The New Floor

The Floor Half Way Done

            Getting Excited

YEAH !!!!!  IT'S DONE

The new floor in CD's room got put in and we are in the process of getting things put back to normal.  There is some heavy lifting involved which is hard on both on both Mr. P. and me.  It is really hard on his breathing although  his checkup this past week found him to be in great shape for an old man (not my words Mr.P.).  With me its my back and knees. Since I've been beavering around down stairs trying to get the study back in order that required some lifting and shoving not to mention drilling and screwing some new brackets for the repurposed book shelves.  Even with nine boxes gone there are still plenty of books. Good friend V. asked how many and I just kind of stared into space. There are two walls full so I'd have to give it in feet of shelving not numbers. So I'm already a little stiff and sore. Also, big bad weeks at the office with deadlines, deadlines, deadline, but that is for another blog.

Yesterday I found an interim area rug for under Mr.P.'s treadmill.  Looked at Lowe's, Target, and WalMart.  Ended up with Walmart. This PM as soon as we got home from Five Guy s (Mr.P.'s fav  food) we moved two shelves back into the closet

and then a small Queen Ann desk that I use as a sewing table.  I hope to make the closet a small sewing room so that all that will not be out in the guest room.   Then we moved an old chest of drawers out of the middle of everything to up against the opposite wall  for MrP.'s TV to go with the treadmill (Hey, this is serious stuff.)  So, thank you Mr.P. for helping me get this moving.  The part I like best is the whole new look of the step up into the hallway.   It's so clean compared to the old step of green carpet and brown mop board.

 I can hardly wait until I can get everything out of there and truly start decorating. Up 'til now such a hodge podge of stuff.  As time goes by I'll probably even get into replacing doors and windows.  A new lounge chair, a new TV.  My problem is once I start on a room I really get into it and start escalating the requirements.  This started out as just the floor, then the new crown molding and of course new mop board and spray painting the heating unit. There are marks on the walls from laying the floor that have to be touched up as well which may lead to a new paint job. Ultimately, I want fabric to be old gold to terra cotta but that could change as things evolve.  For now the furniture is all blond oak or pine. No more troll cave. YES!!!

Fred

Taken with my beloved IPhone it has no zoom, sorry.... He lives another day, no sun today so it was a suprise he was out. We are now looking for his mother.

One Gator - Two Gator

I found a gator on Monday and my friend Kelly said it looked dead. I agreed with this but to make sure I went by on Tuesday to check on things. Sure enough he was still there and appeared not to have moved. I concured with her assessment and went to a St. Patrick's day dinner with friends and neighbors and told them of the dead alligator. One dinner patron was SO very excited about this, he wanted the gators head. Wanted me to go get it for him, now I don't scare easy but that's WAY out of my league. Kelly goes by on Thursday and he is gone, someone must have called DNR right? I had asked someone to do this so the missing dead gator is not suprising at all. Its beautiful here today, I mean a perfect perfect spring day. It's 70, no humidity and a bit of a breeze without a cloud in the sky. Off we head on our bikes and come upon the spot of the dead gator and suprise he nownamed Fred is there. Guess he wasn't dead at all, glad my friend didn't head over there with his chainsaw and try to chop his head off. Can you imagine trying to chop a live gators head off?

CD's Room

THE "BEAUTIFUL" GREEN CARPET AND THE MUCH BETTER CONCRETE FLOOR

As I said we are doing some work in the house. This past week Monday and Tuesday we had my guys create a continuous cornice across all the sliders in the great room facing the lake. This is about 30 feet of windows and they have had vertical blinds hung since we did the massive addition about 20 years ago. I know this is not the current "look" but they really really do the job in the summer. The windows face west and the house gets very warm in the afternoons which is great in the winter but not so good in the summer. So the new cornice was to add some chicness and a slicker line. I plan to hang drapes between the windows, giving an even more continuous integrated looked.

As usual my guys Bobby and Maverick thought I was slightly nuts. I had designed this when we were last on the OBX in November and had sketched it out for CD and my good friend V. who is also an avid home decorator/crafty woman (she made three awesome stained glass windows for the house) They both thought it was a great idea. As usual when Bobby and Maverick (yes that truly is his name) were done, they were over the moon with themselves. Maverick kept standing and looking and saying "That really looks good, that really really looks good." Yup, the kid still has it. No pix on this. Shooting against the windows washes it all out.

Then they moved on to the main event. The floor in CD's room. Now, this involved the long planned clean out of the big walk in closet back there. This had followed a week of carting books (9 boxes) to the library for their annual book sale in order to clean out my study in order to rearrange the furniture down there. Any how, 6 boxes of clothes, 4 large bags of bedding, and 24 pieces of clothing on hangers went to Goodwill as well as the 20+ year old Nordic Track. Then moving as much furniture as possible into the closet and some into Mr.P.'s study. Saturday we went to Lumber Liquidators where we got the bamboo flooring which involved an hour trip each way. The trip back was tense-ish because we had a heavy load. I wanted to go to this neat restaurant but we couldn't find it. Returning Mr.P. thought the wheels were over heating and we stopped to check that out. Nope, false alarm. Great price on the bamboo. We're ready to rock and roll. Bobby and Maverik got the bed out and into Mr.P.'s room, Mr.P.'s treadmill into the closet as well as an L shaped book case my dad made me when I was a little girl. So, the room's cleaned out. Next step, get the beautiful (I am totally kidding here) sculpted dark moss green carpet out. As you can see above the concrete itself is a huge improvement. Thursday Mr.P. had to make a flying trip back to Lumber Liquidators for mastic and the moisture barrier. Friday AM the moisture barrier went down. Monday we start laying the floor. YES!!!!

Other work done. White crown molding to cover the brown skimpy crown mold. That in itself was a huge improvement. The baseboard heating cover painted white and new white baseboard, deeper and more substantial. The danger for me is to not stop once I start. I'll probably want to replace the doors in there especially the closet door. But, with the floor done its the last of the truly ugly parts of the old section of the house. More on this later.

Just want you to know that right now nearly every room in this house has something stuffed in it and or out of place due to the weeks of work. Mr.P. is huddled in his study surrounded by a stack of mattresses and bits and pieces of furniture. Sorry sweetheart.

Excuse Me?

Today while at the office, Calli who lets no one she doesn't know extremely well get anywhere near her let a complete stranger pet her. I was walking by my co-workers office to get some water and looked over and see Calli sitting in front of a client with her hand on my dogs head. My jaw literally dropped open I mean this has never happened she usually runs from people when they come in and hides behind my chair. My co-worker must have seen the look on my face and proceeds to try and explain to the client that she has just done the impossible. She really doesn’t understand the magic act she just performed but we were well aware. After I recovered and picked myself up off the floor I had a moment of real pride. It seems almost like perhaps my little girl is growing up. I am still quite confident this new found bravery with strangers does not apply to children.

Spring has Sprung

I think these trees are called red buds, not sure but I do love them....

Fish with Friends

Over the weekend I partook in one of the most exciting events Charleston has to offer, it is the annual food and wine festival. (http://www.charlestonwineandfood.com/new/) It is in its fifth year and I go as often as possible. It has grown and changed a lot through the years but this year it feels as if it has really come into its own. It is one of the countries top events for food and wine and its an amazing opportunity for the city. Charleston is well respected for its eateries and hospitality so pairing them with new and interesting wine and wine makers is a stroke of genius. We chose a chefs tasting on Friday night at a restaurant called Fish a restaurant none of my friends nor I had ever been too. Fish is a locally owned restaurant on King Street in downtown Charleston and it's head chef is Nico Romo, he was very recently bestowed the distinct honor of Master French Chef. (http://charlestonwineandfood.com/new/index.php/personalities/category/charleston_chefs/?category=charleston_chefs) His guest chef and his own personal GOD was Jose Gutierrez of River Oaks (http://www.riveroaksrestaurant.com/)  The dinner included five courses paired with wonderful wines from the recently damaged country of Chile and the Montes Vineyard. The Chilean wines and the story of the vineyards made it much more touching as they just recently suffered a devastating earthquake. The Montes Vineyard was damaged and they sadly lost a lot of there amazing wine. We actually had the honor of having one of the last cases of their Gewurztraminer 2008 desert wine. The whole evening was special right down to the company, but the wine and the wine representative really made it a more memorable evening. The wine rep was Carlos Serrano of Montes Premium Wines (http://www.monteswines.com/) he was so very informative, articulate, and enjoyable and I learned a great deal from him and am thankful he was a part of the experience.
We also learned a great deal about the chef of Fish including his becoming a Master French Chef and passion for sustainability from our charming server. My one friend was so excited about what she was learning that she sadly spilled her last glass of wine, (Montes Limited Selection Pinot Noir 2008 from Casablanca, Chile) all over me and the table... Don't worry it came out and either way no damage done as its just a piece of cloth! One of the appetizers we were served was mini frog leg gougere buns, I have never eaten frog legs, probably never would have if it was not for this experience, and I can assure you I most definitely never will again. All I can or will say is they DON'T TASTE like CHICKEN.

How to Decorate a Treadmill?

The ducksters are desperately seeking suggestions on this, I pose this question to our followers and eagerly await your suggestions...
NDuckster has been working very hard over the weekend on her back bedroom the one I sleep in when I visit. She and Mr. P have done a tremendous amount of work over the weekend and this is a problem they, mostly ND needs help on.

Simply Amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w&feature=player_embedded

Campfire notes

CD is on the phone and we are trouble shooting that blogspot seems to be having issues today. And, I saw a gadget for a slideshow on the blog and now I can't find it. Cwap.

CD "Size does matter " (she means a drill) In addition to trouble shooting we are redesigning two rooms in my house while dissecting crazy minutia of day to day life plus people's character.

We're both in the blog now.

CD "I'm up, up. I love the tulips and the vase. What a good choice. Wow!!! Look at Calli. She's beautiful.

Now she's into the duck bottles. I didn't notice. They are seasonal.. ... You know I don't drink wine and want them. YES!!!!

Mr.P. will be coming to bed soon. He's moved the beginning to middle stages of bed going. We will have to get off. CD just said "Go to bed."

Night.

April Showers...

Here in SC we get all the gifts of spring early, these tulips were a gift from my friend Chery about a week ago. I love Tulips and I have talked about growing them forever but just never done it. When I first moved here I bought a bag and placed them in the fridge (something I was told to do) and left them there for... oh 5 years until I moved. It's hard you are supposed to plant the bulbs after the first freeze but who wants to dig in dirt when it’s freezing? The vase is the one purchased on my mini vaca with MD and mentioned by Nduckster early in her blog.

Lucky Duck

This was an awesome find by my friend Kelly while grocery shopping the other day. I bought them just for the bottles and the Ducks on them. I love wine so this was hardly a sacrifice, they were very inexpensive and I am truly afraid of the wine they contain but I had to own them.

Just the Right Light

Taken on Calli's perch at my father's house in FL, she can watch all the birds from there, another favoirte pasttime of hers. Oh and it has rained all day and will continue into tomorow.