First weekend of Spring

I am going to start again with weather, but after months of zero temperatures I have to keep crowing about the beautiful weather we have been having again. But I spent most of the weekend in the house sanding, stripping, pulling door casings, and painting. Well I did clean the house and do laundry.
I took some advice from a friend and decided to try something different. I had originally planned to pull all the crown moulding down and just replace it with something different/new but Beth suggested that I keep the crown painted. I took a piece of the door casings that I just re-did late Friday night into the store and had them run the color match for a gallon of paint. It really turned out pretty good and I painted the bit of crown in the entryway.

The last two images are of the door casings and door frame that I completed and reinstalled Saturday. I am digging the color combination of the frames and the Butterscotch Candy color of the walls.

My great friend (Beth) who works at Home Depot pulled a rabbit out of the hat and totally came through on a kitchen design that has just blown me away! I wish I had a scanner so I could get them (the print outs) online for you all to see. It is quite fantastic and she put allot of thought into the whole presentation. I am REALLY jazzed and can't wait to someday get that project started! She basically took a look at the kitchen, a color swatch from the Craftsman period, threw in some glass tile back splash, shaker style cabinets, bead board and BAM! came up with an awesome layout. Very cool Beth! thanks! Really, I am stoked about it all.

The best for last. I discovered a new energy food, most would say junk food. These little chocolate jems come wrapped individually and in a box of 12. What am I rambling about? Hostess Ding Dongs of course! I got a craving the other night watching TV and had to have a sugar fix that left me in a trance for something sweet. I was cruising the aisle at the local grocery store, you know one of those little mom and pop places that try to carry everything?

All the aisles are just jammed with a lots of bits of all kinds of products and it drives you crazy trying to find what you are looking for. Come on, you know there is a store near you that is just like I am talking about. Everyone knows everyone and the beer and wine is located in aisle one just as you walk in the front door?

So I am perusing the energy food aisle and felt these little boxes beckoning me to the end cap on aisle 7, Scott! I heard them say. That was it, I came home and gorged myself, sat and ate 6 in a row! I had a pile of empty wrappers all over the couch when I was finished? well damit! I felt good about it afterwards! Not an ounce of guilt.

So your sitting there asking yourself ( I know you are) how can a grown man eat 6 Ding Dongs and not weigh 800 lbs? I don't' know either but that question fall in the same category as to, why have I lost almost 50 lbs in the last few months without trying? One of those mysterious things in the world that science has yet to solve.

I do have to add that the quality control Hostess has for these little hockey pucks is fantastic! I am on box number two now and they all have the same great chocolaty taste as the first one I opened a week ago!

How is that for a bizzare rant? Hostess Ding Dongs!

Basement Floor

All I did today was paint the floor in the laundry room, battleship grey. That's it. Makes me feel like I am in the Navy again.

Striping will set you free!

That is what I keep telling myself, and telling myself, over and over again.

The first picture is of........my feet, size 11's thank you. Actually it is a terrible picture of a piece of base board, but basically I am trying to show what the boards look like after 2 applications of stripper and the heavy tan paint that is denying the inevitable, it will be sanded off.

The second and third images, are a question: why would you paint over such great looking wood? Look at that grain! I just hope someday, someone else will appreciate the time and energy I am putting into all this trim and doors. If they don't? they can always paint over them.

Prancer? Dancer? Donner? Blitzen? Rudolf???

No this is my apprentice or aka Princess Sugar getting ready for Christmas. My mom found these antlers in her Christmas "stuff" today and stuck them on Sugar when I stopped by after work.

There is a small back story to this. Sugar gets dropped off every morning at Grand Ma's house and picked up every night after work. So what those two (Mom and Sugar) get into through out the day is known only to them. Mom never said a word when I walked in and it took a few minutes to see Sugar sitting there looking like; "what the hell is going on?" and "please help me" Then, when I wanted a picture, the forlorn look turned into; oh! oh! ok this is cool, my chest is getting scratched, oh yea! what fake antlers? oh yeah! Dad what are you doing here?

She is such good sport and will do or tolerate anything for attention. She is a groovy dog.

Letting it snow

That's what I am pretty much letting it do today, just snow. My apprentice (Sugar) made a trip to the spa this afternoon and got herself bathed and all fluffed up. The spa is a corner of the basement that has a shower and a big drain in the center. She really didn't like it much and slept the rest of the day. It is tough being a princess.

Below is the sunroom in all its green glory. Sugar and I decided to go with the bead board for the bottom half of the room, painted in a nice bright white.

This is her highness surveying the room as I take pictures.

I also finished sanding and staining the bedroom door casings this evening, and will get the poly on in the next few days.

If you open your mouth flies will enter

Well kind of, more like paint. I painted the ceiling in the spare bedroom tonight along with a few of the walls in the kitchen. I found out that flies are not alive in the Great State of Illinois during November but paint does fly in your mouth when you use a roller on the ceiling and standing there looking like a fool that just got doused with a bucket of water, yep Newton was right about gravity. White latex has absolutley no taste.