Ways to save your life...

An outbreak of tornadoes has struck Alabama again.  The video above show the damage in the path of the EF 3 tornado that hit on January 23, 2012.  It was on the ground for approximately 2 hours and followed a very similar track to the April 8, 1998 and April 27, 2011 storms.  This is the second time in less than a year that our great state has suffered loss of life and property from severe weather.  If you live in Alabama, you need to prepare yourself for severe weather.  Any you need to do it now - not when the tornado is bearing down on you.

If you are waiting on the sirens, you won't make it to safety.  Most likely, you won't hear them sound at all.  The wind will blow the the sound waves away from you, or you won't be able to hear it in your house, or you will sleep through it.  There are better ways to protect yourself.  They are listed below.

There is an app available for the iPhone called iMap Weather Radio app.  Supposedly, they will be adding it to the Android marketplace soon.  It is now available for Android as well, but I don't know what the cost is.  It will alert you only if you are in the polygon warning for a tornado or other severe weather.  $10 is a small price to pay to be able to save your life.  If for some reason you don't care if you die or are seriously injured, please buy it to protect the other people and pets in your house.
Here is a link to the iMap Weather Radio app in the iTunes store.
Here is the link to the iMap Weather Radio app in the Android marketplace.


If you have an iPhone or an Android phone, you should also get Ustream app to be able to view ABC 33/40 during a power outage.  It is free.  However, having this app won't tell you when you need to monitor the weather.  It will only allow you to do so.  By having this app, I was able to watch the track of the tornado and decide whether or not to move my family to our safe room.  We had at least 20 minutes of warning.  Plenty of time to move me, David, Emmeline and three dogs, had the need arisen.
Here is the link to the Ustream free app in the iTunes store.
Here is the link to the Ustream free app in the Android marketplace.

If you cannot bear to spend $10 on an app the could really save your life, here are some other options. 

AL.com weather texts (This will alert county wide, just like the sirens.  The text alerts I got on January 23, 2012 were about 1-2 minutes behind the real warning.)  This with the Ustream is an acceptable alternative to iMap Weather Radio, if you think that you won't need those 1-2 minutes. 

A weather radio.  This one is $30 (plus shipping if you use Amazon).  I think I'll be buying these as gifts for friends and family who don't have smart phones.  Not a very sassy gift, but I think it says "Please stick around here on earth.  I really like you!"
(By the way... you could buy 3 of those $10 apps for that price.  Just sayin'...)
Midland Weather Radio from Amazon
Midland Weather Radio from Walmart

Please take these recommendations to heart, unless you think your house will withstand 150 mile per hour winds.

Personally, I think some of our houses will look like the ones in the video above.  Wouldn't you like to give yourself the time to get to your safe room?

Be wise and get prepared.  Protect yourself and your family.  No excuse. 

Seriously...

Now...

On the state of our home . . .

If any of you should venture to our house anytime soon and wonder about the dull state of our hardwoods or the dust bunnies in the corners or the unfinished moulding or the raw wood doors, might I refer you to the poem below.

We are otherwise entertained right now. Emmeline grows bigger all the time. We'd rather not miss it (however the picture below shows how out of hand the craft loft has become).

Craft loft, a.k.a. storage, a.k.a. my next project

Anyway, on to that poem.

BABIES DON’T KEEP

Mother, oh Mother,

come shake out your cloth,

empty the dustpan,

poison the moth,

hang out the washing

and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house

is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery,

blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little

Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping’s not done

and there’s nothing for stew

and out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo

but I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing

will wait till tomorrow,

for Children grow up,

as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.

Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep…...

~Author Unknown ~

We're so close . . .

So the house is coming along great. We are so close to being done!!! Here are some pictures of our progress.

Bedroom with slate fireplace surround and bamboo flooring in

View from the back door toward the dining room and the existing house

Bedroom from the living area toward the loft

Bathroom showing the vanity and tile

Bathroom showing the whirlpool tub, which is working and is FANTASTIC!!!!

Bathroom showing the shower entrance. It is really hard to photograph the bathroom because of all of the angles.

Deck with metal handrail that David welded. It looks GREAT!!!!

So that's where we stand. It's coming long. We don't have too much left to do. We can move into the bedroom as soon as the baseboards are in. I can't wait!!

Tile colors, part 1

Here is one option for the six color 4x4 tile mosaic for the wainscoting in the bathroom. We have the four tiles on the right, but not the purple and the light green. The ones that we have are slightly more subdued in color than these, but you get the picture. It is hard to recreate on the computer.
Keep in mind that the floors are saltillo tile and most of the walls are chocolate brown, almost eggplant.

There is also a neutral granite for the sink and tub surround.

Above the wainscoting will be a neutral tile like this one.


Now, if I can only fine the dark purple tile and the light green tile, we are in business.

edited to add:
Check out this coolness.
Create your own custom blends of tile. This is for 3/4 inch tile, but it gives an idea of what the colors will look like together.

The tile is lookin' good...

The tile is going in and it looks great. It really warms the space up.
These pictures were taken a few days ago, so now most of the tile is in as is most of the grout.
They should be done by Wednesday or Thursday. Once all of the grout is in, we will roll a polyurethane sealer over the whole surface to seal the grout and the tiles. We purchased presealed super saltillo tile, but most installation instructions we have found encourage a topcoat after installation which is then reapplied every two years or so.

A few other things . . .
Here's the railing from the loft. David welded it and it turned out really great. I need to get a better picture of it from the bedroom. You can also see how all of the colors meet in this photo.

And one more picture . . .
Here's a panoramic picture of the view from the deck. Click for a bigger view. David said the sunset was great the other day. I've missed them so far, but I can't wait to catch one.

Saltillo tile is muy bueno...

So we have begun the tile installation. One of David's friends is a tile installer and has started working on our saltillo floors. They look so great. I'm really glad that we went with the saltillo. I love the color variation and the natural look it gives the room.

Sorry the picture is blurry. I really need a new camera.

Here's a view of the house that I don't post very often. I put it up so that you could see another angle of the deck.

In this picture, David has just started the decking boards on the deck. They are done now, and the view from up there is really fabulous.
I guess that's all for now.

Work on the deck...

So we have started working on the deck.
This is the kind of building that I can get behind and understand. The house construction was so detailed and precise that it was too much for me. This is much more organic and fluid, kinda make it up as you go along. The above is the "plan." It changed a couple of times before we got to that one and then has morphed a little from there.
Here are some in process shots.
Also, here's the colors for the bathroom.
It is hard to get the bathroom into one photo... I'm going to have to work on that. Anyway, the main part of the room is dark brown and the toilet closet and the linen closet are ocean blue. We are going to be using a dark cream colored tiled for the main part of the walls, so the contrast with the brown should be nice.

Y'all have a happy and safe New Year's Eve.

I can see clearly now...

So there's been some window progress. David and his parents got the window sills and the trim up on all of the windows.

David's mom cleaned the dining room windows. What a huge difference!

Ginny really appreciates the sill height on these two. Perfect for squirrel watching.

Here's the colors in the bedroom. It is the best angle I could use to get all of them in.

On another note, remember this incident? I sent them off to get repaired and this is what I got back. Can you see the gobbed up epoxy holding them together? For the love, I can't wear these out... I'll look like an idiot. Who do they employ at the repair division, blind monkeys. And on top of the blobby epoxy, they "buffed" some scratches off of the lenses, but made even more with the buffer.

Geez! They didn't even line up the halves before the blobbing.

They are sending a replacement pair as well, which is good since this hack job was certainly not worth the $70 I paid.

Y'all have a good'n.

Hi...

So I've been a bad blogger again. It frustrates me to have no pictures to show for the work we've been doing. The lover level exterior is mostly painted. The dining room and the hall are primed. We have a couple of people coming to work this weekend, so there should be more painting done soon.

I'll take some photo with my iPhone and post them. I won't pretend that they are good quality, but they are better than you trying to see the images inside of my head.

A few random items:

1.) This is a cool word cloud that wordle.net creates from your blog. There are many options for color, layout, etc. Check it out.

2.) We met with the mortgage guy. It went well, but not great. I need to call and clarify a few things before I make a final opinion.

3.) If you haven't read the Twilight saga, do yourself a favor and run (don't walk) to the nearest library and check it out. (Or try to. Most likely it will not be there, so go to a bookstore and buy it.) Whichever you choose, just get your hands on a copy. DO NOT follow these directions if you are : a) a boy, or b)worried about missing important appointments for the next week or so. There are 4 books, which will suck you in like a Wonder Years marathon on a cloudy Sunday afternoon... only with vampires, and no 70's soundrack or butterfly collars, and... oh just read them.

I'll try to post some pictures this weekend. Y'all have good day!

I'm camera shopping...

My camera has been slowly dying. It used to take wonderful pictures. It has spiraled down toward okay pictures. It is moving toward "only okay to take pictures outside in full sunlight."

Now it won't import to iPhoto. Grr......

I had a whole post composed (in my head) about my new art grouping by our front door. I guess I'll have to save it. It's all about Jesus and Yoda (both of whom are displayed in the art grouping). They both say very wise things. Thematically, it works for me.

Anyway, I hated to leave you without a picture.

This is what was going on here last year. Wow, when you look at it that way, it's pretty impressive.

I have the POWER!!!!!

So check it out...

This is our old power meter,

and this is the old gooseneck where the power came into the house.

Here is our new power meter,

and here is the new gooseneck where the power comes into the house.

And here is David throwing the switch for the first time!

YAHOO! Power... in the addition.

Flooring samples...

So we got our flooring samples in. We ordered 8 hardwood samples and 7 bamboo samples.

Here are the winners:

It is the Super Saltillo with rounded edges and the Stained Strand Woven Bamboo Floors.

We knew we would go with the saltillo, but it was nice to see the sample. It was a tough decision on the wood flooring, but it came down to two things. The bamboo flooring is very hard, which is a must with four dogs. It is also a green resource, which appealed to us.


I'll let you know if we make any more decisions.

Long time no post...

So sorry it has taken me so long to post. Please forgive me. I'll try to do better in the future.

We've made some good progress on the outside of the house.

Here are some pictures of the siding. It is so close to finished!!





The soffit is going in, and really finishes off the eaves.

This is what David is working on now: concrete board in the bathroom. It is hard to take photos in the bathroom, so you'll have to imagine the rest of the room.

Yeah!!! Not far now, Papa Smurf!

The great big decor options post... part one

So here's where we are so far on flooring, paint, etc.

Flooring:
Hall, Dining Room, Closet and Bathroom: We're looking at this, sealed saltillo tile. I want to lay it in this pattern, at least in the dining room, because it emphasizes the irregularity of the tiles. I may get out voted, though.
Bedroom and Loft: We're looking at this, wide-plank, hand-scraped Alder in the finish called Merbau. Here's what it looks like in a room.

Paint Colors:So this is our color pallet. Valspar puts out a color trends book, usually every season, and this is the one that we like. I love the way the colors go together.

I'm not sure what color is going where yet. Perhaps that will be for the next post.

What a difference a day makes...

Seriously...

From here

to here

in 13 hours.

Miguel and crew arrived yesterday at 7:00 a.m. and left at 8:30 p.m. Here are some more pictures. They hung all of the sheetrock yesterday, and then started taping and mudding. They were back at 7:00 a.m. today.

Remember this? It is from last November.

I did this one this morning.

One last picture. This is the scrap pile. Yikes!

I'm so glad that we are having this part of the work done by professionals. We would still be working on this at Christmas, and we would never get it as smooth as they will. They should be done in a few days.

Now it is time to think about colors, but that will have to wait for another day...