House Update

Natalie's totally getting into mid-century furniture. I drilled a few holes in this buffet and it makes a lovely TV stand.



We still haven't paid off the second mortgage so we're still just doing the free-inexpensive work. Enjoy:

The hallway had two closets right now to one another. We decided we didn't like that.


I've definitely felt like we're in over our heads a dozen times so far, but I just keep pushing on. I guess I'm just courageous like that.

See? We got protection from all of the dust and just braved right through it all. I'll post some after pictures as we get closer. I've got all of my equipment to rewire the light switch, outlet, etc.

P.S. Natalie cut 11" of her poor hair off and it looks really good.


So, feeling a little overwhelmed with the study/closet adventure, we decided to solve some other house problems. Here is our beautiful master bathtub...


Nice, right? So I spent the next 45 minutes trying to get comfortable in the tub chipping away the moldy grout/caulking.


Natalie helped a LOT. Thanks, Natalie.


Tah-dah! Beeeeeeeeeeautiful.

After we (er, I) scraped all the crud out, we taped it up and got ready to recaulk.

And there you go. It's not quite done and we need to touch up some areas since we ran out of caulk mid-recaulking.

There you have it. I should also get some pictures of the backyard and side of the house-- we've spent many hours out there cleaning it up and it's looking a lot better nowadays.

P.S. Shout-out to Young House Love for the inspirstructions.

Dog Mystery Solved

We have a dog. Her name is Maeby and we got her from a shelter. As a result, we have never known her exact breed, although we moved our guesses around from Sheltie (but she doesn't bark much) to Corgi (but she has no herding instinct) to Beagle (she always tries to track things, but she is terrible at it). We never got any closer to being sure.

Case Dog:


For Natalie's birthday, I got her a Bio Pet Vet Lab DNA Test. It was $60 and it was fun.

Before I reveal the results, they were really interesting, and we were waaaay off. A lot of her characteristics come out in the breeds given, so I don't doubt the results at all.

Here are the results sorted by percentage of ancestry:

20%-36% Saluki. Look at that Maebyface! Salukis are sighthounds (hunt by sight) and Maeby goes INSANE if she sees a squirrel. She is also very reserved and slightly aloof:


20%-36% Scottish Terrier. Short and squatty, prone to weight gain.


10%-19% Chow Chow. No desire to please their master... need a reason to do what you're asking. Maeby's reason is green beans. She likes them.


10%-19% English Springer Spaniel. Natalie is obsessed with this breed. Maeby got the freckles, nose, eyes, and white tip of her tail. Mixed with the Saluki sighthound, the stalking instinct kicks in sometimes and she'll point and stick her white-tipped tail in the air (bred so that hunters can spot the dog in the brush).


>10% Pekingese (gremlin?). These next 3 are trace amounts, so we don't see too much of them in her. Fortunately for us, these last breeds help a lot in that she doesn't shed much.


>10% Poodle. Lack of shedding + smart. :)


>10% Shih Tzu. Not sure about this one.


So there you have it. Hope you have been enlightened to some of the intricacies of dog breeds.

It's like a stinking dog hotel in here!

1. Check it out, a Doggie Bunk Bed™:

I'm considering beginning my woodworking career with something similar to this, but even better.

UPDATE: UM, HELLO!!!



2. I'm thinking about getting back on Facebook. It'd be nice to send messages back and forth. Luckily, I didn't go out in some blaze of glory, so coming back won't make me look like a quitter.

3. We've (I've) been doing some demolition to the ugly parts of our house. Enjoy:



Obviously we're still in the work-in-progress stage here, but it gives you an idea of what we're going for. This one wasn't too hard to get down, but I did put a couple of holes in the drywall. This doesn't worry me too much anymore, because there is tons of help on the internet to fix practically anything (e.g. here).


Yay! Ulgy 80's semi-useless desk is gone! I'm thinking I'll have to tear out all of the drywall along that side of the room because the top layer was peeled off with the vinyl paneling's adhesive.

At this point we're just slowly following our plans...

4. The second mortgage (initial balance $14,900) now stands at $5764.41. Natalie and I made an agreement to not spend any significant money on the house until this is paid off. We've turned in our paperwork to receive the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, so if we receive that any time soon, it immediately knocks out the second mortgage and we can get started on paint/carpet/hardwoods/drywall/outlets/lightswitches/fixtures for the bedrooms.

Also, (assuming no raises or cost of living increases) if Natalie and I were to put all of our extra income into the mortgage we could have the house paid off by January 2012. Unfortunately it will probably be more like 4 years with the improvements we want to do and other circumstances of life. Can't wait to have the option to work at McDonald's and provide for my family. What an exciting thought.

5. On a related note, I need your help. I've never done any extensive drywall texturing. What is this kind of texture called and how do I do it?

It's like the standard 50's-60's texture, but I can't find it ANYWHERE online. The closest reference I can find is stipple, which kind of makes me want to giggle like a 3rd grader, and also perlite. But it's more like a "Yeah, that's kind of similar..." feel, and it seems like there is no industry standard terminology, so I've seen everything called everything else. Surely after having millions of houses built with this texture, there would be a demand in knowing how to do it. Maybe everybody just wants ugly knockdown nowadays...

The Saddest Day of My Life

I've spent the past few weeks searching for something at Walmart, Target, Kroger, at various shops online, researching the history of this product's design.

Tonight, all of my hard work has come to fruition: I found that for which I have been searching.

Why, you might ask, the sad post title? Because it's all been for a toothbrush. A crappy, out-dated, plain-old toothbrush. And I am just so excited about it.

See, our house was built in 1960, right at the peak of awesome ceramic fixtures-- including toothbrush holders. And just like the one-car garages that barely fit a mid-sized sedan, the builders of the day didn't anticipate the SUV-like growth of toothbrush handles. (An interesting side-note: There are six places to hold toothbrushes, which highlights significant societal difference from the present-day 4)

Lo, toothbrushexpress.com, which helpeth me taketh better care of my teeth and gums, and also offers this cute little guy on their front page:



So, I have ordered two different types of Ultra Slim Classic Toothbrushes in order to pay homage to 1960. Thank you.

Rules of Life

Here are some things I've learned.

1. If you work harder, you will get better. I applied this to college and graduated with honors. I have applied this to my profession for 10 years and have gotten (if I don't say so myself) pretty dang good, although I see tons and tons of room for improvement.

2. The faster you drive on the highway, the angrier you make yourself.

3. A lack of subject on a blog makes for boring reading and boring writing. Natalie and I rarely write on this because there is no thrust. I'd like to start having a little bit more of a focus on this blog. Inspiration for us is here... this blog is great and Natalie is getting a little obsessed with finding ways to decorate our home. Unfortunately, she's not allowed to start yet, because...

4. Paying interest sucks! Our mortgage payment each month is ~$1000. Most of that right now is going to interest. We only put 10% down on our house since we fell in love with it before we could scrape up a full 20%, so I am working on paying down the second mortgage we got to avoid PMI. We now have about 15% equity in our house and should be at 20% within the next two months.

5. Be honest and friendly to your customers and they will just love you. I really love my job because every day I get the chance to interact with about 25 businesses' staff and it is really a blast.

Couldn't sleep. :)