Next?!!

We've been chugging along on the living room remodel.  The plasterers came yesterday and the walls look great!  Hubby has been threatened to within an inch of his life if he puts a scratch or dent in our new walls!!

Now that we've completed that fun task, it's time to move onto fixing some of the problems.

Problem # 1

When we took the wall down between the two rooms, it left a space in the floor on either side where we'll have to fill in with wood, since we'll be pulling up those lovely carpets and restoring the hardwood underneath.

We bought the wood last night.  It's certainly not going to look like there was never anything there, but we'll piece it in as well as we can, then sand it with the rest of the floor and put lots of polyurethane on it.

Problem # 2

Same thing with the ceiling.   There's a beam where the wall used to be.   We're planning on covering it up with a nice piece of wood and some molding.

Problem # 3

The chimney sticks out into the room.  We originally thought we'd be able to leave the chimney exposed and it would give some character to the room.  And then we took down the wall around it, and found that a lovely gray metal heating duct ran up the length of it.

So our second plan was to find some paneling that looks like bricks and put that up around it.  Until we went to the store and saw the paneling and.......well........it looks like paneling!  We then started looking into alternatives.   Believe it or not, there is wallpaper that looks like brick.  But again...well, you know.

And then I found "thin brick".   It comes on a mesh sheet:

It's real brick - about 1/4 of the thickness of a real brick.  You paste it onto the wall and then put grout in the cracks, so it looks like a real brick wall.  However,  it's going to cost about $650 to do that small area.   

So problem # 4 is that neither Hubby nor I will be satisfied with cheap looking paneling or wallpaper.   Looks like we'll be spending a fortune on faux bricks.

Riding the Merry-Go-Round

February is the longest month.  I know there's only 28 days, but everyone who lives in New England knows it's the longest month.   I'm so looking forward to this month being over.  Here's why:

1.  We are in the middle of a renovation project that has taken over most of the house.  There is dirt, dust and junk everywhere.  I'm not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination, but the constant mess and clutter is driving me crazy.  

2.  My Dad was in the hospital for almost a week with heart problems.   Luckily, he's doing well and home now, but that kind of thing is always stressful.

3.  Hubby's car died.  We are now going to be looking for a new car for him.  I hate car shopping more than I hate regular shopping.

4.  My car took two hits.  The first one....I hit a tire (with rim) that was just sitting in the middle of the road.  I knew I  hit it, and thought I'd escaped without damage.  Until Hubby noted that the part of the car under the front bumper was all broken.  The second one.....some guy rear-ended me as I was leaving work early because of the snow storm.  Again, not much damage, but stressful.

5.  We had a huge blizzard.  2 1/2 feet of snow.

6.  Hubby was sick with a cold for 2 weeks.  He sweetly passed it on to me.  I haven't had a cold in about 3 years.

So let's try and look at the bright side, shall we?

1.  When the renovation project is done, it's going to be beautiful and allow us to have a big enough living room for parties and jams.

2.  My Dad is doing well and kept up a great attitude through the whole process.

3.  Hubby will have a better car that runs without sounding like a tank.

4.  The insurance company is going to pay out on the second accident.  Since it's just cosmetic damage, and I don't really care how the car looks, we'll bank that money.

5.  Hmmmm...this one's a toughy.   I guess we can say that the children got a chance to see what a big snowstorm is like and have some fun?    (I know that's stretching it a bit.)

6.  There's nothing good to say about being sick.

March 1 cannot come soon enough.

The Blizzard of 2013

From the safety of the house

Ready to shovel

Our front walkway is where?

About three feet at the end of the walkway

Those snowbanks would be good to build snow forts

What cars?

Our street

Hubby worked hard to get that car out.

After the storm

Whose Stupid Idea Was This, Anyway?

It all started innocently enough.  Last summer, we decided to have a "campfire jam".  Invite a bunch of musical friends over and sing songs around the campfire.  The driving rainstorm forced us indoors - into our nice big double living room.  But I found myself wishing that the archway between the two rooms wasn't there, since you couldn't see the people who were in the other room.

And that got me to thinking about how much I disliked the brown '70's paneling.   "How about" I said innocently enough, "we take down that partial wall and make one big room and take down the paneling?"

And that's where it began.  The paneling covered plaster.  If we take the paneling off, the plaster will be a mess.  We called Hubby's construction worker cousin over to check and make sure the wall wasn't a bearing wall.  It wasn't but her recommended we take the plaster down too, and put up sheet rock.  And hey, if you're going to do that, you might as well pull down the lathes and put some insulation back there.

On top of that, let's put in some new electrical outlets cause, let's face it, one outlet in each room just wasn't enough.  So Hubby has spent the last month putting in new outlets and trying to untangle the bizarre maze of electrical lines that people have spent the past 100 years creating in our basement.

Finally it was time to start ripping down paneling.  Hubby did that himself.

I foolishly said I wanted to be involved, so I got to do this:

It took us a whole day to rip down all the plaster.  The mess was just incredible.  Another whole day we and my daughter Jamie spent ripping down lathes and scooping up black, blown-in insulation.

The plastic did no good whatsoever.  We had plaster dust everywhere. I spent the good part of a third day cleaning up the house.     We ended out with twice as many bags of debris as is shown here.

It's been a real learning experience (as well as an expense I didn't anticipate) to get rid of it all.

The only thing we haven't done yet is get rid of the middle wall!!

Now we get to enjoy our living room looking like this. (I don't know if you can see it, but that's a super-large bottle of ibuprofen on the coffee table.  Our bodies need it so bad!)

Hopefully soon, we'll have Hubby's cousin come over and put up the sheetrock for us.  That's the only thing we are paying someone to come in and do.   After that the molding, painting and floors are projects we get to anticipate!

So Frustrating!!

So the new diet and exercise program is on in full force.  I'm quite proud to say that I have gone to the gym every Monday through Friday.  That's 5 days a week folks!  

At the gym I do a complete "Curves" type circuit.  I am going to Planet Fitness, but they have a similar circuit.  It takes 30 minutes.  You start with 1 minute on the step, then a machine for 1 minute, then back to the step, then another machine.  I really like it because it keeps my interest.  Pretty neat that I can definitely feel the improvement.  ie.......I can now do all 10 steps, rather than do some of them and just march in front of others.  And...I've already upped the weights on some of the machines.  

After I'm done the circuit, I go and do 15 minutes on the treadmill.  15 minutes is about all I can take.  Boring!!

I've also been "watching what I eat".   And dammit...unbelievable....I lost 3 pounds the first week, and nothing since then! NADA!!!   WTF?????

Everyone keeps saying that I'm building muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat, and that's why I'm not losing weight.   I say PSHAW!    First of all, I am not lifting weights to become a muscle-girl.  I am doing light weights and lots of reps to tone my muscles.  Second of all, there's no way I'm gaining that much muscle weight so as to negate any fat-weight loss.  And third of all.....PSHAW!

So that only leaves the fact that I am still eating too much.  So I found a calorie-counting program online.  It's called myfitnesspal.com   I'm sure most of you have found similar programs to do on the computer or I Phone.  You put in your weight, height, etc, and your goal.   Then you put in all the food you eat plus all the exercise you do.

 I'm sure it's not really precise, but I do think it does a couple things for me.  First, it makes me really think about everything I eat.  I'm not going to snitch a couple of chocolate kisses off the lunch table at work, or slather my bread with butter if I have to account for those calories.   Second, it gives me a better idea of what's good for me and what's not.  Third, it reminds me that I need to enjoy every morsel that goes into my mouth.

For instance...... for lunch yesterday, I was going to have some pita bread and hommus, and then have some plain yogurt with granola.   I punched it in before I went to lunch, and found that I could delete the plain yogurt and granola, and have triple the amount of pita bread and hommus for the same amount of calories.  AND....I don't really care all that much for the yogurt and granola, but really like the hommus.  AND...I think the bread and hommus kept me from getting as hungry by the time I left work for home.

So I'm going to incorporate this program into my diet plan for the time being.  I don't want to count calories the rest of my life, but for now I think this might work for me.

Flu, Flu, FLU!!

It's been a really crazy winter so far with the flu virus.  I often wonder if it would be better if we had more snow and colder weather.  Would that be better for killing all the germs?  The weather's been so warm, it's like a giant petri dish out there!

Yesterday I spent the day with my granddaughter and her mom, my daughter-in-law.  Both were down with "flu-like viruses".   (I'm not sure if that's not just the flu in disguise.)   My son needed to go to work, I have lots of sick days, so I volunteered to take the day off and stay with them.

Emily was actually feeling pretty good in the morning.  Dad had given her some Tylenol at 5am, so she was not feeling feverish.  She was eating a popsicle in Mom's bed when I got there.  Mom was looking pretty ragged.

Since Emily complained of ear pain, and her fever  had gone up the night before, Mom called the doctor and we packed up and went in to have her ears checked.  All clear.  But the doctor did say that even though she didn't have a fever at present (7 hours after medicine) that didn't mean it wouldn't come back.

And it did.  As I was leaving at 5pm, they took her temp and it was a little above normal.  Apparently that's the way this thing is going.  And there's not really anything you can do for it except take medications to make you comfortable and wait it out.

And how am I avoiding the flu?   (so far...knock on wood).

1.  After almost 30 years of childcare, I believe I have a very good immune system.

2.  I also take echinacea every day.

3.  And I clear out my sinuses with a Netti pot periodically.

4.  I wash my hands with soap and water.  Not so much the hand sanitizer.

5.  I have a humidifier going in my bedroom. Dry nasal passages are an invitation for germs.

5.  Most importantly - I open windows.  Almost every night my bedroom window is open part of the night.     And on really nice days, I open the windows in the house for 1/2 hour.

I truly believe fresh air is the answer to the flu problems.  Get people outside!  Kids should be playing outside in the snow after school.  Go sledding, skating, tubing....whatever!   But also air out the house and get all those nasty flu germies out of here!!!

I Hate It When Someone Else Is Right

So after telling the beginning of the story of my cell phone, I figured I'd pass on the rest of the story.

The phone that was DOA needed to be sent back.  Unfortunately, since I unpacked the phone at work, all the paperwork and prepaid return envelope were put in the trash and disposed of.  So, I called Verizon back and they said they'd send me another return label.

While I was waiting, my friend at work, Kay, tried to convince me it would be easier to go to the store and exchange the phone than to send it back by mail.   Now, Kay is one of those people who hates technology more than I do.  She has no debit card and does all her banking in person.  She'd rather call and talk to people than do things by email.  She actually shops in the stores rather than shopping online.

I poo-pooed her  - all week long while I waited for my damn label to come in.  Yes, I waited almost a week for the label.  I got it in the mail today, and started thinking about having to send the phone back, wait for another phone to come, and then still have to try and figure out how to activate the phone and transfer my contacts.

So I sucked it up and went to the store.  From the time I left my house until I returned was 40 minutes!!  Most of that time was spent trying to find a parking spot at the mall and walking from the furthest spot in the lot all the way through the mall to the store.  I waited 2 minutes for my turn, and I was walking out of the store 10 minutes later with a working phone and my contacts transferred.

I'm happy I got my phone all set........but damn I hate it when other people are right.