One Unrepentant Little Dog...

And her name is Pixie.

This is what I found when I got home from work yesterday.

Does that face look sorry to you?? I didn't think so either. That was the latest issue of Workbench Magazine (because we don't read normal things like Newsweek and The Economist anymore...). It had an article in there about painting over rust. She has a handy knack for eating only the articles and coupons I plan on reading/using.

Anyway, I "finished" my office. I say that semi- jokingly because I still have to do another coat of paint on the trim, and thus, should not have put the furniture back in place. But I can't stand the mess anymore. I LOVE the blue that I ended up putting on the walls--this is Sherwin Williams Bunglehouse Blue. It's pretty dramatic, I know, but it's a small room. Feeling now like I want to paint everything Bunglehouse Blue. Discovered the other day that the joy I derive from painting increases the darker color I use. Perhaps it is the relative ease of coverage? Being able to see streaks instead of discovering them once you put all your materials away? Solid evidence that you're making progress?? I don't know about any of that, but I do know it's damn satisfying to paint a wall navy blue.

What is not satisfying is the fact that it's been two weeks since I've done laundry, and at this point, I am no closer to having a completed guest bath/laundry room. Maybe we'll be done so I can do laundry on Sunday night. Or maybe I will suck it up and go to the laundromat. I used to like going to the laundromat when I lived in Syracuse. Pretty much because it was 2 hours spent someplace warm where I could study in peace and walk down to the Bruegger's Bagels for breakfast, because I was there anyway. Sigh. Those were the days--before I had to work and renovate a house...

Anyway, here's our latest progress on the bathroom. We'll run up to Lowe's tomorrow and get another bag of self-leveling cement. Once that cures by Saturday morning, I think we'll be able to get the tiles down. And then grout. And then sealing it up... Yeah, we're not doing laundry this weekend.

In the Dark

Yes, literally in the dark. I showered (cold... COLD...) by flashlight this morning, put makeup on (poorly) by flashlight, dressed by flashlight. This really really stinks. I suppose I can be grateful for two things: that it's not 95 degrees outside, and that we have city water that is not affected by electricity.

Yesterday, the remnants of Hurricane Ike came through Indy, and it got pretty wild. No rain to speak of, but windy. I was up on a ladder trimming out my office (decided I hate the green, more on that later), and heard a couple zaps, then saw a white light, and then the power went out. It's localized at my neighbor's house--there' s a line down in his yard. Of course, I don't even think he knows about it because he's never home. But I called to report the outage several times yesterday, so I'm hoping that IPL gets its collective butt in gear and gets it fixed.

Have also discovered one more thing that spooks our big fraidy cat, Yogi. Just add it to the list:

• Motorcycles
• Sirens
• Car doors slamming
• FLASHLIGHTS

In other news, before the lights went out, we did get a little bit done. Eric finished putting the backer board on the bathroom floor, and then we poured the self-leveling cement. It was supposed to cover 50 sq feet, but covered more like 30. So, back to Lowes... Sigh. We're not terribly closer than we were last week to my dream of a toilet on the second floor.

I painted the bathroom. I used the blue paint we put up in the bedroom on the main wall, and then did the rest in a tan color that matches the shades we put up in there. And I HATE IT. The color is far too close to the original baby poop brown that I was so crazy about covering up. Plus, there is nothing even remotely dramatic or even attractive about this color combination. What was I thinking??? I guess I do want to keep that blue wall up, but at this point, I'm totally open for suggestions. We kind of want to match the slate floor, I suppose, even though I hate that too and have big plans for ripping it up just as soon as possible. The good news is that the slate floor has pretty much every color imaginable. Except, you know, pretty ones.

And, as I mentioned before, I decided that I didn't like the green that I put up in my office (which was left over from the downstairs bathroom). So, when I was at the Sherwin Williams store the other day, I picked out Bunglehouse Blue. And even though I've only gotten the trimming out done, I think I'm really going to like it. Actually, I'd better like it. Because I've already spent too much time on a room that nobody even goes in (me included).

Eric spent a good deal of yesterday criticizing me. In some instances, it was called for, like when I dropped a mirror on the bathroom floor, shattering it into a thousand pieces (and no electricity to run a vacuum to pick up said pieces) and when I accidentally spilled hot candle wax on the living room rug.

*Seriously, this has got to be a hormonal thing, because about 20 days out of the month, I'm totally on my game. And the other 10 days, I'm a freaking SPAZ.

But in other instances, it just highlights to me how differently our brains work. In case you're just joining us, or have no first hand knowledge of me and the Big E, he is an architect and is thus totally anal-retentive, detail oriented, perfection-inclined. I am the opposite of that, and I also want/have to be the boss of everything. Lethal combination--it's like bleach and ammonia.

I view the first coat of paint as just that--the first coat. Thus, I give no shits as to how it looks or how even the coat is, given that I am just going to cover it up with another coat. Eric, however, goes nuts when he sees things like this. And says things like, "You're a terrible painter." And then I say things like, "Yes, I may be a terrible painter, but if I wasn't painting, you'd still be looking at baby poop brown walls because it takes you 3 weeks to do a 3 hour job." And so on and so forth... Anyway, we talked about this last night before we went to sleep, and basically determined that we're perfect for each other. Because even though we drive each other crazy on pretty much all home-improvement related topics, together, it's like we make one regular-person brain.

Perfect Day....

And I spent it inside.

I've had it in my head that I was going to paint the master bedroom on Saturday since LAST Saturday, so despite the fact that it's about 72 and sunny and I have innumerable outside tasks that could have been completed comfortably, I painted the bedroom. It looks awesome, actually. Before now, I never really believed the claims that Sherwin Williams and other more expensive paint was REALLY better than the stuff you get at the Depot. I'm a believer now, for sure. I put two coats up and there is not a single streak or flaw in it. Except where there's a flaw in the plaster, and there are many, but that is what you get with ancient plaster walls.

Start:

Yogi helping.

Pixie helping

Finished product. I'll put up another picture once I get the tape pulled, furniture replaced, curtains up, etc. etc. etc.

So, Eric is at the Reds game with his cousin and will be gone all night. I'm debating whether to get stuff done around here, or to go grocery shopping. Neither are terribly attractive options to me right now, as the stuff I need to get done around here deals with trim (and after last weekend, I am not cool with trim) and I hate the grocery store. But perhaps I will go to the Super Target to get the groceries. I like Target. Oooooh, that's a good idea!

Another Day, Another House Color

We've decided that the Dormer Brown lacks "depth." It really does--it's the color of cardboard. So we went back to the drawing board, aka the book Bungalow Colors, and found a color scheme that we both like, is historically accurate, and does not look like we're copying our neighbor.

Here are all the colors we've been through today:

The cream stripes are the trim color, and the dark green stripes are the accent. The big decision was between, from left, Dormer Brown, Golden Inflection, Mark Twain House, and Dry Earth. As of today, at 8:48 pm, we're going with the Mark Twain House--the dark olive color second from the right. I'm actually very very excited about this. One, I haven't seen a house this color on our block. Two, it's nice to have some idea of what we're looking forward to. And three, we agree, which is unusual on this subject.

I painted these stripes directly on the house. It was the most fun I've had in a week.

We headed up to Home Depot this morning, after a stop at Lowes (to pick up stuff with a rebate card), Menards (which I liked, and will visit again, but they had a totally crappy tile selection), to Pottery Barn (not open. Thanks for the gift card, Abs!), Bed Bath and Beyond (to order some more panels for the living room), Arbys (because I was starving and getting grumpy) and to Home Depot. Where we met Shawn and Billy, and they were delightful. Knowledgeable, helpful, just wonderful. We didn't actually get TILE because they only had 2 sheets of the stuff we wanted. But we found it at the store up in Noblesville, so we'll head up there tomorrow and pick it up. Sweet.

We went to the RibFest down in Military Park this afternoon, which was a gastrointestinal and cultural adventure, for sure.

Eric just took down the painters tape from the living room trim. I anticipate we'll put the furniture back in place in, ohhh, a week.

Lowes is Stupid

Our big plan this weekend was to at least get started on the tile floor for the guest bath, with the ultimate goal of getting a working toilet on the second floor. We figured that we would get some stuff done early today, and then head to Lowes to pick up all the fixins for the floor, tile included.

1) The tile that we'd picked out, a relatively simple (but chic) hexagonal black and white mosaic, was on display, and priced, but was not available for purchase. According to the salesman, Doug, the display case was for "inspiration" not purchase. Why it had a price tag on it if it wasn't for sale is a mystery.

2) We told Doug, "Okay, but we're still going to put in a tile floor, even if we get the tile somewhere else." He tells us that if we're going to be putting up tile for the first time, we should have somebody do it for us and we should watch. And then proceeded to offer his services at a rate of both $10/sq. foot and $5.50/sq. foot. How about $0/sq. foot???

3) I told Doug that we were going to do it ourselves, that we're in this for a learning experience, etc. and that we would just like him to tell us what we need, including thin set, sponges, grout, trowel, etc. He balks and says we'd be better off having someone do it for us (again) because we're just going to spend a couple hundred dollars on tools. I saw a trowel right there for $8. What costs $192???

4) Finally, I told Doug that I just wanted to leave. He got the message and left us alone. And we left. We left our cart in the middle of the aisle and walked out.

And then we went to Fazolis. And it was delicious.

But the disappointment and pissed-off-ness lingers. I do truly respect the abilities of craftsmen, and realize that there are indeed tile jobs that beginners could not and should not do. However, installing 60 square feet of pre-cut tile on a flat floor without any cut-outs seems to me to be a very good place for a beginner to start. And while I'm positive I have an inflated opinion of my own intelligence, I'm pretty darn sure I could figure out how to tile! And I'm married to a damn architect. If he can design a house that doesn't fall down, I'm 100% confident in his abilities to stick a piece of ceramic to the floor. Ugh.

In other news, we were indeed busy today. Got up and went to the dogpark. When I got back, I raked the yard (2 lawn bags full of leaves!!!! Good lord, what are we going to do in October?? But it looks SO much better), de-nailed and polished another 25 pieces of trim, and then we did something very exciting. We went over to Sherwin Williams and got some exterior paint samples! Whoot! And in a very strange turn of events, I think we're going back to the green and brown. Here's the scheme:

These colors are "Bronze Green" and "Dormer Brown." We also picked a couple other shades, including the gray-blue, a light gray, and the famed Bunglehouse. The gray-blue is very nice, the light gray, too. The Bunglehouse is perfect but, alas, is also the same exact color of our neighbor's house. So that's out.

Here's the plan. We're going to use the green as the main color on the first two floors, the brown as the trim color, and a nice cream as the accent (window sashes). Then on the third floor dormer, we'll reverse the scheme and use the brown as the main and the green as trim.

Red door, of course. We picked up that paint today, along with a very pretty light blue for our bedroom.

This is all very surprising, because I thought truly that I was wed to the blue. We are having a bit of discord around the accent color. I really REALLY want something light, particularly as that color will be used on the sashes and the front porch. The traditionalist in me wants a bright white porch. But I'm flexible. I just don't want a red porch or something like that. Eric is a bit more adventurous than me around this stuff. I just already feel like we'd be doing something dramatic if we do the green for the field color. We don't need red window sashes.