The Shed. For Reals.

The Shed

Oh, you think this is going to be a post about my shed? Showing how we put it together and proudly displaying the final product?

Nope.

We went to buy the shed. After having our eye on it for six months, saving, measuring it so that the foundation would be the right size. We got to Home Depot and.....it was $150 more.

GARRRRRRRRDSALKDMNPFFFFFTSTIIIIIIINK.

Do we wait for it to go on sale? Do we look for another shed? Do we suck it up and pay the exra $150 (my least favorite option)? I find myself with a Saturday and no project.

It feels weird.

****Update 12-20-11

We have found a similar shed for the original price at Lowe's. YES. We don't have enough daylight to put it up, but we snatched that baby up as fast as we found it.

Take that Home Depot! I've always been a Lowe's customer anyway. Pfffft.

Adventures of Brat Cat

Our baby cat Lilly is a trouble maker. She is very social and loves to be near us. She reminds me of a two year old who feels like she's not getting enough attention so she does things that are naughty. She is still feisty like a kitten.

The other day we caught her in the tree.

This is one of her favorite activities. When J is sitting in his chair on his computer, she licks his head.


Here is my other cat Marley. She's more like a teenager. She sulks and doesn't like people, but when she's in a good mood she'll come over for a cuddle. She thinks her little sister Lilly is annoying, and Lilly just adores her.

Do you notice the bump in the rug? I did not do that. J did not do that.

It's Lilly's new toy.

She is so weird, and yet so entertaining.

Water Heater

Hot Water Heater was only with us a short time. While he was with us I didn't really appreciate him. I could get two inches of hot water in the bath until it turned ice cold. But he was old, and needed to retire.

Plus he started leaking.

I called out to the FaceBook community for a recommended plumber. Joseph and I are DIY, but we know our limitations. When it has labels on it showing the different ways things can explode, we call in the experts. Luckily my mom saw my post and called in the Expert Dad. I try not to bug him. The man works really hard and has eight girls (and one boy, but the Marine son pretty much takes care of himself). I really appreciate my Dad taking one of his days off to come show us how to take care of things.

Good bye Crusty. You won't be missed.

I probably won't be messing with fire or solder anytime soon. That will definitely be a Joseph job. Since I can't even put something in the oven without burning myself.

The new heater is glorious. Glorious!!! I can get a full bath of scalding water. I turn pink and pruny and it's heaven.

Isn't my Dad a handsome man? I have a picture of him and my Mom up at work. One of my coworkers walked by and asked, "Why is your Mom standing next to Tom Selleck?"

When I count my blessings my parents are top of the list, next to my Love J.

Foundation for the shed

We haven't even bought the shed yet. But we have one picked out.

We started last weekend. It took all. freaking. day. To just dig out the rocks (with a little dirt mixed in), put down the gravel and the sand. We finished the pavers today.

And even though these are only photos of Joseph, I did the work too. I just don't do my hair or put any make-up on since I have to shower after anyway, so no way am I going to be in the photos. My luck I would end up viral on the internet with some sarcastic caption regarding my likeness to a zombie.

One of the videos we checked out suggested laying down one inch PVC pipe to help you level it out. Brilliant.
You take the pipe out, we just hadn't gotten around to it.

I can't believe a small section of 8' x 8' pavers was so much work.
Look at that handsome man. Go ahead and take some time to admire the photo. Just remember that he's taken, and it's going to stay that way.

If Joseph and I ever get around to having children, I hope I have a little boy with his heartbreaker smile.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Joseph and I both had a nice holiday with extended time off.

I have been looking for a new dresser. I want something with character. I love things that look antique and vintage while J is more of a contemporary guy. We have to compromise. I informed him I was getting a new (old) dresser. He is used to me and knows that once I make up my mind, he can try to reason me out of it (with about a 20% success rate) or he can go along with it. He decided to go along with it this time. During my search on Craigslist, I fell in love with something that is definitely not a dresser and is definitely not J's taste. When he saw how much I loved it, he said I could get it.

Before he found out it was in Gilbert. An hour drive one way. And also before he saw the price tag. I won't be living that down for awhile. My dresser is going to have to wait.

But isn't it just adorable??
Love it! We took the crusty old white Target cabinet that was there and put it in the garage.

Awhile back I told J I wanted to paint the bathroom. Once we're done with the shed we're going to start saving and the bathrooms are our next project, so he tried to reason with me and say that it would be easier to do it all at once. Pull everything out, paint, then put everything back in. If we paint now, we're just going to have to touch up later, blah blah blah.

I listened and agreed with his reasoning for about a day. I am hosting a Christmas party at my house and I am tired of the purple and the butterflies. I also found this really awesome mirror at TJ Maxx I just loved. As I was eye-balling it, J told me I could buy it if I could tell him where I would put it. My immediate response was the bathroom. That coupled with the party meant that we would be painting it (this is an example of when the reasoning did not persuade me and he ended up going along with it. Told you it was only a 20% success rate).

The before:

Yeah, that's an "out of order" sign on the sink. I know, ghetto. I'm not going to replace the sink when we've always intended to replace those grody cabinets anyway, so we're dealing with it for the time being until we can rip everything out.

It's really hard to photograph a small room. You can see the other wall through the mirror, so it worked out.
The after:

We had to move the towel rack. I like it much better now. I'm not sure why we didn't hang it there to begin with. You can see my TJ Maxx mirror in the mirror.
There it is again. It matches the shower curtain hooks.
I even changed out the doorstop. Since the old one was brass. And also missing its little nubbin courtesy of the brat cat Lily.

This paint job was so much better than the purple. The purple had drips and brush strokes that drove me crazy.

Friday night I hosted a Sisters Night. Not all of my sisters could make it, but that just meant more s'mores for us.
We cracked some pretty good jokes. Mostly you had to be there.

This was a game we played. Probably should have cut the paper down.
He snuck into the Sister Night. We let him stay cause he's cute.

I'm so glad they came over, I had a fun time.

Saturday we prepped the foundation for the shed. We haven't even bought the shed yet. The foundation took ALL DAY. We aren't even done laying pavers.

But that's a whole different blog post.

J goes back to work tomorrow, but I have a dental appointment so I took the whole day. I'm going to go visit my mom and take some time off from projects for awhile.