Christmas week

Sure hope everyone has has a fabulous Christmas- we've had a great time of it so far. Here's what all that snow looks like at about 9000 ft., at the top of Deer Valley on Christmas Day. We've had a Christmas of ski, ski and more skiing and it's been a blast, we are blessed to live in such a beautiful place.
Now, I'm happily enjoying a quiet house, while the kids ski (some more)- getting organized and putting finishing touches on the basement (a bit more caulking, hanging curtains, putting in door stoppers) and it feels good...

15 hour garage makeover

This was our garage yesterday morning, I've been meaning to get around to organizing it, but it's been way down on the list, especially the week before Christmas.

But then it snow about 2 feet.... and since I wasn't going anywhere (here I am stuck at the bottom of the driveway) I decided the time had come to get the car inside for the winter and the mess organized. By the way, cat litter works wonders for getting 2 wheel drive cars (or Tahoe) unstuck. I think I'll keep a box in the car, as well as a shovel and the chains.

It's a Christmas miracle... my pulley system for the kayaks worked, the bikes (can't see 'em, they are to the left) and skis are hung up- and the car fits into the garage with the ski box on top- hooray! A few more items to list on KSL, a trip of two to the salvation army and the recycling center and we'll be able to fit the other car in as well. It sure will be nice to have a warm, snow free car for the rest of the winter. A beautiful sight.

gingerbread

In keeping with holiday tradition and because the kids wouldn't stop hounding me... we (finally) made gingerbread houses.

We managed to get 4 small houses out of one batch of gingerbread, thank goodness, a few wreaths and one evergreen tree too.

A couple of regular houses, one A-frame and a modern design that looks a lot like a church built in the 70's- everyone was happy armed with handfuls of sugar plums and candy canes ready to decorate. I think I might have gone a little overboard on the amount of candy, but you don't want to perhaps impede the serious builder with a lack of proper sugary & colorful ingredients.

M's house has star shaped windows...as you can see, the Dots (candy) are so irresistible, one has already been snatched and gobbled off the front entryway.

Apparently, a fancy yard means more than a really elaborately detailed house, or maybe it's just easier to pick M&M's off a flat surface a little later on. I think that's how you know you're not a kid anymore- eating candy off a gingerbread house sounds kind of like drinking water out of the gutter...

a great way to tell a tale

One of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time, gather your people around for a giggle, then watch Kid History- Episode 2.

Legos- for grownups

I have been search for weeks, racking my brain, asking around, reading classifieds- all in search of affordable cabinets to put into my craft room. Nothing was panning out. I even went to a chicks house with my car all ready to pick up the cabinets she had listed on KSL and they turned out to be from a doctors office and nowhere near a standard height. Finally, the most affordable option, within a certain time frame, was Ikea. And let me just say, it's so nice to have an Ikea handy when moving or finishing a house. Here are all the necessary pieces, all ready to be snapped together.

The upper cabinets went in easy, even working solo. I still can't believe that only two bolts hold each cabinet to the wall. It's probably a good thing I don't know what is behind the scenes in most construction- I think I'd worry too much....  Kind of like when you are at a party and wonder if the floor might collapse under your feet with the weight of all the partygoers? Maybe it's only me who wonders about situations like that...

It occurred to me as I read the instructions that came with each piece, Ikea is pretty much Legos for adults. Your instructions show all the pieces that are included (and how many) then they walk you through step by step with pictures for building your project. Good thing I have a long history with Legos.

The sink is one thing that worked out from a KSL classified ad. It looked a little gross when I picked it up, the previous owners had pulled it out to remodel. I took it all apart and scrubbed and scoured every last faucet and drain part and now it looks brand new. As a matter of fact, it's a much nicer faucet (probably sink too) that what we've got in our kitchen upstairs. It's also cast iron and probably weighs as much as all my kids put together. I fret about the Lego cabinets with their wee plastic legs holding such weight- everyday for the rest of their lives...   Well, it's lasted overnight, so I guess it's OK. 

The countertop is also from Ikea, 6 ft. slab of formica, the price was right and it looks good too. See the cute wee plastic legs under there? I need to pick up some kick-plate material when I make my daily trip back to Ikea. By the way, the kick-plate snaps into place in a very Lego fashion... works for me, I love Legos.

words of wisdom from SNL

Don't buy stuff you cannot afford...

better than Christmas

It looks (literally) like the basement is finally finished. Here is my blank canvas- my sewing/craft room that I can't wait to move into. Whew, what a job-  I'm feeling giddy with possibility, I can't remember what I chucked into boxes months (and years) ago, one of the only time a hazy memory is a good thing...

Ahh... the closet. This space should store everything crafty or sewing related. Perhaps more... but I'm not counting on it. Now, if I can just get up enough energy in my sore limbs and hands to carry in all the boxes from the garage and about 42 trips from the storage unit.

The kids finally have their kitchen back. I built this kitchen in 2002 for Christmas,  this isn't a very good picture of the front side, but the kids insist on keeping it turned to face the wall, and I am just a customer in this picture. We put the play kitchen in storage 2 years ago when we put our Springville house on the market.

 Every once and awhile the kids would wistfully speak of their kitchen and all of it's accessories- dreaming of the reunion they would have someday. 

This week all were reunited,  they part now only for school and to sleep. It's become 'The Banana Boat Cafe', where many in the neighborhood regularly dine for the excellent food and extemely professional staff.

remember these?

The image of a sliding tile puzzle keeps coming to my mind as we put the finishing touch on the basement. All steps must be done in order- with 'putting up the Christmas tree' in about the middle of the puzzle, and 'painting the baseboards' as the very first tile. I'd better get to work- everything Christmas is in the storage unit behind all of the furniture that needs to find their places in basement rooms...

This is what I'm after, so I'd better keep slogging away until that 15th piece, 'go to bed before 2am', is in place. If you're itching to work on a sliding tile puzzle yourself or just watch longingly as the computer solves the puzzle for you- here is a little puzzle link coming your way.  

time for the Beehive Bazaar!

Tomorrow is the opening night of the Beehive Bazaar- 9pm for all you late nighters who are all about handmade goods(don't forget $4 for opening night admission), Friday and Saturday all day too.
Don't miss the best mix of handmade goods in Utah, excellent one-of-a-kind Christmas shopping opportunities await everyone on your list- and don't forget to pick up a little something for yourself.
Sneak peek participating artists and crafters here. See you there.

Lamton laminate flooring

So I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted, and what a week it was...  We got the whole basement painted, the concrete floors leveled, and the laminate floor installed. This is all much easier said than done. My whole body, but mostly my hands, are sore and numb. Perhaps a sign I'm getting too old for this kind of work... I paused for a few hours on Thanksgiving, to over eat, (thank you family for doing all the cooking) and take a little nap, then was back at it.

After much research in the laminate floor department, I decided to go with Lamton flooring, available only through BuildDirect. The price was right, it had great reviews, and looked like a quality product. The floor we installed, and pictured here is 12mm Peruvian Gingerwood. Because we were covering about 1100 sq. ft., having it delivered was ideal. We would have had to special order that amount (it took about 87 boxes) it from any other store and had to rent a trailer or paid for delivery anyway.
There is most definitely a learning curve when installing laminate floor. Luckily, my brother-in-law who has installed laminate in his own house helped me out throughout the project. Having at least two people to help really made it go faster. I meant to take a lot of pictures as we worked, but I never paused to get the camera, then it couldn't be found when search for by the youth. So, the picture above is the only picture I have of the process.
But because surprisingly little information is available online (and in print) about installing, I'm going to go back and hit on the important points of the installation process of Lamton laminate flooring.
1. It may sound tedious (because it is) but make sure that your subfloor is level. Get out the grinder (if you are laying over concrete), the self leveling compound and an 8 ft. straight edge and bring the floor level- no more than 1/4" to 1/2" per 8 ft. span. A little prep work goes a long way, otherwise your joints could pop out at some point and make for a lot more work later,  I don't even want to think about trying to fix this sort of problem later.

2. Build the floor starting with the tongue side against the wall, groove side out. This fact is only imparted for only a brief moment on the installation video and is perhaps the most important fact of all. I know the perils firsthand of building the opposite way- we installed a whole room backwards (with the groove side facing the wall when you start) and paid for it all day.

Here are the reasons why you start with the tongue side against the wall:

When you use the block and your hammer to pound the pieces together, you will be hitting against the tongue side, not the tender groove edge.  If you pound against the groove end, the groove easily gets damaged and leaving the damage debris caught in the joint, leaving you with a tiny, unsightly gap instead of a nice clean gap-free joint.

3. Trim the underpad when necessary. The installation video says to carefully inspect all of the flooring just after it arrives at your house, when it is acclimating. With 90+ boxes this was a daunting task... I would recommend a brief inspection upon arrival and a thorough inspection as you go along. Damaged pieces can usually be used somewhere during the project, where the trimming down of a piece is necessary- so set those aside. We kept an exacto knife handy and trimmed the underpad when it hung out over the edge of the piece, just to be safe.

All done- here is looking down the hall to the cold storage closet. We are very happy with the Lamton product, the look and quality. We still need to get the baseboards up, and the doorknobs on, a bit of electrical too. But, we are getting close to being completely finished- hooray!

go Justin

In honor of Justin Bieber and his 4 American Music Awards... one of our favorite SNL skits.

ksl classifieds

I've been spending some serious time on KSL classified's website, searching for some budget opportunities on this basement project. It's a love/hate relationship with me and the classifieds. There are so many great deals out there if you are willing to search and then drive to pick them up. I just picked up a great double, deep sink for the craft/sewing room, with all the hardware included for $30. I was super stoked about some cabinets for the same room, but when I went to pick them up I found they had been in an doctors office and weren't even close to standard cupboard height. Darn it!  Here are a few ads that I've come across that made me laugh, scratch my head or want to remodel my whole house.

"I bought this and my wife does not like it."

Really?? Why, I can't believe she wasn't jumping with joy when you brought this sink home dude. 

"This is for a red Kohler birthday bath tub--it is BEAUTIFUL!!! It is in need of some polish and a good clean, but would look so classy in a bathroom. It does have some scratches, most of which would be covered by the feet when they are attached, and is missing one small piece on the handle that I'm sure could be replaced...It includes all the plumbing needed for installation. It retails for around $7000! I'm only getting rid of it because my husband is sick of moving it around waiting for us to build a house for it. Call, text or email if interested."

Classy?? You mean like, "I drive a Corvette" classy, or mirrors on the bedroom ceiling classy?  I think these two sellers need to team up and design a bathroom together.

"I have five 10' x 14' Aluminum Full Glass doors. Each door comes with an electric key operated door opener. Doors are in excellent condition. Asking $1,000 per door, or best offer!"

OK, now I'm being serious... quickly help me think- where can I put these doors? I love them so much, can't I think of somewhere to put them? a pool house, studio, modern dream home, garage for parking a classy Corvette...

"REMODELING! GOOD TUB COULD BE USED FOR ANYTHING. $20"

Once again, love... 'can be used for anything' huh? Do you think my neighbors would care if I half-buried it into a flower bed or better yet, how about just an outdoor bathing spot.

tile, doors and paint

Basement update: the tile in the bathroom is all finished (and covered). We kept it simple, figuring matching the upstairs was the best idea at this point- a no brainer, just had to find a tile that matched. The bathroom turned out pretty large and spacious, in the end... probably a good thing. The linen closet and extra cupboards will surely fill right up.

The walls are all textured and the doors have arrived and are being installed right now (yippee). As soon as the doors (and trim around the doors and windows) are in... I can paint. And that is what I've been waiting for all along, the step where I can finally get in there and be useful. I don't mind painting.  I hesitate to say 'I love to paint', which is what Steve O would claim... but I do love what fresh paint, (or in this case- any paint) can do for a room- change the whole look and feel, for a relatively small amount of money.

And so, I prepare for my upcoming duties...  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the choices.  I'm used to thinking small scale, like one room at a time.  Not to mention the chaos of kids throwing in their picks for room colors. To tell you the truth, I really don't have much preference in color right now. I've been enjoying the white(ish) walls I've been sporting for about a year now, since I decided to paint over all my colors in my last house, bring it back to basic. I think I'll keep it pretty light, whatever I decide, it is a basement after all.

I hope I can: #1 make relatively few trips to the hardware store during the process, #2 pick out decent colors that we are all happy with.  After many re-paints in the past, because of horrid color choices based on tiny paint chips... I now religiously choose from Martha Stewart's color palette. Here are all the chips I've saved throughout the years, from when Martha paints were at Kmart, the Sherwin Williams and now Home Depot.  

So, here's my 2 cents about painting, and what I've learned (the hard way) over the years. Martha colors are real colors, tried and true, made by people and not randomly mixed by computers and slapped on cards. They will always look fantastic on the walls and not like they belong in a crayon box or on a tennis shoe. If you have to repaint, it will be by some fault of your own and not because of a bad color. How do you like that for bossy?

what is the world coming to?

Cat and dog strollers...really, what is the world coming to? 

Actually, we we're looking up possible ways to show off our own fluffy cat Pierre around town, without losing him. I  guess we would need the blue one...

 The manufacturer says there is a 27 lb. weight limit. If you pet weighs more than 27 lbs... then perhaps it should be walking...

Oh, the innocence of youth

Right off the bat I'd like to say, I'm not complaining- I love my new house. That being said, I'd like to share some giggles with what we'll call 'building-bloopers-in-house-built-by-a-technical-school". I'm pretty sure the cabinets pictured here were built by said school's cabinetry class, probably in the range of 17-20 year old builders, with some supervision, but perhaps not all the time.

What I'd like to know is with what kind of saw was this crazy cut made with... then backed out of? Hasn't anyone heard of a fence for a table saw?

Here is one of about 8 footings, poured in the wrong place, then cut off and abandoned in the basement floor. Just a few inches away from the load bearing wall (where I presume the proper footings are incased). I love to watch the puzzled looks from sub-contractors (who are helping us finish the basement right now) when they spot this line of mistakes and try and puzzle out what happened.  

Now, I get to chip out an inch or two of wood with a chistle, then grind the concrete down flat, fill in the hole and cover what's left of the wood with some kind of filler/sealer- all so I can lay laminate flooring over the top. A lot easier said than done.

Someone was dreaming about facebook, video games or texting while grouting the shower...

Nobody's perfect, (even old people like myself), but there is nothing wrong with laughing at minor and cosmetic mistakes (hopefully that is the extent of it...gulp). 

diagram of an igloo

I've been doing some tidying up in my iphoto this week, trying to get things archived, hauling

 pictures to external places to liven up my poor bogged down computer. I came across these blueprints for an igloo that the kids made a few winters ago (with hot chocolate stains and all). Appropriate because it's snowing outside, it's supposed to snow a lot more too... winter is really on the way.

basement update

Here is how the basement is looking this week- all sheetrocked, hallelujah- and they just started taping up all those seams...  

Here is the family room- long and narrow, gas fireplace for cozy purposes, a cut out for TV hardware (like hanging brackets and wires) above the fireplace because I've recently been introduced to hanging skinny TV's on the wall- a fabulous idea.

Here is what you do when there is a pipe that cannot be moved, (as you can see from the black cleanout  pipe plug near the floor), we dreamt up this very narrow shelf/display thing, because the room is so narrow and it's in a weird place where everyone will be walking to and fro. It has been looked at speculatively by many visitors, luckily, I have lots of tiny things that will fit in the tiny space quite nicely, thank you very much.

The bathroom... big tub, but no jets (sorry kids). I heard you can make your own bubbles, if you want to...

This is the cold storage closet that lies directly under the front porch, jam packed full of all the basement stuff waiting to be put away in it's new place, including all my fabric and tubs full of archived film negatives that belong to Steve O.  The silver hose you see is left over from venting the bathroom (they changed it out for a bigger hose), you can bet you'll be seeing it in a Halloween costume next year...

What soon will be the craft room or Noelle's giant craft room/office (as some like to sarcastically refer to it). I know it's big, has a big closet and will have a sink and cupboards too.  

I don't care what anyone says- when I will be spending most of my waking hours here, storing all of my fabric and supplies- it needs to be bigger than an average bedroom... everyone can zip it up.  Someday soon, everyone will be eating their words when it turns into the favorite room in the house that everyone can use to be creative (as long as they clean up after themselves). There, I said it... now move along.

wear a smile, and a v-neck

rug day

I have been on the hunt for a rug for our family room for weeks now. On foot and on the internet, I searched. Finally- I found one I liked, mulled it over for a week or two, searched for a coupon, ordered it and waited. They (World Market) warned it could be up to 15 days until delivery, I hunkered down to wait and was pleasantly surprised when it only took a week, and arrived in such an intriguing package. I don't know why I was so tickled to have to 'unstitch' my rug out of it's package- apparently it doesn't take much to make me happy.

Here is it's new home. This room is super echoy, very annoying when everyone is home.  Hopefully a rug on the floor will help.  

One last swiffer...

Taa daa... I like it. It feels cozier already, still an echo, I think I'll hang a quilt on the wall too.

 Now, if I can just get a plan into place for the rest of this room.  I like having the computers in a central place, but the desk in the corner is messing with the fengi shui.