My favorite kind of day

Today was productive both on the work and home front. Due to the crazy weather, my supervisor allowed me to work from home. It's amazing how much more I get done when I work from home without the distractions of the phone and people "popping by" my office.

I took a break around lunch time to go to the gym for 45 minutes. I typically stick to the treadmill, bike, elliptical and sometime use the stair climber up on the cardio deck. Well the last few times I have gone to the gym, I have been eyeing the stair master down by the weights. You know the one that looks like this where the stairs actually move.

Let's just say it KICKED MY BUTT! Even after using a short period of time, it made my heart rate stay up the entire workout. It definitely will be added to the rotation!

Dinner tonight was a Spaghetti  Squash and Chicken Dish. I made a few changes: I skipped the peas and added cut asparagus. I didn't have Sun dried tomatoes so I used fresh roasted tomatoes instead. I used half the chicken broth and sauteed the chicken (raw) as I didn't have any leftover grilled. Then added everything else once the chicken was cooked. I then added 1/4 cup Newman's Own garlic Alfredo sauce. It was AWESOME!

All the laundry is done and put away. Lunch is made. Plans for tonight include the Bachelorette and my favorite summer snack...Cherries!

Why do bad things always come in threes?

It has been quite an eventful week over here, hence the absence in blogging.

It started late last Thursday night when one of our dogs, Lucy, wouldn't bear any weight on her back right foot. Being the overprotective pet owner that I am, we immediately went to the vet with thoughts of IVDD running through my head. They thought she tore her ACL which is around a $1200-$1400 surgery ( Thank God for pet insurance). Two trips to the vet, 4 X-rays and $500 later, the diagnosis was torn/pulled ligament. She is on crate rest and meds for two week which is tough with two other dogs in the house. Thankfully, she seems to be doing OK now!

Tuesday night, I was headed out to a nail appointment. I stepped foot into the garage and noticed a large stream of water. I thought maybe Tim left the door open on the outside fridge but open closer inspection it was clear that it was coming from out water heater. I called my dad to brainstorm a possible diagnosis. He stated that if the water was coming from the bottom, we had problems. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. The unit had so much sediment in the bottom that we could  not even drain to move it. We had to roll it with all 40 gallons of water in it! Of course this was around 8pm so it was a scramble to get to the store for a new unit. My dad wasn't too pleased to have to help at that hour but of course he came through as always. Two hours and $338 later, we had a new tank and hot water. Turns out my previous water heater was over 20 years old!

Thursday I picked up a client as a favor to one of my staff since I was in that general area. We were driving back to our main office. We were next to a large semi truck and heard this awful noise. We both assumed it was the truck. When we passed the truck and the noise got louder, I realized it was coming from my car. I pulled over and had a flat tire. Luckily, I have three companies that offer me roadside assistance: AAA, State farm and Walker Ford. I just happened to be in a Valvoline parking lot and since I had roadside assistance they quickly popped on my spare, free of charge. My tire looked like Swiss cheese! Apparently, I hit some kind of metal/  debris in the road. I submitted a claim with my warranty and was told it was 50/50 as to if they get approved when it deals with tires. I didn't even make it back to my house before the denied my claim, forcing me to pay $226 for a new tire and alignment.

I am looking forward to putting this week behind me and starting out on fresh ground. Let's hope things are a little less eventful!

Wordless Wednesdays

We have a bunch a beggars on our hands

In their defense, this was our AWESOME dinner!

Electrical Happenings

Back when I listed some of the projects on my 2012 “to do”list, I did not include several electric projects I wished to accomplish. Due to the fact that our house was once a grow house, our electrical panel is a nightmare and the lighting in our house is simply bizarre. Actually, our inspector mentioned this to use before anyone knew the real story behind the house. This weekend we tackled two of said projects.

One of the major lighting issues was in our family room/ office. In the center of the room there is an air vent and the fan is to right side of this. Due to the desks location in the life corner, the fan did not provide enough light when working at the computer. So we purchase lamps for the end tables…still not enough light! So after speaking to my father, we decided the best solution was to add a second fan to the left side of the center air vent. We have a similar set-up in our living room and love having the two fans.  Now because there was no electrical in this location we had to run some new wires up in the attic. My husband has had to crawl around up there before (it is very pitched with little crawl space) and was simply despising this part of the project. We again used 14-3 wire and ran the electrical over from the existing fan.

We had plans to use a pancake to install the second fan directly into a stud. However, doing so made the fan off center with the existing fan. So back to Lowe’s we went to purchase a Ceiling Brace and Box kit. This allowed us to secure the fan where we wanted it, between two existing joists.

We installed two double switches, allowing us to control both fans separately and also to turn on the lights/ fan separately without having to use the pull strings on the fan itself.

We have the same fan in every room of our house, a HunterRidgefield. We have had NO complaints and the color is very similar to our wood floors. While it might not look like much aesthetically, the difference in light is AMAZING. We only need to use the new light to provide enough “work light”.

The other lighting project is very aesthetically pleasing in my book, albeit a bit simple. We finally got around to installing our new light fixture in the dining room. We had guests over for lunch last week and we became increasingly aware of how much heat that ugly old light was throwing off, even with CFL bulbs! So that was motivation enough to hang the new light. I am officially OBSESSED with it!

 It looks so much better than I was expecting. It uses two less lights and gives off a warm ambiance.  Can you spot the rug under the table? I used some birthday money to purchase the rug I mentioned in my dining room post, so my “mini makeover” is well underway!