Goin' Old School with the Palmolive

No dishwasher. Day 9. Dishpan Hands. Sorry to the environment. Broke down and bought plastic utensils. 

Dr. DIY - At It Again

This is my dishwasher. Well, obviously not. This is where it used to be.

Now it is outside next to the trash cans.

My husband removed it. 

Which was NOT an easy task. I'm proud of him for figuring out how to do it, BUT then when I suggested for the new one we have a professional installer, you would think I couldn't have brought a greater assault upon his intelligence. It's not that. I don't have a reliable plumber on speed dial at the moment....just in case.

Sitting on My Summer Vacation

The cost was reasonable for this foray into DIY. But like any renovation, it was an expense. I'll take this opportunity to enjoy it. I guess I better get used to the prospect, it looks like there may be a lot more DIY renovation in our future. I better put on the roller coaster safety belt like I did when we bought a 23 acre farm - http://bestfarmsofamerica.com/AFF/ - and start screaming. But in the meantime, I will enjoy the new patio and the breeze in the trees.

I Stand Corrected

Cynical. Yes, I was. But it happened. A patio and a firepit. A first meal in the new outdoor space. I will never hear the end of this. Especially since the labor was all "in-house" so the cost was reasonable. Oh boy. What's next?

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Thing 1 and Thing 2

Husband:  "You know what would be really cool?

Me:          "I'm afraid to ask."

Husband:   "A firepit."

Me:           "Well, we COULD then make smores like when we went to Hershey Hotel and they had the giant firepit and the smores kits and we laughed as the sun set......WAIT a MINUTE. How much is this going to cost?"

Since the big box store had THESE pavers in stock, plus I made an inquiry as to where to find the glue-type-stuff that will stick them together....Next thing you know, Husband and the boys (let's call them Thing 1 and Thing 2, like in Dr. Suess) were building a firepit the same day.

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Appreciation

Wow, these guys are rockin' it. Husband decided on a pattern (after asking me to pick one I liked best by reading the book that came with the pavers). Paver goes in. Bang it with a mallet. Next paver goes in. More banging. One by one....until you are DIY done....

The Pavers are Here! The Pavers are Here!

I have to admit, considering I wasn't the one who had to carry tons of pavers (and sand) down a hill from the driveway to the back of the house, they look really good. It's beginning to look a lot like....a patio....

You're Giving Away WHAT?

Dr. DIY, as my husband is now affectionately know, had to be informed that pavers don't just magically appear. The ones you see in the picture? They were in stock. The other 4 pallets? They were still on order. 

Three trips to the big box store revealed a different answer each time as to where our merchandise was. And on the last visit, the clerk accidentally told me the pavers of ours that HAD arrived were about to be shipped out to someone else (who ordered AFTER us) because there weren't enough to fill our order. I was imagining the merry-go-round of each time a partial order came in, it went back out the door and we were stuck. 

Let's just say by the time the conversation was over, I was assured what was there would be tagged for me, the rest would be delivered the next week, and the delivery charge was waived.

As it was put so elegantly in the classic show In Living Color "Homey don't play that." 

Paver sand going in and getting leveled out as we await the pavers.

I Married a Fool

Cha-Ching goes the register as I look over my husband's shoulder. 

12 million bags of paver base - check. Another 12 million bags (OK maybe a pallet) of paver sand - check. And an order of about a gazillion pavers. Somewhere in there we switched from pea gravel to pavers and I'm glad. They do have a nice Tuscan look to them. 

But the first task is to lay out all the 50 lb bags of base, rake it to be smooth, and tamp it down with the "tamper," the obnoxiously loud square tool we bought.

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Pea Gravel

Oh - My - Gosh. I tell my husband, if I hear him say the words "pea gravel" ONE MORE TIME! What is it with his fascination with pea gravel? He wants to use it to create an outdoor seating area where there is already some sort of pebble material anyway. No. We do NOT need to renovate the outdoor space. 

You see who won that battle.

He tells me it will add value to the house. I ask him what makes him think that is true? Next thing I know he is pouting, we are at Home Depot, then he and my 2 sons are buying a wheel barrow and laying down black plastic to keep the weeds from popping through.

Slate Stone

I love slate stone. My husband knows this, and also teases me for always calling it slate stone instead of just slate. He says "Is it also travertine STONE? And granite STONE? And marble STONE?" Ha Ha. Very funny. But anyway, he unfairly used this fact to draw me into a conversation about the bathroom. 

"You know," he says, "we could put slate STONE on the floor in the bathroom, then do a similar pattern on the backsplash." My mind immediately fantasizes about the wonderful earthy quality of slate, the natural imperfections in color and pattern, it's inherently organic....WAIT a minute. No! We are not spending money on the floor. It's like the children's book If You Give A Pig A Pancake. Once we do that then you'll want new cabinetry and I've been ignoring your talk about a new glass shower. I tell him it's not worth the investment in order to recoup the cost and I don't want to be displaced for goodness knows how long.

Because after the quote I got from a contractor (hey, I was distracted by the pretty stone remember?) he says he wants to do it himself. Oh goodness.

The Lure of The Holidays

Husband: Refrigerators are on sale. You wanna go get one?

Me:         No. We don't need a new refrigerator.

Husband: But they have the kind with a beer door - where you can reach in to get a drink and you don't even have to open the whole fridge.

Me:        Seriously? That is about the laziest thing I've ever heard. Meanwhile, if we upgrade the fridge, the other appliances are going to look decidedly un-shiny. And no, we don't NEED to replace them either.

Husband: Meanie.

That Feeling You're About to Be Hoodwinked and Bamboozled

My husband casually says to me "Look what I found, this cool site with lots of ideas. It's called Houzz. It's an App too." 

So why was I not surprised when I started to receive emails, you know the kind that says something like, "you're receiving this from someone who wants you to see this great ____ on Houzz.com!"

Uh-oh.

Houzz.com

Trying to Warm Me Up (Again) for Some Construction

The farmhouse was then, and this is now. And we actually live in this house, as opposed to popping in on work being done at the farm. Different circumstance. Similar conversation.

Husband: Let's renovate the kitchen.

Me:         No.

The compromise was the faucet. I selected a new one and let him tinker with replacing it. 

Before:

After: TA - DA!!!!

I know, i couldn't have picked a smaller project. But I was hoping that this alone would tire him out for a while, I told him good job. He did it! Now can we please stop talking about more renovations? Unbeknownst to me, it was merely the beginning....again.

Not My First Rodeo

My husband has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. He is, by all accounts, a bright man. So I'm sure you can imagine my initial response to the unexpected and surprising notion he proposed that - in addition to managing the sizeable house we already actually LIVED in - we buy and maintain 23 acre farm, renovate a farmhouse to lease out, and grow organic raspberries. You can read a little of the saga on my blog from that adventure if you click here: http://bestfarmsofamerica.com/AFF/

Suffice it to say that our farmhouse now has more interior walls, insulation, a heating and A/C system, a dishwasher, washer/dryer, floors without gaping holes, oh, and among other things a new commode.