Whatcha Doing Over There?

Our new neighbors are doing it right.  They are taking their time fixing up the (foreclosed) house before they move in.

There's been nothing but a solid stream of delivery trucks and worker bees hovering like a cloud over the house. 

We hear circular saws and hammers pounding.

We see neighborhood folk out for their daily walks craning their necks to look in the uncovered windows.

Me?  I'm just as bad.  Only I hope slightly less obvious.





Well...Maybe not.

You Can't Fix Stupid

I had a couple of titles ready for todays post.  "The Sound Of Silence" was one.  "The Iceman Cometh" was another.

Turns out there's nothing that recaps this weekends drama better than "You Can't Fix Stupid." 

We see it everyday and SM and I are becoming very afraid of what the world will become as the general IQ of the public decreases.

Stupid number one?  Friday afternoon I bugged out early from work because we were expecting an ice event right at the evenings rush hour.  There is a simple fact in this world that makes life easier for my employers.  They just need to accept it. 

Tami don't do bumper cars no more.

After 15 years in the South, I know an expensive situation when I see one.  Southerners and winter weather do not mix.  But it appears that the majority of the locals either enjoy the thrill of ice skating inside their expensive cars or relish the aggravation that comes with dealing with insurance companies and car body shops. 

The local TV news reported that law enforcement answered upwards of 300 accidents Friday evening.

Stupid number two?  We woke up Saturday encased in ice and grateful that we still had power.  The TV was on.  But we had no internet or phone. 

Huh. 

I shrugged it off as some residual funk from the ice and figured things would magically fix themselves once the ice melted.  By 2pm though I wondered what was up.  So I borrowed SM's cell phone and buzzed Deb across the street.  No problems there.

Huh.

So I turned this over to SM to deal with since he just LOVES to talk with Time Warner Cable customer service representatives.




"Be nice."  I told him, knowing it was a stupid thing to say to him.  SM is every CSR's worst nightmare. 

So after turning the modem thing on and off and pulling various cords the general opinion from TWC was to schedule a service call.

Monday at 7 am was the best they could do. 

Fine.  I can deal.

(SM admits to calling TWC two more times to bitch and complain about their product.  Of course he waited to make those calls when I wasn't around.)

So 7am sharp this morning I let the TWC service guy in, all the while acting as a human barrier between SM and him.  (Thankfully SM had just woken up and wasn't firing on all cylinders.) 

TWC dude walked over to the modem and pulled out the battery.  "They didn't tell you to pull the battery out to reset the modem did they?"  He asked.

"It's that simple?"  I asked as I hovered between SM and the TWC dude while SM, his voice rising, said..."I talked to three different people and none of them said anything about pulling out a battery!  This thing has a battery?"

TWC dude tactfully went to check the phone while I spun around giving SM the raised eyebrows and said softly..."Be nice.  He's here to fix things.  It's not his fault he works for idiots."

"But I want him to know how pissed off I am."  SM replies.

"Trust me.  He knows."  I said waving him down.  "Besides it's only 7am.  Nobody deserves to be bitched at 7am."

So 30 seconds later, we're good to go.  TWC guy came to the door to have me sign off on the job.  "I'm really sorry that they didn't tell you about the reset battery and I put a note in the computer that they didn't tell you about it."

"Well...We all work with stupid, don't we?"  I said.

"Just have him mention my service notes when he calls to complain."  TWC dude says with a sleepy smile.  I laugh. 

He knows what I'm about.

"Hey.."  I tilt my head at him and pat him on the shoulder.  "Nobody deserves to get yelled at first thing in the morning.  Have a good day!"  I say going back into the house.

SM and I part to our respective computers, reassuring ourselves that we are once more connected to the great big world.

SM then sits down to watch some morning news on the TV. 

After a few minutes SM says to me "You know the real reason they created the Internet was to fill the void of really bad TV."

I laugh. 

Yep...Dumb and Dumber.  Hey, another good title for this post!

It's Better To Be Pissed Off

Yesterday was just one of those days.

You know the ones.  It starts off promising and then just goes to pot.

Nothing really bad happened.  Just my mood. 

Why is it that when you're not feeling well, happy people make you feel worse?  My mood went darker and darker the more chattery and excitable the environment got.



I may not have said it.

But I sure was thinking it.

All For One

Yesterday was one of those wonderful Winter days here in the South.  Intense blue skies, a light breeze and a high of 70.  It didn't really matter that it was only that nice for about 3 hours. 

Hey...it got there.  And we were all out there enjoying it! 

We played Frisbee and kicked the ball with the dogs, then got to work.

SM was hacking at the crepe myrtles, murderizing them, while I spent the afternoon knocking-out some Knockout Roses that had grown as tall as I was because some slacker (who shall remain nameless) didn't prune them back last year. 

SM, the dogs and I were out in the hood first.  It was nice and peaceful for about 30 minutes when the new neighbors work crew pulled in to replace a door or two. 

Then our other neighbors emerged from their cocoon and brought their 100 pound lab, Abby, out to play.  Now these neighbors have an in ground swimming pool so Abby does NOT get free run of the back yard.  They built a nice kennel area for her but Abby doesn't get to run flat out like she can if she's loose. 

So it was "Run The Fence" time with Abby flying and our dogs racing her and barking.  It was fun to see.

Then everyone went back to work.  The dogs slept in the sun.

Nice.

A few hours later Casey pulls up lame.  Too much running on her little toothpick legs.  Casey weighs in around 80 lbs.  But she's got this tiny little head and these skinny little legs.

One of her nicknames around here is T-Rex.




She looks just like this.

Pulling up lame last night was no big deal.  After so much activity everybody zonked out.  But I knew she needed to rest today so our usual morning walk was out.

No big deal.  I'll just leave her here and take Ginny and Scooter and let her rest.  That was the plan at least.

Ha.

Everyone was clustered together waiting to get geared up.  I called Casey over and laid her down explaining that she'd have to stay put.  "Stay."  I said, hand out in the stop position.

Tap, tap, tap...went the tail.

I walk over to collar the other two and here comes Casey.  She plops herself in the middle of the pack, trembling, Ginny and Scooter on either side of her.  Big watery brown eyes stare up at me as I consider what to do.

Ginny hums at me while Casey trembles and taps.  Scooter's bottom quivers.

"All for one and one for all, eh?"  I said. 

My Three Amigos...






have turned into the Three Musketeers.





Solidarity.  All or nothing.  Don't mess with the pack. 

So I didn't. 

They all stayed home while I went for the walk. 

It was weird. 

I have walked with dogs most of my adult life.  They've always been there.  Which got me to thinking about when they won't be there.

One of my hopes as SM and I head for retirement is to travel.  Maybe an RV life, maybe not.  At the very least, I'd like to be able to park my butt into a rental apartment for a time and explore an area for a few months. 

Europe is high on the list.  We'd like to spend a whole Summer, 3 or 4 months over there doing the EuroPass thing.  SM and I think it would be wonderful to hang out in San Diego for a season.  Maybe South America.  Vancouver.  The list is endless.

But to do those things, we'd have to be dog-less for a while.  Squeeze in those travels without the responsibility of an animal.

Which makes me kinda sad. 

I've told SM before that I really can't see myself without dogs in my life.  But as my own life comes closer to D-Day, when do you decide that you have to stop dog ownership because YOU might not be around much longer?

It's strange to think about but we've all read the stories of elderly people passing on and leaving behind a dog.  I really don't want to do that. 

It's something to consider.

Kinda like writing a will.  Or pre-buying your cremation. 

But not today.  And not with these pups.  These pups will get my very best because SM and I are here to give it.  

We are a pack.  All 5 of us.

All for one and one for all.

Robo Call Revenge

SM's business cell phone gets a lot of telemarketing sales calls and "robo calls." 

Most people ignore these kinds of aggravating calls, but lately SM has been getting the last laugh.  He came home the other day practically splitting a gut.

He told me he was heading for home when his phone rang.  He went ahead and answered and discovered it was this insurance company that has been calling him everyday for a few weeks now.  Fed up, SM went ahead and punched the appropriate numbers and got a live human being on the phone.

SM tells me how he affected a real s l o w southern drawl and starts playing with the guy.  Actually "playing" is too nice of a term. 

He dicked around with him.

Seems the guy was selling dental insurance but would also sell you some for hearing aids and eyeglasses.

SM wove a masterful tale of "I got me 5 young-uns" with half of them having bad teeth and the other half being "squinty eyed."  SM himself admitted to needing a hearing aid and quizzed the guy about "how much is one of them hearing aids?"

After a solid 10 minutes of this SM couldn't take it anymore and started laughing and (using his normal voice) told the guy "Dude...I'm just dicking with you!"

"What?!?" said the fellow on the phone.

SM repeated himself, laughing harder... "Dude.  It's all fake!  I've been f-ing with you."

"You're an asshole!!!"  The guy on the phone said and hung up.

SM had me laughing after telling me all this.  "You may be an asshole but you got the last laugh."  I pointed out.  "I bet you don't get anymore calls from them."

SM hasn't stopped smiling for the past few days. 

Telemarketers beware.  SM's got your number now.  But Tom Mabe's the master.)

Mr Buffet Strikes Again

I've mentioned before that few things in life make SM as happy as a good buffet.  He's all about variety.  Me?  I can eat the same thing day in and day out but not my Squeetie Man.  He's always on the lookout for a good buffet. 

We used to have a pretty good Chinese buffet in Charlotte but they closed down during the Great Recession.  I expect the "All You Can Eat" philosophy along with rising food prices was just not a good combination.

I had to learn to tolerate SM's love for buffets though.  I've always been a pretty decent cook so it's not like we eat out often, but when we did SM would sometimes suggest one and I'd give over.

You see, as a general rule buffets turn me off. 

It's just too much.

Too much food, too many smells, too much noise...It's like a bunch of animals feeding. 

When we lived in Virginia Beach there was a seafood place called Captain Georges.  When we moved there 20 years ago it was all anyone could talk about so of course we went. 





The first time we walk into one, it was a huge dim room with huge buffet tables piled high with any kind of raw, steamed, fried and broiled seafood you could imagine.  SM toured the tables before we sat down. 
 




Boy was he excited.  The waiter came by to bring us water and explain the rules.  I sat there, assaulted by all the smells and turned green.

"I can't do it." I said to SM, eyes wide.  "I can't sit here and eat this stuff.  It's too much."  So we left.

SM was obviously disappointed but convinced me to try again another day and this time we went to a Captain Georges that had windows all around and a much more "brighter/fresher" feel to it.  And this time I stayed.  I sucked it up for my baby and eventually came to like it.  Captain Georges became a frequent habit while we lived in VB.

Fast forward 20 years and we rarely go out to eat at all now.  SM says it's because my food is better than their food.  (Ha. I knew it all along.)  But Mr. Buffet is still hiding in there somewhere and SM's always on the lookout for something new to jazz up my repertoire.

Yesterday was payday and I had a list of foodstuffs that we needed from Sam's and Walmart.  I had my usual day at work but SM had some time in the afternoon and volunteered to do the shopping for me. 

Gotta love that man! 

So I handed over the debit card and when I pulled into the driveway last night, SM was pulling in too.  So we unloaded.  And I found this.
 




Looks like Mr. Buffet went shopping with SM.

"You're OK with making me some Chicken Noodle Soup this weekend, right?"  SM asked.

(Now you know what's on the menu for Soup Sunday, and if you need me to give you a recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup...Well, we really are in trouble.)

"Yep."  I said, eyeballing the box.

"Well, I thought these sounded like they would taste really good with it."  SM says, tapping the box.  "See?  It looks really easy to make.  We've got cheese right?"  He asked.  Wow! He actually read the instructions?

"Yeah...You know, these look pretty good on the box at least." I admitted approving his purchase.  I sometimes give him a lot of grief if he buys something I could have made myself.  But I've never thought of this combo before.  (I'm already thinking about how I can make these from scratch though.)

 

It's not a bad thing living with Mr. Buffet.  He keeps me on my toes, I can tell you that! 

Skunked

As in "No Snow."

As in "Off to work I go."



Rats!

Drip

Boy, is it wet out there. 





Gray, misty fog suddenly turns into a spitting shower that fades away only to turn into a downpour a few minutes later.  How do I know this?  I've taken my cabin fevered dogs out for a mile each morning.

And gotten caught each day in a sudden downpour.  You'd think I'd just not go wouldn't you?  

Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for 3 pairs of watery brown eyes that stare up at me, begging me to take them for a walk.  Now these same dogs will put their brakes on if I open the back down and tell them to go outside and "Go potty" but if I put their leashes and collars on, it's game on.  As long as I get dragged outside with them, they're perfectly happy getting wet.

This is the 4th day of constant, drippy weather.  It can't help but effect a persons mood.  I've been feeling like a drip.  Disinterested, tired yet twitchy.  I can't really settle down.

The only thing keeping me sane right now is work.  Having to head into the cement jungle each day is a nice distraction when it's too crappy to do anything here at the house. 

But this storm is slowly heading out tonight and they're predicting  1-3 inches of snow overnight.  It won't last long tomorrow.  It never does.  But I can tell you one thing.  If it snows, I'm not going to want to go into work tomorrow. 

Not because of the hassle of driving with a bunch of crazy Southerners who don't know how to drive in the white stuff.  Nope.

I won't want to go into work because I'll want to stay at home a play.  Mama wants a snow day!  Whoo Hoo!

Keep your fingers crossed...

Testify

We interrupt this Soup Sunday for a very important message!

We are having a freakin beautiful weekend here in North Carolina.  75 glorious degrees with partly sunny skies.

Yes, I'm rubbing your nose in it!  Ha!  Take that! 

We had pretty foggy weather in the early hours, so I did my usual grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning the house while SM headed out on some business. 

Around 11 the skies cleared and when I went out to toss some trash I was hit with a sweet, warm breeze!   I immediately went in the house and opened all the windows and the back door so the pups could run in and out. 

Hallelujah!  Fresh air!!!! 

Then baths for those dirty dogs.  Wet towels all over the place along with wet floors so I decided I might as well clean the carpets too.  As I was doing that, the dogs went ballistic at the front door.  I peeked out the side window and said very loudly..."No Thanks!" to the folks on the other side just waiting for an opportunity to testify to a sinner like me.

You know it's Spring (or at least a warm day) when the church people come out to preach. 



Religion is a pretty big deal down here.  It's loud and public and in your face which just doesn't set right with a Yankee like me.  My exposure to religion was very traditional with Sunday School classes and then services.  I just wasn't raised to go out and "testify" so I had a learning curve to adjust to when we moved here. 

Our neighborhood is a magnet for the church folk.  Jehovah's Witness, a Baptist group and some other church routinely descend on our streets every Saturday.  Seriously.  Every Saturday, when the weather is nice, someone is knocking on our door.

In the past, if someone knocked on my door, I would answer it.  It just seemed rude not to.  But I learned after getting cornered one time by a very nice group of ladies that you open your own front door at own peril. 

SM and I were working in the front of the house and had the garage door open.  The church folk pull up in minivans and take to the streets.  Men with boys and the ladies with the girls.  A group of ladies pulled right up to our house and I naturally went out to meet them.  SM kept working in the garage.  

The ladies and I had a nice pleasant one way conversation with them preaching and me nodding my head.  20 minutes later I came back into the house with my hands full of pamphlets, my eyes wide.

SM stood there laughing at my expression.  He stopped laughing though after these same ladies proceeded to knock on our door for the next month wanting to talk to me.  "They've got your number." SM told me. 

I pretty much stopped answering the front door after that.  SM does it now.  We keep our front door and the garage door shut on Saturdays.  We've learned that Sundays are good days to work in the front yard.




When SM does open the door these days it's usually a sales call.  We had one late yesterday afternoon.  The doorbell rings and SM went to answer it while I herd the dogs outside with the promise of snackies.  I went back in to see if SM needed saving and there he is scribbling on a piece of paper.

"Whatcha buying, Baby?"  I ask, concerned.

"Girl Scout cookies."  He replies, head down intent on his purchase.

"Take it easy."  I advise, knowing food is SM's kryptonite. 

In the end he only bought 3 boxes. 

Praise the Lord!

Our First Closing

I drove home slowly from work last night.  There was a dense fog advisory that continues until 10 am this morning.  I guess this is what you get when warmer than usual temperatures slide in during the height of Winter. 

Anyway, as I turned the corner onto the street where we live, I nearly went off the rails.  The house beside us, the one that has been in foreclosure for the better part this past year, was lit up like a Christmas tree.  Every light in the house was on and since there are no blinds in the windows, I could see straight through to the people moving around inside inspecting the house. 

I was rubber-necking so bad, I nearly missed my own driveway.  Getting out of the Jeep, I squinted looking for the For Sale sign that's been up.  Nope.  It's gone. 

Looks like someone has finally closed on the house.



Last Fall, rumor in the "Hood" had it that the bidding war went in favor of a Deputy Sheriff and his family.  That the home would be "owner-occupied" and not an investment (i.e. rental) property.  Of course, SM and I were happy to hear that.  But who knows for sure?  Time will tell.

As I walked into my own humble abode, I thought about how I felt on my own Closing Days.  The thrill of Christmas along with the terror of Halloween would be my best way of describing it.

SM and I have had three homes.  One in Virginia Beach.  Another in Columbus, Ohio and then the home we're in now.

I still remember the thrill of walking into those empty houses.  It was better than any Christmas Day you ever had as a child.  Did you feel the same?  Yet there was also that slight tremor of fear that catches you in your gut and makes your insides turn to water. 

This is the big time.  Home ownership.  Time to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and become an adult.

The closing I remember best was our first house, of course.  A 1200 sq foot 3 bedroom brick ranch that we'd bought in Virginia Beach for $95 K.  We'd gone through our first ever closing a few hours before, that had gone quite badly as we hadn't a clue that our realtor was (in the words of the lawyer overseeing the entire process) a "total idiot." 

Seems our realtor didn't give us the correct amount due for closing. 

And since we were young and stupid, we had no idea that we could have requested all the closing documents in advance.  I can't really remember the details now but it was an additional 5K that we had to have at that moment for the deal to go through or loose our escrow.  

We had the money (in savings thankfully) but when were told we had to cough it up, I had to drag SM out of the room for a private "pow-wow" as the poor man was having a major meltdown as he fought the urge to strangle our realtor or just walk away from the whole deal. 

After I calmed him down, we went back in, wrote a very HOT check, signed all the paperwork and received the keys to our first ever home.  After which, we made a bee-line to the bank to transfer the money to cover the check and then headed for our new home.

By the time we got there SM had exhausted himself detailing (in very colorful expletives) how he planned the demise of a certain realtor who, thankfully, never showed her face to us again.  Once that storm had passed, SM once more became my "Squeetie Man" and we went into our house.

I remember we walked around, mostly silent, sometimes together, sometimes apart as we explored our first home.  It was raining that day and we came together and sat down on the baby blue carpeting in the dim living room looking out the patio doors at our backyard.

And we talked.

And we dreamed.

It was very romantic.

At some point though, I glanced down and looked at my white socked feet in the dim light of the rainy evening and saw little black specks. 

Curious, I peered closer and suddenly sprang to my feet shouting "Fleas!!!!" 

I stripped off my socks faster than you can imagine, hopping from one foot to another.  I was flapping the socks around and slapping my shorts to remove the imagined interlopers. 

Overcome, I promptly ran out of the house. 

So much for a romantic moment.

Our first purchase? 

A flea bomb kit.

Welcome to home ownership.

Desktop Mood Ring

Lately, I've been working on getting more familiar with my new laptop.  Windows 8 isn't all that bad, just different.  One thing I do know though...I am technologically challenged!!!

Last weekend, I finally figured out how to upload all my past pictures onto this computer.  This was important to me for one reason only.  I like to use my pictures for the laptops screensavers and desktop background images.  I love the memories that come with opening my laptop and seeing one of the photo's of the house or garden.  It makes me feel happy.

Call it my mood ring. 

I never thought about it before but I think you can tell a lot about a person from what images they have on their computer.  I change mine up monthly at the very least.  Sometimes more often.

So what's my current background picture?

Sweet Ginny girl lounging on the back porch swing on a Summer day.  I love the bright colors and the relaxed mood of the moment.  During the gray and gloomy days of Winter, this bright "pop" of color makes me smile.  Am I the only one who does this?  What's your on your computer?

Looks like we might get some "swing time" this weekend.  Temps in the 70's with cloudy skies though. 

Hey, I'll take it! 

Becoming The Crazy Old Lady

When I was younger, I would often meet (or God forbid...WORK with) the "Crazy Old Lady." 

You know the ones.

They're usually over 50.  They wear really, REALLY bright colored clothes, big earrings and jewelry.  They'll dye their hair to cover the gray, usually out of a box, that ends up giving their hair a soft orange glow.  But I've also seen the occasional bluish, purple effect too. 

And the make-up!  Foundation caked in their wrinkles, splotches of blush on their cheeks and the penciled in eyebrows.  Lipstick in a color that is better suited for a circus clown than for a mature woman.

Last week one of my Dr.'s brought in her 6 year old daughter.  What a cutie!  Smart and the spitting image of her Mom, she was dressed in the CUTEST little knitted sweater vest with bright colors and shapes and puff balls dangling from it.

"Oh...I love it!  Why can't they make cute stuff like that for adults?"  I say to my boss.  "And she has those cute little light up sneakers!  I would love a pair of those but they don't make them in a size eleven." 

I point down at my aqua colored Nike's (with the bright acid green Nike check mark, I might add) that just so happens to match my bright aqua colored scrubs that I'm wearing.

I glance up at my boss.  "Uh, Oh...I'm becoming the crazy old lady aren't I?"

Dr. M smiled at me and said..."We've always known you were crazy, Tami."




She pats me on the shoulder.  "Now you're just starting to dress the part."  She says with a grin as she walks away.

Souper Bowl Sundays - Seafood Chow-da

Mama Pea over at A Home Grown Journal is offering up a challenge that's not too hard to take. 

Soup Sundays.  Cook a soup and post about it each Sunday.

In the dead of a North Carolina winter, when even a transplanted Yankee can bitch about "How freaken cold it is this morning (26 degrees)"...Well, lets just say I'm looking forward to ways of warming my house as well as my tummy for the next few weeks.

So I'm VERY curious to see what everyone will bring to the table, so to speak. 

"Hey, I'm looking for good ideas same as everyone else!"

My problem though is that I really don't cook from recipes. 

Except for baking.  I've learned that to try and wing it when you're baking is a recipe for disaster.

When I cook savory, I just look around, see what I've got in the pantry (or what I've got to get rid of in fridge) and turn those items into a soup.  New Year's Day was crock pot sauerkraut and pork but SM's pretty much finished that up.  (I was wondering if there were soups made with those ingredients.  Yep, there are...but I'm NOT going there.  (shudder))

So Saturday morning I'm looking around to see what have I got.  Lots of potatoes.  OK.  Potatoes then.  Do I want to go chicken stock or milk based?  I pause for a moment.  Seems like every soup I make around here in based in chicken stock.  So how about a chowder?

To tell the truth, I've never made a chowder before.  I helped my sister-in-law, Yvonne, with a clam chowder once when we visited her in New Hampshire on a cold Fall day.  Chowder it is then.

So I poke around the pantry.  SM is the shopper around here.  You never know what he's bought.  Hey, lookie there.  A can of clams, crab meat and oysters.  The clams and crab I'll use but I hate oysters so if SM wants them he can put them in his own soup.

Hmm, do I have any fish?  Yep.  Trader Joe's to the rescue again.  SM must've bought this cod.  I know it wasn't me.

OK then.  A Seafood Chow-da.

I've got the milk, butter, carrots, corn and the tender bits of some celery.  Salt, pepper, Old Bay seasoning. 

No onion though.  How can I NOT have onion?  (So I did run to the store and picked up some green onions especially for this soup.) 

Sunday morning arrives and I'm cooking soup by 8am.  Do I follow a recipe?  No, not really.  Soup is easy.  Put in it what you like and there you are.

So I break out my Dutch Oven and toss about 3/4 of a stick of butter along with a splash of veggie oil.  Chop the celery, onion and grate the carrot. 

 

Toss it in and melt it down.  Meanwhile, I dice up some russet potato (2) with the skins on, and pull out some frozen corn.

Toss that all into the pot to soften up.  Open the cans of seafood and cube up the fish.  In that goes (along with the juice from the can).  Salt to taste, lots of pepper and a generous plop of Old Bay.

Geez, it's smelling good now!

I always wait till last to add milk to a soup.  Nothing worse than burnt milk!  So after everything is cooked down (about 15 min), I turn down the heat to the lowest setting and pour in the milk.  Probably around 4 cups or so.  Just enough to make it soup thickness.  Then I cover it and let it cook on low for another 15-20 min.

By this time SM is wandering out.  "What are you cooking?  I can smell it all the way in the bedroom."  He wanders over and lifts the lid. 

"Clam Chowder!" He crows.

"Seafood Chowder.  Crab, clams and cod."  I tell him looking at the ambrosia I whipped up in less than an hour.  Seriously folks, it's THAT easy!

"No oysters?"  SM inquires, knowing my aversion to them.

"You can put your own oysters in your own bowl."  I say, making a face.

"Damn right I will."  SM  replies, giving me a good morning hug and kiss.

I can't stand it though...I've got to taste it NOW, so I spoon some up and let it cool off a bit.

Wow.  Is this good or what?  Now that's a nice way to start off my day!

Phase Two - Otherwise Known As The Money Shot

Some people are tub people.  Some people are into showers.  (I wonder what THAT says about your personality?)

SM and I are shower people.  Nothing better in life than the pounding of a hot shower on your back.  Our 20+ year old shower stall is one of those pre-fab plastic things with two plastic walls, a fiberglass shower pan and a glass(?) door and partial wall attached to the fiberglass tub. 

Discolored, falling apart and nasty.

And let's not even talk about the tub.  Yeah, THAT tub.  That we've NEVER used.  Really.  This tub is huge.  I can't even begin to imagine the amount of water it would take to fill this thing. (Why would a manufacturer create such a thing?  It's practically a Hot Tub!) 

Since it's never been used though, the tub is actually in good shape.  We could keep the tub.

Which is why SM wants to get rid of it, of course.

"How about a walk-in shower."  SM suggests.  "We can rip out the tub and use that entire space for the entry into the shower." 

Because of where the window is situated, we can only go so wide but we can go long as in extending the shower area into more of a rectangular footprint along the back wall where the tub is.

"But how do we contain the shower spray?"  I ask.  "We'd need some kind of wall or partition here on the window side.  Plus how far out would we need to take it out so we wouldn't need to worry about the water spray if there's no door?"

"How about a half wall bottom with a glass panel on top by the window?  And we could always tile the floor here."  SM suggests, pointing to where the tub is now.

I make a face.  "I don't want to darken the shower area anymore than it already will be.  Plus it might make the room look smaller."  I think for a moment.  "If the water can spray this far out then it's more of a slip risk.  Plus, more cleaning.  I don't think I like that idea."  I say, shaking my head.

"We could use clear glass to keep it from getting too dark."  SM offers, waving his hand beside the window.

"No.  I don't need to see you in the shower and you definitely don't need to see me.  Those days are long gone."  I say grinning.  "We'll do frosted glass panels instead."

More pondering.

"How about we just leave the tub."  I offer  "Essentially leave the footprint as it is and just replace the shower pan, tile the walls to jazz it up a bit in there and then replace the glass door and half wall."

"But the tub is such a waste of space."  SM says.  "I'd like to think of a way we can utilize this area better."

(Geez he really hates that tub.)

"But to rip it all out and enlarge the shower stall the way you want to is gonna cost a freakin fortune."  I reply.

Silence.

"Look."  I say compromising.  "We're not gonna know anything until we get the glass guys out here.  They might have some suggestions and pictures we could see.  And I think it's all gonna come down to how much we want to spend."

That was the biggest surprise about Phase One.  It's amazing how much light fixtures and faucets cost.  Toss in a toilet and all the accessories, well things add up quick.  We figure we've spent around $1500 already.  Considering that HGTV remodels are 5-10K we figure we're doing pretty good so far, but still.  It's a lot of money.

"And the window has GOT to be replaced along with the flooring."  I point out.

That's why I wanted to complete the one side of the bathroom first.  Not only has it provided inspiration, it's also providing motivation.

Now we both are motivated to get the shower area replaced asap.

So here come the estimates.  Then the decisions will come.

Oh Joy!

Phase One...Complete

Well...Almost.

We've been working on "face lifting" our master bathroom this past month and I must say it's amazing what a difference this partial update has made in our mood.  SM and I actually like being in our bathroom now and we're looking forward to "Phase Two" of the project.

First, let me remind you of the horror that was.  Gold fixtures with an eye popping bright green paint.  Don't ask me what I was thinking when I painted the room that color.  I think I was just going for "happy".  SM hated it from day one, but at least the color distracted you from the general "yuck" in the room.  

Along with a custom plywood cabinet built into the wall space with MDF fascia and drawers.  Molded acrylic counter-sink tops with what I've heard HGTV describes as a huge "fun-house" mirror on the wall.

Since we decided against a complete gut-job we needed to decide where the big money was going to be spent.  We both agreed that the shower area was going to cost the most.  (More on that in another post.) 

So accessories mattered here.  And paint color. 

Strangely, the hardest part of this remodel was the color.  Seeking inspiration, we shopped for the accessories first.

We knew anything gold/brass was out.  I didn't care for shiny silvers and wanted to stick with the matted nickel finish that we had in the other bath.  SM wanted something different though and we both decided on the newer blackish bronze fixtures that Lowes offered.

But what color to paint the walls?  I was stumped.

Color equals mood, so I talked SM into a nice, soft bluish gray color for the walls. The plywood cabinet was next and I selected a dark brown color.  The sales guy advised me to make it a gloss so I went along.  It took me a whole weekend to paint all this.

But as we lived with the blue walls during the work week, we both felt the blue was too dark for the size of the room and it left us with a cold feeling.  And the cabinet!  Strike Two!  Not only was the color off but the gloss finish showed everything.  Remember, this is a cheap ass plywood cabinet we're trying to cover up here.

I felt a bit deflated by this point.  A total fail.  A whole weekend wasted.  But paint is cheap enough so back to Sherwin Williams we went.  We decided on a nice neutral beige-y cream color for the walls.  How can you go wrong with that?  And for the cabinet, I took my cue form the fixtures and went with a satin black. 

 

 

Then I spent another weekend painting THAT.  (I'm the painter here in this house.  I actually enjoy it.  Except ceilings.  SM does those.)  Hmmm...not bad, not bad at all.  A bit on the peachy side but we thought we could live with it.  And the black on the cabinets?  Wonderful...Really snazzed them up!

Time to break out the hardware.  Getting better!

Time for accessories, like new switch plates, bath mats, drawer pulls and towel rods.  And BASKETS!  We decided to leave the cabinet doors OFF of the cabinet and bought baskets to hold towels and stuff.  (We stayed at a hotel in Seattle a few years ago and they had this look. We really liked it so thought we'd try it.)

I shopped for a shade for the window but couldn't find anything I liked.  Pier One had this wall art on sale so we snapped that up and put it over the new toilet.

The only thing NOT done yet is the mirror.  I actually like the big mirror, but the edges are chipped up.  So I saw an idea where you buy decorative wood trim, paint it and glue it onto the mirror. 

We bought the trim.  Now I just need for SM to break out his saw and get the angles cut.  Then I need a nice warm, dry day to paint...Well, it's not happening anytime soon I guess.

Whew!  Finally!  Just getting this far feels like pulling teeth but it's worth it.  We're really happy with the look so far.

Next post?  Decisions about Phase Two.  The shower, tub, window and flooring.

Hoo Boy...more decisions!!!

Man Down

I was out in the garden yesterday and saw this.

Uh oh.  Man down. 

Chuck is looking like he partied a bit too hard last night, doesn't he?  He completely lost his head.  (As in I can't find it anywhere!  It must've blown away.)

Geez...This holiday season did a number on him and me both.  I don't know who's belly is bigger his or mine!

Maybe I should just take a cue from ole Chuck here and lay down, pat my round little belly and take a nap.

That's a nice way to start the New Year don't cha think?  Reality can wait to smack me in the face tomorrow. 

Until then, Kids!