a lucymae life

Delia's Baby Book

2011-08-17T21:49:00.001-07:00

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Photo Card

2011-08-09T19:35:00.001-07:00

Butterfly Blocks Birthday

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Delia 1

2010-10-30T09:52:00.001-07:00

Spring Branch Girl Baby Announcements

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57 Hours of Home-Owning Experience

2009-06-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we have finally closed on the house and have the keys to our home! What a busy weekend it has been. As soon as we put the keys in the door, we went to work!

Friday afternoon after we walked in the door, we instantly took Alex's trusty wonder bar and pried up the carpeting. We knew there would be hardwood floors in the living room, but were unsure of the rest of the rooms. We lucked out on three of the four main rooms!

living room

our bedroom *future library/office* (woo hoo hotty in the room)

bedroom
office
living room *maybe*
look at that cute daddy-o-b-o pulling up staples!

Saturday morning we were out of bed before 7 am and off to the house! I can't believe how much can be accomplished in a day!

pulled up about 10,000 staples from the hardwood floor with the help of Dad, Sean and Renee
pulled up all of the tack strips
pulled all of the paneling out of the living room and dining room
pulled the peel and stick vinyl squares off of the original tile-work in front of the fireplace. (believe me, I know, who in their right mind would put peel and stick vinyl on tile? In order to give the benefit of the doubt, the tile is in pretty rough shape, some cracks and the grout is deteriorating)

now we just have to figure out how to get
the adhesive off of the tile

But now, the two biggest jobs that made the most impact:

The dining room office *maybe* went from this:

walled up mirror on mirror monstrosity

To this:

And the living room dining room *maybe* went from this:

Weird not original built-in

To this:

wonderful openness!

You can not believe what a difference it makes opening up those two doorways to their original purpose. The house definitely feels much more light and airy and flows so much better!

Much more work ensued over Saturday and Sunday-we pulled and started stripping the baseboard, taped and skim coated one of the ex-paneling covered walls, took all the hardware and doors off of the kitchen cabinets to ready for priming and painting, swept up messes about a million times, pulled tons of nails out of the walls (does paneling really need 100 nails per sheet?), pulled tons of nails out of the baseboard...and now we are ready to collapse.
Coming soon....
more skim coating
more paint stripping
painting the walls in the living room, dining room, bedroom, office and kitchen
painting the kitchen cabinets
windows in the bathroom/pantry project
possibly a bathroom redo... we'll see on this one!
...and refinishing the wood floors!
all this by the end of the month when our lease is up on our apartment!
I'll keep you posted!

*if you can't tell, we are still unsure what the purpose of each room will be!

Days of Carefree TV watching...OVER

2008-05-03T14:42:00.001-07:00

Alex bought a Playstation 3 today :(
...But, he did buy me Grand Theft Auto and Lego Star Wars!
Now lets see if I ever get to play them ;P

We're moving again!

2008-02-28T08:00:00.001-08:00

...I know! What the hell! We lasted from September until now in our place. I guess we were never really happy with it from the start but it did become home for us for a while! Actually our first home *together* so it will always hold a special place in our heart! Except that is for the problems with the plumbing...;0 I really don't feel like going into the whole story again, but our upstairs neighbors plumbing froze and busted in our dining room ceiling...twice...in three weeks. After the other plumbing issues we had already had that month...our hot water pipe froze in our basement (but thank god did not break), we had to have our hot water heater replaced, as well as the other issues we had since we September, venting issues with the furnace in the basement, non-working cable and phone wiring, no caulking in bathroom (around shower or sink), broken faucet in kitchen...hmm I think there was more, but can't think of any. Well, to say the least, we had enough and our landlord (graciously???) let us out of our lease. Maybe not so graciously, but you know how I am, I like to get my way! So I will hopefully get some pics of the new place tomorrow and post them up here. We are moving a whole 8 blocks away onto a busier street, but now we have twice as much space, a more beautiful apartment, a long cement driveway with a garage, A BATHTUB!!! all this for LESS RENT! I can't wait until we are all moved in! now the hard part...again

Enchilada Pie...A recipe for Kathy!

2008-01-22T11:02:00.000-08:00

Enchilada Pie

**Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey (optional, leave out if you want vegetarian)
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 c. salsa
1 t chili powder
1 t cumin
1/2 onion diced
1 pepper (green, red or yellow) diced
1 can black beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 sm. can green chiles, with juice
1 can enchilada sauce mild or hot (I use hot! but it can make it pretty spicy!)
1 1/2 -2 c. shredded cheese (chedder, monterey jack or colby, etc)
flour or corn tortillas

preheat oven to 350 degrees

in a large frying pan or wok, brown turkey for a few minutes, then add garlic, salsa, chili powder, cumin, onion and pepper. Cook until turkey is done then add black beans, tomatoes, and green chilis and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

in a deep baking dish, pour a spoonful of enchilada sauce on the bottom and place tortillas in a single layer lining the bottom. Spoon some of the meat mixture on top, top with cheese and lg. spoonful of enchilada sauce. Repeat layering until you reach the top of the baking dish or are out of meat mixture. Top with a layer of tortillas and pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top.

bake for 35-40 minutes until bubbly in center. You may want to line the bottom shelf in tin foil because this dish does have the possibility of making a mess in your oven.

serve as you would lasagna, you can put a dollop of sour cream on top too.

**all measurements are approximate, I don't use measuring tools with this recipe so season to your own taste. might want to add salt and pepper too (kinda forgot those two.. :) )

Up, Up, and Awa... oh...well almost

2007-08-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well its almost time to go, we leave on our cross-country journey on Saturday. Its starting to sink in now, i think, and I don't know how to feel. The last few days have been non-stop hectic going going going. We have all of our worldly possessions stuffed into two metal crates that are *hopefully* going to make it to their ultimate destination in Appleton. We are both living out of duffel bags and sleeping on a sheetless mattress in a bare room. And right now, I still don't really accept that I am leaving, I do, but I don't. I'm sure that makes a ton of sense! I guess mainly I just don't feel like I belong anywhere. I sure as heck don't feel like I belong in Appleton yet, and I don't feel like I belong in Bellingham anymore either. Where is home? I feel like I am in a moving purgatory. Well this may be the last time I write until we get to Appleton so I guess farewell, I'll update in approximately a week and a half! We'll take tons of pictures on the road, and lets all hope we make it home with both dogs intact :) This will be fun...

...and more

2007-08-22T11:57:00.001-07:00

and more stuff, let me know if interested:

Things to get rid of:

2007-08-22T11:49:00.001-07:00

Anybody interested in these? Please let me know...

2007-08-21T12:31:00.001-07:00

Well, I just purchased our first new (to us) piece of furniture off of Appleton craigslist for our new place. Its not in perfect condition, but am I ever psyched. A 1947 Herman Miller Bar designed by Gilbert Rhode. I can't wait to fill it with vintage martini shakers, cool tumblers and hold our first cocktail party.

Packing, packing and more packing...

2007-08-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

I had no idea I had so...much...shit...Where did it all come from? I feel like I will never be done.

Lazy Sunday Stevie

2007-08-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Momma gets to do laundry, pack and then more schoolwork. Stevie gets to lay on a pile of blankets. I can't complain too much, he did have to endure a bath this morning, notice the short toenails.

And then there was...the first post

2007-08-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

Two weeks until we begin our cross-country adventure: two adults, two dogs, camping supplies and clothes all in one *very tiny* VW Beetle. Fun. Packing has begun, and the rummage sale is scheduled (August 25 and 26th for those in the area!). I'm not nearly as far as I planned to be on my thesis, so I guess that just means more work to do in Wisconsin. I don't have a job as of yet, but at least we have a place lined up (sight un-seen...scary). Well I will keep you more informed and add more pics soon!