My brother and Dad came down to Georgia this weekend to help us add insulation to the attic. They got here Friday and we got working right away.
They cleaned out the squirrel nests where Thomas found a squirrel skull. They’re also building me a small platform to set boxes on, and then blowing in insulation to raise it to the recommended height. It’s supposed to be 9 inches, and it’s only 3 inches.
My gas bill this month was outrageous, so hopefully this will really help.
Have you ever wanted to be on Trading Spaces, or While You Were Out? Do you have tons of design advice but no space to design? Well it’s your lucky day… I have a room that I have no clue what to do to it, and I’m open to suggestions. Fire away – crazy or conservative. I need help with my Rec Room.
The problem is that I don’t know what I want to use the room for. We don’t have a use for a game room, or a second family room – we hardly watch TV anyway. It would be nice to have more space for guests, but it is a room that everyone passes through.
The rec room is a large room that is also the main walkway to many other rooms – on the bottom level of our house, it goes to the garage, the guest room/bathroom/laundry room, upstairs, and outside. Right now, I’m only using it for storage – it seems like a wasted space. We usually keep the door downstairs closed off, unless we go out the garage or are doing laundry.
I have tons of ideas for the room, but they are all long term. If I ever get a patio built out back, it would be neat to have the Rec room set up like a sun room. I imagine Mediterrainian tile floor with a small table/chairs and maybe a buffet. I’d put in French doors that lead out to the porch. Or someday, if I’m living in this house when I have kids, then our offices will be moved down there and the offices will become their bedrooms. But, I have a long time until then – I’m not even married yet.
There are a couple of quirks with the room to keep in mind. The ceiling is two levels. It’s about a foot shorter near the garage and staircase. Unfortunately, this height
changes right over the guest room door. There’s an alcove next to the garage where the previous owner removed a built-in cabinet. I think it would be a great place to add a coat or cedar closet.
This year, I put only one thing on my Christmas wishlist for Thomas to get me – a blown up copy of a specific photo he took at our favorite park in Indiana. I wanted to hang it up in our bedroom.
Guess what, he got it! It was a late Christmas present due to when he ordered it, and questions the company had for him, and Thomas not listening to his voicemail. Better late, than never though. I got my Christmas present last week.
I think it turned out great. Thomas had it printed on canvas by Canvas on Demand. The colors are very rich, and the quality looks good (not apparent in my entry photo).
He had it blown up to 4ft by 3ft – Thomas doesn’t do Christmas gifts on the small scale. It’s a little too big to fit over our bed, but we have an empty wall where it fits. It does really give that feeling, when looking over at that wall, that we’re back in Yellowwood Park.
The album that the photo originally was in is Adventure at Yellowwood Park.
At my landscaping class last week, I think I learned the most important lesson of the class – I can’t do it all.
The instructor was showing us how to conduct a needs analysis for our yard. He started out by listing out a bunch of options we can choose from, and we identified which we were interested in. About halfway through, the guy next to me questioned my budget and time. I was raising my hand for too many items.
At first, I was a bit defensive. I thought, why can’t I dream big and make plans for way down the road. But then, after thinking about it, I realized thats why I have a hard time – it becomes too overwhelming. I hesitate painting my craft room because if I ever have children, I would want it a different color for them. I get caught up on the long-term future and forget that I may not even be in the same house at that time.
So back to the yard…my instructor suggested taking my initial list of my wants and narrowing them down to my top five. I’m focusing mostly on the backyard because I’m completely clueless what to do. I had to determine my objectives before narrowing the list.
I want to:
That tells me I need to focus on patios/decks, pathways, and retaining walls. I’m not sure this helps that much, but atleast I got some thoughts written down, as a first step. The squirrel in the photo was chowing down on some stale breadcrumbs I put out on the deck.
Thomas posted his 2006 Goals in his journal last week, and he encouraged me to post mine. I’ve been thinking about them, but I wanted to be sure to put goals with an evaluatable endpoint, so I can review them next January and see how I did. They don’t seem that hard, but I guess I wanted to make sure I put down things I know I can accomplish. Here goes:
The flower in this entry’s photo is an Amaryllis. Inspired by my Aunt Derelys, I bought a couple bulbs in the Target post-holiday sale and am growing them in my window sills.
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