We finally had a guy come to replace the hardwood floor. YAY! It looks really pretty, but I am in no way a fan of hardwood floors--especially in my little house. The noise would drive me crazy!! And can you imagine the echo when I tried to teach a piano lesson? Ugh.
So the next step was to pick carpet.
The hardwood guy gave us a bead on a local carpet company, so we went there and looked around and took home some samples. We found one we really liked. It had a good wear rating, good warranty. The other samples we took home that day were in the $25/yd range (including carpet, pad, labor, tax). The one we liked turned out to be $40/yd! Ouch. OUT of the price range. We looked around at their store some more, but didn't find anything we liked.
So we tried Home Depot.
There we found a couple of carpets we liked, took the samples home, chose one. It's a nice deep forest floor-ish kind of green, which will go nicely with the green and tan walls. It's getting to feel kind of cozy and cathartic in the front room--like languoring beside a gurgling Irish brook. ;-)
But the really great thing about this carpet is that it was selling for $18 a yard (regulary a $35/yd carpet), with a better wear rating and better warranty than any of the other capets we looked at.
We just have to figure out what to do with the piano while the carpet is being laid. It can't go outside in the heat--very bad on piano strings. It won't make the corners to put it into one of the bedrooms. I really don't want to take it down the steps into the family room, and I'm afraid it will damage the tiles if we try to put it in the kitchen (metal casters and the sheer weight of the thing). So I wondered if it might work to put down a sheet of plywood over the kitchen tile and push the piano up on it. Hmm. Just might work!
Darin and I also tiled the entryway last night. We still need to grout it, but it looks pretty cool!
After we were done we hauled some fudgesicles out of the freezer and went outside to enjoy the beautiful summer evening with our girls (Ian's away on High Adventure), and standing outside in our beautiful yard, we wondered if maybe we ought to look into adding on again and stay put. Yes, despite the neighbor. She really will die someday.
*shrug* I don't know.
21 July 2009
14 July 2009
Neighbor from H***
I had a bit of a run-in today with the prune across the street.
I hope we sell the house soon and get the heck out of Dodge. Today I'm thinking the great yard and the fantastic location really aren't worth staying. It's no use waiting for her to die. She'll live forever out of spite.
I hope we sell the house soon and get the heck out of Dodge. Today I'm thinking the great yard and the fantastic location really aren't worth staying. It's no use waiting for her to die. She'll live forever out of spite.
10 July 2009
Bragging!
Hannah scored a 31 on her ACT!!
With that and her viola, she's practically a shoe-in for scholarships!
PHEW!!!!
With that and her viola, she's practically a shoe-in for scholarships!
PHEW!!!!
02 July 2009
Love in the Desert
Darin and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary Sunday.
20 years!!! That's a LONG time.
Anyway, Darin took me down to southern Utah for a 5-day getaway to sort-of relive our honeymoon--we went camping in Zion and Bryce.
This time we skipped Bryce, but added Cedar Breaks.
So Saturday we left early--in time to make lunch at the Big Rock Candy Mountain Cafe where we had some really good burgers.
Thanks to Mom and Dad for the recommendation. After lunch we drove on down to Cedar Breaks.
It's a pretty spectacular little Bryce-type canyon, complete with a very big, very old Bristlecone Pine and a great hike to an overlook with one MEAN echo. We met some guys who were coming out of that overlook who told us exactly where to stand to get the best echo. At 3:00. Not 12:00, not 2:30. 3:00! We picked up our obligatory refrigerator magnet (Suzanne's collection) and cane medallion (Darin's collection). After Cedar Breaks we drove to St. George where we checked into our hotel, got some dinner, and did some shopping so we could eat in on Sunday for lunch.
Sunday, being our Anniversary, we decided to just kick back and relax. We slept in, read, played some games, floated in the pool, visited a local botanical garden, visited the St. George Temple visitor's center, then went out to dinner.
Monday, we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
WOW!!! Pictures do NOT do it justice! You can't come close to getting any kind of scope for how big it is until you're standing on it's edge.
We did a couple of good hikes, visited all the great overlooks, got a bit of vertigo looking over crumbling canyon walls, snatched each other right out of the air... No. That's The Emperor's New Groove. There was no need for snatching, though we did sidle right up to the edge and hang our heads over to look down. OK. Actually we belly-crawled to the edge to take a peak over the side. Wow! WOW!! It is AWESOME!
And the North Rim is beautiful! I had always envisioned this chasm in a scrub desert, but you actually climb to near 9000 ft elevation through acres and acres and miles and miles of evergreen forest. Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen type forest. Did you know there is a herd of buffalo living in the forests north of the Grand Canyon? There is! We saw them!
We loved it so much there we're planning to take the kids there for vacation next year--that is IF Obama's Cap and Trade (better known as Bait and Switch) somehow dies coming out of the gates. Otherwise we may not be able to afford the gas, let alone food or clothing or medical care or electricity or...
Tuesday turned out to be another easy-going day. We did some shopping, went to the St. George Temple and did some sealings--an anniversary tradition for us. We stopped by Iceberg for shakes then chilled out the rest of the day. Chilling is nice.
Wednesday we checked out early and headed to Zion National Park.
I have to say, the shuttle system they've implemented at Zion and Bryce is phenomenal. It makes the whole trip SO laid back and relaxed. No hassling over parking or following lost people up the canyon. We parked at the visitor center, hopped a shuttle, and did the canyon. We did it in two legs. The first, the morning leg, we did the Emerald Pool loop. Great hike, medium to strenuous, about 2 hours. We added on the Grotto trail and picked up the shuttle there. Then we went into Springdale for lunch. By the way, if you go to Zion, don't plan on having a lot of lunch choices in town. We were really craving pizza and had heard that the pizza and noodle place in Springdale was really good, but they didn't open until 4:00! We ended up having some excellent deli sandwiches at a little ice cream and deli down the street. It was cheaper that way anyway. Then we headed back to the park and on up to the Narrows at the top of the park. We hiked up the 1 mile trail to the river's edge, then hiked another mile up the narrows, IN the water most of the way. It wasn't too deep. Ankle-deep through most, though there was one spot where the water came waist high at the shallowest. We played, too lots of pictures, loved being wet in that desert heat (it was 106 that day).
We met lots of really nice people, and had a great time. That afternoon we hopped in the car and headed home. 5 1/2 hours later we were hugging our kids.
Great trip!
Thanks, Darin. You're the greatest, and I love you more than ever.
20 years!!! That's a LONG time.
Anyway, Darin took me down to southern Utah for a 5-day getaway to sort-of relive our honeymoon--we went camping in Zion and Bryce.
This time we skipped Bryce, but added Cedar Breaks.
So Saturday we left early--in time to make lunch at the Big Rock Candy Mountain Cafe where we had some really good burgers.
Thanks to Mom and Dad for the recommendation. After lunch we drove on down to Cedar Breaks.
It's a pretty spectacular little Bryce-type canyon, complete with a very big, very old Bristlecone Pine and a great hike to an overlook with one MEAN echo. We met some guys who were coming out of that overlook who told us exactly where to stand to get the best echo. At 3:00. Not 12:00, not 2:30. 3:00! We picked up our obligatory refrigerator magnet (Suzanne's collection) and cane medallion (Darin's collection). After Cedar Breaks we drove to St. George where we checked into our hotel, got some dinner, and did some shopping so we could eat in on Sunday for lunch.
Sunday, being our Anniversary, we decided to just kick back and relax. We slept in, read, played some games, floated in the pool, visited a local botanical garden, visited the St. George Temple visitor's center, then went out to dinner.
Monday, we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
WOW!!! Pictures do NOT do it justice! You can't come close to getting any kind of scope for how big it is until you're standing on it's edge.
We did a couple of good hikes, visited all the great overlooks, got a bit of vertigo looking over crumbling canyon walls, snatched each other right out of the air... No. That's The Emperor's New Groove. There was no need for snatching, though we did sidle right up to the edge and hang our heads over to look down. OK. Actually we belly-crawled to the edge to take a peak over the side. Wow! WOW!! It is AWESOME!
And the North Rim is beautiful! I had always envisioned this chasm in a scrub desert, but you actually climb to near 9000 ft elevation through acres and acres and miles and miles of evergreen forest. Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen type forest. Did you know there is a herd of buffalo living in the forests north of the Grand Canyon? There is! We saw them!
We loved it so much there we're planning to take the kids there for vacation next year--that is IF Obama's Cap and Trade (better known as Bait and Switch) somehow dies coming out of the gates. Otherwise we may not be able to afford the gas, let alone food or clothing or medical care or electricity or...
Tuesday turned out to be another easy-going day. We did some shopping, went to the St. George Temple and did some sealings--an anniversary tradition for us. We stopped by Iceberg for shakes then chilled out the rest of the day. Chilling is nice.
Wednesday we checked out early and headed to Zion National Park.
I have to say, the shuttle system they've implemented at Zion and Bryce is phenomenal. It makes the whole trip SO laid back and relaxed. No hassling over parking or following lost people up the canyon. We parked at the visitor center, hopped a shuttle, and did the canyon. We did it in two legs. The first, the morning leg, we did the Emerald Pool loop. Great hike, medium to strenuous, about 2 hours. We added on the Grotto trail and picked up the shuttle there. Then we went into Springdale for lunch. By the way, if you go to Zion, don't plan on having a lot of lunch choices in town. We were really craving pizza and had heard that the pizza and noodle place in Springdale was really good, but they didn't open until 4:00! We ended up having some excellent deli sandwiches at a little ice cream and deli down the street. It was cheaper that way anyway. Then we headed back to the park and on up to the Narrows at the top of the park. We hiked up the 1 mile trail to the river's edge, then hiked another mile up the narrows, IN the water most of the way. It wasn't too deep. Ankle-deep through most, though there was one spot where the water came waist high at the shallowest. We played, too lots of pictures, loved being wet in that desert heat (it was 106 that day).
We met lots of really nice people, and had a great time. That afternoon we hopped in the car and headed home. 5 1/2 hours later we were hugging our kids.
Great trip!
Thanks, Darin. You're the greatest, and I love you more than ever.
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