Saturday, February 12, 2011

Getting dolled up at the Doll House Salon

A a great part of being a teacher is getting to be a part of the lives of the amazing students that come through your class room. A former student of mine is now a professional hairdresser and colorist. Prior to heading out on the floor at the salon she now works at she needed to show off her amazing skills to her new boss. She needed models so I volunteered. I don’t usually color my hair and I only cut it every year and a half or so to be able to donate to Locks Of Love – as you may remember from a previous post -but she needed the model, my hair was looking unusually dark having cut all the sun and pool bleached blonde off, and she did it for free. What a sweet thing she did for her old teacher. You can’t beat free. Not only did she give me a wonderful boost of summer sun in the form of highlights but I got the full pampering with a paraffin hand treatment and hand massage. If you live in the Grand Rapids area and would like 50% off a cut or color- give her a shout. The contact info is below. Gosh I love my job.

Contact Kat at http://www.dollhousehairsalon.com/ and the phone number is 616-554-4929.  If people are new and want to get 50% off, contact Kat to find out how :)

Kat

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This is my hair before…

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during…

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…and after.

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front door Kat hair doo natasha present 050

Friday, February 11, 2011

Clean up clean up everybody clean up

This post is slightly out of order. This is the clean up from our new door. We had lots of mud, plaster dust, saw dust, and cellulose insulation tracked all over our kitchen and living and dining rooms. I got out the mop, and a bucket with Murphy’s Oil Soap and I started mopping. I set the mop down to do some straitening and my super helper took right over. I have to say he did a pretty darn good job. Maybe I will just sit back and eat bon-bons. Think he does windows?

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Even a super helper needs a break for a powerful thirst.

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Okay back to work.

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Thursday, February 10, 2011

The TP bandit strikes again.

I do not understand why Caelun seems to desperately want to TP the house. It isn't Halloween but this is something he does any time we aren’t paying attention. You can see the bandit in the very back next to the toys inserting the roll of toilet paper into the bucket of legos. The cats think it is a blast. Life with a 3 year old is never dull.

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Looks like he had some accomplices in the dinosaurs.

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Monday, February 7, 2011

The story of a door.

Our crazy old house came with a crazy old door. As near as we can tell the door is original to the kitchen addition to the house which – again as near as we can tell is around the 1920’s. The door locked with a skeleton key that the real-estate agent broke when I was being shown the house prior to buying it. This means we have never never been able to lock it. The not being able to lock the door part has not been nearly as big of a deal to me as the fact that the door doesn’t seal. That means all the cold winter air and before we bought a new storm door- a Christmas gift from my mother in law some years back- even the snow would come pouring into the kitchen. The problem with replacing it is -it isn't’ standard size, height, or width. This meant the door had to be special super custom ordered for a billion dollars and then still wouldn’t necessarily fit because the opening isn’t square or completely tear out the frame and part of the wall and build a new one. Neither option sounded like much fun so we have taped, caulked,weather stripped, put rugs, and… I can keep going… and still it is cold and drafty. This year for Christmas from my mother I got a new door and money for a carpenter to put it in since Clint and I felt like this was above our pay grade as far as skill level. At the time I swore we picked the coldest day of the winter because it was –1 degree F but of course I jinxed myself and since then it has been colder. We hired a person recommended by a friend who gave us a really low offer $125.The carpenter did a great job of the hard part – he took out the portion of the wall framed in the new door and it is plumb, square, and seals but…. there is a big but. He didn’t install the header so it is connecting to the cripples above or to the jack or king studs below. For my non- remodeling buff followers this means the door has no support above it holding up the wall. Yeah that is kind of a problem. Clint said “well at least the part he got wrong we can fix- headers we can do.” … yeah just what we need another project- because we certainly don’t have enough of those. Oh well in the mean time I have a door that shuts and locks even. I am trying to look on the bright side.

The original door from the outside and inside.

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Taking the old door out. Debate alum front door Caelun teddy bear 011

The door was framed inside a different opening that was a standard size- why? Of course it isn’t  the size we purchased because we didn't know the the other frame was there. Have I mentioned I regularly swear at dead people? The previous “header” was a 2x4.

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We found these keys behind the trim when we took the door out. We actually found 4 all in total.

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We found this shoe box top in the wall above the door.

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Taking the door out.

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The old door is out- did I mention it was cold? Just the day you want I giant hole in your house.

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Fitting the new door.

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The header that doesn’t extend to the jack or king studs and the cripples above that don’t touch the header- sigh.

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