One Weekend Closer

We have to do most of our work on the house on the weekends. Those pesky jobs of ours keep us from getting it done faster, but so far I am holding it together :)

My husband is off on Fridays during the summer. While I was at work last Friday, my flooring project became a wall project too. Seriously, we are replacing flooring and somehow have ended up with roofing and wall issues. Our living/dining room had a weird little partial wall that sectioned off a little entry way. Truth is we didn't use the front door and that little space would become a storage space. Basically where we stashed odds and ends. We placed our love seat in front of it - partially to hide the heap and partially cause we had no choice spacewise.

My husband suggested taking out the wall. I was very hesitant at first because the coat hooks are on the back of that wall - we don't have a coat closet. On the front side I had my grandmother's cabinet with a nice little wedding display above it. Since I was waffling and he was sure, I agreed the wall could go. We thought the wall had a steel frame, but after tearing up the steel-cutting saw blade on a two by four  (who knew a steel-cutting blade can't handle wood) we had to change strategies.

Removing the drywall revealed they had built a wall around this little architectural detail. Any idea what that is? A wall within a wall? A weird 1950s design feature. We can't figure it out. My carpenter FIL thought it looked a bit like a furnace room with the vent at the top, but obviously there was never a furnace there. Our house is such a "box on a slab" it is quite a shock to find that it has a mystery we haven't been able to solve.

Removing the wall of course left a wound on the ceiling and wall where it had been ttached. It also revealed an unattractive mustard yellow wall color we will not be reviving.

Taking out the wall definitely opened up the room. And exposed our shameful green door with red trim. I think I am going to have to have a new door. There would be a much better flow if the door opens into the room instead of toward the wall. My grandmother's cabinet will probably relocate to that little wall next to the kitchen. And the coats, well they will probably just be in a heap on our bed. I need a better plan for them..

Patching the wall and ceiling will take some patience and several coats of mud. I was at the ready to clean up all the globs of mud that fell - thank you, gravity!

After the first layer dried it already looks better. As the mud dries it shrinks so we will have to do a couple more layers. Then we have to figure out how to match the texture on the ceiling on the wall (which are also different from each other).

The dogs are non-stop underfoot. Apparently, we need constant supervision. So far this is the only "crack" in the concrete slab that we are going to have to fill. It appears our slab was poured in three sections creating seams.

My husband has spent several hours scraping adhesive off the concrete. It hasn't all come off, but it I think it will work. The scraping is a chore, but my husband got this new toy which hopefully made it more tolerable.

I have become a non-stop duster or should I say I need to be a non-stop duster. This piled up on our dining room table in just one day. We are getting close to putting the vapor barrier down which will definitely help with the dust.

Friday night we had a date night. Translation: We spent hours picking out flooring and all the extra installation necessities - vapor barrier, underlayment, etc. We found flooring we are both excited about. Originally, I wanted to go darker. But we realized that every little footprint would show up on a darker floor...and with 8 dog feet that would be a nightmare.After our shopping extravaganza we had a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse (finally used a gift card my husband got in November.). I didn't make the best choices of food, but I did well with the amount of food. I left the restaurant feeling good - not like an about to explode butterball. Incidentally, have you ever had a waitress sit down next to you in the booth to take your order? It was such a surreal experience for us to be out to dinner at 9 p.m. We are more often seen at the "early bird special."  Driving home at 10:30 p.m. made us feel like such old fogies.

Warning - gratuitous pizza pictures ahead. We had his and hears pizzas for dinner on Sunday. I am not showing a picture of my husband's - it would be cruel to tease you all with that pepperoni-palooza. His favorite homemade pizza has pepperoni, green olives, onion, peppers, cilantro, jalapenos and pineapple. His and hers pizzas are perfect for us. We both get what we want and there are leftovers for lunch. For the record he despises mushrooms so much I can't even put them on half the pizza...mushroom germs might creep to his side of the pizza. What I wanted this time was to recreate the veggie pizza I made last week.I brushed the crust with garlic olive oil (no sauce) and loaded it up with fresh spinach, mushrooms, peppers and onions.

Of course, it had to have cheese, but I tried not to go overboard with the mozzarella. I am telling you this is a pizza you must try :)

Last night we had one of my husband's favorites - General Tso's chicken. I don't make it very often because the sauce is high in sugar and calories. I try to make up for that with unbreaded chicken breast and a ton of veggies. The yellow squash is the first squash from our garden. The peas are from the garden too. Still no signs of my broccoli, but I remember that is how it went last year....plant grew like crazy and then when I had given up hope, suddenly there was broccoli everywhere.

Finally, my snapdragons are starting to bloom. I picked up a box of mixed colors and so far I only have yellow blooming. I still love making the little snapdragons bite things :)

The other evening it was raining yet again. Suddenly I saw sun, so I grabbed my camera and dashed outside to look for a rainbow. I was not disappointed. Nothing is prettier the vibrant colors after a rain.

It is a good day when you can fit into something of your 12 year old niece's. Not quite as impressive when it is shoes though. I love these hot pink Converse she loaned me while she is on vacation!

And I leave you today with a blast from the past. I think I am about 9-10 in this picture. I am pretty sure that is not the age of accountability for wearing those yellow knee highs with a pink dress. I was always considered a chubby kid, but looking at this picture I just don't see it. If that is chubby - sign me up!

I posted this picture to celebrate my baby sister turning 40 yesterday. Where does the time go???  Happy Birthday :)