some of this and that

You've seen the day moon lately, right?  I don't know what it means (besides that the moon is always up there whether we can see it or not), but I decided today that seeing a day moon might signify good luck coming.  I choose to believe that.

Are these gladiolas beautiful or what?  It is that time of year again and this picture doesn't really do them justice, but I'm just saying if you see glads for sale in the store, say at Costco where I get mine, you should really buy some.  They will bring beauty to your life.

And then there's these two.  Such posers.

They're being photobombed by tools.  Because we're working on a project.  In our house this time.

If you look past the Christmas morning breakfast with the girls from a few years ago, and disregard the pile of boxes in the corner, you can get an idea of what our fireplace used to look like.  It was huge, brick, more brick, and a little more brick.  It wanted to be the boss of the dining room.  But we decided to be in charge so we covered part of it (including the smoked glass windowish things that were popular in the 1970's when the house was built).  It was much better than when we moved in, but still not exactly what we wanted.

A few weeks ago, Jack decided it was time to remove the fireplace and put in a more simple version.  So he and his buddy and I spent a day knocking down and hauling out all of that brick and this is what we found behind and under all of that brick.  (See that cool smoked glass we uncovered?  Ugh.)  Who would have guessed that a massive brick fireplace would look so ugly under all of that brick?  And why are there cupholders on one side of the fireplace but not on the other side?  And are those really cupholders?  hmmm...

In the past few days, we (and by we I mean mostly Jack but I'm very good at vacuuming up the construction debris and going to Home Depot for materials).  Anyway, we built a new wall out of metal studs, insulated it, and started putting up the cement board so we can put up the tile and install a new gas insert with a nice quiet blower.

This looks so much nicer.  And yes that is Jack eating peanut butter sandwiches with home bottled peaches while Gus tries to look disinterested but everybody knows Gus is always interested in food.

Tomorrow, we hope to finish putting up the cement board and get the tile up and do some wiring and sheetrock repair.

The thing that started us on this project was Jack's idea that it is time to pull up all of the carpet upstairs and replace it with hardwood floors in an effort to make it easier for our highly allergic to animals daughter-in-law to be in our house for more than an hour at a time.  And if you're going to put in hardwood floors, you probably ought to paint first, and if you ever want to replace that monster fireplace, you'd better do it before the hardwood floors are laid and sealed.

So that's our project.  Hardwood floors, a new fireplace, and some painting.  Well, and also we're going to close off one end of our bedroom as a closet that will have a separate linen closet that opens into the hallway.  Because, you know, the hardwood floors can't be done until all of that is taken care of so we should definitely do it now.  And Jack can have the entire new closet in the bedroom and--well--I can have all of our walk-in closet!  !!!  (Not that Jack uses much of it, but still, !!!)

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Also, Jr's friend, Joe, is back from his yearlong internship in England.  The Californian kids love Joe more than just about anybody we take to California (except for me, obviously).  So Jr and Joe have planned a trip to California next weekend and of course they want me to come along.  Jr and I have agreed we'll get the two spare bedrooms emptied out in preparation for hardwood floors and make sure the fireplace wall is done before we leave for Cali next weekend.

~~~

See what I mean about day moons and good luck?