Hunting has been a part of my family for generations and I happened to marry a guy who's family is even more fanatical about it than mine!
(Warning - this post deals with hunting...if you don't agree you may not enjoy this one)
This new friend joined our house and now lives over the bookself.
It was actually my grandfathers but I think it fits well in our home!
I like it because it lets hubs feel like he has some of his outdoorsy stuff as a part of the house but I don't have to stare at a full deer head all the time...or better yet an Elk head.
Did I ever tell you about the Elk head? No?
Well then, let me introduce you to Tank!
Tank hails from the mountains of Idaho (I think).
He is my husbands trophy and came to live with us back in 2008. Unfotunately Tank is rather large and can't fit in our little ranch house right now. He lives at my in-laws in the man cave for now, but I have the joy of knowing he will be ours one day to display in our own home.
(In case you can't tell, I'm using a sarcastic tone here)
What's that you say, how big is an Elk?
What...you've never seen one?!?!
Let me give you little peek at the size we're talking about here
(Bryan is 6ft tall btw)
I'm going to need a VERY LARGE man room in my next home!!!
I spent most of my weekend removing doors in my house. Why you ask??
Because they are ALL UGLY!
Every door in our house is either a plain slab door or pain in the rear bi-fold door that was not installed properly therefore constantly comes off the track. It was time for them to go.
Of course I got so excited to get started that I didn't remember to take my camera out until after I had already started removing doors.
The first to go were the bi-fold doors on the laundry closet
They looked somewhat like the bi-fold doors on the closet on the direct opposite wall...
Except that they didn't match what so ever!!!
I then realized there were not any previous hinge spots carved into the moulding on the laundry closet for hanging a door. I made a quick call to Papa Murph and determined I might be getting ahead of myself...especially considering I had not even taken my new chizel out of the packaging yet!
I decided to alter my plans slightly and move on to the front closet which already had two doors hanging nicely, all I would need to do is chizel my hinge spots into the new door.
Easy right!?!?
I started with placing the new door on the floor
Grey dog was apparently bored
Next I placed the old door beneath the new door and made sure they were even...thankfully they matched up almost perfectly!
I then measured and marked the hinge spots on the new door
Then I began to chizel out hinge slots in the new door.
Ok, first I watched about 10 youtube videos on how to chizel out a hinge spot on a door and THEN I attempted it. I truly believe the trick is to first score your line with a razor blade and chizel from the center to the edges. It makes things MUCH easier!
I again took the cheap route and spray painted our existing hinges black and hung the new door back up!
It needs a coat of paint (which I probably should have been done first) but I love the new door!
It will look so much nicer when people enter our house too!
I was thrilled to get one up and get started on the next one...
Then I got a call from my mom whoe told me to turn on the weather channel.
I'm not sure if you heard about the little storms we had here this past Saturday...
We had lots of wind, rain and hail at our house, but thankfully sustained no damage. We were very lucky because many folks in and around the Raleigh area were not so lucky. There was a lot of damage and within minutes of the storm passing the hubs was on the phone with his dad and getting ready to head out to work.
My father in law owns a tree removal service (That's Blackhawk Trees for anybody in the triangle area) and they worked into the night on Saturday and and ALL day Sunday. I took some time on Sunday to bring them lunch, and since I don't have any pictures of the completed closet doors today I'll share some pictures of the storm damage.
Grey dog of course came along for the ride
All the debris is from the bank, the drive through teller area is destroyed
The boys hard at work
Feeding time
The sad part is these pictures only show minor damage.
I'll end this post with just saying how grateful I am that myself, family and friends in the area were all safe and spared from tornados. I pray those affected can receive the help they need to start over.
There is some construction taking place at my house the next few days so more updates are to come!
I was going to download the pictures from the weekend project last night, however I got distracted hanging out with this guy
I have wanted to go to a Jimmy Buffet concert for as long as I can remember and I FINALLY got to one last night!! While I wish it had been on a weekend so we could have hung out with the parrot heads a little longer, I still had a fantastic time!
Here's a few pictures from last night and I'll try to remember to upload other pictures tonight!
We were a tad far from the stage, but I didn't care!!
At least I hope my absence makes your heart grow fonder!!!
My "real" job has been all consuming lately and stolen all of my "fun job" time...but that is all going to change soon!!! I've been getting myself organized and the weather has been getting nicer which means my work shop (my deck) is open for business!!
To prove to you how serious I am, this is where I spent my lunch time today
I have the bed of the truck filled with lumber, doors, hardware and all sorts of goodies!!
Also some of this
since grey dog has been bringing some unwelcome critters into the house lately!
I plan to start some small projects this weekend and the larger projects will continue into the week with the help of my carpenter friend Will. I get to play with my power tools, and there is even going to be some demo involved...I CAN'T WAIT!!
Oh and I also received this picture last night of a small table that will be arriving at my house this weekend for me to do with it as I please.
It's hard to tell by the picture what it will become, but I'm overcome with joy at the thought of all these projects!!
OH, I almost completely forgot. I did finally settle on a pillow choice for the new chairs in the living room. I went with this vine floral print from Pottery Barn
I like the repetitive pattern and it's a perfect blend of green and red. I'm very happy with my choice...and thank you Jenn for your input!!
Good news for ladies!!
According to the information in this article obtained from a study done by the head of psychiatry at Stanford University; spending time with a female friend is as important to our overall health as jogging or going to the gym.
I just happened to have spent this past weekend with my good friend Roseanne. We've been friends since highschool and since we live 500 miles apart, weekends like this are special. We talked, we laughed, we shopped, you know - the usual girl stuff. So after reading this article, the way I look at is that we pretty much spent the entire weekend working out!!
(That should basically off set all the wine we drank, right?)
I am actually going somewhere decorating oriented with this story so bear with me...
You see Rosie lives in a fantastic new apartment in Jersey City, but like most new homeowners sometimes a clean slate can feel somewhat daunting when it comes to decorating. It's can be hard to know where to start. So far she is doing a FANTASTIC job, but came to me for a few suggestions.
Here is what her TV wall looked like "before"
Nice wall, but with a few obstacles like the vents, the random light fixture, the temperature guage, smoke alarm, sconce etc. Most of these things can't be covered up or need to remain accessible.
I sent her a few ideas and here's what she ended up with "after"
They simply added these two bookcases from Ikea, a few storage baskets and viola!
Such an easy change, but it made all the difference in the world!
She is considering some pictures over the TV as well to frame it out, but what a great start!!
By adding a new focal point, everything else on the wall seems to blend right in.
We came up with a laundry list of other decorating ideas that she could do while I was there so hopefully she can convince her husband and will keep sending us before and after pics!
I was running some errands yesterday and when I pulled into a shopping center close to my house I saw something
GLORIOUS!!!
It looked a little like this...
They are putting in a Home Goods VERY close to my house!!!!
This is bad news for my husband, fantastic news for me!!
Yes there are other Home Goods in our area, but none close to me, which is very aggravating at times.
For those of you in Raleigh it is in the Falls Village shopping center on Falls of the Neuse Rd. Same place as TJMaxx (now you know what "errands" I was running) where Fresh Market used to be.
Well, I'm leaving on a Jet plane again today to go visit one of my bestests that I never get to see enough. I also get to see this handsome guy here with her which I'm equally excited about!
(although he's a tad bigger now)
Ok, Here's my theme song for this trip...
I have a few projects on the back burner, and since the weather is getting nicer I'll hopefully tackle them soon!
Hope you have a great weekend!!
And to my dear friend Paige, I hope you have a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
