Monday, November 18, 2013

Cal's Happenings + House Happenings

Election day has come and gone.  That morning I went over and voted really quick.  I waited in line for about 30 seconds and was able to vote right away.  I was home in under 10 minutes-pretty sweet.
Nov 5 2013 Ruth

The next day I went on a field trip with Cal to a nearby university.  I went on the same field trip with Clark when he was in 3rd grade. 
Nov 6 2013 Cal Ruth EMU Field Trip

Nov 6 2013 Cal Ruth EMU Field Trip (2)

They have a cool room with rocks that glow under certain lights.
Nov 6 2013 Cal Ruth EMU Field Trip (3)

Gross, huh?!
Nov 6 2013 Cal Ruth EMU Field Trip (4)

Nov 6 2013 Cal Ruth EMU Field Trip (5)

Afterwards they ate at a buffet.  I didn't want to pay for lunch so I called the place and asked if I could just go in.  They said that would be fine.  So that's what I did.  It was probably a good thing I didn't eat there anyway.  The chaperones were supposed to be with the kids each time they went to the food area. The kids I was with kept going up.  I sat in my chair for a total of about 5-10 minutes.

On Veteran's day the 3rd graders performed for some veterans and the school.  I got there sooo late, but made it for the last song.  There is nothing like hearing patriotic songs to stir feelings of gratitude for this wonderful country.  I am proud to be an American! They are singing again on Tuesday at a school activity night.  I will hear the rest of the performance then. 
Nov 11 2013 Cal's Veterans' Program

We started back to doing house projects. Recently we bought this hutch/sideboard/credenza at a local thrift shop--along with 6 dining chairs. (Too bad they did have 8 of them!)  I am painting it white and possibly changing out the hardware.  Though the current hardware is kind of fun. I am not a fan of how the inset wood is cut--just a plain, straight rectangle would be perfect for me. But in general I like it, so we'll go with it.  Lee and I spent a night sanding the furniture.  I sanded the hutch and he sanded two of the dining chairs.  The hutch will go under a mounted TV in our family room.
Nov 14 2013

We also decided to rip up the carpet and refinish the existing wood floors. Lee was awesome and ripped up all of the carpet and padding on Saturday.  He even started on pulling up the tack and the staples.  Hopefully we made the right decision with ripping up the carpet....because it's ripped up now!  It is a LOT louder now too.  Hopefully soon we can add in some things to soak up the noise, like some rugs and curtains. A guy is going to come Monday or Tuesday to give us a quote on the floor. We have only a certain amount set aside to refinish it, so hopefully his quote will be on budget.  I talked to him a couple weeks ago to get a general quote and then added a couple hundred more.  So we'll see what he says.  If it's too much we'll be living with an ugly floor for awhile. 
Nov 16 2013 Lee

There are some bad spots all over the floor.  Like this one below.  I am not sure what kind of stain this is.  Good thing is, is that we want to stain the floor really dark, like a dark chocolate.  See the dark, stained piece? About like that.  So even if for some reason he can't sand the stain out, maybe the new dark wood stain will mask it? Just as an example, I really like this color.
Nov 17 2013 (2)

And then there are some weird spots all over-in big sections-like someone splattered chocolate pudding on the floor and never cleaned it up.  You can see it better in real life. So yeah, we'll have to see how this all works out.  Plus on one wall of the house where the foundation has sunk a little, there is a gap between the floor and the wall.  It wouldn't be so much of a problem, but on one end of the wall the gap is larger than on the other end. 
Nov 17 2013 (3)

Here is the hutch thing again, all primed.  The drawers are primed too, but are the "laundry" room. Lee is going to buy some paint for me tomorrow.  Maybe tomorrow night I'll paint it! I am painting it white. I loved what my friend said on facebook.  She asked if I was going to paint it some fun color and I responded back that I was being conservative and was just going to paint it white.  She wrote back "classic, not conservative".  Classic sounds good to me!
Nov 17 2013 (4)

And in some other random news..... So this is for you Melissa.  I actually thought when I posted the picture of "making" the t-shirts, that I should have posted an after picture.
Nov 17 2013

I found some fabric that I really like for the dining chairs.  We are going to recover the chairs ourselves.  I need to figure out some sort of way to protect the fabric, like fabric treatment spray or maybe some clear vinyl something or other....need to think about it.  The fabric is more yellow than it looks in photo. And the yellow is a raised, velvety-type fabric.  It has a nice, tight weave too.
Nov 6 2013

And just because I didn't post enough Halloween pictures, here is one more from trick-or-treating at the mall. (And yes, Elden is posing.) Have a great week!!!
Oct 30 2013 Mall Trick or Treatin (4)

3 comments:

Megan and Jeremy said...

Looks like a happy Halloween for the Robertsons! & I love all your home improvement stuff-you guys are amazing!

Melissa S. said...

Gosh, that hutch is going to look SOOO awesome. There are so many things that would look amazing if I did that to, but the whole sanding, priming and paint thing just sounds like a nightmare to me.
Interested to hear what the wood guy says!!!
And Cal is looking so so so so old!!!! (and more handsome)

BWei said...

Love the hutch!! Hope that things work out on the floor. I know what you mean about the hardwood floors being louder :-).