Gingerbread house

So, here it is:



She did a wonderful job. And, we also made gingerbread man cookies. I made a few of them anatomically correct; sadly and inexplicably Lisa will not permit their publication on this site. Tragic, tragic, for they are very artistic. Hmmmm.

OK, yes, it has been over a month since we posted, but no we have not been idle. Instead, as the observant have noticed, the Christmas Season is upon us. And that in Lisaland means: Decorating. Our attic breathes a sigh of relief as we approach T-giving and then enter December, as tons of supplies and decorations are hauled down the stairs, and down to the first floor for decorating.

I recall driving back from Santa Fe a few years ago and passing, going the other way, a caravan of 18-wheelers. It turns out the caravan was Paul McCartney's tour moving on from Dallas or Houston or somewhere in Texas to the West Coast. I thought as I saw truck after truck after truck pass by, "They have almost as much stuff as we have in the attic for Christmas. Only Paul has roadies. We have Brad." A sad observation indeed.

This process literally takes weeks, but it is (sort of) fun. And, in all fairness we could have accomplished it probably somewhat easier this year if we had not been interrupted by Lisa's appendicitis and then her Return of Appendicitis (Hello insurance company: They ARE the same medical illness so no you can't charge multiple deductibles!). But, it all came together anyway.

The front of the house at night?






The daytime show is pretty good, too, but unfortunately I am not capable of (a) taking a good picture under the best of circumstances, and (b) holding my stupid Blackberry still long enough to use it for a photo:



Front porch:



And check out the cupcake behind Mr. Gingerbread - hand made by yours truly. And it has a twin on the other side of the door (it was night when I took these and the other one didn't really turn out well on the photo):

The back yard was not overlooked (note the new grill cover - $46 from Sears, as opposed to the tons of money and time we invested in the cover we made earlier this fall):

And, let's not forget the garage wreath (the site of me climbing that darned ladder was probably not pretty; I don't know - I had my eyes closed):

A few inside:

Can you spot the inanimate object in the following dining room picture? Hint, there's a tree in the corner and a 12-year old boy sitting at the table.

That's it for now. This weekend was consumed with cooking for the holidays. Bolognese sauce for 20 Christmas night; enchiladas for 10 Christmas eve; Lisa baking dozens and dozens of cookies. AND Lisa making a gingerbread house!!! I will post that photo later.

Is it me . . .

Or is it STILL shrinking??? I believe it is alive!!

Duck Shrinks!!

Well, now more about the prior post. First, our plan for last Saturday had been to stain the concrete on the front porch. So, off to Home Depot to buy stain, only to find out that first the concrete needs to be etched. With acid. Since I have not handled acid since high school, and then with spotty results, it seemed to me (and Lisa agreed) that we needed to leave that project to the professionals. So, on to next projects: (a) replace back light with a new one we had ordered and promptly stored away about 2 months ago, and (b) build a new cover for our grill since the old one was hanging on by bare threads. So, that is what occasioned the two photos.

Anyway, for the new grill cover, we tried to find a perfect fabric, but were running out of ideas. Ultimately, we decided on duck - a canvas-type material which, as I recall, us commonly used as sail covers and boat covers. Surely that would work, right? So we bought our 8 1/2 yards of fabric, used the old cover (which we carefully took apart) as a template, and 3-4 hours later had the finished product posted earlier.

All went well, then, until it started raining last night and kept raining. Guess what? Duck SHRINKS!! Hence the new photos of our now over-taught, and far too short grill cover. Back to the drawing (or cutting) table, I guess.

OK. Today in the city, not on the island. Reason: Holidays approaching. MUST GET HOUSE READY! So, two project completed: New cover for grill; new outdoor light by back door. Pictures above. Explanation to follow.

No real work today - just a lazy weekend on the island. Cool weather and good breezes. Had to snap this photo of two best friends out for a boat ride - Peanut's first. She now insists upon being called Salty Dog.

Stealth Project

OK, so the next project which is in the works: The bathroom for Harry's study. This was the red-headed stepchild of the house -- the last room to receive only superficial "help" since we bought the house in . . . .1993? Anyway, this one was done in a devious and totally unethical manner. It's real simple. One evening there I am minding my own business -- probably reading one of YOUR blogs and messing around on Facebook - when it APPEARS (the jury is still out on this) that I am asked by Miss Lisa: "Bing, what would you say to getting _____ to demo the study bath and then getting ____ to replumb it and then getting _____ to install new tile and then getting _____ to finish up with new fixtures?" Of course, glass of wine in hand I undoubtedly said something like, "Sure. Sounds good." Well, la-te-dah come a Monday only a short while later ___ shows up, crowbar in hand! What the . . . .??!! Comes to turn out that my "Sure Whatever" response was met with an immediate desire to hire all of these folks, and now we are completely . .. . demo'd. Pictures attached. Stay tuned as we take you through the process. Next Installment: "Bathtub, bathtub, who's got the bathtub?!"

New Projects

OK, ok, we've been silent. But that's not because we're not trying. Mainly, we've been starting new projects an working from there. Two new projects to report on: Rain gauge and study bathroom. First rain gauge.

The rain gauge is a little device which sits by our irrigation system control box and collects water. When the water over a certain time period reaches a certain level, the gauge tells the irrigation system "brains" (roughly akin to the processing power of a No. 2 pencil, I suspect; I call it HAL) that it does not need to water that day. Great idea, poorly executed. Mainly poorly executed because it does not work. I've looked out the window during howling rainstorm gales and seen the irrigation system irrigating away. So, it doesn't work. However, it looks neat. So, of course, I need to keep it. Anyway, that's not the point of the story. The point of the story is that this gauge was mounted on a board which stuck out above HAL and while ostensibly serving as a rain gauge mainly served as a way to keep HAL from getting too wet. The other day, through the fault of no-one, this board broke. It had NOTHING - nada - to do with the fact that one certain Houston attorney whose initials are BMB leaned on it while doing unrelated maintenance. It just broke. So, I had to re-situate the gauge. Not so that the gauge would work, but so that HAL would stay protected. My solution? A subtle yet effective use of left over floor tile from the island and WonderSubstance (a/k/a Duct Tape). The photos are attached to this blog. Enjoy the beauty and creativity of the simple solution. I now see where my children got their artistic talent, including the talent of the architect.

Lisa and The Glue Gun

Today we resume our work on the island. You may (or, if you have a LIFE, may NOT) recall that on our last visit we painted the new, post-Ike trash bin. Today, Lisa got out her glue gun - a deadly professional grade Aleene's Model 4376GR top-o'-the-line machine for use only by the fully trained - and created a sign board for the bin, with our address and some local seashells. I then mounted it on the bin, and voila. Not bad at all.

Lisa has a way with glue guns. Unfortunately, she is also a danger to anything in the neighborhood. I generally try to stay far away from her when she uses this machine, lest I find myself glued to some basket or frame. Better safe than sorry.

So, to occupy myself and stay out of range of the glue gun, I managed to finally - after a long 1 1/2 years - oil our kitchen counter tops - nice and shiny now. I'd post a photo of that, but I can't figure out how to make this thing put THAT photo at the bottom of this post instead of the top, so you'll just have to imagine how it looks.

Anyway, Harry is away with some friends, so it's just the two of us on the island. We can't cook since the countertops are . . . all oily. So, maybe the best treat of all: CMB - Cafe Michael Burger for dinner!!

Galveston - Tiling the Kitchen

Well today we managed to get the backsplash up for the kitchen. This was next (and last) on our list of projects on the island when Ike hit. Ike, of course, set us back a half a house, so it took us a year to recover from Ike. Now we have finished most of the pre-Ike projects. The only major project left? New deck. Anyway, photos are on Facebook or somewhere, but a few great examples are shown above.

More painting!

This time, at the bay.

We are on the island for Labor Day weekend. What was supposed to be rainy and dreary has in fact become beautiful, sunny, breezy and almost cool. And because of the weather forecast errors, not too many tourists. Great stuff.

Anyway, there is no rest for the weary so last night - about the time of my second (third?) glass of wine, when my defenses were down - I was somehow persuaded to paint our trash can bin. Lisa says it was entirely my idea, but I think there was some chicanery involved.

In any event, this is the wooden box which holds our trash cans, so the local dogs and whatever don't get into our trash; you get the idea. The one that was here when we bought the house washed out to New Orleans with Hurricane Ike. So, we had to have a new one built. The fellow who built it for us "forgot" to paint it, so it was bare wood. We would not want our neighbors in Louisiana to get our hurricane jetsom unpainted, so this was a task we needed to complete before the next storm came along and carried all of our possessions across the Sabine River.

Again, I normally would not be fooled into an undertaking of this nature, but as I have said, my defenses were down. It was totally unfair.

To get to the point, this morning we went off to the hardware store and loaded up with paint and rollers for this should-be-easy task. Three hours later, we were done. The results? See for yourself.

I think we are through with
projects for the weekend.

So, not too bad - one chore.
Sure, it's not like painting a HOUSE,
but it is a LOT more work than it looks like.
Promise.


More later.

Time to Change the Living Room

Last weekend I decided to paint the living room. I took off from work early on Friday and picked up all the essentials - paint, brushes, drop clothes. And on a whim -- a Wagner automatic paint roller. Perhaps, I thought, I would be able to entice my "I don't do paint" husband to help with the job. After all - what real guy can resist a gizmo (even if it is paint related).

The initial reaction from Brad was as expected -- "I doubt seriously that thing will work" -- "It will probably be a big mess" -- "Undoubtedly a piece of junk" -- and of course - "That thing is going to be hell to clean!" In response to all comments I simply nodded affirmatively and kept my mouth shut... biding my time. The hook had been baited -- just had to reel him in.

By Friday night, he had read the entire instruction manual. By Saturday morning, he had unpacked the gizmo. By Saturday afternoon, he offered to "set it up" for me. A few minutes later -- he was busily rolling paint onto the living room walls -- and refusing to relinquish the gizmo to me.

I never rolled on a single drop of paint... not one. The "I don't paint" husband was painting. And not because of my feminine wiles or an altruistic desire to help -- but because the gizmo was so irresistable.

By Sunday evening all the furniture was moved back into place, the art rehung and we enjoyed a glass of wine in our new and improved living room. Of course, Brad said that he really didn't see why we need to change the color in the first place. But he did like that power roller...

A WORD ABOUT THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG...

When Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930 -- it was the cottage in the background that he was obsessed with, not the couple in front of it. The small frame house in Eldon, Iowa was built in the Gothic Revival style. Wood decided to paint the house and the kind of people he imagined would live in it. To this end, he got his dentist and his sister to pose as the stern twosome.

When I first saw the house that Brad and I live in it was on an autumn morning almost 15 years ago. I spied the For Sale Sign as I drove down Main St. on my way to run errands. Moments later I was creeping through the overgrown yard to peer in the ground floor windows. The house was a red brick monstrosity in horrible repair. And it was love at first sight.

Over the years, we have restored the house with painstaking care -- a task that continues to this day. In doing so - we have tried to create the kind of home where people want to spend time - a warm, inviting and happy space. And hopefully we are a "match" for the house -- just as the couple in Iowa was so many years ago for the house Wood was enamored with.

Lisa

Painting Update

Note to those contemplating a power roller: When they say (as part of the cleaning instructions) to purge the system of water after you have backwashed all of the paint out of the pump and hoses, THEY REALLY MEAN IT. Do not be fooled into idly letting the silly thing pump itself "dry" for 2 or 3 minutes. No. Instead, you have to diligently coax every last little bit of water out of the system - you need to set the machine up high, and then - while it pumps at full bore - MAKE the water come through the tubes and exit at the nozzle attachment. If you do not do this, you will discover - as we did this morning - that instead of immediately applying paint when you turn on and prime the pump, you are applying the cup or so of water which remained in the system after you cleaned it last time. And, spread out through the wonders of a power roller, this "cup or so of water" has the coverage of a gallon - it ends up everywhere.

So, you are forwarned - take the "drying out" step very seriously indeed.

Now on to brighter moments. Once we recovered from the debacle of trying to paint our walls with water as it sprayed from the roller, things went well. Even though I used the wrong replacement roller, it looks great. And, with the mondern wonder of a power roller, we were able to finish the entry room, downstairs half of the stairs, and the entire living room today. So, with the exception of the "upstairs" portion of the stairs - which can wait for a LONG time as far as I'm concerned, we are done. Not so bad in two days, especially considering how we had to move everything (including the drapes) out of the rooms we were working on.

Lisa has asked me to confirm that the color she chose ("peanut"?) is great, and it is. If that kind of thing matters to you. Which it does not to me. I thought what we had was just fine. But then that's just me, I suppose.

What's next? Well, as one normally finds at the end of a project like this, this change has initiated the inevitable domino effect, and now we (that is the Royal "we" - Lisa) are hinting, suggesting, and bluntly stating that the drapes no longer look right. Duh. Of course they don't - they were made for the paint we had before, which is why we should have never changed the paint in the first place. Then, when we do the drapes, it will be the fixture, the furniture, and finally the cat and the dog. It is a vicious cycle and that sort of thing drove Lyndon Johnson out of office. It must be stopped and stopped now.

Lisa has also asked me to report that she did the lion's share of the work on this project, and indeed she did particularly if you don't consider the HOURS I spent in the hot sun cleaning the power roller both days while she painted inside in the air conditioning. Notwithstanding any of that, the areas we painted are rife with woodwork, windows, molding, and the stairway, which meant literally hours and hours of cutting in with a paint brush - a task which seems to suit her fine and which I abhor so I did not do. So yes, the overwhelming amount of painting was indeed done by Lisa. OK?

More as matters develop . . .

Painting

Since this blog is about our adventures, and since most of those adventures seem to revolve around remodeling projects, and since today involved that very type of adventure, in the form of painting, it only seems appropriate to talk about painting. First, I hate it. Second, Lisa (though she says he hates it) loves it. Or at least she likes it a lot. And she enjoys it even more if I can be bribed into participating. Unfortunately, the favored bribe in this house is good wine (or, truthfully, just about any kind of wine), and good wine and a steady hand for painting don't really work together, so she is usually forced to assign other tasks to me while she paints. Today, however, she reached for my jugular and got a new tool - a power roller.

As much as I hate painting, I hate using a roller even more - they splatter, the roller pans are crap, and generally I end up with paint everywhere BUT the wall. However, the thought of Lisa struggling with a power roller was too much for me, and besides: it looked like it might be cool. So, away I went. And away the painting went - three HUGE walls in about 20 minutes. Totally awesome. Of course, the next 90 minutes was devoted to cleaning the power roller, but THAT I could do with a glass of wine nearby.

So, maybe painting is not so bad after all.

As for basing this in reality and context: After having completely remodeled Harry's bedroom and bathroom this summer - while he was at camp - we were fresh out of projects. We started to get bids for redoing the master bath, but they were all out of reach, so that left us empty handed. An idle mind being the devil's workshop, Lisa's idle mind concocted the idea to repaint the living room. "Why" is beyond me. But once that sort of idea sets in, there is no stopping it. So, today the project began. What was slated to take a week, however, will be finished tomorrow. Thanks to the power roller.

Congratulations to technology indeed.

And thus starts this blog, our story of our almost-100-year old house in Houston Texas, and whatever else comes to mind.

Brad and Lisa.