In Busy-ness

I have had lots to write about the last few weeks, but it's not necessarily stuff I'm ready to write about. So instead I'll talk about my latest projects.

You might think I'd have put out a shingle and my new projects would be all about sewing. But if you thought that, you might be wrong. I have been asked to make a wedding dress, four sets of Raggedy Ann & Andy's, and a Santa Claus coat, but those are not the biggest projects around here right now; they are still in negotiation.

No, actually there's a good possibility that we will be moving. Bruce is looking at a job in Vernal, Utah—a 3 1/2 hour drive from here. Commuting is out. of. the question. So he's gone up there frequently on business trips and has done some house-hunting as well. The trouble is that there's a lot of work available in the oil-fields in the Uintah Basin right now; this means that there's an influx of people working and making some good money, and they have made housing scarce and expensive. Plus we are looking for a house that fits eight to ten people and our budget.

Something on the floor is really funny. I wonder what it was?

The other trouble is that we would have to sell our house here in West Valley City. I don't know what the housing market is like here, but school has started and winter is on the way. So I don't know . . .
And I have to get the house looking presentable. So a lot of projects that "can wait until later" suddenly can't really wait until later. And those are the projects I'm talking about.

First of all, I'm re-resurfacing the kitchen counters. The finish has chipped and peeled away again, in places, so I contacted the company; they stand by their product; I'll give them that. They are sending me another free kit to redo the counters.

Oh, look! My new counters arrived today!
I've got to say, this company has amazing customer service.

Last week, while I waited for the kit to arrive I worked on stripping all the old surfacing off.

You can see from the "before" picture that my house was built in the late 80's. Mauve countertops?

the gradual deterioration of my "granite" counters

I'm also finishing the kitchen floor. When we bought the house we left a couple of unfinished places on the kitchen floor—one is under the railing because we were going to do wood-railing and have a nice . . . hm. Not sure what the real name is . . . a pretty board that borders the floor and sits under the railing.

And we left another bare spot where a smaller railing was supposed to be, but then we decided that was a stupid place for a rail and never even put it back up. (This is why we had the top step re-done with all of the remodeling.) After a little thought (several years ago, actually) I figured out how to finish it beautifully. Well, last week I went to Lowe's and saw some flooring on a 75%-off clearance; talk about good timing!

So last Saturday Bruce and I (mostly Bruce) worked on the floor.

See how helpful I am?
(By the way, I really like this man. A lot!)

Bruce cuts the edges of the floor into a smooth, straight line. He's using the level, screwed to the floor, as a rip-fence.

And here he is, prying that front facing off. But why? ;-)

And here is the floor, all cut out (with straight edges) and ready to go. You'd think that that corner was square, but it's not—which makes things a little more difficult. And it's not our fault either. That would be the fault of the people who originally built this house at the speed of light.

And I did some more work on the counters.

I found it was lots easier to sand the counters if I could put my full body-weight into the job.

I have reached the conclusion that the finish really should work as well as they say, because there are spots that I can't even remove with an electric sander and 60-grit sandpaper! The question is, why does it stick in some places, but not others? And how can I prep the counters so that the finish will stick everywhere?

Once the floor and counters are done  I want to paint the living room and kitchen—another project I've been wanting to do for ages. And I'm going to touch-up some of the paint on the black cabinets. When the house is ready to show, it should look just the way I want it to so that I can live here forever. That just figures! If it sells, then I can start over with a new house. If we can find one to live in.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to these days. I'll show pics as I finish each project.

An Afternoon in the Park

We are not much of an outdoor family. Especially in the summer. Then we just stay inside, trying to escape some of the heat. But when it rains . . .

Brandon had been listlessly watching TV. When it started raining hard he said he was going to go out. It didn't take much convincing to get the girls to go out too. We all splashed around in the deep water in the gutters, and walked along in the rain. Then the kids all decided to sit down and block the flow of water in the gutter. (That's when I thought of the camera.) They all sat there for a minute or so, then Brandon opened his floodgate and let the water flow to Jessica.

Jessica let the water out on Rachel.

Rachel let the water go to Kaylie . . .

And I was waiting at the end to take advantage of all that water.
(Ryan took some pictures and then went back to play on the computer. Boooo!)

Then the kids started running along the non-level sidewalk at the neighborhood park.

The girls went to play on the playground.

And when we are all nice and cooled down (actually I was cold!), we went back home again.

I love rainy days!