I see a red door and I want it painted black....

OK, I don't really have a red door, and I am not painting anything black.... This weekend, the remnants of hurricane Kyle (i think or maybe hurricane J-Dawg) came ashore as a Nor'Easter. Ya know what Nor'Easters are not great for... painting. These walls were sucking up paint like sponges, and they seemed to not dry at all.

Another thing Nor'Easters are not good for - Golf. I was all excited to play golf with the old man on Saturday, then saw the forecast, and said "I'm not paying $$ to play golf in the rain." Luckily that was followed up with some volunteerism to the tune of "Would you like help painting?"

Am I really gonna say no to that? Mom & Dad drove set off for a voyage up north before their anniversary get-away (this year is actually their 40th, but we lied to Princess Cruise Lines and celebrated it last year in Alaska...don't tell them, Princess that is). So there was much distress about how in the world to paint the master bedroom. Some uneven walls led to a few different paint schemes in all of our heads. The ceiling was painted bright white before I could even blink, and said "eh screw it, just paint the whole damn room Mountain Sage." The paint covered very well aside from 100% humidity and thirsty walls. Already ran to Home Depot to pick up gallon #2. FYI - the walls are not that glossy, they were just wet with the camera flash.



So you're looking at this and saying "Oh another room of Spiced Pumpkin?!" WRONG - ISSUE NUMBER 2!!! (The MacLaughlin group from SNL). This color is theoretically called Sweet Honey. I wonder why I'm always hungry, maybe because my walls are painted after foods. I mean, just last week I went on a sage binge and was just stuffing my face with it. This is the 3rd bedroom, or as we will call it, the office. Luckily the room is in the back of the house, which faces the north, and does not get a whole lot of sun. What great planning on my part!

So, the paint covered pretty well, and only one trip to Home Depot this weekend. While the trip was not planned 100%, I planned enough to spend $75 to get my $10 off. Hey, at this point, every $10 helps. I picked up some super duper Weed&Feed. No, no, no, its not weed, then feed, its a product that is for the grass. The green grass that grows on my lawn. We're gettin pretty close to being done with the painting and the floors! YAY!!!

What's on tap for next weekend? Certainly some of those international beers that come every month thanks to my sister's Christmas gift to me last year. We shall double up the coats on the MBR and office, and pick out a blue to paint the other bedroom. I'm thinking Blueberry, maybe Blue Agave (nooooo tequila for me). Name another blue food and I'll look for a color. BLUEFISH! All shiny and changing colors, I'm sure that will go over well. Stay tuned!

Oh What a Pain(t)!!!

Guest Starring in this week's episode: Mom & Dad.
Recurring Appearances made by: Diane and Kevin (independently yet concurrently)

So unbeknownst to me, Brinks also has a natural defense aspect of its home security systems.

Now back to the show. Early Saturday morning, Dan & Diane were eating breakfast when Mom & Dad made the first of their consecutive guest appearances. A quick trip to Home Depot (maybe an hour and a half) in which somehow all of the paint and supplies added up to $1000. OK, it wasn't really that much, but it sure as hell seemed like it! The chosen Behr Premium(they didn't pay for these advertising dollars) colors so far: Spiced Pumpkin (Dining Room), Wilmington Tan (3 walls of the living room), Peanut Butter (NO JELLY! the other living room wall and the hallway) and Mountain Sage (master bedroom). I'd say we spent hours emptying the rooms, but who are we kidding, there's nothing in the house! An afternoon/evening full of Dad & Diane painting the ceilings (I did a bunch of edging) and a group effort towards finishing one coat of Spiced Pumpkin in the dining room. There were no paint fights, nor any bodily harm. Sorry no drama here.

In a shocking turn of events, I sent Kevin a text to see if he wanted to try his hand at painting. Little did I know he was a professional painter in his college days. He showed up with beer in hand (which I was supposed to supply) and was ready to paint. I called over to Chinatown and after 15 minutes of spelling Stadtmauer to the polite gentleman on the other end of the phone, I placed an order for food.

While eating my orange chicken, I said "I can't believe those F'ers didn't give me rice." Lets fast forward about 3 hours.... I look on the stove, a little white container with... what do you know it.. RICE!

After the food incident, Diane, Kevin and I spent a good few hours slaving away at the walls. The funny thing, wilmington tan and peanut butter look almost identical. With all the hard efforts put forth, we were able to get a full coat of both colors on the living room, and some of the hall.

Sunday morning started with me going for breakfast, only to come home to Diane with an orange roller in her hand and new paint on the wall! She was able to finish the dining room while I worked on the trim of the second coat for the living room. Mom and Dad made a second appearance to help with the painting. Quite a few man and woman hours spent, and a few sore muscles resulting in the following:

The living room:

The Dining Room:

These colors look so much better in person.

Apologies and thanks go out to all who helped paint this weekend. What's left? Other than painting the 3 bedrooms, taking down the wallpaper in the kitchen, and figuring out how to "de-blue" the bathroom... We still have to figure out what to do with all of the angles in the master bedroom. It may turn into the green room, although the floors will still stay hardwood. Another round of apologies go out as this week was not as amusing as previous weeks.. thanks for reading!

Nails, Nails, Nails....

So, the last weekend revolved around one special nail pulling tool, and one special hammer. I had managed to pull up all of the 300 or so nails that formerly resided in the living room hardwood by the time Diane showed up on Friday night. If I ever find that S.O.B. that put all those nails in, I will whack them in the head with a nailgun. Friday evening (rainy again) consisted of another soup dinner at Kevin's house. Call him the Irish Soup Nazi.

Another funny note, I picked up my home theatre system, which evidently does not fit in a mustang, when its still in the box. The Circuit City experience was definitely ghetto style as we pulled all the pieces out of the box, and played tetris to get the pieces to fit in the stang. Unfortunately it was raining, so had to go top-up...

Thanks are in order to Diane for spending another Saturday on the floor... Seriously, you people need to get your mind out of the gutter. Diane must have pulled up another 200 staples, and the tack rails to hold down that god-awful carpet. What's left you ask? One more half flight of stairs with carpeting on the moldings, and pulling out some more staples... Boy am I lookin forward to that.

So, the Brinks guy came over on Saturday to do the installation. Talk about a Chatty Cathy. The kid was nice, and did a great job of fishing wires, and then gave me some good advice on fishing wires for the home theatre system. However, his master plan for my living room didn't quite jive with what I had in mind. Constructive criticism is good, but we all know I like to be right.

Sidebar: (No not the sidebard next to Pru!) Di and I saw "Burn After Reading". From what I understand, it was a typical Coen Brothers movie. What I didn't quite understand was the whole F'in movie. There were some parts that were amusing, and two of the story lines were somewhat entertaining. For a vast part of the movie I was wondering if we could get our money back. My verdict, if I were to see it again (super huge IF, and only if it were free), I might enjoy it better.

On tap for this coming weekend? I wish it was beer... and lots of it. We're gonna finish that last set of stairs, and hopefully start painting the ceilings, and maybe do some edging around the rooms that have their final paint colors chosen. It will be a Blitzkreig to get the paint done before the hardwood floor guy does his magic and my furniture appears (he's not that magical, but its all in the timing). Thanks for following along!

Who on God's Green Earth uses these nails?

Here's some pictures of the front & back yard.

OK, so yet another weekend of pulling up carpeting and staples and tack strips (Diane has become an expert with the hammer and crowbar!)... Thanks are in order to Diane for countless hours of work on the floor (get your mind out of the gutter).. What on earth did these people do in that they put nails in the hardwood as follows? There are probably at least 250-300 of them in the floor of the living room. What a headache to pull these out!

Carlo the electrician came by (from C&C Electric) and upgraded the house to 200amps. This means that I can now use the air conditioner and lights at the same time!!! Inspired by this work, I decided to put new switches/timer in for the front lights. After 2 or 3 hours of work, and seeing a beautiful ball of wires, compliments of 1950's Clifton wiring, another call was placed to Carlo (at 8pm on a Friday night). Shockingly, (great pun right?) Carlo called me at 8:45 am to say that he'd be there by 11 am to fix, what I called my self induced problem. $75 for a service call on a Saturday to fix a mid project problem - well worth it.

Next, the Brinks security guy came over, did a walk through of the house, and somehow stole $420 from me?! Nonetheless, he'll be back this coming Saturday to turn my home into a fortress. While I had all these grand ideas of a moat with alligators, he very much simplified the system, and got it done wireless (so no need to pay verizon $60 a month for a land line)!

In the midst of everything, and seeing a Circuit City circular advertising 3 yrs 0% interest, I quickly learned that I HAD to go out and buy a big screen TV, subsequently during the start of Tropical Depression Hannah's assault on NJ. Trying to load a 52" LCD into an exploder in the pouring rain, let me tell you, NOT FUN. With the onslaught of Hannah, Diane was forced to spend an extra night with me. That poor girl! Just kidding!

Yet another thanks to Kevin... I sense an ongoing theme here. He helped move the TV into the house, and since he is a newfound Soup Nazi, he ran home to make a chicken soup for the storm. Hooray! No need for us to cook or go out, we went to Kevin & Jen's house for some good ole home-made chicken soup.

What's in store for next weekend you ask? Security guy, more carpeting going bye-bye, and finalizing the paint colors. I really want to do the ceilings a color other than white (was thinking a pale yellow). Please throw some input here for me!

It begins!

So a special thanks go out to two people who made this post possible. Diane, for countless hours of pulling up carpeting and nails and whatnot, and Kevin, for the usage of his camera, crowbar and caulking gun.... Starting from the top, we have the lovely "straight from the 80's" mirrors and on the wall. What you don't see are the vertical blinds, which i would have expected to be mirrored. #2, they carpeted not only the stairs, but the molding along the stairs... seriously, did these people have a problem with the white stuff? Lastly, you have the Before & After pictures of the dining room. Again, carpet in the dining room? Luckily, the carpet fetish led to some really nice floors... they may not even need to be refinished... we'll find out this weekend when the saga continues! What you don't see, is an explorer filled to the brim with carpet rolls and carpet pad... which was just NASTY! So you're asking about the caulking gun? Well, when I was replacing the deadbolt in the front door, I got a little sloppy with the drill. After 3 trips to home depot in one day for multiple things, I got some wood putty to fix the door... Its only weekend 1 and I have a headache! Stay tuned.