Hiring Out

A couple of Sundays ago, we woke up and decided to become landscape architects. After multiple trips to three retailers and way too many holes dug (Steve assured me I would not break the shovel even though I know I was close...), 31 bushes are now apart of our yard!

Boo!

Our Weekend

We had one of those quasi-quiet but busy weekends.

Friday night we enjoyed sushi at the sushi bar at Jun's in Prairie Village. Steve loves to sit there and watch them make sushi. It's kind of like a child (or Steve) watching cartoons.

On Saturday Steve did what seemed like a million things to the house both outside and inside. I would repeat them but I can't remember them all. I, on the other hand, looked for a dress for the upcoming Napa wedding.

Saturday night was spent with friends celebrating the couples baby shower for our friends Joe and Angie. It was a really fun night!

Sunday was more work for Steve. And I still looked for a dress... My parents are here watching the boys so we grilled out and watched cartoons (that, again, Steve enjoyed).

And that's all they wrote...

Sick

That's what we've been.

I was sick last week, so Steve stayed away from me.

Steve has been sick this week with a completely different illness, so I've been staying away from him.

We've been cooped up inside during the most glorious August weather ever known to KC.

But I think we're starting to feel better since tonight we've both been wearing my pink wig. Good, good times at the Seiler household!

Drum Roll for our most recent house project...

It's been done for a while but I continued to forget to take a photo of our latest completed house project. While we cannot use out back door yet, it's such a great feeling to have this complete.

Now on to the patio landscaping. That will be a blast...

It's a Backyard Miracle!

Yes, it's true. A professional is going to build our patio to replace the deck we tore down with our hands way too long ago.

I don't know Cristobol, but I think I love him.

Mr. Clean

Not only did I come home to a working computer after being gone for a couple of days, but Steve also completely:

• organized and cleaned the bathroom drawers
• organized the hall closet drawers
• gathered all our old cell phones and batteries and printed off something so we can send them to a military fund
• put a photo of lil' Nate and me in a picture frame and displayed it in the kitchen
• and who knows what else...

I know he really doesn't want me to leave, but when he does things like this it's almost as though he is begging me to leave for a night or two. He does love his alone time...

Just Call Him "Mr. IT"

I was out of town the other night when I received a text from Steve informing me he was looking at Google within the four walls of our home. And it only took him 50-hours.

I am very grateful and happy as I was very close to developing self-induced carpal tunnel syndrome from using my phone for all things Internet the past month.

Just as we were discussing purchasing a new computer due to the above malfunction...Steve Seiler to the rescue!

Commode

We've had a toilet in our guest room (and hence no toilet in our upstairs bathroom) for two weeks.

Surprisingly, I'm completely fine with the length of time it's been there. Actually, I've sat on the toilet a few times in the middle of the room while I've chatted on the phone.

And if Steve wants to walk around a toilet for the rest of his life to get to his closet, I say more power to him.

P.S. And we're not doing this so my parents don't stay with us for Thanksgiving. We actually would really like them to stay with us one night!

And then there was some dirt.

It took 10-months, but the dirt has arrived. I've been trying to understand the next steps for this dirt for 10-months without success. But Steve has an extremely clear vision so I'm going with it...

I'm leaving for Vegas on Friday for the Iowa State/UNLV football game. Before I knew the dirt was going to find it's home this week, I was excited for the getaway. Now that this is in our driveway, the prevailing feeling is clear...thankfulness to not be here when the dirt vision is being carried out!

Bedside Service

As I was partying the weekend away in Chicago for Allison's bachelorette party, Steve was putting our toilet from the upstairs 1/2 bath in the middle of our guest bedroom.

So, who wants to come visit?

Garages

Since we've moved into our house three years ago, Steve has spent about as much time on our garage as he has on our house. That equals a lot of garage time.

Initially he leveled it, added boards, scraped it, replaced half of it with hardy boards, painted it, etc (I should add I helped with some of it). Now he spends an ample part of his free time cleaning and organizing the garage. We may not have the most organized house in the world but boy is our garage and basement organized. If I don't know where to find Steve, 9 times out of 10 that's where I find him.

Our garage is so organized that Steve doesn't even park his car on his side. Although I think that may be because the Concorde is as long as the Concorde plane.

Now that Steve has put more time in this garage than most people do on their homes, our two next door neighbors have decided to tear down and build new garages. So now, not only do we not have the nicest garage, but for over a month and counting all of our neighbor's things have been in our garage (including a very scary monkey statue from the zoo that takes my breath away every morning).

Since Steve is unable to reach anything he owns in his meticulous garage, he now spends his free time each night with both sets of neighbors inspecting and taking copius notes about the progress of their "in progress" garages.

And, yes, that is our life.

White Rock

This afternoon as I pulled into our driveway from an amazing weekend in Okoboji with the Robinsons and my parents, I noticed this large white rock on the corner of our lawn next to our driveway.

I was quite perplexed since I've always heard rumors that a white rock signifies something about the people whose lawn it's in.

Granted I've been away for almost four days and we didn't get to talk much due to Steve being at the end of his cell phone cycle, but I thought Steve would have spoken to me about this before making such a bold (and untrue) statement on our behalf.

I immediately had to leave to get my oil changed, but as I drove down the street, I noticed yet another large white rock in our neighbor's Toby and Leslie's yard. Hmm...

And then as I'm hanging out at the dealership, I get a call from Steve saying he had just received a strange email from our neighbor, Scott, talking about how since some news story came out there's been an epidemic of white rocks and swingers in KC.

I may not have graduated from Harvard, but the lightbulb immediately went on!

It turns out our beloved neighbor, Scott, took the time to find two large smooth rocks, spray painted them white and placed them in our yards.

After we both got home we walked down the street to the local Mexican restaurant and immediately ran into another neighbor whose first comment was, "I noticed you have a white rock in your yard."

Great....

Furniture Finds

Steve and I have become pros at finding a piece of furniture, taking its measurements at the store, coming home and measuring the space to find the furniture is too big, too wide, too tall, too long...

The joys of a smallish, older house.

As frustrating and annoying as it is, the original dark wood paneling, hardwood floors, built-in bookcases, mantle, windows, our neighborhood and awesome neighbors make it worth it to us, without question, at this point in our lives.

But tonight after quite a few recent strike outs, we finally found a piece of furniture that measured correctly when we got home! And it was 80% off (sadly due to a neighborhood store going out of business). But, hey, a good deal is a good deal no matter how it comes about.

So while our bedroom furniture is mine from middle school, and while we have no bathroom storage, at least we proudly now have a place to store at least 20 bottles of wine in our dining room.

Chilly Willy Coming Soon!

I don't want to jinx ourselves by putting it in writing, but it appears the Seiler family who lives in hot and humid KC will soon have cool, blowy air flowing through our abode.

When we purchased our beloved "fixer upper" home three-years ago in the middle of summer, naively I assumed I'd only have to spend a few months sweating in my sleep. Well 2005 passed. And so did 2006 and 2007. But 2008 is looking to be our year.

Steve has spent so much time researching, contacting vendors, hooking up our neighbors with the A/C people, wheeling and dealing and moving pipes (with the assistance of my brother) that I honestly don't have a clue what is going on.

But I do know that an A/C unit was put in the wrong place outside, and our basement now has a shiny new structure, so the work has begun. I'm still a little hazy on who is cutting the vent holes in our 1924 hardwood floors (I'm keeping my fingers crossed his first and last names do not begin with a 'S').

And to all of our family and friends who have sweat with us over the years, I'm sure we'll still keep the A/C set to 78 degrees (baby steps), so don't bring over your summer sweater just yet!

Tile Project Completion

The tile project next to the fireplace is complete!

When my mom was here a couple of weeks ago, we spent one day tile shopping. It was amazingly boring (the shopping of the tile; not my mom). But as with all things my mom is attached to, we found the perfect tile at Nebraska Furniture Mart on clearance! We got around $225 worth of tile for $30.

Thanks to borrowing some tools and some expert advice from our neighbor who does things like this for a living, Steve went to work and successfully completed his first tiling project.


Due to our illness, this pretty thing sat in the middle of our living room all week. It did work as a nice coffee table though.


This is even more of a success story considering I accidently stepped on the "unset" tile on the left end last Saturday night, and Steve had to redo it. Words do not describe his feelings of love he had for me about that time.


A snapshot of 1/2 our living room with the completed project.