The first round of fellas have completed their outside work on the family room:

If you look at my earlier post, you will get the before and after effect. This is before the guttering was put up — that turned out nice too.  They did a good job with the siding — you’d never know that there was ever a breezeway originally attaching the two buildings.

The flagstone patio (not shown) is a bit worse for wear, but it needs reset anyway — we didn’t know what we were doing at the time.

Not sure how my hollyhocks or Joe Pye fared being tromped on and such, but I saved hollyhock seed and have a Joe in the front that I need to move to the back anyway. Besides…I’ve been toying with the idea of putting a smallish spirea bush in the corner there…

Spring should be interesting…

And here is what happened to my kitchen window:

The vaulted roof line just clipped it, but according to the contractor, he will come up with something creative to handle a pass through type of thing

Anyway — now it is the plumber’s turn to install the radiant floor heating — I am really curious as to how that will be accomplished.

Went to the carpet place today to get a very rough estimate, go over the wood laminate selection I made earlier — I think I am staying with it — and also to look at DuraCeramic tile for the entryway and laundry/bathroom. I still hate shopping, but so far all the salespeople have been helpful and not at all pushy.

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NP: FlashForward, but I am not paying close attention. I think V will be taking the place of that. And of course there is Fringe — I’ve been missing my weekly dose of Walter.

Where’s Sophie? On the couch where she can lick the TV tray. Ew. Leave it, Sophie!!

One of the necessary side trips on our remodel project journey is shopping for the peripherals.

Since waving the magic wand is not an option, like  – presto! change-o! — Mrs. Mumsflowers,  you are the proud owner of a complete family room – I now have to make decisions.

And one of the decisions is how to furnish the family room.

You’d think I’d be excited.

Well — no. And the pressure is on, in hopes of having the project finished down to the lampshades by Thanksgiving. And I am trying not to, but find it necessary to, contemplate any cost overruns that will likely occur.

However, should everything run like clockwork from here on out — wouldn’t it be nice to have a chair or two to sit on whilst admiring the completed family room/laundry/bathroom?

DH and I bought our first sofa and chair set over thirty years ago and once they were used up, managed on hand-me-downs the last twenty years. Getting something brand-spanking new once again had been unthinkable until now.

So yesterday, DH and I made run to R-town to meet up with H, who piled us all in her car so we could…ew, shop. I remember saying I wasn’t buying. Just shopping.

But first — we fortified ourselves for the task before us by stopping at Cracker Barrel for lunch. That was a very good move. I think I could live quite a while on their cornbread alone.

Borders detoured us for a few minutes, but then it was full steam ahead for SleepyCountry and whatever might be found there.

A very nice salesman, and in this case that is not an oxymoron, met us at the door and we began the chase.

Looked at two of their complete living room sets with a free widescreen TV thrown in. Nope.

Looked at their futons, as we were thinking that direction but had never seen one in the wild. Nope. Not ever.

Looked at overstuffed sleeper sofas. One of those behemoths would take up way too much space. Nope.

Do you have any smaller sleepers?

Yes we do — waaay over there.

It was love at first sight! Take a look:

It sits really well, as the seat in not overly long. It is not a microfiber, but more of a tweedy textured fabric. It has a queen-sized mattress but since all the bulkiness is absent from this model, it is small. The salesman opened it up, H and I tried it out, trying to imagine how it would work for Mom and Dad should I ever get them convinced to stay over during a visit. Bingo!

I then looked ten feet away and found this:

It’s called a club chair. The fabric pattern — well, look at it — is just too cool — and happens to go perfectly with the sofa! Again — not overstuffed — and sized right for the room. Too cute, huh? Wish we had room for the matching ottoman…

So next came the recliner search for DH and golly, were we on a roll. I couldn’t find a picture of it, but imagine a smallish yet comfortable Lazy Boy with an amber colored tweedy fabric — and you have it.

Do I buy or continue shopping? Well, you know how I hate shopping… If I can end the misery early and still be in budget, I am all for it.

We bought.

…things were happening outside!!!

Yep, the breezeway, aka the airlock, was torn off a week ago and this is a picture of the concrete footing that were poured earlier this week. Yippie!

You would not believe the mud dabber wasp nests underneath the aluminum siding. It was a wasp condo!

All reconnected again! This took one day. The fellas must have worked themselves into a frazzle.

It is sooo weird to look out my kitchen window into the family room instead of seeing the corner of the family room and the driveway. And the kitchen itself sounds different. More solid sounding, or something.

This is all so very exciting…tomorrow either they will be working outside to get that back in shape or they will be inside, building the laundry/bathroom.

Did I mention I was excited?! Whee!

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NP: Everybody Hates Chris — because the news was preempted by some sport something…

Where’s Sophie? On the back of the couch — on neighborhood watch. As far as I can tell, she has been perfectly fine with all the banging, hammering, sawing going on. She didn’t pay any attention to it over the noon hour when I was home — no reaction at all. I sure hope that’s the way she is when I am gone. Not sure how she will react when the kitchen window is removed…

Totally like watching: Stargate Universe. Sort of a Lost on Battlestar Gallactica… catching it on hulu.

Went to S-town today to look for new thermal drapes for the living room and dining room. I usually have good luck in the mall at Penney’s but not this time. Colors wrong — good grief what WILL go with our yellow walls?! — and by the looks of it, I’d have to order them anyway. No 63″ lengths to be found.

Phooey.

Then DH pipes up.

“When the family room is done, we will be in there all the time. It will be warmer.”

Oh.

Then I started looking for an “in between” coat — somewheres between a hoodie and a winter coat. Penney’s didn’t have anything, so we walked down to Bergners. They didn’t have anything either and the prices were way out of my budget even if they did. I’m so used to finding what I want (except coats) at Goodwill that it would have to be a really good deal for me to get a brand-spanking new coat.

On our way back I showed DH the “Fur Babies” store where  they think it is cute to put puppies in baby beds. I griped about this in a previous post somewhere…

So we left the mall empty-handed.

DH needed socks and I wondered if Farm & Fleet would have a coat to suit me, so we stopped there.

Bingo!

DH found socks.

I found the type of coat I’ve been looking for at a reasonable price.

Sophie got new treats and a new collar!

Yay!

Oh.

And it snow-flurried all the way to S-town.

…during Fringe tonight.

Sophie jumped up to see if I was OK.

First time I ever saw her worried about me.

…the Sophizilla!!!

DH’s demolition of the family room was coming right along.

Then we uncovered this:

The floor previously had carpet on it, which was yanked up years ago. All that was showing was some sort of veneer wood stuff and tar paper under that.

So during his demo’ing, DH pried off the veneer and hollered at me to come look. Imagine our surprise at seeing this lovely hardwood floor underneath!

All it would need would be some sanding and refinishing…

This is how it looks now.

Go ahead and cry.

I did.

Unfortunately the floor had to come up and being the good old wood flooring of long ago, it did not come up without a fight — and is no longer usable.

There are a few crawl space issues that need addressed and plumbing to be redone sadly at the expense of the original floor. And as we suspected, at least one floor joist has to be replaced or repaired.

On a brighter note, we did learn that we do indeed have a concrete foundation supporting the family room — we had been uncertain of that. So all our concrete man has to do is remove a sidewalk and pour additional foundation work for the new part connecting to the main house.

So anyway — this afternoon I spent some time at our local flooring place and looked over the laminate selections. It still irks me that I’ll be replacing the original floor with something that is just a picture of the real thing.

Monday was not kind to me.

I don’t know if I was just slow or the amount of work dumped on me was not humanly possible to complete in one day.

I never know for sure, but today seemed to be both things ganging up on me at once.

So I just slogged through what I could get done — (Thank You, God…) — stopped at the store after work for dinner fixings — (ham, scalloped potatoes, Mediterranean vegetables) — and the drug store for my prescription — (Oh look! Candy bars on sale…I’ll have one of those and those and those…no, I didn’t even try to resist…) — and headed home.

DH was tearing into more of the family room demolition and not quite ready to eat.

Sophie, however, was more than ready to eat, so I filled her food cube and away she went chasing that thing all over the living room.

Eventually DH called it quits and came in to the smell of ham and potatoes cooking away. It was pretty good if I say so myself.

Next in the evening’s routine is a walk with Sophie — usually uptown and around and back.

Remember when Soph was having issues walking past the drug store? Well, she is at it again. In fact, this weekend, I gave in and picked her up and carried her past the store and put her down at the corner.

This time we were going to walk past — no carrying allowed.

Sophie started balking in about the same place again, but I wasn’t having any of it. She was getting further behind me, but I kept walking. At some point I was pulling a bit — not hard at all, just enough for her to know I meant business.

Oh that was well and good UNTIL HER COLLAR SLIPPED OVER HER HEAD!

I don’t know who was surprised more – Soph or me.

Soph looked at me and then at her collar dangling on the end of the leash. You could see the little wheels begin turning in her head…

Soph started to scamper away.

SOPHIE!!!

I should tell you that a collar-less Sophie is not unlike a year-old child that is thrilled to run around nekkid without a diaper wadded between those widdle legs…

SOPHIE, TREAT!!

She circled back and looked.

Sophie, come!

Ah. Now that’s why we keep practicing the basic commands.

SHE CAME BACK!

I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck — hoping she wouldn’t bolt — picked her her up, and put that worthless collar back on her. After tightening it up, we took an abbreviated walk to “normalize” things.

Once home off came that collar and back on the old one.

So while this Monday was not kind to me, I am glad that Someone stepped in and said “she’s had enough for one day,” and let this story have a happy ending.

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NP: two fans and the air conditioner. Dratted “flame-on, flame-off”

Soph loves her Kong. Especially a treat-filled Kong. Don’t ask me how, but she can get the most shoved-in treat out of her Kong in a matter of minutes.

Part of our evening ritual is after she has had her din-dins and we have gone on a walk, she gets her Kong with a treat tucked inside. Presently I am using two (and she counts them) small Milkbones, each one cracked in half.

In the beginning, I’d put half a treat in her Kong, Sophie would work it out and eat it, then come and jump on me (a grave no-no in our house) to get my attention: Mumsy, more treat!!

And of course, after I told her to sit to remind her who’s boss, I’d get up, go get the Kong and fill it — lather, rinse, repeat…

Was I ever trained. A trained boss.

Well, I’d had enough of correcting her jumping on me, so I began telling her to bring her empty Kong to me.

Bring it, Sophie! Bring it! I made sure jumping on me got her nowhere.

She would just look at me. You’re kidding, right Mumsy?

Eventually she caught on — nearly magically, in fact.  But she wasn’t done with me yet.

She’d only bring her Kong so far to me, then drop it. And of course I’d go the rest of the way over to pick it up.

Well, phooey on that, I thought. She might as well bring it right to me.

So next she didn’t get any more treat unless she brought the Kong over and dropped it into my hand.

But Sophie put her own spin on this too! I had to show her the treat before she’d make any move to go get her Kong!

Miss Smartie-pants.

She still tried the “let’s see how close I can get this to Mumsy without putting it in her hand,” but when that didn’t work, she made sure she dropped her Kong right into my hand.

Now of course I just “happened” to drop it once in a while.

Oh the looks I got!!!

But Sophie would pick it up again, and try again so I’d get it right and she’d get a treat in her Kong.

(I just love this little doggie!)

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NP: The fan.

Where’s Sophie? Going cracker dog with Daddee.

Will this blog ever be about flowers again? Who knows?

…I just made — and am presently eating — an omelet a la Julia Child. It is soooo very good!

The weather was gorgeous for the three day Labor Day weekend around here. Let’s see:

Saturday I went to see Julie & Julia in R-town with H and Southern Cousin. What a fun movie! Meryl Streep did an excellent job of portraying Julia Child. H and I agreed it would have been better just to have a biographical film of Julia, but this one was fine.

Soph and I then had a big adventure Sunday, when I decided that we should cross the highway downtown and head towards the park on the other side of town.

First we were nearly run over by a driver doing an illegal “turn on red”… I mean really! How could you consider plowing over a pretty little dog as Sophie?

Next once we were across the highway, I saw a woman walking a dog…um…two dogs and one was crossing the road towards us.

Ah yes.

You have seen the invisible dog on a leash? This was a dog on an invisible leash – a pug mix type dog – and it was headed our way.

Lucky! Lucky! The woman was also crossing the street and hollering for the pug. Looked to me that she was holding the business end of a retractable leash… an invisible leash.

Well — whatever she was doing — I was scooping up Sophie and wondering if the pug was serious or not…

“…Uh — are you going to be able to get your dog…do you need help?”  I ventured.

No…they got this dog from a shelter…it doesn’t know it’s name…Lucky! Lucky, come here!

What?! Dear Lord, this is wrong in so many ways…

But away the dog walker (?) went, away from us, because Lucky (might want to consider changing your name, doggie) changed directions and was going to the tanning salon, I guess.

Soph and I went on our way — past McDonalds — but we didn’t quite make it to the other park. Nice as the weather was, it was getting humid and Soph was a-panting pretty good. So we turned around and went home. Like usual Sophie gulped down some water and came into the living room to stretch out on the cool tile.

Monday H came by for lunch. DH grilled hamburgers and brat patties outside while I had the baked beans, coleslaw and peach cobbler ready inside. It was YUM. Afterwards Hil, Soph and I went to the state park and visited the Chief — a huge statue formally known as the Eternal Indian – or something like that. Soph is always just a bit intimidated by the Chief, but she is getting a bit better. However, her tail doesn’t make an appearance until we are going away from him…

Anyways — today is Tuesday, so back to work for me.

Need to exercise first if I ever can tear myself away from this blogging thing…