Progress is slow…we have been busy enjoying the holidays. My lights have been installed in the laundry room. I love the simplicity of paper shades and the beautiful way they diffuse the light. Steven also finished the refrigerator alcove and moved the refrigerator. We have karaoked our hearts out. I think we will attempt trying to install the sliding door later on when we get bored.
All right Amazon, ya made me do it. I usually have a very good relationship with you and you have usually taken care of me. However, in this instance, you have FAILED. It all started out with my Kindle 2 battery not holding a charge about 2-3 months after I received it as a gift from my husband. I did all of the troublshooting stuff which included turning off my wireless. When I first received it, I charged it all the way, then let it run down all the way, like the instructions said. I gave it to my husband, since it was under his name and account, and Amazon gave him the same generic instructions about turning the wireless off. I looked up the information online to see if I could buy a replacement battery and found out that you cannot replace your own battery that you have to send it in to Amazon and they charge you a fee to replace it!!!!! So, I have to pay them in order to replace this defective battery!? I got real annoyed with the whole deal and put my Kindle in the drawer where it has remained for a year.
Since I had some time off last week, I decided to give the Kindle troubleshooting a try again. I found a place online where they would sell me an Amazon battery and showed me how to install it myself…I was intrigued… So, I ordered the battery and my husband installed it. MY KINDLE WORKS PERFECTLY!!! It was the stupid defective battery all along. What is worse is, check out this battery. It is all swollen and puffed. Something is wrong with this battery. It is not normal for it to do this. I tried contacting Amazon quality control and customer service. I gave them detailed information and AGAIN, I only received generic information back. For example, this was my last email received about the defective battery:
“I’m sorry you’ve had trouble with your Kindle. Your Kindle is no longer covered by the One-Year Limited Warranty.”
This Kindle was more trouble than it was worth. I ended up having to fix it myself without any help from Amazon. I was not going to send it in and pay them to fix their defect.
See how puffed out that battery is? Something is wrong. Your Kindle 2 batteries are DEFECTIVE amazon. For a comparison, here is a replacement battery. See how flat it is compared to the swollen battery I removed from my Kindle?
replacement battery
Andrea
Viv and I started off our week by making cookies.
Vivian helping make cookies
Aunt Bop (my sister) and Poppy came up for a day to visit. Tiffany was trying to teach Vivian how to play “numbers”. that was fun.
I Bedazzled my shirt!
Well, the Karaoke machine was a huge hit! I have a six year old Hannah Montana.
I love my karaoke machine!!!
I don’t think the dogs are amused…
Taavi perched on the sofa
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Andrea
If anyone is interested in following our adoption, you can check out: www.beautyofadoption.wordpress.com
Our contract was received by our agency and we were sent a dossier preparation guide….67 pages long, no less! Anyway, to check out that fun, you can head over here. We may be busy for a while…. 🙂
Andrea
Oooh…I just found this picture. I like this cabinet color too.
I also posted this picture:
Keep in mind the above is an old picture from about 2-3 years ago. I have nixed a lot of the clutter and streamlined what I have on the counters. I want to keep my paint color, I really like it. So, the green I paint the cabinets will have to look good. I am going to have to go to the paint store and pick up paint cards. I would like to change out the shades too. For a long time, I did not cover the windows. But, the sun comes in pretty strong through that window for several hours in the afternoon and you are blinded if something is not up. I want something a little more modern to counter the country-ish feel. I do like the country kitchen…but I also like modern. I need to try and marry the two.
Here are my light fixtures for the kitchen. I have five of them.
I am excited!
Andrea
I had a wonderful time today at our annual Historical Association Christmas party. It is always nice to meet people who are like-minded and to discuss preservation and the future of our city. I was reminded again today that I never posted pictures of the first bungalow redo that Steven and I took on. After looking at them, now I realize why I probably did not let these out…they are hideous!!!! Even though a lot of them are disgusting, I did not post the really bad ones. They are just not for polite eyes. 🙂 So, without further ado, here are the pics. This is for you Brittany! (You probably won’t be flattered by that after you view the pics…haha)
BEFORE front
AFTER front
BEFORE side
AFTER side
BEFORE kitchen
AFTER kitchen
BEFORE kitchen
AFTER kitchen- we have since retiled the counters too
IN PROGRESS dining room
AFTER dining room
BEFORE living room
BEFORE living room
BEFORE living room
AFTER living room
AFTER living room (looking into dining room)
BEFORE Sunroom back door
AFTER hall
BEFORE entrance to bathroom (took down the weird hall addition to the bathroom down and added a small closet laundry area)
AFTER weird hall gone, laundry added, new door frame to bathroom
BEFORE bathroom (this is one of the better pictures...seriously)
AFTER bathroom
BEFORE bath tub (UGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
AFTER bath tub
BEFORE back bedroom
AFTER back bedroom
As you can tell, I didn’t take very many pictures of this redo and the ones I did take, were not very good. However, I think you get the drift. This house took us nine months to complete from start to finish. We had extensive inside and outside work. We had a new roof put on. It had termites really bad, had to get that treated. When we first bought the house, we went in with gloves up to the arm pits and clothes covering everything (If I owned a pair of waders…I would have had them on!). If you think these are bad, I have some pics that are worse. We found a drowned possum in the bathroom. Apparently a family had been living in the attic. Squirrels would get in the attic too! Yikes…. I don’t think we ever saw a rat. We had lots of holes we had to fix. We also redid all of the flooring, adding new to the kitchen, refinishing the floors in all of the other rooms. We added a new front door. Painted and caulked every surface. Paint, caulk and quarter round will cure a lot of ugly….
We cleaned up the yard and pressure washed the house. We painted the outside window frames, door and door frame. Too much to list here. We did it all!
Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday!
Andrea
Ok, I know these pictures are slightly premature, but I am so excited that I have a new floor that I have to share it with the world!!! Gone are the ugly floor tiles that were cracked and crumbling. I am so happy! We still have spacers where the sheetrock will go around the laundry room frame and we have to put the cabinet back in the space and trim the whole room with a baseboard and quarter round. BUT, doesn’t look good?????
Vivian helping with the lights. She's a good helper.
Its kinda hard to decorate for Christmas when half of your kitchen is in the dining room and the other half is on your back porch. Nevertheless, we are trying to muster up some Christmas spirit in the Warren house. I type this as I hear hammering in the kitchen as the new floor is going down. Hopefully, after all the dust settles, and most of the items are returned to their rightful places, Viv and I can finish our decorating in preparation of opening our home this weekend to family who are coming.
Vivian knows that right after Thanksgiving, we decorate for Christmas. This is her absolute favorite time of the year. She always bugs me the whole week of Thanksgiving, perpetually asking “When are we going to decorate for Christmas?” It was no different this year. We finally pulled out the tree…even in the midst of the kitchen remodel, and got it ready for decorations.
Vivian’s friends came over and helped her decorate the tree in her room.
They did a wonderful job. It looks beautiful! When I clean up all of the construction dust and put things to rights, we will take pictures and post them next week. Hope you are enjoying this wonderful season!
Andrea
Do I see cabinets getting painted in the future of our kitchen? Hmmm…….
This Old House kitchen makeover
This is what it looks like presently. After we get our new flooring laid (similar to the floor above), a fresh coat of cabinet paint, new paint on the walls and some new shades…BAM! We are in business. Just don’t tell my husband. Cause this all started out with me wanting a new floor…only…. 🙂
So far, I have gotten a new laundry room, new plumbing, new electricity with everything on its own circuit, new flooring and new lighting. If I mention paint too, he might have a heart attack.
Perpetual Renovator 
