Packing Peanuts

The first box of tile I recieved was filled with packing peanuts. When the company had to send me another shipment, I forgot to ask them if they could pack it in newspaper (easy to recycle) instead of the peanuts. See, the peanuts suck. They get EVERYWHERE, defy the boundaries when it comes to sweeping (static!) and Nina the Cat is a little obsessed with them. In fact, the new box, which lays in the livingroom, had a small hole in it. Nina pawed a lot of the peanuts out. Bad KITTY! When Dylan the Cat when to play king of the hill on the box - she attacked his tail with a fury I have never seen. Apparently, it's not a big deal if the cats eat them (they are made of starch?) - but I am not condoning it anyway.

Anyway, the point of all this was to let you know you can recycle (or allow someone to re-use) the packing peanuts! Find a location near you here: http://www.loosefillpackaging.com/

More tile

The new tile pieces arrived though I am yet to open the box. This is partially because I don't want to deal with the 4,000 peanuts they use as packing materials, and partially because I don't want to find unmatched tile within.

The great tile debate

I ordered some tiles for the fireplace. They came in. This is what I got:
These are obviously not the same color. The two on the ends being a far lighter shade then the ones in the middle. At this point I can't even deal with returning them. I hope the company will just give me a refund so I don't have to lug 45 pounds of tile to UPS.

Nina!!!

Nina loves house projects! She likes to be right in on the action:

Front lights!

Here are some crappy pictures of the new front lights. I have no idea why they are so fuzzy. But, it will give you an idea.


Oh hey! The new fountain wanted to say "what's up" too...

Shhhh...

Psst. There are dudes moving into an abandoned house in my neighborhood. This house is a shell. I mean, just framing and some wires. You can't live there. I am currently spying on them as they move in mattresses and weird looking couches.

The house was for sale a couple months ago, but the sign left quickly. I don't think it sol. Now there is a U-haul. With stuff. I saw them carry in a roll of brown carpet. Are they going to, gulp, throw this over the rotting plywood? Seriously, there are sheets of white plastic covering the windows of this place. It is not safe. Not to mention, I think that squatters bring down housing values.

I know... it's been awhile.

I am still working on adjusting my camera to take some great shots of all the work we have been doing at casa DC Rowhouse. Though, I have to admit, the last few weeks have been extremely busy with... work. Like real work that I get paid for. It's always getting in the way.

One thing that makes DC Rowhouse so special is that it is in DC. Not, in the outlying area, smack dab in the district. Thus, making this Tuesday an extra snazzy day for me and my neighbors. Standing in line to vote so close to the capitol building and white house (to name two) was a great feeling. Trying to go to bed at a reasonable hour however, was not. I watched the election results until 10:30 and then headed off to bed. At that time, it looked like Obama was going to win and I just wanted to find out in the morning instead of biting all my fingernails off while watching county by county results come in from say . . . Virginia. With the cats keeping me company (Dan was still at work) I settled into bed. I couldn't sleep. I had too much energy from the day. So, I began doing what I always to before going to bed - mapping out my dream house building plans. 11pm - still wide awake. 11:15pm - all hell breaks loose outside. Fireworks shooting, horns honking, people screaming running outside and down the streets screaming. Since 93% of the district voted for Obama, I knew at that point they had called it. Running to the window as the cats dove under the bed for cover from all the noise I saw fireworks and tears of joy from neighbors. It was great. Until the next day when Dan called me at work:



Dan: Hey, do you think you can grab the paper when you see one?

Me: OK, you didn't get one.

Dan: Nope, all sold out.

Me: Oh, crap.

Dan: What?

Me: You know how we canceled the paper to only Sundays a couple months ago, but they were still giving it to us everyday?

Dan: Yeah. . .

Me: Well, they called last week and I told them to stop giving it to us because we don't read it all the time and it is wasteful.

Dan: Oh. So, we could've had the paper this morning on our door instead of running to every store in town.

Me: Yup.

Dan: Crap.



So, we didn't get a paper. That sucks. Wanna give me yours?