The Striped Rug

Anyone who has bought an area rug knows they're not cheap, so you want to make sure you pick out the right one when you finally decide. So I thought I had decided. The smaller version I bought seemed to match the room, but now I'm not so sure. This rug just does not seem to have as much flare as I was looking for. Of course, after lugging this home from Target I have no plans to return it. I guess I'll just have to learn to like it!

The Bookshelves

The bookshelves have long been a source of pleasure and a bit of dread for me. The pleasure comes from the idea of having built-in bookshelves, its a dream of mine. I love books, I have hundreds probably thousands of books, so to me built-in bookshelves are the best.

Then there's the dread. The bookshelves aren't of the best quality. It's surely not what I imagined, with their shiny gold tracts on the sides for adjustable shelves with some soft wood-derivative framing them that is dented and warped. Painting over this with a modern backsplash of color and a white frame helped. But now comes the real dread. I KNOW we have too many books. They're not all going to fit and Kevin is going to want to toss whatever doesn't fit on there.

As you can see these boxes contain our books, well some of them. I think I have another hundred or two or three residing at my parents house that they are eagerly anticipating the exodus of. I've been procrastinating on sorting the books to put them on the shelves, but I can procrastinate no longer. I must get started and I will do just that...tomorrow.

And the Dead Birds Keep Coming

To My Cousin Nicki - You may not want to read this one...

I put this disclaimer at the top, because Nicki hates birds, especially dead ones and well, we have another one. As the title says they just keep on coming.

I started cleaning out behind the washing machine and dryer last weekend in the interest of doing things 'right'. As opposed to doing things wrong, which would have meant that I just applied fresh white paint over the scrapes and marks from the previous owner, but left the linty hardened goop on the floor, because who really sees behind the washing machine anyway, right?

Too many Pennsylvania Dutch genes is the only reason I can describe for my desire to clean up this gag-worthy glop. As I was behind the machines sweating, gagging in my mouth and scrubbing, I knocked the dryer vent off of the wall. My first thought was "Oh boy I thought I hope this dumb thing reattaches easily." Quickly followed by "Oh sh**, more crap fell out of that stupid tube."

That's when I had the great idea of reaching in (I had on rubber gloves, don't worry) and pulling out the globs of lint. As I opened my purple gloved hand, I saw something black and feathery. Before my brain had time to register this thought I was screaming, "Mom! Dead bird! Get me a paper towel and the camera!" Yes, everything in this house is a photo op. Even the dead birds. So for your viewing pleasure...the dead bird from our dryer vent.

No birds were harmed in the making of this blog, they were already dead.

Shiny New Kitchen

The flooring is laid and the appliances are installed. The kitchen is finally 85% of the way done. We almost don't know what to do with ourselves. I cooked a nice meal last night and it was great.

Yes, to all of you who have been clamoring to visit the new house, we're getting closer to having visitors! We even have a new boardgame that talks.

But be forewarned, no shoes on the new floors!

Merry Christmas!

We finally finished the bulk of the flooring. All that's left is to put in some odd finishing pieces, order new vents and put in 1/2"round molding. It might sound like a lot, but after putting the flooring in, its nothing!

Yesterday, we spent a good part of the day cleaning up the living room and the flooring and bringing in the entertainment center, chairs and putting up the Christmas tree, so we can finally start to "live" in our living room. This is a temporary move as eventually the TV will move back down into the library, but the library is beginning its descent into renovations.