Sunday, March 29, 2015

Be Our Guest...Anytime Except Right Now



Awhile ago, I took some pictures of our guest room because I planned to write a post about it—and I happen to love it because it's very much MY room. It's the only room Mr. W will allow me to pack with pink. My clothes are in its closet. My odds and ends are in its desk. It reminds me of the bedroom in my old apartment.





And like any good room, it has a Bee Gees poster hanging behind the door. Nothing makes guests feel more welcome than Barry Gibb. He's a handsome lion. 

This girly, granny room has been embraced by visitors everywhere from Los Angeles to Germany, but, right now its only guests are Mr. W and I.

We've been sleeping in it for a couple of weeks now and I'm sad to report that when the closet in the master bedroom had to be demo-ed, the room went from being a welcoming, well lit, flowery haven to this:



I can't emphasize enough how excited I am for this remodel to be done. The closet situation alone is enough to make me dance a little jig.

And I'm happy to report, we're making good progress. The new closet got framed this weekend. 


While I continue waiting for the drywall to go up, the floor to go down, and the dust to settle, I'll just keep looking at my Bee Gees poster and focus on trying to Stay Alive...

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Day-By-Day Play-By-Play


I didn't see it coming, but three of the best things happened yesterday. And no, tarping our entire bedroom so another hole could be chiseled through the wall wasn't one of them.

The first thing was that my amazing A friend got engaged. You know when you watch someone go through ups and downs in dating and they finally find the one that is clearly the right match and you're rooting for them so hard but don't want to make a big deal about it and put pressure on the situation? Totally one of those. But I knew I'd get the "ring" call one of these days and I am SO happy for her.

The second incident of pure awesomeness was that I got to put peanut butter in Mr. W's hair. No, not during some kinky massage with kitchen condiments (we use dijon for that). He got sap in his hair while working on the add-on—likely a head+ceiling joist situation. And all-knowing remedier of tricky situations, Google, told me to use peanut butter to get it out. Worked like a charm. We even used it on some arm hair. He went to bed smelling like a preschool cafeteria. It was lovely.

The third best thing, which is probably the ultimate best, was that we had to sleep in the guest room. Because of all the mess in our bedroom, we were relegated to the guest room where the cats like to sleep at night. And, to be fair to them, I insisted that we keep the door open so they could stay faithful to their normal routine. (Plus, I haven't gotten to sleep with my kitties since the first night I moved into Mr. W's house in Hollywood 4 1/2 years ago.)

Mr. W was SO not having it when they both immediately jumped into bed with us. But this morning, he did chuckle a little as Zoe nuzzled into my pillow like a prairie dog. The peanut butter must have softened him overnight. 

Now that I've covered all the important stuff, here's a little sequential look at our add-on progress. It's crazy how fast it's moving! Before we know it, we'll be taking side-by-side baths in our giant tub and hoping no neighbors see us sitting on the new toilet. Good times.









I don't actually know what the difference is between this picture and the last one, but I know there's been a whole lot of hammering and noisemaking going on the last couple days.
I told Mr. W he should just open a taco stand in there and serve it out the window.





The next step is to finish the roof. Then the windows are all going in. And Mr. W is outside with the drywall guy right now, so we may have interior walls this week, too. Bathtub, here we come!

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

...And On Top of It All, There Are Hairy, Half-Naked Men in My Backyard


There's a whole lot of disarray going on around these parts right now. Work trucks are parked on our law every day. Tools and wood are strewn all over the patio. There are empty Gatorade bottles in the ice plant. The joys of remodeling are abundant here.


But I think the sight I've found most entertaining during past couple weeks has been the unexpected parade of flesh I keep seeing through the sliding glass door. The first time I glimpsed it, it startled me. I felt like a stray bear or Bigfoot had wandered into our yard.

But nope, it was just our contractor, sans shirt. (Who, for the record, is a big teddy bear so it's all very fitting.)



He looked so free that his brother who is helping with construction soon joined him. I teased Mr. W and asked him if they called him over with a wave of the hand and "Come on in, the water's fine." He said they did not. But every day they're out there working on their tans while they work on our new bathroom.

It makes me feel a little shy. Like I might slip up and say, "That man nipple...err..I mean foundation looks really solid. Good work, guys."

Nudity aside, it's really fun to watch the progress of this project. It's happening so fast. Tomorrow the subfloors are going down and then the framing will start. And then...they'll be busting through the wall. Which is kind of terrifying. Just when I'd gotten the last of the dust cleaned from the kitchen and two bathroom remodels... I just hope the contractors are wearing their shirts when they come through the plaster.

It's so crazy to me that this is going to be an actual room soon.

Mr. W standing in "the shower" of our new master bath...wearing socks and flip-flops.
Because that's how we roll.

Even though this footing is getting buried, we thought it would be fun to leave our hand prints for posterity.