i bet superman could paint this faster

Lots of painting this weekend. In addition to the second bedroom, we also painted the rest of the hallway. One wall still needs a second coat, and parts of it need a third, but it's getting there. The hallway will have baseboards but no crown moulding. Just seemed like a lot of trouble to go around all the beams and such.

This is the view heading down the stairs. At the bottom, to the right is the door to the backyard, to the left is the hallway leading to the two bedrooms, laundry room and bathroom.


View looking into the hallway, toward laundry room. To the right is bedroom #2.


This is facing toward the bathroom and my bedroom from the laundry room. The louver doors on the right is the water heater. We thought this was a nice door to look at, but also provided the ventilation the water heater needs.


But, it wasn't all work this weekend. Today we finally used our free passes to go see Superman Returns. I'm not a Superman pro, so I'm probably not the best judge, but I thought it was okay. I've read a lot of bad reviews, but I didn't think it was so horrible.

hanging with kingfish

Painted bedroom #2 today. Still need to add mouldings and polish the floor, but the color is there. Funny enough, it's incredibly similar to a color my sisters had in their bedroom when I was little. Total accident.

The last photo is the light in this room. There are two. Completely old school, but I dig it.

the action moves upstairs

Here's what the living room is looking like... ceiling has all new sheetrock and the space on the wall is where the old wall heater used to be. Check out the lower corner of the TV... we're watching HGTV, getting more ideas.

kingfish lives on

So this week we'll be painting the second bedroom this color:



Funny enough, for this Louisiana girl, the color name is Kingfisher. And, if you're up on your Louisiana history, Kingfish is the nickname for Huey P. Long, famed (infamous) Louisiana governor 1928 - 1932. Nickname supposedly comes from his quote, "I'm a small fish here in Washington. But I'm the Kingfish to the folks down in Louisiana." A politician so crooked that even the bridge named in his honor swerves in the middle.

Thought it only proper to bring a little bit of that flavor onto the hill in L.A.

lunch back in l.a.

Comic-con me once, shame on you; Comic-con me twice, shame on me

I know comic book fans look forward to this all year long, but I really hope I never have to walk into this convention ever again. TOO. MANY. PEOPLE. According to the San Diego newspaper, the fire marshall made them stop selling tickets yesterday because they had reached capacity. That's like 100,000 people! Ugh.

And, the handy little mobile blog system we set up before we left only worked on the one test photo of my car. So, below are the few photos we took at the convention. We didn't capture the slew of super fans dressed as their favorite comic book characters. Parts of the convention looked like Mardi Gras, minus the sense of humor and flowing booze.


The view from our hotel room:


Mom and Dad at the Harry Potter booth:


The Warner Bros. booth:


Lifesize Hot Wheels car:


Made completely out of legos:

hitting the road

About to head out to San Diego. Set up my cell phone to be able to email photos straight to the blog, so if we see anything interesting, you'll see it too. And, since we're heading to Comic-Con, the nation's biggest comic book convention, I expect a few good sites. Unfortunately all this junk text you see here below will post too. I can clean it up when I'm back to a computer, but until then, you'll just have to look at it. Sorry.



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ready for our closeup

I've also been told I need to include more people photos in my blog (Chris and Reagan!), so to prove I don't just listen to family members, I'll post some here.

Today Mom and Dad came with me to Burbank and spent the morning on the Warner Bros. lot tour. At the end of the tour, they take a photo of you with the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. I'm just guessing, but it seems they had fun.



After that, we had lunch at the commissary on the lot, then they came to my office and met many of my coworkers. This is in the "living room" at my office... basically the lobby of the floor where I work.



To wrap up the day, we went right down the street and went to a taping of:



Tomorrow morning we head to San Diego. I have to be there for work during the day, but we get a free hotel room for the night, so we'll play a little tomorrow and Sunday. More updates then.

yeah, yeah, yeah

Okay, I hear you (Sylvia). I know I haven't posted in a few days, but it's been a busy week with lots of late nights at work.

But, we have good news to report (at least to me)... I'm in my bedroom! Still have to get the seat made for the bay window and make the curtains, but at least I'm sleeping in there.


This room felt much roomier before there was furniture in it. :)


I love these cast iron knobs for the sliding doors under the bay window.


The bed finally has a place in California.


Close up of my bedspread. Goes to show, you can take the girl out the bayou...


The knight also has a new home in Cali (or "old Power Ranger" as Evan used to call him)

stop and smell the roses

This morning mom and I went downtown to the flower mart. I've heard about it but I've never been. It's like a big open Farmer's Market with lots of wholesale florists selling flowers by the buckets. It's supposedly the biggest flowert mart in the country. Most booths are just cut flowers, but a few have potted plants and flowers as well. Came close to buying two orchid plants, but decided to check around to see how much orchids typically go for, so I know how much I should dicker when I go back. Or, maybe it wasn't a bargain at all. Next to the flower mart is about two blocks of more florists, but the flower mart is the big draw. Sylvia, look at the vertical flower mart photo and read the sign. We took that one just for you.







Just down the street starts the textile district with fabric shop after fabric shop along about 6-8 blocks. Mom and I popped into several, looking for fabric for the bay window seat and curtains for my bedroom. We didn't find anything, but Mom said Aunt Deanie would have loved all the fabric options. We came across one store that sold nothing but Hawaiian prints. Who knew there were so many different types!?



This afternoon we're meeting Michelle and the Munchkin at Chili's for lunch, then a Wal-Mart run. All to be followed by a trip to Lowe's to pick up my kitchen door.

a little funny

I saw this biz card downtown on the sidewalk this morning. It made me chuckle.

home stretch

well, at least with the bedroom. Baseboards are in place and so are the closet doors and light fixtures. We picked up the door tonight (had to custom order since the wall is unusually thick) and I think that's going in tomorrow. I just may be moving in there fairly soon. But, don't think I want to move in there until the sanding is done on the bottom floor. But, we're getting there. For the bay window, will be adding curtains, a seating cushion and still need to paint the seat, window frames and the sliding doors under the seat.





Oh, and Dad has a black spot on the outer corner of his eye, but not a full blown black eye.

it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

So, you knew it was bound to happen. We can't have this much remodeling happening on a house and not have some type of injury. I was at work, but here's the best I can figure from the accounts I was told when I got home.

Mom and Dad were hanging the crown moulding in my bedroom. Dad was standing on the step stool and Mom was standing on a gallon can of paint to help hold up the moulding while Dad was screwing it in. After Mom was done, she stepped away and Dad moved the can to get it out of his way. A little later, Dad went to step off his stool back onto the ground and his foot caught the edge of the paint can (which he admits was exactly where he had put it) and he completely lost his balance. Having a hammer in one hand and nails in the other, he didn't really have much chance to break his fall and his head, just above his eye, on his eyebrow, hit the floor. And, if you recall, that room has cement floors. Ouch. To make this even more fun, Dad had his glasses on which only helped to create a nice little gash where his head made contact.

I wasn't here, but Mom said it bled like a pig (for you non-southerners, that means "a lot"). Dad says it's fine now and has it covered with a band-aid. I offered to take a photo for the blog, but Dad opted not to.

Good news of the day: the crown moulding is up in my bedroom and it looks beautiful (will take photos when the base boards are in too).

Bad news of the day: Dad may possibly have a black eye tomorrow. We'll see.

working for the weekend

I know I've said this before, but we're really closing in on moving into my bedroom. Walls and ceiling are painting, now need to put up the crown moulding and base boards, put the closet doors back in and we'll be ready for a move! Curtains and cushion for the bay window will come.


Mom and Dad found a nice little surprise under the bay window the other day. POSS has a panel of styrofoam stuck into the wall and we had no idea why or what was behind it. I was thinking this could be where the $20,000 is hidden (c'mon, he's proven himself to be a freak, would it be so weird to hope he'd hide money in the walls and forget!?) but it's not. However, it is a neat little nook with sliding doors. We'll fix this up a little, give it a new coat of paint and it'll be better than new.


I have a nice little sunburn tonight from being outside for two days painting moulding. That's not to say we have so much that I was out there for two whole days, I just burn at the thought of the sun. So, now I look like a crawfish. No photos of that, thank you very much. But, here's the moulding...


This is where we rest in the backyard, watch the trains pass, the birds play in the bird bath and the hummingbirds fight over the feeder.


Next up, bedroom #2. I have no idea what color to paint this room. Keeping in mind the hallway is the golden "Acorn" color and the other bedroom downstairs is the dark brown "Warm Brownie," please submit suggestions. Keep in mind, this photo shows where the bed will go, but there will be a treadmill and bike on the other side of the room (sorry visitors, it's gotta go somewhere!).

i wonder if this will make me hungry?

Half of you will think I'm nuts, but I've decided to paint my room dark brown. There will still be the white ceiling, white closet doors and a cool white bedspread I just bought today, plus white baseboards and white crown mouldings. The name of the color is Warm Brownie, and that's exactly what the paint looks like in the can... brownie mix. Yum.

I swear the paint and floor look better than they are in this photo. It'll all come together.

Ignore the dust on the lens, I think it's gotten into my camera. Not good. But, it's an older camera, and was free, so I guess I can't complain.

and on sunday we rested

Today we took most of the day off to get out of the house and have a little fun. First we went to eat at one of our favorite L.A. restaurants, C&O Trattoria in Venice. After that, we walked along the Venice Pier, watching the surfers and the fishermen. Then, we headed to the Farmer's Market and snagged some yummy smelling peaches and plums. Hope they taste as good as they smell, we haven't dug in yet.

here's a tip

Despite our finding a leak in the ceiling while painting it, we did have a good discovery too. If you have to paint a ceiling, this paint by Glidden is pretty nifty. It goes on pink, so you know where you've painted and don't miss any spots, however it dries bright white.

http://glidden.com/products/getProducts.do?brandid=10

the good, the bad and the ugly

Here's the good:
We put the first coat of clear gloss sealer on the floor in my bedroom.



Then we noticed the bad: a new water leak in the ceiling in the bedroom. Keep in mind this is DOWNSTAIRS, so there is no attic to climb into and check out pipes.



And the ugly. In an attempt to find where the leak was coming from, we cut into the wall in the computer room. On the other side of this hole is the sink in the upstairs bathroom and it was easier to cut into this wall to search for a leak source than remove the cabinet the sink is in in the bathroom.


Right as Dad and I are ripping apart the wall, Mom comes in with reason and says, "I hope it's not the new air conditioner leaking into the wall." And, of course, she was right. Seems when the guys connected the AC's drain line into the vent, they didn't seal it properly and now water is leaking out. The white pipe in this photo is the drain line. The black you see is the poor, rubberized-tape attempt to seal this connection. Obviously it failed, and we have the sopping wet sheetrock to proove it. They'll try to come fix it tomorrow, but I expect it'll be more like Monday.