We picked up Rosko and brought him home yesterday! Even though it was just a couple hours after his surgery, he was up and around and moving just fine. He did very well on the car ride home. I don't think he's ever ridden in a car before though, (except when he was picked up as a stray and brought to the shelter), so he wasn't really sure what to do. We didn't want him to have to ride in the bed of the pickup for the hour and a half drive back home from Bonita, but we couldn't coax him into the backseat and there wasn't a good way to lift him back there, so we ended up letting him sit in the front and I sat in the back. Believe me-- that is the first and LAST time that will happen. He didn't much care for the stop and go of traffic, but he loved the wind blowing in from the window.
He spent a couple quiet hours in the storage room while we went to dinner . This is where he is going to spend the days while we're at work until he is settled and trained enough for us to open up the doggie door and give him access to the backyard. After we got home we took him around the house and the yard on the leash and worked on getting him used to walking a little behind us instead of infront of us (important for dominance). He learned very quickly not to bolt out of doors and to wait for Scott and I to walk through first. Scott's dad and Sarah and Eddie were all in the backyard playing darts and it took a few minutes to get comfortable being around so many people, but once he did we let him off the leash and let him run and sniff around.
He was a perfect angel after that. He follows us around submissively, seeks attention but doesn't demand it. He really liked it when I threw and bounced his rubber ball-- he'd take off after it and attack it until it stopped moving, then he'd lose interest in it completely until I threw it again. He didn't give me any problems at all when I took it away from him: even right out of his mouth (also a very good thing for dominance).
He sat in the living room with us and was nice and quiet watching tv. He didn't try to jump up on the furniture at all. I had to take him outside four or five times because he kept sniffing and wanting to mark his territory in the kitchen. Once he had calmed down a lot, I pulled out some training treats and within about ten-fifteen minutes got him to learn "Sit".
Bedtime was pretty interesting. Several sources I've read suggests you give the dog his own bed in your bedroom because they want to sleep with their "pack". We were originally planning on crate training him at night, but the crate we bought for $20 off Craigslist is really too small for him. So, I set up his doggie bed a few feet away from the bed and crossed my fingers he didn't have any accidents during the night. It took him a couple hours after we went to bed to really get settled in. We could hear him going around and sniffing through the room, and scratching, and licking himself (he sounds a lot like a pig and he is definitely not quiet about it). He didn't try to get into bed with us at all and eventually he figured out that the doggie bed was for him.
I think tonight we'll just have to exhuast him a little bit more so he settles down a lot quicker. We've gotten off on the right foot, set some good ground rules, he's picked up on them, and he's started bonding with both of us. I am totally thrilled with how much progress he's made in just one night!
Oct 23, 2008
Oct 19, 2008
Our New Addition
Well, it's something we've been talking about for at least two years and the time has finally come. We're getting a dog!
Rosko the "Pixer"
Rosko is a male boxer/pit bull mix we found at the San Diego County Animal Countrol shelter waaaay down in Bonita. He came in as a stray and has been there since August, so we don't really know anything about his background except he is about 6 months old, possibly a little older. Right now he weighs almost 42 pounds and comes up to a little above the knees. He may get a couple inches taller, and will definitely be filling out. (My guess is to about 60 pounds).
He was very well behaved at the shelter, even with all the stress and distractions going on. He didn't try to jump up on us at all, no signs of aggression, nervousness, nipping, or chewing. He wasn't overly eager for attention nor did he ignore us completely. He really liked running and chasing us around the pen, and even then he was a perfect little gentleman. And he looked very healthy: clear eyes, good teeth, healthy fur, no signs of having been in fights, no limping, etc.
We have to drive back down to Bonita Wednesday afternoon to pick him up. Unfortunately they couldn't get him in for neutering sooner than that and they wouldn't let us take him before the procedure was done.
We assume he is not housebroken and hasn't had any kind of training yet, so we'll be working on that and signing up for obedience classes within the next couple weeks. Scott is working on clearing out some space in the "storage" room behind the garage for him right now. We'll keep him there during the day for the first month or so until he's adjusted, then we'll give him free range between there and the backyard while we're at work.
Sep 22, 2008
House Diaries - Painting, Curtains, and Decor
Labor Day Weekend
This was a major painting weekend at the Snow residence. We both buckled down and knocked out the entire living room (all tan), the hallway (green), and two of the walls in the master bedroom (the red accent wall and the tan windowed wall next to it). The red wall took 3 coats of paint AFTER I put on the bubbblegum pink primer coat. Yes, it was literally bubblegum pink. I have the pictures.
I still definitely have to go back and do some major touch ups, especially where the paint peeled off with the stupid tape, but all-in-all we are a lot closer to being finished than we were before! Painting that still needs to be done: 4 of the 6 walls in the master bedroom plus the arch, the walls in Sarah's room, the yellow walls in the kitchen (behind the washer and dryer), the ceilings in the hallway, bathroom, and dining/kitchen, AND ALL the doors and trim... I guess we're about halfway there.
My favorite part of the weekend was the insane sales that Home Depot and Lowes were having on houseplants! I got three, two that are table plants and one big one that sits on the floor. Cheap terra cota become custom pottery after I painted them with extra wall paint to get a perfect match to our decor.
Scott installed a new sconce light in the hallway (SO much nicer than the one the house came with) AND an outdoor ceiling fan/light out on the back patio. We are officially set up to entertain past dusk now!
We took advantage of the living room being in compelte disarray to rearrange the furniture in there. It actually looks like all 3 bookcases have a valid place now and aren't just crammed in haphazardly because we have no place else to put them.
The big project on my list after painting was curtains. Scott had been complaining about our temporary paper blinds and lack of privacy, etc for a while. Curtains were a little bit of a sore spot with us since we had a very hard time agreeing on what they should look like. I prefer to match the contemporary theme we have going with the rest of the house: monotone, black, red, and brown. Scott wanted something with a little more life. I bought 17 yards of white sheer fabric from JoAnne's, thinking that would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was missing a power cord from the move so that project came to a screaming halt before I could even really get started.
The Next Weekend
I decided to try my luck for curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond, even though I had never seen anything I remotely liked before. I did stumble across these black, tan, and gold striped curtains that ended up working perfectly in the bedrooms. Scott got the curtain rods up and now we are both happy. I also found a red and a tan scarf to go over the living room window, and a matching red scarf to go over the dining room window once we get a rod that actually fits it.
On Thursday I went shopping with my friend Tiffany, Linens N Things in Vista just happened to be having a close out sale. Found a whole new bedset (red and brown) for $56, a black mirror set for above the couch, a couple picture frames, new candle centerpiece set for the coffee table, and a couple other things. Scott actually liked the stuff I picked out, much to my surprise.
Yesterday
I started hanging some of our pictures on Saturday, now that we have some painted walls. It got me focused on all the empty frames I have sitting around with no pictures to put in them. So, I went through our wedding disks and the other pictures I have on my computer and got everything sized to fit the frames I have available.
The big challenge was for these two L shaped collage frames my mum got me a million years ago. They are very cool looking (we had discovered them in Costco together back before she moved to Utah) BUT the picture openings are not anything close to standard picture size OR even standard picture dimensions. It required a lot of measuring, cropping, and copy pasting multiple photos into standard 4x6 and 5x7 sized images.
It was easy enough to print everything out through the do-it-yourself machines at Kinkos, and really it only cost about $30 for all of them. I was even able to scan our formal cruise picture that they refused to give me digital copy for so I could get it in a 5x7 rather than the 8x10 they gave me. (They wanted like $40 extra, it was ridiculous). Kinkos, btw, does not actively watch what you're doing to check for copyrights etc.
Scott was a little unhappy that I was "wasting" my time working on pictures when he felt getting the sheer curtains made was a more pressing need, so after I was done with Kinkos I headed over to Anna's Linens and VOILA: 4 sets of chocolate brown sheer curtains, 63" long (very hard to come by anywhere else) and matching chocolate brown curtains for the little kitchen window.
While I was there, I also had to grab two European pillows (now that we have European shams), some brown sheets to match our new bedset, there was this really nice painting on clearance that had all the right reds in it, etc etc.
Final trip for the day was to Target where I got a couple more frames and a BUNCH of red and brown candles. The whole house smells like apple and sandlewood now. I love it <3
SO. I've still got quite a bit more painting and hanging to do, but all in all, the house is FINALLY starting to come together! A couple more productive weekends like this month and we might be about ready to have our long-overdo housewarming party!
This was a major painting weekend at the Snow residence. We both buckled down and knocked out the entire living room (all tan), the hallway (green), and two of the walls in the master bedroom (the red accent wall and the tan windowed wall next to it). The red wall took 3 coats of paint AFTER I put on the bubbblegum pink primer coat. Yes, it was literally bubblegum pink. I have the pictures.
I still definitely have to go back and do some major touch ups, especially where the paint peeled off with the stupid tape, but all-in-all we are a lot closer to being finished than we were before! Painting that still needs to be done: 4 of the 6 walls in the master bedroom plus the arch, the walls in Sarah's room, the yellow walls in the kitchen (behind the washer and dryer), the ceilings in the hallway, bathroom, and dining/kitchen, AND ALL the doors and trim... I guess we're about halfway there.
My favorite part of the weekend was the insane sales that Home Depot and Lowes were having on houseplants! I got three, two that are table plants and one big one that sits on the floor. Cheap terra cota become custom pottery after I painted them with extra wall paint to get a perfect match to our decor.
Scott installed a new sconce light in the hallway (SO much nicer than the one the house came with) AND an outdoor ceiling fan/light out on the back patio. We are officially set up to entertain past dusk now!
We took advantage of the living room being in compelte disarray to rearrange the furniture in there. It actually looks like all 3 bookcases have a valid place now and aren't just crammed in haphazardly because we have no place else to put them.
The big project on my list after painting was curtains. Scott had been complaining about our temporary paper blinds and lack of privacy, etc for a while. Curtains were a little bit of a sore spot with us since we had a very hard time agreeing on what they should look like. I prefer to match the contemporary theme we have going with the rest of the house: monotone, black, red, and brown. Scott wanted something with a little more life. I bought 17 yards of white sheer fabric from JoAnne's, thinking that would be a good place to start. Unfortunately, my sewing machine was missing a power cord from the move so that project came to a screaming halt before I could even really get started.
The Next Weekend
I decided to try my luck for curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond, even though I had never seen anything I remotely liked before. I did stumble across these black, tan, and gold striped curtains that ended up working perfectly in the bedrooms. Scott got the curtain rods up and now we are both happy. I also found a red and a tan scarf to go over the living room window, and a matching red scarf to go over the dining room window once we get a rod that actually fits it.
On Thursday I went shopping with my friend Tiffany, Linens N Things in Vista just happened to be having a close out sale. Found a whole new bedset (red and brown) for $56, a black mirror set for above the couch, a couple picture frames, new candle centerpiece set for the coffee table, and a couple other things. Scott actually liked the stuff I picked out, much to my surprise.
Yesterday
I started hanging some of our pictures on Saturday, now that we have some painted walls. It got me focused on all the empty frames I have sitting around with no pictures to put in them. So, I went through our wedding disks and the other pictures I have on my computer and got everything sized to fit the frames I have available.
The big challenge was for these two L shaped collage frames my mum got me a million years ago. They are very cool looking (we had discovered them in Costco together back before she moved to Utah) BUT the picture openings are not anything close to standard picture size OR even standard picture dimensions. It required a lot of measuring, cropping, and copy pasting multiple photos into standard 4x6 and 5x7 sized images.
It was easy enough to print everything out through the do-it-yourself machines at Kinkos, and really it only cost about $30 for all of them. I was even able to scan our formal cruise picture that they refused to give me digital copy for so I could get it in a 5x7 rather than the 8x10 they gave me. (They wanted like $40 extra, it was ridiculous). Kinkos, btw, does not actively watch what you're doing to check for copyrights etc.
Scott was a little unhappy that I was "wasting" my time working on pictures when he felt getting the sheer curtains made was a more pressing need, so after I was done with Kinkos I headed over to Anna's Linens and VOILA: 4 sets of chocolate brown sheer curtains, 63" long (very hard to come by anywhere else) and matching chocolate brown curtains for the little kitchen window.
While I was there, I also had to grab two European pillows (now that we have European shams), some brown sheets to match our new bedset, there was this really nice painting on clearance that had all the right reds in it, etc etc.
Final trip for the day was to Target where I got a couple more frames and a BUNCH of red and brown candles. The whole house smells like apple and sandlewood now. I love it <3
SO. I've still got quite a bit more painting and hanging to do, but all in all, the house is FINALLY starting to come together! A couple more productive weekends like this month and we might be about ready to have our long-overdo housewarming party!
Jul 28, 2008
House Diaries - Bathroom
Our bathroom is (almost) finished!
We got the whole thing painted (minus the door/ceiling and a couple spots that need touch ups). Scott installed one of our two new cabinets. They will stretch across the entire wall behind the sink/toilet. <3
Colors:
We decided to paint the whole room the same color green we'll be doing in the hallway. We weren't sure how it would turn out since it is a pretty dark green and the room is small, but I am very glad we did. I LOVE it. The new cabinet and the clear shower doors help open the room up to balance the darker walls.
We had an interesting color dilemma because we wanted to do an interior design no-no and mix aged bronze finish (our new lights) with satin nickle (everything else). I bought dark brown towels, rug and candle to pull out the brown in the lights. Then I got some cream towels too to match the rest of our bathroom coordinates, which have aged bronze tops and cream marble-porceline looking bases. It's like mixing gold and silver: it can work so long as you have coordinates to tie them together.
I was surprised how well the green looks next to our orangish granite countertops. AND, just as I suspected, the brown and green are just fantastic together. I would still really like to paint the vanity a dark brown, but Scott is not convinced yet. The previous owners didn't refinish these with the rest of the house for whatever reason, and they are in definite need of a face lift.
We got the whole thing painted (minus the door/ceiling and a couple spots that need touch ups). Scott installed one of our two new cabinets. They will stretch across the entire wall behind the sink/toilet. <3
Colors:
We decided to paint the whole room the same color green we'll be doing in the hallway. We weren't sure how it would turn out since it is a pretty dark green and the room is small, but I am very glad we did. I LOVE it. The new cabinet and the clear shower doors help open the room up to balance the darker walls.
We had an interesting color dilemma because we wanted to do an interior design no-no and mix aged bronze finish (our new lights) with satin nickle (everything else). I bought dark brown towels, rug and candle to pull out the brown in the lights. Then I got some cream towels too to match the rest of our bathroom coordinates, which have aged bronze tops and cream marble-porceline looking bases. It's like mixing gold and silver: it can work so long as you have coordinates to tie them together.
I was surprised how well the green looks next to our orangish granite countertops. AND, just as I suspected, the brown and green are just fantastic together. I would still really like to paint the vanity a dark brown, but Scott is not convinced yet. The previous owners didn't refinish these with the rest of the house for whatever reason, and they are in definite need of a face lift.
May 27, 2008
House Diaries - Week 3 & 4 Recap
Decided to roll Week 3 and 4 Recap together since there isn't a whole lot to report.
Lots of progress in the yard. Both lemon trees, both orange tress, and the kumquat tree have all been tamed AND sprayed.
Scott took out a couple of the rose bushes and rebuilt one of the planters to make room for an eventual-pathway. He also took out some random tree that was planted in a really awkward spot- we had no idea what it was, but we knew it attracted a lot of bugs. I have decided that when the time comes, I will empty out the planters entirely and plant from scratch- front and back (which means no more rosemary bush). I'm not sure what kind of flowers I'll put in instead. I think I'd like to put lilies in the front under the window (where the rosemary bush is now). Maybe snap dragons along the driveway. Scott is pretty adamant that he doesn't want any climbing vines- so no jasmine or honey suckle :\
The lawn is finally looking like a lawn again! Scott had to fix the sprinklers (a couple of times). Luckily he is Mr. Handyman and it was no big deal for him. We haven't even done any reseeding or fertilizing yet, so once we do hopefully it will be really gorgeous.
Measure Twice, Cut Once. Or even better: make sure you have all the parts you need before you take apart the bathroom sink. Scott got really ambitious last week when I was taking my final and decided to replace our bathroom faucet with the nice one my mum sent us. Unfortunately, he didn't know that we were missing the base plate for it until AFTER he had taken apart the existing faucet.
We went to look for it on the manufacturer's website, but it said that they didn't make the part in the finish we need. Scott was really annoyed, and emailed them about it. He got a very apologetic response the next day and was assured that they would send out the needed part at no cost: which is Sweeeet. Until we get that part though, we do not have a working bathroom sink. (It would have been way more work to put the old one back on than it would be to just brush our teeth in the kitchen for a few days). Hopefully it will be here soon!
Repaint? We've been using those paper temporary blinds since we moved in and I've been putting off getting real curtains. It makes sense to paint first, so you only have to hang the curtains once. The temporary blinds, however, are starting to metaphorically wear thin.
The living room technically is painted. The only problem is Scott really does not love the color. It's too yellow for him. Something more tan-colored would be much better, and I am feeling the same way. BUT that would mean repainting the living room (which means moving my 20 gallon fish tank AGAIN, and repacking the bookshelves that I just unpacked this weekend AGAIN, and uninstalling the washer and dryer in the kitchen to get in behind it.)
Whatever we do though, we need to get started soon because the bathroom needs to get finished ASAP. We have unpainted sections of the wall in there (where the old broken mirror was) and the repeated exposure to moisture is not going to be good. Not to mention we really need to get new cabinetry so we can finish unpacking the bathroom (there is no place to put any of our stuff right now), and get our new hardware hung.
I think I'll swing by Home Depot and pick up some of those paint cards and we will deliberate. Maybe we can pick out our new colors and go wall by wall rather than room by room- and get the walls with windows done first.
Lots of progress in the yard. Both lemon trees, both orange tress, and the kumquat tree have all been tamed AND sprayed.
Scott took out a couple of the rose bushes and rebuilt one of the planters to make room for an eventual-pathway. He also took out some random tree that was planted in a really awkward spot- we had no idea what it was, but we knew it attracted a lot of bugs. I have decided that when the time comes, I will empty out the planters entirely and plant from scratch- front and back (which means no more rosemary bush). I'm not sure what kind of flowers I'll put in instead. I think I'd like to put lilies in the front under the window (where the rosemary bush is now). Maybe snap dragons along the driveway. Scott is pretty adamant that he doesn't want any climbing vines- so no jasmine or honey suckle :\
The lawn is finally looking like a lawn again! Scott had to fix the sprinklers (a couple of times). Luckily he is Mr. Handyman and it was no big deal for him. We haven't even done any reseeding or fertilizing yet, so once we do hopefully it will be really gorgeous.
Measure Twice, Cut Once. Or even better: make sure you have all the parts you need before you take apart the bathroom sink. Scott got really ambitious last week when I was taking my final and decided to replace our bathroom faucet with the nice one my mum sent us. Unfortunately, he didn't know that we were missing the base plate for it until AFTER he had taken apart the existing faucet.
We went to look for it on the manufacturer's website, but it said that they didn't make the part in the finish we need. Scott was really annoyed, and emailed them about it. He got a very apologetic response the next day and was assured that they would send out the needed part at no cost: which is Sweeeet. Until we get that part though, we do not have a working bathroom sink. (It would have been way more work to put the old one back on than it would be to just brush our teeth in the kitchen for a few days). Hopefully it will be here soon!
Repaint? We've been using those paper temporary blinds since we moved in and I've been putting off getting real curtains. It makes sense to paint first, so you only have to hang the curtains once. The temporary blinds, however, are starting to metaphorically wear thin.
The living room technically is painted. The only problem is Scott really does not love the color. It's too yellow for him. Something more tan-colored would be much better, and I am feeling the same way. BUT that would mean repainting the living room (which means moving my 20 gallon fish tank AGAIN, and repacking the bookshelves that I just unpacked this weekend AGAIN, and uninstalling the washer and dryer in the kitchen to get in behind it.)
Whatever we do though, we need to get started soon because the bathroom needs to get finished ASAP. We have unpainted sections of the wall in there (where the old broken mirror was) and the repeated exposure to moisture is not going to be good. Not to mention we really need to get new cabinetry so we can finish unpacking the bathroom (there is no place to put any of our stuff right now), and get our new hardware hung.
I think I'll swing by Home Depot and pick up some of those paint cards and we will deliberate. Maybe we can pick out our new colors and go wall by wall rather than room by room- and get the walls with windows done first.
May 19, 2008
99 percentile
Last weekend I got to talking to my father in law about our SAT and ACT scores. So, for the first time in I-don't-know-how-many years I opened up my old file box, blew the dust off the envelope, and took a second look at the scores from my junior year of high school.
I knew I scored really well in English. I had forgotten just how well. Top 99 percentile in all the English and Reading sections.
I was thinking a little bit a couple days ago about what this means, and it makes me smile:
If you were to take 100 people who took the ACTs in 2002, and put us all in a room together, odds are I would be the top person in that room.
Sweeet.
I knew I scored really well in English. I had forgotten just how well. Top 99 percentile in all the English and Reading sections.
I was thinking a little bit a couple days ago about what this means, and it makes me smile:
If you were to take 100 people who took the ACTs in 2002, and put us all in a room together, odds are I would be the top person in that room.
Sweeet.
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