may cod have mercy on your sole

dabney's dad visited us here over the weekend for the first time since we became official residents of the show-me state (don't ask me why it's called that). despite all the gorgeous warmish spring weather we've been having around here, mother nature decided to let loose and give us a mostly cold and rainy weekend.  we braved the crappy weather and gave dad a tour of the house. we stopped by our contractor's workshop.  we played with the puppy.  we managed to watch a lot of movies.  however, the highlight might have been the friday night fish fry at st. mary magdelen's.

there, they serve god's cod.

booze hound

more stripping

i'd elaborate, but my hands hurt.

before:


after:

portia de rossi apologizes

via jezebel

freaky friday

one thing's for sure - this dog loves to hang out on her back...

sometimes to play on her back.




sometimes to nap...


sometimes just to lounge...


sometimes with her face squished up against the side of her "condo"


and sometimes spread eagle.

mantel #1 returns home

good news:  our contractor gave us a thumbs up on our refinishing job.  today, mantel #1 was moved back inside.







one more time - here's a before shot:


ta-dah! here it is sans paint.


all in all, it took about nine hours of us figuring out what the hell we were doing to actual grunt work, but it was worth it. it looks so much better without its paint job.  removing all that white paint returns this mantel to being the highlight of this room.

this weekend, we tackle the more ornate mantel #2. wish us luck.

workroom floor

the floor in our new workspace was recently installed. it's constructed of medium-density fiberboard.


looks like cardboard, no?

while we would have loved to have continued the white oak from the front living room into this space, the additional materials and labor made this option cost prohibitive for us.  it's just a studio space anyway that will get tons of wear and tear.   i love the possibility of working in a big white box that's filled with light, so our plan is to paint it a glossy white and call it a day.

stripping

with all the reupholstering and refinishing happening around here, we thought we'd take on a bigger challenge - the MANTELS.

as you might remember, the mantels looked like this before demolition of the interior.





we discovered the hard way that under the white paint, there are two more layers of white and for good measure, a single layer of turquoise paint.



five hours of elbow grease, here's what mantel #1 looks like.



the belief is that the wood is white oak and that they should clean up beautifully. if not, our backup plan = repaint them.

friday (the 13th)

it's been a fun-filled, though relatively sleepless, two weeks since friday's arrival. we're all doing great though. 

she is growing like a WEED.   here's proof.

february 27th:
weight - 13 lbs.
height - 14"
length - 17"
ear span - 16"

today, march 13th:
weight - 17.5 lbs.
height - 16"
length - 18.5"
ear span - 17"  

remember that little bed that she barely filled?  

she's too big for it now. good god, we've got ourselves the bionic bloodhound.

friday attended her first obedience class on monday and made fast friends with a 12 week old sheltie named "francis." they couldn't keep their paws off each other.  after class, i had never seen a dog so tired - she was like a lump of skin and fur.



the crate training is ongoing and we're making steady but slow progress. the good news is that she loves her little puppy condo.  i know it's hard to tell by her expressions in the pictures below, but she really does.




just for you crate aficionados out there: we partitioned the giant crate above to suit her better.

friday was also the recipient of a new bed.



i bought the "large" size though i fear that she will outgrow this thing in a matter of weeks. i just couldn't bring myself to purchase the "x-large" which is longer than i am tall. hell, i could use it for a bed.

the sixth sense

some people have a keen sense of smell. some people have ESP. dabney, it seems, has a sixth sense - an innate ability to find great items on craigslist.

her penchant for chairs is now famous...






but her skill is not restricted to chairs.


how about a swedish roll-top desk?


or an "arco" lamp?


or maybe a ginormous dog crate?

this week, she found the most unusual of treasures - a library ladder.





why a library ladder, you ask? rooms lined with books dance in dabney's head. we had grand plans to include one such room in our new place, but our budget has postponed that dream for the immediate future. it's all good though - at least dabney has the ladder.

maybe i should surprise her and wallpaper a room with the stuff below and have the ladder leaning against the wall...

moving items to the DONE column

we've hit our first delay in the construction - the arrival of windows. they were supposed to have been here months ago, but a production mistake has made them three (+ three + three) weeks late. that being said, it's still full steam ahead for the crew who are putting everything else they can into place.



right now, they're making their way around the house and installing all new trim and door casings. in order to receive approval from the missouri historical commission, all the mouldings had to be reproduced with the same profile of their originals, so this is exactly what the place looked like when the place was constructed in 1899. it's pretty simple compared to the woodwork in many homes in the area.



we wavered back and forth on whether to paint the new trim white or stain it to its original dark tone like the doors.  however, painting is the much more affordable option here, so white trim it will be.  sacrilege, some might say, but the budget rules on this choice.

those floors we mentioned yesterday? they're being installed as we speak. just a clear coat and they'll be done.



with the installation of the shower doors, the master bathroom is inching toward completion. that sale tile really turned out even better than we had imagined. trim it out with some more marble and tiling can be checked off our list entirely.  



just add toilets and sinks, and both bathrooms can be called COMPLETE.

wood

we finally settled on our choice of wood for the first floor.  



the white oak, pictured on the left, will be our floor. a) it would have been common for old stores to have had long plank white oak floors. b) on the hardness scale (that's the janka scale for those of you who are interested), it's pretty durable. c) it was one of our most affordable options.  

pictured on the right above is walnut which is the veneer we have chosen for the kitchen cabinets.  i love how the two woods look together.

in other wood news, the original doors were sent off a few days ago to get cleaned up.  when we bought the place, they had several layers of white paint (so many layers they barely fit into their jambs). it was uncertain how they would come out once they were stripped, but lo and behold, they are beautiful again.



they turned out so great that we've scrapped the idea of repainting them and are going to re-stain them to their original dark color.

good friday

trivia pursuit

dabney and i just love bar trivia nights and have been known to venture to the winners' circle on occasion with our old boston team "i like pie."

last weekend, we experienced our first st. louis-style trivia fundraiser.  apparently, trivia is big here with local community centers, american legions, and church halls as regular venues.  on this particular night (benefitting a local baseball team), it went down like this:  $20 per person for an evening of trivia complete with all the beer and soft drinks one can drink.   besides the unofficial tallest beer can pyramid contest between tables, there were door prizes, a silent auction for sports memorabilia, and one very special raffle for a "wagon o' booze" and four cardinals tickets.  



over a thousand people attended, but our humble table of seven managed to be tied for second place for 90% of the evening. as always, it was the last category, sports, that killed us.  we ended up in a very respectable fifth place instead.

even better though -  that wagon o' booze went home with my sister and brother-in-law.  

getting to know you, getting to know all about you

it's probably fair to say that we're still in a "getting-to-know-you" phase with the new pooch.

so far, we've discovered:


friday loves toys.  so far, her collection has grown to four.  "bobo," the one featured above, is by far her favorite.


friday is very curious but is more an observer from afar.  i always get the feeling i am being watched when i am in the kitchen cooking or cleaning.  sure enough, i am!


friday loves to lounge.  we're using the crate method with her and so far, she just loves her little puppy condo.


friday will go on walks but only begrudgingly.  cars scare the bejesus out of her.  she'll stop dead in her tracks each time one goes by.  at night, the sight of their headlights even makes her pause.


even though friday hates cars, she doesn't mind vacuum cleaners.  you'd think that a big loud household appliance would intimidate her.  but just one sniff, and all was fine.


besides making her cute as hell, all that extra skin on her face makes her sound like a little piggy when she sleeps.

thanks to all for the well wishes. we could use them as we figure out this training stuff. :)

windows revealed

today, our arrival at the property yielded the most welcome surprise. boards that shuttered up the storefront windows for years were removed.






i love the old painted house numbers in the transom.


perhaps we'll replicate this look above the main door.  


from the interior, one can see just how much light pours in through those windows.




it's a cloudy day, i might add. and a few more windows still need to be uncovered.

here's a picture of what the same space looked like before with 2/3 of its windows shuttered.  what a difference!

on friday

willie would have been a worthy challenge, but perhaps a little too much dog for many, many reasons.  we ended up passing on him, and it killed us.  but we felt it was right decision, for us, and for willie.

around the same time we found willie, dabney also saw this cutie at a rescue in a town about 45 minutes away. when dabney got in touch with them again on friday, they reported that the puppy just happened to be in st. louis for a tv appearance* and that we could see her in person afterwards if we want to.  want to?

we hopped into the car headed to her nearby location.

here's dabney and the puppy on their first acquaintance.


then, she had the nerve to crawl right into my lap and fall asleep.





meet our girl "friday" - a 9 week old bloodhound puppy.


we'll be sure to post more in the coming days about the joys (ahem) of having a gnawing, peeing klutz of a puppy in our household again.  i'll be honest; we're a little rusty on our puppy potty training skills.  but our biggest challenge will surely be her timidness outside.  she seems confident inside, but she is a bundle of nerves outdoors.  even getting her out the door is a challenge.


* that tv appearance?  later, we learned that it happened to be with hal sparks of "talk soup" and "queer as folk" fame.