Thursday, April 29, 2010

Laundry Room


So we have started work on the laundry room. Actually we are halfway through with the laundry room project, but I'm just getting around to showing you the progress. I'm very excited to get it all finished so it can actually function as a laundry room and not as a dumping ground for all the tools & crap that seemed to collect in there.

This started because Bryan wanted to finish out the tile floor downstairs. It was a project we actually had everything we needed, so seemed simple enough. But as always happens, the project quickly spiraled into something more. Kind of like the "If you give a Mouse a Cookie" book.

It started with tiling the floor. But since you are going to be doing that might as well fix the holes in the wall. And while at that might as well scraped the popcorn off the ceiling. And while doing that you might as well fix the heat duct which is exposed and just sprayed with popcorn instead of finished off properly.
In order to do all that of course all cabinets must be removed from the walls. This leads to deciding to create a pantry upstairs in the kitchen instead of storing all the food downstairs in the laundry room where there was an overload of cabinets. While there was storage galore in this room, it was very inconvenient to constantly run downstairs for that can of tomato sauce or box of noodles for dinner.

Unfortunately I didn't get a very good before picture of the enclosed hallway this room looked like with 2 full walls of cabinets. The countertop was great on the one wall, but the room always felt very claustrophobic due to the excessive use of cabinets. Which didn't even match.
Bryan had already started removing cabinets when I remembered I didn't have a before picture. But you can tell where the cabinets used to be by the paint color on the wall.
Notice these cabinets don't match the ones on the other side of the room.

Progress being made. Walls all repaired, popcorn ceiling scraped, heating duct covered. Originally when we bought the house there were 2 laundry rooms. At one time our house functioned as an Adult Care facility. They had added a really crappy room outside our ugly laundry room door and put another set of washer & dryer out there. The plumbing was jimmy-rigged in here to accommodate the new "laundry facilities". We removed all that when fixing the bathroom downstairs, knowing we would repair the walls when we finished the laundry room. We also removed the room outside and reclaimed the lovely covered patio outside last year.

Halfway there! Texture sprayed & walls primed. Looks so much better already! We took a break in order to get some laundry done. Apparently when dad says "Get all your laundry done because the washing machine is coming out" that actually means wash a couple of pairs of pants, but forget to actually do the full basket of dirty clothes in your room. I think they get the concept of no washer & dryer while the room gets redone now.

So now it's on to the floors before we can paint the walls.
I know you can't see it, but the white circle in front of the kitty door is a perfect paw print cast out of some wet mud that dropped during the drywall phase of the project. Poor kitty wasn't too happy with dear old dad I'm sure! LOL

And what is the finished color going to be you ask? Well here is the wall color & fabric for the curtain for the door.
I absolutely love this fabric and plan on using it upstairs in the kitchen too. Only with green instead of the turquoise. The wall color is the new Martha Stewart paint at Home Depot. The color is called Hummingbird Blue. Matches the blue color in the fabric perfectly! The fabric is a Moda print of course. From the Cherish Nature line. I LOVE Moda fabrics!

It was actually sort of Bryan's idea to paint a bright color in here. He wanted to use a color for the walls! My dear hubby. Lover of white walls actually suggested using a color we haven't used yet. Something bright and different. I'm so proud of him! I never thought I would get to actually use a bright color like this in my house, but I'm so excited to try it out.

So this weekend it's removing old flooring and tiling the floor. Then we can paint! Can't wait!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Freedom at last!

Nick finally got his cast off yesterday. Now that is one happy puppy!

They cut it off with a saw-like thing that cut the cast, but not the skin. Bryan offered to do it for him with his Dremel but Nick wasn't so in to that. He was much happier with the "hot" nurse doing it for him instead.

Feels so much better now!


So then they X-Rayed the arm again and the bone is all healed. Still has a couple of weeks in a split until it's completely healed, but at least he has motion in his arm now, and can take a regular shower. And I think Gabi is thrilled he can help with the dishes again.


His poor arm looks a little worse for wear, but nothing a little (or A LOT) of lotion won't cure. Thank god for that wonderful Renew lotion. Best stuff on the planet!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

So it's been a while

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and that's because we've been really busy! Not only did we take a great vacation to San Diego for Spring Break, but we also started some house projects, and Nick broke his wrist in the middle of everything too. Just more craziness in the Geddis Household. So here are some photos of what we have been up to. I will try to get back to more regular postings as we have some big house projects on the near horizon!
The sunset from our Hotel window
The fam at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. Beautiful Ranunculus flowers as far as the eye could see!

Crazy boy!
Our new teenager! Can't believe she's 13 already!
What a sweet couple!
Overlooking the San Diego Wild Animal Park - These are the lions.
Took the tram tour to see most of the animals in more natural habitats.
He's really yawning. But I love this picture!
Flamingos were everywhere it seemed!
The cheetah was purring the entire time he was out. Didn't get to pet him. Kinda like my arms the way they are, but we were really really close to him!
All of us at the Wild Animal Park.
This statue is awesome! Huge and way cool!
The Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. We toured most of it. Took us over 3 hours! But a very cool thing to see.
Here are Nick, Gabi & Bryan in the sleeping bunks on the midway, pretending to be sailors.
Sea World was cool!
Fed the dolphins at Sea World
Watched the Shamu Show. Way cool! Such amazing animals!

The Sea Lion show was also very funny & entertaining.
The San Diego zoo was way too amazing for words, but I'll sum it up with this: PANDAS!
They were so adorable! Loved finally being able to see pandas first hand.
There were other animals too - like baby giraffes!
And baby Orangutans. Oh wait. That was mom posing as one!

I have so many more great photos and video of our trip, but I think that's a pretty good over view for you guys. Don't want to bore you too much with our vacation photos.

All in all it was an amazing trip. The weather was great, the food was amazing and the company was pretty great too. So many great memories from that trip. Can't wait to go back! Maybe when Nick doesn't have a broken arm so maybe the kids can learn to surf. Cause what trip to San Diego doesn't include a little ocean time?

Next post will be an update of the house and the newest project we are working on!