Nesting crafty-ness

I mentioned in my last post that nesting is in full swing around here. Some days that looks like being on my hands and knees scrubbing the corners of things or behind the big furniture. Other days it looks like having our porch extended. Most weeks I spend at least one day in the kitchen baking or cooking up a storm. We have two freezers if I can close them, they aren't full enough :). Some days it looks like me standing back and pointing while the hubs hangs something. And then...there are the crafty days! Oh I LOVE the crafty days. Here are two of my recent projects:

Almost a month ago my friend Kelli came over for a Sewing Saturday. She is due the same day as me and goes to the same OB practice. She has a little boy who is getting a brother. So much in common, right? Oh, she loves to sew too. Here are's a picture of our sewing fun. You'll notice I have a cupcake who can manage to find room on my shrinking lap if it means she can "help."


Kelli encouraged me to do a bigger project and it was precisely the jump start I needed to take on the game room curtains I've been meaning to do "one day." Here's a sneak peak at how they look in the game room:
Want a closer look? What is more play/fun for girls than strawberries, cupcakes, butterflies, and tea parties? I am so excited for the rest of the room to come together!


The next crafty project was converting our cloth diapers to snaps! We still LOVE our bumGenius diapers and they are in great shape. However, I was starting to see the velcro curl and look like it might not survive another 2 years of wear and washing. I mentioned this to my friend Liz who offered to let me borrow her snap press. I planned to take her up on it....you got it...."one day." In this case Liz and her family defined the "one day" being last weekend because they are moving to Portland in 4 days. We're so sad to see them go (and the snap press too). If it weren't going to be 110 degrees here tomorrow I'd even hold out hope they come back. But I have feeling they will LOVE their new home. We're praying for their transition as we personally can't imagine taking 6 kids, two dogs, and two cats across the country. They'll manage though...they are amazing people!

We borrowed the snap press last weekend and the hubs had to help because you need some muscle behind the press. I placed the buttons, he snapped them in place. Two really late nights of movie watching and pressing later we have newly snapped diapers. Can I say I AM IN LOVE!!!!??? I didn't think it was possible to like my cloth diapers more, but I do. I am also in love with the snap press. If only it wasn't a $200 investment to have my own!!! Check out our collection:


Here's cupcake's favorite. She calls it the rainbow one:

This week I'm loving these:


Which one is your favorite?

The hubs favorite part? Probably that the remainder of his pre-baby list is less crafty and more tool oriented :)

Dear Nesting: I love that you make "one day" become today. I'll miss you in 5 weeks when life goes back to putting things on the "one day" list. In the meantime, I've got 5 weeks and lots of ideas!

Not welcome?!

Comments, please? What to do?

We live on a solicited street. We seem to get paper ads or fliers on our door at least twice a week. We also get people who sell things door to door. Maybe everyone does and I'm just noticing it more now that I'm home full time.

Soooo, there is one bug company, Bulwark, that services one of my neighbors. PLEASE THINK OF YOUR NEIGHBORS before using them. Anyway, when they come to service our neighbor they always send an additional rep to go to the doors around them and try to sell the service. Here are some of my favorite sales lines:

Them: "When we are done killing the bugs down your street they'll be looking for a new home. We want to protect you from being the next home."
Me: If you are killing them, why will they be coming down the street to my home?

Them: "Your neighbors have problems with ants, flies, and spiders. Since you live in the same eco system, we're confident we can help you too."
Me: I wonder if my neighbors appreciate you telling me about their pest problems. I would never hire someone who goes telling others about my problems.

Them: "A few months ago we were treating your neighbors back yard for spiders and now we're helping with their earwig and gnat problem. Our month to month service adjusts as you go."
Me: Have you seen Charlotte's Web? In that one I learned that spiders eat earwigs and gnats and other bugs by catching them in their webs. Rather than paying your monthly member fee to work it's way up the food chain, I'll leave my back yard as it is thank you.

Ok...off the tangent. Today my lovely Bulwark associate came again. It's only been 2 weeks since the last visit. Sadly some other neighbor got sucked in but on a different monthly schedule which means that now I'll see these jokers twice a month. To top that off I was up in our closet doing belated spring cleaning while Cupcake was napping. Our closet is the furthest possible walking distance in the entire house to the front door.

Door bell rings. I decide rather than picking my pregnant self off the floor and un-burying the clothes from my lap, I'll risk missing a friend stopping by. Then a very loud and persistent knock follows. I start to get up....a little annoyed. I really don't want Cupcake to wake up. I get around to the top of the stairs and another knock comes. Really? Who raises these people? In my family we knocked or rang once MAYBE twice if it was someone we knew and thought they were home. I finally get to the front door and open it to see my bug friend. Before I even get the most recent horrible line I assure her I am not interested. Because she wasn't taking my no for an answer and started to give me the line again, I interrupted her (rude, I know) and told her that on top of that one ring was plenty at our home and if I didn't answer my door she needed to keep moving. I then closed the door in her face. Probably not my kindest moment. I'm not denying that. A few hours later she came back again and wanted to see if it was a better time to talk about "protecting my home from pests." Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!

Here's where I need you! What do I do?

- I do not want an tacky sign on my door that says NO SOLICITING. Even though I wish that were the case I think those signs are tacky. No offense if you have one. I just can't do it.
- I have made sure that none of our doormats say WELCOME. I have one neighbor who has no problem closing the door in people's face without even saying hello but said neighbor also has a WELCOME mat. Seems strange. But for records sake....you, my friends, are WELCOME.
- We are considering dis-engaging our doorbell. Won't help with persistent knocking but it would at least be a little better than loud dinging. Will we miss friends too?!

What do you do? How can I get the annoying sales people and Times New Roman or Comic Sans font printed ads to quit littering my door? The only pest problem I have is the pest people(and a few other businesses).

It's a jungle out there...

Ok. Maybe not a jungle. But certainly more than our old house where the backyard consisted of squirrels, an occassional blue jay, and mosquitos.

Today THIS was on our fence. He hung out for awhile. Cupcake was thrilled when he flew off because of the HUGE wing span.

Good day, Falcon...thanks for stopping by and adding to our growing list of wildlife. But don't think for a second that my babies are your lunch...

Hermine and Erin....not at all related

Since I have blog stalkers anxiously awaiting two different pictures you get today's lovely mash of things: Hermine and Erin.

Hermine left Austin wet, wet, wet. It's been a fun two days of pouring, non-stop, rain. Cupcake recently was learning the difference of wet and dry so she has been thrilled to practice her skills by carefully pointing out what was wet and what was dry. However, by yesterday afternoon everything outside was wet and the game wasn't fun anymore. This morning we woke up to a little...err big surprise. We had MORE water around the house than normal. Of course I'm not so on top of things to have a before picture. Then again, how many of you take pictures out of your windows in case of a flood to have the perfect before/after shots? So, work with me here. On the rightish/middle of the picture you'll see a tiny bridge. On a "normal" day we can't really see any water beyond that bridge. If you click the picture for a larger view you'll see the light posts that normally light the park/recreational area. It's flooded. Of course our part of the water is much higher than normal too. We had some deer on the golf course running around like crazy. I think they were thinking what Cupcake was saying: "Uh-oh"

Now on a COMPLETELY different subject...summer is over. Huh? Yep. It flew on by and our labor day weekend was no exception to the rocket speed of life these days. However, for one 2 hour period I got to turn back the clock....24 years. My first best friend Erin was in town with her brand new hubby. We literally haven't seen each other since Elementary school. Thanks to Facebook (not advocating, just reporting details) we recently re-connected and I was able to find out they'd be in town for a weekend get away. We planned a breakfast at Kerbey Lane on Monday morning. We walked in the door and it was like we had snapped our fingers from a play date in Bear Branch to now. She looks, smiles, laughs, and hugs exactly the same as she always did and we had SO.MUCH.FUN catching up, swapping memories, sharing about our families, and taking a picture. The best part is the last picture I remember of us together we were in matching rompers with side pony tails. Oddly rompers and side ponytails are back in style. That's not my point.

My point is upon downloading the picture I realized, two decades later, so many milestones lived in separate worlds and crossing paths again for a quick 2 hour breakfast and....we still match!!!!


We LOVED seeing you Erin and Louie! You guys are so great for each other and it was a blast to get to see you in Austin. Here's to hoping that it won't be another two decades before our paths cross again. Thanks for making time for us in your awesome Austin tourist weekend.

Housework makes this gal drink!!!

Have you ever had a mountain of laundry so tall you thought you lost your child in it?

Have you ever seen dust so thick on your entertainment system you can practice a new signature in it?

Have you ever had so many dishes pile up that when it was meal time you'd wash what you needed from the dirty pile?

Have you ever worn shoes in your kitchen because you'd rather hear the sticky stick on your shoes than your feet?

Has your microwave ever been so caked with food that your husband thinks you are warming up something else because the remnants of other meals outweigh what you are currently warming up?

Has your bathroom sink ever had enough toothpaste deposits that you need the official Calcium, Lime, Rust product to remove it all?

Have you ever considered forgoing the much needed hair cut or heck, grocery trip, for a maid service?

Are you sure that your Mother is saying no to all of these shameful confessions as she reads your blog and wonders if she didn't make you do enough chores growing up?

Well, welcome to moving with a 15 month old. We have to choose between un-boxing or house work. Let's just say that when we choose un-boxing the above results. And the thought of the piling up house work honestly makes me want to drink. Luckily, my little cupcake shares my thoughts:


Check out her new super cute apron from Grand-Aunt Sheri and Grand-Uncle Ken. I have a matching one...and it makes the idea of being in the kitchen a little better. Now off for that 'rita. Might as well...I have to wash enough other dishes that adding the blender and a 'rita glass to the pile won't hardly matter. If you want to join me, let me know. If your house is perfect, you're un-invited. If you are my Mom, sorry I've shamed you. I have no idea how you kept things so orderly when we were young. But for today, spare me the lesson.

Farewell P-rock

I haven't been the best blogger lately. But, we've been cleaning, purging, goodwill giving, packing, PODing, househunting, housebuying, houseclosing, staging, on-the-market, and so on...
We're moving.
So blogging has been on the back burner, a bit.
But for memories sake here's a look at how we took the bachelor pad and made it our home....

Farewell P-rock. I'll always love you.
He bought you before he knew me, before he thought of me.
Others lived here, had fun here, and kept him company before he had me.
While we were dating you were an occasional location for a Friday night date.
I burned some popcorn in your kitchen. I never thought you'd loose that smell.
One night he proposed to me on your back porch.
Later he carried me over your door step as his Mrs.
Admittedly I wouldn't take my shoes off in the grossness.
But we scrubbed, cleaned, and re-did you.
Then you were beautiful!
Pretty enough to bring a baby home to.
We traveled far and near but always loved coming home to you.
We grew food in your gardens. We killed some food too.
We roasted marshmellows and grilled out on your porch.
We hosted parties here, hosted family here, and even had Thanksgiving here.
We were Thankful for you.
Then we did bring that baby home to you.
You've been good to her, even when she dings your walls with her toys.
We've laughed, loved, cried, lost, celebrated, and even had a fight or two under your roof.
Our cupcake rolled over, sat up, crawled, and took her first steps here.
We put scripture on the cement in each room under the carpet to claim you as the Lord's.
You were a beautiful blessing that we could only thank Him for.
Next Monday I'll wake up here for the last time.
Tuesday I'll open my eyes in a new home, on my 30th birthday.
It's the end of a chapter, a decade, a home...all at once.
If your walls could talk, they'd share some of my favorite memories.
I'll never forget you P-rock. Thank you for being our home. Our first home.
The home where our story began...

Everything's bigger in Texas

I never noticed the "Texas Pride" of Texans. Since I was born and raised here I thought all states had signs like Don't mess with (fill in your home state here). I was sure that every state had grandiose welcome centers on the state border where families could pose for pictures on road trips. And, I also didn't think having the lone star all over the place was strange...I figured every state probably incorporated their flag logo. Anyway, since Chris is from Kentucky he is very aware of the pride of Texas and makes fun of it. However, pride or not, there are some truths to the pride of this great state. Don't mess with us, welcome centers DO make great photos and as Chris recently has realized, Everything IS bigger in Texas....including the hail. So big is said hail that we have three cars (why we have three cars is another post and actually we currently have four but I'll save that dish for another day) that remind us each day when we walk outside that the hail in Texas is big. But since we'll eventually have the cars fixed Chris grabbed the camera during the hail storm and ran outside to capture it on camera. Here are some shots of our yard, the hail, and oh yeah....a Texas welcome center shot from the 80's for good measure! (Click on the pictures for a larger view!)

The infamous bathroom

I know I've been horrible about blogging. Sorry. I can't even promise or pretend that I'm going to get better. In fact, I'm thinking about making it a private blog so that you have to sign in to view it. I know that's a pain but I never did plan for this to be a public thing, funny thing, or attempt to appear witty and cool. Since it seems like there is some mini-culture of people trying to be the funniest, coolest, best writing, or most organized photo keeping stay-at-home-mom blogger, I've been avoiding this as I don't care to be in that group(not that there is anything wrong with that group. I love reading a funny blog!). However, I do want this to be a safe place to write and post pictures of our coming little one without being something that friends of a friend click on to see if it's funny or cool. It's just us...messy, silly, totally in love Craxton's that don't really care what others think of us. If I write something funny, glad you can laugh with us. If not, oh well, it's just who we are that day and I'm not trying to make a comedy of our life just recording it day by day. Anway, I'll figure something out and keep you posted. For now, off my soap box and on to the bathroom.

These pictures are LONG overdue. We LOVE our new bathroom. I never thought that one dreadful realization of water running down the outside of our house could turn into such a beautiful place! Of course it was a dusty mess where men that smelled horribly of cigarette smoke lurked for weeks in the process. Of course I had some pretty un-kind thoughts go through my head...and the feeling that my bathroom would never been in one clean piece again. But as most things, what seemed like a lifetime while we were in it was really just a blip that ended in perfect time for me to throw up in the toilet a record number of times. God at least protected me from morning sickness until they were done. And...the sickness is really at part to blame for how long it's taken me to get these up. I will say that you can find AWESOME things for a great price if you do your research or ask me about my favorite sites. We got to do lots of fun things not in our original plan because I kept finding ways to get cheaper prices on our hardware and such. So, if you're entering into the home face lifting season, don't hesitate to ask about my bargain hunting finds. I'm not ashamed to love a deal :) So without further delay...the before during and after pictures of our bathroom - if you click them they will appear larger for detail enjoyment!

Crack's Black Thumb Organics

I can't imagine a better thing for two insanely busy people who kill everything in their yard (grass too!) to do than plant a huge garden in their back yard. We're those people and yes, we just planted a garden.

We've been planning on it for as long as we've been married. Recently we even started composting both to save on waste and to get some rich and FREE compost for our garden we'd have some day.

Well, we should have known that two sets of landscape-minded parents (visiting for the weekend) would take one look at the over grown weed garden and let our "Someday we'll have a veggie garden" dream become today's reality. My Dad and Sally pulled up our black weed blocker plastic. Chris and Dad rolled the boulders to under our Japanese Pear Tree. Then Chris and Sally took turns tiling the soil only to find out we actually had a really ideal soil set up.

So, Sunday it was off to Natural Gardener for some plants and seeds. We choose two healthy pumpkin plants with the hope of free Jack O' Lanterns this Fall, Sweet Corn seed, Melon seed, Cucumber seed, and Soy Bean seed. We got everything planted in the garden except the Cucumber as it can't be too close to the melon or the melon becomes bitter. We are seeding those (I say that like a professional but really am just repeating carefully the instructions from our friendly sales girl at the nursery) in separate containers so if you are in Austin and want a cucumber plant, I can give you one in a few weeks. Or if somethings don't make it in our garden, I can add the cucumbers.

We've heard it's a hot year and the battle with the squirrels is in full action. We had our own battle with them when our beautiful peaches were eaten by the rascals. Not to mention we've got many family to be intimidated by! Chris's Uncle Dave is a REAL Organic Farmer and his beautiful farm, Roots and Fruits, is perfectly kept and provides an amazing harvest each year. Chris's Dad and Ann have a veggie garden with tomatoes and other fresh salad veggies. Sally has a beautiful landscaped yard with flowers and plants. Chris's 93 yr old. Grandma does the flowers for her community. My parents have a Myers Lemon tree and also many plants and flowers. My Grannie Frannie has always grown all kinds of things well. With generations of green thumbs ahead you'd think we'd overcome our killing spree. What gives?

I will attach a few pictures. For those who bleed red and black, I can not even discuss the third picture. It was a gift from Chris's mom and while it makes me want to barf I also love that something longhorn related is scary to birds and squirrels and for now is a deterrent for the food sake. But, I am not happy about the Texas spirit behind that blasted gnome. And, for those worried about our watering, that is not why we have black thumbs. It's a redo of an old pic of me which I will also post. My mom loved that picture so we thought she should have an update...only I am not in a dress or near as cute. Love you, Mom!

Anyway, our first attempt could be a total flop but we're going to give it our best fight. With any luck we can have the long term goal of "Someday opening a neighborhood veggie market" I think I have a name for our "farm" that is all too fitting....Crack's Black Thumb Organics. Then again, if our parents will come to town again, they'll have us selling veggies on the driveway in a snap. I'll be posting updates of the garden from time to time...pray for the Crack Team garden and our black thumbs!

Getting caught up....conspiracy theory

Now that the NYC trip is finally blogged and behind us, I really will try to stay on top of Crack Team news. Bear with my while I do some catching up.

I loved the movie Conspiracy Theory. It redefined extreme theorists for me and allows my creative mind to work through my own conspiracies without feeling nuts. So, here's my latest theory (note:most of them have nothing to do with bureaucracy, politics, or boring stuff like that...more like shopping deals, clothes, and the like).

In April right after our NYC trip I noticed that some of our clothes were coming out of the laundry with rust spots. Let me mention that I love doing laundry. Separating, washing, drying, and most importantly the smell and feel of items fresh from the dryer. Between my love for laundry and delicate items that have to be hung dry I don't even let Chris do the wash. So, a rust spot on the laundry was a highly upsetting event. We noticed that the basin in our washer was chipping and leaving rust spots which must have been depositing on and ruining our clothes. This was a strange discovery for several reasons:

1. I am a scavenge for change in pockets. I figure if Chris leaves it, it's mine. I have a small piggy bank near the washer and I happily empty his pockets and fill my bank. This goes without count on our official budget which is of great advantage to me. Then when the bank is full I spend it...usually on shoes. For those who love my green and white polka wedges...it's the laundry bank fund!

2. I also am pretty particular about zipping jackets and tucking in sharp edges. Mainly because the clanging sound ruins the serenity of laundry for me.

3. Because I can think of lots of better things to spend money on than new washer and dryers.

None the less...it had chipped and for fear of ruining other clothes we decided to buckle in. This is where the conspiracy begins.

We knew we wanted to go to the HE (high efficiency) front loaders. We're really trying to make GREEN decisions around the Crack House. We hope you are too. I had visions of the sparkling red front loaders on the pedestals in our organized laundry area and my weekly duty reaching new levels of bliss....

Conspiracy one - the pedestals don't come with the machines. However, the front loading doors are so low to the ground that years of laundry would lead to chronic back pain from bending and lifting at such a low height. So, you are basically forced into two pedestals. Pedestals run at $200 each.

Conspiracy two - the color versions of the front loaders are a minimum of $200 more for the SAME model as boring white. OH COME ON! I work in product development. I know that occasionally a color version of something can cost a little more because of paint but the $200 per machine (washer and dryer) is a greedy rip off.

Conspiracy three - while these HE machines are FAR more efficient and I fully support the earth friendly cause for them, you save money on utility bills but practically make up for it in detergent! You have to use special HE detergent with these machines because regular detergent is too sudsy for the fast spinning action of the washer. So, since the appliance companies rip us off with the color mark up and pedestal mark up the detergent people jumped the bandwagon. I paid $11.99 for the same amount of detergent I can get for a regular machine at $6.99.

So, we decided on white machines. I'm calling it clean, fresh, pure, white - think fresh linen (to compensate for my lost dreams of the red sparklers). We punked the system and got our pedestals on Craig's List for a far cry from $200 each. And, while there is nothing I can do about detergent, (perhaps I should write a letter) at least we are doing the laundry in a more efficient way. I don't have to worry about rust spots, I now have a setting for hand wash (LOVE THAT!), and one day when my laundry area is presentable, I'll even post a photo. Warning...don't hold your breath. Our laundry area is in the garage and it is over 100 today so I'm in no rush to work out there for any length of time.

While I stand firmly behind the conspiracies of greed in the appliance and detergent industries I do want to be very clear that I am thankful for the blessing of a new washer and dryer...for any washer and dryer.

So on that note, I'm off to smell some fresh laundry....

The Carpet Saga continued...

So I hear that for some of you my post yesterday was "great material." Typically that would be used to describe a comedian who told some great jokes. So just to be clear....yesterday's "great material" was my very own reality not a Last Comedian Standing audition.

But, because I at least know some of you enjoyed reading....here's the update:
- Chris came home at 6:00p
- I left for a super night of girlfriends and chocolate at 7:30p
- Chris tried to work on our class with lots of banging, almost gave up
- Workers finally leave close to 9:00p
- I get home at 10:00p
- We dare to go upstairs...

Ok, so if I'm being real, the carpet looks good. It isn't too dark, it feels like a million bucks compared to the stained bachelor rug that we used to have, and really the installation appears to have been done very well.

However, what we found upstairs was our newly painted walls had been chipped, the fresh white banister had scratches from their tools, and the drawer on my beloved art table was broken. That alone was enough to make me want to crawl in bed and pout when horror of all horrors, we see that they have thrown...yes thrown our pillows and bed linens onto the bathroom floor. To make matters worse they moved some stuff in our bathroom to have room to finish out the edges. Apparently they grabbed the plunger (I pray it was because it was somehow in their way not that they used it) and threw it on top of our linens as well as a few other things. I was horrified. They did manage to put our weather and emergency broadcast system back in place. (Chris got it for Christmas, it could be it's own blog but the short of it is that it gives you the weather forecast and sets off an alarm for emergencies - strange they were careful to put that back but our alarm clock is still M.I.A.). So, we did the appropriate and healthy thing....

We went back downstairs, made a mid-night snack and started researching websites where we could leave poor ratings if they wouldn't make this right. Well ok that's what I did. Chris continued to work on the class.

Finally after midnight I changed out all the bed linens to make sure we were going to be sleeping on fresh sheets. Chris and I talked through our game plan of who would call in the morning (me) and how nice I would be (ha!). Really though at this point I was so tired....not just physically but that each home project seems to lead to 5 more. We can't bring everything back upstairs because now we have to re-fix painted walls that were just painted last month. We can't arrange the furniture how we want because we want the manager to see the pile of mess they left etc. I tell Chris I just need to cuddle and go to bed and of course my wonderful husband was happy to help.

We had just about nodded off and like an alarm this loud noise was echoing through our room. Apparently a cricket had made it's way into our home in the carpet installation process and decided to play a midnight tune. I don't know if you know this....BUT THEY ARE LOUD!!! We get out of bed and head to the loft where we see the culprit perched on the newly painted and scratched wall. Chris goes over to scoop up Mr. Grasshop(Mr. GH) and off he goes jumping and flying like a mad man. Naturally a blood curling scream was appropriate so I did the honors and scared Chris and caused Mr. GH to shut up. After looking and looking for where he went we finally gave up. If nothing else, I scared the song out of him.

Back in bed and really ready for sleep this time an alarm really did go off....louder than the grasshopper - because it just wouldn't be a Crack Team story otherwise. Of course it was our Weather and Emergency broadcast system that had so carefully been returned to it's location. Apparently there was a tornado warning in our area. I asked Chris if we should pray because apparently things weren't settling down....and go figure that was the last of our evening interruptions.

So the update is that we have new carpet, we can't take fun pictures to show you yet, and Mr. GH is probably dead somewhere among our piles of stuff. I am sure I'll find him one day when I've almost forgotten and then leave him one last blood curling scream....

We'll have pictures up as soon as we can!

Painting, Carpet, House Repairs, OH MY!

We haven't blogged in awhile. I am still trying to determine if there value in putting our thoughts, happenings, or muses on here. If you have thoughts on this, feel free to comment.

In the meantime, I am in a state of delirium and needing a place to vent so...read on if you dare.

As many of you know we've been working endlessly for the past almost 2 years on refacing the bachelor pad to a home. The downstairs is 95% done...with most of the work coming from our own two hands. It looks great but each wall, outlet, light fixture, and hardware is still hard to look at without thinking of the time and energy spent. All we're saying is those home make over shows make it look MUCH EASIER and FASTER than it is.

So, 2008 has been a year of paying to have others finish the upstairs as much as we can afford. Earlier this year we had a great painter paint all the upstairs trim, our loft, the mater bed room, and the master bedroom ceiling. It looks GREAT. If you are in Austin and need a recommendation, let us know. He did a fantastic job and was totally reasonable.

We also purchased carpet to replace the last of the stain-filled bachelor stuff. The first time it came into the warehouse it was damaged. So, it wound up that by the time they reordered and we finished with a house guest, today was the first day we could have it installed. (Side note, we also had tile installed last summer in our Kitchen. Some of it cracked by the garage entry door so we asked to have it fixed under warranty - conveniently scheduled for today as well). They told us the carpet team would move furniture just not electronics or breakables. Needless to say, our downstairs looks like our upstairs vomited over the ledge of the loft.

At 9:00ish this morning the carpet place called to let me know that they were still planning to install today and that I needed to be here. I took off work and began the waiting process. At 10:45 they called to let me know that the tile guy would be here this afternoon. Nice update, right?

Finally around 11:45 with no sight of the carpet team I figured it was time to call and figure out what was going on. They had said morning and we were 15 minutes away from the end of the time slot. The Carpet place assured me that the carpet team had just left and the tile guy would be 2 hours later. This was good news as the carpet place is only 8-10minutes from our house which would mean technically they could still hit their morning slot.

At 1:15 the doorbell finally rang. It was the tile guy, an hour early. He came in looked at the tile, realized he'll need caulk to match our grout, not grout. This meant he can't do the job today and will have to come back some other time. Drat! Five minutes later he was gone and the carpet team who supposedly left the place that's 10 minutes from our house over an hour ago still aren't here. I eat a few girl scout cookies, try to focus on an outline for a class Chris and I are teaching, and then realize I am going to have to call again. As I am looking up the phone number, the doorbell rings again.

The Carpet team is here!!! What does carpet team mean to you? Especially when they promise it will be done today which is now only 1/2 a day. Well apparently to Carpet Mills it means two people. Those two people came in, went upstairs, and looked around. At one point one of the guys yelled down: "Ma'am, how do you expect us to move the furniture?" I told them I was told they would be taking care of that. To which they started yelling at each other in Spanish. I could understand enough to know they were not happy and did not know how they were going to do it. I could have told you it would take more than 2 guys to move our bed. Then they started laughing uncontrollably. As if this was one big joke. This big joke in which we just spent a wad of cash and our weekend clearing the upstairs for. What is a girl to do?

Side story - in college a dear friend asked me to cut her hair to save some money. I admitted I had never cut hair before but was willing to try. She got some good scissors and we laid out a sheet and started the whack job. At one point when I realized it was bad news that I didn't know what I was doing I started laughing. It was one of those times where once I started laughing, I couldn't stop. My formerly carefree friend now started to get panicky telling me that when you are trusting someone to do a job and they are laughing hysterically it's hard to trust what is about to happen to you.

Funny how what goes around comes around, huh?

So here I am blogging you....who knows what will happen next. In light of a good attitude I am trying to laugh myself. One thing is for certain....it is always an adventure at the Crack House.

Hopefully before and after pictures will come soon. Say a prayer...