My Life as a Novel

We finally finished up a project in our home, last weekend. One that we'd been putting off for almost four years. Our kitchen. It was verging on ridiculous how long it took us to buckle down and finish painting the walls in there. Red all the way up to the top but never trimmed out. Our intentions were to purchase crown moulding and hang it. But, (a) that's expensive and (b) it's difficult and (c) really, after four years, it's fallen very low on the priority list, if we're being honest!

So we painted. All the way to the top. So now when our friend Matt comes for New Years, he won't be able to say, as he has for the past two years, "Next year, I can come a few days early. It'll only take an hour or two to trim this room out and get it finished."


one gold wall, three red ones -- painted all the way up to the top
and a new painting to tie it all together! :)
(I married into talent, y'all!)

Labels: home

(Maegen and Suzanne helped too.)




Our friend Greg painted the house for us a couple of months ago. He did a great job and the color turned out great! (Kyle picked it out. You can compare it to the old color - the color of the door. We're waiting on a pressure washer to be delivered very soon and then Kyle will take care of the door.)

Also, the lily. Just for good measure.

Labels: flowers, home, photo, Work in Progress

• The mulch is purchased, but remains in a big pile in the front yard.
• The weeds in the flowerbed are GONE!
• The new ceiling fan is in operation and looks lovely.
• My dad bolted the dishwasher back to the counter. (He undid it and left it that way a couple of months ago when he was working on it. I finally remembered to get some washers so we could fix it. He did it for me last night. Nice.)
• Is it possible that that's all we got done last night? That list seems so short! But, alas, I think that is it.
  

And I woke up this morning to this:

These pictures are pretty terrible, but it was so humid outside that my lens kept fogging up. And then the sun was so bright, I couldn't see my light meter. But, they're flowers. They're pretty anyway.

Tonight, my mom is going to help me put down some landscape fabric (finally!) and then ... the mulch! Yay!

Labels: flowers, home, photo, Work in Progress

For my whole life, my dad has worked in plants and mills in very "blue-collar" jobs. The lingo I've picked up from him is that when he does his job correctly (keeping machines running), "productivity" is up and that's great for the whole company. Basically, my dad is the hero of Mead WestVaCo these days -- and Georgia Pacific before that. Or at least that's what I like to think. :)

Productivity is definitely up at the Polk house these days. I was talking to Kyle's mom this morning and I told her that I finally feel like we're adults in a house and not a couple of kids who have no idea what they're doing owning a home.

Let me not fool you. We still have no idea what we're doing. We're just getting better at figuring out who to go to when we have questions.

This series of much-needed home-improvement started last November when our roof finally got the attention it required. (Don't know if I've said thank you to the right people enough for that. Don't know if I could.) So when spring rolled around, we got the outside of the house pressure washed and painted. And the difference was amazing!! One last step (the front door) and the painting will be finished, and the outside of the actual house will be finished.

So we turned our attention to the yard shortly thereafter. We trimmed a tree. I planted flowers. Kyle cut back all the azaleas and other shrubbery in the front yard. And now all I have left to do is finish digging weeds (for the 76,135th time) and mulch. And that's happening tonight. And there's talk of a mailbox. We'll see what happens.

On Saturday, we went to Home Depot. (sings: "Thank you, George Bush, for the stimulus package money that you gave me" to the tune of Thank You, Jack White.) We got some new blinds for the dining room/kitchen/living room on Saturday. And we hung them and dusted the window sills better than they'd been dusted in a while. And tonight my dad's coming over to help Kyle replace a broken ceiling fan/light. We've replaced light fixtures before, but the wiring in a ceiling fan is a bit different. Plus, my dad likes to help out. So why not let him?

It may not be painting an entire house in a week by yourself, but it's productivity. And I like it.

Labels: home, Work in Progress

Labels: flowers, home, photo

Friday was a great day off. Kyle had the day off too and we spent the afternoon propped up by the pool at our friend Katherine's apartment. Slathered with SPF15, I managed to delay the inevitable First Burn of the Season. But only for 24 hours.

Working in the yard on Saturday morning turned into an all-day chore. (The weeds!! Where do they come from!? Do they ever stop?!) Stooped over for four hours in a tank top gave me quite a burn on my back. And it also left an interesting burn-pattern on my legs:

Labels: home

This week in the life of Rita Polk has been a bit chaotic. I am a person who loves to at least think she's in control of her stuff. The family calendar stays current. The house is never _too_ messy. The A/C filters are changed and the dogs are given their medicine on the same day each month so that I remember to do them both. (There's a term for that: Anal Retentive. And yes, I am. Thank you very much.)

This week, Andrew moved out and our two new roommates moved in. (Did I say "Chaos"?) To their credit, they each kinda did their own thing with little help from us. So, in that sense, it hasn't been a bad transition for any one. But my house? Oy, it has definitely seen better days. For some reason I felt like, with all this other stuff going on, this week would be the perfect time to start a "sort and purge" maneuver on my entire house.

All said and done, I have taken four large bags of clothes to Goodwill, and I dropped off a broken laundry sorter and a small bag of stuff at the recycling place on Monday afternoon. Big steps in returning my house to "order". But there are several big steps left! (Like a bookshelf. I need one of those badly. But where to put it? Ah! I don' t know!)

But the point of this post is this:

1. New Roommates! Yay!
2. My house is going to be clean soon! And, like I always say, it'll stay that way this time!
   

Labels: home, Roommate

The humidity is already rising -- at least it has been for the past couple of days.Perhaps we're already feeling the beginnings of summer around here.
But today, my yard looks a little more "springy" with the first iris bloom of the season.
My grandmother used to have these in her yard and when I was looking for some bulbs to plant in February, these just seemed like "the ones". I think I made the right choice.

SO PRETTY!

Labels: flowers, home

I am a fan of spring and fall. I find that just when they start to show up around these parts, I'm really ready for them. This has been an incredibly mild winter. It's been very warm, with spurts of cool weeks here and there. But now it's starting to warm up ... really warm up outside. And I'm getting some spring action in the yard.

So this is for Mandy and for others of you who are still waiting to see the sun shine on the snow. A little Spring Blessing your way!

Labels: flowers, home, photo

This past weekend was our first Journey Church Mission Project. And when I say that it was a success, you can accept my word for it. (read more ... )

Labels: home, Journey Church

I'm a planner. I work with checklists a lot. I work best when given a cut-off date. I cannot be trusted to finish a project unless I'm given a definite, unmoving due date. It's the way I work... sad as it is. I'm only at my best when a Date of Accountability is set.

Take my house as an example. It is basically a roof over a building full of unfinished projects. We've lived there for two years and haven't ever completely finished some kitchen projects. Our bathroom has remained unfinished and untouched for almost a year. One of our bedrooms has been untrimmed and crappily painted for two years, with a ceiling fan that is literally on its last leg.

Well it was high time we put our heads together to develop a plan for getting these things taken care of. So my husband, the paint store clerk, went to work with a list of supplies to bring home last week. He brought the supplies home and we set to work over the weekend.

The biggest of the three projects we aim to complete over the next two or three weeks is painting what's become known as The Orange Room ... for obvious reasons.

There are three bedrooms in our house and when we bought it, we said one room could be used for my things and the other was for Kyle's. Both are guest bedrooms, but his has some of his art things in it while mine has my grandmother's sewing machine and all my crafting supplies in it.

When we first moved in, Kyle said he wanted to paint his room orange. So being the nice wife that I am, when he was out of town the weekend of his birthday, I invited a friend over and we painted. It was raining all weekend. My friend forgot to mention that this was her first experience painting. Ever. This is what we call A Very Bad Idea. That was the weekend of June 25, 2005.

And still, as of October 12, 2007, the walls resembled this:



And on Saturday, after a coat of primer, they looked like this:


And after last night, they look like this:

Oh so pleasing to my eyes. I make a point of peeking in the door to make sure it's still really finished whenever I pass by the room.

Now we just have to decide what color we're going to paint the trim. In a general sense, I despise painting trim. Especially when said trim is natural wood which matches the hardwood floors. But that can hardly be said of most of the trim in this particular room. I think the people who we bought our house from let their 8 year old paint his own room before they moved out. The trim, now against a solid wall, really stands out.



Bad.

So ... that to go and the room is done. Room 1 / 3 to be finished before November.

Can it be done? It's a race to the finish!



"And why," you may be thinking, "are you in a rush to get things done before November?"

We're getting a Roommate! :)

Labels: home, Roommate, The Hubby

A little something to brighten my day.

Growing these flowers in my yard gives me a great appreciation for people who grow flowers and then CUT them! I wouldn't be able to do it.

In other news, Mendy's napkins are in:



Her invitations are out:



The bridesmaid's dresses are in:
(no picture available. just imagine me looking hot in a lilac-colored dress.)

The bridal party newsletters are out:

We are making mucho progress.

Labels: flowers, home, photo, Wedding

I love the way pictures can take you back. There's a reason why people budget so much of their wedding funds for photography, why new parents follow their child around with a camera documenting its every movement, and why hanging pictures in a house helps to make it a home.

I don't know if words could adequately describe how much fun I had last Wednesday. But these pictures help me to remember. The quiet that exists between friends. The conversations that are more than just chatty banter. Sharing life. Sharing kitchen utensils and cutting boards. And, in the case of these pictures, sharing an evening of music for a chance to remember it all.

Thanks for the pictures.

Labels: Friends, holidays, home, Music, photo, The Hubby

I take it all back. Everything I said about my husband's "silly last minute plans"? Let's pretend we never heard or read any of those words.

Yesterday was the most fun I've had in a long time!


















more (and better) pictures coming soon!

Labels: Friends, holidays, home, photo, The Hubby

Labels: family, home, Wedding

Labels: flowers, home

Seeing this ... inspired me to make that same exact shade appear on walls in my own house. I'm in love with it.

So I did it! Last night, actually.


True love. And I finished the whole room in one night, thanks to the quality coverage of ICI paint!

Labels: family, home

It used to look like this:

(Thank GOD that's in the past)

After a day's work of pulling weeds, it looked like this:


The next day, I brought in The Professional:

Very Professional Feet! :)

And I bought some flowers:



And now it finally looks like this:

Labels: flowers, home, photo