Bye Bye Rocket Fan!

I sold the Rocket Fan on Craigslist for $60... not bad! The people who bought it were so nice, and not at all bothered by the fact that it was NOT going to light up their boys' bedroom (which they had just decorated all in rocket-themed stuff!)

Stink-O-Rama

Stinky. When an animal crawls under your house and dies... it's stinky.... and there are a lot of flies coming out of the tiny crawlspace... and NO! I'm not going down there, on my belly, to drag out the carcass!!!

The Tacoma

Jimmy's hot new wheels. We both got choked up when Kenny drove the GMC one out of our driveway.... :-(

California Influence

Last month we were in San Diego for a few days. Saw these interesting doors on the side of the mission at San Juan Capistrano. I'd like to recreate these for our garage. I like the waves.

A lot has happened. While we were gone, the stucco guys finished the outside of the bandroom. We came back and finished the insulation (or rather, Joe did), passed inspection, had the drywall installed and textured. Bought a new truck and sold the old one to our drywall man, Kenny.

Wheeeeee!

Passed electrical inspection with flying colors. Thanks, Matt!

Have narrowed the paint choices down to 2 or 3. Tomorrow we say goodbye to the yellow/beige of the last 11 years.

Thinning the Palms

I know I've said that Ricehouse runs on Starbucks, but sometimes Ricehouse gets a lot done by channelling the power of PMS! I tore the crap out of the palm trees, ferns, etc. the other day, revealing a green wall in desperate need of pressure washin'!

Feline non Gratis

Bre'r is not happy that the dogs have been spending so much time inside.
He has "expressed" his feelings in a totally disgusting way.
Now, he will spend some time outside....

Week End

Can you see the frost on the handrail?

It's been a good cold week. Freezing temps at night, flannel sheets on the bed. The dogs turned 10, or 70 in dog years. We have some ideas about bettering our house that shouldn't be too expensive or work-intensive to achieve. Encouraged.

I've been having flashbacks to 1977 — me in second grade, doing a mock election, watching the Carter innauguration on tv at school, some folks being really happy, others being really depressed, frost and snow on the ground. My kids are reliving the winter of 77.

Gel Stain

Painting with gel stain is like painting with cold gravy.

The good news is that the 2nd coat goes on much easier than the first. I am staining a fiberglass/composite door and ya know, it's kind of like plastic. So the first coat didn't have much to stick to. The second coat does.

A nice guy at Tanner Paint told me that it's a good idea to wipe the door first with vinegar. He, and all the folks at Tanner, are really nice and helpful. They tell you what you need whether or not they actually carry the brand they are recommending. They care. And it shows, because they've been around for 75 years and have a loyal following. It's nice to just chat with those folks, pet the beagle, etc. I'm glad to do business with them.

Contrast this with Tampa Door, also a family owned company. It had been recommended to us a few times. We chose a door on Sept. 18, paid them in full on Sept. 19, and waited the 4 weeks they told us it would take for our door to be ordered, sized, pre-hung, etc. We called at 4 weeks. We called at 6 weeks. We called at 8 weeks. ETCETERA. At no time did Kieth or Antoine call US to tell us of the delay or explain the holdup.

Eventually, I lost it with Antoine over the phone. He finally delivered it to us on Dec. 6 -- that's ELEVEN weeks after we ordered it. At the time he dropped off the door, Antoine told me he would get the staining instructions to me right away. He'd drop them off on his way home from work. He'd come by on Monday. I called a couple of times. No, he doesn't want to simply fax them to me. He'll drop them off, he'll bring us some cut pieces from other fiberglass doors so we can test our stain first. He'll be right over..... and here it is, Jan. 8, and he's still a no-show.

Thanks Tanner! You've got my business.

No thanks Tampa Door. Never again.

Then again...

Okay, yesterday I was not my typical self. Actually, there has been a little progress here and there. I decided to paint the kitchen the very same color it has been for 10 years. I just couldn't 'see' it any other color, you know? Plus, I already had a half-gallon of the stuff and only needed to cover over a few swatch spots of the colors we tried plus the drywall work. So there, I finished the kitchen last weekend in a few hours with very little expenses (one tube of spackle, plus a pizza). Done deal.

Also worked more on painting the dining room. Impressed myself by moving the piano with one arm while balancing a cup of paint in the other and breaking up my kids 99th argument of the day.

Thinking about putting some bull-nosed tiles on the windowsill. Or maybe casing the window completely.

Bought some plantation shutters and two lined curtains, mostly for free using two gift certificates to Lowe's. Now I need to paint my curtain rod.

We made another decision with the kitchen. We are just going to use wood, or maybe an inexpensive tile, to finish the bar area. We just don't have the money for granite now that we have these permits & fines to pay.

Also picked up the last cased window from Home Depot. It looks ridiculous. I'll have to post a photo.

Rocket Fan update

We heard back from Harbor Breeze this week and it turns out they are NOT the manufacturer of the Rocket Fan. They were very helpful and told us to call the Lowe's 1-800 service line.

The Lowe's folks were really helpful and gave our info to the Waters Ave. store, where we bought the fan. Someone from the store called within an hour and told us that, while there is no replacement kit for that model, we can bring our fan back (without the box) and they will exchange it for a different fan.

Now it's up to us. What do we want to do?

Rocket Fan

Over the summer I issued a challenge to the kids involving math. Each was offered certain incentives to finish a level of math work. Julian's prize was to be the coveted 44" Brushed Nickel Rocket Fan.

Julian threw himself into the work and finished it before summer ended. We bought the fan at Lowe's and installed it with much pomp and circumstance. It was so exciting and beautiful, with it's upper light projecting stars and moons on the walls of the room, with it's rocket lights flashing blue, red, green, with it's tiny astronaut and earth pull chains, with it's clear lucite fan blades.

But some time has gone by now and we are sick of NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE ANYTHING in Julian's room after dark. We've brought a few lamps into the room, sure. Some of them get super hot and scare me. Some of them get manhandled and yanked around the room. Some of them don't put off much light anyway. And then there's the camping lantern...

So tonight I emailed Harbor Breeze, a company that makes fans for Lowe's. (They also go by the name Hampton Bay, but those fans are sold through Home Depot.) I asked if they offer some sort of replacement kit for their enormous nite-lite.

It is kind of interesting to see a four-year-old try so hard for something, and be disappointed, and ask to have his plain white fan re-installed.

He's a bright kid. He needs a bright light.

Cha-ching

I had the kids all excited about recycling our scrap metal. Just about every Sunday night, we see folks coming around in trucks or even trucks with trailers, picking through people's trash for scrap metal... so, as we've worked on this remodel, we've been setting aside the scrap.

We took it way out to East Tampa and stood there in line, in the heat with our scrap metal... all $1.95 worth of it.

The kids were actually pretty psyched to get a dollar each.