Take Your Family to Work Day

PREFACE



Sander's job change meant he went from working an easy, breezy 34 hours a week to over 50 hours per week. {When I think about that, it's like realizing he works two extra days a week.} Combine that fact with the fact that he is gone before we wake up in the morning and thus passes out from exhaustion on the couch in the evenings, and you get a nice picture of how things have been, well, an adjustment for us.

Yesterday evening he asked if we wanted to come along with him today to Fort Collins while he did a bit of troubleshooting and put out some fires. He's been doing lots of that lately, putting out fires.

The truth is that a couple weeks ago he mentioned going up to Loveland in the afternoon {he's been rushing up to Loveland like crazy lately} and I asked if the kids and I could tag along--drop him off at the site, go to a park, maybe hit up that antique mall in Longmont, pick him back up and grab dinner together--but he said no, it wouldn't work. I won't lie, I was disappointed. Feels like we never see him these days...but super proud of how hard he works too.

So yesterday he invites us up to Ft. Collins and at first I was all like, "Oh, no, we'll be in the way..." {even though it totally sounded better than waking up by myself at 7 a.m. to three energetic children, staying home with chores, schoolwork, and discipline all day, and hoping he made it home and wouldn't be sent to any of the four corners of Colorado to clean up a mess someone else made, waiting for him to come home for dinner, putting the kids to bed together, and finally watching him pass out on the couch, and wow this was a long interjection here...} ...where was I? Oh yeah, so then he was like, "No, really. I want you to come, it will be fun."

So after stopping by the office, he stopped by home with a cure for my morning zombie mom syndrome Starbucks drink and we were on our way to Ft. Collins.

Miles he drives a week: 4,593

Phone calls he gets every day: 56,029,284 {x 2}

Complaints his boss says he's gotten from customers 

since Justin started working for him: 0

The first stop was at a place called Timnath {which I'm told is said TIM-nuth and not tim-NAAAATH} whereupon I saw lots of fields and farmland. This is the place he talks about having to go to all the time. The middle of nowhere, except a handful of builders decided it would be a great place to build a chunk of suburbs. Nice, tidy little neo-eclectic homes lined up like "little boxes, on the hillside" and I'm pretty sure they're made of, you betcha, ticky tacky. And they all look just the same. {♫There's a green greenish-beige one and pink pinkish-beige one and a blue bluish-beige one and a yellow yellowish-beige one...♫}

"People live up here?!" I exclaimed.

"If you build it, they will come." said Kevin Costner, in my head only 

{which is the best way to experience Kev}.

Though I will admit, new homes are nice and clean feeling. They don't have lead paint and asbestos, so they win there. And new homes have nice amenities like a pool house community center with multiple water slides, and that was exactly where I dropped off my husband. The community center's Control4 system needed fixing. My husband's company has only ONE Control4 expert, and it's him. {And that needs to change, but that's another blog post that no one will want to read.} I drove around the neighborhood admiring how Timnath has designed their neo-eclectic peppered neighborhood with larger sidewalks like they did back in the good old days, then I finally found the playground my husband had directed me toward {it was behind the pool, gotcha}.

He could hardly contain his excitement.

"Just take his pants off," said the grandma at the park when I fretted about Pax getting wet

"Water features"

Pool/community center

We played for an hour and got soaked in the playground's water feature {which was a puddle, created by sprinklers}. Then we drove into an area of Fort Collins that led me to text my sister, "I'm driving through a ghetto. In Fort Collins?! Mind blown." She texted back, "La Porte?" and I said, "Sorry, probably shouldn't say 'ghetto'. Trailer park full of hoarders and a few neglected alpacas." Then I told her how Fort Collins makes me remember fondly taking day trips up, solo or with one small baby, to see her and her babies. I miss her living a mere hour away. And College Ave will always remind me of the autumn we saw her off to live in her dorm at CSU. I digress. Sheet.

This time the destination was a gas station. Yes, a gas station. And it came to pass that Justin was able to fix the security cameras that the gas station owner couldn't connect to from his cozy neo-eclectic home in California.

His tasks for the day were complete {we thought} and so I drove us to Downtown Fort Collins and parked and texted my sister, "Where shall we eat?" and she doth did reply, "Coopersmiths. Or go to Little Bird for coffee and such and you're the best sister ever." {Bea, I know if you're reading this you know I'm taking liberties with my writing and as an author, you get that. Like how you write about me only thinking mom was trying to push me off that cliff that one time when I was 8, but we both know she really meant to.}

Bourbon burger

This is called "beer"

Fish 'n' chips

So it came to pass that we had lunch at Coopersmith's. Justin and I split/shared a bourbon burger and their fish and chips {BEST. FISH.N.CHIPS. IN. THE.GALAXY UNIVERSE.} and the kids were lame and wanted things like CORN DOGS off the kids menus, even though--you know--when in Rome, but get this: they had rootbeermilk. Read that right? Yes, root-beer-MILK. Justin and I took 10% tax of their drinks and decided rootbeermilk is awesome and delicious and might just be the answer to how when I order a root beer float I only drink the creamy root beer and leave the ice cream left over. Basically, someone took that concept and turned it into ROOTBEERMILK and it's, frankly, 50 Shades of Delicious. An' I'ma havta find mysef a way to mayk dat at home, yo. #word

Also, their Octoberfest beer is stunning, in spite of the fact that they don't spell it 'Oktoberfest', NEIN! We split that too. Good gracious. What we've lacked lately in minutes spent together, we made up in calories today. #ihavealifethatsgood

Little Bird

So it came to pass that we were on our way back to the car and Sander detoured me toward Little Bird coffee shop--albeit our tummies full of crispy fish, bourbon beef, and rootbeermilk, and just typing this makes me wonder where I stored the Pepto Bismol--and ordered himself a couple cookies and myself a coffee. #tums

I texted my sister, "Thanks for the suggestions! We ate at both. It's your fault my diet is ruined." Or something like that.

That was our day, I'm only leaving out the 50,001 phone calls my husband takes during the day to direct his team and connect with the boss. He is a busy man. In fact, he's been losing weight lately, I've noticed. Wasting away because he's working long hours and doesn't eat lunch or breakfast most days. Well, darngabbit, he ate well today!

"I should take a page from your book." I said.
"Overworking and not eating? I don't think so, honey."

Touche.

On our way back home, Sander decided to detour into Brighton to fix a model home that was on the list for tomorrow. I didn't mind, we decided there was plenty of time. I had never been to Brighton before, actually, and realized it's not a suburb at all. It's like it's own little old town. Mind blown. Again. We waited in the parking lot--even though I sort of did want to see inside these adorable model homes which were Stapleton cute {and had the mini-yards to match} even if they were made out of beige ticky-tacky--because going into pristine model homes with three tired and messy little ones would be stupid.

Little boxes...

We can't always tag along with Daddy, but for today we got to spend some much needed time together. I don't think we've had this sort of mellow day in months.

Find model homes, look for flags

Window shopping Ft. Collins

Selfies in Downtown Ft. Collins

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a husband to transport from couch to bed. Even though he had plans to watch a movie with me this evening. Zzzzz.....

Post edit: he just downed a Red Bull to try and keep his promise of watching a movie with me. This is like, one of the sweetest things he's ever done...drank a Red Bull just to spend time with me. (͡๏̯͡๏)

END PREFACE

Guess what?

Kitchen Makeover - Part One

Yes, that is our kitchen. Now you know why I haven't shared many photos or much of anything about our kitchen. It's not horrible, but it's nothing to write home about either. Look, I recently read THIS POST which makes SUCH a great point regarding remodeling, redecorating, and home decor--and what is really important. I'm going to stop you here, GO. READ. THAT. POST. Then come back and we'll talk.

Done? Good. So don't get me wrong, we have a kitchen and it works and it's a wonderful thing! Yay! Our house came with a kitchen! {And a kitchenette in the basement, well shoot, we're rich.} I've been struggling lately with my priorities and daily life. I've experienced a paradigm shift and have realized in a way I've never experienced before that we don't have much time here and most of what I've been doing with my life is unimportant. Oh boy...that sounds really depressing doesn't it? I'm not depressed, actually, I'm {intensely} looking to the clouds with anticipation, if you get my drift. I need to be more careful when I'm driving.

So it's been a struggle to convince myself not to give up on the hobbies and things I used to indulge all my free time and effort into. It felt unnatural at first, to focus some of myself back onto materials and things and appearances, but I'm getting into this kitchen makeover thing now in an effort to keep busy. We've officially started the project.

Our kitchen is subtly dated--by that I mean, it doesn't have avocado green appliances or shag carpeting, just 90s touches and disgusting tile and grout. And yellowed linoleum that we don't care to tear up because asbestos. I haven't felt much motivation to be in there, decorate, or put much effort into the kitchen. It never feels clean.

When we bought our house, we fantasized about knocking down the wall that borders the living room. In fact, we've been in several open houses here since moving in, and seen our same model updated in the same way, knocking down the wall and opening up the kitchen. Oh yes, we thought we'd ditch the galley kitchen setup and open the kitchen up. We had plans for an island, all new appliances. We also realized that was going to cost at least $20k, if we did it right and to code. Basically...it was never going to happen any time soon.

But a funny thing happened when we moved in and started using this kitchen for a couple months: we started liking it. Surprising to both of us, a few months in we found ourselves having an evening conversation along the lines of, You know, I really do actually like the kitchen this way. Our rental home had a galley kitchen also, however, it was a dead-end galley kitchen and was 18 inches narrower. Those details make a huge difference. Also, we have a surprising bit of extra cupboard space, this kitchen is bigger than it appears. It's plenty for us.

A few cosmetic updates will be just the ticket. No need to replace the cupboards, they are so sturdy and well built, 1957 quality--they don't make 'em like they used to, ya know? So a handful of cosmetic updates is the plan. We're having fun so far with this project. I think.

Dude, there's tile on our window sills. All of them. With the worst, most dirty looking grout. It looks gritty, it ain't pretty. I want it gone, gone, gone. It's in our bedrooms too, and I've been painting glossy white it to match our trim. But that's like putting a Band-Aid on a festering wound.

Since we've moved in, we've gotten two quotes from two big window replacement companies--the best of the best--and while we'd like to have our 1957 crank-style, poorly insulated windows replaced ASAP...it's not cheap. But here's the thing about remodeling or DIY makeovers: there is a domino effect. You want a new countertop? Might as well update the sink while you're at it. And the tile MUST be replaced if you're going to mess with the countertop. If you're going to replace the tile, you should go ahead and do the window while you're at it. So Justin decided to be brave and attempt a window replacement on his own.

Yes! Yes! Yes!!!

GOODBYE TILED WINDOW SILL! Buh-bye now! Buh-bye!

I will admit it: I had my doubts. I wasn't sure. {I also freaked out when he started the project--which included cutting out the METAL window frame with a sawzall--and he forgot to tape off the window and use a mask and the kids were around. A 1957 window means LEAD, friends. So I made him call Poison Control to see if we needed to have our kids' blood tested before he moved on. All is well.}

It was an intimidating project {to me} but he did it. The window has been replaced! Will he do all of them? I don't know...we really want higher quality {than what you can buy at Home Depot} windows in the rest of the home, and taking out all those metal frames would be a nightmare. What, with the LEAD and the NOISE and the WIFE freaking out. Oh, and we're thankful for our neighbor, "Handy Dan", who--despite his recent hip replacements--is still kicking and hardworking. He was able to help Justin out when he hit a tricky spot, and loaned us his crow bar as well as an heirloom tomato and a few heads of garlic from his garden. {He actually did the roof on our house!} We have some eggs set aside for him and his wife.

So with Justin working on the final touches on the window, and the kids distracted with Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit {Haven't seen it? Watch it, it's British humor, creative art, and family entertainment at it's very best--what other animated film can you watch and see the artist's fingerprints all over it?} I got to work on killing this tile!

Oh man... this felt good to do. Whoever did this tile job could not possibly have been a professional. {Not that we are either, but we've tiled before and done much better than this.} Wavering, uneven sandy gritty grout lines. Rippled square tile--not offset. I was so pleased to take a chisel and a hammer and take out all my rage on this tile. I was all like, TOWANDA!!!!

I should tell you about my vision, the kitchen-to-be. See, it involves an apron sink, see? :::taps cigar and wiggles eyebrows::: Because I've always wanted an apron sink. Like, always. Our home didn't come with one, our rental didn't have one, our previous homes didn't have one, my Barbie Folding Fun House didn't even have one. Now, I have one.

New sinks can be expensive, especially fireclay apron sinks. Thankfully, IKEA has a very affordable one, the Domsjö comes in a single bowl or a double bowl. The double won't fit our kitchen unless we hacked into the silverware drawer, but I also really prefer a single bowl. I just dew.

Imagine my heartbreak when we arrived at IKEA this past weekend, for their special deduct-your-restaurant-tab-from-your-purchase sale, only to find that they were INDEFINITELY. OUT. OF. STOCK!

I went through the several stages of sink grief at this point. First I doubted, No, this can't be true. Second, I pouted. Third, I snapped at my husband who snapped back {we were hungry too}. Fourth, I snapped at my kids {they were fussy...because they were hungry}. And finally, I accepted, I'm never going to get my apron sink! Woe is me. Can the world just end?

So, we had lunch and planned to get the countertops that day instead.

Long story short: With our food receipt in hand, we headed back up to the kitchen section. Spoke to IKEA employee. I'd Googled enough during lunch to learn that this sink has been backordered for EIGHT. MONTHS. I'd also read that a few were making it into stores here and there, and that many stores had a waiting list. I hoped to get on that waiting list. Instead, the employee told us she believed they had TWO--2!!!--in stock at the moment. She called down to the warehouse, had ours reserved--DIBS!--and we paid right there in the kitchen section. Yes!!! There is hope of owning an apron sink before the world ends after all!

The next day, the last day of the sale, we went back for lunch and to buy our countertops. We strapped them to the top of our Volvo and carefully drove down I-25...for a 1/4 mile before I made Justin exit and take the long way because I have visions of the wind ripping these things off and killing a family of four in the SUV behind us. {My blasted imagination combined with my anxiety at it's best.}

And so, our little kitchen makeover has begun. {I can't call it a remodel, right? Since we're not knocking out a wall, I think.} Part 2 will hopefully show our removal of the old counter tops and the installation of the sink. I'm chomping at the bit to get going, but alas, we have to wait for FedEx to deliver the new faucet. {Although I'm trying to convince my husband that we can drag dirty dishes down to the basement sink for the time being, so far he's hesitant. I bought paper plates. He's still hesitant.}


Cheers,
Heather, tile killer