Still working on it...

Well I opened the box to the chandelier... but that's about as far as I've gotten on that project.

We'll need some natural light when we go to install it... so trying to do this project after work is not really happening. It's starting to get a little darker, a little earlier every day now. It's so depressing. I hate that the summer is over!

But the shelves are up and they look great! 1 project down.... So many more to go....

Put that $20 back in your wallet.

I just heard a story on the news that Home Depot will be slashing prices on 50% of their merchandise.

It's in response to the economy being in the crapper, and just the general competition they are facing from other superstores like... Ehem... Lowes. Hopefully this will help them pick up sales - I'd hate to see them go away. I rather like the Depot.

But what a great time to be doing renovations!! We'll have to wait a week or two to see what prices get cut... hopefully it's some stuff we need... like wallpaper stripper....

PROGRESS...

Just a quick update as we try to make some progress before Friday hits and we turn into couch potatoes....... Ahh football season! A reason to veg!

The new shelves are looking good... we bought some nice wood and I stained and "schelacked" them, as my dad would say. Dave will screw them in tonight and we can start putting stuff on them.

I dropped off our St Thomas map at a local framery and hopefully that should be done this week. It will look AWESOME on my dark green walls in the dining room. You'll have to wait for that one...

And the "chandelier-in-a-box" arrived! I was giddy with anticipation when I saw it waiting for me on the front porch... Hopefully it looks spectacular when it's all said and done! Maybe that will be tonight's project....

Until tomorrow, my friends!

Grass is overrated.

I guess we haven't had enough pain and suffering because we are giving the real estate market another go!
Yup. We're listing with our THIRD agent. Hopefully this guy has got the mojo to get it done. We are starting off with a bang - we dropped our listing price to $149,900. (Just to put it in perspective - we started out 2 years ago at $215,000.) I know it's a dramatic drop but we just want to get someone in there and get it off our hands. Its too stressful to try and keep up two old houses while we both have full time jobs. There are only so many hours in a day and we're not having fun anymore. The days of researching a project and looking for the best supplies have gone out the window because we are now limited to what's cheapest and what can we do in a limited time frame before we have to start work on something else that's broken.
So hopefully someone will fall in love with it soon and buy it! Pray for us!!

So this all went down on Tuesday - we met with the new agent, signed with the paperwork and then immediately went "Oh crap! We've got to get this house looking nice AGAIN because people will be coming through it." So we both drove off to work and then at 5pm drove back to Belmonte to do the yard. It wasn't too bad - just needed some sprucing up. I bought some annuals for the front, Dave loaded up the mower, and we were on our way.

Well...... I was on my way. Dave was stuck in lawnmower limbo.

He's got 2 mowers - the really old one, and the old one. One is newER than the other - but by no means is it NEW. So Tuesday night he brought the newER one to Belmonte to cut the grass. Only he couldn't get it started. Which is even more frustrating because he basically rebuilt the thing 2 weeks ago.
So here is the scene set for you - I'm in the front yard, digging and planting, digging and planting. Dave is in the garage - cussing up a storm and every now and then I see a wrench or a screwdriver come flying down the driveway.
And now it's getting late... and it's getting DARK. We are running out of time....
Dave gives up and gets the old mower. It starts up fine. HALLEJULIAH! He starts cutting the grass and PPFFFTT it dies right in the middle of the lawn.

It's out of gas.

I won't repeat the string of explatives but let's just say I'm glad that no kids or nuns were around to hear.

So we left the house with half of a manicured yard. What a way to start the week!

Pull up a seat.

So in preparation for Thanksgiving, I have decided to bump up the importance of finishing the dining room, since like 90% of festivities will be held sitting at the table. There's not MUCH work to be done... we just need to get the ball rolling. We've got to put a new threshold down on the wood floor, possibly look into getting a new sliding glass door to the deck, and start decorating the walls so they're not blank.

Two projects that require NO actual work... just some cash... include getting a chandelier, and some nicer dining room chairs. I've got a hot lead on an awesome chandelier - more posts on that to come.... But as far as the chairs go - you can mark that one "DONE" and off the list!!

I found these beauties at the Consignment Barn near my house.

I'm not opposed to the mixing of the floral patterns - the seat and the rug...

And the legs mimic the legs of the buffet. Perfect!


Don't you just love them?? They are Ethan Allen, nice construction, and light as a feather compared to the old red leather chairs we had. Two of the chairs have slight damage to the cane back, but really I could care less! I love them as they are - worn in and looking like they totally belong with my table. $200 for six chairs - not bad! I love the way they change the entire look of the dining room.

The OLD dining room chairs....


... and the NEW dining room chairs. It actually looks like a dining room - not a board room!!

I found out the Consignment Barn will actually sell my old round table and red chairs for me... but we've decided to hang onto them until after Thanksgiving. I think we'll need all the chairs we can get. The fact that we are hosting this year is spreading like wildfire throughout the family. Even with our influx of seating I might still have to borrow some...

Anyone have a card table or two to lend me???

"GAME ON!!"

The race is officially "back on" to do more projects than we can A.) stand and 2.) afford.

We've got 3 out of town friends coming in October for a football game...... and also I may have inadvertently declared "I'll host Thanksgiving this year!" in a fleeting state of euphoria at a family gathering. (Side note - that euphoria is LONG gone, now that I realize I have no idea how to cook a turkey or how to seat 57 people at my dining room table.)

So one of the projects we are tackling first is getting the guest rooms "guest ready." They were always clean and able to host people - but we still have boxes and suitcases in the corners. So one of the first things I did was unpack. Seems simple enough eh? Let me tell you - I have no idea where to put this stuff - now that we've been living without it for a year. I guess these clothes/picture frames/snow globes really aren't my favorite things? Maybe I can live without?

In the guest room that holds the office we are going to put a HUGE shelf up way high on the wall - and that will become a display case for all of Dave's NASA collectibles. He's got quite the substantial collection so I am hopeful that it all fits!!!!

This wall is just screaming for a shelf, isn't it?

FAN tastic.

I'm happy to announce that the yucky old grey fan is finally GONE and we've now got a brand spankin' new fancy looking one in it's place!! Yea!

It wasn't a hard project... but it kept us busy for a few days. If you don't remember the old fan looked like this:

UUUUGGGHHH. Hated that thing. It was dirty and rocked and creaked and made noise. I just hated staring at it from my bed every night. The ceiling medallion was at one point white in color - I am assuming - but I've only known it as this very attractive "stale yellow" color. Lovely. Our biggest fear was what lied beneath that medallion....



So one day I came home from work and found the ceiling fan box open and the contents spilled out all over the living room floor - near "someone's" favorite blue recliner.

I could barely contain my excitement! "So we've started this project?! Hooray!! Dave? Dave! Where are you? Honey.....honey.......Yoo Hoo!!...." I walked through the house looking for my favorite handy man and walked right into (or should I say under?) the reason I couldn't find him.
Two holes in the ceiling. Not one. But two.


Uh oh.

Hmmm.... THATS not good.

Dave had gone to the Depot for more supplies because we were going to have to rig this new fan to fit. We're not really sure HOW that grey fan was hanging up there because there was no wood behind either one of these holes??!! I'm no braniac but... aren't fans heavy?

Well Dave eventually figured out a way to make it work.

He's a smart guy.

And while we're at it - out went the old ceiling medallion - in came the nice clean simple WHITE one to cover that second hole. Ahhh!! Better!

The finished product looks like this:


It's quiet and fast and keep us nice and cool! Thank you Hunter Ceiling Fans!!!
I have to admit this was very much a DAVE project. Other than pictures I really did nothing to further the project. In fact I probably slowed us a down a little with all of my comments and picture taking ("Babe!! Look this way! Babe! Make a face! Good one!")
So a big MMWWUA kiss for my hubby! The electrical wizard!! :)

Ahh... hurricane season!

San Marco Blvd.


Whew that was a long hurricane!! Two weeks!!!! Yikes!!!



I am kidding of course.


Tropical Storm Fay did stay over us for a few days, but eventually moved on, leaving us with a mountain of clean-up to do. If for all this time you've been anxiously awaiting my next post (and who hasn't??) you're probably thinking by now, "Surely Fay destroyed the House of Wax!! I hope they are ok!! (sigh) What will I read at work now?" But in fact we skated by on the skin of our teeth! Relatively no damage to our home knock on wood.

The view of our driveway and street... not too bad... just lots of little branches.


Our Ardsley neighborhood was by no means spared... There were a total of 3 huge oak trees that toppled over, blocking roadways, and one actually fell on a power pole, crushing all the power lines causing us to be without power for THREE DAYS. It doesn't seem like much - but let me tell you, by the afternoon of the first day... it gets really really hot. By the second day... we have run out of things to talk about, my hair is frizzed out like Richard Simmons, and the doors and windows are all swelled shut. By the THIRD day... I am truly starting to panic, frantically driving around town looking for ice, and there is no denying that something has died in the fridge and we shall never be able to open that door again for fear of releasing the odor.

One of my neighbors lost a huge water oak tree.

The power did eventually come on, I started to relax, we had hot water again along with cold A/C. But having no power for 3 days...... I learned a few things about myself. Here are some nuggets I'll share with you, in case you find yourself in the same situation...

1.) As soon as the power goes out - there are a million things I am DYING to do that of course require power. (Why didn't I vacuum, blow dry my hair, watch TV and cook a lasagna while I had the chance?? Dammit!)

2.) Granola bars and cans of tuna fish are really gross. Why do the news people tell us to stock up on these items? I would never eat them WITH power, I am certainly not eating them without.

3.) I don't really know what the Bleach is for. Why do they tell us to buy this item again? It's not like I have a ton of white laundry I can do while I sit in my hot humid dark house.

4.) Do not wait until the power goes out to go shopping around for ice/coolers/water/flashlights etc. Or else you will find yourself on the floor of a Winn Dixie arm wrestling an old woman for that last bag of ice (or you will give up because she is strong and offer her $10 for it.)

5.) It is IMPERATIVE to have lots of friends (the more the merrier) so as to be able to call on them in the event that they do in fact still have power while yours is out.

6.) I have learned that I never really got over that whole "afraid of the dark" thing. It's really dark when no one on your block has power. I mean...... REALLY dark.

7.) And finally.... I can say now that if it wasn't for the invention of AIR CONDITIONING I would not be living in this beautiful state. THERE I said it. (Would you? No. I didn't think so.)

Fay, Fay go away... Come again another day!

We've been awaiting Fay for a week and she's finally getting around to making landfall in Jacksonville.

About a week ago they predicted it would be a category 1 hurricane... but it lost alot of steam and now is a Tropical Storm. Sounds alot better than it actually is... A tropical storm still packs a pretty big punch; we are scheduled for 10 inches of rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph. Enough to throw your patio furniture through a window - or at least that's what the weatherman is saying.

Just about every office in Jacksonville is closed - EXCEPT for mine. Why in the world we are still open is beyond me. No one's clip reel is worth getting killed for - I don't care who your client is! Dave of course had to leave me and Arnold about 5 am to go start the wall-to-wall coverage at FCN. Another perk of working in TV - They don't care if you've got family at home - They need you to come into work!! STAT!!

So I guess the bottom line is we are both at work - 40 miles apart - and the poor cat is holding down the fort. I am going to try and sneak out early to check on Ardsley and Belmonte. I think we'll be ok, but you never know with an old house. I feel much better knowing that both houses have new roofs, and we got the humongous dead tree cut down last year.

So we're hunkering down here in Jax!! Pray that we make it through tonight! I think the worst is yet to come!!

Fun in the Sun.

This past weekend we flew to Mississippi for a quick trip... and continued the trend of NOT doing any projects on the house.

We got to see our 3 year old nephew and 6 month old niece. We spent most of the weekend relaxing by my in-laws' gorgeous pool. The weather was perfect too - 85 and sunny! But now that we're back... I think it's high time we tackled something of note. I'll keep you updated on that later..... but first, how about some photos? Enjoy!


Mary Holland and I having a good laugh...


The pool and the 6 acres of green stuff in the back... Why can't our yard look this nice?


The 3 Charlies playing a game of volleyball...


Dave and Charlie win the prize for "pruniest fingers." You couldn't drag those two out of the pool if your life depended on it.