Happy Birthday to Me!

Another year older and sometimes I feel every last second of my life. Instead of going out to dinner, I made it a working birthday.

Jamie put up the quarter round in the basement and except for setting the toilet, I believe the job is complete.

I bought myself a birthday present of new rugs for the basement. A little abstract, but I think it gives the basement character.

Teresa and Brad brought over pizza and we finished off with an ice cream cake. The "21" bears no significance. It was the only candles I had.

So Happy Birthday to me and another Happy Birthday to Jamie (his birthday is tomorrow)!

Happy Thanksgiving

When do holidays become a time for rest and relaxation?

Jamie spent the afternoon putting up my Christmas lights while I hustled around the kitchen trying to put together a turkey dinner. I always get so stressed trying to get everything timed just right.

I did get my pictures for my Christmas card (to follow later when Christmas cards go out) and only had to bribe Violet with a few gel stickers to get her to pose with me.

Thanksgiving is over and it's on to finish decorating and shopping for Christmas. The menagerie is small this year and Santa and the snowman no longer light up. Before you know it I'll be taking down all the decorations and cleaning up again. Where does the time go?

Day 8 - We Did It!

After 8 days and a little over 40 hours, Michael and I have successfully finished tiling the basement. And it looks beautiful.

Most people who do a DIY tile laying project, usually start with a small bathroom. Not me! I have to tackle an 850 square foot basement. But it was worth every sore muscle, aching knees and rough dry hands. I also ruined 2 pairs of my comfy, lay around the house pants.

I love the transition from the 17x17 grey tiles to the 12x24 lighter tiles in the kitchen area.

The transition continues into the bedroom and bathroom.

Even though the quarter round still needs to go down, the doors hung and the toilet set, I couldn't wait to add the carpet touches to the bedroom. My Black Friday shopping will be on the internet searching for great deals on area rugs for the living area. Would I do it again? NO!!!!!!!

Day 7 - Cinderella

Today we started grouting the tile. I say started because we couldn't finish. The bedroom furniture was blocking about a third of the basement. Michael spread the grout and I cleaned the tiles.

For an OCD person, spreading grout and cleaning tile is not the best thing to do. No matter how many times I rinsed the sponge, there was still a thin film of white residue. After wiping the floor about 4 times, I felt like Cinderella. But I finally got it all up. Michael will be back tomorrow and we should be done. Then all that's left is the quarter round. I must say, it does look beautiful.

Day 6 - Last Tile Laid

It's day 6 and we finally finished laying all the tile.

The bedroom closet was almost as hard as the bathroom. Michael had a couple of "tetris" pieces but after 7 long hours today, the last pieces was laid.

You can obviously tell who did the most work! Now it's on to grouting.

Christmas Train

Since next week is Thanksgiving, I wanted to get my Christmas tree up in hopes of getting some sort of picture for my Christmas card.

Each year I try to cut back on the amount of decorations I put out but it's just too hard to decide who stays in the box.

Teresa gave me an early birthday present of a train you mount in your tree.

I spent over 4 hours trying to put this thing together. And persistence paid off. This is such a cute little addition to all my decorations. I'm crossing my fingers I can get a cute picture for my Christmas card.

Day 5 - Basement Tile Progressing Slowly

Michael literally spent 3 hours cutting tile to finish the bathroom while I hid upstairs to stay out of his way.

He calls this piece his Tetris piece. He not only had the toilet to cut out but also the cabinet. I'm amazed at how patient he is.

I'm glad I bought the extra tile to put it all the way into the bathroom closet. It looks so much neater.

We're now starting on our last room - the bedroom. I had to add this picture of myself just to prove that I did help. One more day of tile then we can start grouting.