Basement Dwellers

When we moved into the new house, the whole main floor had to be renovated.  So that meant that we couldn’t exactly live up there.  So all of our belongings were piled into the basement.  Most of our stuff was put in the unfinished side.  We set up couches in the basement.  And the TV of course. 

Night 1:

Bed is at the end of the basement on the floor.

Kind of a neat way to spend the first night in the new house.  Not somewhere we wanted to be sleeping for the next month.

Night 2:

We set up the bed frame and dressers in the unfinished side of the basement.  Put down an old rug underneath the bed so it wasn’t quite so chilly on our feet in the early morning hours.  This is more like it.  Or this is as good as its gonna get.

Ryan had also made us a makeshift closet for the furnace room by attaching some 2x4 pieces to the ceiling and sticking a rod through the middle so we could hang clothes on it.  This is a lifesaver.  Not sure where our clothes would have gone if he hadn’t come up with this genius idea.  I can’t even really give more details on how it was made.  I think it was easy.  Or he’s just skilled.  That’s why I married him.

For Christmas, my parents gave us a heated mattress pad.  Same idea as a heated blanket, but under you.  Great timing mom and dad! We turn it on to high a couple hours before bed, climb in to a cozy bed at bed time, and turn it down a bit so we don’t have a sweat storm at 3am.  It has made the furnace room a bearable temperature.

We love it so much that we might just stay down here.  Or not...

How to Strip

Oh you dirty dog you.  No, I didn’t just change the whole focus of this blog.  Clearly I’m talking about wallpaper, not giving lessons of the pole dancing variety. 

New house was full of wallpaper . Lovely stuff, probably circa the 80’s, just like everything else in the house.  I know that wallpaper is back in style, and to be honest, I do really like some of the stuff that’s out there.  It can look really neat and fresh and is more interesting than paint.  But it's a pain to remove and is fairly trendy.  I find that it is more likely to go out of style quickly than paint is. 

We had a border to remove in the master bedroom, and one wall and a border in the 2 other bedrooms.  The kitchen was fully wallpapered, but luckily there isn’t actually that much wall in the kitchen.  There is also a border in the bathroom, but that’s future Ryan and Kaileigh’s problem.  We are waiting a bit to do the bathroom because it’s not overly offensive.

So my parentals came over to assist in the removal process.  We started with the master bedroom border.  It didn’t seem overwhelming so we thought it was a good place to start.  First we started with wallpaper remover.  Just followed the directions on the bottle and sponged it on.  Let it sit for 15 minutes, repeat.  Then scrape off.  Typically the first layer comes off easily and the second layer is more tricky.  I think by the end we figured to sponge it and try to get the first layer off and then sponge or spray again and work on the second layer.  There isn’t much of a point in focusing too much time sponging the top layer, as the liquid won’t penetrate through it to the under layer.  Even using just plain water helps to take it off.  We kind of did a combination of both.  And sometimes used a paint roller to roll it on.  It was kind of just a bit of everything. 

The most lovely part of this process was when the drip marks from the spray turned yellow….mmmm nicotine in our walls, that’s healthy.

Room 2 – The office.  This went ok.  Mostly the wallpaper came off in large strips.

Room 3 – The spare room.  Not so good.  This room literally took half the day I think.  Originally we had my mom, dad, Ryan and I working on removing wallpaper.  We started on this room after lunch.  We had asked my brother to bring us food.  Muhahahaha sucker.  He got sucked in.  Hope you enjoyed your time off from university B-Rad! So we were up to 5.  Then, 2 of my parents friends stopped in to see the house.  Don’t ever stop in at someone’s house when they are in the midst of removing wallpaper.  This happens:

So we had 7 people working on this room for more than 3 hours.  Ridonkulous.  If we pulled off a piece larger than about 2 square inches we yelled out and made everyone ooh and ahh over it.  Needless to say, the kitchen seemed like a piece of cake after that disaster.

Notes about wallpaper removal:

We have plaster walls.  This makes removing wall paper easier because the walls are sturdier than drywall.  But you still have to be careful that you don’t take chunks out of the plaster with your scraping tools. (Good thing I know the appropriate names for these tools).

The wall paper remover might get you high.  Actually no it doesn’t even have that advantage.  It just makes you feel like you are going to pass out.  Open a window.  Don’t spray it in your wife’s face thinking that it’s just water in your squirt bottle.

That's all folks.  I'm out of tips.

Half a date night

Last night we went on a half a date.  It was only half a date because a full date would include dinner, and I made mac and cheese for dinner so that didn't count.  We went to the movies to see Contraband.  Ryan was working on the kitchen all day and I was working on an assignment, so we needed to get out, and we had a movie pass that my parents gave us for Christmas.

I wasn't expecting much because I haven't heard a whole lot about it, but it was really good.  It was about a guy who used to be a smuggler, who has to do it one more time to get his brother in law out of trouble after he dumps some cocaine that he was smuggling in the ocean and so he owes the bad guys.  It's crazy that what they go through in this movie actually happens.  It's a lot of effort for those poor smugglers.  It reminded me of The Italian Job, Mark Wahlberg is just so darn easy to like that you can't help but root for him even though he is doing something mega illegal. 

Turns out, half a date night isn't so bad as long as it gets you out of the house.  (But I do love food, so I will take dinner out any time).

Ploppin' the Plungers

Brace yourselves.  I am about to tell you about the greatest event ever invented.  The Plunger Plop.  It took place this past weekend, and takes place the first Saturday of every February.  It’s like Christmas.  Seriously, Ryan woke up raring to go at 6:30 on Saturday morning.  We had to get ready and get to his friends by 7:30 to eat breakfast and prepare for the day before us. 

Basically, the plunger plop is like horseshoes.  But with toilets and plungers.  We have “The Dome”, an outdoor rink in town, and there are about 14 toilets lined up down each side of the rink.  

Quite the site for an outsider I’m sure.  Usually there is ice on the rink.  We did start with a thin layer of ice this year, but between the warmish weather and all of the people walking on it all day, there wasn't much left of it by early afternoon.

It was the year of the wig.

It's like horseshoes.  We throw the plunger at the toilet on the opposite side of the rink.  There is a circle around the toilet, you want to get your plungers inside of this circle.  If you get the plunger in the toilet, it's known as a "ringer" and you get 10 points!  Ringers can win or lose the game.  It's kinda a big deal.  Beer may be involved.

Once again this year, my team did amazing, winning 3 of 4 games in regular season.  Playoffs hit and we were out of steam.  Lost the first game and we were done.  Maybe we will do better next year, but I say that every year.