9-11-09

I woke at 5:30am. It was still dark. I woke to the sound of my daughter saying HI and the sight of her standing there in her usual attire with a scarf around her neck. Then she was gone. And I laid in bed pondering that sighting until I decided to just go on and get up. Jes was still in Colorado, and I had a birthday to celebrate! At 6:30 I took a photo of the sunrise over my neighbor's house. Walked to school at 8, worked all day and took the bus home. My dear colleague brought me red roses, and another cookies. I felt loved. When I got home Dan gave me the best present of all- he vacuumed the entire house! Then took me out to dinner at a fine restaurant in Shakertown. I got a ton of Facebook birthday wishes, and it was a good good day. Glad to be alive.

9-10-09

We did it!!! It's done!!!! My corner cabinets have corners, the curtain is hung, everything is painted and done. All I need now is some artwork and we would like to have one more piece of furniture for china. And I think I'll put my candlesticks on the buffet. Now we can have a party!

9-9-09

Today Dan surprised me. I walked home so fast because he said he had gone to Home Depot and I figured that meant he got the ceiling fixture for the Chicken Chandelier. He did! Now our house feels like home.

9-8-09

Today Dan got the trim back from the carpenter who made a matching piece and he installed all the baseboard molding.

I thought that the wall made a very nice backdrop for a photo of these flowers. Love the way the light behaved.

9-7-09

Today Dan finished the floor with polyurethane. He lined up the chairs to keep Frisbee from walking on the new section. It looks great! Everything is ready except the floor molding which should be ready tomorrow. We had to have a carpenter make it for us. Click on the picture below to see how pretty the wall looks then look back at what we had to start with when the book cases came down! What a long way...

I also decided to paint the front door since it was not painted the same color as the rest of the trim. I gave it two coats and it looks very nice. I think I'll leave the curtains off for now and see how it works out. It's so pretty from the street to see the house with the glass door.

9-6-09

Sunday afternoon... painting away in Lexington-ville. Here's Dan using "the strong stuff" to refinish the floor. The wall is primed and painted.

Now the floor is stripped and the trim is also painted with semigloss. So is the crown molding.

9-5-09

The wall so far. The trim around the window is done. The wall is in the process of being primed, but is not painted yet. We will finish priming it by tonight.

We got invited to a party down the street. It was so fancy- a band played, there was a bartender, good food, lights all over the back yard, chairs everywhere in groupings, candles everywhere... about 50 people or so. We had a great time! I came home and at 11pm worked on our wall project some more.

9-4-09

It's Friday. We worked all day then took a walk in the evening and heard some sort of game going on at the University so we walked over and checked it out. It was a soccer game. On our walk home we heard Kentucky score. They were screaming and blowing horns really loud.

So the window is framed in but does not have the decorative trim yet. Dan tried to strip the floor with Safest Stripper and it did not work. It looked horrible. Here he has his planer out making the new wood trim match the old wood trim. I think we're going to be working on this wall all weekend.

9-2-09

You gotta love the bus. It's air conditioned, you sit up high looking down on traffic, the bus has no fear and pulls into intersections a car wouldn't dare, you need not worry about traffic at all- just sit back and enjoy the ride. Today I took Bus 2S into school. It picks me up at the end of my road about a 5 minute walk away, then drops me off about 10 minutes from my office. Walking that last 10 minutes I realized that Bus 9 was dropping people off right smack dab in front of my office building! So, on the way home I caught Bus 9 which took me to the other side of the arboretum. A walk through the woods and one block later, I'm home. Either trip takes about 20 or 30 minutes with the walking and waiting and traffic, but it's dry and cool and safe. No dodging cars on a bike. No getting all sweaty on a 40 minute walk. No parking hassles. Who invented the bus? You gotta love the bus.

Tomorrow I teach from 9 till 3:30 with a nice break for lunch. I think I'll be tired tomorrow evening.

9-1-09

I forgot to blog on the last day of August. It was a cool day- almost record setting cool. We had dinner at Ramsey's Restaurant. I biked to work then Dan picked me up and I left my bike in my office. It was cooooold in the restaurant! But even colder outside. Crazy Kentucky weather.

Today I walked to school as I had no bike. The walk was really special. It was cool and windy, and walking along the sidewalk with the cars going by on campus reminded me of my childhood. It took me back to the fall of 1975 when I turned 12 years old and lived in Chicago. I felt like I was 12 again, walking to Bret Harte Elementary School.

I taught today, and that went OK. Not great, but I get to try again Thursday with the second section and I hope it goes better. I biked home and we went to the last Southland Jamboree of the season. The music was fantistic- a band called No Tools Loaned. We ate a picnic dinner and fed Frisbee corn chips to keep him quiet.

Tonight I plastered holes in our wall-of-renovation. Tomorrow I'll plaster over the plaster and by the weekend I should be ready to paint.

8-30-09

We really didn't intend to do so much this weekend. It just sorta happened. Last night we went out to dinner at a colleague's house so we had the night off from house renovations. We also watched a movie called... um... Tsotsi. Something like that. It was very moving. Anyway, here are some pictures of our renovation project today. First- the second layer of wallpaper (the first was a green and white stripe) and three found objects behind the bookcase we removed.

An arsty fartsy photo of the ladder in the doorway.

Dan working on something along the base of the wall. You can see that I had washed the lower half of the plaster.

Here I am washing more plaster. Next, I will patch the plaster cracks and holes while Dan makes replacement molding for the ceiling and floor and window.

8-28-09

Dan: What do you want to do this evening?
Me: I dunno. Watch a movie?
Dan: OK.

8pm
Chrissy: How long would it take for you to get rid of those book shelves in the dining room?
Dan: I dunno. A month maybe to do everything.
Chrissy: Well, I need it done by the time Vicki comes on the 14th.
Dan: Oh. Well, we could start tonight...

Two hours later....

Book shelves gone. 1927 wallpaper revealed!
To be continued!

8-27-09

Today was my first day teaching. To celebrate, Dan and I went out for BBQ dinner at our favorite sammich place. This is their t-shirt. Not sure I should get one.... but the dinner was delish. Afterwards we watched a very interesting Czech movie called "Something like Happiness."

8-26-09

Tomatoes! When we moved in there were four little barely distinguisable tomato plants which are now providing us with a plethora of small cherry tomatoes. Yum!!!

8-25-09

This is our new rain barrel called 'The Lily' because you can grow something in the top. We are going to grow mint so it won't escape and take over the yard, and use the water to keep the nice flowers alive during dry spells. It holds like 60 gallons or so.

8-24-09

Spent whole day volunteering with FUSION, an organization that gets students out into the community. We had something like 1300 students volunteer in dozens of organizations.

8-23-09

We have new flowers blooming in the yard. Autumn crocuses they are called. I'm so GLAD that Dan is home. We took Frisbee for his nightly walk/run and I got some cool photos of him running toward me. Here's one.

And on our walk I got a really colorful photo of this yellow flower. Black eyed susan or something. Today we did Farmers Market and Library. Cooked sausages on the grill and had zucchini with dill and sourcream for dinner. I'm sleepy and volunteer tomorrow with an organization at the University. Should be fun.