Doors and hardware

My sweet husband had one task he wanted to accomplish this weekend. He wanted to paint the railing out front of our house. It was Black and needed to be taken care of as the paint was chipping. Friday, he went to Home Depot on his lunch break and got the stain and wire brushes. Ken then walked around to look for ideas for our Christmas tree build.

Later that afternoon he called me at work. Doors were on sale at Home Depot! We wanted to replace the doors in our house as they are...worn. We also wanted to replace all the brass hinges, strike plates and knobs with stainless. So, off to Home Depot we went.

Did you know that Doors come in standard sizes but the jams are not standard?? we bought three doors and had to cut down all three of them. This was no easy task as we do not have a table saw. Ken measured, cut, and sanded the edges. Then he used the router to cut in the hinge plates. He did a great job! I helped a little bit, but it was mainly him.

By 3pm on Saturday, we were ready to put the first coat of paint on all the doors. There were 3 new doors and 5 old doors (not counting the front door and the garage doors). We finished hanging the doors around 7pm on Sunday and were finished with the hardware around 9pm. Not too bad for our first time - and it only took 5 trips to Home Depot! The upstairs looks great!!!

Thanks for doing so much for our house sweetie. I am sure you would rather spend our time and money on new tires or a lift for the cars. I appreciate all you do for our little family.

Oh, did we get the railing painted?? YES! I got the first coat on while he was making a trip to Home Depot (I think it was the third trip). Later that day, we were in a spot where he could do one task and I would do another. I told him I would finish the railing. He said "But that was my one project this weekend and I haven't had a chance to do any of it." What a cutie! He actually WANTED to paint the railing. Sweetie, you chose a great color and did a wonderful job on the second coat. Man, I am one lucky woman!

Just Say Yes

Katie Marble, you have inspired me! Most of my life, I say NO before I say Yes. Betty pointed that out to me when I was 16 and many times after that. I don't really know why but I don't say YES as often as I probably should. I have come a long way since I was 16 but there is still more room to grow. Katie, you are always open to new ideas and trying new things. I want to be more like you.

Last week I was talking to Katie. For the third time that week I found myself saying "No, I haven't done that. I am interested in it and can see the benefit but I haven't done it." That got me thinking. Why do I have a desire to say No. After some serious searching, I realized that I don't do a lot of things because I think "I am not going to be good at it so why try?". This has to STOP!!!

So, I talked to Ken. We have decided to start a "yes" list. Items that we are interested in and want to try but just haven't. Of course, there are restrictions (money, bodily harm, legality, etc) but we are open to many different ideas. Some of them will be more enjoyable with Teachers. If you have any ideas or want to share your talents with us we are open to new ideas. The main thing, we both have to be able to do it.

YES LIST:
Yoga (we have found a place and we are going to a fundamentals class next Saturday)
Pickle Ball (Come on Nate!! Teach me how to be beat by a 75 year old man!)
Mountain Biking (Ken does this, I don't but I have a bike so I will)
Snow boarding (again, Ken already does it,I will this winter)
Social events (i.e. Mannheim Steam Roller, Bill Engvall)
Volunteering
Meditation
Pilate's
Building stuff - I want to learn how to build shelves, tables etc from just wood (no kit involved)
School (Angela - this is my biggest hurdle. I have to get over my...anxiety)

Things we have already said yes to (in no particular order):
More sporting events (thanks Dad and Bet!)
Cooking Club
Health and Fitness
More School (for Ken)
Family - both maintaining and building our own
Oil Class
Building a deck (hopefully next summer)
Basic Cake decorating Skills

What do you think guys? Will you help us with our quest to say yes?!?!?!

Gas bet - who won?!?!?!

In a previous post, i told you of a bet between Ken and I on the price of Gas. The bet was how high it was going to get. I know you are all dying to hear who won.

NEITHER OF US DID! We both guessed too high. Ken guessed lower than I did and had a bigger window. He missed the window by 9 cents.

Since this was a monetary bet and no one won, the house gets the money.

I guess it is true what they say: the house always wins.

Gotta get more ink

Ken and I started taking pictures of family events shortly after we returned from DC. We have photo albums at home that we update from time to time. One has all family and friends. One has our adventures and trips. One is blank - who knows what we will decide to put it in! Well, We ran out of colored ink in our printer about a year ago. As ink is 35.00, I have not purchased any more. I keep thinking, I will get it next week.

Yesterday I got a "bee in my bonnet" and decided I had waited long enough. I was getting ink so I would print out pictures and update our albums. We went to wal-mart and found the same ink for 25.00! WOO HOO!

It is already gone. We ran out of paper so I had to go to office max and get more. There are over 100 pictures that I printed. Only 4 photo's are sitting in my que. Maybe Ken isn't the only Oatmeal in our family - good: printed over 100 pics today, bad: still have more to print, gotta get more ink.