, eventually it’ll look swanky and loungy like this:

But for now, we have nothing.

My ideas are to put huge vase/candle holders that go straight up the sides of the fireplace, and mount a cover over the mantle, either a slab of granite or a hunk of wood. With a streamlined modern insert, we’re hoping Daddy-in-law won’t see it as just a brick fireplace.

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Side Tracked

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Nothing is better than my company! It has been too far and in between this year. We’ve talked to people that handle resort bookings and say it’s picked up this year from last year. I happily correct them and let them know we’ve never waited in line at our ski resort and our guest room has not been used nearly as much as I imagined.

Last year we had over 30 people come stay with us in under 6 months. This winter, less than 10. Maybe everyone knew the house was new and not as fancy as the rental, but I would think we could have hit maybe 20. Maybe they got the word we were having a weenie snow year.

Whatever the cause, MB and JB were probably our last ski guests this past weekend. I cried when they left, since they are the total awesomest, and since I knew I’d be back to house work. We skied The Canyons, had a girly shopping day while the boys did The Canyons again, then trekked out to my new favorite totally amazing place, Solitude.

We ate well, ran around town, and played some Wii. SB came over and beat us all, of course. I love a full house. I love having company. I don’t even know if I’ve gotten any better at it after all these guests (80+ and I lost count after trying to add up Seattle, San Diego, and Park City…). I try to let my company lead, and I follow. You fall asleep, I do. You say you’re hungry, I cook. You say it’s gross, we get take out. I’m not too pushy, not too overwhelming. Your trip is as jam-packed or calm and slow as you’d like it to be.

Each time someone leaves, I get sad. I clean the bathroom, wash the sheets, notice how my best friends leave the place cleaner than they probably found it, and pour myself a glass of wine they brought me as a gift.

It makes me ready to work on the house again after a day or two. It has a ways to go, but remembering that I’m happy if my guests are happy, I’m willing to strive to make this place as cozy as it can be. For us and them.

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SXSW 2010 – Packing Early

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Still over a week until I get on a plane:

fives.jpg#140

Five Things I’ve Already Packed:

  1. Sparks koozie.
  2. Swag fillable purse, with sunglasses and earplugs already inside.
  3. Summer clothes! Sundresses.
  4. Electronic everything chargers. 
  5. Emergen-C. My hangover cure. 
Unknown's avatar

Lowe’s Isn’t PetSmart

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This might be a SLC thing – I’ve never spent so much time at Lowe’s and Home Depot as I have here. But seriously, people act like these stores are for dogs. I have seen more pets in HD than in an actual pet store.

Who thinks that’s a good idea? Where there are all kinds of dangerous objects I even almost walk in to? To bring your pets? Some people don’t even put them on a leash.

I like pets. I think patios are made for pets. You can bring your pet almost anywhere and I won’t mind. But I don’t see the logic of “I need tile. I’ll bring the dog.”

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Walls

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We know how to make them. MK did an amazing job finishing out a small three walled closet space in the master bath. I just did the corner beading and joints. I need a superstar badge.

We found this space behind a wall that we were investigating. The best part? A hole in the wall. Like, from the inside to the outside. At first I thought we had a peeping tom of some sort… but it was behind some insulation so I survived the initial shock of MK showing it to me.

It got closed up. Can you believe it?

We can now use the space for shelving and the old shelves can get torn down when we move the shower – giving us more room for a bigger shower! We also get to install a new fan and lights.

As a matter of fact, MK doing the walls took some time, and we’ve been living without a toilet in our master bath. We figured the walls could be done easier without the toilet in the way. So we get to put a toilet in now too! That one I’m a little nervous about.

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I Might Miss My BlackBerry

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Let me know if you can help…

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Five Things I Can’t Figure Out How To Do On My Android:

  1. Cut and paste, like from a text to the address book.
  2. Send a message on Facebook
  3. Get my browser to stay on the page I want it to.
  4. Send a DM on Seesmic. 
  5. Set a ringtone from the phone as an alert.
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Beginning The Basement

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The last major unresolved  project (thing we hadn’t even started) just happens to be our entire basement. Other than the wine cellar, guest room, and bathroom, there is a giant open empty room on the lower level of my house. MK has taken the reins on this one. 

(Sidenote: If I didn’t mention it before, we picked rooms the way you pick a basketball team, I got living room, he picked basement, I picked guest room, he got his office, etc. It is hilarious, but so far a totally effective way of solving debates, until we start finishing out the basement, when it’s going to get ugly.) 

He sealed the trim and the windows and air vents and we cleaned the walls and the laundry room. We had to shut off the crappy fireplace and will have to get a new one. He FINALLY let me paint over the nasty maroon walls – since we couldn’t really agree on a final color we used three… One wall that is actually IN the basement living room is white now to match the rest of the basement, no idea why it WAS ever red. The hallway we used leftover grey, it may be temporary, but I like it. I made the upper half of the hallway match the kitchen since we had the paint, why not? We pulled down some wood that might have hung doors at one point and I painted the entryway to the basement living room and the hand rails, which were just plain wood before: 

Better than Maroon!

 Then I drew the short straw or whatever and while he was working on the master bath I had to paint the ceiling. Twice. And that’s only primer, I’ll have to do another coat of paint. The fireplace had made the ceiling really dingy, and with snow covering the windows we need to brighten the basement up! 

It was super painful, my neck still aches, and yesterday I skied with bruised shins, seeing as I kept knocking my legs in to the stupid ladder. I’m a hot mess right now, totally. But I did it, so I rule. 

Beats sooty brown!

 That’s the ceiling. What is that brick? The fireplace! Gross, right? Have you seen the WHOLE thing? Super gross! 

Painting = cheaper than tearing down.

 Today, while he’s out skiing in awesome snow, I’ve been put to another nasty task: 

washing the brick to prime and paint it. 

In case you never knew, DIRTY BRICK IS GROSS. The only thing grosser is THE SMELL OF WET BRICK. Today is not making the top of my why I love living here list.

Unknown's avatar

This Is Real?

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Why isn’t anyone talking about this? I had to look it up when I got home after hearing it on the radio – I honestly thought this was an SNL skit/spoof or something. But no, it’s a REAL song with lyrics like “super size” and “drive thru” worked in. Pop music scares me sometimes. Especially pre SXSW – I have to ban the radio. Thank goodness Shoutcast has a tuner playing SXSW bands up!

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A New Phone

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There have been quite a few occasions here that I’ve told you about my love for my Blackberry. It was a super fun phone and I was addicted to it. I may have not mentioned that I also had many problems with them. The latest Curve that I had crashed and shut off recently, and wiped my address book.

I fortunately had most numbers written down so I didn’t have to get on FB and whine to everyone asking for numbers. But I didn’t really feel like redoing the address book. We discovered that we were eligible for new phones and went to the Verizon store. It was busy but we were taken care of quickly which was great. Droids were buy one get one free so we both upgraded for almost nothing.

At first trying to figure out the phone was fairly amusing. It’s the first phone I had to read the user manual for. The lady at the store told us these things had a two week learning curve and the store even held classes to teach you how to use them. It took me about 4 hours, but I’m in business. All the things I had on my Blackberry are there, and so much more. The app store for the Droid is like crack.

I thought the Blackberry was fun, this thing is killer. Even MK is using the apps and things more than he did on his Blackberry. We’re hooked.

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A Skiing Visitor

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We’ve only had three all winter. This bed and breakfast needs to advertise!

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Five Reasons I Loved JC’s Visit:

  1. My first lunch (and beer!) on the hill all winter.
  2. Skiing nearly open to close three days straight.
  3. Answers to my most ignorant Olympic questions.
  4. A trip to the Utah Olympic park, saw some ski jumpers!
  5. JC, of course.