Category: house

Junior year, over and out

Last day
First day

Just like that, junior year is over. They’ve gotten taller, their hair has gotten messier.

It was an eventful year for our family, and since I have neglected to post much, I’ll just go over it all now.

I was on sabbatical August through October, which was fun. I traveled a bunch. To Canada, Florida, Virginia, and Chicago. My friend had a baby. My mom and Larry moved to The Villages. I redid the upstairs bathroom. The boys turned 17 while I was in Turkey for work. Oliver got his driver’s license. We went to Florida for Christmas. In January my brother’s house burned down in the wildfires. I turned 50. Kiki came to visit. We took family pictures. It snowed here. A lot. The boys did some extras work on a movie. I went to Virginia for Kiki’s 50th. George got mugged. I went on a cruise. George’s dad died. I got some new tattoos. I learned I’m probably going to need shoulder surgery.

So while a lot of good things happened, a lot of terrible things happened as well. I am hopeful for the next year, even if the world is a dumpster fire. We are going to Virginia next week for Emily’s high school graduation and we’re going to visit some colleges. I am going to England for work in July and Kiki is meeting me there. It’ll be our first time there together in almost 25 years. Maybe Linus will get his driver’s license (no rush!) In September we’re seeing Pulp again. In October I’m going back to Singapore for work. Somewhere in there I’m likely going to have that shoulder surgery. The boys will apply to colleges. They’ll decide where to go.

And then the house will be empty. Okay, I’m done thinking about the next year!

Back to work! (Sabbatical recap)

I will not say the past three months flew by, because they didn’t. They passed at a reasonable speed. I feel like I’ve been away for a long time, and I’m actually ready to go back. Or, at least, I’m not sad to be going back. No matter how much one might love one’s job, not working is still infinitely better. Especially if you’re still getting paid.

(Background: we get 3 months off paid every five years. My last sabbatical was Dec 2018-March 2019.)

First, we went to Baton Rouge where I discovered how good I am at golf and we had dinner with my aunt.

Then, I took a short trip to Canada to hang out with friends. We went to Schitt’s Creek!

My flights were all forked up getting home, but I got to spend a night with Kiki in Virginia!

Which made me a bit late taking the boys’ 200th monthly pic, but we got there.

Then I spent some time getting the boys’ car from their grandparents. (They very generously gave it to them.) I had to transfer the title, get it towed to a mechanic, etc etc.) And now I don’t have to drive to school to pick them up every afternoon! Yay!

I got another tattoo.

I spent some time with Kiki in Virginia. We went to a little town called Sperryville and went on a foggy hike and ate at a fancy restaurant.

Then we went on a quick trip to Chicago to see Pulp (again.)

There was a hurricane threat, and then I went to Florida with my mom and stepdad. I drove a U-Haul. I got to experience The Villages as well as see their new house. And sit on a lot of sofas.

I organized and got rid of stuff and did other random things around the house.

I made things. I got an iPad so I could learn to draw. Still working on that, but there are lots of fun Procreate tutorials out there.

I took the boys to an LSU game for an early birthday present (courtesy of Grandee and Larry)

I saw Johnny Marr in concert with friends.

I snuggled my friend’s new baby.

The boys started in another vaccine trial. I saw friends. I went on walks. Ziggy was cute. I made ice cream. Got a heated jacket for soccer. I sent 200 postcards. I early voted.

I painted my bathroom.

So. I can comfortably say I packed my sabbatical with fun things, but I also didn’t stress about much and relaxed quite a lot. Now. Back to work!

Twenty years!

Either yesterday or today marks twenty years since we bought our house. Twenty years! I will never forget the feeling I got when I walked through the front door for the first time. I immediately knew this was our home.

Of course, did I have any clue what twenty years later would look like? I was in my twenties! We weren’t even engaged yet! Katrina hadn’t happened, and we thought two bedrooms would be PLENTY for the ONE kid we might have one day.

Do I still love our house? I mean, of course. But also of course not. It’s endlessly frustrating but it’s an old house. It’s too small. It’s weirdly laid out. I’d kill for a new kitchen. And new floor downstairs. But it’s where the boys have grown up, and I hope they will always be able to come home to it. (Will they still fit in their triple bunk beds? They’re going to have to!)

As someone who still dreams of the house I grew up in (that we moved out of when I was 17), I feel like it’s very important that they are able to come back to this house. But maybe I’m just overly sentimental. (I know Linus would agree with me, though.)

Just look at the trees!

2004 (I really wish I had a better picture):

2024:

(That’s not the same tree in front of the house. That tree was planted right before Katrina, and it was the size of a pencil.)

Here’s the Bradford pear that Kristina gave us as a housewarming gift when we planted it:

and now:

etc, etc.

Do I think we’ll be in this house in another 20 years? I mean. I kind of hope we aren’t in New Orleans anymore in 20 years, but I guess we’ll see. I do hope if we are, I have a new kitchen, at least.

June, in review

June was a busy month! So let’s get to it.

It started with a trip to California for my niece Eleanor’s high school graduation. Just me, not the boys or George.

We went to UCLA (that’s where Ellie is going in the fall) and walked around (after having In and Out for lunch.)

Before the trip, my brother said, “bring hiking shoes.” I said, “do I look like the type of person to own hiking shoes?” so it was in my sneakers that he tried to kill me the next day. We hiked up to Echo Park on an extremely damp and foggy and misty day, on a very narrow trail, and I was 100% convinced that only one of us at most was going to make it down to the bottom in one piece. Thank god I was wrong. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess up Ellie’s graduation week.

I’m not kidding, it was grueling (at least to me, someone who lives in a very flat place) and even my brother said later that he was nervous for me. Sheesh. Here are a bunch of random pics, including none of the view because you couldn’t see anything! But, in spite of that, I felt very accomplished, and it was nice to spend time with my brother. (Don’t tell him I said that.)

I googled this hike to get some info about it, and if I’d read “The majority of the trail is along the side of the mountain with some narrow switchbacks – it may be difficult for those that have trouble with heights” (emphasis mine) then maybe I would have rethought this decision. This is a good post that has pictures of, wow, what it might have looked like had I been able to see anything! It’s fine, it’s fine. Probably best that I couldn’t see how far I would have plummeted to my death.

The rest of the trip was hanging out with family, eating, going to Paper Source, Ellie’s graduation, going back to UCLA, seeing Pawnee City Hall, shopping at Mood, and basically spending a lot of time in electric cars.

I was really excited to give Ellie her graduation gift, a quilt I made for her in UCLA colors. I hope it keeps her warm and cozy while she’s at college. Sniff, sniff. She was just a tiny baby, I can’t believe she’s off to college.

Okay, so then I went home, and the day after I got back, George left for his long-awaited trip to the UK. He was going to be gone for two weeks, and little did he know that I had big plans while he was gone. Kiki came to visit and while she was here, we redid his bathroom downstairs. It’s so much better! (Of course I posted a ton more pictures and details here.)

He came home last week, and since then, life has gotten significantly quieter (that’s good.) Oh, I made this (Selwyn by Cashmerette) shirt early in the month, but I haven’t been able to get a good picture of it, so after a few glasses of wine, my friends stuck me in a bathtub to get some.

hee hee

The boys are finishing up driver’s ed today, so expect the July recap to be full of danger and intrigue!

The great bathroom remodel of 2023

The downstairs bathroom is was awful. For 19 years, we’ve lived with hideous peeling wallpaper, an ugly pedestal sink with a faucet that leaks, ugly oak trim, unpatched holes, etc, etc.

George is the primary user of that bathroom, since it’s right by his cave, but it’s also used by anyone who comes over, which is just embarrassing.

So George went to the UK for two weeks, and I decided I was going to renovate it as a surprise.

Kiki came to visit and help. I could not have done it without her.

Some fun befores and afters:

Here’s a video of the whole thing before (and obviously I didn’t go in and straighten it up beforehand.)

Okay that’s enough befores and afters. Here are just a bunch more afters:

Some details:

  • The paint is half sea fog by Behr
  • Almost everything is from Home Depot, really.
  • The vanity (I got a screaming deal on it)
  • The light
  • The hardware
  • The blinds
  • The faucet
  • The mirror is from Amazon, though (I only paid about half this, though)
  • As are the knobs
  • The adorable garbage can and toothbrush cup are from Home Goods
  • The medicine cabinet is from Costco (a few years ago)
  • Shower curtain(s) are from Target (I recut and hemmed the one in front of the shelf)

We also removed one of the shelves from the nook behind the tub so George can hang his clothes there instead of from the shower curtain (the closets in this house leave much to be desired.)

The vanity was definitely the trickiest part. First of all, it was very heavy. Steph and I got it from Home Depot and we needed five teenage boys to help us get it off the truck and into the house. One of the doors was extremely broken (they’re supposed to be sending me a new one.) And then our friend Darrell installed it, which involved removing part of the baseboard which was much harder than expected. Suffice it to say, we will never remove the vanity.

But for the most part, it went smoothly. And I could not be happier with the results.

***

Okay, I wrote most of the post before George came home, but last night he did. I was worried he’d be underwhelmed or not surprised (it’s hard to hide these things when we have cameras inside and outside) but he had no clue and he was very surprised and pleased! Yay!

January in review

How on earth is it still January? I feel like this has been the longest month ever.

Started out flying home from the Dominican Republic, and finally getting Ziggy back home. We missed him a lot. He…did not seem to miss us very much at all. I guess he had fun. He was hoarse from all the barking (or something, maybe a mild case of kennel cough, the vet said, he’s all better now in any case.)

“You could have left me there.”

Soccer started right back up, and then on Sunday the 8th, we took the boys to their very first Saints game ever. It was also the first time they’d ever been inside the Superdome. It was a not-great game, but we had fun anyway. Except we walked to the dome from the ferry and it was sprinkling so by the time we actually got to the game, we were all kind of wet and cold. No big deal.

Later that evening, I flew to Austin for a work meetup. Got in close to midnight, just a few minutes before my birthday!

Woke up the next morning, said hello to my colleagues, picked up a chocolate croissant from the Whole Foods down the road, worked, was surprised (sort of, I mean, I kind of demanded it) by a beautiful cake, had a nice lunch and later a nice dinner. This was my fourth work meetup on a birthday!

The rest of the week was more working, yummy food, bonding with coworkers, getting a spur-of-the-moment tattoo with Vanessa, bowling, puzzle assembling, scooter riding, renting a Tesla with Beckett and Karen, driving a Tesla, visiting our friend Elizabeth and finally meeting her daughter. I gave her a quilt I made her with bees and she seemed to like it.

IYKYK

Back home, more soccer, then another tattoo the next week (that I had originally scheduled for my birthday, but the had to push back a week because of the work trip) and more soccer and more soccer.

pink hydrangea

This past weekend was the end of school soccer, and the very last game was between the freshmen and sophomores. Under Miles’s coaching, the freshmen won! And I got some great pics of Coach Miles.

maybe my favorite picture ever.

I did some sewing. Made some shorts, bought more fabric I don’t need, but that’s okay. We had a bit of an issue with mice, but I think we resolved it. I don’t ever need to see tiny mouse bodies stuck in traps ever again.

Also I have someone cleaning the house again and it’s wonderful and it really is good for my stress levels because, let’s face it, it’s not exactly my forte.

I wrapped up the month by making a king cake yesterday. On to February!

How is it almost May?

The last time I posted about the random little goings on in life was three months ago, so I guess it’s time for another quarterly recap of my extremely exciting life.

I visited Kiki twice. Her mom passed away in mid-March, and luckily I already had a flight booked for two days later, so I was able to be with her and hang out and help her go through stuff and get rid of stuff and drink wine for a few days. And then I went back again last weekend to help with the memorial celebration she had at her house. We did a lot of gardening and cooking. Everything we made was from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was cursing Julia Child’s name by the end of the weekend. But everything we made turned out well. It was pretty cool, actually. Kristina’s mom was a really amazing, adventurous, well-traveled woman who journaled everything, including her dinner party menus from the 1960s on, so we made dishes she frequently made for those dinners.

(If you’re interested, we made Orange Bavarian Cream, Cheese Puffs, Legumes a la Grecque, Salmon Mousse, Cheese Tartlettes, and Liver and Cheese Tartlettes.)

The spread of food.

Since this is my blog, I can brag that I made the tartlette shells and the cheese puffs (and helped with the other stuff.)

We also did some gardening and I learned how to spread mulch, which is good because I need to mulch our gardens.

Speaking of gardens, kind of, we got a rain barrel from a local organization yesterday, which is exciting because I’ve been on the wait list for a year. It’s sad, though, because in that year, I got a different rain barrel so I couldn’t put this rain barrel in a prominent spot. It’s behind the house, which is a shame because LOOK HOW CUTE:

Oh, and also plant-related, Kiki sent me these beautiful flowers!

Okay, well that about covers the last 72 hours. What else? Hmm.

I guess it’s exciting, if a little sad, that the boys decided on a high school for next year, and it’s not the school they’ve been at for the past 11 years. (They could have chosen to stay there, but they did not.) On the bright side, it’s one of the top public high schools in the country, and a lot of their friends are going there as well. But a lot are staying, so it’s tough either way. At least since their classes are in English, I can help with homework now! Wait, hold on. That’s not a good thing. Heh.

I suppose I already blogged about the boys’ school dance and making jeans, but I also made another quilt for funsies (it lives on the couch, mostly under Ziggy):

And also this one for my friend Heather (I realize if you’re not a Saints fan it’s pretty ugly, but she and her fiance like it, so that’s all that matters.

I also made a red dress for her wedding this weekend, but I’ll save those pics for later.

Oh well I guess Mardi Gras also happened and we didn’t get Covid, so yay! It was pretty fun. We put the house float back up (and added a Rose Apothecary!) and Steph and I dressed up as Moiras on Mardi Gras day and I went to a parade and got a shoe and we saw our house float on a float, so all in all, it was good.

Okay. I think that’s it for real. Coming up: 8th grade graduation! A wedding! A new fridge! Summer! Another trip to Virginia! Camp Aunt Jenny! Quinceanera! Graduation parties! Bugs! Heat! Humidity!

Home improvements and delicious food

Kiki came to visit and, as usual, we got a lot of little things done around the house to make everything a bit more pleasant. And also ate yummy things.

Replacing the blinds

The blinds in my sewing room/bedroom have been up for 14 years. If you don’t believe me, believe this blog post from November 2007. (Why wouldn’t you believe me?) They were basically destroyed, so it was time.

One thing I haven’t taken down are those flags. Probably about time.

I also had to change out the curtain rod brackets because the blinds stick out so much, and I put up some hooks to serve as curtain hold-backs.

Medicine cabinet

This one involved a lot of cursing. Removed the plate glass mirror and put up a medicine cabinet. Yay more storage! Feel free to nose around in my medicine cabinet. Nothing interesting there. I wish I had a better “before” picture than a selfie from a dress I made. Alas.

Picture rail

Kiki was dismayed by the lack of artwork above the TV. I am still waiting to hang stuff after we painted. (Okay, that was like four years ago.)

Another part of the project involves getting a print (a drawing of our house) framed that’s been sitting on my mantle for six months. That’ll go next to the house numbers. I might need to move the house numbers, because I keep thinking it’s a clock and that it’s 8:14. (It’s usually not. Well, just twice a day.) Not sure what else I’ll put up there. Oh, and that ledge was repurposed from the nursery as well. And I hung the bracket upside down first. Fun!

New curtain rod/hemmed curtains

The curtains behind the sofa have always been too long, and I should be embarrassed by how long it took me to realize I could just hem them. I do sew, sometimes, you know. I also needed to replace the cheap curtain rod that sagged in the middle and sometimes fell down.

Oops, I went a tad too short. Oh well! Also our sofa is way wrinklier than it was six years ago! But also there’s a cute doggie that wasn’t there before, so it’s all worth it. (Look how unchewed my ottoman was in the first pic. Sigh.)

We also hung some artwork in my office. (Yes obviously I am still obsessed.)

Speaking of, I also got this Christmas ornament. I posed it in front of our Mardi Gras house float (it was in a book!)

And I think that’s the majority of the projects. (I won’t take a picture of the under sink organization in the kitchen, though it is nice.)

Yummy things we ate and drank:

Homemade pizza (crust by King Arthur, sauce by Smitten Kitchen), this winter squash bake from Smitten Kitchen, a pavlova from the San Lorenzo, my Italian margarita, and Kiki at the taco place (mmm margaritas.) Not pictured: the amazing hummuses from Saba.

May so far

It’s been an eventful month. Maybe too eventful.

Went to Virginia to visit Kiki. That was good eventful. Being on an airplane was weird. We baked a lot, including croissants. PS buying good croissants is much easier. Just do that. But it was fun.

Oh wait, but the night before I left, I had to take Oliver to get stitches. Well, a stitch, really. (He lost a fight with his desk.)

When I got back, I got the house cleaned professionally for the first time and IT IS STILL CLEAN.

Then a tornado skipped through our neighborhood last week, and we lost power for a while. Spent the day with the boys at Starbucks and Target.

I did a dumb thing and booked a (non-refundable) hotel room in a half-asleep haze, not even thinking about the fact that hotels don’t let you check in until 3pm. The power came back on at 2.

The boys and I went to our suite and hung out for two hours. I took the soaps and shampoos yet I still don’t feel like I got my money’s worth. Ah well. An expensive lesson.

Fortunately, we didn’t have any damage from the storm, at least not physically.

And then on Sunday, Linus was having a tough time with this asthma, which ultimately resulted in an ER visit followed by overnight admission.

I’m ready for the rest of the month to be boring, thanks.

Here’s a bunch of pics. You’re welcome.

  • Oliver’s stitch
  • Kiki’s cat, Maxie
  • Check out that lamination!
  • Finished croissants
  • Macaron!
  • Clean kitchen
  • Clean bathroom
  • Clean living room (and adorable dog)
  • Clean dining room
  • Boys at Starbucks
  • The worst $150 I ever spent
  • At least he enjoyed the wheelchair ride
  • Our “other” hotel room. I suspect more than $150 a night.

Yard renovation complete!

A month ago, I contacted a local landscaper to talk about getting our yard looking nice. Because it looked terrible.

The lemon tree had died, and was now just a scrubby bunch of spiky shoots. There was no grass, only weeds and dirt. There were soccer balls everywhere, and a big ugly shed, and a few bushes we planted a few years ago when we put in the patio. There was also a chunk of sidewalk from when a house used to be in our yard. (Well, I mean, it wasn’t our yard then, but there used to be a house between ours and our neighbor’s, but it was torn down at some point and now we have side yards.)

Before: (this is embarrassing)

  • Dirt and weeds and sidewalk chunk
  • I like the chair in this one
  • Lemon tree scraggle
  • Soccer ball harvest
  • Dirt mound in the corner
  • Weeds ‘n’ stuff

Anyway, they ripped up the sidewalk chunk, removed the lemon scraggle, leveled the yard (including the unsightly mound in the corner that was made up of the dirt we excavated for the patio), squared off the patio, cleared out the weeds, planted plants, mulched, put gravel and sand down, moved the shed, and finally placed artificial turf down.

Seventeen years ago, when we bought our house, we planted a tiny tree and had a pretty nice grass lawn. Since then, the tree grew 20+ feet, we got a dog and three kids, and bamboo grew up from the neighbor’s yard. So it’s nice and shady, but not exactly conducive to grass growing. Hence the artificial turf.

LOOK AT THE GLORIOUS AFTERS!

The boys like it too. 😀

Oh, I have to do one of these fun sliders:

The boys’ updated room {ta-da!}

Finally! We are (almost, nearly) finished with the boys’ room makeover. Since there wasn’t going to be on a vacation this summer, I figured, why not spend that money on sometime more tangible. And the boys’ room was ripe for a makeover. The last time I did anything substantial to their room was 7 years ago when their beds were built.

Now. If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself NOT to paint the room dark navy and the beds dark gray. (Well, one would hope I’d use my time travel for more important purposes, but trust me, this weekend there was nothing more important.)

Let’s get to the good stuff first…before and after pictures. I admit, their room was in quite a state when I took the before pictures. But if I’d waited for them to clean it up just so I could take before pictures, well, I wouldn’t have paint in my hair right now.

Okay, so I didn’t do a great job taking pics of the same angles, but you get the idea. Here are a few more:

Here is what we did:

  • painted the walls Alabaster (Sherwin Williams) and the trim (beds included) ultra reflective white (SW.) I wish I’d gone with Behr paint, but SW was having a sale. I feel like the good Behr paint covers better and is about the same price as Sherwin Williams Cashmere on sale. Oh well.
    Aside: on the advice of a friend, I got a paint sprayer and it really helped the primer go on quickly. And it was fun. But I didn’t want to put expensive paint in it (it has to be thinned) so it didn’t get as much use as I would have hoped. But it’s nice to have.
  • got these LED lights. This was basically what the room was designed around. They wanted light walls to show off the LED lights better. Ha!
  • got a rug from Amazon. It’s soft and squishy and was super cheap. We don’t do rugs in our house, so I didn’t want to spend a ton in case it didn’t work out.
  • removed all of the posters and (sniff, sniff) stickers from the walls. The original theme of the room (when the boys were 3, mind you) was “under the sea” so there were sea creatures everywhere. Linus was particularly sad to have to remove these Easter stickers he got from his preK-4 teacher.
  • took down the ratty “curtains” that have been up forever (really just pieces of fleece on clips) and got light blocking 2.5″ faux wood blinds.
  • put a set of their cubicles that were next to the old dresser into the closet instead. IMG_7192
  • bought a new dresser! Real furniture! The one that was there before was a hand me down from a friend. I really think this was the first piece of furniture I’ve ever bought that didn’t have to be put together. (I mean, I love IKEA, don’t get me wrong, but I wanted something a bit more grown up, and that I could see in person first.)
  • used some of the 46 zillion soccer jerseys the boys have to decorate the wall behind the dresser. Hung their team scarves on the walls around one of the windows.
    img_7312
  • moved the TV and Xbox to the dresser so the desk can be used for school, since it will be at least partially virtual this year.
  • got a butterfly chair from Target to make it more comfortable to rot their brains.

There are still a few things left to do, but I am burned out, so they’ll have to wait a bit.

  • install hooks on the back of the door for coats and jackets
  • re-hang a shelf with hooks in the desk nook for all of their medals and whatnot
  • hang the soccer team photo

I think that’s it? Overall, we are all very happy with the updated room. But I swear, I am never painting again.