Uppah-daaayytsss! (Updates!)

It seems after every show, after being pretty well never home, 'tis time for some updates.  Sure, not a whole heck of a lot happens around here while I'm away but there's always something.  Right?  Right.

Mommy's back!  Who's a happy boy?!  Oh.  I need to repaint that garage door frame.  Hm, all right.  List add.

My wondrously magical pocket door is sticking a tad on the bottom, near the leading edge.  We had a week there where the weather was oh-so-glorious.  Some humidity kicked in causing expansion in that general neighborhood.

Door bottom.  Spot on floor to the left where they missed sealing it.  Can't stand the color of those door guides.  Must spray white.  Do I have those backwards?  Hm...where's my list...

Heh, lil' shavings are on the floor so I best hike the door up a hair.  I think the shavings are from when I goofed and put the brackets on the wrong end of the door, raising the particle board edge.  Though hm it is a hefty quantity of shavings.  Gotta raise the door.

Which I dread as the gap at the bottom is already large but.  So it is.

The door gap.  Yes, that's how not level our floors are here.  Uh huh.

During my first week on the show, the wind ripped through town which caused the metal bar thingie on the back security door's closer to get bent.  I know, right?  Bent.  ?!?!

Holy bent!  Crazy, right?!

So I sped through Menards (my last trip there....it's been over three weeks...omg....I have the shakes.  Mike thinks they have "Wanted" posters up looking for me, my face plastered on milk cartons, "have you seen this girl??") and grabbed a new closer, a Wright Tap and Go.*

I figured instead of one with that wanky janky fussy little metal slide-y part to hold the door open, this gizmo would be handier.  Tap the big button, open the door, door stays open.  Nudge the door open a little further and it releases.  So far so good and Mike really likes it.

New door closer and my omnipresent assistant. 

Of course, as always with me, it took longer than I had hoped and planned for to install but I eventually got it and all is good.

After it was all installed I feared the huge lock button would be constantly hit by the door but whew, luckily it just clears.

I do need to fix the bottom of the security door still so it shuts all the way and tight.  Two winters ago oodles of snow and ice wedged in there and mangled up the extender or whatever that part is called.  Somehow it's worse and the door won't shut.  I'll see if I can pound it right.

Anywhooo.

Right, since the weather was so nice and Mike took an extra weekday off work while I was toiling away (ugh soooo sad I didn't get to spend it with him!!), he tested out the bottle cap catcher.  Results?  Thumbs up but the hook and eye are a wee loose, the bottom popping open too easily spewing caps all directions.  Should be an easy fix.

The barely averted television console disaster scare?  Yeah, not fixed yet but I see that the screws are pulling straight out of the anchors.  Like straight out.  Yikes.  Never seen that before!  Plus, like a bonehead, I forgot to screw one edge of a back support into the shelf.  Doh.

Brick dust?  Yeah, forgot about that whole thing issue stuff with exposed brick.  Lots o' dust floating into the bathroom, but no worries.  Once progress picks back up in there, the bricks get cleaned, areas sealed up, it should be a-okay fine.

There was recent discussion of not taking out the kitchen/office/bathroom wall as that's A LOT  so a revisit of what to do what to do what to do to make sense of the bathroom if we don't was had.  And we had no answers.

Mike's office?  Yay!  Still tidy!  Aw, my baby likes it, loves me, and appreciates what I did for him!  Or hey wow, at least I hope that's why it's still tidy!

Now I remember one reason headboards have not been a part of my life.  Dust.  I'm allergic to dust.  But man, Finn is a dust generating machine!  Wow.  Regardless, the headboard gets super dusty.  Achoo!  A small price to pay for a dang cool headboard though.

I think I have a new idea brewing for the stair.  I need to bounce it off Mike first.  So sick of that awful crappy cheap a** carpet.

Ordered up three wallpaper samples for the master bedroom, two from Astek.  They have amazingly awesome wallpaper but in looking back, I ain't so sure why I ordered these particular samples.  I'm also not sure why I requested them at all as I surely can't afford their paper.

The third, the purple from Home Depot,* is generally the pattern I was seeking just not the colors I wanted.  But, with an open mind, I gave the sample a whirl, high hopes in tow.

Mike saw them, stopped dead, put up one finger, swiped across the air and said "uh, no."  Pause, finger swipe again.  "Uh, nope."  Me:  "I....."  Him:  "No."

Oh, speaking of samples, here's a sliver of the resin film tile Patrick the set decorator buyer gave me:

Yeah, they're thin but super darn cool.  And I sure hope you clicked on the link to his work within that above link.  If not, go do it now. I'll wait.

Well so anyway, time to get back at it, folks!  Yessssss......

My to-do list has mushroomed, shocker, and with spring officially here my new goal is to finally get the backyard looking nice, like really dig in and get it in stellar, proud-of-it shape.  Shade sail, stain the deck, new walkway, oh garage wiring and and and....yeah I'm in it to win it.

I'd like a tree back there but Mike vetoed.  I'll keep trying.  Maybe some shrubs?  A bush?  Hm.  Treeeeee.

Although.  Mike is saying the back yard is his domain to work on, so.  Still, I have plenty to work on back there.

Oh, how did the slow cooker experiment pan out?  Well.  I'll tell ya, it was fantastic to come home from a long day and not have to cook.  Chow down, catch half 'a breather, prep a few things, dump and run, have Mike flip it on in the morning, if he remembered.

Poor guy, he forgot once.  Needless to say it was the last time he forgot as I left notes everywhere, set reminders, nagged him.  Poor guy.

So, handy indeed, thumbs up.  Problem was....well, we need to find better recipes.  Therefore I have none to share, sorry.

Take that back, one is good -- I had adapted it for non-cooker so we already liked it but found it works super well in the cooker too:  Italian Pot Roast.  Make your own dressing and dry au jus mixes to cut down on the too-much-salty-salt.

Mike had an absolutely brilliant idea after a brief discussion about the whole shebang:  use a light timer to turn the cooker on and off.  How awesome is that idea?!  Jeez louise, clever that guy.  Unless you already knew that and again, I'm slow on the uptake.  Or maybe you have a fancy schmancy wifi cooker with the phone app.*

Well.  But ok!  I'm back home now!  Yay!!  And the house is a mess.  Guess I have to clean first.  Boo!

But wow, oh, oh my, I didn't realize how exhausted I was.  Maybe a nap first....(yeah right)

*The Wright Tap and Go door closer and wifi slow cookers are Amazon affiliate links.  The Home Depot wallpaper is an affiliate link as well.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.