Southern girl plowing her way through life making the rules up as she goes. Warning: likes to bake, curse, quote movies/literature, is tattooed, married to The Man and mother of two girls. We bring new meaning to the "griswald way of life". Come along for the ride!



Thursday, May 14, 2009

Caged Monkeys and Framing

It was a most productive Thursday!

I broke down and caged my monkeys. Mom and I got the kids a tramp, how much fun is that. Even better the Photo-Elusive-Step-Dad and my visiting brother came in while we were all at school/work and put that bad boy together. Woohoo baby. The kids came home and promptly passed out in joy, then came too and I didn't see them again until dark. Heaven.....

The back corner of my yard looked bare, so this wound up being the perfect addition. Now mind you it looks a little dorkey but unlike 99% of the parents in my neighborhood I actually put up my enclosure. I.E. my dad put it up, and then read me the instruction manual over the phone, and then went over the rules, twice....cause he is a teeny bit protective of his girls. Not to mention he's a retired cop so he's kinda safety concerned. (probably has nothing to do with the fact that my children inherited my "clumsey" gene)

So I left the back door open, cooked a great dinner. Cleaned my kitchen, watched "Hairspray", sang and danced with my broom and mop while sneaking pics and peeks wondering when they'd get bored. Turns out, they multiplied. Everytime I looked out, there were more additions to the cage. And the noise, Oh My Lawd, the noise. Hence "Hairspray" cause I sooooooo can outsing anyone at the top of my lungs. Yeah baby (notice I didn't say anything about quality of sound, just volume)!
Now Murphy's reaction to the cage was unique. He ran outside and skidded to a stop, promptly had to pee in place on the deck and then barked for three hours straight while running around and under. Terrified. Poor little thing, he just didn't get it. He's had a really rough day. Besides all the outside noise and strange new cage in his yard, he had to deal with compressors and hammering.......downstairs........
Cause the contractor showed up and started my basement today. Woohoo baby. See we're adding a great room (seriously great at 24x16), a nice sized laundry room, a bedroom and the largest damn bathroom in Utah. I got carried away on the bathroom thing. Opps, does anyone else have a 12x9 bathroom that is NOT a masterbath? Anyone?

So if you're standing where I was when I took the picture, you're in the great room looking down the hall. Simple and flowing layout. I hacked those damn plans up, cause I hate corners and silly cluttery floor design. Not for me. My goal is large, open and airy.....yeah!

This is the view from the bedroom (the bathroom isn't framed in yet, this is just the first day's work). So you're lucky enough to be able to follow this cool project of mine which I've labeled the "Pay as I go, phase 1-5, basement expansion cause I need somewhere to send the kids in the winter cause they drive me nuts when we're snowed in" project, or for short....the Bat-Shit-Crazy project. Join me, it'll be fun. And seriously I can't possible annoy you as much as I annoy my contractor, poor guy. I seriously make changes and small adjustments until the VERY LAST MINUTE, which he must absolutely love.
Teeny example of that......this conversation actually happened this morning when we did the pre-work walk-thru
"I'm not liking that there is a corner here? Why is there a corner there? What purpose is that corner? It's not like I could PUT anything in it, it's tiny! What if we move this wall out oh what is that 2 inches..."
Patient contractor: "more like 12 inches"
"and then just streamline this wall, it'll just add to the laundry room, I like that much better, what do you think?"
Patient contractor: ".."
"perfect, let's do that"
He got smart and just started nodding alot. See, he's learned how to deal with me already. And, I was totally right......review that pic again from the great room, see how lovely and streamlined that hallway is.........no stupid 2 or 12 inch corner between the laundry room and bedroom in the hall....
And you've just met my new obsession.......now that most of the landscaping is done, I'm now a basement building/design junkie. God help us.