Monday, August 3, 2009

Book #15 and The Baking Day

Just finished book no. 2 in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, entitled The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. There were a few parts in this book that had me almost rolling on the floor in laughter. I'm looking forward to finishing the remaining books in the Guide, but I'm going to put a non-fiction in between each of them. The problem is, I have to go buy one! Or get one from the library. I'm interested in reading either Shepharding a Child's Heart or Bringing Up Boys next. I did go to Borders over the weekend, but I bought The Reader, which I'd planned on reading at a later time. Shouldn't be too much trouble to go to the library tomorrow.

Last Thursday, the day we had our friends over for dinner for Omaha steaks, I had a baking day. After my zucchini blog, I was inspired to try that chocolate chip orange zucchini bread recipe again. I have to say, after baking it this time, that I think the chocolate chips are totally out of place in this recipe. I also made an orange glaze to drizzle over top of the loaves, but I made too much of it and it made the loaves way too sweet. I was not impressed. I also made chocolate chip banana bread (always a crowd-pleaser), and homemade brownies, not from a boxed mix. They were great! By the way...Omaha steaks...totally overrated!

Remodeling has begun on the spare bedroom, which will be Josiah's new room. Keith also decided to do the hallway upstairs as well. Keith ripped out all of the baseboard and trim, closet doors, etc. He puttied (sp?) all of the holes, built bulkheads to install new, shorter closet doors in both the spareroom and the closet, and tore up all of the carpeting and padding in the hallway right down to the plywood. I have to say, I already think the plywood is an improvement over the carpeting that was there.

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day after church painting the spare bedroom. I chose a light tan/beige color called Lynhurst Gallery Beige. I admit, it's a bit darker than I would have liked for a toddler's room, but once it all dried it really looked great. For the hallway, which I am painting this evening, I chose Lynhurst Timber, which is darker than the color in Josiah's new room.

Tomorrow we will head on out to Home Depot for hardwood flooring, trim, and closet doors. The trim and closet doors will be painted an ultra-white semi-gloss. I'm excited to pick out the hardwood flooring, but discouraged at how expensive it is! We're also toying around with the idea of installing hardwood on the steps, with a carpet runner down the middle. I hesitate only because we have such small children who are or will be just learning to go down steps. Isaac has already taken one spill down the steps, top to bottom, and while he didn't get hurt, it was still upsetting. I can't imagine how bad it would be falling down hardwood steps. But can we install a carpet runner ourselves? Or do we have to pay a professional? Bottom line is, in the end, it will look ridiculous to have a nice, freshly painted hallway and stairwell, nice new hardwood floors in the hallway, and the old crappy carpet running down the steps. We shall see. We shall see.

1 comment:

Denise Bryant said...

Your baking "thing" sounds... weird. But the banana bread and brownies sound yummy!

Hardwood floors will look SO nice up there. A huge way to improve the look. I don't think that kids will get hurt on hardwood stairs if you have a runner up them, or at least hurt more than fully carpeted stairs. I think kids get hurt more by being twisted oddly when falling than the actual impacts. I will enjoy your home improvements from afar, as they sound like a ton of work!!