rudiculous.com

Not to be outdone by my brother-in-law Jon and his pre-pubescent 'mustache', I decided to join the 'Great Mustache Race of 2008' despite not being invited.

I opted for the 'stache with a statement; it says, "I drive a muscle car when I'm not on my Harley", "Sleeves are for wusses", and "My belt buckle is bigger than your house." But most of all, it proudly states that I am an American.

I may not be able to grow a full beard or even chest hair for that matter. But I've got a chopper 'stache, and that's all I need to keep my lady close to my side.

In addition to a new kitchen floor and new window treatments, we also got new windows - ALL new windows. Yup, every single window in our house was replaced, 17 in all plus a new side door. It was a badly needed upgrade, more so than any we have done so far. Several windows either had broken panes, broken handles, wouldn't open or stay open, or wouldn't lock. Most were the original single-pane windows from when the house was built while others were mismatched when previously replaced. But most importantly, all were terrible when it came to keeping the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter (we could literally feel a steady draft during the winter, even with plastic on them).

The company we went through did a nice job of matching the vinyl to the frame in the living and dining room as well as matching the exterior (tan instead of bright white), which was important to us. They also came in with a bid that was half the price of other companies, and the other places could not match the windows to our stringent specifications. A crew of 3 guys took only 5 1/2 hours to complete the job!

All of the windows are double-hung which will make cleaning for Errin a breeze (j/k, she doesn't clean!).

Here are some before and after pictures:

BEFORE

The thorn in my side thus far this summer has been the kitchen floor project. It all started with the windows (post coming soon) and new side door. My father in law, who was visiting at the time the replacement door was being measured, kindly offered his always-invaluable advice and suggested that I tear up the existing floor. His reasoning for this was that the floor as it was would force our brand new door to be a non-standard measurement (height). It made sense, I knew he was right, so I took his advice and started to tear up the floor. Little did I know that there were 5 layers of floor to remove!

Layer 1: Original pine floor
Layer 2: Asbestos-glue filled linoleum
Layer 3: 1/4" plywood subfloor
Layer 4: beautiful linoleum
Layer 5: laminate flooring

At first it was pretty slow tearing it up, but then I took my circular saw out and got it all out in no time. By tearing it out myself I saved almost 50%. Next came the waiting game; our installer was booked 3 weeks out.

When it finally came time to get our floor installed, our installer notified us at the last minute that the Brazilian Cherry we wanted was unavailable. But, his distributor could 'hook us up' and provide us with Merbau for the same price, which is apparently twice as expensive. Merbau is about the same color that we wanted, but it is one of the most hard and durable wood for floors. It also comes from Australia; I'm standing by my phone.

The floor was finished Saturday morning. It looks incredible! He did an awesome job transitioning from the hallway/dining room oak to the kitchen in the doorways. The entire kitchen turned out great and we couldn't be happier with the results. The drawback is that now we are nervous about scratching it so we only walk on it with socks on. Obie will be shunned from the kitchen!

Here are some photos of the finished project!

It's been a long, crazy summer... and it is only half over. Many of you have expressed your disappointment with me for not updating my blog for so long (I'll admit, 2 months with no updates is a little rudiculous). For those of you who thought I was dead or severely ill; thanks for your concern but a phone call would have also been nice.

Hopefully the summer will start to slow down and I will be able to update more frequently, but don't hold your breath.