Thinking about becoming like Bonnie and Clyde.

Sometimes life hits you in the face and says "Ha! I'm going to just see how much you can take before you go crazy and start robbing banks and living the life like Bonnie and Clyde!"

This weekend was a crazy weekend, first: on Thursday Preston called me (I thought on his way home) but he said that his truck broke down 3 office buildings from his. So I got in my car and went to see what was going on with his truck,  2002 Dodge Ram. Well, after looking under the hood we see the belt is shredded. So we go to Autozone and get a new belt and replace it, in the dark, in the cold, and also as a bonus it was raining a little. When we go to start the truck- nothing. The battery was Dead. Yes with a capital D. The worst part? It was all just bad timing, pay day and mortgage on the same week=poor Preston and Bailey. So we get a battery and put it in, right after the battery was in we start the truck and the entire parking lot was filled with smoke and we soon found the belt-melted 1/2 way off the pulleys, and it was a horrible smell. We finally gave up for the night and rushed to the nearest liquor store for a little whiskey. Our thought= at least it's Saturday soon and we can fix it then. 

Preston's comment: Air Conditioning is the root of all evil in cars. 

Saturday: Since we are poor, we called all the salvage yards in the area and found the part we needed for $85! The part? The A/C compressor, yep, the pulley on it wasn't turning and that's why the second belt burned up. So we drive an hour round trip to save over $170 on the same part and replaced it, which took FOREVER because Dodges suck. That's why you should always buy a Ford or Chevy.

We finally get Preston's truck home Saturday night around 7pm.

Sunday we decided we needed to work on the house so the weekend wouldn't be completely lost. So what better thing to do than scrape off all the pop corn in what will become the office. When scraping pop corn always remember to cover the floor with plastic or something so clean up is easier! Now we are waiting for my parents and siblings to arrive to see all our hard work and have dinner!

Happy times renovating yall!

OH! Ps. Living in a home without insulation is really COLD! We walked outside today and it was warmer on the outside than the inside. Current temp outside= 58 degrees. Inside the house= 49 degrees.

 

Also as a bonus each wall is a different color sponged with a different color! So that translates into A). Really Ugly. and B). We have to prime it prior to painting it a normal color. 

Just a Rant

Okay, so on the day's when Preston and I don't go crazy re-doing our home we watch the HGTV and DIY network for giggles and inspiration.  I just have to vent for a moment and forgive me if I sound like a huge bitch.

Watching the Renovation Realities just makes me so angry sometimes. These women are so stupid and are just not cut out for any home improvement task they are taking on most of the time. These women actually think that blow drying your hair and curling it and putting on make up and lip gloss  is something that should happen BEFORE renovation. NO. Thats not how it happens in home renovation times. You wake up and you just freaking get to work, you don't complain that you are frustrated and tired and sore after 20 minutes of working on a simple task like ripping out a wall of sheet rock! Last time Preston and I were working on the kitchen floor we both got cut really badly and were bleeding before we even noticed that we were cut!  Just get it together and realize if you aren't cut out for it JUST DON'T DO IT! Save your husband, tv viewers, and me the trouble and just go get your nails done and leave the work to the real people.

As another side note, Big Tex burned down and that really made me and Preston sad. Not only is he a very important icon at the State Fair of Texas, he is dear to our hearts. That is where Preston asked me (last year) to marry him! Right in front of Big Tex. Well, today while the new season of Dallas was being filmed where I work, I walked into the room and Jessie Metcalf said "I'm glad Big Tex burned down" I was shocked and angry so I asked him to repeat that (because I thought I had miss-heard) and he repeated it just the same. My response: " You are an asshole." and then after talking for a few minutes I came to the conclusion that he is a half-way decent guy but still on my not-so-good-list. When I told Preston what I had said he text me back "babe, you gotta control your inner old man".

Another episode of Renovation Realities and the wife is already making me A) feel bad for her husband and B) makes me want to find her and punch her in the face and stop asking so many dumb questions like why is insulation pink? Who freaking cares?!@(@*$&#(#@! Just tear the stuff out and stop worrying about brown recluses. 

:-) Renovation :-)

WOAH NELLY! The kitchen is going A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I am so thrilled beyond pieces how the floor is going. I spent today cleaning and doing homework and had a great conversation with my mom!

Kitchen= My almost favorite room in the house. I'm scared still of the oven/stove combo-and in a dream land world Preston would surprise me one day with a new stainless steel oven/electric stove combo with a microwave/hood vent combo; but we are poor so that wont happen.

Here is a before of our crazy 4-layer laminate flooring and a bonus layer of plywood:

And the Stain drying part of the kitchen floor craziness: (well me staining it :-)   )

I just have to say, I am by far the luckiest girl in the world to have such an amazing husband who I can do home improvement projects with, without having any arguments. I just can't believe how lucky I am, we are just having the best time renovating our home together we just don't want to do anything else-like go to the movies, nah we would rather stain the kitchen floor. :-)

Why is there not a 24 hour sandpaper store?!?!?!

Part 2 of Preston and my crazy kitchen re do on a whim. Well, it's 10:22 and Preston and I both look like homeless people, we went to get Chioptle to go and eat it on our front porch because the rest of the house is crazy covered in dust from the kitchen floor that we sanded. 

To briefly recap the day that just happened would take another day, so I will summarize on parts and go into great detail on the funny bits.

To start the day we knew our task on hand: get the last layer off the kitchen floor. This was the 1930's vinyl floor adhesive backing that was stuck on the hardwood floors, PS the only good looking layer of flooring other than the wood floor was the third layer of laminate flooring, most likely from the 60's. Since we didn't have  a floor sander or any kind of sander for that matter we knew that we needed to get one ASAP. Since it is Sunday most of the pawn shops we frequent were closed, we searched all over the three nearest towns and found only one pawn shop open and he had a few sanders which were all overpriced, when he didn't go for my sweet southern charm to get the price lower I pulled a John Wayne move and walked out. We (about 2 hours later) ended up exactly where we started from- Home Depot- which as a side note I went to 6 times just today; and 4 out of those 6 times  I was in the return line returning the items that didn't work for sanding our floor. We became known with the return lady as "The newlywed home improvement couple).  We learned today many lessons, 1: Ryobi is our friend, since we are poor and we had to make the most out of Prestons most recent pay check we had to go with the cheaper tools. 2. It would be really nice if they made a "never dulling sandpaper" or atleast make it more freaking durable. 3. If they couldn't make a more durable sandpaper why cant there be a 24 hour sandpaper mart where Preston and I could buy some more and finish the little bit of sanding we needed to do. 

Altogether we ended up buying a whole lot of sandpaper, a orbital sander which is good for more detail work, a belt sander which has more balls and really gets after it without any fear like a WW2 Sherman Tank or a tiger ready for a nice dinner, more sandpaper, some big gap filler (because under the thresholds there are big gaping holes to the underneath of the house) and a really cool "bit" to our drill. It is a metal wire crazy thing and really is good for getting the top layer of crap off the last later of the wood floor.

Funny sayings for the day:

Preston: atleast if we ever ended up to be homeless people we would be happy!


Man at Chipotle: MAN! You are so dirty!
Preston: Yeah, we've been living on the side of the road for the last month.
Mr. Chipotle: Which road?
Preston: hahaha, naw, we've been sanding our kitchen floor, believe it or not we showered just this morning!

Also as a side note, Preston and I both ended up injuring ourselves; I got a gash in my shin from a piece of flooring that jabbed me. And Preston was going so crazy with his crowbar that he made a piece of flooring jam into his arm and slice him. Thank goodness for band-aids and neosporin.

PS. Just as another side note. The DIY folks on all those shows on DIY and HGTV completely bypass some of the most important things when renovating your home. First; Not any sanding job is a "quick sanding job" no, we realized (perhaps too late) that you really should cover your doorways with plastic and tape so your house doesn't begin to look like your Aunt Gertrude died and then her cats died and all the dust in the world came into your home and settled on EVERYTHING.  Second; it takes so much more effort than they let you see to do this stuff. Preston and I are walking around like 80 year old folks after 2 days of this kind of crazy labor and we are both under 30 and in decent shape. Thirdly, the last thing they don't ever share with you, sometimes you just need a shot of Whiskey to continue. After working yourself silly and sanding a kitchen floor with a 5 inch orbital sander and a belt sander and going through soooooooooo muchhhhhhhhh sandpaper, whiskey is almost the only things that keeps you going. Not to mention the laughter that Preston and I shared, sometimes you just reach the point that laughter is the only thing that keeps you going because if you start to cry it is just straight to hell for your home improvement project.

Preston and I need to shower up and get ready for tomorrow, since Preston works a real job we need to get some sleep.

SIDE NOTE: People are really crazy, they just tell you things like you can't use a belt sander to sand a floor and blah blah blah but honestly, have you tried it? Everyone has an opinion and not everyone has tried it, and not everyone opinion is a good opinion.  You have to sometimes try things for yourself to know if something really works or not. Just try something, because if you are right you will be completely happy and if you are wrong, big freaking deal and you can just figure something else out. If you are smart enough and don't just listen to everything everyone else says you can pull your own John Wayne move and just figure it out your self and not have to have your hand held like you are in 1st grade going to the bathroom or a spineless twit who can't think for them-self. This will save you a LOT OF MONEY.  Too many people go around asking Can I do this? and then they end up at Home Depot asking the workers "How can I do this?". LET ME REMIND YOU: They work at  Home Depot! Probably not the sharpest tool in the box. Insead just get after it, last time I checked I was able to potty by myself, hold a steady job, and re do a house with my husband and throw other peoples suggestions out the window because they just act like they know things.

Bed now, check out these pictures. Even our crowbars love eachother. 

                                         It looks like Preston has sleeves on, but really just dirt.


Floor after a day worth of sanding: 

a lot of different whims

Oh, as a side note, even though Preston and I have been sick we have been still killing ourselves making our home more livable :-)

One weekend we went completely nuts and painted the entry hall, stairwell, and upstairs landing the most beautiful blue. Also we re did the light fixtures on both floors and they look amazing! It just goes to show, if you have mildly good light fixures and are willing to take a chance with spray paint and new globes you can save $$$$$$!  We also caulked the entire upstairs, on a whim. Let me tell you, so many people take caulk for granted but Preston and I have become HUGE fans of caulk.

We also have finished the upstairs master bedroom and closet, which makes us feel really good about our home improvement skills.

We also had a whim and put in french doors. Who does that?! We do. We put in french doors from our dining room to the sun room. That was a crazy whim but completely worth it, they look beautiful and have really helped with our electric bill.

Also, the first cold snap that we had we went completely crazy and ripped out trees and bushes, and bricks, and all kinds of other crazy things out of the front yard. We worked literally all day and made a dent. The lady who lived here before us apparently loved the look of brick, broken up concrete and was a hoarder that spilled over to the yard. It took a whole day but it looks better. Just waiting on the electric company to cut the tree limbs that are laying down on the power line.

Kitchen Floor Redo on a whim...*pictures*

Holy Moly. My husband and I are possibly the craziest people in the world. Not in the creepy-im-going-to-kill-you-next-time-I-loose-a-poker-game-and-had-a-bad-day kinda way. Nope, we have a day off and while I'm cleaning, Preston and I begin wondering what exactly is under our kitchen floor. Well folks, since we had the whole day off and no where else to go we un did the threshold and realized that under three layers of linoleum, and layer of plywood there are original hard wood floors. WHY WOULD YOU COVER THAT UP?! I would like to go to who ever did that and slap them in the face with a wet sock.

So Preston and I decided why the heck not just on a whim tear up the whole entire kitchen floor? So at 10am we went and got some breakfast and then got two crow bars from the Home Depot and just pretty much when to town ripping up the whole floor, 3 layers of linoleum, plywood and all! It took us several hours, and a lot of craziness and the thing that creeped us out the most? Well, we took out the stove/oven combo and realized not only were the sides of that completely gross and covered up with what appeared to be left over grease from 15 years of fried chicken. There was a crazy hole in the wall leading to the laundry shoot. When I opened up the laundry shoot I was shocked, disgusted, and horrified at what I found. A pair of tighty-whiteys that looked like they had been worn by a homeless man, since Preston doesn't have those underpants we realized they belong to the man who broke into our home; we are contemplating hanging them on our front porch with a sign saying "Dear Person who broke into our house, if you ever break into our home again, we will hang you by your toe nails in the town square for all to see your atrocious acts." We're still thinking on that one. After that (at noonish) we had to take a shot of whiskey to make it not seem so bad, then back to work ripping out the flooring.

Now after all the layers are gone, we are just stuck with trying to figure out how to get the glue backing off the wood floor from the moister barrier. We'll most likely finish this up tomorrow if nothing goes wrong, we're thinking a good sanding is what it needs to be beautiful. Pizza for dinner because our oven/stove is too gross for us even to look at. We'll be cleaning that up with all kinds of cleaner and sell it in the garage sale.  YEEEEEEEHAWWWWWW!

                                                                      BEFORE

 

DURING

                                                                   AFTER