the black plague, part I: storm door

We have this joke in my family about my mom single-handedly starting the black plague.  As in painting everything black.  Desks, dressers, console tables, file cabinets, iron headboards, small children, puppies, you name it.  We both have this strong aversion to brown... unless we're talking about my Pacific Islander husband. 

Made with Shapely

I honestly think my favorite colors are black and white.  I think part of it stems from doing photo in high school and appreciating the process that takes place in the dark room with B+W photography.  When you look through the camera, you have to envision what all that color would look like in black and white.  Too much grey often makes for a boring picture.  And that's what I saw when I took a step back and looked at the front of our house.  Too much brown, too little contrast.  This will be a series of how we will spruce up the front of our house to my our liking.

Our original "storm" door didn't look like it could weather many storms.  Wow, I'm so punny.  It was brown, faded, and the hydraulic that allows the door to shut quietly was broken from the moment we moved in.  When guests would come over, the door would slam shut, scare the crap out of them, and they would say, "wow!  That's really loud".  Yes........... We know!

So for my 29th birthday what do I ask for?  Home Depot gift cards of course.  I was debating between a new toilet for the 1/2 bath or a new storm door.  Not your typical wish list for a woman, huh?  The storm door won.  And just like any other type A personality, I had already studied and read reviews on which door I wanted.  We headed to Home Depot, saw that they had them in-stock (even though online they said they did not) and got one... without making sure it would actually fit in our car.  Good thing our "compact" SUV is amazing.  It fit perfectly... but without us in it.

Don't worry, we risked decapitation in order to get this bad boy home.  We will sacrifice anything for home improvement and doing it ourselves.

We got the Andersen 3000 door, not to be confused with Andre 3000.

Installation was pretty easy, just like they advertised.  However, like most DIY projects, it took longer than the 45 minutes the company estimated
. 

Peeling off the plastic was the best part and Ehren was nice enough to let me do all of it.  I'm such a lucky girl.

Cozy feels like he's in a glass case of emotion.

Cozy's wondering the same thing my dad wondered many times when my mom would do house projects: "why can't you just leave shit alone?"

 
Another reason we wanted a new storm door was so that we could allow more light to come in in the entry way.  It's pretty dark since there are no windows and our house is pretty shaded.  The door before was only half a window.  Now the light shines in and I can see all the dog hair on the floor that used to go unnoticed.  I think we just created more work for ourselves.

Ta-da!  Doesn't it look great?

Side-by-side comparison:

 And yes, I am that pet parent who put Cozy's bed right in front of the new door so he could visualize his new viewpoint of the neighborhood in comfort and chevron. 

Cozy loves it, we love it.  It makes the entry way brighter, it seals shut and prevents cold/hot air from entering/escaping, it locks, it keeps the bugs out and doesn't shove our guests into our house by slamming shut.  But thanks to this new door, I now have more dog hair to clean up and more nose prints to wipe off.  Worth it. 

weekend in review

Last weekend was one of those weekends that was very relaxing, slightly productive, and one I want more of.  A lot of weekends we are either out of town or working on projects that consume the entire two days "off".  It makes the weekend go by way too fast.  I want to remember the little things and the weekends that aren't consumed by tiling or mulching or painting.  Here is a random mishmash of our weekend.

Work was busy Friday and I had a meeting afterwards and didn't have much time to get stuff for a get together that night.  I have made these before and they are pretty easy to put together.  The recipe is basically what you see...

• Fresh mozzarella pearls
• Basil
• Cherry tomatoes
• Drizzle with EVOO, balsamic vinegar and pepper

It was my sister's birthday plus a celebration for her new job and her new house... all in the same week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made with Shapely

We got her the movie Despicable Me because she loves it and these are her favorite lines from the movie.  And thanks to her, I can't stop saying "it's so fluffy I'm gonna die".

Oh, and we found these gems.  Sometime in 1992 my mother made the greatest parenting decision she ever made. After years of begging, she finally took us to Glamour Shots.  I have too much teeth and Katie has hardly any.

Saturday, Katie and Josh got to do their final walk through of their new house and afterwards we went downtown to Ingredient to have lunch.  We also had a great view of the Art Tougeau parade.

That night, Ehren and I went to an art benefit to support our neighborhood family's child Matt who has Adrenoleukodystrophy.  Treatment for ALD is a very low fat diet and consuming Lorenzo's Oil; however, funding for Lorenzo's Oil is being cut.  All the proceeds from the benefit are going to The Myelin Project.  There were silent and live auctions which included local and national artists as well as some KU basketball memorabilia.  They ended up raising twice their goal amount - quite an accompishment and a wonderful night!

 

On Sunday, all that was on my to do list was get groceries and do a new chalkboard drawing.  I only accomplished one of those things. 

Here's to many more weekends like this!  Cheers.