Copying and pasting…because I’m lazy…

June 28, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

The following paragraphs are excerpts from an email I sent to a friend…I’m being lazy so I’m copying and pasting…anyone who doesn’t like that can kiss my shiny brown ass.

I was pretty proud of my work on Scott’s hair.  I wasn’t so sure I could cut with scissors.  It was pretty even, except with his curls no one can tell anyway.  I should have shaved his nape some though.  He is a HAIRY man.  Hair all over…face is just one place.  Try back.  But at least he’s not a gorilla, you know, really hairy like Robin Williams.  People seemed to like his hair.  Even some of princess’ friends complimented it.  It sure doesn’t seem like anyone missed the ponytail.  And now that it’s shorter, it’s amazing to me how much more diligent Scott is about brushing it.  He brushes it every morning before work.  Why he didn’t think to do that when his hair was longer is beyond me.  Now he’s taking care of his hair better than I’ve ever seen.  Go figure.  I decided to just get my own clipper set.  The dumbasses used it a couple of days ago and it’s not back in the upstair bathroom.  And if I have to go get it, I’m pretty positive I have to scrounge around to find all the attachments too.  And I figured, I don’t really want to share with them anyway.  So I got my own, it’s not costly or anything anyway.  That way I know I’m taking care of it and I know where it is everytime.  Nothing bugs me more than people not taking care of stuff I have to use too.  I just tried my clipper out today…cleaned up my hairdo…except this time I didn’t straighten out the batman signal’s tail on my nape.  My clipper set came with a DVD with tips and techniques and such.  I found out that some people actually have their barbers/stylists shape the hairline at the nape.  So I figured, mine is already shaped, I’ll leave it that way.  It’s just cut down to 1/8″ so they’re not sticking out where I can notice it.  I think I’m trimming my hair about every 3 weeks.  So that’s about $25 I’m saving every 3 weeks, and I get what I want, not what someone else thinks suits me better.

Oh, and I just saw this A&W commercial…and I think maybe someone in their research department didn’t do their job well.  The commercial was ragging about places like McDonalds getting their beef from other countries, and how A&W burgers are made from 100% American beef.  Now if they stopped right there, it would have been okay.  But they had to cite New Zealand as an example…and I can tell you for a fact that that is a very VERY poor example if you want to slam McDonalds.  New Zealand…very green place, lots of grazing areas for cows…a lot of Asian countries get their milk from New Zealand…like the Philippines.  And Scott himself will tell you he’d never had yummier milk than when we were back home.  He loved it so much he couldn’t even believe it came out of a carton.  He said it tasted just like what he had when his grandparents were still around and they had the farm.  Now, if milk from cows in New Zealand is yummy…I would imagine the beef is also great.  I can’t compare because I think the Philippines produces its own beef, but I’m sure there are some imported stuff too…and I’m not really a connoisseur of beef.  In fact I have been unconsciously staying away from burgers and such.  But bottomline is, New Zealand is a bad example for that commercial’s purpose.  If they want to make an impact, say China instead…what with all the problems they’re getting into with what they put in different things.

Princess just told Scott she wanted to get her hair straightened and cut short.  I don’t know how short.  Anyway it’s going to cost $75 and she wants Scott to pay for it.  I said, she’s working, why doesn’t she pay for it.  Well, apparently she didn’t hand in her W4 or whatever tax form she was given at work and until they get it, they’re holding on to her check.  Well, stupid…and he should have said, bummer, then the haircut can wait.  He felt sorry for her that she’s sort of short on cash now…I don’t…because this situation could have been prevented, but she was too lazy to make it happen.  And Scott’s still a pushover.  He’ll pay for it I’m sure.  He asked why she’s not having her mom straighten her hair, and she just said she doesn’t want her mom to do it.  No reason given.  What, she doesn’t trust her mom to do a good job on it now?  After so many times before that she’d done it?

Oh, and today we finally found out how the dog would react to the carwash.  I expected her to be scared because it’s loud.  She didn’t like it one bit and she even somehow ended up in the front seat with me, totally crushing my purse.  And then when it was all done she couldn’t figure out how to get back to the back seat.  Now we know and we’re not doing that again.  But we took her to the dog park after that so she’s fine.

Scott and I both saw this piece of paper on his computer desk.  It had a list of princess’ goals.  She decided she didn’t want to try to go to college in California after all.  She said she was going to look for schools closer to home because she was worried she would get lonely.  That’s saying something about her grandparents in California, huh.  Anyway, so she’s looking at Iowa and Wisconsin and probably Michigan…and the Dakotas.  She still doesn’t want to have to apply for sports scholarships, even if her volleyball coach said there was a school in ND that was offering a free ride.  I thought that was stupid, not to take it.  I’m thinking she doesn’t want to go too far because dear BF is going to be in Iowa or something.  She probably would want to be able to somehow keep an eye on him.  And if she does sports, then she probably won’t have time for that.  Also on the list was “retake ACT”.  So Scott asked her what she got.  Apparently out of a possible 36, she got a 24 and she’s not happy with it.  I don’t know if there’s a failing grade in that test.  I don’t quite know how it works.  When I was in school we had the NCEE, the National College Entrance Exam, which actually isn’t the entrance exam as each school insists on having their own exams too after that, but the NCEE score helps you get in somewhat.  The highest possible score was 99+++ (there is never a perfect score in the Philippines, it seems).  I got a 99++.  My friends all got 95 and up.  One guy I turned down in high school then went out with in college for 4 years, he got 81…he sure didn’t want to tell me that after I told him my score.  I know there were 4 parts to the test…there was math…and then I think there was abstract reasoning and a visual something…abstract reasoning being a logic type thing and the visual thing was where you try to figure out which of the unfolded box shape will give you the box pictured on the left, or which way does this gear turn if this other gear 4 gears up and to the left turns this way.  That type of thing.  I think the other part had to do with reading comprehension and vocabulary…English.  To me it felt like an IQ test.

I don’t know what the ACT is like.  Princess admits she didn’t study for it.  I would have thought though that if she’s so good in school she doesn’t really need to study for it but I don’t know.  All that running around with friends and coming home late at night…and for some reason she still didn’t study given all the free time she seemed to have.  Yeah, imagine her in college.  I’ll bet she’ll flunk so many exams because she partied the night before.

I have another idea as to why princess is looking to go to college closer to home.  Mom mentioned she had this one conversation with princess one time that princess probably didn’t like.  Back when princess was talking about going to college in California…everyone here is talking about her taking her first 2 years in a community college and then when she’s ready to buckle down and she knows what to major in, go to university.  Then it wouldn’t be so expensive.  Everyone was saying, how about that community college your grandma with a PHD (and won’t let anyone forget it) is head of or something.  Well, this grandma works there, but for some reason doesn’t think it’s a good school.  Now, she sent all sorts of articles about herself being honored for the work she does at that community college and all that, just to show her grandkids how great she is…they even each got their own copies so they don’t quarrel over them.  But for some reason her grandkids should never go there.  Their mail always comes from Drs. Davis.  At least the hubby does have an actual medical degree.  She is just a self-important bitch and it looks like every female descendant of hers is doomed to be the same.  So…I’m digressing.  Princess said she can’t do that because her grandma Davis won’t approve of it especially if she’s going to be staying with them.  They probably won’t even let her stay with them…she didn’t say that but I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided so.  Princess said grandma Davis said she should go straight to university…and Mom said, oh, is she paying for that then?  Mom and princess don’t get along well.  It figures, if Mom and I do get along, she can’t possibly get along well with princess, right?  Plus even before I came along, Mom was a female that was taking attention away from her, I’m sure…competition, just like me.

Speaking of being nasty…last Saturday, princess had a basketball tournament somewhere else and Scott went to see the games.  She told him she’d see him at home and she didn’t come home.  Sunday morning while we were doing a route, Scott had me send her a text message asking where she was.  Then his phone died.  Now, he and I have the same phones…and our batteries is the same as what dumbass 3’s last cell phone used.  That was Scott’s old phone…and I bought his current phone (which used to be mine) mainly because it uses the same type of battery…and when I gave him that I bought an identical one.  So anyway, I bought him a spare battery and a battery charger a long time ago.  By rights he should never run out of juice.  And with dumbass 3 not using the same phone anymore, Scott has 3 batteries at his disposal, since I just charge my phone with the regular phone charger and don’t ever swap out batteries.  Anyway, so he worried and worried Sunday morning, thinking she’d sent him a message back and he just wasn’t getting it because his phone was dead.  Me, I knew she hadn’t sent any message.  I know that he worries a lot and she doesn’t really give a damn.  He wanted to swap batteries with me and I said no.  I said, you have 3 batteries at your disposal, you can always bring an extra one with you.  In my mind I was teaching him a lesson the hard way.  You don’t make sure you have a spare battery, you don’t get to use your cell phone.  I don’t charge my cell phone when needed only for someone else to be using my battery.  The rest of the route went pleasantly enough, and it looked like he’d put it all behind him.  But when we got home he said he thought it was cruel for me not to let him use my battery and to let him keep on worrying about his daughter.  I didn’t say anything at the time, but had I felt like being nasty I would have told him, she doesn’t care how much you worry and I’ll bet $1000 she hasn’t answered your message.  If she cared about him at all she would have sent a message Saturday night saying she won’t be home and telling him where she would be.  I would have won that wager too…and he would have hated ME for that.  I don’t care if he was upset with me.  I think I made my point.  He now carries a spare battery in his pocket.  Had I let him use my battery, this would never have stuck in his mind.  I knew that.  So I don’t care how many times he tells me I’m mean or cruel.  He acts like a child and he needs to be taught like a child.  Some children just need to learn the hard way and I’m one to teach them the hard way.  It’s not that I don’t love him but I expect more of him and he better measure up, even if I have to help him along, with him kicking and screaming all the way.  This is how I would have treated my own child if I had one.  They say you never forget the things you had to learn the hard way.

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Truly Tiring…

June 26, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

You would never think that so much stupidity can be in just one house but it can.

Well, I finally quit doing the dishes.  Yes, I know, I probably wrote that a few times here before.  But this time I made sure to say I’m not going back to it.  I’d been getting really tired of it again…same-o same-o.  The bowls, cups and teaspoons don’t come back from the princess’ chambers, the baby brat is so inconsistent with soaking and scrubbing and he tries each time to see if I’d do the pots and pans.  Princess used some too and I refused to do anything about those.  I sent her a text message saying that if she can make pizza she can scrub the pan, which is the least she can do since she doesn’t even bring her own dirty dishes up to the kitchen.  Of course nothing happened, not that anyone in their right mind can expect anything to happen.  I also sent a message to the youngest brat.  It was while the oldest brat was here that he put the pots in the sink.  And he knew damn well I don’t do pots and they don’t go in the sink where they’d be blocking me from cleaning the other stuff.  So I sent him a text message.  I said I will not see the pots and pans in the sink again.  If I do, I just might quit, and guess who just might get stuck with doing all the dishes.  I haven’t seen the pots in the sink again, at least not from him putting them there, but they were still not washed.  Today princess used the same griddle that she didn’t wash before and used one of the pots too.  Both ended up in the sink…the wrong side.  Funny how rules that were supposedly in effect before I got here still haven’t stuck to her tiny brain.

Anyway, I thought, I don’t have to deal with this.  And just to make sure that I am not asked to get back to doing the dishes, I asked DH for another chore to do instead.  He said I can take out the trash…and clean out the litterbox.  I didn’t want to do the litterbox at first but then again taking out everyone’s trash isn’t as tedious as washing everyone’s dishes.  Also I figured if I keep the litterbox up then it wouldn’t be such a hassle.  So I agreed.  I started today.  I thought I would do my chores Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday…the truck comes around on Thursdays.  The cat should be happy.  I just cleaned out his litterbox…there was more waste than litter in that box.  Of course it meant that he’d been scattering litter onto the floor in search for a cleaner spot…and of course some of the waste went with that.  It burned my eyes and nostrils to clean that thing…that should tell you how much ammonia has collected there.  But now it’s much, much better.  And I will keep it up…even if only to prove to the princess that she should NEVER have a pet.  Actually I think she should never have a child either.  If she can’t take care of a cat (not even a needy dog, but a pretty much independent cat), she’d probably kill her child with neglect.

I feel better now.  I’m not going back to doing the dishes.  If things pile up, I have my own stuff that I can use and wash myself, and everyone else can go to hell…until I get there at least…I wouldn’t want to share that with them too.  They’d mess the place up so bad Satan himself will turn into a saint in a day just so he can go to that other place.

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An Open Letter To The Princess…

June 19, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

I have never met anyone as disgusting as you.  And it is amazing to me that the most disgusting person I know is female.  I would have expected a lot of males to be yuckier, but no, you take the cake.

I don’t know why you think you’re so special that you shouldn’t have to bring up your dirty dishes, or even gather them up in one place.  I don’t know how you can sleep knowing that a few feet away from you there are cups with now unidentifiable liquids in them, with green fuzzy mold growing on top of whatever it was that you left in them.  I don’t know how you can walk around in your room with forks and spoons scattered around on the floor, under your clothes.  I am quite surprised that you haven’t had forks pierce your soles yet.

I would think that an honor student like you has standards and expectations, since in school you have to be just about perfect.  Or is this some sort of reciprocation…you have to be perfect in school, so you have to be very lousy at home, just to balance it out?

God help you if you end up having a mother-in-law who likes the house neat.  She would wonder why the heck her son married such a slob.

You can’t even take time out to do your laundry every week.  But you have all the time in the world to socialize.  For someone who’s supposedly smart, you sure can’t weigh your priorities right.  Heck, you can’t even get your laundry together in a decent pile in the laundry room.  You piled them in the bathroom, and then for some reason you thought it would be better to move that pile to the living room.  And with dirty underwear on top too.  How disgusting is that?  If you thought it was your dad who took all of that and tossed it in your room, you’re sadly mistaken.  It was me.  I couldn’t stand it, and it was so obviously the wrong place for dirty laundry anyway.  I would have expected you to have the brains to know that…but then again I wasn’t the one who said you’re smart in the first place.

You probably wouldn’t have straightened out your room if I hadn’t done that.  I’m sure you had trouble remembering which clothes on the floor were clean and which weren’t…except for your dirty underwear.  Have you never heard of pantyliners?  Oh, and while we’re on this topic, you really should save those little plastic packets your tampons came in, so you can dispose of the used product without displaying it to anyone who uses the bathroom.  Also, don’t leave them on the side of the tub.  There’s nothing more disgusting than finding some other female’s used feminine products.

And when you straightened your room, you actually found most of the dirty dishes you had, and you had them in 3 piles.  What boggles me is that with all the subsequent trips up to the kitchen, you never bothered to bring any of those up.  Maybe you didn’t want to deal with the vomit-inducing smell, especially since you know you’re expected to rinse those things out.  Well, if you’d just bring up your dirty dishes when you’re done with them or when you go to the kitchen to prepare another meal, maybe you won’t have to deal with it.  I didn’t think that takes a lot to figure out.

You’re dumb.  I don’t care what people say.  You ARE dumb.

Also, I probably shouldn’t have picked up your iPod Nano when I saw it out on the street.  It was bound to get lost anyway, like it’s lost again now.  I should have let you drive over it.  You don’t deserve anything so expensive.  You can’t take care of them.  You waited to get one for so long and yet you didn’t treasure it, obviously.  Amazing.

I could go on about what an ungrateful bitch you are, but I won’t.  You won’t understand anyway…you’re not that smart.

I hope you marry someone rich who won’t object to having maids.  God knows you are no good around the house.  Let’s just hope you have other skills so you can at least make your husband happy somehow…especially with how you’re going to be squandering what money he has.  I hope you never have kids.  If you can’t take care of a cat, you won’t be able to take care of a kid.  And it’s not like you got such a good example in your own mother anyway.

I am just glad I’m not your mother.  I would have drowned you a long time ago…I would have gone to jail for it, but I would’ve been happy to know that I saved the world from you.

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Just some additional trivial stuff…

June 16, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

I decided that hubby cannot piggyback on my homemade cards anymore.  It’s not that I want to be mean to him…I have other ways of achieving that.  It’s just that when I think about it, his folks only have 3 grandkids, 1 son and a daughter-in-law.  Whereas other people get boatloads of cards from their kids and dozens of grandkids and possibly great-grandkids, my in-laws only have the 5 of us.  Then of course not everyone gives a card all the time.  Someone almost always forgets to make or buy one.  So what’s giving them separate ones?  That way they have one more.  It’s not much but it’s 25% more than before, LOL.  Also, that’s not really fair to me either.  I make the cards, I write the message inside and DH gets to sign too…not happening anymore.  He buys his own.

Okay, the other thing…my desktop has 2 monitors.  One is my old 19″ LCD and then I got a 19″ widescreen LCD.  Now, my old one’s native resolution is 1280×1024, which is what I’m using.  The new one’s native resolution is 1440×900.  I must have killed a few millions of brain cells at one point because I forgot that my PC came with adapters to connect analog (VGA) monitors to the video card that has 2 digital (DVI) sockets.  I used one for my old monitor.  When I got the new one, of course it came with a VGA cable and I totally forgot that I still had one of those adapters left.  So I went and bought a DVI cable.  Well, for some reason with using the DVI cable, the resolution can only go up to 1280×720.  If I tried to get it up to 1440×900 I get a garbled screen.  So I thought, well, that was a bummer…and a rip-off.  I wanted 1440×900, and besides with it being on 1280×720, everything looked wider than they really were, and so the images weren’t that clear.  I thought that really sucked considering it’s a digital connection, not analog.  So one day it finally dawned on me (and I felt like slamming my head against the wall) that I wasted money on the DVI cable.  Today I dug out the other adapter that I forgot I had, and used the VGA cable that came with the monitor.  Guess what, 1440×900…the wallpaper never looked so good.  So I guess I’ll just keep using the analog connections with the digital adapters.  That seems to work perfectly anyway.

Well, tomorrow is another horrible Sunday.  I wish it would rain some more south of us so that we don’t get all that dust on the dirt roads.  Today was an exceptionally hot day.  Strange thing for me to say, it’s not as hot and humid as it can get back home.  But for here, yeah, today was terrible.  Time to stick to slacks and sleeveless tops.

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LOOOOOONG TIME COMIN’…

June 16, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

Well, this rant has been a long time comin’ or brewin’…your choice. I haven’t ranted for a long time and there’s just so much to rant about.

By now you’ve read the gist of the whole moving things to another room and not meeting deadlines, which seems to be the norm in this house. I don’t claim to be a very mature person but I think everyone else in the house has a lot of growing up to do, even the grownup.

Hubby didn’t want me to paint the ugly 70’s wood panel downstairs if I ended up setting up my craft room down there. And I wasn’t going to live with dark wood on the wall. It’s not even nice, like you see in some old homes, where you see the grain and feel a bit of it. The wood panels downstairs actually look painted to me, and the roughness of it, where it’s supposed to just show the grain…well, it just looks so exaggerated. And then add to that what kind of looks like chop marks. I think the previous owners did it on the cheap, pretty much like the outside of the house…lots of knots on the wood…guess what, they’re falling out.

Anyway, I didn’t end up downstairs, and I made sure of that after it was clear that moving the little princess downstairs was going to be behind schedule. Thank goodness for that. Now she’s planning to paint the walls tomorrow. I am eager to see if she’s actually going to paint the wood panels too, or just strip the wallpaper off the rest of it and then paint that. I don’t care. Judging from what I had to deal with in this room, it’s going to be another awful job. Not my problem. We can always change things when she goes off to college. And we will need to improve on everything anyway if we ever want to sell this house.

I held off on doing the dishes until I got my room. I got 2 weeks off of dishwashing. Of course everything piled up between washer loads, but that wasn’t my problem, and I didn’t really have a whole bunch to do when it was time for me to take over again. I figure, if what I want is taking too long, I could at least make someone else’s life miserable too. Misery loves company, right?

DH complained about feeling like the World Bank dealing with Third World countries. Princess had picked out a prom dress, and then she wanted something else. So she turned the first one in and got a second one. And then later on, she decided she wanted the first one after all. Ditzy. But then she couldn’t find the receipt for the second one. So she made an agreement with her dad (uh oh, trouble) that she was going to clean the depot 4 times really well, if he’ll give her $200. Being the sucker that he is, of course he handed over the money. Never mind that she has never ONCE fulfilled her end of the bargain anytime she got paid beforehand. She never finished the yardwork she got $100 for, she couldn’t even do the chores that SHE volunteered for for money. Does that not tell him something? She did clean the depot once…and that was it. I don’t really think that was worth $200 but that’s not my problem. He’s a horse’s ass sometimes, it’s unbelievable.

My neighbor 2 doors down, fairly new (moved in last year) don’t seem to know what a leash is. I have had to chase after my dog after she got away from the leash and collar, AFTER their dogs started getting her all excited. That happened twice, once after I was just getting better from spraining my ankle. They never pick up after their dogs either. I don’t think their dogs are with them all the time, and I do remember the guy saying something about dog shows. One would think that with them not having the dogs all the time, it wouldn’t be too much to pick up after them when they’re home. But NOOOO, let them roam around other people’s yards, let them poop there. Wonderful people…I should give them a gift…some bags and a couple of leashes. Or I can just try to camp out in the yard one time when I know they have their dogs home…make sure I have my camera with me, make a movie of it and go to the cops. As far as I know it’s illegal here to not have the dogs on leashes. I know the crap’s from their dogs…they don’t appear if the dogs aren’t around.

The worst question anyone can ask me…are you happy now? Especially after they’d just done something for me and they’re making such a big deal out of it. I will come up with something else that will make me happier. And of course it has an adverse effect on the person asking…not my problem.

That must be my motto these days…”not my problem”. It’s the only way to stay sane. I can’t worry about everything. I can’t worry about things that people bring onto themselves. I can’t worry about how dumb people are…I’m not a brain surgeon so I can’t do anything about that. And you’re asking, what can a brain surgeon do for a dumb person. Why, give them a lobotomy, of course…they’ll still be dumb but they’d be less annoying.

Also people shouldn’t ask me why I do things a certain way especially if it’s something they don’t want to do themselves. DH asked, one time while I was putting things in the dishwasher, why I put the flatware with the stems down. He always did it the other way, he said that keeps spoons from spooning and forks from…well, still spooning, I don’t think “forking” applies. I don’t really believe it. And my logic tells me that there’s more space on top, and the spoon/fork area of the flatware take up more space, so therefore they should be up. Also I am careful not to put the same things side by side. I actually arrange them so there’s no spooning of any kind. Well, DH doesn’t like being asked why he does things the way he does. No matter how nice you asked, it will always seem to him like you’re questioning his techniques and he gets defensive. So I thought I’d be like him for once. My answer was, because I’m doing the dishes. And I said it in a tone that said, you wanna take over the dishes, buster? Of course, as dense as he is, he couldn’t figure out why I got so nasty. I don’t like doing the dishes, and I use the least number of items…but I’m still doing it. So I think he should leave me be.

DH…otherwise known as Mr. Have-you-seen-my-glasses and also Mr. I-still-haven’t-found-my-keys-so-I-have-to-borrow-yours. He never puts things in the same place, if just to make it easier for himself. And if you misplace something that’s supposed to help you see…that’s just an all-time low. He gets so pissed when I sigh or shake my head but it’s really getting old. Someone his age should be able to keep track of a few key items…glasses, wallet, cell phone, keys. I told him he needs a purse. I’ll keep telling him that until he actually gets a purse and puts everything in it, or starts remembering where things are, or actually puts things in the same place all the time (not happening). At least he’s getting used to me being reluctant to help him look.

DH doesn’t like it that I have a lock on the craft room door. He thinks it’s pointless. I think, with everyone’s tendency not to lock the front door, it’s just a little additional measure, in case someone breaks in. Also, one time I went out, and when I came back he said he wanted to see how I was doing in my craft room (which I was still working on then) but the door was locked. And there, right there, is another good reason to have a lock. I don’t want people going in my craft room when I’m not around. It’s MY room. He has the sunroom and I don’t go in there while he’s in the middle of his game, or hang out there when he’s not there. I only expect the same courtesy.

I’m sure DH wasn’t too happy when I had a phone technician come out and get rid of the filter that only allowed the DSL modem to work with the phone jack downstairs. With princess downstairs and me upstairs, I didn’t want to leave the modem there. Yes, my new desktop can go wireless, but I didn’t want princess hooking up to the same connection. I don’t want to get in trouble because she got stupid, and I don’t want my computers to be linked to hers in any way. Of course now she’s not using her computer, because without an internet connection it’s useless to her. That’s not a bad thing…the less she uses it the longer it’ll last. These stupid brats will crash any computer they get their hands on.

Dumbass 3 (youngest) dropped the cellphone that DH used to have and handed over to him after dumbass 3’s cell phone stopped working. So, in 2 years he’d ruined 2 phones…and there was another one before that…3 phones in 3 years. And DH had the nerve to ask me if he could let dumbass 3 use one of the smartphones…HA! The phone has windows…the dumbass will crash it for sure. I said no. Also, the lower part flips open for a full keyboard…he would have dropped it and the flip-out part would have come off. He did get a new phone…clamshell of course…I bet it won’t last a year. They should just get him one of those really old dinosaur cell phones…I bet he’ll have a harder time ruining one of those…or losing it. Of course he can’t put it in his pocket…but then again that means he can’t just ignore it or drop it without knowing.

Back to princess…after I had my craft room mostly done…she told her dad she wanted my stuff out of the space downstairs so she can start moving her stuff around. I got that done in a day…of course she didn’t do anything for another 2 weeks or so. I’m sure she was smirking, that she could get people to do things that fast. My thinking is, it’s done, the pressure isn’t on me anymore. She’s a lazyass who can’t get anything done on time…not me. She didn’t even get her bed reassembled for 2 weeks…she had the mattress on the floor and that’s where she slept. She can smirk all she wants…not my problem. It’s just amazing how much nerves these dumbasses have to demand things when people can’t even expect the simplest things from them.

I probably have said it somewhere on this blog before…one can think that others will be careful with borrowed things, but a lot of times these days that’s not true. I have a camera…my newest Pentax. I had it for months before I actually used it. The next day DH borrowed it. Guess what, he dropped it. Now the thing has a ding on one corner. He did offer to replace it but then if I had accepted that offer, it would have made me look somewhat shallow, since the camera still functioned well. It’s just annoying that there’s a big ding on it and it wasn’t my fault. No more lending stuff, not even to DH…especially not to take pictures of dumbass 1 (eldest). He’s bad luck for everyone.

Princess a.k.a. dumbass 2 got a citation for curfew violation. She was at some park…presumably making out with BF. Stupid. I guess they can’t do it at his house. And he hasn’t ever been in this house…at least as far as I know. Really great behavior…yup, honor student behavior…right?

Dumbass 3 had his confirmation last month. Kids are not taught the proper way to speak in public anymore, I see. Get up there, mumble and mumble fast, don’t look at anyone or anything besides your notes, read it like it’s the first time you saw the sheet of paper, never mind that you wrote what’s on it yourself and everything was printed out from some PC so it’s all clear. It’s almost painful to watch. It doesn’t take too much to teach that…I don’t like speaking in public but I know I can do a good job of it if the situation arises. I know I should read my stuff beforehand, remember key phrases, if necessary, keep track of what line I’m on so I can look up at the audience every now and then, go slow, speak clearly. Simple enough…not for people these days it seems. I can’t believe people tell them they did a good job when they didn’t. I guess standards are just slipping way down way fast these days.

SimsHost.com has closed…so most of my stuff’s offline for now. I might bring some of them back online…I don’t know yet. I’m being lazy with that right now. I have half the mind to just let people do what they will with what they have. In a way, not having that site anymore takes off a bit of pressure…I hadn’t been updating it more than once a year…and Sims 2 is harder to make stuff for than the original game. I think I’ll just give it up.

Funny thing…Mother’s Day…and all the dumbasses were at our house. Why, you ask, didn’t they go up to see their mom since she now lives nearby and she’d missed all those Mother’s Days in years past. Well, apparently she had other plans with someone else…and that the brats didn’t arrange to be with her on that day IN ADVANCE. You know…call my secretary, make an appointment…some mother. Well, but then again, with her “alternative lifestyle” maybe she wants to claim Father’s Day instead. Who the hell knows…of course the grandparents were just furious…but then again, no one really expects much from her.

Still on Mother’s Day…I dropped a hint…I “told the dog” in the presence of DH that she’s my only baby and she better learn to make cards for me. DH went out and bought a card, tried to get Rosie’s paw print on it with green food coloring…I could have told him that wouldn’t work. I tried to do that before with a stamp pad. Her paws would probably be better for making prints in plaster, not ink on paper.

So…princess has a job at a pizza parlor owned by the family of a fellow high school basketball player. Her second day on the job she got $40 in tips…and the next week she had the nerve to ask DH if he had put money in the lunch account. And this was a week before school was closing for the summer. She can’t even shell out $1.50 a day for lunch? Selfish, selfish, selfish. And she wanted a new cell phone too…DH said she better save up for it. She seems to think she has to change phones every year…pretty much like she has to paint her room a different “non-boring” color every year. She wanted 3 new pairs of shoes, 1 for volleyball, 1 for basketball and 1 for everything else…to the tune of $300. DH didn’t want to spend that much so she decided she just wasn’t going to pay him for her trip to CA this summer, and she’d get the shoes herself. I bet she won’t really spend $300…it’s just if someone else is paying for it. And BTW, that trip to CA, that all the brats were apparently paying for themselves, that was their mother’s responsibility; according to the agreement they had when they divorced, DH was going to spend the money to get them to see the ex’s relatives on the east coast, and she pays for them to go see her mom and stepdad in CA. That in itself is unfair, because that’s still her side of the family on the east coast. And then now the brats are paying for their own plane tickets…again she dodges responsibility…nothing new. What a wonderful mother.

I wonder when DH will learn that not making princess bring up her own dirty dishes isn’t really teaching her anything. Sure, he played hardball a little but now he’s softening again. I think though, that to keep me from quitting as official dishwasher, he’s just bringing a few items up at a time. Well, he shouldn’t have to do that. But you know what, when he gets to the really moldy stuff, he better scrub those things out. I’m not doing it. He needs to play more hardball. It can only do good. She is so damn spoiled and she knows it. He’s a sucker and she uses that against him.

I think there should be an additional requirement for honor students to be on the honor roll…an unannounced home visit…to see if they are still the outstanding people they are outside of school. Princess would fail so miserably she won’t make the honor roll. Sure, she’s wonderful in school…but then again, she’ll have to find out sooner or later that that’s not all that matters. She has very little as far as life skills go. On the day of her ACT, her BF was supposed to give her a ride but she wasn’t ready so he went ahead by himself. She couldn’t find her driver’s license. Wow…so many days of driving and not knowing where it is…how does that work? If she’d gotten pulled over she would have been S*** out of luck. She didn’t find it. She brought her yearbook for identification. The last time she remembered seeing her coin purse (which contained her driver’s license AND her ATM card that had her picture on it) was 5 days before, at her mom’s. So 4 days she drove without a license. How I wish she’d gotten pulled over. How dumb is that? If I were driving, my license would be one of the first things I’d make sure I have…and the ATM card too…just in case. But then again…I wasn’t the one who said she’s smart…I personally don’t see it.

And then of course she wants to get a kitten. Mind you, her cat is still alive and very much neglected. She does nothing for him. Sometimes DH or dumbass 3 would actually feed him or clean out his litter box, but not princess. And she wants a kitten…like she has time or even the sense of responsibility needed for taking care of a pet…a baby one at that. Stupid bimbo. The cat spends more time with us on our bed. He even tries to cozy up to me, and I don’t like him. If she thinks the cat doesn’t like her, well, maybe it’s because she doesn’t take care of him. DUH.

Yet another rant about DH and precious princess. One time princess took Rosie out rollerblading. Now, Rosie’s paws had gotten much softer. Princess had gained weight. It’s been a while since the last time. When they got back, Rosie was laying on the floor of my craft room and I noticed that her paws were really red. I went to tell DH, I called the dog into the bedroom and she got on the bed. I suspected there was some bleeding, and the marks she left on the bed confirmed that. I said, that’s not happening again. Well, he said, neither of us can give her the exercise she needs. I accept that. But I pointed out that the bleeding was coming from the back parts of the paws…parts that don’t normally touch the ground. I said that’s from pulling, not so much from running. She pulls, she needs to get a grip on the road, she puts her paws down more than normal. So the next day she was pretty stiff when I took her out. No doubt her legs were aching. Then the day after that I went looking for the dog. The leash wasn’t where it was. Princess had her on the leash. So I went and asked DH if he told her about the dog’s paws. He went and talked to her. It was horrifying to me that she would take her out again to skate, since she still wasn’t walking right. DH assured me it was going to be a short loop. Apparently it was cut even shorter because the bleeding started again. Well, I didn’t think she was ready. I reminded DH that I told him she wasn’t walking fast on grass…what the hell made him think she’s okay to go rollerblading again? For someone who’s had dogs his whole life, he sure played dumb that time. I know my dog…I know how she walks, I know when she’s about to do her business, I see her paws everyday…no one knows or understands her as well as I do. He should have taken my word for it. She wasn’t ready and he had to find out the hard way…and in the meantime my baby suffered. I felt like whapping him hard that time.

DH thinks my craft room changes me. He said I’m not so friendly when I’m in here. Well, DUH! I kind of expect to be left alone if I’m here. Should I really lock the door to get my point across? What a stupid comment. This is my ME space. If he thinks he’s not welcome here…well, he would be right at least part of the time. I need a damn break from everyone.

Sometimes dumbass 3’s bass booms from downstairs. Now, I never was picky about the sounds coming out of my computer. But I found a good deal on a 6-pc speaker with subwoofer system. I have that installed on my desktop now. So when I hear his “music” coming up through the floor, I just blast my own. I’m not fond of bass, really, but hey, for the sake of giving him a dose of his own medicine, I turn it up to the max and hope he enjoys my music too. Until he gets the message, I’ll keep doing it. At least I have something to fight back with now.

One time I was in a really bad mood and I was playing my music really loudly. DH comes and tells me that I was playing it loud. Well, considering that he does it too, and all his brats do it too, I just gave him a blank stare. I didn’t turn it down. If he’s not happy, then I guess it’s time he turned it down and told everyone else to do the same too. Don’t complain about something you do yourself. I don’t complain about the loud noises anymore. I just make my own. That way others can complain and I can just give them a blank stare till they go away. I can play their game.

I should give everyone a shock and just leave enough stuff in the kitchen for everyone. One plate each, 1 bowl, 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 butter knife, 1 steak knife, 1 cup, 1 mug for hot drinks. And then one frying pan, 1 casserole, and none of the plastic microwaveable containers. Maybe then they’ll learn to clean their own stuff if they want to eat. They’d all hate me but then again…I hate them all…LOL, it would just balance things out.

Dumbass 3 has a GF…hispanic-looking with well-developed boobs. That must be what’s holding him to her. She’s a slut in the making though. They got in trouble in school for making out in the hallway. She gave him a hickey on the school bus. They stood in the driveway just hugging and kissing for the better part of half an hour…and she had her hands under his shirt too. She had him on his lap in the playground across the creek. How many 14-year olds are this expressive? I bet she put out already. He seems to hardly ever see her anymore…he probably got bored…I’m thinking he’d gotten what he wanted from her. And I bet he’ll keep on finding more like her because it’s instant gratification. He’s lazy, that would just fit him fine.

What else…I cut hubby’s hair…with scissors!!! I’ve cut my own hair but only with the clipper with all the attachments for different lengths. I’ve done that 3 times so far and this last one is the shortest by far. I wish I could go bald but the sight of bald women is still not quite ordinary. I would hate for people to be staring at me.

So, in summary, life still sucks, I’m still surrounded by dumbasses, but I have my craft room and I can cut hair.

Here are pics of hubby’s new hairdo.

 

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Makeover II…Craft Room Project

June 4, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

And now we get to the part where I finally work on getting my own little space with a door with a lock for when I’m feeling particularly antisocial.  If you knew how often this happens, you KNOW I need a door with a lock…probably should have the lock on the outside so I can’t go on a rampage but I figure, if I lock the door from the inside, no one can come in and provoke me.

Anyway, the room used to be the room of princess…which means there have been hundreds of science projects made here.  If mold had eyes, a whole bunch of those little spores or whatever would have opened their eyes and seen this room first of all.  Thank goodness they’re not sea turtles who have to go back to where they were born to lay their eggs.  There is also no telling just how many coats of paint there are on the walls now.  I only added one more.  I didn’t sand the wall down so there are reminders of the botched paint jobs she and her friends did at least twice before.  From what I can tell, this room used to be royal blue.  I don’t know what it was before that.  I think between the royal blue and the paint job you’ll see in the first pictures, there was a fuchsia period somewhere.  Like with the other room, the carpet and walls were disgusting, and here the carpet was…well, crustier.  I like blue, but blue shag with unidentified food stuff firmly embedded in it…that’s just too much.

I thought I’d spend the money and be lazy.  I used Benjamin Moore Aura paints.  At the time I bought them, which was 4 months before the project actually started, they were only available on the West Coast so I had to have my paints shipped from Washington state.  I gave myself a budget of $350 for paint, and I went over by about $20 for 6 gallons, each of a different color…including shipping too.  Why, you ask, is this paint so damn expensive?  First off, there’s a guarantee of needing only 2 coats or less, and no primer.  Now, in the other room, I went over the room twice with the primer, and then twice again with the paint.  That’s 4 coats all told, and countless hours painting.  One or 2 coats of paint with no need for primer is heaven compared to that.  And I only did need one coat…yes, even if I were covering orange and hot pink with light blue, just one coat.  I found that truly amazing.

For this project, I gave a deadline for people to get everything out by Sunday, April 15th, which was 2 weeks after princess got back from her trip to London and Paris.  I thought that was ample time to rest and start moving her stuff down.  Of course, as is normal in this house, nothing starts until a few hours before the deadline.  So Sunday night, DH asked for another day.  I said, what if all her stuff isn’t moved downstairs by Monday?  He said, then you can have downstairs.  And I said, see, that’s the thing, I’m already going to be delayed one day and then downstairs is going to need a lot more work.  So he promised I can start working on it Tuesday morning and he promised the room next to our bedroom.  Of course I was still one day behind my schedule but that’s better than having to work downstairs with all the dark paneling and the parquet.

So here goes…

 

04/17/07, 10:44am, and as you can see, not all of princess’ things were out of that room.  The TV is still there.  I should say her non-working TV that fizzed out after she spilled something on it.  Also we disassembled the bed that morning and I hauled everything downstairs myself too.  Yes, it’s true, the room was orange with white and hot pink stripes, and also, on the right where the wall looks black…it was black, that and the wall across the door were painted with chalkboard paint.  My wall cleaner didn’t get the chalk off.

 

This is the wall directly opposite the one in the previous picture.

 

Just a shot of the carpet I had to deal with.  With the picture this small, it’s not very obvious what is there but you can see the light spots and the dark spots…dark spots were more likely than not spilled ice cream and other liquids.

 

Again the size of the picture doesn’t show the details.

 

Now THIS is a great picture to show you what I had to deal with.

 

And you can see those handprints on the wall with initials…there are 3 of those for each stupid teenager who painted that room, and there are areas with more paint on them than the others so that was annoying too.

 

 

 

If you read the previous entry with the other makeover project this would be a familiar sight by now.  Splatters on the wall from who knows what.

 

 

 

04/18/07, 8:20am, with this project I actually took pictures of the previous day’s work the next morning.  So the day before I got to get the carpet off, clean the walls and start painting the ceiling.

 

I know the ceiling doesn’t look too blue here but it’s because of the orange walls reflecting on it.  Once I got rid of the orange on the walls, it looked a lot better.

 

04/19/07, 8:13am, now the ceiling looks blue.  I left the top parts of the walls alone because I was going to cover those up anyway.  Those corners are a pain and I didn’t want to waste time or paint there.  And yes, you’re seeing 2 different colors on the walls…I used 3, actually.

 

Now scroll back up to how this part of the room was before, and tell me THIS doesn’t look a hundred times better.  Oh, and yeah, I primed the floor.  That simply means that I put some primer on it from my previous project so the tape for the carpet tiles will stick better (lesson learned from the other room).

 

Here you can see the third shade of blue I used on the wall.  It’s not actually that bright…it’s just that the sun was shining and we had all that light coming in and it made teverything look lighter.  And that’s my supervisor off to the left, checking up on my work.

 

I already told you about the floor…primed.

 

04/20/07, 8:47am, I guess I’d started putting up the “moulding” the day before.  I know I started with the easy pieces that needed no cutting.  And like with the other room, these were the same color as the trims…except I don’t think I’ve painted the windows here yet.

 

I know the door and the trims and the closet shelf and rod look white…they’re not.  They are OFF-white.  The color is called November Rain and it’s a creamy beige.  I thought white was too stark and would show dirt really easily, and I didn’t want a grayish off-white either because that would have made the room look too cold.  The creamy beige tint was just enough to counter the tendency to look cold, since the room is all blue.  This picture shows all three wall colors.  For the closet, I used the medium blue I have on the wall opposite the dark one.

 

Baseboard’s the same color as the mouldings and trims, of course.  And there’s my compressor for my nail gun in the middle of the floor…with my trusty little Shop Vac.  I love that thing…I like it a lot better than our Dirt Devil full-sized vacuum cleaner.

 

Of course I painted the vent covers as well.

 

04/21/0, 9:40am, the windows have been painted and I’d started laying out the carpet tiles.  This was an easier job than the last one, because with the last one I had to determine first where the bed was going.  Then I had to lay out the more colorful carpet tiles to go under and around it, then I had to put in the green ones, so there was a lot of triming.  Not so much here.  Basically the grayish ones went around and the blue in the middle.  Again, I bought my carpet from a surplus place and they didn’t have enough of the blue.  This is better anyhow, it would have been too blue if all my floor were the same type tile.  The gray had browns and beiges in it so it tied in with the baseboard and trims and door.

 

I did leave the closet and door area for later because those required measuring and cutting.

 

And there was a strip in the blue area that needed smaller pieces too.

 

4/22/07, 11:39am, I had a bridal shower to attend the day before so all I got to do were fill in the smaller areas in the floor.  And I guess I slept in some too, judging from the time I took this picture.

 

 

04/23/07, 9:31am, I had Scott and his youngest to bring my boxes of unassembled bookcases in from the garage.  They’d been there since December.  These must have been the easiest bookcases I ever had to put together.

 

The floor in the closet is done.

 

Doorway’s done too.

 

After putting up all the “mouldings” I had to touch up the ends with paint.  That way it’s not so obvious where they were joined.

 

Track lighting in the closet, of course.

 

And by the bookcases.

 

 

04/24/07, 7:51am, and I brought my stuff from upstairs, I’d moved some of my older shelving units from upstairs (thank goodness they’re all modular and can be taken apart really easily).  And this is where I basically started moving stuff up, finding room in the shelves upstairs, emptying shelves downstairs, bringing them up, and round and round we go.

 

This is one of 4 almost identical units.  They required 5 trips down and back up the stairs per unit.  It might not be too obvious here but this thing comes in 5 parts.  Oh, wait, I made 7 trips for this…see those drawers?  Two per trip.  I should have counted all the trips I made downstairs to get everything upstairs.  That would have been interesting to know.

 

And the new bookcases slowly fill up with books and magazines and DVDs.

 

04/25/07, 5:32pm, wow, I took this picture late.  Oh, wait, it was a Wednesday, I probably was doing payroll all day.  Anyway, I brought more bookcases up, moved things around, mostly moved books out of the new bookcases as these older ones are sturdier.  The floor is a mess at the moment because I hadn’t brought up all my storage shelves.  And that wooden thing in the middle of the floor?  More shelves, this time for the walls by the door.  There was a good 4″ inch depth that could be used and I intended to use that.

 

I bet you don’t know anyone else who’d buy wood online.  I also bought shelf brackets that were actually meant for shelves that are put right on wall studs.  They worked well for my purpose.

 

I also started putting things in the closet.  I have these clear plastic containers that lock in, looking like honeycombs.  You can take one out from the middle or the bottom and none of the rest will fall.  Plus they’re clear, so you can see right into them.  The ones on the bottom are actually meant for shoes and the ones on top are actually for accessories or sandals and such, but hey, containers are containers no matter what you use them for.  And those hangers are for my clothes.  The closet in the bedroom is not enough for DH and me.

 

I don’t know why I took this picture, LOL.

 

By this time the room is getting crowded and I still have one more shelving unit downstairs.  So I knew by the time I’m done the room will be really cramped.  There’s still room to work, room to set up the sewing machine, room to lay things out on the floor…just not as much as I wanted.

 

04/26/07, 9:07am, the closet shelf is filling up as well.  But right now, some of those are gone…off to better homes, thanks to eBay.

 

 Just more stuff that needed somewhere to go on the shelvs.  And that’s my sewing table folded and standing on end by the window.

 

I finally got all 4 shelving units upstairs and filled them up pretty fast too.

 

TADA!  There’s the wood I ordered online, all screwed together to make shallow shelves for smaller items…and some food.

 

Like the other room, this room had a lot of holes from pins, screws, nails, etc.  So I decided I was going to have cork tiles on my wall to pin stuff to.  This is one of them.

 

04/27/07, 4:10pm, and a few went on the door as well.

 

Yes, it started out looking like a pantry with all the food I had.  But some of those have been consumed and others found a home in the next room, so this area doesn’t look like this anymore now.  Now it has acrylic paint, assorted spray cans, and still a bit of food…just not ALL food anymore.

 

Also I started moving my clothes.  Tops on top and pants on the bottom, of course.   But about half of this is gone now, given away because I realized I had entirely too many clothes.

 

My crowded closet.

 

Whoops, looks like I still am missing the 4th shelving unit.  I guess I just moved the third to make room for the 4th.  I put my mirror up on the side there.

 

More cork tiles, now by the bookcases.

 

These are actually mat board samples.  The size of the picture doesn’t allow us to see the details.  The top ones are just designs cut into them, the bottom ones: 1st one says “Knock”, 2nd one says “hush”, 3rd says “IQ=shoe size, no entry”, 4th says “rant-free”, 5th “+ vibes only” and 6th, “No cats” with the “C” looking like the face of the cat.

 

04/28/07, 4:40pm, it’s a pity the bottom left one can’t be seen too clearly because the flash reflects on the gold.  It’s in gold because that’s the golden rule of this room…Knock.  These things are on the outer side of the door.  And I’d added 2 more here, top right says “(sagittarius sign) rules” and the bottom one says “so…where are your dirty dishes/science projects?”  By now though, the ones with no words on them (first 6 on top) have moved to a corkboard inside the room and I only have the 8 with messages on them left on the door…just so the more simple-minded folks don’t get too flustered.

 

I bought myself a dressform my size.  I intend to learn to make some thing I can wear.  I am aiming for a costume for Renaissance Festival although what year I’ll actually have it done, I don’t know yet.

 

I bought another computer desk identical to one I already had.  I needed something with height and wheels so they don’t take up much space and I can stack things on them…and I can wheel them around, DUH!

 

04/29/07, 2:24pm, and here’s the old one next to the new one.  I have my laptop set up on the new one, and my other stuff on the old one.  All I needed at this point is a new desktop PC to replace the one that died.

 

With buying digicams and tripods online I got free prints.  First one is of my baby Rosie, 2nd is of DH with Blair, and 3rd is of a bunch of peach roses I bought at the grocery and laid on the snow to take pictures of.  I wish I had enough wall to put my pictures on.

 

I took this picture 3 days ago…which doesn’t really tell us anything, since I must have had that hung for a week before I realized I didn’t have pictures of it.  I have 2 of these drapes, one for each window.  I had intended for these curtains to be light, they’re made of osnaburg, some kind of muslin, and some lace that I had laying around.  I had curtain liners I had intended to use with the roman shades I was going to make.  But I thought, you don’t want heavy stuff on the front part of the double curtain rods…heavier loads where there’s more support, right?  So the curtains got the liners.  And I still haven’t made the roman shades.

 

And this is how my computer area looks now.  Pretty messy…well, what did you expect.  On the left you see a bright blue monster-sized unit…that’s my desktop PC and it’s darn heavy.  I almost dropped it getting it to where it is now.  It had to be facing sideways because it would protrude too much facing front.  I got my subwoofer on the top shelf on the left, with my external drives.  My monitor is on the right desk with the keyboard a nd the tablet, and my CD albums on the top shelf.  I got my printers on the bottom shelves…and my speakers all around…white ones for the laptop on the left, black ones for the desktop.  I turn the bass up when I’m getting bass from downstairs.  Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

 

05/08/07, 3:03pm, this is the height of laziness.  I bought curtain rods for my closet because, I’m sure you noticed, there are no doors.  I didn’t really feel like sewing curtains though.  Like I said, those woven panels that went on the closet of the other room was for THIS room.  So…I had some white and blue tulle laying around…I eyeballed it, cut them so I can drape both white and blue together over the curtain rod and back down again.  That’s 4 layers of tulle there.  I had to trim off a foot, I overestimated it when I eyeballed the height.  DH saw it, said it was “fou fou” or fancypants.  So I looked at it and didn’t think it was “fou fou”.  Just so he can say he was right, I cut more tulle and put them on top of the curtains…NOW it’s fou fou.

 

This without the lights on in the closet.

 

Well, this room is still a work in progress.  There are the roman shades to be made, the wooden words that were supposed to go on the “mouldings” where they join.  I have “Peace”, “Dream”, “Create”, “Smile” and “Relax”.  Fitting words, I thought, for my sanctuary.  I’ll get to that sometime.  And maybe I’ll take pictures of those…or maybe not.  We’ll see how lazy I get.

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FINALLY…My Room Makeover Pics

June 1, 2007 by annadulcekelly.

Yes, yes, I’m a procrastinator.  I did the first room in January and I’m just now posting pictures.  For those who are not aware of what I’m talking about…after the eldest stepbrat moved out on January 14, we had something like musical chairs only with rooms and everyone got one.  My original idea was, I was going to move my craft stuff into his old room.  Simple enough but leave it to someone else to make it more complicated.  Princess wanted to be in the den where we were.  And I wasn’t going to be stuck next door to her while I’m doing my arts and crafts stuff, and sleeping next door to the youngest stepbrat upstairs.  That just gives me no peace at all.  So I said, the youngest stepbrat has to move to the eldest stepbrat’s old room downstairs.  So he and his sister can still be next to each other.  His room was going to be our room and her room, my craft room.  After the eldest moved out on the 14th, I said I wanted the upstairs room emptied by Thursday (the 18th).  Well, I guess the phrase “empty by (date)” means different things to different people.  I meant, when I wake up on the 18th it’s empty.  His idea was, he has till midnight of the 18th to do it.  And he actually only had 3 hours to do it on the 18th anyway, between the time he comes home and the time his mom picks him up.  Sure, he’d moved a lot of stuff downstairs the Sunday before but there was still that bunk bed, some big stereo speakers, his stinking fridge and a whole lot of stuff.  Three hours, especially with finding toys and stuff you hadn’t seen in ages, is not enough, not for him and his ADD symptoms.  I was itching to start work so I hauled his stuff half to the garage and half to his new room downstairs.  He wasn’t too crazy about it but then again, I gave him a deadline and I knew he wasn’t going to meet it, and I wasn’t going to wait for him to do it because I know if I trust him to do it, he’d never ever get it done.  So when I planned to start working on Thursday morning, I actually ended up spending most of the day clearing out the room.  I have pictures of my progress and I’ll do my best to explain as I go.

 

01/18/07, 1:51pm, the doorway to the room, with the door off the hinges, and the dingy splattered wall and crummy floor within.

 

A closer look at the dingy walls and floor…the white spot on the wall on the lower right corner of the picture is a hole that I had to patch…the stuff on the left are the boxes of my carpet tiles and my paint cans.

 

 

That’s the bunk bed (which I disassembled myself) on the left and to its immediate right, the closet door that was off the hinges.

 

See the collage type thing outside the door?  That’s the door of the next room (my future craft room).

 

A closer look at the carpet I’m glad I was getting rid of.

 

 

I don’t know if you can see the shiny places on the wall…that’s where it looked like someone shook up a bottle of soda and splattered the wall.  And all those pictures and stuff?  They were all pinned to the wall.  So there was a bunch of holes right there.

 

Just another picture of what I had to deal with.  Can you tell I wanted to make sure everyone saw what I had to work with in the first place?  It was hell, I tell ya.

 

01/19/07, 12:24pm, the disgusting carpet was finally off the floor.  Not an easy job, as the previous owners seemed to have got trigger-happy with the staples on the foam underlayment.

 

I moved the disassembled bunk bed to the middle of the room so I can start cleaning the walls.  There was no place else to put it.

 

I put the closet door back on track.  With how easy it was, I wondered why nobody bothered to do that before.  Laziness I guess.

 

That small bucket had my TSP substitute in it, and it was time to start cleaning the walls with it.  It’s a wipe-on, wipe-off solution, which is an ideal thing for someone as lazy as me.

 

 

 I don’t know if it’s very visible…especially in the lower left corner of the picture…just a sample of all the crap I had to scrub off.  It’s like the wall held a record of everything that was ever eaten in that room.

 

Same part of the wall, different angle.

 

 Yet another angle, with more of the wall beyond but I think this pic got too bright.

 

01/20/07, 10:06pm, I finally got some primer on the wall and closet doors.

 

 

 

01/21/07, 7:43pm, I finally get some Mocha Suede paint on the wall.  The brand is Dutch Boy, in case anyone’s interested to know.

 

 

 

Oh, yeah, I painted the door too.

 

And the windows got the Sandy Beach Beige treatment.

 

01/22/07, 9:31pm, I don’t know…perhaps I put on a second coat of paint on this day.

 

And the tape came off around the windows.

I rested on the 23rd, because my DH said to, because it’s our anniversary.  Big mistake, it took a lot of work to get back into it.  From here on, I worked really slow.

 

01/24/07, 10:13pm, the door trims got the Sandy Beach Beige coat as well.

 

I’m guessing the windows got a second coat.

 

 

01/25/07, 7:33pm, I don’t know, perhaps the second window got a second coat.  My bad, I should have posted the pics earlier while I could still remember.

 

 

Instead of getting real moulding for the tops of the walls, I bought thin basswood planks and painted them the same color as the baseboard, windows and door trim…to be nailed to the walls later on.

01/27/07, 3:49am, don’t ask me why I took another picture of the would-be mouldings at this time of the morning, I don’t know.

 

Okay, I remember now, I probably forgot to take pictures the night before, when I was done.  I guess I cleaned the paint off the window glass too.

 

 

01/28/07, 6:30pm, the door is back on the hinges…another thing I wondered about…why did nobody do this before?

 

The closet is getting the same color as the trims.

 

The vent covers are the same color as the baseboard, door trim, etc.

 

 

01/29/07, 1:02pm, the view from outside the room.

 

The paint job extended to the outer trim…because I made a booboo and I didn’t want to try to clean it up.  So I just extended it.

 

01/30/07, 7:43pm, the closet is all painted.

 

The shelves and the rod got the same color as the walls.

 

The outlets are painted with the lighter color.

 

So did the narrow part of the door.

 

02/01/07, 6:07pm, I finally got over the unreasonable fear of the nail gun and put up the “mouldings”.

 

 

 

02/02/07, 2:20pm, the closet is done, and I installed the easiest track lighting ever…it plugs into the outlet on the left.

 

 

 

At this point again I don’t know what I’m taking pictures of, but I do notice that the bunk bed has been taken away.

 

 

 

I start on the floor finally.  If you’re wondering why there are 2 colors, Scott wanted dark green and the place I got it from ran out of dark green (because I was buying cheap surplus and they had no more stock of it) so I had to buy a second type for under (and slightly around) the bed and in the closet.

 

 

This is where it becomes obvious that I LOVE the lighting in the closet.

 

 

 

 

02/04/07, 5:53pm, looks like I skipped work another day.  This is in the closet, and I absolutely HATED doing all the corners…all that cutting and measuring.

 

 

02/05/07, 6:13pm, the green part is all done, it looks like.

 

 

 

02/06/07, 3:24pm, of course I forgot to mention that I ditched the closet doors.  I found them cumbersome and just ugly anyway.  These sliding screens I bought for my craft room originally but I thought they worked just as well in this room.

 

This time with the lights on inside.

 

 

Bought some sheers just so the window wasn’t so bare.  These are now sandwiched between green sheers but I don’t think I have pics of those…yet.

 

 

02/08/07, 6:55pm, my headboard is assembled and in place.

 

02/25/07, this is long after I got the bed upstairs…well, first I assembled the frame and had DH and one of his sons bring the mattresses up.  I bought the lamps, the arms swing out so we can position them as needed for reading, etc.  I don’t have pics of them but there are dressers that match the headboard, against the wall across.  The one closer to the dresser is Scott’s and mine is on the other end.  In between the dressers, I got a TV stand, so the TV is right in front of the bed, in front of one of the windows.  I am not going to take a picture of all these things I’m describing now, because the bedroom has become very messy, LOL.

My next post will have the craft room makeover pics.  I’ll try to post that within the next few days.

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