Pink House Nine

Red House Nine has gone Pink! There is a reason for this and trust me, it's a DAMN GOOD reason. Katie Butler and I will begin our 60 mile journey around Boston to benefit Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk For the Cure of Breast Cancer in two days!!  

We begin on Friday morning bright and early at 5:30-6:00am.  We walk all day Friday - for 20 miles or about 6 hours - with stops for water, potty, & lunch during the day. Katie and I will continue this routine for two more days ending on Sunday afternoon. However, this weekend is offering up quite the challenge... HEAT. Want to see the forecast for Friday, Saturday, & Sunday? 

Well hello hotness, you're not welcome here. The desert is about 2500 miles west. Go there and stay - oh and take your friend humid with you. Thanks. It is going to suck. We are going to be puddles of goo when we are done on Sunday. But this is all in the name of saving lives, second base, and honoring survivors. I'm ok with it. 

Ed, my brother Adam and Connor will be joining us to cheer us on and, of course, drink Boston's delicious variety of microbrews. You know, side note: I'm making sure Ed brings home a growler of Watermelon Ale and Blueberry Lager from Boston Beer Works.  I know you're saying whhhhaattt?? No way that can be good. Trust me, it is beyond delicious. 

Anyway, this weekend will prove to be an awesome male bonding excursion for Ed, Adam and Cman and also I get to spend quality time with my best friend of the last 28 years; even if we are sweating our asses off. 





I want to thank everyone who donated to our team for the walk. You all went above and beyond and we have far surpassed our goal of $4600!! You all are amazingly awesome Rock Stars and I do believe that this cause will/could/has touch(ed) each and every one of us and helping raise awareness and research monies will forever better quality of life for those already affected, also for those of us who are at high risk, and also for the grandmas, moms, aunts, cousins, sisters, sister-in-laws, mother-in-laws, best friends,  nieces, and granddaughters. We love you all and walk for the cure. 


XO.
K & K of Baby Got Rack

Optimus Prime(r): More Than Meets The Eye

We mudded, we taped, we sanded, and we (optimus) prime(d).  (For those of you who don't know who Optimus Prime is, he's the main 'good guy' in Transformers. Childhood geek-out commence!)  So, the amount of work we (my dad, Ed & myself) got done this past weekend would definitely allow one to pin it as progress. Remember that closet in the very front hallway - you know the one with the really awesome mirror (one was missing) door? The wall is primed; as in paint. As in uniform color. However, the yellow super-high-gloss-it-has-to-be-enamel-what-the-hell-were-they-thinking-?-it-is-literally-al-over-the-entire-house paint didn't want to stay put on the wall. We were able to take a putty knife and literally peel the crap-tastic yellow paint right off the wall. No chemicals needed. Yea, that's not supposed to happen.

*this wretchedness*

            

 *to this. isn't it fab?*

Along with the hallway, we also (optimus) prime(d) the bathroom. It too is one shade of primer white-ish. So, here's the thing, I'll show you a very exciting picture of the primed bathroom walls - you know to show uniform, but until that sucker is complete, no more bathroom pictures. The next pictures of the bathroom you'll see are 'after' pictures. I know, I'm a big ol' meanie. I bet you think I'm secretly working for the Decepticons under Megatron. I vow to you I am not; Optimus Prime is my homeboy.

*again: from this wretchedness*

*to this. vast improvement, no?*

*tid bit - remember the giant cubby behind the door so big you could

fit a family in there?  it's gone! donezo! happiness pie!!*

The kitchen also got primed; well most of the kitchen. It did, however, get fully holy sheet!rocked with the exception of the ceiling because while our little hatchback can carry a whole lot, it cannot haul holy sheet!rock. The ceiling will be done in 2 weeks time. And again, until we finish the kitchen or I have something REALLY exciting to show you, these will be the last 'before' pics I post. I swear, Megatron is outta this one.

*this....*

*to ... omg ... this*

Another check off the good ol' to do list was (optimus) priming the metal radiator covers that were so badly rusted they made me twinge. And I'm not even a robot. I had to go out and buy some mega-rust covering primer. But, before I could prime the covers a poop-brown color I had to sand them down with a very fine grit sand paper, clean them up and make sure no previous paint was peeling. The primer was able to do the job wonderfully (defeated the Decepticaons!) and soon, I will paint them again - NOT yellow. The covers upstairs are just painted green, so sanding will not be necessary.

One last thing that happened is that we got our new furnace installed!! She's green and energy efficient and has very expensive taste! All we have to do is put some oil in the tank-er-oo and whal-ah! Heat and hot water! I feel so advanced. 

Oh and one more thing: These are for Jan Kaplan, our awesome sauce realtor.  They're her fav's so I told her I'd take pictures of our blooming Rose of Sharon for her. We have three bushes! They remind me of the hibiscus in Hawaii. Oh Hawaii...               ok, I'm back! With pictures.

This upcoming week casa numero nine will have her long honey colored locks refinished. What's this I speak of? The floors are being refinished (or so we are told) and I am psyched! Also, this upcoming weekend marks the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer walk Katie Butler and I are taking on in Boston. We begin Friday morning early and end Sunday afternoon so we will not be working on the house this weekend to come. We will instead let the long locks of numero nine cure and ready themselves for their close-up when we return.

If anyone reading wants to donate to the 3-Day walk, you can learn about how to here and if you are interested on why we are walking you can read about that here.

How To Edition: Muscling A Tile Floor And Owning It.

Ok, the post says muscling.  It's a lie. Ok, it's not a lie because I would never lie to you; so it's a fib, kinda. But this kinda fib is more of an all encompassing kinda fib rather than a blunt, intentional kinda fib. This is due to the fact that an individual does in fact need to muscle a tile floor to own it - like wresting a crocodile - which of course I do in my spare time in order to compare experiences and write about it here. (did you get that blunt intentional fib?) In addition to needing muscle to completely destroy ones five-layer kitchen floor, you may also need a few other handy dandy tools.  Make sure to grab: a sledge hammer, a bigger sledge hammer, two different sized wrecking bars, two hammers, protective safety wear, a broom, a dad, an Ed, an angry voice and full functional voice box, and a tad of patience & perseverance.  Check?  Good, let's get started.


First, one must assess the floor in question and make your best determination on how many layers you have; this will determine how many ‘Oh Hell No(s)’ you declare.  In our case it was five layers, which ultimately led to umpteen ‘Oh Hell No(s)’ and a few other ‘OMG’s this is going to be a bitch’ exclamations and head shakes.

*Ed gives us his best "Oh, hell no!" face.*

Once we’ve established how much work you’re in for, grab your protective gear because, honey, you’re going into battle. A sledgehammer and muscles are next on your to-grab list. Pick a spot to begin and bring that sledge down as hard as you can on to that ceramic tile obliterating it. My dad was awesome at this. His inner animal came out and he was swinging that hammer like his life was on the line. I was using the smaller sledge and a wrecking bar getting underneath the layers and pry upwards.

At this point expect some pain, sweat, and foul language (not in that order) and also expect to begin finding and subsequently shaking your head at what the previous owners did to ‘fix’ issues they came upon. Example: use a Smirnoff bottle cap to plug a hole in the original sub floor, but make sure you flatten it and hide it under 5 layers of tile and secondary sub floor. I kid you not, this really happened and I have proof (no pun intended). 

Just keep swinging and destructing the entire floor until it’s to the point of satisfaction to you and your co-crocodile wrestlers. The dismantling of the sub floor took a lot of muscle, grunting and sailor speak. Ed actually cut his left index finger while wearing gloves (trying to be like his sister maybe?). It was a bleeder and couldn’t tell if it was going to need a stitch or two until it stopped bleeding a little – it was ok and we butterflied it and got back to work.

After two days of working on wrestling this floor, it was done. All that was left were nails every 6” from the sub floor and old asbestos laminate tiles (almost identical to the tile that was in the basement). We decided to leave the asbestos tiles because we plan on putting down a new floor anyway. Plus, trying to get those suckers up was going to be almost impossible and time consuming. No thank you very much you can keep it.

Now that the floor is up, let's touch on a few other items we accomplished. We played in the mud. Ok, we dabbled in the holy sheet!rock mud and mudded up some of the kitchen - including patches, but ran out of 1/2" holy sheet!rock for the ceiling and have to get more.  I put a second coat of paint on the rec room floor and it looks so much better.  It still needs one more coat, but having a roller on a steek (ever seen Jeff Dunham with Jose Jalapeno on a steek? No?! So funny, gotta watch it. See, I'm a good friend. I even supplied you with a video. You can thank me later after you're done laughing.)

Ok, anyway, I found a roller I could attach to a steek and it made my life a gabillion times easier and holy sheet! the time spent painting that vexing floor was cut in half.  Yay for rollers on a steek.  Another task we began to tackle was patching the hallway where the closet used to be. Considering the numerous coats of hideously ugly semi gloss paint on the walls, it's going to be another adventure.  I LOVE that hallway without the closet.  I'll love it more when its flush and smooth and its painted a glorious shade of pink. Are you scared? hee hee hee.  

On The Slow Boat To Blogsville.

(One week late. I know and I blame Ed. He took the camera for the week. Whats a blog post with no pictures?) 
*I want to wish my awesome father-in-law a BIG FAT get well soon!  He isn't allowed to be broken!  He has work to do at the house!! Even if it is just lifting a paint brush. All kidding aside, I really do hope he feels better soon. Being broken is no fun. Love you, Pa!!*


Three day weekends always offer up plethora of progress and this Independence Day was no different.  I'll tell you what though, I don't know about the guys, but I was dreaming of the beach while sitting on the rec room floor screwing with paint.  It's been so long since I've seen a beach.  What?! Hawaii was pretty much 8 months ago.  For some of us ocean lovers, that time frame is ridiculous and completely unacceptable.  Plus, I broke two nails.  See? I told you the beach far surpasses paint and sheetrock. 

So, what did we get done this past weekend?  Let's see: 

• Paint in the rec room/basement including: fireplace, paneling (yuck), trim, and floor. 
• MORE electric in the kitchen. This way we can now have a microwave and not blow a circuit every time we want to use it. 
• Finished sheetrocking in the bathroom. Covered stuff-a-whole-fam-damly-in-it sized cubby and took out fan/heater/light combo switch.
• Taping and mudding of joints in said bathroom (what a crap job). 
• Installed insulation and vapor barrier in the kitchen on the walls and installed missing insulation in the ceiling.
• Installed 50% of sheetrock in the kitchen thank you Adam, Dad and Ed!). 
• Purchased the overpriced microwave we wanted to match our stove.  (Deal and story forthcoming.) 

Side note: I am going to take a wild gander at how many of you reading this are probably yelling/glaring/or WTF-ing your computer right now, swearing to never read another post or give another damn about numero nine because there are no pictures.  Ha! I know I'm right on this one - especially my over-the-ocean buddies.  Hi Kate & P and Mar & Tyler!  No pictures for you four because you’re perpetually on a beach or oceanfront; so I’m withholding out of pure jealousy. Ok, fine. I'll put pictures in.

The microwave incident was definitely an 'Are you kidding me, kid? Treat your elders with respect and do your customer service job, idiot' moment.  You see Lowe's was having a sale only until the 4th and the microwave we wanted was 379 dollars too much. I went on ebates to see what Lowe's cash back was for the holiday - 4%.  Lower than the 5% last time, but decent.  So I check their appliance sale and BINGO! The microwave we've been pining after for a mere $249.  Ha! Suck on that big box stores!  So, I click buy now and it's ours.  I used Lowe's pick-up at store in 20 minutes guarantee and head on up.  Ed went to get more outlets for the kitchen and I went to get the microwave, but they didn't have it.  So, while speaking to the young (I mean maybe 5 years older than cman) man, I ask when I can get said in-stock-no-we-are-just-kidding microwave.  He said I had two options: 1.) Get a refund and buy next week when they're in-stock again, NOT honoring the $249 or 2.) DRIVE to Middletown or Kingston (both 40min each way away) to get one. Um, hello? Is this thing on? Exsqueeze me, kid?? I beg your potatoes? Don't make me sick my extremely nasty, snarling, blood-thirsty, kid-eating Mama on you. I then spoke to the manager and after 20 minutes(!!!) we finally agreed to just order the damn thing for next Monday honoring my online in-stock (sike!) price.  When I go on Monday to get it, I'm asking for additional discounts. Not because of any other reason than junior’s attitude towards me; I am now an elder. R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it mean to me. So there. Ha. Well, after an extra coupon and cash back I got the $379 microwave for $259 after tax.  Not bad!  Savings of $120. 

This whole week Ed is away in Long Island makin’ bacon to bring home (not literally, although I do love me some bacon) and my dad and I will be back up at the house finishing up some lingering projects – like the bathroom and rec room floor. That floor vexes me. I hate it. Maybe that will be my procrastination project where I just keep saying ‘it needs another week to dry’. However, I do have to say that the amount of white paint applied in the rec room has most definitely brightened up the room exponentially.

  

We had plans to take up the kitchen floor any way, but we found that now it is absolutely necessary and we HAVE to.  First of all, the freakin' floor sits an entire 1/2" higher than the rest of the hardwood floors it meets.  When we explored the 1/2" mountain of flooring, we found 5 layers - yes, 5!!!! layers!!! of flooring including the present ugly red tile.  We found the original laminate tile that was almost identical to the original tile on the rec rom floor.  Then there is another thin wood subfloor. Then red laminate peel-and-stick 'tile'. Then white hearts-and-flowers-make-me-wanna-vomit 'tile'. Then there is the current red ceramic tile - and that tile is thick.  This is going to be a bitch to take up.  I am bringin' my muscles for this one.

 Check out the kitchen ceiling and wall!!  Do you see what I see? Holy Sheet!! We have beautiful white walls!! Ok, they aren't THAT beautiful, but they sure as all hell-o are lookin' better than insulation and vapor barrier and 10000% better than being naked. I absolutely cannot wait to do before and after pictures. I am willing to put money drywall screws on the fact that you won't recognize this house when we are done.

The bathroom. Look at that bathroom! It's. So. Close. I don't want to give away our plans for this room, but I am psyched for the hybrid modern/sleek/a little traditional look we have planned. No, I won't share. Maybe another clue in another week or two. Maybe. 

 So, that's this edition of wreck your house and try to put it back together in only 2-3 months.  Stay tuned for another update - this one on time.  Off to flex my muscles and curse the rec room floor.  At least I don't have to sand the mud in the bathroom. I already called shotgun on NOT doing that ... Ed lost. Wah-wah.