Redecorating: The Roof Edition

This last December we had some wicked winds come through much of Davis County, in the process we lost a bunch of shingles off the roof and our swamp cooler blew over.

After a visit with the insurance company they gave us a check to fix the roof and few other things that were damaged by the wind. Now being my father’s son I decided to save some money and do the project myself. I contacted some friends and family to come and provide free and unprofessional labor. We started it in mid December, the weather was cold but we got done what needed to get done before the snow came, the rest would wait until the weather improved.

The highlight of the project was when one of my neighbors stopped in front of our house in his truck rolled down his window and yelled at my brother Greg, who had spent most the day working without a coat in just a short sleeve shirt as pictured above, “You must be one tough son of a bitch to be working up their all day without a coat”, it’s the first time Greg has been called tough and the first time he has been called a “son of bitch” in a positive way.

Sure it took me a couple of months to get it all finished when a professional roofing company could have done it in a few days. But the finished project ain’t too bad.

Our roof went from drab brown to distinguished gray; I think it matches our house a little better. This worked out pretty well for us, the shingles would need to be replaced in few years anyway so instead of my paying for that the insurance company did and we made a little extra cash in the process.

I would like to thank all of you who came out and helped with the project. My brother Greg and his wife Stacey and her brother Adam, my father in law Jerry Evans, my brother in laws Kendall Horrocks and Devin Razee, my cousin Mark Bredthauer and his brother in law, my co-worker at Kaysville Fire and neighbor James Wade, my uncle Carl and his kids Daniel and Sarah along with her husband Andrew, my wife Ariane for cooking for everyone and my Dad Paul who has spent more time than anyone else up on my roof.

Redecorating: Lucy's Bedroom Edition

With the new baby coming (hopefully sooner rather than later for Ariane's sake) we needed to re locate Lucy to a new bedroom so the baby could be closer to us.

So we cleaned out the bedroom next to our family room and got it ready for its new tenant. Here’s what we started with.

Ariane’s Mom and her brother Jeff came over one night and helped paint Lucy’s new room.

My Dad also came over and helped us clean carpets and do some touch up in the room. We painted most of the room Pooh Corner which is a very light green (I thought with a name like that it should have been a dark brown) and one accent wall was painted Tinkerbell Green, which is a darker green.

The room turned out really nice, it’s got a bunch of shelves to put toys, books and other nic nacs on.

It also has a small ledge going around two walls of the room which we used to stack stuff on as well. We replaced the dingy old dark green valance with an aqua blue sheer valance with a decorative rod.

We had a Tinkerbell theme for one wall of the room. We got some wall stickers of Tinkerbell and her friends and put a bunch of her Tinkerbell stuff on the shelf on that wall.

It turned out really cute and Lucy is so excited to have her new room.

Redecorating: Family Room Edition

I was inspired by the recent blog post of my friends Dave and Kristen about their recent redecorating. I decided to chronicle the redecorating efforts of Ariane and myself.

Our home décor has always been a difficult subject for Ariane and I. She would prefer each room to have a simple theme with only a few things on the wall. I prefer to have various family pictures and much of my sports memorabilia displayed. Over the course of the last year we have negotiated much of how the house is decorated.

The family room became a sore subject for us. I wanted to have some of my sports stuff up but Ariane wanted a theme in the room, so her compromise was to make the theme for our family room a sports theme. At first I was sure it was a trick of some sorts but as it turns out the only catch is, this would be the only room in the house that has sports stuff displayed. I was totally on board with the plan. I’ve actually had family pictures taken with us wearing our sports gear, so that way is still within the theme of the family room.

My St. Louis Cardinals stuff remained where it was and Ariane gave it a few improvements.

We used one wall for the Utah Jazz. We even purchased a few new pennants so we could display the evolution of the Jazz logo.

The Denver Broncos wall hanging that had been in our bedroom made its way down on to the Broncos wall.

I have a pretty good sized collection of baseball pennants that I have been collecting since I was a kid. There were too many to display so I hung up the ones from baseball stadiums that I have been to.

And of course the Los Angeles Clippers sign hanging over the door that leads down to the basement, perhaps a little poetic since the Clippers find themselves in the NBAs basement quite often.

Why the Clippers? Well what can I say? I feel bad for them.

The only thing left is to find a spot for the University of Utah and Weber State. I’ll keep working on it.

New Bed

A couple of weeks ago we finally broke down and got Lucy out a crib and into a bed.
We let her pick out her own sheets for the bed. They had all kinds of options at the store, princes, Tinkerbelle, SpongeBob to name a few. But Lucy saw the Cars sheets and had to have them.



We did at least have a nice comforter to put over the Cars sheets that is a little more girly.Last year my aunt Jennifer took an old sheet set and some old pajamas of Larianns and she patched it together into a quilt. Once night Jennifer had some of my family and some of Larianns famiy over and they tied the quilt. Now Lucy has this wonderful blanket made out her Moms old pj’s and sheets.

Funny thing about the new bed, Lucy won’t get out of it on her own. Every morning she calls for one of us to come get her and every morning we go in and tell her she can get out any time she wants, which she then does. It’s like she’s looking for our permission to get up. I’m sure this will all change in a few years and instead of her telling us she’s ready to get up it’ll be us telling her it’s time to get up.

Flags

As the seasons change several of my neighbors (I assume it’s the women who are doing this) like to acknowledge this by placing flags out in front of their houses. Feeling the need to fit in a little I decided to follow suit but being a single man though I felt the need to maybe do this a little differently.

This beautiful flag has been flying out side my house since January. About the time the Denver Broncos season came to an end.



Once the Utah Jazz were out of the playoffs I put up my St. Louis Cardinals flag, the one that started it all, to show everybody that it was baseball season.It will remain there until the Cardinals season comes to end, which will hopefully be in late October or early November.

Once the Cardinals are done playing baseball the Denver Broncos flag will return out side my house.The same flag that was stolen off my house last November was returned to me. It was taken by a fellow Kaysville fire fighter and neighbor James Wade, who thinks he’s pretty funny.

Maybe it’s not the same way my neighbors would do it but I try to fit in as best I can.

A Kid At Heart

I've made some additions to my bedroom over the last few months that I think are proof that I've never really grown up.

I several different people who come and spend the night with Lucy while I go to work the grave yard shift at church security or nights at the fire station. This has meant that I needed to get more sheets so people will have clean ones on the bed when they come. I took this as an opportunity to recapture my youth a little.

I already had a set of Denver Broncos sheets that Lariann got for me a few years ago. The first set I went out and added was the St. Louis Cardinals


But it didn't stop there. This Christmas Santa brought me a set of Star Wars sheets


I have been unable to locate any Utah Jazz, Utah Utes or Weber State Wildcats sheets. So if any body sees any let me know, I am always looking for new sheet sets to add to my collection.

This now opens up all kinds of decorating options for me.

Drapes


Bed spreads


Or whole bedroom sets


The possibilities are endless