The Life of Riley.... or should we say Arnold?

I think Arnold is fully acclimated to the new house and is now enjoying the "life of riley." He's got a few favorite spots. He likes taking a nap in the laundry basket...

He loves to perch on the ottoman, even though his fat butt hangs off it...

The brown couch is proving to be a very comfy place to lounge after a long game of "string."
And of course he loves hanging out at the pub table after a long day at work; work being - taking a nap and then another nap after lunch, and then eating dinner with the folks. The one thing that's really weird is he's DEATHLY AFRAID of the kitchen door. He'll sit by it all day, but when you open it he runs away as if you are trying to force him outside. Odd behavior considering he is always trying to get out the front door when you open that one!! Doesn't he realize it's the same place? I guess not.

OR Maybe he's smarter than we realize.... Maybe there is something weird about that kitchen door? Maybe it's haunted? Oooo...

PICTURES

I have uploaded all our pictures of the house to Picassa... you can check them out here. It's neat to see the progress... Some of the rooms look even MORE different than they do in these pictures. I'll have to try to keep on top of photography!!

Spring Break

We didn't do any work on the house or yard this weekend. Come to think of it... we haven't done any home improvement in over a week! Call it our Spring Break. April is getting to be a very busy month and it's getting harder to find time to do projects.
This past weekend I went to Tampa for my Aunt's baby shower... Dave stayed home so he could play in his softball game, and then go to a Suns game. It was fun for both of us... but pretty exhausting! We were asleep by 9:30 last night!
Maybe I'll start doing some gardening after work - since it's been light until about 7:30 lately. That would mean Dave would have to start cooking dinner... HHmmmm... I may need to reevaluate this plan...

I think it's time we talked about the bathroom.

So the house is looking good... the yard is getting there... I think it's time to start tackling the master bath. It's the one room we have not touched cosmetically. We did do some minor improvements to it when we first bought Ardsley. We ripped out the old crusty shower doors.... I caulked the tub and shower so there are no leaks... we replaced the sink and facuet... and the toilet... Well, I guess we've done more than I thought we'd done! Maybe it feels like we haven't done anything to that room because I am still greeted by this lovely wallpaper every morning at 6:30...

EEEEK!

It's time. So here's what we need to do:

Prime and paint walls

Regrout some areas of the floor/wall where the grout has chipped away

Clean the rest of the shower enclosure gunk off the tub.

Replace the old crusty handles on the vanity with nice clean ones

Replace the light fixture that blinds you when you walk in

Eventually I would like to get a double vanity... right now we've only got one sink but the vanity is sooo long - there's enough room for another one. I wonder why they just didn't put 2 sinks in there in the first place?

And we are going to need a new door. The one we have doesn't shut - probably from years of steamy showers with NO ventilation system.

So I guess we've got to add a fan too...

Ooo... I'm getting the itch to make a Home Depot run tonight...

I've made my bed... do I have to lie in it?

We are divying up the yard - Dave is in charge of grass - I am in charge of the flower beds. I think they are going to be equally hard to keep under control.

On Saturday while Dave was weed-n-feeding the grass (practically naked) I was in the back working on the bed closest to the deck. It took me 2 hours but I got one little section weeded and looking MUCH better. What's great is there are actual nice flowering plants trying to grow; I've just got to keep the weeds out. I don't think I am going to plant anything until I've got a clean slate. The ratio of what I've done to what I need to do is slightly off. Here is the bed I weeded...

Here is the bed I haven't weeded...


This could take awhile...

Feed me, Seymore! Feed me!

This past weekend we decided to bite the bullet and ask for help with the yard.

I know I know... we were let down as well. What is it with us? We just hate asking for help?? I don't know. Maybe we just got on a roll with fixing everything ourselves. Usually it's been just a trip to Home Depot for supplies and then we start flying by the seat of our pants with a screwdriver and some elbow grease. No instruction manual for us!! Who needs it?? We've got common sense!!!
It's worked out so far. (It also helps we went through A LOT of trial and error with the Belmonte house.) But when it comes to living foliage.... well... you've seen my previous blogs. You can't caulk or paint over a big dead patch of grass. So on Saturday we went to Ace and found a yard guy and asked him what the heck do we do to resurrect our grass from the dead?

Apparently you have to FEED the stuff.

So we left with a ginormous bag of Weed and Feed under the assurance of the Ace guy that everything would be OK - we caught the cancer before it spread. We got home and read the instructions (a first) and realized we already had 2 things working against us. 1.) It says fertilize yard in February or early March. and B.) It says "Do NOT apply with a hand spreader." Ironically that's the only type of spreader we've got. Great.

Dave decided to throw caution to the wind and use the hand spreader anyway. So I say, "Great - OK, well, is says here you need to wear pants and gloves because you don't want to get the poison on your skin-" And I look up to see Dave applying it wearing shorts, sandals, and of course glove less.
I cry out "Dave! What about your legs? It will burn you!"
He says "Nah. It only activates with water. I'll be fine. I'm going to take a shower after this anyway."

Now I know Dave's SAT scores were higher than mine... but isn't water involved in a shower?

So now the grass has got a full coat of the poison/fertilizer and it rained this weekend so HOPEFULLY the weeds start to die and the grass starts to grow. You can tell it's working if the weeds start turning yellow. I'll keep you posted...