Another LG Bites the Dust!

Last night, The Prude called to me and said that all of the ice cream in the freezer was liquid.  That alone was a travesty!!  We thought that possibly The Boy hadn't closed the door all of the way so we pushed the door shut and sat and stared at the refrigerator.  Nothing happened and it got very boring so although my daughter needed to be at rehearsal in 10 minutes, we grabbed all of the meat that was still frozen and headed to the garage freezer to salvage what we could.   My daughter thought it was hilarious that I was yelling, "Save the chicken!" because... they're... dead.  I didn't think that it was funny.  Chicken is expensive!  I called my husband who was doing the sports leg of our practice/rehearsal marathon tonight and he was sure that he just needed to vacuum off the back of the fridge where the coils are.  Apparently this is 1965.  So... he hurried home from the volleyball and basketball run to vacuum the coils.  He pulled the fridge out and was immediately brought back to 2017 where he realized that the back of the fridge now has a panel protecting the coils.  He vacuumed the panel anyway, not breaking eye contact with me, out of spite I'm sure.  I let him... because, well, a happy marriage is a smidge more important than yelling "I TOLD YOU SO!" and dancing around repeating it repeatedly.  I know that was redundant, but I'm sticking with my literary genius-ness!  Just so you know, it did not work, so we jumped on our phones and called every repairman in the area and begged on several voicemails for someone to come look at our refrigerator asap!  I cannot live without the cool goodness of ice water, my husband needs his frozen peppermint patties and the kids can't live without milk and ketchup.  We're very healthy people.  I know, I know.  My mind is with the people of Texas and Florida and everywhere else there have been terrible tragedies.  I am in awe of Mother Nature and feel helpless for all those that lost so much.  However, no fridge is my 1st world problem and I'm going to whine about it.  So fast forward to today.  We got a call back first thing this morning from a repairman who had an opening!  Yes!  A working refrigerator before the weekend.  No!  LG had a manufacturing problem and the compressor our fridge needs is going to have to be shipped in because they haven't caught up enough to allow for repairmen to keep them on their shelves.  As a result, the part will be here Tuesday!!!!!  {Whine, complain, cry!!}  Are there any fans of LG out there?  If so, you are no longer my friend!  I will now crush your opinion of them! Hear me out.  Our kitchen is actually supposed to have a Wolf Range and a Sub Zero refrigerator.  Because of our fantastic experience with Stronzo, the budget required us to change that plan.  We were naive.  Our last house had Whirlpool appliances that lasted 14 years.  Why wouldn't we stick with a brand that had done so well for us?  Because!  That's why!  We were drawn in by the beautiful package of stainless steel, top of {their} line appliances that were exactly {to the $1} the amount of money we had to spend on appliances.  Did we read reviews?  No!  Did we shop around? No! Did we even consider anything else?  No!  Why would we?  It was fate!  So we purchased the appliances and had them installed in our almost finished kitchen.  What happened?  Not more than 2 months after we moved in, we noticed blue specs, that curiously were the exact color of the inside glaze of our double ovens, all over our food.  Double ovens replaced - check!  About 4 months later, I went to change the laundry and the washer still had sopping wet clothes in it.  "Well, well.  I ponder upon the discouraging nature of the spin cycle stopping before it was complete."  I wondered.  So I restarted it and nothing happened. "Blimey!  I believe that my washing machine is no longer working!"  I'm British in my head.  So our second LG appliance in 6 months was dead.  We were able to get that one fixed so we avoided having to replace it.  At the same time this was happening, we were noticing that our LG dishwasher would sometimes forget to open it's little soap door during the wash cycle.  We'd start it again and sometimes it got off it's lazy behind to open it's own door, and sometimes it didn't.  I named the dishwasher Biff and would yell, "Come on Biff!" every time I opened the door to unwashed dishes.  We asked the washing machine repairman about it and he explained that LG designs their dishwashers so that all of the parts are linked.  So, if one part dies, several parts have to be replaced.  He told us that he would never buy an LG appliance!  Doh!  To avoid another pricey repair, he told us at what point in the cycle the door was supposed to open and we would set our timer and run out and open the door every single time!  Don't judge!  Remember we were still paying off lawyer fees!  Last year we decided that there was something else wrong because our dishes were not getting clean enough and that's just gross!  So we replaced it with a Bosch and have had amazing luck.  If you forgot to count, that's 3 LG appliances that died in less than a year.  Add to that our fridge today and if any of my readers decide to buy an LG appliance, I will personally block you from my blog!  Just kidding... I wouldn't block you from my blog, I'd block you from my blog, e-mail list, Facebook and Instagram all for being stupid! I'm not usually a business basher, unless that business is run by Stronzo, but LG is now my evil nemesis so bashing must be done!  I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that Stronzo was now their product designer!  It would explain so much!  All of the LG upper management and designers are dead to me!  All of them...dead!  I'm sure they could care less, but it makes me feel so much better!  Cooler living until Tuesday.  We'll see how long my family makes it without killing each other!!  Wish us luck!

The Basement is {mostly} Done!

"Ooooo, hooo, hooo, look who knows so much! It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead!  There's a big difference between mostly dead and dead!" Miracle Max

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbE8E1ez97M

Much like being {mostly} dead... that doesn't mean dead!  Our basement is {mostly} done... that doesn't mean done!  It has carpet and at this point, I will be thankful for that cushy mass of nylon that keeps my feet from freezing on cement floors and stepping on the crunchy carcasses of dead spiders!  Our basement has an odd layout.  Because I wanted the traditional staircase/entryway as you walk through the front door, the basement stairs divide the basement into several small rooms.  I wanted to tear out walls and make things more open, but apparently there are things called bearing walls that hold our house up.  Every house has them... who knew?  There's also the curious case of why my bathroom was roughed in in the middle of the room?  Stronzo!  It's always Stronzo! If you don't know who Stronzo is, see my first ever post!  The basement had stood finished to dry wall for 2 years.  We needed to put a dance studio in at that time so we scrounged up some money and got it that far.  The only room that got {mostly} finished was the dance studio so my aspiring ballerina had a space to dance and my theater loving actress had a place to do all of her theater thingies.  The rest was cold, dirty and honestly scary.  The Boy swears it's haunted, but I believe it's just the large cardboard cutout of Darth Vader we've had since his 5th birthday party.  Darth stands guard over our storage room, so don't be planning a heist of our stewed tomatoes or you'll have Luke's father to deal with.   I must stray from our basement discussion for a small memory.  When The Boy was 4, I'll never forget when he informed us that his favorite Darth's were Darth Vader, Darth Maul and Darth Brooks!  Now back to our basement... Nobody likes a cold, scary basement that is haunted by Darth Vader and dead spider carcasses so we scrimped and saved to get the rest {mostly} finished.  I have a lot of ideas for it, but considering my commitment issues and the fact that it will take time and money, the upstairs projects will probably take precedence over my dreams for the basement!  We do, however, need to get the bathroom in the middle of the room finished sooner than later.  Yes, we left the bathroom where it was only because when they told me how much it would be to move all of the plumbing and the drain to the other side of the room, I believe my husband informed them that we'd leave it where it was.  I was unfortunately unconscious at that time.  So here are some pics of our super neutral basement that hopefully will not be super neutral for long.  {Don't fool yourself, it will stay this way for many years!}

 Here is the top of the stairway heading down.  We still have yet to correct the paint that the original "painter" did.  The painter we used for the basement said that after we'd been in for about 5 years, he'd feel comfortable coming back and correcting the settling and painting the main level.  So... next year folks!

 The lower half of the stairs.  No, we're changing the color of the paint.  It will have more gray tones rather than golden beige.  I know you're all judging my carpet/paint colors right now! ;)

 This is the game room.  We will be adding a air hockey table, a Foosball table, hopefully some old arcade games {Pacman anyone?} and some seating.  Plus we want to make the "cupboard under the stairs", which is the door you see on the right, a Harry Potter room.  I'm hoping it stays the Harry Potter room and not the make out cupboard.  Do you think that Harry had surveillance cameras in his "cupboard under the stairs"?  I think ours will! The doorway on the left is the entrance to the studio.  We're going to be adding a sliding barn door here. 

 This is the studio.  It's about 26x16 so it gives my girls plenty of room to get jiggy.  If you don't think a pointe ballerina can get jiggy, you should see her tap on pointe!  She's brilliant! ;)  Also, no we haven't buried the TV cords yet.  We completely planned to have the electrician do it when he hooked everything up and then forgot. Dang!

 This is the other exit to the studio and looking at the entrance to the movie theater.  It too will have a sliding barn door.  I'll add movie posters to the hallway and a theater sign above the entrance.  That door you see is the utility room where there is still concrete floors with crunchy spider carcasses.  Avoid!

 You've been introduced to our make out cupboard, let me introduce you to the make out room... I mean movie theater!  It's smaller than most, but can fit 8 of the movie recliners and it has a kitchenette in the back.  The molding is not done because I want stain grade molding and pillars.  Apparently, we're not millionaires so we have to wait to add that! We also want to do a filament ceiling that looks like stars, but we might need to wait until we reach billionaire status to do that!

 This is the hallway heading back to the bottom of the stairs and game room on the right.  What is that hole in the wall you ask?  Oh, it's only a valve for the fire suppression system our city forced us to put in! {Insert eye roll!}  The plan for that little alcove is to add a built in cabinet and shelf system with brick on the wall behind the shelves.  Will it ever get done?  Stay tuned to the Idaho state lottery to see if I get picked as a winner!  At the end of this hallway and to the left is our random room...

The random room!  This is the room that is impeded by Stronzo's poor choice for the bathroom location!  That door you somewhat see on the left is indeed the bathroom.  It was supposed to be roughed in at the back, leaving us with  a lovely 16x16 room, but instead we now have an odd shaped room that will be the standing joke of this house.  The back area is a gym that is about 10x10 and behind that is a door that leads to our large storage room.  I would love to post a picture, but every house has it's unorganized, overflowing demons and the storage room is ours... and a few closets and under bed areas, but the rest is nice and organized.  Well, except the garage! ;)

The Wonderful Smell of Paint Fumes!

I can't even handle it! We have paint! We can now order the carpet!  

The crunchy, cracked, cold floors will be covered soon and 

then I can run to my storage room without putting on slippers... crunchy bugs!

Take a look at this beautiful work. I would totally kiss the painter, but that would be awkward for my husband. Instead, I will just praise his work on the world wide web!

Practically Imperfect In Every Way...

Day 2... apparently they don't want to eat.  Well... to be honest, they keep eating, they've just moved the bar stools to the areas of the counters that are not completely covered by their junk mess!  I'd like to direct your attention to the top of the piano! {eye roll, ugh, teenagers, #$%&!!}

Happy Elk Family

Out our front door, we have a view of these gorgeous animals.  There are also Bison down the way that are so much fun to watch.  When we first built our house, the elk herd was all male.  Every fall, we would be sung to sleep by bugling elk.  During the day, we would watch them stake their claim to non-existent females by flexing their racks and fighting to be the big man on campus!  We would sit for hours and enjoy this bit of nature that many do not get to see, except for on Youtube!  Last year, all but one of the males disappeared and in came 6 females.  To say that the male was excited about this little development would be an understatement!!!  He pranced and ran, whilst foaming at the mouth.  I'm not joking!  Come fall, we again witnessed {maybe not quite as enthusiastically} a bit of nature that many do not get to see, except for on Youtube! ;)  The sad part was because the male had his harem, and zero, zip, nada competition, we no longer heard bugling!  However, this last May made up for it. Over the course of about 7-8 weeks, 6 babies joined the family.  They are adorable, spotted, bouncy, lovable balls of energy and we couldn't love them more!  Well done Daddy, well done!

Practically Imperfect...

What I say:

Please {Sometimes I say please... I try, but there's 4 of them!} take your stuff up to your room!

Clean up after yourself!

If it's here in an hour, it's trash!

You have a hook in the mudroom for that!

There's a hamper right in the next room! 

How many cups do you need to dirty in one day?!?

What they hear:

No, no.  I don't want to bother you!

Just go ahead and leave your stuff on the kitchen table

 and I'll take care of it.  

Oh wait, the table is full of everyone else's stuff?  

Then just dump it on the counter!  

It adds to the decor!

I take credit for the sewing machine, but the rest is all them!

#kids 😏😆😖

Don't Fence Me In!

Actually, yes, please fence me in!  We did it!  The fence was installed this week and now our children can run free... at least until the fence stops them!  I also realized that I never posted pics of the deck!  It's a bit muddy since we just went through the fence installation and it really is the first nice weekend we can get out and do some work in the yard, but it will give you an idea of how well the backyard is finally coming together!  We hired someone to build the deck because my husband, bless him, isn't a builder so to speak.  He is amazing with lawns and gardens!  Our lawn will be the greenest, fullest, most beautiful lawn ever!  However, when it comes to something that needs to be built, to specific standards, to avoid a collapse that would bring out the evening news teams, he leaves it to the pros!  Smart thinking!  Plus, the two gentlemen that built our deck were very nice and listened to Neil Diamond.  I think we made the right choice, but I can't be trusted... I hired Stronzo and then Stronzo Jr.  However, our deck turned out beautiful and I couldn't be happier!  We had him build the hot tub into the deck to prevent it being and eyesore on the top of the deck.   We will be adding framed lattice skirting, but have to wait until we get the stone in for the patio that will be on that upper tier.  Down the road a bit, we will add a pergola above the set of french doors on the right and hopefully a stone fireplace and outdoor kitchen.  This is down the road because I am desperate to start working on the inside!  We'll see who wins.  It will be me!  I'm very manipulative... uhm, I mean persuasive! ;)