Before & After Projects

Before: That fabric was seriously disgusting!


After:Before: I think my guests may have felt a little awkward showering only behind this glass door, especially if someone else was in the bathroom doing their hair at the same time.


After:

Before: No trim.


After: With trim. I will definitely be doing this to the rest of the windows in the house.


And in other news...

I have actually finally decided on some more "permanent" window treatments, which hopefully will be installed within the next week. So more window changes are coming. Yeah I know it's only taken 8 months - but the paper blinds are really getting worn and they look cheap. :)

I bought some super cute Christmas shoes yesterday (not like the ones in that terribly depressing song) just cute, plaid, red shoes. You know the Christmas plaid I'm talking about, the Scottish plaid that those cute little dogs wear?

I LOVE that I have a garage. Mother Nature can keep bringing on the snow, because I will never again have to scrape my windows in the morning!!

and Zeniff moved to Texas the end of October. :(

I really hate doing this:
But instead of running the St. George Marathon this weekend like I had planned and paid $85 to do, I'm sitting in Salt Lake like this:


Apparently I have a pre-stress fracture in my foot. LAME!

Handy WO-Man

In an effort to save money after I bought my house I ended up buying a washing machine and dryer from a relative for a pretty cheap price, and thought I was getting fantastic deal! Long story short it took about a month before the dryer was hooked up and plugged into the wall. "Finally," I thought "I don't have to keep wearing card board underwear!"

NOT! Have you ever stood by a freight train for say a 50 minute cycle? Holy cow this dryer was sooooo loud! Actually loud doesn't even begin to describe it! It sounded like it could use a gallon of WD-40 to stop the squealing, not to mention the cinder block that was tumbling around in there! Seriously, I could hear it plain as day behind the laundry closet door, my bedroom door, bathroom door, fan on and shower running!!! I couldn't stand listening to it and I didn't dare run the thing when I knew my neighbors were home. So I've spent the last month only using the dryer at a last resort. What a pain!!

Well after describing the problem to my Dad, 2 trips to the part store, and 4 more weeks of being annoyed and stressing about it every time I needed to do laundry I have finally fixed it. That's right me, myself, with no help from a man. It took me 2 hours last night, grease to my elbows, broken fingernails and a nice big cut on my arm but this is now the quietest dryer around. I basically rebuilt the thing and replaced all the parts except the motor and the drum. (Thankfully the new parts were only about $50 total so still cheaper than buying a whole new dryer.) Someone may actually be able to stand being in the same neighborhood while it is running. Woot Woot!

I'm feeling a bit like Rosie today. :)
So what I have I learned from this experience?

1. I don't really NEED and man to fix stuff for me - although having a mechanically minded one around would have been much less stressful.

2. Don't do business with family.

Movies

Some of you may remember hearing this story on the news a few years back. A young man was canyoneering near Moab and a boulder fell on his arm, trapping him for a couple days. After 5 days or so realizing help was not coming, he amputated his own arm in order to free himself.

Now, flash-forward to 2010 and some Hollywood producer decides to turn his story into a movie called "127 Hours". I guess the story goes that as this guy was on his way out to the canyon he meets two young ladies who invite him to a party that night. Well obviously he doesn't make it back in time for the party and while he remains trapped in the canyon he begins hallucinating, particularly about this party. (Or so the Hollywood story goes.)

Well this movie is being filmed around Moab and with the help of the Moab film commission they needed to find a vacant place to film this "party" scene. After some looking around they found this place:









Okay well I don't have a picture of it, but this house belongs to my Grandpa, some of my earliest memories were with my grandparents in this house, and when my family moved back to Moab in the mid 90's we lived there for about a year and a half. So pretty awesome right!? I think so... I remember making cinnamon rolls with my grandma there!!

BUT... if that wasn't cool enough, my family called the film commission to ask about 'extras' for the party scene. Explaining that the house has been in our family for years, (my dad actually grew up there) and it would be a really neat experience for him to be in that scene. Well after being politely told "you're 50 and too old to be attending a party with 20 something year old's" they did find a part for him!! SO... my dad is playing one of the doctors (well technically the anesthesiologist I think) that fixes this guy up after he's rescued!!! Ladies and Gentlemen we have a movie star in our midst. My dad shaved off his beard and has been down to the hospital the last two mornings filming! Awesome.

I don't know any kind of a time line as to when the movie will be out but I'm sure looking forward to it!

Dear Zeniff,

Call me Crazy

I'm not totally sure how I'll feel about these $85 in the next few months, but I've been thinking about running a full marathon for awhile now and hopefully 2010 will be the year. I'll know by May 7th if I've actually made the lottery drawing.

Just getting after getting the keys.

View from the front door:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Master Suite: