the oven.

dun. dun. duuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnn.

the oven.

I did it! I cleaned the oven! And yes, it WAS disgusting :(

The Tools

Before

During (seriously disgusting)

After
sooooooooooooooooo good!

Kitchen: organized, dishes done, oven CLEAN!

study: vacuumed and rug shampood

Ready for furniture tomorrow! If everything goes well, tonight is my last night at the apartment!

Until tomorrow!

moooooooooving.

Okay, so I have written in a few days, my apologies.

This past weekend I went home and had a blast. Wine tasting, gold mining, and WICKED!



Then back to the "real world".

I'm going to be honest, I haven't made much progress on home "repairs" but I have started actually moving.

Kitchen: Unpacked

Bathroom: Unpacked

Living room: full of boxes and a couch!

Bedroom: no change

Study: no change

Well, I'm off to finish the red wall in the bedroom and the other half of the study!

See you soon!

sunkissed

I'm going to be perfectly honest, I spent hardly any time at the house today. But I spent plenty of time in the sun, and to me, that's a success. But I did want to share with you a fun tool I've learned about and am SO thankful for.

Painter's shield. You see, my friends, painting my house presents several unique problems. The particular problem this time is that there is no baseboards so the wall goes all the way down to the carpet, making it difficult to paint the bottom portion without painting my carpet. Don't get me wrong, pink carpet might be someone's idea of a good decorating move, but it's not mine. And in swoops in the painter's shield.




The Shield (after some use)

The shield in use.

I love this tool, and don't forget to wipe the paint with each section used. However, I wish I would have purchased a smaller width one as well for the tight spaces. Don't worry, next stop at the hardware store it will be on my list.

 Speaking of the hardware store...they're starting to get to know me preeetty well. The paint guy (I really need to get his name, why doesn't he wear a nametag?!) is thankfully very nice and very helpful! So other than painting more, my next big project to tackle: the oven. See below...

I don't know if you can see the streaks on the glass and the enormous amounts of gross crap...but seriously! How do you let your oven get like that? Yikes.

Going home this weekend! Yay!

painting, pt. 2

This may be the most productive summer I've had. I'm busy with class, work on the trailer, a book club, etc. The book I'm reading "Made to Crave" is actually a pretty interesting read. It discusses how we are created to have cravings in order to crave the Lord, but have developed displaced cravings (such as food, shopping, status, popularity, etc etc)

There's a decent chance this book will change my life. We shall see.

After meeting with the woman who heads our book club I ran to the grocery store. I am rapidly becoming aware of my depleting financial resources and attempting to be a better spender so I actually whipped out my calculator this time, picked a limit to what I can spend, and stuck to it! It was very good. Tres bien!

Then off to hardware store to figure out why exactly my paint job yesterday SUCKED! Word to the wise: you get what you pay for. Turns out the cheap-o brushes we got led to a terrible application of paint. Also, sometimes the first coat looks like crap.

Painting Lessons:

1) Use good quality brushes for a good quality paint job. Sometimes money savers work, sometimes they really don't (foam brushes are never worth the money saved, unless you're going for a streaky look).

2) TSP is an amazing wall cleaner, but often leaves a film, so wipe down the walls with soapy water if you plan to paint

3) Don't get discouraged if your first coat looks sloppy, second coat helps, and a third coat is sometimes necessary

4) Talk to your paint expert about your specific color, some colors don't require any extra coats...it will help when you are buying paint so you don't buy too much or too little (both of which end up costing you too much)

Some of these seem obvious, but are worth saying. More tips tomorrow!

painting, pt. 1

What a loooooooooong day of home improvement! I started off by switching out the bright yellow switch plates with perfectly reasonable white ones.

Before                                                                                             After

                         



I think we can all agree that the original plates were heinous. So score 1 for me in this first really visible improvement! And yes, I will switch the switch so it's not red anymore.

Then I spent at least 2.5 hours spackling. I detest people who put tons of holes in their walls and contractors that use tiny nails and staples without puddying after. Ugh!!!

Case in point...look how many holes puddied in just HALF the closet (pink spots)

But once the spackling was done, we went and bought the paint (and chips and beer!) and got to it. Started with the red wall in my bedroom.

After some time of doing what we could to make the paint go on nicely...we finally called it. I'm having a hard time because yesterday dad was in town and we picked colors for all my rooms and I was SO excited to paint, then today we paint and it goes on streaky and you can still see the horrible pattern from underneath.

Michele was quite a help though

                                         See the streaks?

But we bucked up, and moved on.

Today's accomplishments: switch plates, spackled all my room, changed out shower curtain, spackled and prepped for office painting, cleaned kitchen (dusted/washed top of fridge and cabinets, wiped out inside of cabinets, scrubbed kitchen counters), and started putting things away. It's starting to feel like a home.

However...the dust in this place...gross.

Until tomorrow!

the new home. the project.

 First bit of good news today...class is cancelled tomorrow! Yippeeeeee!

Second bit of good news...Kassie and Lauren's dog Maddy are friends now :) Lauren and I took our precious pooches downtown and grabbed iced coffees (since the sun was FINALLY out!) and strolled on over to Reaney Park. It was glorious. The girls did a pretty good job considering that neither of them have much experience behaving downtown. Then...the cleaning began! Below are some "Before" pictures that Lauren encouraged I take (Thanks!) of the trailer. Then we set to work.

Progress: Main bedroom walls cleaned, rugs vaccuumed and shampooed. Study walls cleaned. I'm pretty happy with the progress. Have fun browsing the before pictures. It's not a complete disaster, but it's certainly going to be a project! I hope you'll enjoy the updates along the way.

 

The Living Room

                              

The Bathroom (shower curtain MUST go!)










The Study






The Kitchen


 





 My Room









The Laundry "Room"

summertime.

Summer is finally here :) Today after my second day of classes I went downtown for lunch and a lovely stroll with Caitlin. With a coffee in my hand, and a friend by my side I ventured into the small town gems that Pullman has to offer. Places like Plum Orchard and Lily Bee's make Pullman a really special place. It is nice to finally see that sun.

 Then after my stroll I wandered over to Safeway to buy some ever delicious summer produce. I came home cut up some strawberries, watermelon and cucumber to take to the trailer for some delicious snacks while I am busy busy cleaning, painting, and moving. Now I just need to get my butt moving on, well, moving! Wish me luck!

osama.

"The only death that ever accomplished anything, that is ever worth celebrating, is Jesus'. Osama was a dearly loved child of God that He would have rather him turn from his evil than perish in his evil. Not at all worth celebrating." - Melynda O'Brien


I cannot say that a part of me isn't in fact glad he's dead...but the bigger part of me mourns the demise of a child of God.
 
Osama, I wish that you hadn't done what you did. I wish that you had come to love the Father that created you in His image. I wish that you had come to know what it is like to love and not to hate. I hate what you did. I hate that you killed my countrymen. I hate that you took away the lives of innocent people, both American and Middle Eastern. I hate that you changed my nation for the worse, and I hope we can recover someday. But I love you because God commands me too, and I will be obedient to Him the best I can. It is too late now, what's done is done. The only death I will celebrate is the death of Christ, because that death saved me.
 
I am proud of our troops. I am happy for the peace that families of victims of your terror have found tonight. But am I happy? I am torn. I am scared.
 
Tonight my nation changed again. I will always remember this day too. Perhaps this is a good day for our country and the free world, but for humanity? I am not sure yet.