Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

Wow, it’s been almost 10 days since I’ve posted. Miss me? Honestly, I haven’t had much to say and things have been pretty quiet here at Casa Kirks. The bathroom is still under construction. By now, you’re probably wondering what kind of slacker we’ve hired, but I can assure you it’s not all Pavel’s fault. The original job was to install a new floor, replace the vanity, paint the walls and fix the garage ceiling. Along the way, we added new flooring and paint on the opposite side, another vanity, new lighting and new shower tile. Basically, we did what Pavel had suggested in the first place: we started over. I think the reason we were so hesitant to completely remodel the bathroom was that we didn’t want to trash any of the original fixtures. Everything in the bathroom, except for the sinks and toilets, was original. And I think it’s been well established that we adore our house in its original form. Problem was that in removing the old floor to fix the water damage, the vanity had to be removed since the damage leaked under it. Since the vanity was built in, it fell apart upon removal. It didn’t take too long before one new piece led to another. By the time we got to the new tile, we decided to bite the budget bullet and just add new light fixtures as well. Don’t tell Pavel, but his advice was right in the first place!

The warm weather last weekend allowed us to clean out the garage once again. I had worked on it the Saturday before the blizzard, but we needed to move Steve’s workbench so Pavel could access the ceiling to fix it. This time we actually stored some stuff in the attic and filled a couple of boxes with garage sale/donation crap. Once the ceiling is fixed and the bench is moved back, everything should look nice and organized.

This weekend we’re going to take a short road trip to Kansas City to celebrate our 15th anniversary, which is Monday, February 28th. Technically, we don’t have an actual anniversary this year since we got married on the 29th, but we always celebrate on the 28th. We were going to stay at home, but Steve scored us a free hotel room and the idea of getting away is really appealing to us. We’re planning on dinner at Michael Smith’s restaurant. We ate there last August and loved it. I’m currently planning my outfit for the event. Right now I’m thinking about my tuxedo pants with a sequined t-shirt and jean jacket. It’s all about mixing dressy with casual. Naturally, I’ll be sporting some awesome shoes. Pics to come of those!

That’s all the news that’s fit to print.

Outwardly, I poo-poo Valentine’s day as a sham holiday made up by the Hallmark people to sell more cards. Inwardly, I want the whole cliche. I want to be woo’d, have flowers delivered to me, be showered with gifts and candy and generally be treated like a princess. I tell everyone, Steve included, that we can just skip Valentine’s Day since our anniversary is a mere two weeks later, but deep down inside I hope to be spoiled a little. If you are one of about three people who saw the 1994 movie “Only You,” you may remember what I consider the most romantic gesture in cinema history. Marisa Tomei plays a woman who flies to Italy in search of her soulmate, a man she knows only by name. Robert Downey, Jr. plays a guy who’s in love with her, but isn’t “the one” since he doesn’t have the correct name. As she’s getting ready for an evening with the man she thinks she’s destined to be with, RDJ shows up with a pair of custom-made shoes to go with her dress. He’s a shoe rep and knows her size and style. Naturally, the shoes not only fit her perfectly, but coordinate with the dress as well. Now that’s what I call romantic!

With all this tough-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside crap I keep dishing out, you can imagine how pleased I was to receive a lovely surprise at work in the form of a flower delivery. Steve sent me a wonderful arrangement of potted tulips, daffodils, hyacinth and ivy along with some other flowers I can’t identify. It was so nice and very unexpected. They are lovely and I loved that I never saw them coming.

So while the potted flowers aren’t custom-made shoes, I consider them a wonderfully romantic gesture. Thank you, Steve for a wonderful Valentine’s Day surprise!

Outwardly, I poo-poo Valentine’s day as a sham holiday made up by the Hallmark people to sell more cards. Inwardly, I want the whole cliche. I want to be woo’d, have flowers delivered to me, be showered with gifts and candy and generally be treated like a princess. I tell everyone, Steve included, that we can just skip Valentine’s Day since our anniversary is a mere two weeks later, but deep down inside I hope to be spoiled a little. If you are one of about three people who saw the 1994 movie “Only You,” you may remember what I consider the most romantic gesture in cinema history. Marisa Tomei plays a woman who flies to Italy in search of her soulmate, a man she knows only by name. Robert Downey, Jr. plays a guy who’s in love with her, but isn’t “the one” since he doesn’t have the correct name. As she’s getting ready for an evening with the man she thinks she’s destined to be with, RDJ shows up with a pair of custom-made shoes to go with her dress. He’s a shoe rep and knows her size and style. Naturally, the shoes not only fit her perfectly, but coordinate with the dress as well. Now that’s what I call romantic!

With all this tough-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside crap I keep dishing out, you can imagine how pleased I was to receive a lovely surprise at work in the form of a flower delivery. Steve sent me a wonderful arrangement of potted tulips, daffodils, hyacinth and ivy along with some other flowers I can’t identify. It was so nice and very unexpected. They are lovely and I loved that I never saw them coming.

So while the potted flowers aren’t custom-made shoes, I consider them a wonderfully romantic gesture. Thank you, Steve for a wonderful Valentine’s Day surprise!

There’s a good reason why I don’t buy houses that need remodeling: I don’t like messes. I like putting my house in order and keeping it that way. The other reason I don’t like renovating is that it always takes longer and costs more than is expected.

It all began with a leak. Steve and I had been out to dinner and came home to water dripping from the ceiling in the garage. We discovered the upstairs toilet was leaking and the floor was ruined. Because our house still has the original parquet floors from the 70s, we couldn’t just patch the area. We decided to enter a claim on our insurance to cover the floor and ceiling damage. Of course, there would be more to come. The vanity had to be removed and, since it was built into the wall, it was damaged upon removal and had to be rebuilt. In the beginning, Pavel (our contractor) suggested we gut the whole thing and start new. No, we insisted, we didn’t have the budget to do that and we just wanted the damage repaired. One thing led to another and we decided to replace the floor and vanity on the other side of the bathroom so both sides matched. Once the paint was on the walls, the tile in the shower started looking even worse. You can see where this is going…

So, to recap, a damaged floor leads to a complete bathroom remodel. The good news is that we have the cash to do it and it’s going to look great. The bad new is that my house is still a wreck and there’s no end in sight. I promise a lot of photos once it’s done.

I think all adults deserve a snow day now and then. Not one of those days where you have to take a vacation day or pay a sitter to deal with the kids, but a real day when offices close due to the weather and you get a bonus. Yesterday was just that kind of day. For me, that is. Steve worked from home because, well, he’s a computer guy and the Internet didn’t shut down for him.

In the almost 35 years The Harem has been in business, Kathi has never closed the store due to the weather. I was prepared to go in, even though Steve found the whole idea absurd. I assured him that the store hadn’t closed during the ice storm so I was assuming it wouldn’t close for blizzard-like conditions, but an early morning text from Kathi said we were closed. Hooray! I could lounge around in my jammies and drink coffee as long as I wanted! Screw you, snow! I didn’t have to leave the house!

After lunch, I decided it needed to be productive so I spent a few hours in the studio working on my current pieces and polishing some work I’m planning on having photographed next week. A phone call from a friend told me that I should be baking because that’s what everyone else was doing, so I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. This is a Kirks family recipe that makes the best chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever eaten. Really. They are awesome. I assembled the dough and preheated the oven while Steve went outside to attempt to shovel the driveway (even though snow was still coming down). The first batch came out of the oven and fell completely flat. Hmm. Weird. That had never happened, but I wondered if my dough was too warm. Since I’d put the bowl in the ‘fridge between batches, I figured the second round would fare better. Nope, still flat. I sent a picture to my father-in-law who diagnosed the problem as expired baking soda. He said it wouldn’t affect the taste, and he was correct. But they look really crappy so I threatened to throw them away. Steve said he’d take them to the office, but would assure everyone that I did know how to bake and this was a fluke batch. Whew! Reputation as a good baker will still be intact!

After the Great Cookie Fail of 2011, I decided it was my duty to park myself in front of a roaring fire and watch TV until bedtime. Which is what I did and I loved it. My snow day was fun, a little productive and wonderfully lazy, but I admit I got a little antsy today. I wandered out just long enough to know that the world still existed. Tomorrow it’s back to the routine. The gym is open and I’m going to make up some hours at work, but the weekend is just a day away!

You can blame me for the weather. Really. I take full responsibility. You see, the last time we had really bad weather was the ice storm of 2007. We lost power for nine days. The day the storm started, I had decided we’d renovate the bathroom. The only bathroom we had at the time. The plan was to start and finish the bathroom in three days while using the facilities at our friend Paul’s house about three doors down. Valerie’s husband, Kevin, was helping so we figured we’d have it done in no time. Kevin was ripping out the old floor while Steve went to Lowe’s for the subfloor and backer board. Steve called and informed me it was beginning to ice. I told him we’d be fine and to take his time getting home. Around 8 p.m., the four of us left the house for dinner. We returned and, 15 minutes later, the electricity went out.

Kevin suggested we go to their house for the night since we weren’t going to get any more work done in the dark. We agreed, packed a few things and drove across town. Around midnight, Valerie and Kevin lost their electricity. The next day, Kevin said he and Steve could do a little more work on the floor while Valerie went to work and I went to the mall (retail therapy, you know). It wasn’t long before it became very clear that our power wasn’t going to return any time soon. We eventually moved into Paul’s empty house (which, amazingly, had power) with neighbors Mick and Carrie and set up camp for the duration.Nine days later, the power came back and the bathroom was finished shortly after.

So what does this have to do with the winter storm we’re having now? Well, our upstairs bathroom is in the middle of a renovation. The floor is gone and the toilets are out. Plus, I spent most of the past 24 hours poo-pooing the forecast. I guess the saying is true, “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

In the meantime, I’m grateful I don’t have to go anywhere today, I have electricity, plenty of food and two other bathrooms I can use.

Construction has officially started on the upstairs bathroom and, of course, nothing goes as planned. Pavel was pushing us to replace the vanity from the very beginning and we didn’t want to. The main reason is that it was an original feature  in the house and we’re all about preserving the look. Unfortunately, we couldn’t salvage the floor so an update was inevitable.

According to Pavel, the plain vanity I loved so much was equivalent to crappy European government housing. In other words, I have no taste. We argued back and forth as I stated my case for simple cabinetry and  he pushed for something more “interesting” and finally arrived at a compromise: a floating vanity with two doors and a long, shallow drawer. I had to remind him several times that this was MY house and MY style, but Pavel being, well, Pavel, wanted to create something more exciting. In the end, I think it will look great and we’ll both be pleased. And yes, I also pointed out to him that Steve and I were the ones who had to live with the bathroom and it was our money paying for it. You’d have to know Pavel to know he means well.

Today he starts on the floor and I’m really excited. He doesn’t know if he’ll be laying the slate today or tomorrow but the bathroom should be done this week. Pics to follow, I promise!

Last Saturday, my brother-in-law Blair attended an auction in his neighborhood. Unfortunately, he arrived late and most of the truly great pieces were gone, but he spied a set of speakers and a sub-woofer in the corner of the top floor ballroom.  The owners, wanting to get rid of everything, quoted him a price of $35. The set, by Definitive, sold for about $2,700 new. Blair called Steve to get his opinion and Steve told him to just buy it. He said if the set didn’t work in their house, we’d buy it from them for what he paid.

Because Blair had recently bought an even better set of speakers from a friend, he decided to sell us the Definitive set for the staggering sum of $35. We met in Kansas City last weekend and came home with our new speakers and sub-woofer. Steve originally wanted to remove the speakers that came with the house (and are inside specially-built cabinets) but he decided to set it up in the dining room. We had also inherited an old amp when we bought the house, and had a Pioneer turntable we weren’t using, so he set them up in the dining room. The amp isn’t great, but the speakers are amazing. The sound travels upstairs and fills the house. Steve also discovered he could hook up his iPhone and play his Pandora radio through the system. I prefer vinyl.

I had put a record rack in the upstairs game room just to store my unplayable vinyl, but I brought it downstairs so we could move some albums near the new stereo for some upstairs music. This morning I started with a little Chet Atkins and have now moved on to some Eydie Gorme. I am loving this system!

Well, Side A is almost done and I need to go downstairs and flip the record.

Almost every spring Steve starts assessing our grill situation. He talks about how we need a new one, how the old one isn’t good enough, how it doesn’t get hot enough, it’s too small, it takes too long to heat up, etc, etc. Then he starts shopping at stores and online. He compares prices, he looks at models, he obsesses about features and styles. In the end, he always wants one grill: the Weber Genesis. Problem is that the darned thing is just really expensive and, well, we’re cheap.

By the time late summer/early fall hits, Steve scours the local hardware stores in search of a bargain. Many of the floor models are now on sale, but the prices just never seem to drop enough. A dent or scratch usually doesn’t bother him, but the price must be right. Sunday we were at Lowe’s and he saw the last remaining floor model on sale for $200 off the regular price. He started talking again about how much he wanted it and how it was his dream grill. Yesterday morning I made the decision to get it for him for our anniversary.

I called my father-in-law Pete, since he has a truck, to see if he would be willing to meet me at Lowe’s after work to pick it up. He was in and reminded me that he even gets his Lowe’s employee 10% discount even though he’s retired. Excellent! I called the store to see if they would hold it for me and that’s when I got the bad news: the floor model was for natural gas only. Rats! I was determined to get this for Steve so I called Sutherlands to see if they still had the model we’d looked at last summer. It was a higher-end model with a side burner so I knew it would be a little more, but I was hoping for a deal. The woman told me it was on sale for 30% off, $90 more than Lowe’s, and she wouldn’t budge on the price. I called Pete but he’d left the house and forgotten his phone, so I told Diana to give him the message to call me. I decided I’d bite the bullet and pay the extra money for this model.

In the meantime, Pete had left the house to go to Lowe’s to see the grill. He discovered what I knew (the grill was natural gas) and went over to Sutherlands too (great minds think alike). He then called to tell me he’d managed to talk the store into matching the Lowe’s price. Score! He also asked if they’d honor his military discount of an additional 10% off, but they refused since they were already giving him a bargain on the grill. No problem because I was just excited to be saving $90 at this point. When we arrived at the store, the employee who rang us up gave Pete his military discount anyway which meant I got the grill for almost half price! Score, again! I was so excited about all of it. Not only did I get a good deal, I had the cash to buy it, I had Pete available to haul it home in his truck and I had great neighbors who were at home and able to help haul it off the truck and onto the deck.

When Steve got home, I told him I wanted to cook out and that I’d already started the grill. He looked at me like I was nuts (it was snowing outside and really cold). I told him that was fine but asked if he’d go out and turn off the grill since he was still wearing his coat. I could tell his patience was wearing thin with me. That is, until he opened the blinds and saw what was on the deck. He couldn’t believe it. Happy Anniversary, I yelled. Although the actual day isn’t until February 29th, I knew this couldn’t wait and I couldn’t wait to give it to him. He was so excited! He immediately hooked up the propane tank and started it up. Then he went inside and started looking up information on it on the Internet. He went on and on about how this was really the grill he wanted and how he couldn’t believe I’d done it.

Tonight we will use it for the first time. I told him to stop at the store and get whatever he wanted to cook for dinner. Happy Anniversary (six weeks early) Steve!

I’m sure many people would agree that their high school years are best left behind. I am not one of those people. I truly enjoyed my high school experience and have many fond memories. Last night, those memories came to life once again as part of the Greenwood Class of ’84 met for dinner.

When you attend school with the same people for 13 years, and your classes are only 30 people large, you tend to bond tightly. More than half our class was together from kindergarten through graduation and most of the other half was there from junior high on. We fought, we teased, we joked and we laughed and I think of those people as my family even if it’s been 20+ years since I’ve seen them.

I won’t bore you with the stories (and some should remain top secret), but last night, just for a few hours, I was 18 again. And I loved it. Thank you, everyone, for a memorable evening. Let’s not wait another 20+ years to get together again.