Things I’ve come to realize…..
1. I’ve come to realize that my family…. is much more good looking than most.

2. I’ve come to realize that when I talk…. with most people I try to hurry through the conversation.

3. I’ve come to realize that I need…. more snacking self-control.

4. I’ve come to realize that I have lost…. my ability to say “no” to my wife when it comes to buying things (for the most part)

5. I’ve come to realize that I hate it when… there is traffic on my way home from work.

6. I’ve come to realize that when I’m hungry I…. have a hard time focusing.

7. I’ve come to realize that money…. is overrated.

8. I’ve come to realize that people…. don’t drive nearly as well as I do.

9. I’ve come to realize I’ll always be… entertained by childish things.

10. I’ve come to realize that I’m in love with… my little family.

11. I’ve come to realize that my cell phone is… a necessary luxury.

12. I’ve come to realize that when I woke up this morning… I had slept in again and would miss out on the gym again this week.

13. I’ve come to realize that right before I go to sleep at night… I need to roll on to either of my sides.

14. I’ve come to realize that right now I’m thinking about… Ryan hopefully understanding that after the new flooring is in, he can’t hammer on it.

15. I’ve come to realize that babies… Are a lot of work for my wife.

16. I’ve come to realize that when I blog… I am a very disjointed writer.

17. I’ve come to realize that today I will… not see Jenn until probably 9pm.

18. I’ve come to realize that tonight I will…work on my house till midnight for the third time this week.

19. I’ve come to realize tomorrow I will… probably not get enough done at work to get Friday off.

20. I’ve come to realize that I really want to… go on a trip with my wife.

21. I’ve come to realize everyone I tag to do this will…. probably not read it until this post is month old.

Tag: My brothers of the blog – Tyler and Scott

Well, I think that everyone that peeks in on my blog reads Jenn’s too, so I won’t go into too many details on the progress on the house. First, we removed a portion of wall. The previous owners had removed a small portion of the wall at one time, and put in a very homemade rail. The rail didn’t really bug me when we were first looking at the house, but Jenn and I have both grown to hate it. Now that the wall is out, the only things I really have to do on it is to take out the base plates (they’ll have to be cut out) and frame one end of the wall and re-sheetrock all of the edges so they will be ready for texturing and painting. Other than that, There is a bit of re-wiring that has to be done. There was a light switch on the wall and also the doorbell. I hope that wire length won’t be a problem, I can’t have a splice anywhere thats not accessible… I suppose that if I needed to put a junction box up in the attic, that would be ok, but I’d just as soon not have to do that.

Thats all the hard stuff that has been done since the last post. Since we decided that we would just hire out the fireplace, that was super easy. We really liked the work that the fireplace people did. The guy that came and gave us a quote and installed it for us was really nice, and very open about pricing and worked to get us what we wanted for a price that we could afford.

Next up… I have a lot of stuff that can happen now. I need to get our patio door ordered, that shouldn’t be too bad to put in. I am a bit nervous about taking the measurements myself… I’m hoping that they will come and do their own measurements. There is a lot of miscellaneous sheetrocking to do. There is also another wall that needs to have the sheetrock stripped off and have switches and plugs placed better.

Anyway, be sure to stay tuned for all the latest enthralling updates.

Well, I’ve had this new album playing for awhile, I thought that it was time to do a little blurb on why I like it so much. My first exposure to Radiohead was in high school with their first single “creep” off of their debut album Pablo Honey. I liked that song very much, but it isn’t really a good indicator of what was to come. Personally, I didn’t really hear much else from them until a few years later after my mission. They had come out with the albums: The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to Thief. Most people have heard songs from all of these albums, and there are a lot of great songs there, but the reason I like Radiohead is because of their ability to make an album that has a great concept and flows great from start to end. Kid A is my favorite album of theirs and I love the ebb and flow that is constant throughout. The playlist here has a couple of missing songs, but if you like it at all, you should definitely check them out!

So here is the hole in the wall.  The fireplace guy should be by tomorrow to take the final measurements, then hopefully the new surround and hearth will be installed the first of next week.  Once the final measurements are taken, I’ll be able to sheetrock right up to the fireplace.  We are hoping that it won’t be too hard to match the textures at the seems.  I had to cut quite a bit of sheetrock off in order to get back to a stud, so the edges have plenty of support.  The good news is that the new mantle should cover most of the top seem, all but the sides.

So… I moved.  Jenn did the template for me, didn’t she do a great job?  I told her that I love it when she talks css to me!

Hilarity has come back to TV.

For a long time, I have not really found anything worth watching on TV. We mainly had cable for the kid stations and Jenn liked to watch ER. But in the last few months (right before the blasted writer’s strike) both Jenn and I have discovered NBC’s series The Office. I’m not going to go on and on about it, but lets just say that in one episode you will probably: feel a bit awkward… no, make that extremely awkward, have a good hearty laugh, and most importantly, think to yourself, “this is actually kind of realistic”.

Nbc.com has some of the latest episodes available to watch for free. Check it out!

So, with tax returns coming soon, and tax rebates supposed to be coming soon too, its time to think about how to spend the money as fast as possible, at least that is what it seems like.

The Beginning

We didn’t really mean to schedule such a big project. The only thing that we really wanted is to get rid of the carpet in the dining room. We decided to put hardwood flooring down, and also decided that we also wanted to do the rest of the open area while we were at it. The carpet in the front room is a disaster from all the foot traffic through the front door. So basically the areas that will be hardwood is the front room, dining room, and hallway. This will leave the bedrooms carpeted, bathroom tiled and the kitchen and entryway with a tile-laminate (which we will replace with real tile next year or so).

The Domino Effect

If we replace the floors we will have to replace the trim as well.

We aren’t big fans of the rock work on our fireplace, and the edge of the hearth makes us nervous with two little ones learning to walk, so that will be coming out and replaced as well.

The ceilings through the majority of the upstairs have that stupid popcorn junk on it, so we will be scraping the popcorn off and getting them textured.

The first section of wall on the north side of the hall has about a million holes in it from hangings over the years, and also has a lot of wall plates for switches, outlets, and phone jacks. So we will tear the existing sheetrock down and replacing it with a new sheetrock and consolidated locations for the plates.

The first section of wall on the south side of the wall along with the railing next to it is going to be demo’d and replaced with a new longer section of railing.

Finally, we will be replacing the existing sliding glass door with french doors.

Conclusion

All in all, it should be well with in our cost budget, but I’m just hoping that the time we are in a war zone isn’t dragged out for months on end.

The only thing that I will have done for us is texturing the ceilings. The kitchen was remodeled a couple of years before we bought the house, and they redid the ceiling in the kitchen. We want the new texture to match the existing. I’ve done texturing in the bedrooms, and have gotten pretty good at it, but we really want the transition between textures to be seamless.

There are two things I am a little nervous about doing. First is the south wall that we are completely taking out and putting up a longer railing, just because I haven’t really done anything like that before. Second is the fireplace… same reasons as before plus the fact that the fireplace is such a focal point of a room. We may very well end up getting some professional help on it if we feel like we need it.

I will try to keep the blog up to date with planning, materials, and procedures of our workings.

I hope to be blogging more often for awhile, we have a big remodel coming up and I will try to document as much as I can so the millions of you can follow along at home!

Anyway, I was thinking about something the other day (I don’t really recall what exactly it was) and thought “I am a total nerd”. So Here is the nerdiest things about me.

I was such a Harry Potter nerd that I actually subscribed to a couple of Potter Podcasts.

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy novels. I love the LOTR and have read all three books in the trilogy, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and some other miscellaneous publications by author JRR Tokien. I own all three extended versions of the movies, total running time somewhere around 12 hours and another couple of days worth of special features.

The passenger side mat in my car that I drive to and from work is covered with fingernail trimmings… I’m not sure if this is nerdy or just gross, and I wonder why I can’t find a carpool.

I don’t watch sports. I never have and I probably never will. I’d rather watch c-span than espn any day of the week. I will try and keep up with the Jazz when they make the playoffs, but that is the maximum interest that I will ever show. I would like to point out, that although this is a nerdy trait, it also happens to be one of my wifes most favorite traits.

I get bloody noses easily, some might not classify this as nerdy, but I feel pretty dorky with a tissue sticking out of my nose as I walk around the house.

I call my Mom and Dad “Mommy and Daddy”… never really got over that stage I guess. Also, I do kiss my mom on the lips… it’s the way I was raised, OK. I didn’t actually know this was weird until a rather awkward conversation I had with some guys at the MTC. I think the statement I mad had something to do with comparing a certain kiss to one like you give your Mom. Not everyone understood my comparison.

I’m going to stop there. I was planning on making a cool list too, but after getting stumped at number 2… I decided to let it rest.

Oh, by the way, since there are like 3 people who ever come to my blog, I’d like to pass on this list as an assignment to yall. Leave a comment to know that you read my post and are brave enough to let us all know how nerdy you are.

Most of you know that Pink Floyd is my all time favorite band. Pink Floyd started in the late 60′s with a psychedelic sound similar to the late Beatles. After their first album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, they lost their front man and lead guitarist, Syd Barrett. He was replaced by David Gilmour, and they really didn’t appoint any one member to take on front man responsibility. They we fairly successful in England and wouldn’t hit world wide fame until the late 70′s with Dark Side of the Moon. But the precursor effort to Dark Side was an album called Meddle. Often overlooked in the Pink Floyd catalogue, Meddle represents a transition from a pop sound to a more art-rock style. The album only has six tracks, five of which are 6 minutes or under in running time. The last song, Echoes, is a 23:30 minute magnum opus and often considered by Floydians as the greatest and best song that they ever produced. Echoes was also a precursor the makeup and style of the classic Dark Side of the Moon.

Anyway, my favorite song on the album is Fearless (which is also my favorite Floyd song of this period as well), and the short song Seamus is from whence I take my email and screen name in a lot of online places… this song is often considered the worst Floyd song ever.

Enjoy!

BTW – Pink Floyd is not the name of anyone in the band. It comes from the names of two American jazz artists, Floyd Council and Pink Andersen.