All Decked Out

How rad are these lamps? I so wanted to get them but Mr. W isn't a fan of gazelles.

Mr. W and I often joke that he is the President in our relationship and I'm the Vice President. Whenever we're doing projects at the house, he's always leading and I'm always acting as sous chef, surgical nurse, or secretary. I'm totally cool with this. I'd much rather be second in command than the person at the top of the responsibility chain. And it makes sense, really, because he's a year and 361 days older.

The great thing is that even though he's the chief, he always takes my opinion into consideration.

Like this weekend when we spent TWO WHOLE DAYS rebuilding our rotting front deck.

Mr. W's BFF came to town a couple weeks ago to help "pull up some of the rotten boards"
and the next thing I knew, the boys had demolished the entire thing. It took so much work
that they weren't even able to start the rebuilding process while BFF was visiting.

In addition to standing over Mr. W holding an umbrella so he didn't get heat stroke or a third degree sunburn while he screwed boards into place, I was able to inject some of my ideas into the decision-making process. Example:

Mr. W: I think we should just put this long board here.
Me: Why would you do that? That doesn't make any sense at all because... (I can't remember the reason now). That's stupid. No, we're not doing that.
Mr. W: Don't call me stupid!
Me: I didn't call you stupid. I called your idea stupid.

We make a really awesome team.

After working about 10 hours each day to get the house rental ready (anyone know someone who wants to rent a house with a nice view in late September or early October?), we retreated indoors to continue packing the never-ending supply of *important stuff* we've amassed throughout our 37+ years. It was super fun. Not.

It's ridiculous how long it took to finish this. And it's not even really finished... Eesh...

We did manage to sneak away for a couple hours early Saturday morning when we had to take our new beater truck to the mechanic to get the shocks checked (remodeling the new house in Santa Ynez pretty much requires that we have a truck, so Mr. W splurged and bought a 1998 Toyota...she's a beaut). While the truck was being inspected, we went to check out a prop clearance shop that Mr. W heard about from a friend at work.

I think there might have actually been less stuff in the warehouse than there is
in my parents' house.... Mama likes to hoard a little.

The place was so cool, even JC was hanging out there.

It was kind of a blast. It's filled floor to ceiling with just about everything you can think of from various TV shows. Apparently a lot of it came from the soap "One Life to Live." But I saw something that said "Reba" on it, so maybe some came from her show, too.

This room had all kinds of fancy paintings in it. Must have been the British room.
It was a little stuffy in there...

Walking through it reminded me of going to Toys 'R' Us when I was a little kid. There was so much good stuff to look at I used to get a headache there. It was total sensory overload. This place was, too, but instead of hurting my head, it delighted my heart.

It took all my restraint not to climb inside this and try to find Narnia.

Have you ever seen so many soap dispensers?
And I thought nobody ever went to the bathroom on TV.

We came home with a brand new $40 sink for one of the new house's bathrooms, and some sconces that were about 65% off the retail price. I could have bought some other knick knacks for the house, but the President silenced my requests. Guess it's time for me to become like all the other wives I know and start shopping behind his back...

This is indicative of how big Mr. W thinks my mouth is.