Author Archives: Andrea
Spring Moments and Memories
Usually I do a monthly favorites post, but since it’s now April 10th I am calling this installment my Spring favorites. What can I say. Here’s my most favorite memories from the last few months.
Demo feels good
Between the prison bath and the ceiling in the great room, we’ve been kicking some DIY a$$. Boy does it feel good to cause destruction especially on that hideous bathroom.
Of course, putting the rooms back together is also a lot of fun. It just takes a bit longer. 
We are still working on both projects.
Birthdays rock
I celebrated my 35th birthday in early February. I won’t lie. It was a tough one, but I decided to just run with it.
Of course it helped to not just get one, but TWO cakes from Nate.
And a little niece who dressed up in her party dress for me.
Instagram – Photo of the Day
I have been all over Instagram this Spring. Of course they made big news yesterday with their $1 billion acquisition by Facebook.
For me, Instagram is the easiest way to post photos from my phone to social networks and flickr.
Plus, there are lots of amazing people using the app. It’s easy to find inspiration scrolling through the live feed. I love Chantelle’s (go check her blog out) Photo a Day project. It adds that bit of creativity to my normal work week which sometimes I desperately need.
Instagram is the perfect way to post all the silly things that happen around the house on a daily basis like Loki getting stuck behind the bathtub (story coming soon). I just can’t get enough.
Judgement Bunnies
I have said it before and I will say it again – I love the $1 bin section at Target! I have found some of the best stuff while sifting through the bins.
My latest find are these two pink bunnies for $2.00. Each looks cute and innocent on its own, but when you pair them together you get nothing by sarcasm and mischief. Meet the Judgement Bunnies.
Currently the twin bunnies sit under out TV watching our every move. We’ve been having a lot of fun personifying what they are saying about us during our evening programs.
Adie comes over for dinner and The Voice every Tuesday. We get nothing but sass from the twins about the show. They really don’t like some of the contestants (especially this one).
Mustache March
It happens every March. The winter beard is shaved into Nate’s infamous mustache.
Here’s a photos with a fellow teacher near the end of the month. I wanted to show you the 2012 ‘stache in all its glory. Bet you are excited.
*****
And that wraps up the Spring favorites. I’ll be back (in a couple of weeks) with our April edition.
Feline Friday: Attentive cat guardian
The other night, Loki didn’t want to come in for bed. He was having too much fun running around on our roof. So Nate attempted to lure him into his grasp with a cup of rattling cat food while balancing on the top of our ladder.
I wasn’t expecting much from this experiment, but five minutes later Nate had captured him. Loki was not amused. Nate was victorious.
Backyard cleanup
It’s Spring Break! Nate’s off and I am working. (There’s just a skeleton crew at the office, it’s actually a nice week to catch up on work.)
We’re waiting for few details to get moving on the next stage of our bathroom, so I wasn’t sure if Nate was going to work on the house on Monday. It turned out to be a beautiful Spring day. Nate must have been inspired because he did a big number on the backyard.
I arrived home to find a very proud, satisfied Nate and a manicured backyard.
Our neglected backyard was all tidy. The pool was cleaned.
The side yard was mowed and edged.
Nate weeded and removed all last season’s dead foliage.
Our future back patio was raked and ready to go.
And our plants were watered and ready for the warm weather.
To say I was surprised and delighted is an understatement. My man rocks. I am ready to get new plants into the ground and our patio in. Oh wait, gotta finish that bathroom first…
Ceiling Removal: Part Two
Last weekend we switched gears from the Prison Bath Remodel (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) to our neglected Great Room Ceiling. You may recall that we ripped out half of it last September when we started seeing evidence of some water damage.
Once we got all the wet insulation down we were still uncertain the cause and decided to leave the rafters exposed until we could determine the next step. Given our mild Californian winters we were able to do this, but it was still really, really cold in there at night. I don’t recommend trying this anywhere it gets below 30 degrees at night.
Five months later and we are still a little perplexed on what we are going to do with the roof. At this point, we can’t afford a new roof without financing it. We haven’t been able to find a roofer that is interested in patching our roof because it’s really difficult to find the problem area on a flat roof like ours. Luckily, we have noticed only a little moisture coming through during rain storms. In fact it may actually be due to sitting water which is something we can monitor until we replace the roof.
With Nate on Spring Break this week, we decided to at least get the whole ceiling off and check for more leaks.
It was a really rainy Saturday, so Nate got the great room ready for demo on Sunday. All the furniture was moved to the back of the room.
We sealed the area, doors and vents with plastic sheets and painters tape to keep the mess to a minimal. On Sunday, we opened our double sliders and window to have as much ventilation as possible.
Nate started by cutting the particle board into sections with our borrowed reciprocating saw. Then he pulled each section down with as much of the insulation batting intact as possible.
I was the cleanup crew.
I kept the mess to a minimum and disposed of all the old insulation, gravel and board pieces as he removed them. And yes, that’s my new Shop Vac which I absolutely love.
It went pretty smoothly. The insulation on this side of the room was not wet like the other side which made the process go quickly.
Plus, it means we only have to worry about leaks on one side of the room which is super awesome news.
Once all the sections were down, we cleaned the walls and floors well before moving the furniture back. Total project took about 3-4 hours.
A couple other things to note.
Paper Wasps
When we removed the paneling along the outside wall, we found about a dozen small paper wasp nests.
Seeing them made me a little anxious. You know how I feel about wasps. Luckily the nests were old and did not look like they had been used in quite sometime. Phew.
“At least I am wearing shoes”
Pulling out insulation is messy work. Nate wore a better outfit than last time. He even had shoes and long sleeves on, but still got covered in insulation and dirt. Don’t worry he was wearing safety google and a ventilation mask as he worked.
I need to buy him some real work gloves and safety goggles. The standard leather work gloves didn’t have enough mobility to use the saw so he ended up not wearing anything. Also, my chemistry goggles from college just aren’t cutting it anymore. Anyone have some recommendations?
Beam down
Speaking of safety concerns, I got a big bump on my head when a heavy molding board fell on my head. Nate was taking it off and it unexpectedness dropped before he removed all the nails. Yes, I shouldn’t have been under it. Yes, Nate should have warned me. All in all though, we were both glad I wasn’t hurt that bad. And my hair covers the bump.
So that’s our weekend. How was yours? We have a bunch more projects planned this week. In fact we’ve been doing so many things around the house, I have posts already written and queued to post all week. Watch out. I can only hope being this organized becomes habit.
Feline Friday: Siblings
Sister cat cleaning her brother.
