Dining Room

This is a picture of the dining room before we got our hands on it. As you can see, it was perfectly lovely, but entirely green. I don't mind green, but I wanted a more festive dining room.

Directly after this photo, you will see the dining room now, with a brief description of the work we did underneath.

We ripped up the carpet, primed and painted all the walls and trim, and my wildly talented husband created the lovely striping effect you see under the chair rail. We painted the chairs purple - the can showed a deeper, more aubergine purple, but I like the way they turned out nonetheless. We also replaced the chandelier.

The dining room table is a new addition - oak drop-leaf with some dings and nicks but a whole lot of character. I love it. My mom bought it for me at an estate sale recently - the same one where we bought that awesome stereo I blogged about. At least I think I blogged about it. Yeah, I did.

The kitchen is done, too. We'll save that for next time.

It's Been A While

It's also been a busy time. We've been working full throttle and I've been working at Bankruptcy Inc. and freelance writing (yay!) all at the same time. We have no clean forks or underpants, but life is good.

I've just found out that because of all this nifty reading and computer work, that I need bifocals. BIFOCALS. Dudes, I'm getting older...everyone is. But BIFOCALS?!? At 32? Really?

I mainly wear contacts, so I just had to get some drugstore reading glasses and using them is giving me headaches that would cripple Hercules. And he's a pretty tough guy.

I have a great story about Emma to tell you all, but it's going to take a minute for me to get the picture uploaded. So this is it for now, and stay tuned for a much more amusing post in the near future.

Happy Friday!

So I have adjusted my attitude, put all the week's badness behind me, and have approaced today with a renewed sense of awesomeness that will not be squelched. No matter what. So if we don't get to close today, we will close SOMEDAY, and that's what matters.

I am also stoked because I have a bunch of new writing assignments from my editor His Awesomeness at http://www.toptenz.net/. He's started posting new lists every weekday, and they just keep getting better and better, so check them out. Especially when he posts one of mine.

I had a slew of curious dreams last night, all very involved and B-movie-like. I might write more about them later, or I might just continue to Tweet snippets as I remember them, as I don't have to be as cohesive that way.

Guess I'd better get to work. If we DO get to close, prepare yourself for many pictures of the House in Progress, and coverage of the bird funeral which will happen the day we close.

New House (Someday) ** Warning - one disturbing image at the very beginning

So we showed up for the final walkthrough and found this on the front porch. Omen?

There are some complications with closing, so we don't know if we'll be closing tomorrow or not. Kind of took the wind out of my sails at paint-sample-buying time. Keep your fingers crossed.

Don't worry. The bird died of natural causes, and was very old. He'd lived a good life. I guess. I don't know. It was dead when we got there.

Here are some pictures of some of the rooms in the house that we'll hopefully get to close on soon.

The bathroom, kitchen, the cool kitchen light fixture, the dining room and the living room. More to follow when I have the gumption to rave a little more. For now I'm tired and vexed. Vexed and tired...

I did pick out some pretty sweet paint samples. If we do get to close tomorrow I'm going to paint them in squares on the wall. Like you do...

I heart estate sales

Picked up some really cool stuff at an estate sale today. Will post pictures tomorrow, but think huge Magnavox stereo console with turntable and 8-track player (sweet) for $25. That's right.

Plus some great old records, some fantastic old books (including a gift for my favorite English professor), and my mom bought me a drop-leaf, antique oak table for my new dining room.

I cannot wait to move!

I Resent Sanctimonious So-And-Sos

I also hate assholes. They've finally arrested Drew Peterson for something - though it has nothing to do with the disapperance of his latest wife, it's still something. The murder of his third wife, to be precise, and according to msn as he got the cuffs slapped on him he said "I guess I should have turned in those library books." Plus, his mugshot is totally smarmy and makes me want to kick him in the face repeatedly with steel-toed shoes covered in bat excrement. Read all about it here, and get your "shitkickers" ready.

On a much smaller scale, I also take issue with Jack Goes Forth, wherein he went ahead and said that there were no interesting Richmond-based bloggers. Now, I don't criticize him for writing about his drunken sexual escapades, yet I take issue with him making a broad, sweeping statement about Richmond-based bloggers. Has he read every single Richmond-based blogger? I doubt it. Get off your high-horse, Drunk Boy. But I still read your blog every day.

Here is a list of things that are pissing me off today:

The transformer on the power line that feeds electricity into my house went BOOM today and Dominion has no way of actually speaking to a live human being. I called to report the outage on the "Automated Reporting Line Thingy" and they have a button you can press if you want to report further information than your lights just being out. I hit the button, and the first option was "If you heard an explosion, press one." That's crazy to me. Because instead of transferring you to someone right away because you heard AN EXPLOSION, the automated lady says "Thanks for your call, your problem has been reported." Hello? EXPLOSION, people. Don't you want to make sure no birds or pets were harmed in your crappy-ass transformer rendering the power line that dips waaayyy too low into my backyard for my comfort unusable? They are supposed to call me when it's fixed. It's not yet, and I fear for the turkey sausages and coffee creamer in my fridge.

Actually, that's got me so pissed off that I can't think of anything else to report.

100th Post - And Another Migraine

I don't know what it is about this particular Christmas. Maybe it's the economy or my depresing work situation or just a little 31-year-old midlife crisis but I'm pretty blue. One thing that is helping out (or hurting, depending on how you look at it) is the barrage of Christmas programming on the Lifetime Channel and the Lifetime Movie Network. Heaven help me, I'm enjoying the crap out of these movies. I mean, how many different versions of a Christmas Carol can one company make?

I will say that I've been known to scorn Lifetime programming in the past. In fact, my buddy Shell posted an article I wrote on his website: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-worst-lifetime-original-movies.php. Either I've changed or they really ramp up the programming for Christmastime, or I'm immune to the crapulence that exudes from the television set. At least I've only allowed myself to watch in the bedroom - where we don't have a DVR and I don't muck up the queue with a bunch of these movies that would surely make Dwight roll his eyes so hard they might hop out of thier sockets.

So, stay tuned for the Top Ten Best Lifetime Christmas Movies. I think I'll write it as soon as someone removes the knife that is lodged firmly above my left eye. Until then I will remain wracked by dirty-house guilt and wallow under the uncomfortably warm comforter and watch the cat lick herself in the flickering glow of a Lifetime Christmas movie starring Neil Patrick Harris and Naomi Watts. DOn't worry. I don't hate myself at all right now. Not at all.

Great

Basement flooded. Bumped my head. Have three papers to write, 200+ pages to read, excel project, and have headache from aforementioned head bump. Crappy Saturday morning...

Here is the culprit. Underneat this stupid concrete-filled barrel is an old well. It takes extra water and dumps it out on the street.

This drain drains (somehow) into the old well. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, considering the above barrel is about 6 feet up from this drain. I checked this damn drain at 10:30 last night and it was clear. This morning? Leaves. Leaves willy-nilly.Here is the aftermath. Stupid drain. See how high up the water went on the door?