A Dandie Idea

It's been a while since I really enjoyed my friends so I made it a point to hang out with my oldest friend, Margi (oldest that I have known). She works weekends so I can't see her when I am not working and she can't see me when she is not working. It's like friend camouflage.

I also believe the best decisions are made when you are drunk. But only when those decisions are remembered. We went to Mayslacks for a couple beers and dinner. Half way through the night we got on the conversation of cats. She knew the Mewska situation only because she reads this blog (one of three readers).

Me - "So, I think I should get another cat. You saw Mandy, she was super friendly."
Margi - "Yeah, she wasn't like that the last time I was over."

Why, for some reason, is Mandy being social a bad thing? Well because she farts when she is under pressure (ha) and gets all sorts of gassy when people are around. That leads me to think she doesn't really like people, but is out because some cat needs to know what is going on.

Me - "I want to adopt another, I just haven't."
Margi - "Let's go tomorrow."

It was so simple. The reason why I have not gotten a cat is because I have not gone to the humane society to pick one out. I have been so consumed with other things, I forgot how simple successfully acquiring this end result could be.

So we went back to my house and talked more about getting a new cat. Everything was interrupted by a game a Trivial Pursuit so I thought she forgot. Nope. The next morning she came in my room and said, "Let's go buy a cat!"

I was a little pissed at her energy. One, we had to walk 981,098,banana,298,948 to get to my car. Two, I was feeling the booze the day after and happiness is not the cure.

When we first saw Dandy (her real name was something stupid so I don't remember it) I fell in love. We brought her into a 'holding room' and I knew I had to get her. I actually made the step when I saw another family looking at her and got all sorts of pissy because they were touching my cat.

My mortal ememy

I have a gas lawn mower in my garage. I bet it works great, but the problem is I can't actually get it up the stairs. That and it is totally bad for the environment, but what eves.

I bought a push mower thinking, 'yeah, it will be more difficult to mow, but it is a good workout and better for Mother Nature.' By the end I wanted to die. A push mower is like Flinstoning out your car with the emergency brake on. It is like trying to eat tomato soup with a fork. What I am trying to say is that it is not fun.

Tile - what to do?

After stripping the paint from the tile, I realized that it was the same tile as the bathroom. A nice white tile with gold speckles. I can paint the bathroom because it will never stick due to the heat and water. The bathroom was easy because I could take attention away from the tile with the cool shower curtain, plants and textured window treatment.

I obviously could paint the tile in the kitchen because it was painted before and I never knew. Even Holly didn't know and she is a perfectionist! She has been painting her headboard for about two weeks now because she keeps seeing different colors and brush strokes.

At first I thought I could do some cool tile work. Above the sink I tried to add a pattern between the red and grey. The problem was that I like to drink beer while doing work house work. Straight lines don't mix well with beer.

I LOVE APPLES!!!!

I like apples just as much as the next person. They are great for the teeth and yummy. However, I don't love them as much as the person that designed the kitchen. They used apple wall paper, apple drapes and apple tiles....Or so I thought.

The apple tiles looked DIY mainly because they were covered with this yellow film-y stuff. I first tried scraping them off and that didn't work. Then I tried putting hot water on them to sofen the film up. Fail again. Finally I went to find something in the cleaning box I recieved from my mother.

My mom likes to steal. It doesn't really matter what it is, she just likes to steal things. I still have over half a roll of trash bags she stole (this after using them to bag leafs, gutting the basement and all other rooms in the house.) She also stole industrial cleaning supplise. I figured something in that stock would be strong enough to take off the film.

I found some extrememly toxic film meant to clean foorboards that could take a smile off of Jesus. After opening up all the windows and putting on a gas-mask, I started stripping. Not fun. It took a lot, but after many hours, I started picking the apples.

In the process I also realized they painted the tile so, yeah, double the work!

I'm a bad roommate

I text Holly asking when we were going to drop off the car she was test driving. She text back, "Heading to HCMC. Bus in accident." I write back, "I'm getting off around 6."

In my defense, I really didn't read the text. I just saw the 'bus in accident' and assumed it was more of a hassle then actually being hit. It's a bus, those things are huge! Later I found out she was actually hurt.

I feel bad because we had so many great plans for this weekend in the yard. Now is is hurt and I don't have my partner. Let's face it, this is all about me.

For starters

I started by taking all the cabinets off and began prepping them. Due to the crap-shape they are in, I first had to fill the grooves with wood putty. Then I had to sand. Then I had to prime. Then I had to putty again. Sand again. Prime again. And after that short process, I could paint.

That is a shit load of work! I couldn't use a power sander because I don't have any electrical outlets outside and I didn't want to get the kitchen all dusty because I didn't want to clean out the cabinets.

What's messed up house doesn't have an electrical outlet on the side of the house. That just seems like it should be required! I was going to go into the garage, but Holly still has a bunch of stuff still in there and I think she would be pissed if the next time she went to grab something and it was covered in dust.

Man, sanding things by hand sucks. The cabinets are gonna look like ass.

Where to start?

Again, there are so many things wrong with the kitchen, it is difficult to know where to start. The kitchen is very small and the cabinets are a very dark brown. I knew the wood was too old to re-finish. Plus I don't think it is real wood. After watching HGTV I learned how to paint the cabinets so I figured I would start there.

The second big thing was the floor. No matter how much I cleaned it, it still looked dirty. I plan on actually gutting the kitchen in a couple years so I don't want to spend too much time/money on it. Sticky floor is the way to go.

Budget update:
Cabinet paint - large: 24
Cabinet paint - small: 13
Paint scraper: 8
Wood puddy: 8
Spreader thingy: 3
Foam roller: 4
Floor - two boxes: 64

Total - $124

Amount left: $376