So busy, I'm not on the computer much! Here are just a few things we've been up to.

TREES
Let's be honest here...sometimes when a couple is in a fight, the man just might be so mad that he digs holes.  This is what happened last weekend.
Yes, the stress is getting to us.
We got into a fight and hadn't made up just yet, so Rick went out and took out his aggression on the dirt.

Of course this meant that I had to also go out there because if he was going to try to give himself a heart attack by digging holes as fast as possible, I better be out there if he falls over....and also, I felt I should at least plant the trees if he was going to dig the holes.  If we weren't fighting that's what I do, right?

Funny how here we are out in the yard in a fight and not talking, but actually working better as a team than before the fight : )

Anyway, we have 30 trees to plant (already posted those pictures).
Rick dug 20 holes in one afternoon.
I planted 8 trees in the same time.

Hey, hey now....don't go thinking I was dropping the ball here.  I had to take the piles of dirt he was making from the holes and sift the rocks and clay clods out of the dirt.  Then only mix the clean dirt with the potting soil.  THAT took a very long time and was incredibly boring.

8 trees planted

7 of the 22 that still need planting.

FIREPLACE SURROUND

Our house is a 90's house through and through.  Therefore, we have brass fixtures, brass doorknobs, and well, brass anywhere they could put it.

Even though we will be covering up the brick on the fireplace and that project is WAY down the priority list right now, I can't stand looking at the brass fireplace surround so I decided to paint it until we figure out the permanent fix.

Here's before....

Please try to ignore the green painted floor border.   I know...what the heck?

Taped and first coat painted.  And notice I already painted one coat of primer over that border.

Doors taped and being painted outdoors

Still hate the brick, but at least the fireplace surround is tamed down a bit.

UPDATE 12/27/14:  I took the glass doors off the fireplace to paint them and I can't get them back on.  There is a little, tiny screw that holds it into the fireplace frame that came out ok, but going back in takes a rocket scientist to figure out. 

It's been a couple months, so I guess I have to try again soon.

FLOORING

WE HAVE FLOORING!!!!!

We went to two home shows two weekends in a row looking for specials on anything we could. Sales, Sales, Sales is what we were looking for.  

What we found were a few more flooring stores and lots of papers and pamphlets of projects that we'd eventually like to do. 

We found a good flooring place and one of the floors he sold for $5.00/sq ft we previously got a quote for $8.69/sq ft at another place. We were pretty happy and REALLY close to ordering when all of a sudden the contractor that will be installing our cabinets and helping us with the floors called and said he saw some unfinished oak on Craigslist (just like we have already on the kitchen and entryway floor) for 1.85/sq ft.....

WHAAAAT?   

He offered to drive to the seller's house and check it out.  Well, the flooring came from another installer that did a 5000 sq ft job and had 1000 sq ft left over. It's in perfect condition, except it's white oak and we have red oak.  We bought it because it will save us $3K on flooring.  

Of course, what we save in $$, we will pay in sweat, tears, and bad smells.  

Here is our stack of wood which is acclimating to our house so we can get started on this project.

Now that we are installing unfinished wood for $1.80 sq ft (yes, we got a better priced than adverstised), we have to decide...will we remove the red oak that is already installed in the entryway and kitchen so that we can put down white oak throughout -or- do we add some white oak pieces to our already installed red oak areas so they are mixed in and then try to stain those pieces to get the same color.  

Rick has one opinion after removing some red oak from a bathroom floor today. 

Here's is a little video of the craziness.

The beginning of removing wood flooring so we can put tile in there.

So after working on this floor for a few hours, Rick's opinion is to leave the red oak flooring already in the house because even this little bit of removal in the bathroom was difficult and his back is killing him.  I get what he's saying because the current floor is in decent shape, but I want the red oak and white oak to look exactly alike and I'm not sure that is possible unless we stain it with two colors of stain.

We don't want to see me turn into a crazy woman because the stains don't match.

We will be discussing this with the contractor this week to see if what I want can be accomplished. 

I just don't want to do all this work and it looks like we pieced together two different types of wood because we were being "cheapo Home depot".
For all this work....IT HAS TO LOOK AMAZING!

GRANITE!
So most of my time lately has been driving to many granite showrooms.
We have looked at so many granite slabs and still haven't come to a decision.
The one we liked ALOT ended up being $9800. for one and a half slabs.  NOT going to happen!

Here are many that we have contemplated at one time or another.

I am going tomorrow yet again to look at two slabs that I have on hold.  Slab #2 (on first sheet in the center top is the one I'm checking out tomorrow).  I need to have them moved out of the fluorescent light to the open doors to see the real colors of the slabs.  Time is ticking down QUICKLY!

And, you know what I just realized when I put these pictures together?
Granite slab #7 in the picture above (counting from top to bottom, left to right) with the women holding the two cabinet samples -AND- the last slab in my pictures look to be the same.
Here's the interesting fact...slab #7 comes from a very nice granite showroom and that particular slab costs $1768. a slab and we need 1 and a half.  This would cost us $3308.00.   The bottom one comes from one of the Chinese fabricators that everyone says to stay away from and that one would cost us apx $1626.00.

Good thing I'm blogging so I figured that out!

Until next time...