House Work & Mischevious Dogs

Post By: Travis

So Jana is in Arlington for the week, leaving me home alone to get some projects done around the house. For those of you feeling sorry for me... we planned this because I don't want her around the paint fumes and dust and debris while I remodel the bathroom.

That's right, I've tackled the batroom, in which we plan to paint the walls and tile the floors. I believe Jana mentioned in a previous post that we decided to do a patterned tile floor, which just adds to the complexity of what I am trying to get done.

Mom and Pop came over Saturday and generously spent their time helping me with stage 1. It WAS going to be to paint over the awful wallpaper in the batroom, but quickly turned into removing the wallpaper, then painting. We got a surprising amount done in the day, and we found out just how complicated it was going to be. The bathroom has high cielings, but the closets and the toilet room are boxed out, making shelf like structures under the gable of the upper roof.... if you can't picture that... bottom line... NOT easy to paint.

Add to that a textured paint that requires the second coat be hand applied by brush and you have a very sore Travis on Sunday morning.

Sunday I tackled the tile, well kinda. I managed to get all the tiles in the pattern cut, and that's about it. Not to say I didn't do my share on Sunday... that also included finishing the painting, starting demo on the floors in the bathroom and mowing the lawn.... which brings me to the dog portion of this post.

I have now come to the conclusion that Cooper likes to sabotage my yard work. As I mow the back yard the dogs sort of run away from whatever area I am mowing and watch me intensely from seclusion. I have to keep a watchful eye on the grass in front of me for dog toys, balls, sticks and rocks the dogs have managed to dislodge from the flower beds.

Well this Sunday Cooper kept grabbing the balls I would toss out of the way, and cary them to a spot I had not mowed yet and drop them. He added big sticks to this by about half way through, so every few feet I was clearing SOMETHING else from in front of the mower. Each time I did, Cooper looked dissapointed... it was if he wanted to see a big bang!

Well he got his wish when I ran over a tennis ball that was burried in the grass as I came around a corner. There was a loud pop, and a mangled tennis ball shot out from under the mower. Cooper looked thrilled! He grabbed the remains and took off running with them. It is now his favorite toy, and he and Nikki wrestle over it constantly.

Cooper is all boy.