smithical

almost...

liz — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:14:31 GMT

you know the times you go to the salon and you leave with a style or color that you weren't planning on, and it just doesn't feel right? and you tell yourself, "it's only hair...it'll grow back, and the color will fade...." well that's the experience i had with our dining room this past weekend.

i've had a "muted mustard" color in my mind for a few weeks now (it's been red or orange in the past for the dining room, but i wanted something that wouldn't be too similar to the living room, even though these rooms aren't next to each other). the problem with yellow is that it's hard to translate to a wall. the little color swatches don't look at all the same once you put a few coats of it on a wall. and after the walls were painted and the trim was started on saturday, i just couldn't take it anymore.

"i HATE it!" i yelled. kenny shrugged his shoulders and said, "that's fine, we'll go back to lowes and get another shade. or even another color." i wish i had his personality. to me, i just just wasted two perfectly good cans of paint, and a whole day of painting was wasted as well. my life was all but ruined.

why am i so dramatic?

so we spent some time looking through our farmhouse/victorian/colonial style books, did some online research and i found another color series to go with in the dining room. half of it is currently on the walls (the rest will go up tonight) and then we can finally start the floor work.

here are some before and during pictures of the dining room. before:

there's a peak at that awful carpet again over in front of the fireplace. the colors were the same as the living room.

and here is the first color that we've since painted over. ignore the bottom half of the room as that is tinted primer (for the darker of the yellows). i don't really think the yellow isn't a bad yellow. i'd love it in any other room (perhaps our back porch or laundry room?), but not the dining room. i didn't want bright! yellow! for a dining room that's supposed to be more calming. AND...when i was describing the colors of the room (yellow walls, with black furniture) to a friend over the weekend, she said, "oh, so you have a Steelers dining room!" i cringed. now i am a ~~fair weather~~ fan of the steelers just like any pittsburgher, but i do not want a Steeler themed dining room. (thanks, joan! :)).

i like the plywood so much better than the carpet. i told kenny i didn't care if the floor wasn't in for weeks. the plywood is so much cleaner than the carpet ever was! doesn't that photo make you all want to come out, get your hands dirty and help us install a floor in three rooms? :)

a picture of the completed dining room is forthcoming. probably after the floor is in.

sneak peak

liz — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:06:35 GMT

i thought i'd give just a sneak peak of our living room work...to refresh your memory, here are our front living room windows before the project (but after i tore down two thick layers of drapes!):

and here it is now, in autumn's early morning light:

and i can't resist a few halloween pictures. our two knights, and their pet dragon:

he was seriously the cutest dragon i've ever seen, sharing his candy and everything!

october is for scarecrows not snowmen!

liz — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:46:48 GMT

but look what we awoke to this morning:

yes, it's pretty.

yes, it's calming...except when you stop and realize that it's OCTOBER and there are still LEAVES ON THE TREES! i know, i'm yelling...but i'm just not ready for it yet. however...i can't let on how annoyed i am when the kids are so excited at the sight of the first snow of the year.

adam enjoyed his secod cup of hot cocoa ever:

and the sound of rowan's voice over the monitor this morning was priceless. kenny and i were drinking our coffee at the kitchen table going over the day's events when we heard the boys sturring in their room (yes, we still use a monitor). then, a loud, excited whisper: "SNOW!...SNOW!" and then they stumbled downstairs planning out the morning with snowman-making and running through the flakes. i don't want to spoil their fun, but...it's OCTOBER!

they did have fun...making snow angels and rolling up a big snowball. the snow was heavy and wet - perfect for snowballs. there was a good amount of ~~wasted~~ time running up to the attic searching for snow clothes. we hadn't gotten them out and laundered them just yet. i guess that's what happens when it snows in OCTOBER!!!

/rant.

:)

a minor detail...

liz — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:35:54 GMT

we started painting the living room this past saturday. we got about halfway down the top of the wooden mantle (above the fireplace) when we realized there was a strong possibility that we were painting over oil-based paint. and we were (of course) using latex paint. we called the son of the previous owner (who is a contractor), left him a message, cleaned off our paint brushes and sat and twiddled our thumbs until he called us back. he didn't call back until 9:40 that night, so we didn't get much more work done on saturday.

what we learned was that it was, indeed, oil-based paint that we were painting over, and we should strip the paint we put up already. the paint had already dried, so it was either use a paint stripper, or wash it all off (with elbow grease and hot water). we got a lot of the flat parts "washed" off, but kenny needed to use a paint stripper around the details of the posts and scrolls:

we will not be asking the paint guy at the lowes desk for any futher advice. the guy at the sherwin-williams store was more helfpul, but right now, we're not sure who to trust...as we keep getting differing information: "don't paint over oil-based paint with latex!" "of course you can paint over oil-based paint with latex. just don't paint over latex paint with oil-based paint!" ARGH!

we're finally making some progress. as of today, we've stripped the paint and primed the fireplace. i primed and put two coats of white on the window trim and doorway trim. we pulled up the carpet and carpet padding (or carpet "dust" as it's been completely worn down to a powdery dust in most spots), decided to pull up the lovely vinyl floor underneath and admired the sturdy subfloor already in place. we're keeping it. we went over it with a black light to make sure we got rid of the cat urine. (we did.)

here are a few "before" and "during" photos of our progress. the living room as we were living in it:

stripping the first coat of white paint off the oil based beige fireplace:

our neighbor offered to take the boys on a hayride sunday afternoon as we worked:

already a change in atmosphere in the room with some white up on the drab walls. i can't wait to see the white against some bolder color. kenny removing the carpet:

more pictures as we progress....

renovation notebook; entry # 1

liz — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:52:16 GMT

we are at my least favorite time in a home renovation process: the beginning.

we are planning a big task...it involves our two biggest rooms (living room and dining room) and a high-traffic area (hallway). i am very thankful that we have a back staircase to use. otherwise we'd have to move out of the house until we were done. and it might be taking us a few weeks.

we are tearing up some old, old carpet, and laying down hardwood floors. we're also painting some dark colors in each room, so that means several coats on the 9-foot ceilings. it's going to be a big project, and although i want the changes in the rooms, it's just so daunting to start it. i want it to happen overnight, and we all know that doesn't ever happen. i'm a bit high strung when it comes to neatness, and i know (from experience) that house renovations mean a big old messy house until it's done. at least it's temporary (i keep telling myself that!).

kenny and i have fairly different tastes in interior design. i am a big fan of stark, early american colonial, while kenny would love a big ornate victorian interior house. we decided to take one room each, so the dining room is my baby, while the living room is his. we're trying very hard to bring the two designs to a level of...shall we say...compromise, or compatibility. but i must admit, i'm a little afraid that our personalities won't budge, and we're going to end up with two rooms that are completely different. kind of like this:

and

i think the second picture feels warmer and more inviting, while the first one is too busy. kenny holds the opposite opinion. and this is what we have to work with. okay...just kidding. we're not that over-the-top as we have a budget and a young family to inhabit these rooms.

fortunately, we agree completely on the flooring: wide plank red oak. we found a local mill and will be ordering that soon.

wall paint: we both agree that deep red with bright white trim is the way to go in the living room (right now the trim is beige and the walls are "light beige" - very boring). the dining room currently is painted in the same colors as the living room (boring!). i can't decide color in the dining room as a chair rail is in place, and i don't know whether to paint the chair rail and the wall below the chair rail the same color (leaning towards that), or paint the chair rail and all the trim the same color, and the wall above and below the chair rail a different color. regardless, we're going with a mustard yellow and light brown theme as our furniture is black, and this goes with a "shaker-ish" look that i adore for dining rooms.

furniture: we were smart and bought our dining room set two years ago - when we didn't have immediate plans to renovate these rooms. so we really only have to get furniture for the living room. right now, we have an oversized, very uncomfortable, stained and ripped-up couch (the cats rip apart our furniture), an old, olive green $7.00 yard sale wing-back chair that is just about to collapse, and my beloved glider. the glider/ottoman is the only thing that's staying. we used to have a baby grand piano in the room until we gave it to our neighbors a few weeks ago (who, we hear, are enjoying it very much!). so that leaves a big room with a glider/ottoman. i think we'll have to remove the glider/ottoman to our bedroom as it's not victorian-enough in design. kenny thinks a few arm chairs and a few love seats will suffice for the room. i actually agree.

area rugs: there will be no rugs in the dining room. i repeat: NO RUGS WHERE THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF FOOD SPILLAGE! we might think about a victorian-style area rug for the middle of the living room floor. but who wants to cover up all that beautiful red oak?

i promise to post before and after shots. wish us luck as we...begin.

moon fire

liz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:13:47 GMT

yesterday was cool and sunny, brisk and slightly windy. it was the perfect evening for a campfire that happened to take place under a half moon.

since we're finishing off the moon unit in school, it was a great coincidence that the moon was visible in the evening sunlight. rowan identified it as a "half moon, not a crescent" and we watched it move from one side of the roof to another as we campfired.

we roasted marshmallows and sipped hot cocoa from a thermos; we got cocoa-messy and marshamallow-sticky; we played with sticks and took a walk in our woods to find "skunk holes" and abandoned birds nests.

happy fall days ahead. i'm enjoying the cooler weather, even though i've been swearing up and down all summer long that i'll never be ready for the cold again. i'm NOT ready for the winter. the ice and snow and wet and grey and general yuckiness is no fun for me these days. but we don't have to talk about that now...

no fun at all.

liz — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:14:01 GMT

it's no fun being part of a historical event in a church that results in a split. a schism. today, at pittsburgh's diocesan convention, the diocese voted to leave the Episcopal Church USA.

i appreciate this statement made by reverend james simons (rector of St. Michael's in the Valley).

school update

liz — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:41:28 GMT

there's a new school update at our school blog.

i wish i had something to report orther than that, but it really does consume our days. in a good way, of course. all three boys are having fun (and so am i! i mean, it's kindergarten-level learning, but it's great doing it with your kids. talk about hands-on!).

school and soccer are our lives right now. when something else really cools comes up again, i promise to update this blog. sorry it's been few and far between lately. :)

~liz

chaos...i mean soccer

liz — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:56:01 GMT

rowan and sawyer started soccer a few weeks ago. i think kenny and i have secretly been waiting for soccer season to begin since rowan was born!

we were surprised to find that our local YMCA doesn't have soccer until january, and it's indoors. to me, soccer and fall go hand in hand, so i was a bit disappointed when i went to sign them up. then i found another (still local) YMCA offering sign-ups for their soccer season, starting at the end of august and running through october. perfect! we promptly signed them up, kenny volunteered to help coach, and so our soccer season began.

it's no wonder they make the games short and sweet (two 12-minute halves)...the game is chaos. there are one, maybe two "good" players on each team. and by "good" i mean they know what to do when the ball passes by their feet. the typical "great job! go blue team!" cheers were few and far between the "no! the other way! run the other way!" cheers from the sidelines (or parents) and the coach's whistle got a great workout. this picture proves the chaos (running in all directions):

another great shot of chaos. coaches pointing in all directions, kids (ahem...boys) minding their own business...

and ooooohhhh...my mama instincts wanted to whallop the boy pushing rowan in this picture (look at that great ball control on rowan's part!):

i know my uncle coached my cousins at early ages in soccer. does the chaos disappear after a few years? does the game resemble a game eventually?

we're starting pretty early with adam. all he wants to do is run on the field with his brothers and do exactly what they're doing. so i distract him by kicking around a ball. he's getting really good. i'm sure nobody would notice if i let him join the game every now and then?!

autumn's here...

liz — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:22:14 GMT

it's as though our neighborhood responded to an overnight memo that autumn has begun since i see a burst of new color coming from the trees just today. perhaps it's the incredibly dry summer we've had, and the leaves will all just change color quickly, get crispy and fall off at the same time. this is a change from last autumn as it was so wet we could never get the leaves up off the ground, and they sat under a winter's worth of snow for several months.

we're finally in autumn, and i haven't reported much about our garden experience this summer. we harvested and ate most of the pole (green) beans, broccoli, and herbs. the corn didn't grow very large (except the indian corn is drying out now - those stalks reached 8 feet!). we also did some small-grade canning. we don't have canning equipment, but we have enough to get a few pints and a quart or two of something put by. we ate the majority of our tomatoes, made three (or four?) batches of fresh salsa (gobbled up the same day it was made), let some of them rot on the ground or on the vine, gave some away, and then finally canned three small pints of tomato sauce.

our grape vine produces a lot of green and purple grapes (concord) so we finally harvested them this year, and kenny (with help from rowan and sawyer) made 2 1/2 pints of grape jam. my grammy gave me her food mill years ago, and it got quite the workout for the grape jam removing all those seeds!

our family leaves behind "birthday season" as we enter fall. all three boys gained another year since summer began, three birthday cakes were whole-heartedly consumed, and presents torn open enthusiastically. we didn't swim as much as we thought, but we rode a lot of bike paths (the two older boys graduated to training wheels).

we visited with my older brother's family in michigan in august, and spent a weekend in the pocono's with kenny's brothers a week ago.

and we're already wearing "cold weather" pjs!

rowan and sawyer just started soccer for the fall. i hope to update with a post of pictures soon. we're also in our third week of school, and if you want an update, head on over to our other blog.

i hope to blog more than once a week in the near future! i have a new schedule to juggle now, and it might take a bit to get used to it...so bear with me.