Sunday, April 24, 2016

Recently

It's been a little quiet over here in my blog life.  Things have been a bit busier in real life...
They say that plastic surgery and tattoos are addictive.  Once you have something done, you want more and more, never being satisfied.  I'm feeling that way about home improvement!  Over the last couple of months I've had a few projects completed - and by "I" I mean I've hired someone to do them.  After each successful project, I've had another slightly bigger project waiting in the wings just itching to get started.  For the last three weeks the preparation of the most impressive of them all have taken place.  I GOT NEW FLOORS!!!  And when you get new floors you basically have to move out of the home packing up almost everything you own so the floors can be accessed.  That has been a project.  The work finished rather quickly this past week, surprisingly quick considering how long it took me to get ready for it.  They are so beautiful, I can hardly stand it!  Here are my stairs, entry, and landing.  More photos to come of the rooms as soon as everything is cleaned and moved back in.
For now, the itch is over.  I'm very happy with home things right now, plus I'm broke.  
On Wednesday night, some friends and I saw the musical Kinky Boots at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.  Going in, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I saw the film that it was based on years ago. The movie was good, but a little dark.  The play was inspired by that film (which was based on a true story) and written by Cyndi Lauper.  It was AMAZING!  Kinky Boots is so much fun.  One of the best shows I've seen.  
Thursday night was book club.  This month's selection was The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain.  It was a good book and not a story line I've read before - a family mystery of sorts.  Somehow, I found time to read/listen to some other books I enjoyed this month.  The Accident by Chris Pavone, The Keeper of Lost Causes and The Absent One both by Jussi Adler-Olsen, and The Crossing (Harry Bosch) by Michael Connelly.  All four are also mysteries - the first taking place in the publishing world and the remaining three are police detective series.  I'd recommend them all.
There are 6 weeks and 4 days (Memorial Day shortens one of the remaining weeks) until the school year is over and summer break starts.  While summer break sounds awfully good now that it is in sight, I'm feeling a bit blue about this year's group of kids moving on.  They've been a lot of fun.  But I am looking forward to summer break where I will spend it hugging my new floors.  

13 comments:

  1. Your floors look wonderful!! I love the color. Is it real hardwood or did you go for laminate? (it looks like wood) What does Rigby think?? I remember years ago when we first put in laminate where we'd had carpet before. Our 120 pound Rottie (Angus) had to made some real adjustments!

    I'll have to check out some of those books, especially your book club selection. I love mysteries and detective stories.

    Ha! Counting the days until summer already! ;)

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    1. Yes, Rigby has had to slow down a bit. Especially rounding corners and jumping of the bed. There have been a few bull in a china shop moments. :) I was most worried about the stairs because she runs up and down those quite a bit. So far, though, she's been ok on those.
      The bookclub book was quite good. We didn't have a lot to talk about as there weren't a lot of, shall we say, poignant moments to mark and discuss. It was just a really good story. Everyone thought so. :)
      My work husband won't allow me to speak of the countdown yet. Other colleagues have been though so it's stuck. It'll fly by - at least some of it will - since I still have so much left to teach and do!!

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  2. Ohhhh they look lovely. Is Rigby expected to put on booties when she's inside :-).

    I'd hate to ask the cost for given the city you live I expect I could double whatever price I have in mind.
    That's a colour that would be way too dark here. And the only place I've seen that shade was in the south of France where it acted as a balm to the eyes when one stepped inside.

    The boots show, I saw that film about 10 years ago. It was set in the west midlands of England where a fellow was trying to find a roll for a bespoke shoe factory and came up with the idea to make boots for the Tran's community.
    It's a very good film. Memorable too. Well acted, even at the non principal actor level.

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    1. It was a bloody fortune!!! :) Way more than I thought it would be. But I've been saving for years and used this year's tax refund as a chunk as well. I would have liked darker, but I was warned against it with a white-ish dog. :) I may have to send her somewhere else to live though because even on this color she just looks at it and her hair falls out. I'll tell you though, that every single one of my photos shows it in a different color. My home leans on the dark side and all the best angles of the room are facing a window. I've got a few, which I'll post later, that show it as it is. It's closer to the color on the stairs, but not quite as dark.
      Yes, the film and musical had the same story line. The actor who played the drag queen in the film is quite famous now. The one in the play was AMAZING and basically a nobody. It was a fun show, very funny. I don't remember the film being as funny, however I watched it on an airplane and not much is funny crammed in an airplane seat. :)

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    2. What you now need are two of those robot hoovers. Something you program to run while you are out and will do all the floors like a farmer tilling a field. Otherwise, develop a blind eye to clumps of hair. It took me a while when I did the ones here to prevent me sighing everytime the dog shook herself.

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    3. You are not the first person to mention the robots. I like the idea of it running when I'm gone and it can run whenever you need it. The price of them are still quite high. But it may come to the point that the amount of time I'm spending on keeping them will force me to spend the money....and probably sooner than later. :) I found a really cheap but quite powerful stick vacuum on Amazon that I can just grab and get the most hairy areas. So that will work for the time being. I've got to spend a few weeks (months) overthinking a purchase like that. :)
      The hair just swirls around her like she's "Pig Pen" from the Peanuts. I just keep shaking my head, "I JUST cleaned that!". The novelty of the floors will most likely wear off eventually, and then I'll be able to ignore it to a point.

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    4. My one has learnt to get on a chair and bury her nose in her arse following me with an eye. For when I bring out the hoover I'm quite honestly shocked at the seer volume of hair she generates and I keep talking to her with an exasperated voice.
      But the main thing you'll note is the lack of doggy smell. Yes, you go nose blind as a dog owner but the floors make it real easy to smell the place up with polish and whatnot smells to cut the doggy.

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    5. I use that voice too. :) It's amazing how clean and larger everything looks with these floors. I had worried some that with the dark color it might close things off. It didn't at all. Plus I found that the carpets only looked clean for like a minute after vacuuming them and then they just looked dingy. And I'm sure that adds to the smells too.

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  3. tell me about it. we started with just our bathroom and ended up up doing the entire upper level!

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  4. tell me about it. we started with just our bathroom and ended up up doing the entire upper level!

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    1. Right!?! And it's like one thing leads to another. I've got a contractor coming out tomorrow to give me an estimate to finish things off painting wise - touch up the baseboards and walls. And now my outlets look SOOO dingy. I'll see what It costs to get those done as well, and then I'm for sure done!!! :)

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  5. The floors are beautiful and you'll never regret it. A very sound investment in your home.

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    1. Thank you. Yes, I'm very happy with them. There are things to get used to with them though. A learning curve so to speak. It's amazing (and kind of gross) what you don't see with carpet that shows on these floors. I need to get some rugs down too, which will help. I don't want to cover up much because they are so pretty, but I do need a few.

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