Help Me Internet!

Since I've been doing so much work on the trim around the new windows, I decided to hop out onto the back porch and paint the trim out there. And then once that was done and I was touching up the wall paint upstairs, I swiped a few strokes on the walls out on the back porch. In the picture below, you can see two different greys. The top one is Benjamin Moore's Moonshine and the bottom is Valspar's Woodlawn Colonial Gray, which is the color of the dining room walls.

Here's how the colors relate to the new green door and oil rubbed bronze door knob.

So what do you, people of the internet, think about these two colors? Which works better out there? I can't decide and need some opinions! Leave me a comment about your favorite.

Ok, next item of business, I promised to put up some pictures of the new window with the privacy film in the daylight so you could see how much light it lets in. Here's a good example, even though I've done a lot of work on the trim since I took this:

And here's another example with the trim a little more cleaned up. It's getting there!

You can see on the bottom right that I still have to touch up the wall paint, which I'm going to do today. And hopefully the new shower curtain will arrive in a couple days. And then this area of the bathroom will once again be pretty and finished. I do have one area of the bathroom that I still would like to fix up though. I'll give you a hint:

But for today, a few more paint touch ups and sewing curtains are on the agenda and then hopefully one more thorough cleaning of both bathrooms. Ahh, this is the life. lol (What's funny is that wasn't sarcastic.)

Tackling a Big Project ... And Trying Not to Tackle Our Contractor

Does my subject sound a little mean? I promise you'll feel it's totally justified by the end of the post. I had many moments where I just wanted to tuck my head down and just try to knock him over. lol But I restrained myself so that I could complain about him on the interweb instead. So without, further ado, here's the story of our contractor woes.

Recently, Chris and I noticed that a few of the boards in the soffet of our roof line were warped and rotting. We knew it needed to be fixed eventually, but when we kept hearing buzzing in the wall right next to that gap, we decided eventually was now. We definitely didn't want bees burrowing through our walls and insulation.

I figured since we would have to hire a contractor, we might as well knock out a few other projects as well. More specifically, we needed to knock out some windows. Well, I did find a contractor. Only one guy even bothered to come out and give me an estimate. Most of them said they would and blew me off.

So we got stuck with the one guy who was eager to take on our projects: Eddy of Dr. Eddy's Home Improvements. If you live in the area, well, I wouldn't recommend him.

You may remember pictures of our old bathroom window, one of only three original windows left in the house:

You can see that it was not in great shape. The top right corner of the lower window was cracked, paint had managed to get slopped all over the edges of the glass, the window wouldn't even stay open without being propped up, and probably worst of all, you could feel cold air seeping in around the window in the winter. And when the window is in your shower, well, take it from me that bathing was not always a pleasant experience.

And here's what we had going on in the half bathroom. An off-center window that let in outside air and bugs even when it was closed.

Here's an older picture of the hallway window outside the half bath. It's identical to the one in the half bath. You can see how they opened by tilting inward, so you couldn't really put curtains on them.

So here's the new hallway window. Yes, this is what our contractor called "done." haha It's hard to see the details in this photo to see how bad it is, but basically the window frame is covered in caulk and paint, there are holes in the wall around the trim, the screws were caulked over, but you could still see huge indents, and caulk was just gooped up in random spots. Awesomesauce.

Here's the new half bath window. Same deal, except with this one, he overlapped the trim on the right with the frame, so when the window was closed, you couldn't get your fingers around the push bar to slide it open. We did have him take that piece off and cut it so you could actually open the window. I mean, really? Come on!

Here's a gorgeous example of this guy's sick love affair with caulk, but not really understanding how to use it.

Here's the view from outside midway through the window replacement. At this point I was getting mighty nervous.

You can see the soffet that started it all in the picture above. It was in rough shape. The plywood board is was put up by the contractor, but the white boards underneath were pretty terrible.

As for the downstairs bathroom window, here's a scary halfway done picture:

This picture was after he promised me he wasn't going to remove the trim that was connected to the grout in the tub surround. We just had that natural stone put in a few years ago and I really didn't want it damaged. And that contractor, Tom Hardy, did such an amazing job.

But alas, this time around, we were stuck with Eddy.

Here's Eddy's version of finished. Not too awfully bad from far away.

But get in close and it's a whole different story:

Cracks galore, nail holes showing, trim that doesn't fit back together perfectly ...

Trim that doesn't fit together at all, a whole missing section of trim that Eddy tried to fill in with caulk, caulk all over the cabinet ...

Glopped on paint and caulk, once again all over the new window frames ...

So I'm assuming at this point you understand why I was none too happy with ole Dr. Eddy. And after all this, he had the nerve to charge us $173 over his original quote because he "did do much extra work". Grrrrr.

I guess the best way to look at this is that it was a learning experience. I have learned that cheap isn't always worth it, and that recommendations are absolutely neccessary.

Needless to say, I was eager to get in there and start fixing things as soon as humanly possible. Seeing that mess in my house was giving me a constant stomach ache. Here's all the caulk I pulled off the window frames of the upstairs two windows:

Chris and I were also eager to get some privacy in the bathrooms, so we tackled a little project together soon after Eddy's long-overdue departure. We bought a window frost kit at Lowe's and got to work making the new window a little less friendly to peeping toms ... and not exposing our bums to our neighbors every time we had to use the toilet. lol

The frost film, I'm happy to say, did the job wonderfully. It's clean and smooth and classic looking. It's not super noticeable, and it still lets in lots of light. I took this picture at night, but I'll try to remember to post one of the window with the light shining in.

You'll notice that our shower curtain rod made it back on the trim in the picture above. We bought an extra-long 96" shower curtain so we can put the curtain rod above the window trim, but it hasn't arrived yet, so we went back to our old method until it does.

I also spent a few hours today filling cracks and building up the crappy sections with putty, as well as sanding away rough spots and excess putty once it dried. I have another round of sanding to go, but hopefully then I'll be ready to paint. I'll be so happy to post finished pictures that are actually finished and not just Eddy's version of done.

Here's how everything wrapped up outside, which I have to admit was Eddy's strong suit. Although maybe I just can't get close enough to these areas to see how bad they are. lol

At least you can't see the crappy warped boards now. And hopefully the bees can't get inside ...

There's the two new windows up top, all framed out and painted.

Downstairs bathroom window.

So at least I can end this post on a high note. From the outside, all is well and looks just as good or better than before our whirlwind encounter with Dr. Eddy. And hopefully I'll have pictures of everything looking all smooth and nice and painted soon.

But after a week of dealing with this guy, Chris and I are completely exhausted. I think it's time to kick back, eat some ice cream, and watch the last of the Olympics ...

It's SO Easy Being Green

Katie and I decided to tackle a fun little project while she was out visiting this week. I mentioned that I wanted to paint the front and back doors green and before I knew what was happening, Katie had helped me pick out the paint chip and we were at Lowes getting the paint mixed. haha

So here's what our kitchen door looked like before Katie's visit:

And here's what we have to remember Katie's visit by:

Here's the view coming in the back door. Still have a lot of work to do on that area, but isn't that pop of color nice?

We even did the front door to match. Here's the bland entry we used to have to welcome guests:

 Gotta love the brass door knocker and the chain at the top that doesn't do anything.

 And here's the cheery front door now. Yes the siding is still horrible, and the brick steps are broken and pretty pathetic. But look how nice the door looks!

Check out this close-up of the door knocker. I spray painted it with Rustoleum paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze. Pretty great, right? It looks like a brand new piece. I just wish the peep hole and door knocker were centered over each other. lol



Just a little spray paint and it's suddenly a whole new door knocker.

Here's the front door from the inside before the paint.

Check out this disgusting yellow caulk that was around the windows that we had to scrape off.

Umm, can you say gorgeous?

I still need to do a second coat on the front door, as well as some touching up and caulking on the white trim on both doors, but I'd say we pretty much kicked butt on Saturday. Oh yeah, and we definitely went and got ice cream afterward as a reward. :-)

Katie's Visit to the 'Cuse

From Wednesday to Sunday, Chris and I had the pleasure of a visit from my dear friend Katie, who flew out from Michigan to spend a few days with us. She was able to use a ticket she had to cancel last year that my parents gifted her, so it was awesome that we were finally able to have her out here.

The whole week/weekend was a blast. Lots of relaxing and catching up, and lots of not-so-relaxing activities that were tons of fun.

Katie had a goal of becoming a cat whisperer and making our crazy feral cats love her by the end of the trip. While I'm not sure they were enamored (Zoro jumped down the laundry chute to hide) she did manage to get on ok terms with Zoro by Sunday. He even watched her get ready in the morning and meowed at her a lot. In kitty world, that's a big deal.

We also spent way too much time watching the Olympics, but hey, it comes around once every four years, right?

Katie's welcome basket for her stay here at B&B Dolen. haha

We kicked off the mini vacation with a little tour around North Syracuse (to find food) and the some grilling in the evening. Mostly we just caught up and acted like our goofy selves. Then we took Katie to our favorite ice cream place, Big Dip.

On Thursday, we headed out to Green Lakes State Park to relax at the beach ... and eat ice cream, of course.

One of the cool things about Green Lakes is the trail that goes all the way around both lakes. We had fun exploring and freaking Katie out by talking about the Walking Dead. lol

Chris with open arms to catch me if I fell on the rock formation.

Made it. Phew!

The girls (staying on the dry rocks).

Did I say Katie and I were the goofy ones? Hmm, I guess fits right in with us. But really, who wouldn't want to ride this tree like a horse? Look at that curve! It's a perfect seat.

After we got home, Katie and I faced off in an intense game of Just Dance 2 for our Nintendo Wii. It was a heated battle, but guess who ended up with the highest score. Chris!! haha

Here's  a little video Chris took before joining us of Katie and I making complete asses of ourselves to "Walk Like an Egyptian."

On Friday, we headed to the new Destiny USA ... man that sounds lame. We went to the mall. lol But we did take a look at the new section they added on, which was really nice. It'll be really nice once the rest of the stores move in. And I am so looking forward to eating at Melting Pot. Chris is excited about the indoor go-carts we saw listed on the directory.

So here's Katie showing of the spoils of her shopping trip ... ok, ok, some of those bags are mine. haha

After shopping and eating (we may have indulged in more ice cream at Coldstone Creamery) we headed to the zoo. I know! You're probably thinking, wow, what a fun weekend. How could it get better than that, right? Well, I'll tell you how: BREW at the ZOO!

That's right. We got about 18 tickets a piece to sample all the beer and wine we could want, as well as cheese, fruit kabobs, and a variety of other delicious snacks. So fun and it's a great fundraiser for the zoo, so win win.

We even got to pet an elephant!

Katie both loved and was intimidated by Mr. Lion, whose paws were the size of her head. haha

This video is a little hard to make out because Chris took it on his phone, but it's this baby Markhor (sort of like a goat) was doing crazy flips and spins and stuff. I guess he was just happy to be alive and in the world. haha We could have watched him all day, he was so adorable.

On Saturday, we got up and went to the farmer's market, which was awesome and huge. Chris and I went on a shopping spree and bought homemade cards, fresh peach pie, freshly roasted coffee, beef jerkey, peaches, strawberries, cheese spread ... lots of stuff. I can't believe I've never been to it before. It was so great. I love buying local, and you can't beat fresh, homemade goodies!

After the market, Katie and I were feeling creative, so we decided to tackle a little decorating project at The Capers. But I'll post the details of the whole project next, since this one is getting flooded with pictures and videos. :-)