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.

Conversations

Deidre: I was being a stinker.

Joseph: You're never a stinker, so that's unusual.

D: I like it when you lie to me...but only good lying.

J: That's good that you made that distinction because I was going to buy a new computer and not tell you about it.

D: I would know.

J: How? It would be in the cabinet in the desk.

D: You would be too happy.

J: Only a wife would say that to a husband.

**********

Deidre: So, I changed my mind again. I'm going to paint the bathroom before the remodel. I don't want the butterfly curtain anymore or the purple, I think it looks childish.

Joseph: Alright. You can do what you want.

D: Will you help me paint?

J: Grrrrr.

D: You don't have to if you don't want...

J: You know you only have to look at me with those big blue eyes, stick out your lip, and say (using a high pitched voice), "jBear, please help me paint."

**********

Breezy (teasing): It's a sister night, so that means you have to get lost.

Joseph: But Deidre needs me to light the fire for your s'mores.

Breezy: We can do it.

Joseph: You don't know how.

Breezy: We'll YouTube it.

**********

House Projects

Joseph kept me busy this weekend. We bought some stuff at TJ Maxx for the bathroom and checked out tile at Lowe's, so hopefully the bathroom remodels (both guest and master) will be happening in the next couple of months, after we put in the shed. But first, some small projects.



I debated not posting this, because it doesn't look very...professional. But it was our first time stuccoing and that was a difficult spot, so who cares.

These are the lights in our kitchen. At first Joseph told me we weren't going to do anything with them because we are (eventually) planning on redoing our kitchen. Seeing as how we have been in the house for over two years and are just now thinking about the bathrooms, I think the kitchen has a few more years yet. So when I saw a light fixture I liked at Lowe's, he grabbed it up for me.

My main complaint was the lack of light these provided. You couldn't even tell you turned on a light at night.
The only problem we had were screws that were too long, which he cut down with our dremel.

We only needed one light, so we got a cover for the second hole. This fixture is not only so much better looking, but actually provides light.

We've pretty much changed out every light fixture except in the bathrooms (and those days are numbered) and the laundry room. But I don't care about the laundry room.

I also had to run to Lowe's to change out the rusted screw for the bathroom tub faucet. The guy directed me to stainless steel so that it would rust again (der, should have done that the first time).

A look back at a few previous house project posts:

The plan

Lighting

Lighting II

The fans

Lighting and Fans

Tub screw

We've started prepping the ground for the shed. That's going to take a little while. Phoenix doesn't have dirt, it has rocks with some dirt mixed in. But once we get it level, we'll pour the concrete and then start building our shed.

Joseph will be so happy when he can access his gardening tools.

Don't read this if you're sad

What have I been up to?

Just in case any of you are stalking me.

I kind of hope at least one person is.

I hate when the people I'm stalking don't let me know what they're up to.

Well. I have been sick. And it's lingering. I don't feel like death anymore, but I'm still not at 100%.

I found out my uncle has cancer and it's pretty bad. He has a loving wife and three kids. I can't even put myself in their shoes.

My mom's neighbor's dog is vicious. My poor sister Kristi's little dog Max got under the fence and was attacked. He didn't make it. Then a couple weeks later the same thing happened to my mom's dog Charlie.

So I am not in the best of moods. I may have cried a bit. Sometimes life is just overwhelming.

I am so thankful for Joseph. He came and found me and let me cry on his shoulder. Then asked if I wanted to get out of the house and get my mind off things? He took me to two of my favorite places....TJ Maxx and Lowe's. We have some projects planned for tomorrow to keep busy.

Maybe I'll post about it. But maybe I'll sit on the couch with my blanket and some ice cream.

We'll see.