More paint. Imagine that.

Got up early this morning, and went and prepped the living room and hallway for paint. That took quite some time, as there were a lot of holes and peeling paint and scuff marks on the walls. Sanded off the spackle and laid a layer of white paint. Now it's ready for the light green. I'll probably do that the early part of this week. Once that's done, I get to do the trim in the living room, hallway and dining room. Oh joy.

Phyllis and Glenda came by today to help me. They've been very supportive through all of this. I showed them around, and instead of working, I took them to lunch in Marsing. It made for a nice afternoon break.

Kirk made a killer dinner, and now I'm sleepy.

Jodi

The Cool Part of Painting

So yesterday, Echo and I sorted sheep. She wasn't convinced I knew what I wanted, so we had a heart to heart. I finally got sick of arguing with her. I made it very clear that she is to do what I say and that's it. Afterwards, we got some really good work done. She is just fearless and I love that about her. We had to sort off 5 or 6 sheep to take over to someone's place so they can be walking lawnmowers. We also needed the rams. All of them. One of them (the horned one) was going to go as payment to someone that let us graze on his place this summer, but he decided he didn't want him, and we'll just sell the ram and pay the guy instead. And I needed to bring Pepe and Janie's ram to a friend of Janie's so she could choose a ram to visit with her girls. Well, the rams were none too pleased. Pepe is a "man" now ... not my cute little black ram lamb that I can pick up and kiss all the time. He doesn't even see me as a safe place to be. But man is he gorgeous! I can't wait to see what he puts out as far as babies.

Oh back to the Monster. The horned ram wanted nothing to do with Echo, had no confidence in Echo's abilities, and was going to get rid of her. So he lowered his head and tried to slam her into next week. He was too slow. He got her, but when he pulled his head back, he had a dog firmly attached to his nose. It made a believer out of him, and we didn't have any more problems with him the whole time.

So we loaded them up (that was not easy ... 5 lambs and 3 rams ... go figure) and made our deliveries. I dropped the trailer back off and headed to Marsing for some lunch. Then back to my house to spackle off the living room, and finish up painting the edges of yellow in the dining room. I was rather bummed out about the way the bedroom came out with all of the bleed-through of the black on white, lost interest, and headed back to Janie's for a beer. We figured out a plan for the evening as we were all going to the hoedown, and then Janie told me to go get back to work. Reluctantly, I loaded up the truck and headed out.

I decided to try to clean up the black and white. I can't just leave it there, hating it. So I grabbed a little itty bitty brush, and some white paint, cranked the tunes and went to work. And I think I found the best part of painting! I loved it! I totally have the patience for this type of tedious, time-consuming detail stuff! And it looks great! Janie called me later and said, "We're on our way to pick you up." 2 1/2 hours had gone by and I didn't even realize it! I have a little bit left to do in there, but it's almost completely done now, and I love the way it looks!

Off to the hoedown we went. What an unbelieveably talented bunch of young people ... all led by a very dear friend of Janie's. Amazing! And so fun!

Need to go sand the spackle and start laying the white in the living room.

Laters,
Jodi

A few house pictures

Yesterday, I stopped by my house, and being that I don't have a porch light, I left my headlights on. Was just checking on things on my way to work. It was early in the morning, so the lighting isn't wonderful.





The tree is coming down piece by piece. The guy who is doing it is taking good care not to hit my house, and to clean up his mess. It's very nice.

Here is the oh-so-yellow dining room. The trim will be a forest ... or hunter green.



And here's the black and white bedroom. The closet.



The built-in drawers.



The effect is very dramatic, and I love it. However, there was a lot of bleed-through on the tape, and I will need to go over it with some white paint. You can't see it in the photos, but believe me, it's there.

When I went back out to my truck, my battery was dead. Remember ... I left my headlights on. Rrrrgh. Called roadside. They came and saved me. Weird that I'll be living alone and don't have Justin to take care of this stuff for me. He is coming for Thanksgiving though. We'll probably end up going out to eat. Unless ... Jaenne has a big cook-less plan.

Anyway, I stopped back by the house last night and started to prep the living room walls. Going to deliver sheep to several locations this morning, and then go back by and do all of the spackling and hopefully get the first coat (white) on so I can do the "Pistachio" tomorrow.

Janie is taking me, Kirk and Penny to a Hoedown tonight! I can't wait! My sister sent me a whole box of really cool clothes, so I'll actually have something to wear! Woo hoo! From what I understand, these kids are a talented young bunch!

http://www.idahopress.com/?id=27522

Happy tails,
Jodi

Taylor Swift ... are you KIDDING me????

Country Music Awards "Performer of the Year"??????

 

She doesn't sing country music!!!!!!!  She's a teeny-bopper pop star.  WTF????

 

What. A. Joke.

 

 

Paint, paint and more paint

I went over to the house this morning and prepped the dining room for paint. I also taped the bedroom so I can do the trim. The bedroom trim is tricky because the room is white and the trim will be black, so every little mistake will show up. Once I used the blue painter's tape and taped off all of the trim, I was tempted to leave it there. It looked pretty cool.

I then moved back into the dining room and cut in with a brush everywhere I needed to. (It's a very bright yellow paint.) I then got out the roller and rolled for my very first time ... and it looked awful. I am rolling bright yellow paint over dark ugly army green and burgundy. So it didn't cover very well, and I was very discouraged. So I went back to Janie's for lunch feeling like I wanted to give up and just sell the house (just like every time I run Echo, I am ready to sell her and take up agility instead).

I ate some lunch, snoozed for a few minutes, and then took Echo out to sort off a few sheep for an instinct test I had coming. He showed up and what a great guy! Young and eager, with a cute mixed breed dog that has plenty of heart and want-to. We chatted for a couple of hours. I bid my adieu to him, and went back in the house -- where Janie then pushed me to get my ass back to the house and get painting.

I did.

I put the second coat in the dining room - and what a difference! It looked really nice. I love the color!

Then I broke out the black paint. It was an oil base paint. With the hardwood floors (and all the damage we're doing with just the water based paint), I was really afraid to use it. And ... it didn't mix right anyway. So I went to Walmart and bought some water-based black paint. Met Janie and Penny (Penny is here for a doll restoration seminar that Janie is doing ... she'll be here for two weeks) back at my house, and Penny helped me take off the door handles of the built-in drawers while Janie put on the first coat of black paint for the trim. I think it's going to look great! I haven't taken photos yet, but I will soon.

Tomorrow, after work (yes, I finally have to go back to work, although, I almost welcome it ... I'm tired) I will drop by and do the second coat of the trim, and start prepping the living room for the base coat. Thank doG the ceilings are done.

Happy tails,
Jodi

I've been Janied.

Well, I left the house early this morning and prepared the living room ceiling for painting. The plan was that Janie was going to come over and spray paint the bedroom, and the ceiling in the living room and we'd be done.

Um. That's not quite what happened.

She did the bedroom, did the hallway, and did the living room ... while I was fumbling around underneath her trying to keep paint off of as much stuff as I could (it's amazing because once again I ended up covered in it somehow!).

Then she said, "We might as well do the kitchen ceiling while I have this thing out." !!!!!! What? I haven't even swept out the cobwebs. So now we kick it into high gear, clean out the entire kitchen and start covering stuff up as fast as I can ... and we also moved into the entry room ... and the second bedroom! Yikes! Way more work than I had anticipated. She is a working machine. Unbelievable. So we got the bedroom done, and the ceilings in the hallway, living room, dining room, kitchen, entry way and second bedroom.

Now I get to start rolling the walls and doing trim. Yahooie!

After I got done bitching about it, and whining and groaning and complaining, I was very glad we did it and can move on to bigger and better. Janie will be tied up with a guest for the next two weeks, so I am on my own now. It's all good. I need to learn.

The tree guy came back with his wife and cleaned up most of the mess they made thus far. He'll be back to chop down the rest of the tree in the next few days.

I'm excited. This is starting to come together. After I get painted and moved in, I really need to get my fences up so I can put my sheep out and let them clean up the pastures for me.

Happy tails,
Jodi

Timber!!!!

I went over to the house today and worked on prepping the bedroom for painting. I know this doesn't sound very difficult, but it was actually a lot of work. This place hasn't been occupied in a couple of years, so there's a lot of dust, which needs to be gone in order to spay paint in there. Also, lots of holes in the walls where there were nails and anchors and crap that needed to be spackled, etc. Anyway, it's ready, I think. Janie will be coming by tomorrow to paint it.

The dude that wanted to cut down the tree came this afternoon with his son and a giant boom thing and a very loud chainsaw. The had ropes going and chainsaw buzzing and branches making their way across the driveway. I called my sister and was chatting with her on the phone when BOOM! A large branch hit the house. Apparently, it didn't do any damage, but from the sound of it, I thought I would have seen branches in my living room when I recovered from being startled. This happened a couple of times. One time, it actually wiped out a small piece of siding that he'll replace. I can't believe that was the only "damage." Hearing the logs fall on the concrete pad out there was really loud. That is a huge tree. Well, soon to be not-tree.

I'll post photos tomorrow, hopefully, of the painted bedroom, and the tree-less front of my house.

Oh, and I got internet today! (My computer is still about two weeks away from being hooked up, I would guess, but at least I have something to hook it to now.) Rhonda, you should be getting a free month of internet service. Thanks for the referral!

Jodi