Kitty Snuggles

The work conference in Orlando took place the other week, and I learned a bunch of good stuffs that I will be sharing with my coworkers. I slipped in a few tips on how to plan better as a Dosimetrist on the software we use under the guise that I was taught these things at the meeting. Otherwise, I think some of them may take offense.

At the work conference, I displayed my research poster (and don't know if anyone ended up looking at it), attended some seminars and workshops, learned that I ranked 3rd place out of 220 submissions and 770 registrants in the Sun Nuclear Plan Challenge (WOOOO!), met up with old friends from school, spent some time in the humid heat with my mom at Universal Orlando (check out dems photos in the Instagram reel), and wished that we could get some of the rain from these afternoon thunderstorms over to California.

I was glad to come back home to my cats. It's funny, the last time I was at Yoga Nidra the instructor asked us to think about our happy place, and my mind went to snuggling up in bed with my cats. LOL. My mom thought of the exact same scenario with her cat. Cats are the best. 

This 4th of July weekend I made an effort to paint my brother's room in a day. Didn't quite manage all of it, just three walls, but at least it didn't mess with his Twitch streaming schedule. It looks really good! We chose a light gray and a dark gray. The door-side wall and opposing wall were all dark gray, and the other walls were dark gray on bottom 40% and light gray on top 60%. He's really happy with how it looks; much better than the baby blue it was when we moved in.

I think the only rooms we (I) haven't painted are the guest bath and the master bath... But my next project will be painting the wood grid within the window frames black. 

Help me, I'm poor.

Wait. Did November happen? It's suddenly December!

Since my family is broke this year we aren't doing presents for Christmas. Instead, my mom and I are going to use my consumer credit cards to finance home improvement purchases for, unfortunately, the old house instead of the new house. The old house is having a hard time selling, and when we did repaint it a couple months ago, if you remember, we rushed through it and didn't verify colors and it ended up turning into a putrid mess of gross bleghs for your eyes. We're taking the thing off the market for a while to try and fix it. Do it right this time. Pick nice, modern and neutral colors. Unfortunately my mom isn't keen on changing the trim colors, which can actually be really constraining on palette choices. We'll see how it works out. Wish us luck. On the lawn we're going to try to grow in the backyard, too! Time to work off our Thanksgiving calories in painting and yard work. Gross and yay at the same time.

Thanksgiving was a grand ol' time. I invited a friend of mine from work who currently doesn't have any family in town (they are in Korea, booo) and she is super preggers and nice/friendly, so that was fun. She learned how to play Yahtzee and really enjoyed it and my brother being his goofball self. My mom and I decided we weren't going with a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year (turkey is not my first choice any day). The menu ended up involving olive oil and chili powder marinated rib eye roast, boiled then baked red potatoes with caramelized onions, and sauteed zucchini, carrots, and roasted garlic. Literally the most perfect meal of all time, and I am surprising myself by saying I am confident I can replicate it. WOW.

In case I follow my current trend of hardly updating ever, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Renovation Update III

These photos are rather dark, so the colors are a bit off... but you get the idea! Here is the kitchen pre-appliance installation!

 Lookin' pretty snazzy! So far, we have had the dishwasher and stove installed. My first cooked meal in the house was potstickers! We wanted it to be either broiled salmon or banana pancakes but my mom wasn't going to be home when I cooked and I didn't want to have anything fancy by myself. Oh, well!

The refrigerator, on the other hand, is still in the garage. The installation people were apparently not qualified to move the refrigerator from the garage to the kitchen, so now I have to call "delivery" people instead. Honestly, with all the money I've been spending, I'm just going to go ahead and wait to schedule that particular appointment. I don't mind going out to the garage to get food for a while.

Some paint touch ups still need to be made to the trim and some of the wall and cabinetry, as well as having my cabinet guy re-drill some of the drawers he messed up on. That was a whole lot of drama I really didn't want to deal with, but at least he's still going to fix it on his own expense. Maybe deep down he knows he effed up even though he's verbally blaming everyone but himself for his mistakes.

I'll probably put in some final photos once all the appliances are in, but this is about it! I'm happy to report that I am no longer brewing coffee in my master bathroom anymore.

Renovation Update II

Lots of fiascos and stresses have been going on at the house over the kitchen renovation. The tile I ordered was poorly represented by the sample piece I used to select it. The sample piece appeared to have a nice, clean look, but when the tile arrived, the other pieces were so much more rustic feeling and it would not have fit in well.

As a result, I had to go tile shopping again and was able to find a replacement for less money and still looks good. It's just a shame that I can't return the other tiles without a massive restocking fee, so I'm saving them for another project in another room for another time.

My mom and I were stressing out about money, and she'd been itching to put her past home on the market, which finally happened this week. The agent she's working with had suggested she paint some of the rooms a grayish color to replace the midtone yellows and greens, only there was yet another fiasco with the painter not getting the right swatch, so the walls looked terribly white against the existing yellow trim and it didn't match the existing floors or fireplace... So we had to tell him to stop and find a new swatch to use, and now the issue has been fixed to some extent, though still ugly and not even gray, which wouldn't look good with yellow, anyway. We wish we could have left it as it was before, which honestly looked a lot better. So sad.

But the cabinets have been put in, the backsplash is up, lighting, sink, faucet, garbage disposal, and dishwasher are all in! Unfortunately we were lead to believe that the dishwasher was ready to use when our carpenter said it's "all hooked up", so when we turned the thing on we were surprised to find smoke instead of water. The water wasn't turned on! At least it was under warranty. That's what they're for, kids. So we have a repair specialist coming this weekend to fix whatever damage we may have caused.

All that is left to do now is tile the floors with the replacement tiles that should be delivered today, installing the rest of the appliances, and adding knobs and pulls into the cabinet door and drawer faces. I expect I should have some before/after photos some time next week! Hooray!

Renovation Update I

After having been without internet or television for over a week now, I've come to realize that there is actually a benefit to this scenario: shit actually gets done. Yep, our to-do projects are actually being checked off. On the other hand, having to do all these projects makes my weekends feel like continuous weekdays. I can't help but look forward to our cable installation next week so I can catch up on my shows. Potatoes gonna potate.

So far I've done a lot of packing and spray painting brass fixtures. There was a whole week of purchasing and returning sink and vent hood products before everyone actually came together and communicated about what could work. That was really frustrating. I had to call and make order cancellations probably five separate times. We figured out why ventilation hasn't been put in before for the range, because there's a structural support beam behind the wall that can't be cut through. The cabinet guy and contractor finally got together and settled on bending the vent into the side cabinet and up through the attic space. Finally.

Also, my mom's upstairs bedrooms are finished being painted a pleasant light green color, and the existing wooden built-in bookcase has been painted a creamy color. I personally would have left it as it was, but it's my mom's room, not mine! Her living room space will be painted today and tomorrow.

The kitchen this week is undergoing some plumbing modifications to reroute water to the refrigerator's ice maker, as well as electrical modifications because that apparently wasn't done correctly when the place was re-wired before.

We're also trying to figure out where the under cabinet lighting will be set for my open shelves. I've been having to shop for lighting this weekend, including a sconce over the window where I decided to go cabinet-free. All of my finishing fixtures have taken on a modern element to the design that I think will work with the space. I'm really, really looking forward to seeing the final product!