And the deck plans start happening...

Transporting wood home from the store to start making the deck extension.



Our grill got a new home, in what used to be my wildflower garden. Well, at least it's off of the deck part, giving us more space to move around! More rocks will come, and some flowers to cover the ugly cinder blocks, but first we are getting a new grill!



I was experimenting with the cinder blocks to see if I could get them as high as the regular deck, but it wasn't really working. Will have to work out another removable foundation.



And here's the frame of the deck extension. Complete with metal corners and all! (but you can't see those in the picture)



And thanks to IKEA, we have covered our ugly existing concrete patio in some fancy (removable) wood decking. Now we just need some new outdoor furniture!

Continuing in the kitchen

Home Depot had a sale on glass tiles for the kitchen this weekend. That motivated me to spackle the entire back wall (the yellow glue from the ugly fake wood floor tiles has been showing for months) in preparation of some tiling.



Of course, I don't know how to tile, but at least the walls will be ready soon. I just have to sand and spackle them one more time... And we still have to order and install the counter tops...



But at least this motivated us to get some painting done on the lower cabinets. One step closer to having a completed kitchen...

Some energy left over for home improvement

It's always good to set some goals. I have a hard time getting anything done unless I have a deadline - perhaps that's why I work in the newspaper business.

This past week, I decided I would try to get Albie's work area done before his 30th birthday next week. As I'm sure I've told you all before, his area is the hallway - we got stuck on several points there.

First, there was the corner by the stairs which we couldn't reach. One ladder was too tall, the other too short. And it was overall just awkward. So it's been on hold for about a year, with the rest of the wall painted and just a corner and some upper edges near the ceiling left white, framed with blue tape.

Of course, this is the corner I see every morning while waking up, since there's a direct view from the bedroom.

Another corner, directly across from the stairs, features Albie's desk and computer work station. So when we first painted, we went up to the desk from both directions, then we stopped. His actual work corner has been a dirty white, unpainted area for way too long.

The third project is that 1/3 of the rest of the upstairs wall only got one coat of paint - what's the point in continuing when 2 corners still had to be done?

Well, yesterday I finished off all of those "problem areas."

Albie helped me move the desk before he left for work - I did the rest. With a corner pad taped to a pole, I finished most of the top edges by the stairs with minimal stains on the ceiling (a few stains on the rug though as the pad slipped off and bounced down the stairs). With a brush taped to the pole, I the finished the corner. Getting the tape off was the worst part, and it included taping a paper towel to a stick and then taping a paper knife to the same stick to cut slips off that had gotten stuck.

The best part? Hanging the shelf, the curtains and the framed Mets memorabilia that's been tucked away in various nooks and crannies for over a year.

New in the dining room

We used our new sconses on the walls of the dining room for the first time today! It was the perfect day to light candles all around the house, and with daylight savings time being over, everything gets dark really early.

Painting the closet

Once the new floors were in, it became obvious that our dirty old closet needed to have a fresh coat of paint before we put any items back in there. Still in the process of touching that up as well... and of course the trim around the door and the door itself will have to be painted white (the same white as all the other trim).

New floor pictures

You'll have to excuse the mess - we are still in the process of painting the trim that was removed and put up again. And we still haven't managed to bring the couch back into the living room - it's very heavy and it barely fits through the door and up the little entrance way.

I will post better pictures another day - maybe when the weekend arrives!

An update about work

It's been so long since I posted something on here, that I had to log in to the site all over again. Normally, Blogger remembers my password - I guess I passed the expiration date.

I've been a bit hesitant to blog about work. Not only have I been extremely busy getting us through a re-design and conversion from tabloid to broadsheet with all the template changes and system quirks that involves, but I've been busy interviewing people for open positions. I've hired two - now there's only one spot left. But it seems to be the hardest.

I've been reluctant to post something on here too because I know that anyone in my new office who decides to google my name plus "blog," or maybe just google my name, would eventually come across this blog. I'm not quite sure what is "safe" to blog about yet - being the boss and all.

But I guess I can say I've settled in to my new office a bit - kitty pictures are up on the wall behind me, bookcase and plants have been purchased at IKEA. I'm thinking of making curtains as well for my nice big window. The only problem? The ceilings are 12 foot tall.

On the home front, our floors are finally done. We got brand new ones after they ripped out the ones that didn't look too good, and our stove finally got hooked up again on Friday afternoon. Of course, the gas company says "anytime between noon and 4 p.m.," which turns into 5:30 p.m.... so I lost almost a whole day of work sitting here waiting for the gas guy. Oh well. I guess I'll have grounds for a BIG argument once the bill comes... Considering how much they are costing me, they should be paying me to sit here and wait...

I've got a pot of chili on the stove now and the antipasto squares just came out of the oven. Of course, with the floors now done, it means all those other home improvement projects we'd been putting off until the floors were done are now on the to-do list. Can of white trim paint, here I come!

Floors finally done

I got home today and voila! The floors are all done! No more strangers running in and out of our house at ungodly hours of the morning...

Still have to wait until Friday to have stove hooked up again since I didn't call the gas company early enough... oh well. At least by the weekend I'll be able to cook again!

Another flooring update

Did you think the floors looked good in the previous pictures? Oh well. We ripped them out and had to start all over again. They were defective (The edges of each piece kept sticking up).

The floors are now a little less done than what you saw in the pictures below, but they are nicer ones for the same price.

Of course, we weren't expecting it taking almost three weeks to complete... it's tough not having a stove hooked up. I guess I could have cooked some stuff on the George Forman or on the real grill - or in the Crock Pot or microwave for that matter. But I just haven't been home to even worry about it. Work is getting the best of me.

But with one week behind us after the redesign, things will hopefully calm down real soon. The beginning of last week, though, was awful - especially in terms of phone messages. I didn't even have time to listen to my messages before I had new ones, and as soon as I hung up, someone called again. "The crossword is missing." "Where is my cryptoquote?" "I can't find the index."

All in all, though, it went well.

Flooring update

After five days of having to get up at 8 a.m. to let the floor guy in, I am a bit disappointed to see that the floors still aren't done. Granted, we hit a bump in the road on the first day - our plywood underneath the particle board wasn't thick enough and made everything really bouncy. We had to add an extra half-inch of plywood before the floor could be laid down.

And the company only sent one guy to do the job. On the third day, he brought in his brother. But they are still not done.

The dining room is done but still needs all the trim re-attached. The living room is mostly done, but you can see the black "rug" area in the picture where the floor still has to go up to the railing. And the hallway needs its entire floor. And they haven't even ripped out the old floor in the kitchen!

So, not only have I been getting up at 8 a.m. every other day (Albie and I took turns), but I've had to go back to sleep with earplugs. We've also had the stove disconnected since Monday and cannot cook or use the oven. Can't wait until this is all over!

Kitties help with floor project

What's up with all this???

Boy, ripping up carpets is fun!!!

I like to eat it and hide underneath it.

But the whole thing is VERY exhausting...

The floor project

So in addition to starting a new job less than a week ago, we are also having new floors installed. The guys are coming tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. to start. In order to get ready, Albie and I had to rip out all the ugly, green wall-to-wall carpet and the foam underneath. To be nice, we also pulled up all the little pieces of nail-strips that held the carpet in place.

The floor guys will tear up the particle board, which will just crumble since it consists of glued-together sawdust. I am hoping to be out of the house when they start and will probably just have a glimpse of their progress before I pass out for the night.

The good news is that in 3-4 days, we will have brand new hardwood floors. Bye, bye ugly carpet! We won't miss you a bit!

The weekend of small projects

It always drives me crazy when I have a whole weekend off and cannot seem to get anything done. But sometimes you just need one of those weekends... sometimes you need to relax, or watch seven episodes of "CSI" or read an entire Harry Potter book.

This weekend, however, I was set on getting SOMETHING done. I settled for a few "little" projects that have been bothering me - projects that were small enough that I could do them without help.

(I enlisted Albie's help with spray painting the candle holders above, since he's the one who was complaining that they were "too dark" and "too similar to the wall color." "Fine," I said. "Paint them white." And he did.)

I finally got around to painting our bedroom mirrors white,

so they will stand out against the chocolate walls. (The second

mirror is just drying right now in the basement... pictures later!)

Our lovely collection of former cats finally made it

back up on the wall after sitting in a pile on a dresser

for about eight months. They used to be in the hallway,

but after we painted we figured they would go

better on the chocolate background.

The curtain pull-backs finally made it up as well -
now we can make the bedroom dark in an instant,
and then pull the curtains right back to get some light in.

A busy day inside

We've had these sconses from IKEA sitting in the closet for a few months now. For reading at night, I've had a lamp propped up on a too-small night stand with a wire going halfway across the room.

The problem with these? They didn't come with wires. You were supposed to hook them up to an existing "hole" in the wall. (All the lamps I looked at from Home Depot were the same, PLUS, neither of them came with an on-off switch. You are supposed to hook them up to some outlet that you can use the main light switch in the room for. Stupid!)

Anyway, after looking for wires for half an hour that looked like anything I could possibly hook these suckers up to, I gave up and picked up to extension chords for 97 cents each. When I got home, I cut off one of the plugs and spliced the cables together with the ones from the lamp.

Not sure this would work, I shooed the cats out of the kitchen and put my sunglasses on for protection in case the bulb would explode before I plugged in the end of what used to be the extension chord. Worked fine, and no explosion. Half an hour later, while searching for little plastic plugs to cover up the splices with, I found an old sconse from the living room that somebody had apparently done the exactly same thing with! I guess I'm on the right path to becoming an electrician...

And now we can read in bed. If we ever have the time to do so.

A busy day outside

Our "new" patio set - we got it from Albie's parents last summer. Today I finally had time to spray paint the chairs so they look sparkling new, and I picked up cushions at Walmart.

I am also making another attempt at gardening... sort of. This time, I bought a big pot (made from recycled materials) and planted ten Asian lily bulbs in it. Hopefully nobody will mistake them for weeds this year and chop them down!

In order to raise our grill to a more manageable level, I picked up some cinder blocks at Home Depot - boy, are they heavy! Thank goodness some guy (who is now living in a tent because he was laid off from his job and lost his condo) came up to me in the parking lot and helped me move them from the cart to the trunk of my car.

On the right, you can see what last year's garden looks like. I pulled out some dead grass and am now waiting for things to start growing on their own. The stuff I planted last year were all perennials, so they should be OK, I think.

Overwhelmed

After an almost sleepless night spent thinking about all that needs to get done, Albie and I took some time today to talk through our priorities. Do we build a deck or finish the kitchen? Do we put in hardwood floors or buy a new refrigerator?

A few hours ago, I sat down in front of the computer determined to get to the bottom of the greencard application stuff - a higher priority than even floors or a new blender. I'd started looking up some stuff a few months ago, but there were so many forms mentioned and I wasn't in the mood to start looking for them.

Today I started from scratch at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the INS) web site, where one form directs you to another, that leads you to yet another... until the end of time. But at least all forms are there, with the instructions, in downloadable pieces with clear information about the excessive fees for each one.

After making a list of the I-130, I-864, I-485 (by far the most expensive one), and G-325A, I started reading the instructions for the scariest one of all: the I-693. This is a medical exam, where you are required to submit to an HIV test, a TBC test, and a test for syphilis. But no worries. You will get counseling if it turns out you have any of these diseases (that you have to pay for, of course). Oh, and they'll tell you if you have lepracy as well. Of course, none of these will automatically get you kicked out of the country - you just may have to file a waiver or two in order for your initial application to still be considered.

The tricky part - of course, you thought this would be easy? - is that you can't just go to your primary care physician to have these tests done. Oh no! They have to be completed by a "civil surgeon," a person authorized by USCIS to conduct said tests for this specific purpose. And how many of those are there in my area? None.

The closest one is about 20 minutes away, but there's one about 15 minutes away from my office. But will my health insurance cover these visits and these tests? I guess I'll just tell them to put it on my immigration tab. It'll surely add up anyway between the $80 biometrics fee for fingerprinting and the $70 bonus for the Department of State for the processing of the required affidavit of support. And those are the small fees.

Have I lost any readers yet? I'm surely lost somewhere in a pile of papers, wandering around aimlessly wondering which way is up and where to go next. Almost. Maybe. Well, we'll find out.

Kitchen upgrades

The kitchen became yellow during my vacation (it's the same yellow as in the dining room, but my cell phone camera didn't adjust well to the color). A few days ago, Albie put up the hardware we finally decided on for the cabinets.

Below are some photos from when we first moved in, and after I painted it blue (but before we had started the cabinets) so you can see a before/after effect.

We still have to pick a backslpash, decide on a countertop and do the bottom cabinets (inside and out).

Back to work

After 12 days off, it is time to head back to work at the newspaper later today.

While it feels like I could do another 2-3 weeks off easily, I'm a bit excited to see what has happened at the paper since I've been gone. I've never been away for this long. From what I hear, we've hired a new freelancer and our publisher's daughter locked herself into her father's office and had to be rescued by the editor. Other than that, no real news has reached my neck of the woods.

During my time off, I sucessfully finished painting the kitchen walls in yellow (they were blue before, remember?), finished painting the inside of that one cabinet I had procrastinated to do and could finally put all my wine glasses back inside, organized our upstairs closet, had a manicure and pedicure (birthday present), went shopping for winter boots, attended 3 Christmas dinners, went to the gym 3 times, watched 4 movies and read 2 Harry Potter books.

Skiing and ice skating will just have to wait until I have another day off!

New light fixture

Albie installed a new light fixture for the hallway last night when we got home from shopping. We were tired of seeing the white standard rental-apartment globe...

Bedroom progress

Albie painted the first coat in the bedroom over the weekend. He said I wasn't allowed to paint the bedroom, because the color is called "Chocolate" and I would eat it. Instead, I spent my day off on the couch watching "CSI." Which was fine by me!