Bench Seats - DONE!

The bench seats are finally done. :) I think they may nead another coat of stain in order to match the kitchen cabinets, but I don't think I care that much right now.

If you want to read about building the bench seats - go here. I used some heavy duty upholstery type fabric for the seat cushions and I went shopping online for the foam.  I was at Jo-Ann's and wasn't not about to pay $90 for foam.  Who knew foam was so expensive?? I didn't!  I ended up getting the foam from "OnlineFabricStore.net" and found the foam for $32 with shipping.  Much more reasonable.  And the foam was just what I needed.

I installed zippers on the "back" side of the cushions so they can be washed if needed.

I bought WAY too much fabric (about twice what I needed) so I may be making little back cushions or some pillows for the basement or something.  Oh well.  All in all, the bench cushions cost about $55.  Not cheap, but it could have been worse.  I could have bought cheaper fabric, but I really wanted something bold.

Oh, I think it took ~ 3 hours on the sewing machine to do both cushions.  Including the zipper and finishing the edges.  VERY quick project. :)

We flooded again - Sh*t happens.

Don't worry, I spared the graphic details.  You can ask us about those in person.

My parents came over yesterday to help with the basement.  We finished painting the basement bathroom.  Touched up some paint spots, and started painting the ceiling in the basement.  We also installed the outlets and covers, and did a bunch of small stuff.  My dad and brother are making some built-in shelving for the basement so they are really close to finishing that.

The things we had left to do? Install the doors, Install the trim and chair rail, Install the carpet.  We also have to paint the shelving that my dad and bro are installing. Then there's the bar.  We need to paint and install the cabinets and countertops. And do the flooring in the bathroom and bar area. We also had to install the vanity, sink, toilet and mirror in the bathroom.  But essentially we were in the home stretch.  Roughly 3 days of work as we were going to pay professionals to install the carpet. 

Yesterday we had a real fast, major downpour for about 30 minutes.  I don't know how much rain we got, it didn't seem like much, but it doesn't matter.  Because for some reason sewage backed up.

Here's how it happened.

Mom, Dad and my bro leave our house.  C and I decided to order Chinese, so we placed our order and were getting ready to leave the house.  I thought something smelled funny in the house, so I followed the smell to the basement, turned on the light, but I didn't see anything.  Our washing machine empties into the sump pit, and sometimes the sump pit will smell funny.  I just figured I needed to pour more bleach in the pit, which was a "tomorrow problem" so off we went to go pick up the Chinese food.

We came back about 30 minutes later and the smell was MUCH stronger.  I knew exactly what happened.  I went to the basement and saw a ton of water in the basement.  Probably only a few inches, but enough to do some serious damage.  I screamed that there is water in the basement, and ran past C to go see why our lift gate (which was inspected 1.5 MAX months ago) did not stop the water.  All I know is the man hole had about 2 ft of water in it, and there was no way I was going down there.

April of 2013 when we got the flood, all we had to do to get the lift gate to close was jiggle the handle.  So off I went to go find a stick or something long enough to jiggle the rod.  Somehow I didn't have shoes on, so here I was running around the yard in socks trying to find something to jiggle the handle.  Meanwhile I was frantically calling my parents trying to get them to come back over to the house.  Not really sure what they could do, but I still called them.  I kept imagining me dropping my phone in the man hole.  Thankfully I didn't do that. Anyway, I found a stick, but it was too short.  Then I grabbed a hose wand we have, and was able to jiggle the rod a bit.  No idea if that helped or not.

Meanwhile, C was in the bathroom, with his foot holding a rag in place where the toilet used to be attempting to stop the water from coming up.  It worked, but as soon as he moved his foot, the water would flood back in.  So he was stuck where he was.  Standing in sewage.

By the time I got down to the basement, the water was not coming up anymore.  But by this time the rain had also stopped.  The water drained pretty fast, maybe something like 20 minutes later all the water was drained.  But the damage was done.  Not to mention the smell and the sludge remained.

Of course by this time it was nearing 7 PM on a Saturday.  All the insurance companies were closed.  Luckily we prepared for this event, and we have double coverage.  So reimbursement shouldn't be a problem.

But the cleaner guys will be coming tomorrow.  They are going to have to remove 1-2 ft of drywall (insurance companies sometimes require 2 ft removal even though we only got an inch or so of water).  And then spray all the studs with a antimicrobial.  Then the insurance company should cover replacing the drywall.  But I'm not sure about mudding or taping the drywall, painting, nor replacing the interior doors.  

We easily are delayed about a month.  Insurance companies NEVER pay people quickly.

When the plumbers came out a month ago or so, they said our lift gate was fine, the pipes were fine, and there should be no problems, however we should pay 8k to upgrade our flood protection to a better, newer technology.

Well, I bet you can guess what we are doing now.  We have some savings.  We were going to go on a vacation this fall to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, but that wont be happening any time soon.  I really wanted to go to Tuscany.  But shit happens.... (pun intended)  I also plan to call the plumbers on Monday to bitch to them.  Seriously, this should NOT have happened.

Side note:  I did finally get ahold of my parents, and my Dad left their house immediately to come to our house.  After he surveyed the damage in the basement Dad and C went to Lowes to get some supplies to plug the toilet so it wont happen again any time soon.  Luckily, Dad and C have a great sense of humor so all throughout Lowes they were making poop jokes.  Shit happens, Such a shitty day.  I don't know the details as I wasn't there, but they had a ton of fun. Hah.

I blame myself for not going to investigate further where the smell was coming from.  C blames himself for taking the toilet out yesterday.  Perhaps that extra head (engineer term) would have helped prevent backflow.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but this blows.

Bench Seat - Finished - Sorta.

The bench seat is sorta finished!  (See previous post here if you want to read about my inspiration for this project.)

Here is the finished product.  I have to say, the camera doesn't do this thing justice!  And the cabinets and benches are much closer in color than the camera makes it look.  The main difference is the cabinets have a protective coating on it, and I didn't put a protective coating on the benches.  However, I think I'm going to put polyurethane on it sometime soon.  I think the polyurethane will make them look even closer in color. Not to mention it will help protect them if someone spills something on them.

Honestly, I'm THRILLED with how they turned out.  I designed everything myself, and my brother and father built them.  Lots of hard work.  I even have a 3rd bench that will go in the den due to an inexperienced furniture designer.  (my fault)

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I love the way the molding turned out. :) Honestly, there isn't much I don't love. Hah.  

Now I have to sew some bench covers so that you can sit on the window seats and be comfy.  

Did I mention how nice it is to have extra storage?! :) 

Organization - Best Idea Ever

What do you do with all your gift wrap, tissue paper, gift bags?

I saw this pin on pinterest - and I have to say its GENIUS!  So I started doing it.  Now I store most of my wrapping supplies in a convenient bin. :) I still haven't figured out what I want to do with my wrapping paper, but this is great for bags, tissue and bows!

I have to say, the only problem?  Right now my bin is too small to store all the bags I have. :-/  Oh well, one of these days I'll get a bigger one.  Until then, I have the large, gigantic bags stored next to the bin.  At least its better than having to go search for the bags.

Building Corner Bench Seating

So - my brother decided he likes woodworking.  He also decided to take some time off from work before he starts medical school.  The last thing he decided is he doesn't like to do nothing, so I was able to give him several projects.  Including building me corner bench seating in the kitchen. :)

I'm so excited.  I can't wait for it to be done.  We will get more storage and it will complete the kitchen.  Right now the kitchen looks strange, IMO.  I don't have any photos of the strange area (probably because the kitchen is always a huge mess) but just trust me.  There are 2 windows in the corner and we could not continue the cabinets because the bottom of the window was 2 inches too low.

So, my solution is a window seat.  These are photos of the inspiration for my window seat -

 



The problem was... none of these came with simple plans.  So I modified this one with very detailed, amazing  PLANS

So that the door was on the top.

I can't wait to post the finished product!

Running - Its hard

So, I've been running for about 3 weeks.  It seems like I ran the first block very easily, and now I've got a mental block that I can't run any further.  As soon as I got the 1 block down, I upped my running goal by 0.1 mile.  And for some reason I spent the past 2 weeks not able to finish 0.5 mile.  Today I did it though.  Today I ran 0.5 mile without stopping.  However, once again, it was slow.  I wonder if its better to push yourself to the max, and burn out fast, or run slowely and do distance.

If I stay on this track that means it'll take me 10 more weeks before I can run 1 mile without stopping.  That seems like forever away.

This also means, that I've continued on my goal of running.  And a long time ago - see post here I made a deal with myself that if I worked out 3 times a week I would allow myself to spend hundreds of dollars on my hair for a keritin treatment.  Since its officially been 3 weeks of running a minimum of 3 times a week, I think I will allow myself to schedule an appointment.  Although, I also think that between now and the hair appointment, if I don't continue to run 3 times a week I need to only get a trim, not a treatment.  Gotta find motivation somehow.

I'm hoping the Keritin treatment will be so amazing that I'll have to continue running so I can continue the treatment. :)

Hm... I think this means I need to go buy new shampoo.

Date Night List!

Most of you know my husband has been in Ohio for 3.5 months for work. BOO!  He FINALLY came home last Friday for good. :)

So I'm making a list of possible date nights. :) Suggestions are welcome!

1. Jazzin at the Shed
2. Alder after dark
3. Museum of Science and Industry
4. Bowling
5. Have a bonfire
6. Grill Out
7. Game Night
8. Paint Ball - Need a group for this
9. Bike Ride - Don't own a bike yet.
10. Drive in Movie
11. Watch a Scary Movie
12. Geocashing
13. Ravinia
14. Have a water gun fight
15. Stargazing
16. Learn stick shift - unfortunately neither of us know so we'd need a 3rd person... and the car
17. Fly a kite and have a picnic with the dog(s)
18. Take the dog to the dog beach/park
19. Have a netflix marathon
20. Visit each restaurant featured on the food network / cooking channel in Chicago - http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2013/09/chicago-on-the-road-the-great-food-truck-race/
21. Watch the sunset at the beach
22. Watch the sunrise at the beach
23. Go for a hike w/ the dog.
24. Rent a bicycle built for two
25. Do a progressive dinner
26. Go to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor on the Hancock. 
27. Get a photo taken of us in the Great Hall at Union Station
28. Photo at Buckingham fountain
29. Free concert at Millennium Park
30. Watch the Chicago River get dyed green (St Pattys Day)
31. Wendella Boat Cruise
32. Ride the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier
33. Go to that cider bar our MOH told us about (need to look up the name again)
34. Go to the Lyric Opera House of Chicago
35. Go to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
36. See the fireworks at Navy Pier on Wed or Sat during summer
37. Get a horse and carriage ride
38. Drive around the neighborhood to look at the Christmas Lights
39. Sketch out out a blueprint of your dream house
40. Make a list of must-haves in your dream home (laundry chute, three car garage, spiral staircase, etc.)
41. Plan our 5 year anniversary vacation
42. Make a map of places you have been and want to go. Make a list or places and sites to see.
43. Paint your own coffee cup at a pottery place
44. Cook an exotic meal or cook something we have always wanted to try.
45. Play video games all night 
46. Go for a long drive to nowhere.
47. Watch each other’s favorite movies from childhood. 
48. Take a cooking class 
49. Go Gokarting
50. Play Bingo
51. Break out some old board games - think Guess Who, Life, Candy Land, Connect Four, Mancala, Jenga, or Battleship
52. Who said date night had to be at night?! Get up and cook a big breakfast together, then climb back into bed to eat it!
53. Hire a photographer to take photos of the two of you! 
54. Base and decorate a cake together.
55. Find a list of dream homes for sale and attend open houses for them.
56. Play a board game in bed.
57. Make a fancy dinner and sit on the floor and eat it.
58. Audit a class together
59. Lie on a blanket and watch a meteor shower.
60. Star gazing.
61. Head to the Farmer's Market and pick out your dinner. Enjoy with a glass of wine!
62. Wisconsin Wine Tours - http://www.wisconsinwineandbeertours.com/public-tour-schedule/
63. Make Hot Chocolate, snuggle up and read together.
64. Minor League Baseball game
65. Stay at a B&B
66. Head to a car dealer and test drive cars you’ve been dying to check out 
67. The Jackson Park’s Osaka Japanese Garden, 5800 S. Lake Shore Drive, hydepark.org/parks/osaka2.htm.
68. Lincoln Park Conservatory, 2391 N. Stockton, explorechicago.org. The grand Victorian glass house has stood for more than 100 years, housing all species of earth plants and flowers.
69. Checking off Superdawg from the list of 1,000 things to see before you die. Grab a Superdawg with a classic shake while you’re at it. 6363 N. Milwaukee, superdawg.com.
70. Stepping out onto the glass-boxed Sky Decks — 1,353 feet up — at the Willis Tower, 233 S. Wacker, theskydeck.com.
71. Chicago’s own Top Chef, Rick Bayless, tests his acting chops when he makes his stage debut in “Rick Bayless in Cascabel,” March 21-April 22 at the Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan, lookingglasstheatre.org.

Tough Decisions

Some of you know that I've fostered dogs a few times.  The first dog was a disaster.  He was returned to the rescue after his owners had him a year due to "allergies."  They owned the dog his entire puppy-hood and I'm pretty sure they just got tired of all the destruction.  The dog had no manners and didn't know how to act around my dog. I could have dealt with the no manners, but in combination with him not getting along with my other dog, it was just too much.  So unfortunately I had to return him and try to foster a different dog.

I ended up fostering the sweetest dog ever, Lilly. (Photo Right)

She had/has a skin condition which I was helping her with. I would take her to the vet and try to figure out what it was. But because of the skin condition she was un-adoptable for several months and I ended up having Lilly for almost 3 months.  Needless to say, even though I tried my hardest to not get attached, I got attached.  I knew going into it, that I would be giving Lilly away to her forever home, but its real difficult for me not to fall in love with animals.  I just couldn't help it, I guess.

So now comes the hard part.  I am ready to foster again, and I texted the rescue I work with.  They have a 4 month old beagle that also has some medical issues.  They asked if I could take him/her.  But I know it will be the same thing as it was with Lilly.  I'll have this puppy for several months and I'll start getting attached again.  Lilly went to an amazing home, honestly I couldn't hope for a better home for her.  But what if the next dog lives with me for several months and goes to a less than ideal home?
But how can I saw no to this puppy who really needs some human companionship right now?

Unfortunately, I think I have to tell the rescue that I am not ready for that puppy, but I feel terrible saying that and I can't bring myself to text them.  I know there are tons of adult dogs at the shelter that would just love some human companionship.  Its a much easier transition if the dog has been in a home, around people, and gets to learn how to be a house pet.  They are much easier to adopt also because the potential adopters can ask you questions and you can say with confidence "Lilly did not have a single accident inside while I had her."

I know what I have to do, but its not going to be a fun text. :(

Goal 1 - Accomplished

Alright, first of all I have to say Please don't make fun.

So - I have asthma.  Exercise induced asthma.  Which makes exercising complicated.  My face gets bright red and sometimes I wheeze... its not fun.  It also doesn't help that I HATE my inhaler. I hate that it makes my heart race and I only use it after a run if I get a coughing fit (which is probably 99% of the time).  I know I should use it more often, but I'm really NOT a fan.

Due to the wheezing, and more importantly the BRIGHT red face, I would much rather exercise in the privacy of my own home / neighborhood then go to a gym.  I know its irrational, but I feel like everyone who is in shape at the gym is staring at me and laughing at the out of shape girl.  Going to a gym is out of the question. 

But, I recently decided I was tired of being out of shape.  I'm not so concerned about loosing weight, I'd just like to get my heart/lungs in better condition.  Considering running is very little investment, running is it.  I've never been a good runner, but running is the only exercise I sort of enjoy, aside from horseback riding.  And Horseback Riding is a HUGE investment.

A few weeks ago, when I started running, I came up with a set of goals for my running.  The first goal was to run around the block 1 time without stopping.  Our block is about 0.4 miles, and yesterday, I ran around the block ... and then some!  GOAL 1 Accomplished!!!  All in all it was about 0.43 miles without stopping. :) I wish I could explain to you how huge that is.  A few weeks ago, I could barely run half way around the block without stopping. I'd reach the end of the street and be wheezing.  I'd have to walk 2 block lengths to catch my breath before I was able to run again. 

I know so many people are going to say you are pushing yourself too hard.  I know all the rules.  "You should be able to hold a conversation while running, if you can't talk your running too fast"  I know. I get it.  But I feel most comfortable at a specific pace.  So I run in short lengths that I think I can accomplish without killing myself.

I have several other goals.
Goal 2 - Run twice around the block without stopping
Goal 3 - Run a mile without stopping
Goal 4 - Run a 5k under 40 minutes (Shhhhh I know that's still really slow)
Goal 5 - Run a 5k under 30 minutes
Goal 6 - Run a 5k without stopping
Goal 7 - Finish a 10k
Goal 8 - Finish a Half Marathon


So, I'll keep posting on my progress.  Not sure when I'll accomplish Goal 2, but I don't plan on stopping running any time soon.

:)

What do you do with all your digital photos? Part 2 of 2

Last week I posted the first part - What do you do with all your digital photos?

Essentially I'm still not convinced digital is the way to go.  I feel that hard copies are nice.  You can look at them and display them.  Shutterfly is my website of choice.  They have pretty decent prices and always have sales.

But then the problem is, once you make all these photobooks, what do you do with them?

I saw this pin on pinterest. - I thought it was great.  She used plate hangers. And I thought that was a great idea.  You can display them and everyone gets to see them.  They can get taken off thew all extremely easily.  It was perfect.

 So this is my interpretation of displaying photobooks.  Right now I only have 2 to display,  I guess I've been busy getting married and remodeling the basement. Haha.  But that didn't stop me from wanting to hang the 2 photo books I have.

The problem came when I tried to decide how many plate hangers do I buy?  Do I buy 2? Do I buy 4? 6?  I really liked this hanger from Amazon priced at $6.55 each. But how often to things change slightly, or go out of stock.  And how would I know how many I would eventually need?  Or the bigger problem, where to store them.  So, I came up with the idea to buy 2 now, and then every time I make 2 more photo books buy 2 more slightly different hangers.  I think it'll look good, a little eclectic, and unique.  And then you don't have the matchy matchy problem.

Now to make more photobooks. :)

What do you do with all your digital photos? - Part 1 of 2

Honestly, I would love to know what you do with all your digital photos.

Do you upload them (all?) to Facebook?  

Do you print them out at Walgreen's?  

Do you upload them to a photo sharing site?

Nothing?

I guess I do a combination of everything.  (including nothing).  I upload some of them to Facebook.  I make some of them into photobooks. (Left and Below) 

Shutterfly is my favorite for making photo books.  I also like it because you can easily post them to a shutterfly website. 

  And others... just sit on my hard drive.  

The last one is the scariest, because I'm always terrified of my laptop crashing.  I used to have an external hard drive to backup my laptop (I've always been a fan of laptops).  Then one day my laptop crashed and before I could go buy a new laptop, my external hard drive crashed.  All that work of backing up stuff... wasted.  And who has the money to spend sending it to geek squad or whomever to get it fixed.  As sad as it is, a hard copy may still be the best way to keep things safe.  

C and I have talked about getting a real website, mostly for storing photos and stuff.  Or buying storage to store photos.  But there is always the pesky problem if costs.  

So, what do you do with your photos?

DIY Raised Garden Bed

It has been my dream to have my own garden.  And literally a weekend or so after we closed on the house, back in 2012, I built this raised garden bed.  

I used the instructions here - http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/ultimate-raised-bed-how-to-00400000011938/

After reading the comments in the above link I read that the wood would sometimes bow outward due to the weight of the soil.  So I added the separator in the middle and so far it works great.  It has been 2 years and there haven't been any problems.  

Building the raised garden bed was a piece of cake.  One of the challenging (and expensive) things was filling the bed with dirt.  I can't remember the specifics, but I think I bought $100 worth of top soil.  I didn't even buy the fancy plant stuff, just regular black dirt and it barely filled the bed 1/2 way.  Each year I just figured I would buy a few more bags of dirt, or through in some peat moss or compost or something.  Last year I bought 2 bags of dirt and 1 bag of peat moss, and I'm sure I'll do the same thing this year.  

The bird netting is kind of a pain in the behind when it comes to mowing the lawn.  I need to figure out a better solution for it.  The netting always gets caught in the mower blades, or I don't pay close enough attention and the plants grow through the netting.  This year I think I may just keep the netting on the garden while the plants are seeds or when they are first planted, and then chance the birds.  We'll see.

I can tell you I've definitely got my money's worth of vegetables from the garden. :) Just ask my mother and friends.  I constantly drop off extras with them so they don't go bad. 

I'm so tired of winter that I'm already starting to plan springs garden.