Valentines Day

It is nice to know that we both love each other so much. Our Valentine's Day consisted of me being stuck in snow bound DC for the week and getting home late Saturday. We went out to eat at IHOP, and since Z has a hard time remembering what that stands for: International House of Pancakes.

Our gifts to each other: Me - 1/2-inch corded Craftsman hammer drill Z: New red 300 thread count sheets for our bed.

So to all of those single people out there, this is what you get to look forward to when you are married. No chocolates, no flowers, no cards.

My personal opinion: It's a Hallmark Holiday. Wouldnt it mean more for me to send her flowers some other random day of the year out of the blue (which I do), than a day when they cost $Texas?

Home Improvement Project

So as I mentioned earlier, we had some money left over from our tax return. This turned into completing a home improvement project.

Zara and I both hated the cheap lineoleum paper flooring that was down in the kitchen, both bathrooms, and the utility room. IT HAD TO GO!! We could never keep it clean, and it was time for a change. This will also help in selling our house this spring/summer. Seriously, who wants lineoleum floors when they are buying a new house? Granted some are nice, but the cheap form that the contractor put in our house was horrible.

Well we decided to put ceramic tile down in all those areas. We spent approximately $500 on the tile and supplies, tools, etc, at the home depot to do all the rooms. I spent about 2 hours in home depot reading all the information on how to do this project, and all the labels on the tools that I would need to put the tile down. Let me tell you, it is not that easy of a process; it is time consuming, and it really hurts your knees and back. Other than the physical pain, the mental pain is also rough, because you have to cut the tile just right, and the tile can only be scored, then it breaks (we didnt buy the expensive wet saw ;0 ); and if the tile doesnt break right, or you break it too long or too short, you have to use another piece (the smallest piece you can cut off a tile is about 2-inches.

Well after a few rounds, you figure out some tricks. If you need a tile that is 11 inches, or 3/4 of an inch cut off, the trick is to take a piece that is already been cut off, lay that down on a new tile, measue how much you need off from the broke piece, and then you put the broke piece and the new piece together. Granted they dont always match up, but another trick is to use some of that glue that you use to lay the tile on, it blends in with the tile, and you cant even tell that they are two different pieces.

My only complaint, and it is huge, is that the contractor that built our house is an idiot. We could never figure out why the bathroom was always so much colder than the rest of the house. Well it turns out that the contractor had laid the lineoleum over the hole in the floor, beneath the cabinet sink, so no air could come out of the register! OMG! I will strangle that guy if I ever see hin again. How can someone be that stupid? Seriously!

Project update: 2 bathrooms complete, one large kitchen and utility room to go next weekend!

Wow, it has been a while

Guess it has been a while since either one of us has posted. We have been busy busy!!

We completed our tax return for free online, and got a nice little return back from the IRS. Some people dislike getting a tax refund, because the government earns interest on their money; and they would rather make their own interest on it. Whatever, I like getting a nice little extra cash at the first of the year, because it helps pay off those credit cards that were used for Christmas. I also bought a pressure washer from Lowes, paid for my wisdom teeth to be removed, paid off my credit card, z's credit card, and I think there was a few dollars left that went into savings. We also bought a lot of stuff from Home Depot and Lowes, more to come about that in another blog.