Whew! Very busy weekend! I think it's going to be restful today...doing some rush quotes for my boss, cleaning house, going to the grocery store. Boy Scouts.
We started the weekend on Friday. Mensa boy took the day off and we put in a new ceramic tile backsplash in the kitchen. We love it! I'll try to post a photo tomorrow. It's navy blue ceramic tile with 8 decorative tiles of fruit scattered about. This tile is pretty much idiot-proof, cut with with wavy edges so you have a little play with the width of the grout.
We've done ceramic tile before. But never in a brand-new house. It's nerve-racking until you get about 3 tiles on. Then you find yourself just relaxing and tossing tiles on there. It is a bit amazing that we didn't shock ourselves to death, though.
Of course we turned off the power to all the outlets. And there are plenty of them...4 on the short wall alone. But apparently we didn't have everything off the first time. We have a 3-switch box that controls the garbage disposal, light over the sink and power to the dishwasher. Here in the carolinas, dishwashers must have an on-off switch so the unit can't be turned on accidentally.
But it didn't dawn on us that that would mean the box would have TWO circuits!
So we're going along happily tiling and cutting tiles when Mensa boy says "huh. I seems like I felt a little buzz there". A minute or so later we have popping, cracking, jumping around, sparks...veddy skeddy!
We reminisced about my Dad at that point. These are the kinds of things that happen with any project. This is the first home improvement project we've done totally by ourselves without any help from him. We talked about what he would have said at that point. And we could hear his laughter in our heads while we were laughing. Dad, we miss ya! We sure are glad we had all those years of apprenticeship with you before we moved.
We got done with setting tile by noon. So we met Cassie in Chester for lunch at the Wagon Wheel. I'm sure I've rhapsodized about their fried squash on this blog before. It was a great payoff for a morning of intense work.
Friday night we took Taylor to Zapatas for supper. It's a pretty good mexican restaurant in Ballantyne. Nate didn't want to go.
Saturday we chased wild geese. We got up, planning to grout the tile in the afternoon. I checked email and here was a note from JCPenney about their furniture being on sale for 20-50% off. I went to their website and saw a couch and loveseat that looked exactly like what we were looking for.
JCPenney doesn't have furniture in it's store in Charlotte. But they do in a store in Greensboro, which is about 90 miles south of us. It was raining(as usual), with prospects of rain all day. Why not just drive up there and look? The savings were about 40%...it could be worth it.
So we all drive up there and whaddaya know..the furniture is only available on their website. They don't have it in the store. We aren't sure what's comparable because the catalogue doesn't list the brand of the furniture or anything that could help you identify it.
We did have a GREAT LUNCH though. Before we left I checked Roadfood.com for anything in Greensboro and found Stamey's.
Stamey's only have two items on the menu, really. Yeah, there are some sides, but basically we're talking Pork Barbeque and Peach Cobbler. This is the vinegar barbeque, which Mensa Boy has declared inferior to the tomato-based stuff we are acustomed to. But he was willing to go along with my lunch choice.
When you get to the Coliseum area in Greensboro, you smell Stamey's first. There is a scent of woodsmoke in the air and a blue haze hangs over everything. When you pull into the parking lot, past the smokehouse (pictured on the Roadfood site), you pull into your space and you are facing this MOUNTAIN of wood!
The parking lot is crowded and people are standing in line to seat themselves at tables. We took stools and sat at the counter, which Taylor thought was cool. So of course we got served right away. The guys had hot dogs, fries and pop and Mensa Boy and I had chopped pork sandwiches with cole slaw on them, fries and sweet tea. Wonderful meal!
Sunday we got up and got to worrying about how long that grouting could take. Maybe we should do one wall before church and then the other wall after. We had a picnic with the Cub Scout leaders to go to in the evening and we really didn't want to drag this grouting thing out too long.
So we commenced grouting at 8. We finished with both walls at 11 and ran over to church. Busy day at church. Someone took our parking space and someone else took our pew. We had 5 visitors, which meant 5% of the congregation were visitors...that's a lot!
We rested in the afternoon and went to the picnic Sunday night.
So, you can see why I'm thinking today is going to be nice and peaceful.
And it's not raining.
Right now.
7:28:48 AM 
|
