Friday, July 29, 2005

Smoke & Mirrors

Today is my last day of work in Tyson's Corner. Kevin and I decided a while ago that if I wanted to do something differenet with my life then I should go do it. After much procrastinating, I finally gave notice and here I am on my last day.

I wish I could say that I've made big plans for the next month that I know exactly what I'm going to do to our house and where I'm headed. Everyone seems to be misinformed as to my organization skills. While I 'appear' organized, it's really all Smoke and Mirrors.

I have no idea where I'm headed in the next month or year for that matter other than to try to get the house organized, because right now we can't find anything! I'm not sure what my next career move is either (in answer to everyone's questions.)

So hang on for a wild ride as I continue to fill you in on the Tales of our House and my Job Search!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

The Line

Our bedrooms and hallway have been in a state of "almost done" for about a month now. One long hard holiday weekend of painting the walls and we had color. Then we slaved over the doors, trim and windows. So we've been almost done. But those weren't really our problem, so much as 'the line.' You know the one, the one you never notice unless it's uneven. The line where the wall meets the cathedral ceiling.

When Kevin's friend Rob came to visit we thought he would tell us a surefire way to fix this and he did. Tape the ceiling and paint the wall or vice versa depending on where you painted too far over. Great idea. Now why didn't we think of this ourselves back on Room No.2?

We're currently stuck staring at the ceilings procrastinating, because neither of us wants to climb up a twelve foot ladder, balance precariously and tape the ceiling.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Never Leaving Well Enough Alone

Should we rip off more tiles in the Master Bathroom or not? That's the current dilemma. The putrid smell of the Jacuzzi tub seems to have crept into other areas of this room leading me to believe we have bigger problems than we thought.

Over the past few days the smell that I thought was initially caused by the Jacuzzi tub has come and gone. Some days more pungent and putrid than normal, I've partly tried to ignore the situation hoping it will go away and the other part of the time, I've been theorizing reasons for the smell.

On Sunday, I "Scuncied" (used a steamer known as a Scunci) to vaporize/kill with heat all of the bacteria and soap scum on the tiles in the bathroom. Kevin then came through in the last week and began scraping out the grouting between all of these tiles, so we can regrout and have a nice white bathroom again.

This is when he discovered a tile that "popped off" of the wall, much like the tiles in the shower had "popped off" for my Dad. Kevin found more rot and decay behind this wall tile near the shower stall. My overactive imagination began to picture mold, mildew, ants and every other slimey thing on the planet decaying behind the tiles we haven't torn off to clean and be replaced on fresh backerboard.

My latest half-cocked idea is to remove random tiles and "check behind them" for anything gross. But let's just keep this between you and me, I think my Dad would flip if he heard this one!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Ultra Pure Havana Cream

I really thought I had closed out the color debate for our guest bathroom. 'Havana Cream' was to be 'it'. There would be no more $11 quarts of paint bought and we'd call it 'the color.' That didn't work out quite the way I planned, so the paint saga continues.

Last night I went to Home Depot to buy our third color, 'Havana Cream', for the guest bathroom. I waited in line, ordered and happily took my new prize home. While I was painting the wall to test out this sultry color, I noticed that it didn't cover well, much like our 'Ultra Pure White' ceiling paint and our 'Ultra Pure White' semi-gloss trim paint. These both take coat upon coat upon coat of paint to cover up the ceilings, trim and doors. [Let me interrupt myself to say that before you e-mail me with suggestions, we did try using a primer (kilz), and we tried sanding and we coated the trim with liquid sandpaper, but to no avail!]

As I was staring at the wall analyzing colors I kept focusing on how the 'Havana Cream' looked almost exactly like the 'Antique White' that the walls were already painted. Was my 'Havana Cream' just a wolf in sheep's clothing? Was 'Havana Cream' just 'Antique White' by another name? There was a strom brewing in my Caribbean paradise of 'Havana Cream'.

As I hammered the lid back on, I looked at the can and discovered the difference in paints. While our other two quarts ('Sweet Corn' and 'Pismo Dunes') had a pastel base, 'Havana Cream' had our dastardly enemy 'Ultra Pure White' as its base. Yes, I will be revisiting Home Depot tonight to investigate this further.

For your reference the colors in the photo are from left to right: Havana Cream, Sweet Corn and Pismo Dunes.

Monday, July 25, 2005

'Havana Cream' Anyone?

Who would have thought picking a color for our guest bathroom would have been so difficult (and generated so many blog entries!) We had decided on 'Pismo Dunes' for the bathroom. (My friend Todd told me that this actually refers to a park in California, so Pismo doesn't sound quite so bad anymore.)

But wouldn't you know it, the more I look at 'Pismo Dunes,' the more I think it's too bright. Kevin purports to love 'Pismo Dunes' and I still cannot figure out why. It's much brighter and oranger than 'Sweet Corn' and he has repeatedly told me that he doesn't want yellow walls in any form in the house. Men are still a mystery to me!

I'm thinking of going one shade lighter than 'Pismo Dunes' to 'Havana Cream.' Just the change in names makes me feel better (even if Pismo is a park in California!) Havana reminds me of tropical nights and sultry Caribbean lifestyles. I figure if my imagination can get all of that out of one $11 can of paint in such a tiny room, just think what a whole library painted the color of 'Falling Leaves' will do for me!