Spare Bedroom Closet

Just a quick post...

Here are some pictures of the closet in the spare bedroom. I didn't take any "before" pictures because there wasn't much to see; it was just two wooden dowels that went all the way across the closet. About a month ago Nathan and I picked up some finished plywood from Home Depot, then two weeks ago I finally started cutting the plywood into parts for the closet. I also built the closet two weekends ago, but had to wait to paint it until last week. I (finally) finished it Sunday night -- touched up the paint spills, dropped in the drawers, and hung things back up. Although the drawers still need a little work (long story), it's pretty much done. I think it looks pretty nice!

Why am I destroying my beautiful house?!

For those of you who don't already know, Nathan and I bought a house this winter. We've been in it for three months now! It's an older home that is spacious and beautiful.

One of the things about buying an older home, however, is that it needs a lot of work. We've already done a lot of landscape clearing and assorted replacements throughout the house (including the garage door, water heater, and the upstairs bathroom toilet). Pretty much anything downstairs is fair game to demolish, as it's severely outdated and poorly designed. You can see our progress in this picture:

And in this picture:

But until yesterday, the downstairs was really the only area subject to demolition. While I've built out three of the closets upstairs, it's generally been the "hands-off" part of the house. Maybe because it's the really pretty part, with its soft yellow paint and honey-colored wood floors. Sure, the doors are warped and some of the window panes are cracked, but asthetically, I still love the upstairs pretty much the way it is!

And yet....

Yesterday I sectioned off the upstairs hallway by taping painter's plastic over all the openings around the hallway. Then I put on baggy pants and a dusk mask, grabbed my new sledge hammer, and turned this hallway:

Into this pile of rubble:

And all the while I was thinking: Why am I destroying my beautiful house?!

I have to say, it was much harder to demolish a part of my upstairs than it had been to rip things out downstairs. I was even a little panicky as I knocked out the wall. ("Why, why, why am I doing this?")

The thoughts and worry persisted for at least ten minutes... Until I began to knock out the far side of the wall. At first I just took out the drywall on the hallway-side of the wall; but I also needed to remove the dryall on the staircase-side of the wall.

(In case you haven't been to my house, look at the picture below. On the left is the staircaseside, and on the right is the hallway side.)

Hopefully that clarifies it.)

When I made that first, big hole in the staircase side of the wall, I was suddenly blinded by bright afternoon sunshine flooding through the window over the staircase, and I remembered exactly why that wall needed to go!

So even though the hallway currently looks like this:

I am happier because there is now more light coming into the house. The hallway went from being dark, like this:

To being lighter an more beautiful, like this:

I guess that's why I am destroying my beautiful house!

Calling Nathan "Nathan"

I realized as I was writing my last blog that I have a habit of referring to my husband as “Nathan” when I am talking about him to other people. This habit of mine is a little bit strange. In my conversations with Nathan, I call him by one of my myriad of (admittedly dorky) nicknames, such as Neighbor, Bear, Little Bear, Bearbala (bear-bah-la), etc. To the outside world, Nathan is known as “Nate”. This is what his friends call him, how he introduces himself to people, the name he signs on papers, and so forth. To the outside world, he presents himself and is known as Nate.

Yet, despite this, I still usually call him Nathan when talking to other people or when writing about him. Kinda weird, huh?

The only explanation I have for this is that it's a “wife phenomenon”. I’ve noticed a few wives who have this same habit. For instance, Nathan and I had friends in school for whom this was also the case. Cathy always called her husband David, but to the rest of the world he was Dave – it was what he called himself and what we called him! So all I can conclude about my use of “Nathan” is that it must be a disease that afflicts wives…

An Update on Nathan's Caves...

…and the house, generally.

Just this last weekend, Nathan said to me, “I’ve realized that I don’t really like how my painting room is so far away from everything else in the house.”

I saw this statement as a golden opportunity to get a little house remodeling done and get Nathan out of one of his caves. So I offered him a deal: If he will help me do some remodeling in the Nook, we can get him a table for painting and move it in, right next to his computer.

He eyed me suspiciously. “What kind of remodeling? What do you want to do to the Nook?”

With a light tone I explained: “Oh, rip out all of the wood paneling and the cabinetry, then sand down the paneling glue on the walls – or maybe just put in new drywall.”

Nathan didn’t really agree to it, but he also didn’t disagree! For the time, I’m assuming his non-response indicates a willingness to help me with the proposed projects, which I know will do a great deal of good in that space. It’s possible that we could add some insulation in the walls, if we have to take out the drywall. In my dream world, we’d fix the windows while we had the walls ripped out (by replacing both of them and putting in one new window, right in the middle of the room). Heck! We could even take up the carpet and see about leveling that darned floor!

But for the time, we can at least make it less dark and scary in there.


As for other house projects…

Things we are currently working on:
Building out the spare bedroom closet with shelves, drawers, and multi-height clothing rods. The materials are in the woodshop, I just need to measure, cut, and install!

Demolition continues downstairs. We’ve reached a tricky point in the utility room, where we have to carefully rip things out so as not to accidentally electrocute or drown ourselves. I’ve made a TON of progress under the staircase, where almost everything has been removed. I still need to bash down some drywall and figure out how to get the floor panels out of the closet

Future projects:
I may turn my sights on the downstairs bathroom very soon. Everything needs to be ripped out of it because it’s going to be a mudroom (someday). Right now I need it gutted so we can easily run all the plumbing to the new upstairs bathroom.

I found out yesterday that we don’t need a permit to replace the front deck because it’s less than 30 inches tall, so it can definitely be replaced before the end of summer. (Hooray!) Nate will take the lead on that, hopefully with Dave helping him. I think they can get it done in just a day or two, so long as the weather is nice.

We got our tax refund, so we’re about to embark on several projects. We’re having a new garage door opener installed on Friday, which means we will no longer have to do the ghetto running-underneath-the-door-to-close-it-because-we-don’t-have-a-remote thing. A new opener also means we won’t accidentally kill someone’s cat or crush any small children.

The whole plumbing system will be replaced, probably by a real professional (not just Nathan and his dad!), and we’ll remodel the upstairs bathroom. I’ve already started clearing out the bathroom so we can take a sledgehammer to the walls.

The last stimulus-funded project on the list is removing the hallway along the staircase and putting in a wood railing. I’m a little worried about how stable it’s going to be, but I trust that Nate will work it out! I know it’s going to be beautiful when it’s finished.

It’s exciting to think what the house will look like six months from now. Better yet, what we will accomplish in the next year! It’s going to be really beautiful, and then we’re going to fill it with babies, babies, babies…

Hair(style) Blog

This post is for Amy, to whom I mentioned this topic weeks ago. I'm only just now following up on it... Sorry...

I am going to cut my hair. Short.

Of course, I mean chin-length short and not pixi short. You'll have to agree than even chin-length is short for me. I want to go for something roughly like this:

Or maybe kinda like this:

Possibly with some bangs, like this:

BUT I'm not going to cut it that short right now. I think the chin-length change is a summer look, and I'm not ready to go that short this summer, so it will be next summer (June 2010, maybe?) when I cut it. Prior to that, in the spring or so, I think I will cut it to my shoulders. Something a little bit like this:



I'm not always very good at handeling change - especially not in regards to my hair - so I think having an in-between step will be an easier way for me to progress toward short hair.

At this point, you're probably wondering what the fuss is about and why I'm teasing you with all this information. I have a point. I am now getting to that point...

One thing I'd really like to do before I "go short" with my style is to try a perm. I think. Truth be told, I'm nervous about perming it! I worry that (a) my hair won't take a perm because it's so riddiculously straight (thanks mom :o), and (b) what if it looks terrible on me? I mean, a perm is a hairstyle that can look incredibly bad on a person!

Anyway -- setting my fears aside for a moment: I've collected a bunch of pictures of different "perms" that I like. Some of them are just barrel-curled hair, but are still along the line of what I want. In general, I want to do large curls (I don't think small, tight curls would look good on me). One of the things I'm unsure about is just how loose/tight to make the curl, and whether or not I should have bangs (long or short) and whether to perm the bangs or keep them straight. To illustrate my point, here are a whole bunch of pictures...

This one has fairly loose curls without bangs:

This one also has somewhat loose curls, but with a litter layering in front:


This one is more of a texture and not quite as "curly". It also has long layers in front:

This one has moderately tight curls with straight, shorter layers in front:

This one has fairly tight, large curls and is all about the same lenght:

And finally, this one has tighter, slightly smaller curls and medium layers in the front:

WOW, I know there's a lot of options there. And they are all pretty similar. I don't want to bias you with my opinion, so I won't say which one I'm leaning toward! But I'd love to know what everyone thinks.

All pictures came from www.TheHairstyler.com

The website has a fabulous collection! Check them out!

"Blogging Is Stupid"

I kid you not -- the title of this blog is exactly what Nathan said to me this weekend. I can't remember what he was reading or why he said it (it has nothing to do with the fact that I started this blog or any of our friends of family); I think he was just surfing around on the internet and came across a website or blog that bothered him. Or maybe he just read something about blogging that irritated him. In any event, I wandered into his "cave" while he was on the computer and the next thing I know he says to me...

"Blogging is stupid."

"Oh. Soooo... you're not planning to ever post anything to 'our' blog then, are you?"

"Umm.... Not really. I guess."

"Do you think it's stupid that I started a blog?"

"Well...ummm..... No. Of course....not. I...uhhhh....."

Yeah. Uh-huh. Doghouse on that one. Way to stick his foot in his mouth! In retrospect, it's funny and kinda cute. At the moment, though, I was surprised and maybe a little sad.

Nate Has a Cave... or Two

You know that book (which is also a common saying), "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus"? There's a section of the book that talks about the need men have for "caves". When they get angry or sad or scared (i.e., emotional), their instinct is to retreat; they want to find a "cave" to hide in while they sort out their feelings. The concept makes sense to me, and my mom made a great joke this weekend...


But let me back up.


Nate recently re-located his computer desk out of our shared office and into the "nook" off the front of the kitchen. It's a horrible little room -- slightly long but narrow, with dark wood paneling and darker cabinetry. The lights have 70s-style stained glass, the floor is a layer of dirt on top of pale blue carpet, and the room slopes downward (by 1 inch per 4 feet, or about 1.5 inches from end-to-end). Ugly, weird, uncomfortable, horrible.... These are all words I almost-affectionately use to talk about the Nook.

Anyway, as I mentioned, this is where Nathan has set-up shop. His desk is there and I donated a bookshelf to the space, plus he moved in an easy-chair.

While he was sitting at his computer Saturday morning and I was working on breakfast in the kitchen, my mom wandered in and was talking to me. I wish I remember all the conversation, but it boils down to this: I commented that Nate was hiding from the house guests (my parents) in "his" room, and my mom replied, "Well, you know boys... Sometimes they need to retreat to their cave."

I looked over at the room and, as though seeing it for the first time, realized that the Nook was absolutely cave-like! Dark... dirty.... horrible.... Oh yeah. Nate has a cave.

As I thought about it a little more, I realized that it's more accurate to say that Nate has another cave, since his new painting room (downstairs) is also quite cave-like!


And I love my Caveman. :o)

Multitasking at Work

I am currently at work, in a web meeting with a co-worker in the Bend office. I'm training her on how to do employment estimates... except that I'm obviously not! I'm blogging, and watching her screen in the background as she shuffles through the various estimation tools. It's fun to see her click away, knowing that I will soon be free from this monthly task. Honestly I'm a little sad to see the end of estimates. It was a nice way to kill a few hours every month, it gave my job a little more structure, and sometimes I got paid extra, too. But the department has finally hired a real person to do the task, and I am back to my normal job description.

Besides blogging and overseeing the newest edition to our team, I'm also on a conference call. And I'm eating Goldfish crackers -- the salty, irresistable little treats that I have fallen in love with only after reaching this, the semi-grown-up phase of my life.

I wouldn't mind doing some real work while I'm suppose to be doing real work, but all of my files are back at my desk, on my normal work computer (and not here in this quiet, comfortable conference room). True, I could leave my web meeting and phone conference to go get said files without anyone noticing my absence, but then I would have to feel guilty about being so far away from my real work. At least with the blog open on top of the real work, I don't have to feel bad about leaving my work alone!

Anyway, I've been goofing off about 15 minutes now, which is all the time we get for an afternoon break... So I better get back to watching and listening to real work.