And, Its Out of Here!

About three weeks ago we discovered that one of our outside freezers had died.  Luckily we caught it quick enough to salvage a lot of what was in there, but not everything.  I'm just happy it wasn't full of meat or something really expensive.  We lost ice cream, mostly, but salvaged the other items fairly well.

After two week of waiting to see if Genius Golfer was going to try to fix it--thinking it is probably the compressor--I was noticing an increasingly stinky cloud just outside the kitchen door.  I told GG that he had until Saturday  to decide to fix it or get rid of it.  He opted to get rid of it.

So he and The Boy hauled it off to the dump--using The Boy's super handy dandy truck!  Good riddance.  the sitnk has since ebbed away too.

Saturday we defrosted and cleaned the remaining other freezer and moved it over to the be near the air compressor and shifted the parking arrangements in the garage. Sure spruces up the place.

 This is the space the old dead freezer left.....

 And the other moved over....

Leaving new space in the garage.  I'm sure it won't be space for long.  Once I finish the clean up, I'm hoping to put some shelves there for holding all the DI and recycling stuff.  But we'll see what happens there.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

This is perhaps the busiest week I've had all year...PTA convention, Young Women meetings, AP test Proctoring, Relief Society activity + speaking assignment.  So while I have tried to get everyone coordinated before dropping off the face of the earth--family wise--I know I haven't been a great communicator this week.  Well, honestly, Genius Golfer and I don't communicate very well most of the time. "Communication is the key to our success" is our family motto--but only because we say it filled with sarcasm and snark.

So, imagine my surprise when I came home yesterday long enough to grab some lunch to find this:

Yes.  New sod in the back yard.  Our days as white-trashing it may be coming to an end.  Well, if you don't count the left over water heater on the ground there behind him or the hammered trampoline pads on the right.  OK, OK.  It  is a process.  Let's just say that, shall we?

Ch-Ch-Changes

Please excuse the crack-a-lackin...We've tried to tell him that is isn't cool.  But ya know....

Today was a rainy day, therefore a perfect day to replace the old french doors on the dining room, right?  Genius Golfer seems to think so. And, voila!, the kids have their "Mom's Choice" chore of the day.

It was a good day to head off to the temple and later a movie with a good friend.  Mom's day off; the rest of the family working hard. 

Like Father, Like Son

Over the weekend, I asked Genius Golfer to take The Boy and fix the downstairs toilet that had been leaking.  Not leaking onto the floor, or anything, but it just kept leaking from the tank into the bowl, and making just enough noise to be annoying.  They were off to Home Depot before lunch Saturday and had it done in less than an hour. So much better!

But The Boy made comments all the rest of the day about his dad's jeans "crack-a-lackin'" or that he felt he should "put a quarter in the slot", etc. all the day long.  I gotta say it was pretty funny, if not exactly under the umbrella of "honor thy father".

Where does this kid get that kind of snark, anyway?

Have a Seat

We have been in our home here on the Circle for sixteen years this month.  This is the first time we have had real furniture for the front and family rooms since we have lived here. 

We once had a rainbow sectional couch in the family room for a while right at first, but we never really liked it and had felt a lot of pressure to purchase it when we moved here as the sales guy was my former roommate's now-husband, and we knew he needed the commission.  (Terrible reason to buy a sofa, whether or not you hated it.  Besides, a RAINBOW one?!?  We were young and stupid, that is all I can say about that.)

We have had SIL Brenda's white sofa and loveseat for a little while in the front room while they were living with in-laws and buying their home. (And I was in constant fear my very tiny kids would ruin it before she got it into her own home.) 

We have also had Dear Friend Chris' couch in the family room while she stayed with us until her condo was ready for her.  (Then she took the couch with her, and we missed it, and her.)

And we had a blue couch and loveseat in the family room until just recently but, in reality, they'd have been right at home in some college frat house.  Finally, we have furniture like grown ups have.

A pair of soft-as-a-baby's-bottom leather chairs with big fabric pillows.  These swivel and rock.  So comfy! These are my favorite pieces in this room now!  Perfect for chatting with friends in the afternoon, or while watching movies and you don't want to fall asleep.

The swivel rocking leather chairs are under the window and face a  reclining leather couch.  It seats three and both ends recline.  The Boy has already claimed the left hand corner of this one.  On the far wall is a leather two seater that both reclines and rocks.  Quite comfy too.  The remotes have a permanent home in the center console, directly behind the pair of drink holders.

It looks much more crowded in the family room, but the couches are used mostly for falling asleep while we watch a movie or the BYU game on Saturday.  I'm thinking the configuration of the chair pair with the reclining couches will work for Home Teachers' visits as well.  Unless The Boy and Genius Golfer start falling asleep while reclined, in which case we will not be reclining during such visits.

Ah, the front room.  Look how grown-up we appear from our furnishings.  This couch is classic and comfy, is more formal than the leather pieces downstairs.  The corner table will have a taller, pounded, metal lamp on it, but it hasn't come in yet and we wanted to sit down in our house this weekend.  The piano looks so much more at home with neighbors in the front room.

My fabulous chair and a half in the bay window is the best place to read.  The light is fantastic in that spot and I love the micro-suede fabric on it.  The leather ottoman is on wheels and opens for storage too.  Clever, right?  We are also waiting for the area rug that will tie this grouping together, as well as a little oval side table next to my chair and a floor lamp in the corner between the chair and the couch.  I'll show you the whole thing when it is finally put together, but I couldn't wait to share what we have already been enjoying this weekend.

White Trash, Exhibit B

Yes, that is right. This is in our backyard, under the eaves, tucked in against the back wall of the garage.  no White Trash home is complete without the outside "facilities".

This is the pile of "waiting for a borrowed truck to go the dump" stuff.  A bathroom vanity, an old toilet, rolls of carpet pad, and the old carpet.

The soccer ball in the sink? Well, that is just panache!

White Trash, Exhibit A

So here you have the furniture situation since the blue couches went to live in Dear Friend Sherry's basement and the new carpet came in after the new paint went up.    Yes, we are The White Trash Family of the Year.  All that is missing are the Franklin Mint Nascar Collectible Plates on the wall.

Front room decor:  Oh so classy.

But...just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!

Waiting

Yesterday, between distributing textbooks at the high school and finishing The Boy's laundry, I made a call to set a delivery date for our "grown up" furniture.  *drumroll please* It will arrive on Friday afternoon.

Apparently the furniture pieces have been in the warehouse for about a week, waiting for the accessories that I ordered.  The accessories--if I remember correctly what I even ordered--come from a third party company, so they are ordered from the company we ordered the stuff with in the first place.  Then they make our furniture and deliever it with the accessories.

Add the commotion the crazy schedule I have had this week, and it was getting a little dicey to setup a time to be home for the delivery guys to show up with the truck and unload the furniture.  But I found a window, and they were good for that so we are anticipating Friday afternoon for new furniture.

Yippee!

Just thinking about them, I am already becoming annoyed with the lawn chairs on the new carpet and in the front room.  We are classic white trash as we look at the moment.  But all that will change this weekend.

Certainly I will photograph the alterations and post for you.  Watch for Monday's posting...I can't wait!

Biting Off More Than We Can Chew

Today is the post-paint, pre-carpet, mid-electronics trouble work day for our house project. Genius Golfer is figuring out how and where to put the speakers that he insists we must have to compliment our too-big-in-my-opinion television in the family room. To do this, we needed to pull the books and scrapbooks that were loaded very recently into the new entertainment bookshelves GG made for me last year. His plan is to run the wires for all these speakers behind the shelving and make them less visible. All that sounds good.

Piles of stuff in the office, waiting.

He also decided we need to replace the carpet: "If we are going to re-do it, we're going to re-do it all right." That meant that we unloaded the pair of blue sofas to Dear Friend Sherry for her unfinished basement--and wintertime playroom. (Thanks, Sherry!!) So the carpet will be pulled up from the family room, and from under the recently installed and loaded with books--but now unloaded of everything--shelving. The new carpet is coming and will be installed on Wednesday.

Bags of books...waiting.

With no couches, no front room furniture until the stuff comes we ordered (should be here the first week of September) I think I can safely say we most likely won't have Home Teachers popping over anytime this month--there is no where to sit with them. Just the kitchen table and chairs...and that is comfortable enough for eating, but not for HT visits.

Piles of scrapbooks, too many really, all...waiting.

So GG has his work cut out for him today. Lucky for me he has hardly asked me to lift a finger--and I prefer to see that as a deference to my femininity than a critique on my usefulness and helpfulness. So let's leave it at that.

Spots not quite ready for all the stuff...waiting.

In the meantime, I live among pile of books, scrapbooks, wall hangings, framed art and photos, and boxes of stuff waiting to be put away again--as soon as GG tell me he is ready for it.

Surprise!

The Girl and I got home from Girls' Camp yesterday to find the house a complete disaster. But I am not complaining. The disaster stems from the surprise bathroom remodel in progress! What a good Genius Golfer! The Boy must have helped too. At least I think he did--the front room, kitchen and dining room base boards and molding was raw wood when I left, and now it is bright white.

No pictures yet, but I will post some soon. GG and The Boy are leaving for Scout Camp on Monday, so we are hurrying to get things together enough for the bathroom to be used.

I've been to Home Depot three times this afternoon already. And that is after a lightning fast swim meet this morning.