COMPLETE.

Before.

Kind of, smart person that I am, I don't seem to have a real

before picture, with our outdated, curved - drop ceiling with florescent lights.

Too bad.

After!

After.

I am so happy to be saying AFTER!

I love it so much.

At the start of the project K ran into a few road blocks.

When he originally took down the old ceiling,

he was surprised, 

and quite depressed to discover

that.... Oops! 

no rafters.

They had all been sawed out by the previous owner.

(This is actually how all projects go in this home....

might be why Kev's resistance to them is so high.)

Turns out the job was going to be a step or two above K's 

carpentry skills.

It was at this time that we reached out to our friend Danny, 

a talented handy man in our ward.

After a really long period of staring up into the ceiling 

together. Along with prolonged pauses and 

periods of silent chin rubbing,

Danny and K took an entire day to pain stakingly build make-shift 

rafters back into the ceiling so they could then start,

 where we thought

he would have been when K first tore into the job.

..........

One thing to know about our home is that it has built in

"Character Building" situations.

They came at no extra cost when we purchased the home

almost fourteen years ago.

..........

Over the course of the job,

Kev sometimes accused

 me of wanting to change the ceiling on a whim.

Ah Contraire my darling. 

I did indeed dislike it.....however, the real reason(s) I wanted it 

changed so much were that,

A.  The florescent light fixtures held dust, grime, and BUGS in them 

constantly!

B.  The fixtures (holding pens for the long bulbs) were stained, 

brittle, cracked, and chipped.

C.  The lights were always going out, at least one entire side at a time.

I would report this to K, and he

would come and magically touch them, and voila, they would be 

back on!.....for an hour or two.

D.  We had already changed ALL of the plastic holding pens

once since we moved in.  It was a major pain, costly, 

and just as unbecoming as they were originally, but more white,

until they turned yellow again.

E.  It is not until we get all the way to E. that do I say yes, I really wanted a

cleaner, more updated look.  Streamlined.  I am not asking to redo the kitchen,

just the ceiling.

 Danny did a lot, 

but K also did quite a bit he'd never done before.

I noticed him googling how to dry wall and plaster, etc.

I loved it!

K does not enjoy doing (house) projects as much as I thrill at having them done....

but he does them, and he does a great job!!

One of my favorite new additions is having a hanging water

mug for every family member.

Ta daaa!

I am hoping that this will help cut down on the numerous 

cups and glasses

left all over the kitchen.

Everyone knows where their mug is hanging, 

(if they forget their

initials are printed under the cupboard).

There is plenty of light.

K was worried there would not be enough light with 

spotlights......not a problem : )

Kev also purchased us a new dish washer recently....

YEAH!

unfortunately it was not secured for a few weeks.... 

well, it is now!!

This will never happen again.

I primed and painted the ceiling,

 and cleaned, and cleaned all the fine

powder white dust off everything from the sanding several 

times.....that was my contribution.

That and 

also I decided to go the extra mile and borrow a good friends

Shark Steamer.

I really wanted to deep clean the kitchen and get it shining 

like new money.

I even went to work on the outlet covers.....

this is where things took a wrong turn.

Apparently getting steam, (drips of water) down into the outlets 

is a big NO - NO.

While K was out of town I short circuited the brand new lights out,

and the switches quit working correctly.

I wanted to cry so hard....

and did.

I didn't want to admit to K what happened.....but I had to, 

because I am working on being honest.

But not until he got home.

It was not the first thing he wanted to spend several more hours on.

But he did......xoxoxoxoxo.

and now it really truly is done.

It is beautiful and wonderful!!

Thank you honey : )  

 .........................

A few other side notes:

Currently I am listening to 11/22/63 on cd as I work.

I'm really enjoying it.

Have you heard of it?

I bought the book for K a while back,  he has read it a few times.

I saw the cd's at the library and snatched them up for myself!

Getting endless projects done is so much more fun listening to a 

great audio book.

E got his first "Store bought" hair cut yesterday.

He would prefer I no longer cut his hair......

(we are both ready to move forward)

I said the first cut is on the house, but after that we will 

need to split the cost.

This guy was fast, and we both really like the job he did!

$16 dollars including the tip.

The even better news is that we discovered,

by reading their sign,

that every Tuesday is $11 haircut day!!  

That will be the day for E in the future.

This is Cost - Cutters with Michael on A1A.

We recommend it.

M and I got matching insulated cups at CVS.....75% off......
we are LOVING them.
(Barb from sculpt said the straw was a BAD idea at my age,
I would accelerate lip wrinkles!!
Dang you Barb!  
However, I demonstrated that I do not pucker,
but straight -lip-sip through my straw.....
I hope this spares me at least a little, I am not
prepared to give up straws at this point.)

Cauley's has a swirly straw and mine has a cool hand grip.
We take them everywhere.

At $1.50 per cup I wish I had purchased the whole lot!

McCauley won her first silent auction item at a recent 

Sally's House fund raiser.

She was SO pumped.

She had a lot of fun watching (guarding) her horse basket, and 

even got in with a partner so they could afford to go a little 

higher to control the bid again.

(Thank you Tandy!! ...and Jana!)

 Lastly, Lawson recently had some foot work done.

He had been suffering with an ingrown toenail for a while.

We went to the foot specialist and he cut out the offending portion of the nail.

Yowsers!!

This is not for the faint of heart.
(his foot really WAS that orange)

BRU - TAL.

The results however were practically instant relief.

(ps - can you even believe how young that doctor looks?!)

 That is it for now.

Except I forgot to mention,

 that I also got my broken towel holder fixed in our bathroom!!!

Happy Happy Day!

I feel like everything is as it should be.

Complete and in order.
....................

It makes me think back 
about when I first walked into this house 
way back when.
It felt like home the moment I stepped in the door.
The decor was not ours, 
the pictures, the smell, but the feeling sold this home to me.
I knew it was meant for us.
Kinda small.
Pool-less.
Annoying and Jerry Rigged at every turn.
But for just as many reasons there are to superficially whine about.....
there are twice as many more ways 
it is just right.