Outsmarted

The kids caught us trying to cheat at Design Star. Damn those public schools, actually teaching basic addition...

Jack started totaling up the two lampshades ($9 each), the curtain rod and curtains (more than $9) and we were over budget. He made me put back the new quilt and pillow shams for the bed...

Dean and I then tried to use some decals I bought ages ago on clearance. They are very retro circles and make a cool design. I'd show you a photo, but they all peeled off the wall and left funny marks on the paint...

The kids won by default. They made a "man-cave" out of their playroom with a $19 table and $1 cushions for their kid chairs.

They believe they are living in the lap of luxury -- something soft under their butts and somewhere to put their feet up.

Let the competition begin

We've been enjoying Design Star as a family. I like that it's not football, baseball or collegiate lacrosse. The male members of the family like the competition part. It's a win-win for family viewing.

It gets ugly too. The boys are quite vocal with that heartless criticism that children have. Neil likes the outrageous, glitzy stuff. Jack wants everything unbreakable so scooters and footballs are allowed in the room... He has quite gotten over Mom banning scooters, bikes and all sports equipment from the house when we redid the floors.

Jack will do almost anything if it is a competition. Neil will do anything that Jack is doing.

So in a desperate attempt to get them to clean up their playroom, we challenged the kids to a Design Star competition. They get the playroom. We get our bedroom (which I should admit is worse than their playroom but I won't).

Each team has $25 at Ikea and they can use anything else from around the house (within reason). Dean and I are already planning on cheating. It's our wallet.

Any questions?

Neil had one: "How much is a mini fridge?"

Can I quit?

Yesterday was one of those days that affirm my lack of skills as a housewife. I burnt a crock pot lasagna beyond all recognition of it as a lasagna. (Is that the cheese or the sauce? Where's the noodles?)

I do know that you aren't supposed to be able to burn something in a crock pot but I have skills, thank you.

I burnt toast, broke dishes, swept and swept and there is still dog hair. The mounds of laundry I have washed are dwarfed by the mounds I have not. I knocked over a giant bin of very small LEGOs.

I gave up before I caused more damage. 

FLORing

We also made time to put down the FLOR carpet tiles we bought ages ago at Target. They were on a clearance shelf -- Yahoo! And they really are as easy to put together as the catalog says. The rug looks great and it doesn't slide around. My only complaint with FLOR is that it's not very plush. This line of tiles is very, very low pile and will make a nice rug in the living room, but I wouldn't mind something softer for the family room. 

The house still has a "just moved in" feel because a lot of stuff is still in the garage. I'm enjoying the space. So are the kids. Jack asked if we had to put the furniture back... An empty gym would be his ideal home!

Dining room cubbies

In my (vain) attempt to discourage toys downstairs, I emptied the kids cubbies in the family room. We were storing a lot of toys in there that my kids didn't use. Visiting children thought they were very useful to spread across the entryway but our kids didn't touch them. We were also storing a crap-load of paper, useless paper from school, church, scouts, random notes from people we don't know any more. It was time for this stuff to go (recycled, of course).

The sideboard in the dining room was getting a little rickety so we tried the cubbies in there. I was little worried that it would be too big of a unit in there. But I like it. We have wine, glasses, cookbooks and a pretty piece or two on there. I think we are still maintaining a moderny kind of feel -- that's the goal any way. Modern, lightened up a bit and family friendly.

I filled three empty vases with these green decorator items. I like it, but Dean doesn't like it because, frankly, they are fuzzy green balls. It upsets his interior metrosexual decorator.

Aunt Betty's fish makes an appearance on top too.

Design without a dime

We spent our money on the wood floors and the tile for the kitchen and bathroom. Now what do we do? We painted. The moulding is up and we are trying to redecorate our "new" space without spending any more money -- mostly because we don't have any more. It's nice to be "green" and reuse and recycle when the money is gone. It still counts, right?

The sideboard in the dining room is falling apart-- moving it just made it worse. Dean keeps saying "I can fix it." But by the fourth or fifth "I can fix it," can it be done?

The goal is to free up some space in our house so we are eliminating the kids' cubbies in the family room (there was a surprising amount of mom and dad crap on the kids' cubbies)... so I'm thinking about moving it into the dining room for storage instead of the sideboard. 

The dining room is remarkably empty right now. We even took the leaves out of the table (turns out we don't need to always have a table that seats 10). It's a nice, just-the-four-of-us kind of table now. Of course, I have to figure out what to do with the leaves (no more storage under the couch on the wood floors) and the extra chairs.

And where do we store all the stuff from the sideboard?

Writing on the wall

It's not really writing, but there are marks on the freshly painted living room wall. I'm guessing it's from the dogs running by and brushing against the wall. How washable is this no-VOC paint I made Dean use? More importantly, how much trouble am I going to be in when we can't wash it?!

We haven't even been using the room! What's going to happen when we actually are in there on a regular basis?

Beautiful floors

Here's our wood floors in the corner of the living room. And the new no-VOC paint. The color is Joshua Tree, but it looks blue sometimes, greenish other times and a definite blue-green on occasion. Did I mention it went on with one coat?! I don't mind two coats, but the husband who actually does the painting does mind.

Doggone phone service

Monday was quite a day with sickness, potential water shortages, the tile guy ... Then the phone went out -- AGAIN! Stupid digital phone! Second time in a month. These people have to get their act together.

I'm grumpy when I have to sit through 20 minutes on the cell phone while they try to reboot it from wherever the call center is. Then I schedule the appointment for a technician to come out. I complain about it to friends who have their own horror stories.

I'm thinking digital phone service has to go! Then Dean comes home from work...

And finds the phone cord yanked out of the wall outside and gnawed on.

Maybe the dogs have to go.

You know he's wondering if the check will be good

Don't you hate it when you are a little haphazard with the bills because your house is all tore up and you are having trouble keeping anything straight and then you get a final notice that they are shutting off the water if you don't pay up?

You hate it more when you are at the doctor's office with your sick kid and the nice man putting in the tile in the kitchen and the bathroom has to accept the notice for you...

Something to stand on

We finally have flooring! Not all the floors are covered, but we have major progress. The dining room, living room and family room have beautiful maple wood floors, stained a lovely medium brown. The rooms are empty and beautiful right now. We just keep dusting the floors.
The dogs are slipping and sliding. At first, Shiloh wouldn't step on it. He didn't know what it was. Cody races through the rooms and ends up sliding until he hits a wall. It's great fun for the whole family!
If we actually get the tile in the kitchen and bathroom, the ENTIRE downstairs will finally have nice flooring. No more concrete, no more damaged old Pergo-like flooring, no more tile that Dean tried to put in ("I don't need spacers.").
Jack almost cried when he realized he couldn't ride his bike or scooter in the house any more (Mom let them life like hooligans before!). Yes, my son, you will have to learn to live like other people do -- no bikes, no scooters, no cleats, maybe no children in the house!

Spring Break

It's spring break and we were spending a lot of time in our pajamas...then we learned that the new wood flooring had arrived and would be installed at the end of this week! Eeeeks! Imagine mass panic as we started packing up books, toys, couches, etc.

Green is making me blue

I know. I know. I love Mother Earth, but there are some things on the green scene that need improvement.

I want my regular, ordinary, able-to-dim-and-don't-take-forever-to-warm-up lights back. Yes, we have the CFL lights throughout the house. We are saving tons of energy right and left. But when you turn on the light in my kids' room, it's just a very soft glow until the lights warm up. It's weird. When I turn on the lights in the family room, I have to remind myself it's the CFLs, not my aging eyes.

And the new, nice pendant lights in my work-in-progress kitchen can't really dim. It doesn't work very well. Sometimes they make weird noises. I want my mood lighting...and not the lighting that corresponds with the mood I'm in right now.