Thursday, May 27, 2010

Galveston 2009

Picture it. Galveston, 2009.
(*in the voice of Sophia Petrillo*)
The summer after Ike hit the gulf coast of southeast Texas Mr. Z and I made a Saturday trip down to Galveston. Lots of businesses were still closed and almost everything still needed repairs. There is an old cemetery that we had stopped by before because it is just beautiful. On that particular day, it was evident no one had been able to mow it for a while, but it made it even more beautiful. It was covered with wild flowers.










Poor Beaux. He has allergies...











Sunday, May 23, 2010

My Birthday 2010

So the anniversary of the day of my birth was yesterday. It was quite a wonderful day! It started off with an amazing breakfast Mr. Zeagler made for me.



Chocolate dipped strawberries and grapes, kiwi, and french toast. Also, forgotten bacon that was eaten later.

I had a CPR class that morning. Kind of a downer on your birthday, but it wasn't too bad. Then Momma and Daddy took me and Mr. Zeagler to eat Greek food. Gyros, fries, and greek salad! YUM!


The sun was a little blinding...


Me with my favorite woman.


Momma and Daddy with their favorite son-in-law.



We decided not to get baklava but save room for Mr. Z's soon to be famous cheesecake.


Momma and Daddy headed home with full stomachs and Mr. Z, Beaux, and I lazed around the house and watched a few movies the rest of the day.

Lots of Love,


Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Washer/Dryer

Before we moved we bought a stackable washer/dryer for our apartment. Daddy hauled it from the resale shop to his shop to keep until we moved. When he unloaded it, it was so heavy he used the bobcat to move it.

(If you are unaware what a bobcat is or wondering why he would use a wild feline to unload a large appliance, here is a bobcat.)

Once we hauled the gigantic piece of machinery 300 miles we had to get it upstairs. Stairs. Up stairs. It took 6 people to get it up those stairs -- 4 of us to manhandle it and 2 people praying. We got it up in one piece. Barely. Now we could successfully wash and dry clothes without actually leaving our apartment...so we thought.

About 2 or 3 weeks after moving in, the dryer went out. Ok, not a huge problem. We found a number in the phone book for a repair guy. He came, he saw, he fixed...so we thought.

So after paying the guy almost as much as we paid for the washer/dryer, we went back to our regular lives. A few months later, dryer went out again. It was different than the first time, but the result was the same. We called a guy, he came, he saw, he fixed...so we thought.

A few months later, Momma and Daddy were coming out to visit. He looked the contraption over, went to Lowe's and bought a $6 part, made some alterations, and presto! It worked!

This time it took the dryer a lot longer to break, but it is a determined little bugger. About a year or so later, the dryer decided it had worked long enough. We decided to let it be and just use the laundry facility at the apartment to dry. About 3 weeks ago, the disease metastasized to the washer. It was pouring water all over our balcony and onto our downstairs neighbor's patio. Whoops. That was it, we wanted the thing gone. After calling 12 people, I finally found someone who would come and take the thing without charging me. I thought letting them have the washer/dryer for free would be payment enough, guess I was wrong.

We are now renting a washer/dryer that is brand-spanking new! I even got to peel off the protective sticker-- a guilty pleasure of mine.


They delivered it, carried it up the stairs, and hooked it up! Amazing! And if it breaks, they come out and fix it! I know a lot of people might think that it is a waste of money, but our patience just couldn't take it any more. The new washer/dryer works and we can wash and dry our clothes in one place! The only draw back is it is TINY. Let me show you.



Here is a sock.

Put in the sock.

Here's what happens.




Some of the illustrations in this post may be exaggerated.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Beaux's job during the renovation

So, Beaux had a big job to do to help us get everything done. He had to stay out of the wet paint, stay outside, and be on guard for intruders.





I am SO overworked!


They don't even feed me...I guess I have to eat pieces of plywood and drywall.
He did.

The Bathroom Makeover

The bathroom. This was my favorite transformation. Mr Z (with Daddy and his daddy's help) accomplished this great feat. I love it.

We already removed the old faucet and are going to remove the whole panel.




This medicine cabinet was possibly the sturdiest thing in the house. It was hard-wired into the electrical system. If the whole house had collapsed, the medicine cabinet would have still been intact.


More contact paper. I think Mr Z counted 5 layers.
Faux marble.








More sticky tiles. Lots of them were held up by scotch tape. If you look closely you can see a line of tape on the seam below the medicine cabinet.






So some of the contact paper refused to let go of some of the linoleum. So it all came up. It needed to anyway. We would love to strip the wood and restore it, but I don't think the structural integrity of the floor could be preserved and we would end up with an out-house instead.

Since spackle had done wonders in every other room, surely we would have no problem here. Wrong. This wall was of a completely different species entirely. The spackle tool could not smooth it out. So Mr Z ended up just using his hands. So the walls are not exactly flat and smooth, but it added more character! ...Like this house needed any more.


New piece of splash board!


We have a mirror to put up, but it didn't really cooperate. We will fix it later.



The forever uneven cabinets. Appearantly the house has done a lot of settling over the years so none of the cabinets close flush or stay closed.



Mr. Z's love for caulk is rivaled only by my love of spackle












From this...





To this...

This is not a new tube. Wet sandpaper and CLR. Amazing.




And from...


To this...


And this...


To this.





And this...


To THIS!



And as far as I know, Daddy is still trying to fix the leak in the toilet tank.




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