Manscaping

This weekend was a lot of fun! Friday night was Knoxville Movie Night – a free outdoor showing of a film in the public park..open to all..big screen, big sound, big fun!

Any guesses as to which movie we watched this time?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/Knoxvillemovienights

Saturday I slept in a little, woke up and started pulling weeds in the garden, clearing the yard of dead and dried flowers (the drought really took a toll on..everything) and did some laundry.

Then my parents came over, and – within about 15 minutes – we went from this..

..to this..

It's always amazing what a truck and a log chain can do..

The house looks so much bigger without the bushes, don't you think?

This should make it quite a bit easier to hang the new siding and replace the windows in this part of the house. It’s also just easier for me (mentally) to get rid of everything and start fresh. Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate a little better and I’ll be able to landscape the yard, completely. With the changes I’ve made to the house and the paint colors I’d like to use on the outside, I’m excited to have a cohesive plan in place for the plantings in the yard..I just hope it’s not 115F all summer next year so I can actually work on it!

Saturday afternoon, I drove to Cedar Rapids and hung out with a group of old friends, and made some new friends while I was at it. The cool part was, we hung out in a $2,000,000 house on an acreage, complete with horses, dogs, four wheelers, and a whole lot of crown molding.

I didn’t take any pictures this time because my phone was dying all weekend..but I have these pictures from a previous visit. Pretty sweet digs J

The front door, complete with gas lamps on either side of the entry.

Foyer, complete with James Bond style secret closet for coats and shoes.

Immediately inside the front door.

Massive crown molding throughout the house. All the ceilings were at least 10-12 feet tall.

Kitchen, living room, breakfast area with a wet bar to the right. Yes, that's a freaking harp.

Bar area..with two mini fridges. You know..just in case.

From the living room: kitchen with bar to the left.

Sunday afternoon was the drive home with a brief stop at the Iowa State Fair to meet a friend. Within 10 minutes, I was being thrown through the air and spun upside down on a giant death-trap ride. Good fun! J

These were our seats. There were two other riders on at the top, and we spun like a GD windmill possessed by the devil for a couple minutes. They were even kind enough to take video of your screaming and yelling. "You shouldn't have..really"
http://www.iowastatefair.org/

There we are...flying! :)

"Roughing It"

When I titled this entry, I knew I was completely full of it. I am in no way roughing it, as the name would imply. Though I have to make do without some of the things you might expect in a house…namely, a kitchen.

The kitchen has been somewhat delayed because my cabinet maker may or may not be going to prison. Which is interesting..

Initially, we thought we would build the cabinets ourselves because my former roommate/Dad has experience doing it. Then the jailbird..excuse me: potential jailbird stepped in and said he could do it better, faster, cheaper..blah blah blah. I don’t know how many times I’m going to fall for that line.

To (hopefully) put you at ease: he isn’t going to jail for butchering children or small animals. (For your own future reference, there is apparently a limit to the number of times you can get pulled over while driving and reeking of whiskey.) I trust the work he does..just not the personal choices he makes. My main concern was that he shows up when he said he was supposed to and do the work he said he was going to do. Now that I know that won’t happen, I get to regroup: He called the other night and said he didn’t want to start on it this close to his court date.

There is no shortage of interesting circumstances, is there?

I’ve looked at buying stock cabinets from IKEA, but I’m just not sold on that idea. I know they’re reasonably good cabinets for their price, but the styles aren’t what I’m looking for and the sizes are what they are..No customizing.

I’m also going to look at purchasing cabinets from a home store. To this point, I haven’t looked at stock cabinets at all because I’ve been on the build-my-own track for a while now.

Anyway, as I said, I’m doing without a “kitchen” and have since made my own. While washing dishes in the bathroom sink isn’t as convenient, the cooking setup isn’t horrible.

I have a big cutting board and a toaster. Who needs more?

I made a roast beef with vegetables and mashed potatoes the other night, and an apple crisp Monday night. Anytime I’ve ever lived on my own I’ll make these big family-sized meals and eat the leftovers for a week. Most of the time I’ll make two different meals so I can eat one thing for lunch and the other for dinner. That’s my solution to cooking for one. Plus, if someone comes over around dinner time, I have plenty of home-cooked food to offer them!

My "pantry" in the laundry room all ready to go. I've never had a spot like this before, and so far I'm really, really liking it!

Oh! Tomorrow is my birthday – the big 2-5. The number itself isn’t that big of a deal..I won’t be paying that additional fee to rent a car. But I never rent cars anyway..  No, this birthday will be a big one because I’ll be spending it with friends in my new, old house J

Windows: IN!

Thought I’d take a moment to show you my new windows!

Once we’re a little closer to finishing, I’d like to see about adding muntins/divided lights to the upper panes so the windows will look more like the originals. That could be a ways down the road, though.

Anyway, we’ve installed the six windows in the back of the house – this is the area that will get sided this year. The remaining windows will be replaced next year (or the year after) when I get to siding the rest of the house. Since finishing the windows, we’ve started – and nearly finished – insulating the back of the house. Once that’s finished, it’s time for us to hang more drywall and for my mudder/taper man to come and work his magic.

Kitchen windows - right over my imaginary sink.

Speaking of siding, I got a phone call this morning (before I even got out of bed, thank you) saying that they’ll be delivering it tomorrow which is a few days earlier than anticipated. No problem: I’ll just have to make a run to the store to hunt down the window/door trim I want and pick up the corner pieces that work with fiber cement siding.

Big hole for a big bedroom window!

Big things happenin’!