Crushing the list

Our mortgage is refinanced. We're taking our portion of the TARP in the form of lowered interest rates. 30 year fixed at 4.365%.

1 resolution down, 5 to go.

Measure twice, cut once

Although the project tracker on the sidebar says we are 100% complete with the kitchen, we still need to add the finishing touches.

We need curtains for the front windows, curtains for the slider, and I still have to figure out what to put in the upper glass cabinets. I'm a little bored of thinking about the kitchen, I just want it to be done with minimal effort on my part.

So I went to Calico Corners to just have them make curtains to get it over and done. I got to the store nice and early when it was empty, and I spent some time with the saleswoman figuring out what I wanted, I even brought my paint-chip to check the colors. She wrote everything up and I choked on the estimate. Seriously, who pays $400 for 2 pairs of sheers?? Maybe next time I shouldn't drive my Bentley to the store...

Once I recovered from the sticker shock I decided to just purchase the fabric and sew them myself. We wanted a bold fun print for the curtains and I was excited to find this pattern in my favorite shade of blue.

Anyway, here is the first part of the effort, fully-lined cafe curtains for the front windows.

I am waiting for another shipment of fabric for the slider, to which we also added sheers, ($20 each. Not $400). I'm sure our neighbors appreciate it.

We hung the curtains on rings to make it easy for the Beechnuts to pull open the curtains without taking the whole thing down. Its already cut down on some of the echo in the room.

Like most things, once I made a plan of what to do and made sure to measure twice and cut once, sewing it went pretty smoothly.

Update: Marley and Farmhouse

My day, possibly my week, was made today when I checked my email and found a new comment posted to the Marley & Farmhouse entry. It appears to have been posted by the owner of the house and it gives a little more information on their history with the house and where one can find more photos.

I did a google search and found a slideshow of the house. Picture 9 shows the exterior of the house that I fell in love with while watching "Marley & Me". Look here to view the Ennis's lovely house, including the interior.

http://www.phillymag.com/farm_charm/index.html

Thank you for reading my blog, Mr. Ennis!

His closet remodel

The hall between our bedroom and the master bathroom houses our closets. The ceiling in this area is low, and its has sloped walls. The closets have great square footage from the floor, but its all lost being under the eaves. I'd love to turn this into a glam dressing room, complete with shoe-display area. Something like this:



Since that would involve raising the roof, which is in no way in any budget we would ever hope to have, we have to settle for some creative thinking and being a little more strict on donating clothes that we don't need/wear/fit.

Jeff didn't have patience for planning so he jumped in. This is the before picture. The doors used to be sliding mirrored doors, which we removed shortly after we moved in so we could see the all the clothes at once. I'd like to add bi-fold doors, but Jeff doesn't agree that we need doors.


What you can't see in this photo is that the closet is about 4 feet deep, with a second hanging bar behind the first. Which enables one to hide the clothes he can't bear to part with.

Here is the after photo:


Jeff rotated the hanging bar to run along one of the walls, with a shelf above for sweaters. The other wall sports a tie rack and hooks for holding dirty jeans and hoodies.

A cube system was added to the back wall for storing t-shirts, jeans, and he might add a few baskets for socks. The raised section of floor hides the chase for the plumbing from the master bath.

Looking at these photos, we realize it would have been a good idea to paint the walls and deal with the linoleum/carpet flooring combination. But there's always another day.

Now I have to figure out what I want for my closet. Look, already a few weeks into the new year and we're already straying from the resolutions.

Blurb disappointment

I just want to publicly vent for a second. When I started this blog, it was with the intention that we would document our kitchen remodel and other house projects and then on a yearly basis, I'd have all my photos and notes published into a coffee-table book. Not to sell or anything like that, just for us to have and to look through occasionally to review the progress on the house.

Imagine my dismay when I went to Blurb.com the other day to do just that and I found they no longer support Blogger.

I am hoping with enough time, Blogger support might come back, but in the meantime, I'm really disappointed by this.

Marley & Farmhouse

I took the big Beechnut to see "Marley & Me" and I cried. Not because of the story of the love between a dog and his family, although that was a tear jerker. I cried because I found a house that made me want to up and move. I have been searching the internets, but I can not find an image of the farmhouse that the family in the movie moves to outside of Philadelphia. Has anyone seen an image of this on the web? If so, please let me know where you found it, I want to show it to Jeff.

The stone farmhouse with a clapboard addition made me consider selling our current house and not care if there was a loss. It seemed so lovely and bucolic, even though it was barely shown in the movie. You know how a house can speak to you? That house spoke to me. It said "Come buy me, even though you probably can't afford me and you don't know where I am and its likely I'm not for sale. Plus, in all reality, I'm probably full of termites, lacking insulation, and don't even exist."

Its not a good sign to start the new year with house envy.

Now with 23% less therms!

One of my personal reasons we attacked the kitchen was that it was freezing cold in the winter. I dreaded walking in to the kitchen in early morning before going to work knowing that it was going to be a chilly 58 - 60 degrees even though the thermostat had been set at 64. So in went the Icynene insulation, a bit more than fiberglass, but I'd never forgive myself if I did not seal that room as tight as I could.

Well today was a big day for us. The heating bill arrived for December and I liked what I saw.
Dec 2008 Therms: 259
Dec 2007 Therms: 340

difference: 81 Therms or 23% less then last year.

My wife may not admit this, I've even had the heat a little higher this year to keep the baby Beech-nut warmer. Everyone gets a break on their first winter, then it's back to the program on the thermostat.