Are we there yet?

With all the chaos in our lives right now, I'm amazed that we've been able to get anything done. Shayne's still plugging away on the garage project I haven't even mentioned yet, and I've been trying very hard to keep the house in some semblance of order. He's having much more success than I am.

The garage project is to create a workshop for Shayne out of the original garage. So far he's cleaned, sealed, and painted the floor, insulated, framed in a wall to divide the workshop from the "new" garage, added an air conditioner, and began putting up drywall. It's really going to be nice when he's done. Unfortunately, the rest of the garage is now an utter disaster. We barely have room to park the cars, and I occasionally bash into some stacked woodwork while trying to park.

With the hot weather I haven't made any progress on the sanding (surprise...). I did start working on the wallpaper stripping again, though. It's going so much faster upstairs than it seemed to downstairs. I got a 2.5' by 6' area done inside an hour yesterday. I've decided that I was being too careful before. There's no way I'm going to hurt the plaster with a plastic putty knife. Now that I'm not afraid to be a little more aggressive, it goes much faster. And the sooner I get the office done, the sooner I can have the ductowkr re-run, and the sooner we'll have a decent amount of air conditioning upstairs (yay!). It's probably 8 degrees hotter upstairs than downstairs, which isn't terrible, but it gets a little stuffy up here.

Today's chores include more wallpaper stripping and attempting to organize some of the garage.

Coming clean

Lest you think I've fallen off the planet, rest assured that I'm still here. Not so productive, but here. And, in case you think I'm a complete putz and never accomplish anything, I do have something of an excuse. In February, I was promoted from corrections officer to police officer. At the end of that month, I moved out of the jail and into dispatch to begin my training. At the beginning of April, I began my field training, which I'm still working on. I should be done by the end of May, and then I'll ride double with another officer until I go to the police academy in July. I'll graduate in October, and then my life will hopefully return to some semblance of normalcy.

Since being promoted, I've been pretty stressed out. Most of it is good stress, but when I come home, I just don't feel like doing anything. I went through about a 6 week period where I was lucky if I could get 6 hours of sleep per night. I've been so wound up and excited and nervous... I think now it's starting to pass, and I've been getting more sleep and feeling a little more normal. Just in time for me to start getting nervous about the academy. The part I'm most nervous about is the physical agility test, which is on June 26. I know I can pass, but if for some reason I don't, my career is over. No pressure there...!

Bue enough excuses... Here's what else we've been up to. Shayne decided to make the back part of the garage his workshop. Over the past few days, he's cleared it out, cleaned it up, and painted the floor with an oil-based primer/sealer. Today he put on the final coat of paint, making the floor a nice, clean gray. Next up is insulation and drywall...

I've been busy pruning our trees and shrubs, along with weeding our flower beds in preparation for making them into raised beds like we did in the front. We're also going to install a brick patio behind the parking pad next to the garage. It's currently a flower bed, but a rather unsuccessful one. I can't keep it weeded long enough to make it look nice, and I haven't come up with any other ideas for it. We have been planning to add a patio, but were unsure where we wanted it. This area is already grass-free, reasonably sized, and convenient to the house and garage for storage. Shayne's uncle has a roto-tiller, which we'll be using to get rid of the weeds, and we can hopefully get started on that within a few weeks.

Officer Down... Again.

Right on the heels of the 1 year anniversary of Cpl. Scott Severns, South Bend Police lost another officer in a shooting incident. Cpl. Nick Polizotto was shot and killed on April 24, 2007. His partner, Ptlm. Mike Norby, was also shot, but survived.

This is happening much too frequently. Just one police officer being killed is too many, but we're averaging at least 1 line-of-duty death per year in this area. Thankfully, none have been from my or Shayne's department, but it's no less a tragedy. It affects us all, whether we knew the victim or not. It seems like so few people have any respect for the law, and even less respect those of us who have sworn to uphold it. It makes me so angry when an officer is killed. I know that we choose this career, knowing the risks, knowing we may be called upon to make that ultimate sacrifice, but it's so unfair. Our country shouldn't need to be defended from its own citizens.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Cpl. Polizzotto and with the South Bend Police family.

Isn't it ironic.... Don'cha think?

Instead of the predicted 2-3 week wait, the rug arrived today. The pad isn't here yet (??), but that's the least of my concerns right now. Of course, being as patient as I am, I dragged it into the house, ripped off the plastic, and spread it out on the living room floor. And, somewhat surprisingly, I like it. Even more surprising, is that it looks good with the red and gold walls that are currently in the living room. It also looks good with the gold walls upstairs. So now I'm going to have fits again over the colors.

The wall colors never show up quite right in the photos... I think it has something to do with the flash washing it out. Both colors are much richer in person, and the "hubbard squash" is more golden and less yellow. The rug in the second pic looks almost exactly like it does in real life, though. It's a little too green in the first one. Maybe tomorrow I'll try the pics with a tripod and timer instead, to see if I can get it right.

I'm really surprised that the rug doesn't look bad with the red, which is almost what I had hoped for. It would make the wall color decision much easier! I think I'm still leaning towards "hubbard squash" or a "caramel"-type color for the walls.

More to come in the morning...

Stairway progress photos

I thought I had posted these the other day, but evidently I forgot... For any interested parties, here are photos of the stairway as it stands right now.





It looks a bit nicer in the photos than in person, but progress has been made. A lot of it has been on the side of the spindles facing the wall and facing the other spindles. I'm so excited to be nearly finished. I'll definitely be working on it on my next days off.

Another thing I forgot to post about was my bargain lamp. I found it at a store than was going out of business, marked $49.99, reduced from $139.99. I offered the clerk $40, and she accepted. It might not stay in the living room, but it was a great deal!

And lastly, I ordered the rug. I received an e-mail saying we should have it in two to three weeks, which is good. By then, I should be finished sanding...