Enginerd and Wife

Yo Gabba Gabba Playroom Wall Mural

2008-06-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

I've been threatening to paint characters on the kids' playroom wall for months now. Finally, I got a wild hair yesterday and drew rough sketches in pencil of Brobee, Toodee, Foofa, and Muno on their playroom wall. Today, I need to do a little decluttering so I can get close enough to the last empty wall that I can draw Plex the Robot and make an attempt to draw DJ Lance Rock, although he's going to look VERY cartoony!

For motivation, I've been poking around at some of the pictures I've found on Flickr of darling little kids' rooms. This Dora bedroom with the custom mural is pretty similar to the style of things I've painted for my kids. I just love it. The person who painted it did such a nice job, and included so many details! My girls love it.

After I finish the playroom, I plan to move into the bedroom to paint jumping monkeys above the kids' beds. That should be cute!

Empire Carpet!

2008-06-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

The end of July will mark five years that we've been in our house, and holy cats - our carpet really shows it! I'm pretty strict with the whole, "No food or drink outside the kitchen" rule, so it's not like we have root beer stains in the bedrooms or anything like that, but yeah. It's pretty nasty. Five years and five children do a number on carpeting, no matter how careful you are. We've actually resigned ourselves to the idea that we will need to completely replace the carpet on the first floor, throughout the living room, playroom, and bathroom area as soon as the kids get to be school age. There are so many stains from formula spilling out of bottles, and juice leaking from sippy cups, and don't even get me started on the whole potty training thing. I had four kids in diapers for quite awhile, and it took a minute to get everyone trained! I have a carpet shampooer I use regularly, but there's only so much you can do. It's like the old saying about cleaning up after children: it's like shoveling while it's still snowing.

I'm really looking forward to getting new carpet one day - I LOVE the feel of brand new carpet under my feet! I keep seeing the commercials for Empire Carpet - I have no doubt at all that you know the jingle by heart, too! Who doesn't? "588-2300, Empiiiiire!" I've been hearing it on TV since I was a little kid! Now they have the "800" at the beginning, but I don't remember that being there when I was a kid? Here's what the commercials looked like when I was just a little rugrat:

I'm cracking up, because I have a Bissel carpet shampooer, but it sure as heck doesn't look like the one in that commercial! Here's what the commercials look like nowadays...same jingle, with the "800" added to the beginning of their phone number:

I wonder if the Empire Man is even still alive today? I can't help but notice that he's, uh, ANIMATED in the newer commercials. And you know what - Empire Carpet sells more than just carpet nowadays - you can get Hardwood Flooring, laminate, ceramic tile, and even window treatments. All without leaving your house. Check it all out on the Empire Today website.

Okay, I'm a little obsessed, I guess - but I just checked out the Empire Today page on Wikipedia (yes, they have their own page!) and found out a couple of things. The original actor from the old commercials still does the voice for the animated commercials. I'm guessing he's just old as dirt now, and not about to get on hands and knees to lovingly stroke rolls of carpet like he used to. And, the company originated in the Chicago area, and had commercials that ran on Chicago superstation WGN-TV, which even today is available on cable nationwide, so that explains why I remember the jingle not including the "800" part. It was a "local" commercial, but we still saw it nationally.

I guess I've devoted enough of my day to researching Empire Carpet!

Just planted my flowers.

2008-06-10T11:18:00.001-07:00

Just planted my flowers., originally uploaded by lalagirl.

Yay! Let summertime begin.

My yard may look like total shit, but at least I have blooming flowers on the porch.

Garage Door Teaser...

2008-05-02T15:27:00.001-07:00

Did I ever tell you about the time my husband cut a hole in our damned house? Yeah. When we first built our house, Mr. Enginerd said, "One of these days, I'm going to put another garage door on the back of the garage." I never really thought he was serious about it, but I've come to realize that when he says he's going to do something, he does it. It might take YEEEEARS, but, yeah. He'll get around to it. Witness the Halloween electric chair prop. Started it in '02, finished it in '07. Having a bunch of kids really gets in the way sometimes! That's what happened with the garage door thing. He built a trailer the year we completely landscaped our backyard, and then we couldn't figure out what to do with it. Well...why not roll it all the way through the garage and onto the back patio?

And how often do you get to take a picture of your garage wall falling to the ground?

Boom!

I'd love to tell you more about this, but I really can't brag about it properly without showing you thirty more pictures, and I think they're all on Mr. Enginerd's external hard drive. So, I'll go into further detail later!

Was it a mistake to cut a gigantic hole in our house? Or not? You'll have to tune in later and find out.

Happy Friday!

2008-05-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

What better way to welcome the weekend than with an embarrassing personal story?

Thought I'd "come out of my shell" a little bit there, to promote Be Oyster Aware, a site that helps consumers learn more about Gulf oysters and serves as a gentle reminder that individuals with weakened immunity should avoid eating raw shellfish.

You can also find lots of oyster recipes there, which I probably won't be trying out any time soon. The only time I ever eat oysters is at Hooters, and they're really not very good. The downside of living in land-locked Colorado, I suppose!

Yes, I KNOW we need the moisture.

2008-05-01T12:06:00.001-07:00

May 1st - and it's SNOWING!, originally uploaded by lalagirl.

I used to HATE it as a kid when it would rain or snow in the springtime and ruin my outdoor plans, and my dad would ALWAYS say, "We need the moisture!" And I always though to myself, "Why? We have a hose!"

I understand now, but I still don't like it! My husband went out last night and fertilized and put down grass seed and weed killer, in anticipation of the snow. Hopefully when it melts, our grass will be greener.

STILL, though! It's the first of MAY! It was in the 80s yesterday! Snow? For real?

My husband is going to fucking kill me.

2008-04-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

My husband is going to fucking kill me., originally uploaded by lalagirl.

Mallory was running around the room and crash landed into the screen of our big screen TV. It didn't appreciate the hit! The screen is caved in and cracked.

I'm not-so-patiently waiting for the Enginerd to CALL ME BACK so I can confess to him what happened. The fact that my calls are going to voice mail is just stressing me out that much more!! I want to tell him and get it over with!!

Wahhhhh!

::checks in::

2008-03-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever and a day since I've posted here. And it's not like we're not doing home improvement stuff left and right! I just can't seem to catch my ass most days, and blog posting doesn't seem to take much precedence.

Currently, my home is in need of some improvement, in the way of getting all the crap out of my living room! My twins club is having their semi-annual garage sale in about a week, and I'm frantically tagging HUNDREDS of items of clothing so we can get it all out of here, and hopefully rake in enough cash to pay for the gas for our trip to California in a couple of months.

Hopefully I'll check in here again soon. I want to get this blog going again!

The fence in the hallway.

2008-01-15T13:27:00.001-08:00

The fence in the hallway., originally uploaded by lalagirl.

One of the reasons we waited so long to move Pablo and Mallory into big kid beds (hello, they're four-and-a-half!) was that we didn't want Pablo getting out of bed and wandering around the house. He knows how to unlock/unlatch/open every door in this place, and the safety measures we have in place already are really only buying us a few minutes, since he knows he can drag a chair over to the front door to reach the flippy latch, y'know?

Paul and I spent weeks trying to come up with an idea for blocking off the hallway. We wanted them to be able to get up and use the bathroom, so locking them in their room wouldn't work. I've always loved the adorable fenced-in play area at Lollilocks, and so I suggested right away that we use vinyl fencing.

Paul and I came up with lots more ideas. He wanted something sturdy and semi-permanent. I wanted something that didn't look like total crap, like a framed in wall with unfinished drywall would have looked. Eventually, I got Paul to embrace the idea, and as you can see, it turned out pretty okay! It's not all that ugly. It keeps the kids from leaving the house in the middle of the night. And we'll be able to remove it in a few months/years/whatever and just patch a few holes.

Lickety split.

Crazy house, I tell ya.

2007-12-05T12:10:00.001-08:00

Crazy house, I tell ya., originally uploaded by lalagirl.

Now, from the same Enginerd Daddy who brought you the playroom swings for occupational therapy, we have: a trapeze and a climbing rope!

We were hanging out on Sunday and Paul decided to head out to the garage and whip up a couple of "hanging devices" for the kids. Pablo love hanging from stuff - something a lot of autistic kids have in common - so we're always trying to find options for him safer than hanging from the top of the fridge, y'know?

I have such a cool husband.

The Completed Electric Chair Man!

2007-11-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

I didn't share how our Electric Chair Man turned out! He was the hit of the party. Here is Paul getting him dressed:

He screwed the boots on, so they wouldn't be shaken off during the electrocution:

I actually donated my old Doc Martens for the cause. I may miss them, but honestly, I haven't worn them in probably five years:

Our daughter invited him to her tea party:

Even though my rational mind knows it's just a dummy made out of PVC and newspaper and a whole lot of visqueen, seeing it all put together in my living room seriously freaked me out!

This seriously turned out to be the best Halloween prop ever!! Check out the electrocution in progress, synched up to Paul's Halloween music mix and a bunch of strobe lights:

How are we going to top this next year?

How to get the real story.

2007-11-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

I seriously love sites all about product reviews - and I love DOING product reviews, too! Hey, if you want to send me something and have me review it on this blog, just hit me up! I'm open for just about anything! I love the way actual consumers will do a product review and tell you exactly what you need to hear. It's so hard to separate the hype from the pretty pictures - for me, anyway! Check out this one sentence mini-review about a stroller:

"Overall, the Baby Trend Double Snap N Go is really the best stroller for twins...."

And that's really all you need to know. If I had read a review like that when my twins were on the way, I could have saved a whole lot of money and even more headache by not buying the Lamest Stroller Ever.

So, that's my mama advice for those who are easily swayed by slick advertising: read up on all the product reviews first before you make your decision! Wize.com is a great place to start.

Halloween Electric Chair Prop

2007-10-18T23:21:00.001-07:00

I need to show you guys this awesome prop Paul built for the Halloween party we're sort of co-hosting. It's a guy in an electric chair - full size! My oldest daughter and I built the dummy together. She even made a heart out of play-doh and stuck it in his chest, just like Build A Bear. Hehe!

It turned out so cool!! We have an orange jumpsuit to dress it in - and Paul's going to stencil numbers on it - and I think the dummy's going to wear my old ratty Doc boots. And we have a white drawstring bag thing we're going to put over the dummy's head like a hood. The plan is to have the thing just sitting there at the party. Nobody will realize that it actually DOES anything - they'll just think it's a prop. Paul mixed a whole little track of spooky Halloween sounds with an electrocution and screaming and everything, and he's got the timing down just right so he knows when to hit the switch on the dummy. I think it's going to scare the CRAP out of people the first time he does it!!

Here's the dude:

You can sort of see the springs here that bounce his head around:

And I took this picture underneath the chair - it's an old drill! Pretty clever, huh?

Check it out in action:

Is that crazy cool or what? I need to come up with something that will hold fake blood under the hood - like a little cup or something - so that when it starts moving, the blood will ooze down the head a little. Any ideas?

Our Shower Faucet

2007-10-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

And speaking of bath faucets and shower faucets...I hate the faucet in our shower!! I don't know what the deal is with it, but it's too high up on the wall, and the spray pattern is too wide or something. I feel like I have to do a lap around the shower to get my whole body wet, and I never feel like I'm rinsing all the shampoo out.

I've been sitting here drooling over all the faucets at Faucet.com and I found one I like a lot. It has a much larger showerhead and looks like it puts out a whole lot of water. Too bad it's *cough* almost NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS! As always, I've got champagne taste on a beer budget. They do have lots of other really nice styles that are a fraction of what that particular faucet would cost me, so I'll keep looking.

Enginerd and Father-in-Law!

2007-10-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

Paul's been working his tail off up at his rental unit, remodeling the bathroom. Tomorrow, he's got a helper: my dad! He's tiled many a bathroom, during all the years we owned the motel and all the years prior to that when he had his fire restoration business and nowadays, at his job as a maintenance man. I know he'll be able to slap that tile up, lickety split, and save Paul a whole lot of time and effort. Yay, dad.

Lookie!

2007-10-11T19:48:00.001-07:00

1011072039.jpg, originally uploaded by lalagirl.

Look what my honey's putting up for me RIGHT NOW! Whee!

It's going to be so pretty! It's going to hold every bottle of wine on my existing little wine rack, plus one more big bottle that didn't fit. I can't wait to get my counter space back! I'll take lots of pictures when it's all done and full of wine. By the way, I can't believe how many dead moths were up on top of the kitchen cabinet when we took it down! Thank God they were glued there with kitchen grease so they didn't fall down on me like a dead moth shower when we pulled it down.

Wine Rack!

2007-10-09T18:10:00.001-07:00

Wine Rack!, originally uploaded by lalagirl.

I am so completely stoked about my Enginerd's latest find. He was checking out some salvage places, looking for parts for the bathroom he's remodeling, and he found THIS - it's a maple wine rack cabinet piece that matches my kitchen cabinets PERFECTLY. I can't wait until he puts it up! Isn't it purty?

Anchor Bay Tile

2007-10-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

So, Paul is planning to tile the shower in the master bath he's remodeling. Actually - if we're being completely honest here, he's planning to have my dad do it. Got to call in a favor once in awhile, right? I love tile. I wish we had more of it in our house. We have big 12" tiles in our bathroom inside the shower and up the wall near our big tub. Our second bath doesn't have any tile, though - we have one of those all-in-one fiberglass insert thingies. It's easy to keep clean, for sure, but it definitely lacks character.

I was just poking around online checking out various styles of tile and I came across Anchor Bay Tile - what an amazing selection of really unique styles they have! I love the look of the glass tile in the bathrooms. WAY more upscale than we need to have going on in our rental property, but beautiful nonetheless. I also REALLY like the metal tiles - I didn't even know metal tiles existed! Check out their photo gallery to see some of the creative ways they've used tiles that I wouldn't have thought about. Really neat site.

This is not my shower.

2007-10-06T23:17:00.001-07:00

This showerhead is better than your showerhead., originally uploaded by timotheee1.

I wanted to mention that Paul is putting in dual showerheads in the master bath of the rental - just to up the resale value, not because we dig our renters or anything - and I started poking around Flickr to see if I could find a picture of how he is planning to do the installation. I didn't find any, because I got completely distracted by THIS! Eeeeek! Can you imagine showering in there??

It's rough being old.

2007-10-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well, not that I'd know or anything. I'm still a spry young thing, you know. The enginerd husband, though, well - he's OLD! Okay, not really, but I think he's feeling his age tonight. He spent the entire day doing manual labor. He's remodeling the master bath at his rental unit, and he's been a busy little bee, let me tell ya. I have lots of pictures of the whole process to share, but...they're on his camera, not mine, and I have no idea where it is. So, I'll share those later. But I wanted to put this out there! Think happy thoughts for my old man. He's still got a lot of work ahead of him!

Kitchen Envy

2007-09-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

I love my kitchen. Honestly - it's big, has TONS of storage, lots of light, counter space, gigantic walk-in pantry...what's not to love? There are always things I would change, though, and checking out some of the Kitchen Design remodel pictures at this Kitchen Remodeling firm in Michigan is leaving me with total kitchen envy! We have a huge family, and I can't even imagine how AWESOME it would be to have those commercial size refrigerators, a 6-burner stove, multiple dishwashers, etc. Not to mention the amazing architectural details! I really like those faucet thingies above the stove for filling pots. Wouldn't that be a nice addition to any kitchen?

We're outtie! (Audi?)

2007-09-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

One thing the Enginerd and Wife hardly ever do is spend time together away from the kids. With five kids, we lead fairly busy lives, and trust me - nobody wants to babysit five kids! So, most of our relaxing/recharging time is spent away from the children, but away from each other as well, since one of us always has to stay home with them!

That's why I'm SO EXCITED that we're leaving town for a night, all by ourselves! The Man is heading out of town for some training one day this week, and I'm going with him! We're only going to have a few hours together, but long enough to have a nice dinner somewhere (Melting Pot, I'm thinking?) and then we'll spend the night together in a hotel room ALONE. He's going to be in training all the next day, which will give me some time to relax and watch TV and then go shopping somewhere in a new place, all by myself.

Doesn't that sound heavenly? Twenty-four hours where I'm not wiping noses or bottoms! (Uh, except my own?)

YOU can do it yourself, too!

2007-09-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so lucky to be married to a handy guy. I mean, this is a fellow who can cut a huge hole in the back of the garage and install a second garage door so that it looks like it came with the house. A guy who can dream up, design, and construct an outdoor kitchen with running hot and cold water. He's a little handy.

My ex husband, bless his heart, is not quite as handy. He's one of those guys who knows just enough to be dangerous. I'll never forget the time he decided to install GFI switches in our bathrooms. This is a code requirement nowadays, but it wasn't in the early 80s, when the home we lived in was built. The switches worked - I guess? I mean, the outlets seemed to work just fine and they powered my hair dryer just peachy - but whenever we'd trip the GFI, the beer fridge in the garage would lose power and the porch light would magically turn on. Now that's some interesting home improvement, there!

I can imagine the folks at Home Depot hear stories like this all the time. It's tricky to wire older homes, and I don't think it's something that the average Joe should attempt, unless they know what they're doing! I was checking out a site called DoItYourself.com and found a bazillion articles and tutorials designed for the less handy. If this site had been available about a decade ago (back when we were on Compuserve - hehe!) I can imagine we would have had a lot fewer home improvement mishaps. It's a lot easier to tackle a project when you have some idea where you're going with it! After all, knowledge is power! Check it out.

And this is not my house.

2007-09-14T22:44:00.001-07:00

LIVING ROOM CHANGE, originally uploaded by gotjenks.

I love how obsessive these people are, with their THIRTY paint chips on the wall! Hehe! I hope they ended up with a color they really love. I have pretty good luck with picking out paint colors, it seems like. Which is a good thing, since I seem to lack whatever gene makes it possible to visualize a wall color by taping a 2 x 3 square of color onto it.

This is not my house.

2007-09-14T22:35:00.001-07:00

The new livingroom, originally uploaded by .Ariel.

I've become obsessed lately with stalking folks on Flickr who post pictures of their living rooms. I just love seeing how people live, and what makes a house a home, since it seems to be so different for all of us. Isn't this a darling little sitting area? I love the twinkling lights. So homey.