10-31-11 Monday (Metallic Art Perversions)

Wow.  I think I've been busier now than when we started the move.  Jim's family is coming for Thanksgiving so that has given us some incentive to get our asses moving on setting up the house.

I started unpacking all the decor boxes on the 28th.  Pictures, crystal, etc.

I cleaned the hutch glass shelves and doors.  I used Windex and coffee filters.  The best combination ever.  Coffee filters have a great texture to help scour off dirt while being gentle and lint free!  Yes, way better than newspaper.  Softer too.

 

Friday night, Jim loaded up the hutch:

I must tell you that when we packed stuff up over 3 years ago, we used tons of towels.

That pile above only represents a SMALL portion of towels we used.  I've already washed another pile similar in size to that.

Here's all the towels we're donating to either goodwill or preferably an animal shelter:

3 years ago we bought cheap throws from Big Lots.  I used a bunch of them for the cat and dog.  We've amassed quite a collection now that I've unpacked them all.  I washed them, folded and stuck them in the linen closet until I figure out how many I want to keep.

I took the pink ones to work for a friend, Amy, who absolutely adores anything pink.  She was thrilled.

The towels below are hot tub towels.  Yeah, I'm not sure how many people we ever thought could fit into the hot tub at once.  We over-did it at the time I guess.

Saturday arrived and I had off from work for a Community Service day so that Jim and I could give testimonials for NACA.  Community Service.   It sounds like I'm a criminal with a sentencing in hand but my company will give me two days off a year for volunteering.  I took that opportunity.  We had to stand up in front of about 100 or more people with our testimony.  Jim more or less stated that he wouldn't recommend Adams Homes.  He went on to say that NACA is a wonderful program but their customer service was lacking and to not let them push you around.  We found that they acted as they were doing us a favor rather than treating us as a customer.  The representatives from NACA happened to have stepped out of the room during our testimony.  Funny.  We answered a few questions from possible future members.

After all that we left and went shopping!  Oh, also returning too!  The Jeep was very full.

At Garden Ridge we returned hundreds of dollars worth of stuff we didn't use.  We filled up 2 carts with new purchases.  1 cart was full with 75% off items.  We truly scored.  That cart was under $100! 

Next off to Bed Bath and Beyond.  We returned $500 of stuff.  I spotted this artwork, had Jim hold it up and snapped a photo.  What do the wine bottles look like to you?

You did see it right?

Speaking of seeing things, our new fireplace has a haze on it.  I tried cleaning it but it's on the inside of the glass.  Looking at it and the directions, I  don't see anyway to get behind the glass.  It's an allen & roth by Lowe's so I went to their site and emailed them the situation.  They emailed me that it was referred to a local store and then later another email from an actual store employee revealed that we'd have to remove the unit to get behind there.  That doesn't make me happy.  What DID make me happy is that they actually responded.  Kudos to them!

Anyway, back to organizing the house...

We stopped at a ginormous Rooms To Go clearance center/warehouse that we're lucky to have here in town.  We were on the hunt for a dinette sideboard/server.  We found one for $300 and it was perfect.  We paid for it and were to come by later (once the Jeep was emptied) to pick it up.  When we came by later, there were 4 chips on it.  I wasn't happy.  They'll refund the price up till the point that we actually take it.  It was the only one they had so we negotiated and they offered $50 off.  Sold.  Jim did a pretty good job at touching it up.

Above: Jim "installs" it.

Sunday we continued with the decor.  Here's the new piece with our Garden Ridge clearance (Tuscan art, clock and wine metal art) finds.

 

Below: The fireplace mantel and art to the left are in place.Above: The right speaker wire in the wall wouldn’t work so it’s outside the wall until Jim buries it.

Above: Dasher.  Just cause he's so darn cute.

 

Below: More cuteness:  Dasher and Clea.

Jim installed more shelving in the pantry!



For an odd twist, Jim came up with a solution for dead space.  We don't want nor really have the room for bar stools but the space under the bar was looking pretty plain so he hung up these plaques.  Creative isn't he?  Do you like it?  Is it strange?



A new comforter for the master bedroom:

10-24-11 Sunday (Rock Climbing!)

We met up with Mike and Billy for a roadtrip today!  Off to McDonalds for breakfast first and then a 2 hour drive.

First I want to tell you that we ate in a recently remodeled McDonalds close to home.  What a dumb remodel.  The majority of seating were picnic bench style or ottomans.  I'm not sure about you but I hate sitting to meal with no back support.  Jim says it's so people won't be comfortable and will leave sooner.  Probably so.  The other thing about the seating was that the few seats that did have back support seemed to be a hard surface with a piece of leather (or pleather) stretched over it.  Why bother?  No padding or fill, can't slide across the leather, and it probably tears easier.  It's like it looked comfortable but wasn't at all.

My next observation was the help wanted poster.  I'm not down on anyone who works there.  You gotta start some where, or maybe you like it or maybe you'll be an owner or manager someday or maybe they have hours that work for you or ?  I just giggle at the "all majors" part.  Gee, they'll even take me if my major is accounting?  Spectacular!

Onward to Chimney Rock State Park!   The drive was scenic, but not 100% spectacular.  There's still a lot of green and not as much brown, orange, blue, and yellow quite yet.  Blue?  Just checking if you're paying attention or not.

The elevator at the park was closed for renovations.  The walk up all the steps was grueling.  My knees felt like they were on fire.  We took many breaks to catch our breath and rest our legs.  We made it to Exclamation Point.  This excerpt from their website sums it up:

"At an elevation of 2,480 feet, Exclamation Point is the pinnacle of the Park. It exceeds Chimney Rock’s elevation by 200 feet. Standing here, you can feel proud and justifiably weary because you have just driven and hiked over 1,400 vertical feet from the entrance to the Park, which you can see way, way down in the valley."

Awesome views, tired bodies, empty stomachs.  It was already 2 and we were hungry.  Unfortunately we decided to skip the waterfalls.  The good thing is that on the way out of the park, we upgraded our passes to annual passes for $11 more per person.  So sometime in the Spring, we'll make the trek back to see the falls. 

Here’s the day’s photos:

Chimney Rock Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

For a late lunch, early dinner we ate at LaStrada Italian restaurant.  Italian sounded good to us AND they featured outdoor dining overlooking Lake Lure.  We over heard a server talking about a Charlotte location.  We confirmed with the guy at the hostess desk which turned out to be the owner/manager’s son.  They do indeed have a location here but 45 minutes away in the Wesley Chapel/Matthews area.  The food was delish.

That’s all I got!

10-19-11 Wednesday (Dangers!)

I kept pretty busy today.  There was a lot to do and I certainly didn’t get it all done.  I , of course, got some laundry done. 

I’ve been keeping things we don’t want in a pile for Goodwill.  Honestly the pile has grown into several piles.  We’ve decided to put what we can on consignment.  Unlike Goodwill, there will be some sort of monetary compensation, and unlike Craigslist, far less hassle.  So I took a few snapshots of the dinette furniture and gold couch, sent them to the consignment lady to see if she’d take them on.  She will.

She only suggested taking photos of large items for pre-approval, smaller items can be brought in.

I sure miss Linen N Things.  The good news is that they still survive as an internet entity only.  The bad thing is that I hate ordering items that I’ve not seen in a store first, especially when it comes to décor items where colors may vary.  I took a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond and Anna’s Linens and picked up a valance for the kitchen window.  I want the Tuscan look sans the theme to appear every where.  I think they key is to have a few patterned themed items and the rest in complimentary colors.  I haven’t tried out my new purchases yet, I do have 3 from prior purchases to return because they were too sheer.

Above: Stock photo from Anna’s Linen’s site.  I bought only the valance.

Next I went to a Kmart.  I haven’t been to one in a long time… mostly because the closest is 30 minutes away.  I did spot this while shopping:

Above: The straw placement.  Too funny.  They had a Buzz Lightyear too but his upper body swiveled and wouldn’t line up like this character. 

I struck out at Kmart.  There wasn’t anything there that I liked.  Once I got home I baked a cake.  Using a rose shaped Bundt cake pan that I have with some strawberry cake mix, I set out to create a gorgeous cake. 

It’s been a few years since I’ve made it.  It always comes out so nice.  I then take a white icing and drizzle it down the sides.  It’s pretty… most of the time.

I used Pam.  Pam let me down.  I think in the past I’ve used the flour spray (I didn't have any on hand).  Oh, and yes, I absolutely did drizzle the icing on it anyway.  Using my huge Tupperware cake holder, I entombed my disaster forever until Jim got home.  When he arrived, I joyfully shrieked, “I baked you a cake!”  He walked over, lifted the top, we laughed a lot and then had wine.  What’s wine got to do with it?  Absolutely nothing.  Perhaps if I had some prior to baking, it would have come out fine or I would have been too drunk to notice the deficiencies. 

Time to make dinner.  No, no, it went fine.  I made pork stir fry and it came out delish.  For something a little different, I bought a package of those Ramen type dehydrated cheap ass noodle things.  I discarded the 1260mg flavor salt packet.

The direction were a little amusing.  Read step 3, bold:

The only thing better would have been some photo depicting the disaster.  Oh, like the one’s I’ve gotten before:

Above: Costco Sep 2008

Above: Yellowstone Sep 2008

Above: A bag Sep 2008

Above: Seattle Dec 2008

I live for this stuff.

10-16-11 Sunday (Sign, Sign, Nowhere A Sign)

We set off to make a bunch of returns and then to Shane’s Rib Shack for lunch.  We had 2 free meal coupons from a previous visit during some scratch and win type promo.  A free 3 piece chicken tender meal and a chicken tender salad.

I was surprised by the size of this salad.  The bowl was deep!  Of course I had to chose the fried tenders.  Mmmmm.

After lunch, we set off to a zoo approximately 45 minutes north of us.  Zootastic Park was a Groupon purchase Jim made a few months ago.  It was another zoo, similar to Tiger World that we had been to recently.  It wasn’t dumpy but not 100% professional either.  Some of the cages/exhibits didn’t seem quite right for viewing the animal.   Like a skunk in cage with a solid lower half that blocked views.  We later found out it was a monkey cage at one time.  Speaking of the skunk:

The exhibits disappointingly lacked signage.  There was not a sign anywhere that told any info about the animal, not even what kind.  The visit starts with a tour and then you can roam around on your own.  The benefit of the tour is that most animals were removed from the cage, spoken about, and offered up the chance to hold or pet it.  The unfortunate part was the screaming kids, the slowness (for us) of the tour overall since everyone was offered a chance to hold or pet the animal. 

Overall, we enjoyed the visit.  Most of it was a giant petting zoo.  Here’s some more photos:

  

Above: OK this one was just because the fly didn’t move.

Above: We purchased some interesting looking gourds.

After our zoo trip, we returned home to tackle a few projects.  Jim worked on the garage while I went grocery shopping.  Walmart sucks at peak times.  They just can figure out that if they’d keep the shelved stocked, customers will (a) have more to purchase and (b) be happier.

Above: Apparently Charlotte is very good about eating their veggies.  The frozen veggie aisle looked pretty sparse too.

Above: Jim installs 6 cabinets in his garage.  Yes, his garage, my kitchen.

Above: I installed this in the laundry room.  Isn’t it cute?

Above: I also purchased and installed a surround sound system.  Speakers to be mounted later.

Above: I built this chairside table.

Making progress.  There’s still SO much more to do.

10-15-11 Saturday (Automated)

I’ve been working on getting our X10’s sorted and eventually installed.  X10 is a geeky, tech, home automation type system.   The general overview is that with use of a computer, remotes and modules, it enables us to remotely control lights and such with macros, timers and remotes.   We have a ton of different modules. 

Our collection which I sorted by module:

Above: This is only 2 kinds of modules, the rest are in the box.

So anyway, there’s motion sensors, switches, outlets, plug in modules, etc.  We used a lot of these in our prior home years ago… especially for Halloween and Christmas lights.

I went to work today while Jim worked on his beloved garage and shopping.  He did pick up 2 awesome dinette chairs:

Tomorrow, we take a trip to a zoo.  Stay tuned…