Seems like I can't think of anything else these days. My whole life is picking tubs and signing contracts and there is a GIANT pile of boxes containing Brazilian Cherry wood in the middle of my living room.

For the record, in case anyone is wanting to have floors done, the flooring places have the best prices for installation. The contractor quoted me literally TWICE what the flooring place did.

( Cut for Rambling about House Upgrades... )

Or anyone else who has yet to witness the Sandman room...



( The transition and so on... )

This has been another episode of Changing Rooms, with your host...ME! :)

Bit of human pain to share with you.

Last week, I had a handyman service come out to powerwash and stain my deck.

Hours after the stain was on, it rained. All night.

The next day, there were thunderstorms. It rained, harder.

The following day, it rained in a sort of drizzle, all day.

The water beaded up on the deck just like it was supposed to. At one point, I went out and squeegeed it off. (Is that a word? squeegeed?)

It kept on raining.

Saturday night, all the beaded up water freaking FROZE. No shit. I went out there to squeegee again, and damn near busted my ass.

So, there my pretty deck is, with frozen water standing in little beads on it. Awesome.

Eventually the sun came out and it started to melt. As it melted and I pushed the water off the sides, I noticed spots where some of the larger puddles had been, turning white.

My brand. new. stain. on. my. pretty. deck!

GAH!!

So, I resolved myself to having to fix it on Monday after the deck had dried. Luckily, the fella who did the work left me a half full can of stain.

Yesterday evening, I went out there to check the dryness before the sun went down.

No spots. Everything looks lovely.

HAH!

Yesterday, I finally set up my full house music solution.

I thought for a while, at tkil's suggestion, of going with Slim Server, but I didn't want to pay a lot of money for each unit.

Same thing with Airtunes, although both of those things are very cool, if you only need a couple.

I, however, have 6 places that I need music in, so that might get a little expensive.

I have a music server set up, and I have a computer in three of those six places, but I don't want to have every item synch every time I get a new CD, nor do I want to use processor or bandwidth to play it from different PCs or over the network. When I'm burning a CD, or using processor intensive programs, it tends to make the music coming out of that pc sound...less than good.

virginiadare's husband gave me information on how he set up the FM transmitter thing, and already having a music server set up, all I had to do was plug the thing in.

I did buy one radio, an under the counter CD player/radio dealie from Sony.

The rest was easy peasy. Find a frequency that isn't used, plug it into your soundcard, play music out of your soundcard and tune in all of your radios in the house to your frequency. I can even wake up in the morning to my own music, instead of to some frantic woman telling me about all the accidents on the beltway.

Awesome. I now have music in my bedroom, kitchen, office, patio, basement, and zen room. If I find another clock radio (which, I have like a million) then I'll also have music for my guests when they come.

I can access the playlists from any of four computers, one on each level and one a wireless laptop, by logging in with Remote Desktop. (FYI, if you decide to implement this solution, you have to set up RDP to 'leave sounds at remote computer' or else when you log in, you steal the music from the radio to the local PC :)

Mark even has his own login, so that he can access the music from either of his PCs (good lord, I just realised how many damn computers are in this house...) although I'm not sure how that will work, because it may just run two seperate versions of Itunes at the same time...and that would sound weird. Wumpscut, meet Front Line Assembly. HA!

Anyway, that's a bridge we'll blow up when we come to it. In the meantime, I'm jamming on a playlist, and smiling from ear to ear.

Also yesterday, I went to World Market to buy the Tao Wine Bar that I have been drooling over for months and months, but have not been able to afford. In an ironic twist of fate, the cashier rung it up wrong, and gave me like $100 dollars off. We had several things, and I'm pretty bad at math, but I could even tell that something was missing. She told me the total, and I said "Did you get the Tao Bar?" and she said "Oh, yeah. That's why its like $300 dollars."

I wasn't going to argue with her. I thought, for a brief moment in a spasm of guilt on the way home, that I should go back and be honest and demand that they charge me the full price. And then I remembered that it was made in Taiwan, and they probably bought it for $50 dollars and I stopped feeling guilty. It all goes into the wheel. I"ve been ripped off for over $100 dollars before, and probably will be again, so hell. I'll take it.

So, here's to World Market! And here's to home improvement! Tackling the patio next. We're going to get a nice gazebo, and get the deck stained all pretty...and hopefully get a new grill. And all before Cinco De Mayo!

The title reminds me of an INXS song.


Today is the last day I have off before my trip to NM.

I should be packing and doing laundry and dying my hair and doing all of those things I promised to do before I left.

Instead, I'm redecorating.

As you know by now, the basement has become "my" domain. Mark has his new TV, and its upstairs with his computer and the HD DVR and all that, and he has his desk all set up and perfect, and he's up there right now, playing the hell out of the Punisher video game (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, for my friends who enjoy the shooters. smjayman, if you don't have this one yet, seriously...go buy it.) where he can shove knives in people's heads and listen to the Punisher utter funny one liners at the same time.

Anyway, so I'm in the basement. And I've been looking at all the Red Wings stuff down here that has been down here collecting dust for the better part of 5 and a half years (it was the first room I decorated), and I started to come to a slow conclusion.

It was too much for me to look at constantly and not be able to hear skates on ice and whistles blowing, and see the red lights going off when somebody cruised in on the right wing and roofed it at the perfect moment.

So, I started to move things around.

Rest assured, the Red Wings still occupy a significant portion of the room. Half the room is now Red Wings, and the other half...isn't :) To make room for all the fun Pirate crap I've accumulated over the years.

There are flags and signs, ships and a wheel, weapons and a statue of a leering skeletal pirate, offering gold coins in a treasure chest.

And on the way from Ikea.com, there are bookcases in assorted sizes, to line one wall, so that I can finally have a place for all my books that is convenient and looks nice.

They're staggered in sizes like this, only a the taller two are a bit shorter, and four columns wide, instead of three.

Can't wait til they get here, but obviously it won't be until after I get back.

Anyhow. Yay for redecorating.

Now, I just have to tackle the other half of the room, which is still stacked high with things we pulled out of the laundry room when it flooded.

Damn. It hurts me just looking at it.

Oh, and then I have to pack. I swear I'll do it before Tuesday night after class.