Archive for the ‘house stuffs’ Category

Sometimes, when I get an idea…

Posted 30 Sep 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, marriage, motherhood, The Hubs

With all the basement revamp talk happening (I refuse to call it remodeling because we’re only getting new floors and maybe a new coat of paint but yes A NEW BATHROOM (sort of)), I’ve been thinking a lot about our house and how we use it. I’m just so excited to get our basement back and have a space for entertaining and SPORTSSSSS and watching movies complete with our fancy sound system that we haven’t used in over a year {deep breath} that it made me RETHINK the fact that all this should be done with our dear Abbers in mind. As much as the hubs (whose birthday is today – HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD BALLS!) would like to call the basement “The Man Cave” – let’s be real. I’m going to use it just as much. As is our Abbers. So let’s at least make it appropriate for all of us, mmmkay?

The other day I started thinking about a room down there that will still have carpet (since it has a door and thus, no cat pee) and how it has always been “the music room” complete with drums, bass, guitar, bongos blah blah blah I never go in there. I’m happy that the hubs has a room in our house where these things can go (even if when he plays he may as well be sitting right in front of me since it’s like, negative sound proofed), but suddenly I had a vision. A vision of the hubs and I watching a movie or entertaining friends while a football game is on…and Abby having that room as her playroom full of toys and play kitchens and dress-up costumes…and HOLY CRAP THAT IS THE BEST IDEA EVAR. And like in the movies, there was the screech of braking tires in my brain because that will more than likely never happen. Because…where would the precious drums and cymbals and other such equipment that gets used once every 3 months go?

{you sense my sarcasm here, right?}

I don’t want to take that room away from my husband. This is obvious mostly in the fact that I’ve never mentioned this idea to him, because I don’t want him to think I don’t understand how much he LOVES that he can have that room. I’ve run through scenarios where he puts the drums in the laundry room and I get that room for Abby…but the litter boxes are in the laundry room. I couldn’t expect him to play in there. I WOULDN’T. But…but…THAT ROOM. IS PERFECT. FOR A PLAYROOM.

A girl can dream. It’s a good thing for Josh that Abby doesn’t understand much that I’m saying yet and also doesn’t understand the concept of a dedicated playroom, because if I told her my idea? HE WOULD NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT. FROM EITHER OF US.

End of summer = Beginning home improvements

Posted 20 Sep 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, I am awesome, The Hubs

As you may gather, I have lots of ideas about what to do with our house in terms of decorating. It’s just a matter of DOING it.

A few months ago, I posted about painting our kitchen. We did. But, that was it. I had wanted to change the light fixtures, but we never got around to it.

I posted about redoing our bedroom. My mom just gifted the hubs and a I joint birthday gift card to CB2, so we’re not far away from starting that project.

HOWEVER, before we begin that adventure, we’re going to be revamping our basement.

Have I ever mentioned how our satan-cat Boo Boo decided to piss in our finished basement? On the carpet? And then we tore out the pissy carpet and put down cheap Home Depot carpet and then he pissed on that too? Yeah. Well….yeah. We haven’t really used the basement since this whole cat-piss thing started, because who wants to sit on a couch that’s been used as a scratching post in a pee stankin’ basement? NOT ME. Anyway, we finally decided to take the leap and we’re having the flooring replaced. We decided on Konecto flooring, which is water/stain resistant and great for basements…yet looks like real hardwood. We’re having the carpet on the stairs replaced with new carpeting to tie the kitchen tile to the new basement flooring, and we’re also having the Konecto placed in our basement bathroom, which we’re ALSO redoing.

::deep breath::

I have the idea in my head of how to do all this. Luckily, we’re having the flooring professionally installed so I don’t have to have an ulcer thinking about that. The bathroom though, I plan to tackle myself (with the hubs’ help, of course). I fancy myself as some sort of a DIY/fix-it gal that can do anything I put my mind to. I think this is going to be my ultimate test, though.

I will take some photos soon and have a “before” post. Pray to the Home Depot Gods for me. I’ll need all the help I can get.

Our bedroom.

Posted 18 Aug 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, retail therapy

I’ve been talking about doing something to our bedroom for a while. And now I have all the pieces in mind to do it with. If I only had the dollars.

Anyway, my plan if I had the moola, would be:

The duvet/inspiration piece: CB2

Curtain fabric option: Amy Butler

Bed by Ikea.

Paint color by Behr.

Total just for these updates? $270 for the bedding and bed, probably about $90 for the fabric (and my own sweat and tears to make the curtains) and about $35 for paint. So…about $395.

We already have these dressers. We need new nightstands though.

Our dressers.

I would love to do this this fall. Only time will tell. We’re also pricing out how much it’ll cost to have the cat-piss carpets removed from our basement and vinyl or rubber “hardwood” floors laid in it’s place. I can’t wait until our house feels “done!” Then I won’t have any trouble staying home.

How do I get more hours in the day?

Posted 04 Jun 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category blog bidnass, house stuffs, I am a moron

As I’m sure you’ve realized by now…I am what’s known as a promise breaker. I know I have to unload a kajillion photos from our cameras and I know it’s going to take roughly an hour to do it all. And when I get home from work…I have a billion others things calling me and that takes the back burner. EVERY DAY. (On the plus side, laundry is done, dishes are clean and I managed to feed Abbers & bathe her a couple times in there too.)

SO. The weekend is upon us. And, as per usual, I’ve tasked myself with something nearly impossible – getting our kitchen painted. (As well as eventually getting the photos unloaded.) This photo is from the MLS listing the previous owners had, so FYI, none of that crap is mine. :) Anyway, please look at the color of my kitchen. I best describe it as “Bloody Poop.” Seriously. There is no better descriptor.

The kitchen and it's horrid color.

Why, why did they choose such a dark, putrid color? Because they couldn’t figure out what color would go with orange terra cotta tiles and brown grout? Really? I plan on painting it a light olive green. In my head I can accomplish this task in one day. However, my subconscious is also reminding me that it took A WEEK to paint the nursery. And I wasn’t covering up a shitty crime scene. (You get the joke there? No rim-shot? Okay, FINE.) In my defense, there’s less square footage to cover in the kicthen than there was in Abby’s room, but we’ll see.

This is the suspense I leave you with over the weekend. Will Jenna get it done? Will Abbers cut another toofie? Will the hubs mow the lawn or get eaten alive by mosquitoes trying? Stay tuned.

Barfless Tuesday/Lawsuit Wednesday

Posted 05 May 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, baby business, house stuffs, motherhood

You know, kind of like “Wordless Wednesday” but not really.

Yes, Abby made it through Tuesday sans the technicolor yawn. (high-five.) We’re slowly working on getting her better. She’s on 100% formula, but still only having about five ounces a sitting instead of seven. If she stays vom-free today, I may offer her some rice cereal tonight. We need to get back on track with the solids!

Monday I spent four hours cleaning my house from top to bottom, nearly using an entire package of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes in the process. Do you know how great those things are? Especially when you have baby vomit in the cracks of your hardwood floor.

Also on Monday, I took Abbers to the doc for the second time about her horrendous diaper rash. It’s only been getting worse despite countless applications of an antifungal/hydrocortisone cocktail and Triple Paste. We had to see a doctor different than Abby’s normal doc since she isn’t in on Monday. She said that the antifungal should take care of it. And to “air it out.” YOU air it out, Ms. Doctor Lady. Do you not realize that we’ve been swimming in a sea of barf and poop for the past week? I do not care to add urine to the list of fluids in between floor slats, THANKYOUVERYMUCH.

So, I attempted to buy cloth diapers and let her wear those for a while. But those are a lot of work. It dawned on me that maybe Abby’s diapers with this new dry max stuff might be causing the irritation (the only new thing we’ve added to her diaper routine), so I bought a package of Seventh Generation diapers and OHMYGOD I love them. It’s like they took a mold of Abby’s bum and made a diaper just for her. I started using them Monday night – no leaks, awesome absorbency.

Today I find out that there’s a lot of hoopla going on about her old diapers. We used to use Pampers Swaddlers (now with DRY MAX!), they fit her well, she rarely had leaks and I loved how soft they were. If you’re interested in knowing what’s going on (or maybe isn’t…who knows until there’s further investigation) read this article. Or visit the Facebook group. Or just search “Pampers” in Google News for more info.

Needless to say, until this is settled, we’re a Seventh Generation household. Added bonus: they don’t have effing Elmo on their diapers. I don’t care for Elmo. Not one bit.