Renovations and Birthdays

I’m listening to Greg play his guitar in the background. It’s been a while since he was able to get to his guitar and my piano is finally ~ finally, dust free. (Just found out that Tigger meows in B minor, Tigs was by the tuning device and meowed. Too funny.)

Don’t you love home renovations? It’s bad enough when you want to renovate one room, but we took on ALL the floors. Every single room (other than the bathrooms – that will be a huge renovations for the future and the office room, because that’s a new addition), but every room, including the closets and utility room ~ new 16 x 16 tile. It’s a pretty, warm colored tan in a brick stacked pattern.

I would never advise for anyone to get white for floors. We had white tile in the kitchen and the dining room and it showed off every speck of dust and slightest hint of cat fur as it was falling when Tigger walked by. Ugh! I could sweep, vacuum and mop and within seconds ~ it would look dirty again.

Greg couldn’t stand the old parquet floors in the front room, hall and bedrooms. I can’t blame him. They were coming up and cracking, not to mention you could hear the floors popping as you walked on them. The parquet was severely damaged.

Many of our wedding guests were very generous and gave Home Depot gift cards, knowing we wanted to do a lot of home renovations. We had enough gift cards to purchase all of the materials for the floor renovation. What a blessing!

Greg’s friend, Michael knew someone in the business. Brandon, Michael’s friend, owns B&M Renovation and Construction Services. He told us that Smiley was the man to do the tile work. We learned that Smiley was from Honduras and was aptly nicknamed. He was a guy with amazing energy, working from 7am to 8pm.

Honestly? When Brandon told us that they would have the renovations done in 8 days, I didn’t believe him. (Before going with Brandon’s company, we were given another slightly higher quote and a timeframe of 3-4 weeks for completion.) I just couldn’t imagine doing an entire house that quickly. Brandon proved me wrong! The guys doing the work ~ worked hard, worked long and were VERY conscientious about their skill.

At one point we had 6 guys in the house doing various things from ripping out the old floors, putting down the new tile, taking out the baseboards and putting up the new baseboards and door frames. The crew was considerate and…. they really enjoyed it that Greg spoke Spanish. Smiley said a couple of times, “He knows a lot of Spanish.” It made Smiley happy and it also made communication a lot easier! (Greg lived in Miami for a couple of years and picked up on the language quickly.)

I’m very pleased with the work that B&M construction did and I’d definitely recommend them!

Needless to say, now we’re getting the house back together (oh, I should add that the guys moved the furniture and put it back after the work was done)… for me, it’s more or less cleaning the layers of dust. Yuck. (During the renovations, Greg was leaving me messages in the dust, "I love you, Aleta." Awww.)

The house is getting back to normal (clean) and that makes me happy. To see before and after pictures, click here to visit my Picasa site.


This past weekend was a busy birthday one! Greg’s Dad (Jerry Sr) turned 75 and Greg’s brother (Jerry Jr) turned 50. Greg’s Mom organized the surprise party for both of them. While Greg took the two Jerrys to see a movie, I went to his parents’ home to help decorate.

When I pulled up, all of the vehicles were gone and nobody answered the door. I called Madelyn and asked, “Was the party location moved? Is the party still at your parents’ home?” Madelyn replied, “Yes, why?” I told her that nobody was there and she laughed, “Mom went to pick up the food and Bonnie and I are on the way there.” We made good timing with decorating.

I took pictures of the party and had a great time! The very next day, we celebrated Mary Ann’s birthday and Collin’s birthday. March is for the O’Briens! I like how they celebrate the births and get everyone together. If you’d like to see pictures of the birthday celebrations, click here to visit my Picasa link.

Oh and a quick change of subject, but cute ~

Greg sent me this text message: "They were discussing marriage percentages on Sirius radio and only 11pct of husbands cook 50 pct of the time. Only 1.5pct of husbands cook more than 90pct of the time. 5000 couples were polled. Also.. If the husband does more than 65pct of the cooking that the marriage has a much greater chance of being successful. BAM!!!"

If that's the case, we're sure to succeed, because Greg does 99pct of the cooking! I'm spoiled, Ok, I know it! (But I do the majority of the cleaning, not 99pct though. hehe)

Quick question ~ Have you visited Boston? If so, I'd love to read about your vacation there or any information you can offer.