Granimal Post

Human note: Gracie will be guest posting once in a while, as our namesake. Or, in her perspective, she lets us guest post the rest of the time on her blog.

Welcome to my blog, everyone!

I’ll bet you have all been wondering why I haven’t posted yet on my blog! Well, my humans have been kind of restrictive lately.

I have some anxiety issues. It’s just my nature. But every time my humans leave, I think they might never come back. Which is why I promptly must mark the house to make sure that any intruders who come after them know it is mine. My humans have informed me that this is not necessary; however, I have also discovered that marking is a great way to punish them for leaving me alone.

They devised a way to keep me in the kitchen while they frolic about without me - it is metal with white bars. Am I in prison, you may wonder? If so, my crime is only my almost illegal cuteness. Anyway, I tried marking the floor but while that displeased the humans, it did not send them into the tailspin they deserved.

So I learned how to jump the white metal bars. That’s right - all 12 pounds of me went soaring through the air and into the rest of the house. It was glorious. I laid in the living room all day and ran around the upstairs. I barked at 2 dogs who dared to walk by and a leaf that blew into my yard. Then, to show my humans that I defied their restrictions, I went upstairs and peed on Peter’s towel. They were mad when they got home and I wasn’t in the kitchen - but not nearly as mad as Peter was the next morning when he dried off with his towel after the shower.

Excellent.

Amy came home with something called a Thundershirt. 

You know I prefer to go au naturel. This Thundershirt is cramping my style.

Apparently it is supposed to make me feel less anxious. Both humans also thought it would hinder me from jumping. I also feared this. And I felt disgusted at having to wear clothes - clothes are for lesser dogs than I.

So the next day, I faced the metal bars and took a leap. I cleared them. This is a picture of me when my humans came home. If only I had a photo of their faces - they were horrified.

Haha! Foiled again, humans!

Gracie - 1. Humans - 0.

Human post-script: Yes, Gracie has beaten us on the baby gate in the kitchen. However, she hasn’t had a single accident (knock-on-wood) since we started using the Thundershirt! So we are very happy that although our tiny deer can get over every obstacle we create, she is also feeling less anxious.

Quick (Or Not) Basement Fix Up

I think the better title for this post is “Amy plans, God laughs.” Or maybe shakes His head and tries to nudge her to look at the baseboards?

Spoiler: this is nowhere near the last you will hear about our basement. Or dungeon of horrors, as it might more accurately be described. But at this point in the conversation, it is simply an ugly basement. And its owner is blissfully unaware of the treats it has in store for her (mwa-ha-ha).

Our basement came with not just one but TWO kinds of paneling. Peter would disagree with me, but I think that paneling is ugly. He maintains that “good” paneling looks nice if it is correctly installed. The next thing you know, he’ll be sporting a leisure suit and listening to Muskrat Love on repeat.

70’s jibes aside, the paneling in our basement was not nice. Three of the four walls were cheap paneling that had been painted white and had seen better days. 

Cheap paneling + scalloped shelves = not our style.

They were bowing in areas and chipped in others. The fireplace (east) wall had tongue-and-groove paneling which was in a bit better condition, but still did not meet up in areas, particularly around the lighted niches on either side of the fireplace. Additionally, the room was dark because it is, after all, a basement. The dark wood trim did nothing to help.

This shot was taken when we toured the house. Those vases and geometric metal thing no longer live here.

My plan:
* Paint all paneling
* Paint all trim white
* Enjoy my basement (cue diabolical basement laughter)

My mom helped me choose colors for the walls and trim. We went with Behr’s Indulgent Mocha, to complement the stone fireplace and Swiss Coffee as a white that would look nice with the stone as well. I read differing opinions on oil versus water based paint to block tannins, but ended up going with oil just to rule out any bleeding. In retrospect, I think I would have gone with water just because of the smell factor.

After taping everything off, I started priming. Our friends Beth and Austin came over to save me from the fumes and help me finish all of the priming. They are amazing at all things related to home diy, having turned their what-have-you-just-bought-bachelor-pad-split into a gorgeous home with tons of unique charm and classic appeal. It’s pretty nice to have friends like that!

Later, my friend Amanda came over to help me paint. Color at last! At this moment typing (and doing some quick math in my head), I realize that she was pregnant and hadn’t yet told me. So Amanda, if you are reading this, I’m really sorry about the oil-based paint fumes. That’s what you get for keeping a secret from me!

As I removed the painter’s tape, I noticed that the trim was actually not solid wood, as any reasonable person would have thought - instead, it was some weird hunter green composite that had been faux painted to look like stained wood. Mad props to the faux painter - until the stuff started peeling off under my painter’s tape, I had no idea! My plan was to sand, then prime and paint over it.

I luckily happened to chat with Beth the morning before I went to get paint for the trim. She suggested that I test for lead based paint before sanding anything. Even though I didn’t want to spend extra money or slow up the project, since our house was built in 1940 (lead based paint was banned in 1978) I figured it would be a better-safe-than-sorry investment.

It turned out that Mr. Faux Painter loved the lead based paint. That’s right - every inch of our basement molding and trim was covered in the stuff. Except the uniquely pristine, brand spanking new baseboards (cackle).

So the trim project stopped there. I knew I didn’t have the ability to redo all of the trim alone and, honestly, I wanted Peter to help me. This was a moment of the Lord’s Providence - I would have been so mad to have to redo all of this later.

Final shots of the basement, as it ended up. 

Picture it with cream trim - and maybe some curtains.

Not perfect - but it was getting there! My new plan was:

* Wait until Peter came home
* Remove all old trim
* Add new, painted trim
* Enjoy basement together!

That worked out like this:

Moldy walls? No insulation? Wha...???

Yep, that’s the same basement. We went from a fully-finished (if a bit ugly) basement to a creepy cellar with no ceiling or walls (the picture above actually looks pretty good compared to what was to come). That’s what 5+ years of unchecked flooding in the walls will do to you!

That’s a post for another day(s). Lots of fun times down there so far. And by fun times I mean I am seriously working off my sins down there because it has got to be my personal version of Purgatory.

Welcome to Granimal House!

 Welcome to Granimal House

We’ve decided to start blogging to keep everyone updated on house/ life goings-on with the Williams! Just to give you some context for the madness which is about to ensue...

In October, we were getting ready for Peter to leave for 6 months of training with the Army. The week before he left, I saw the cutest house for sale (while trolling on real estate sites - because I do that) - and I couldn’t believe the price for the location! We weren’t looking to move, but I e-mailed our fab realtor friend, Michelle, just to see if houses in that area were usually that price. She responded that we needed to look at the house that week.

Tour day! Who wouldn't fall in love with this house?

So the day before Peter left, we went to look at the house. It was impossibly cute. It ticked all of our boxes: Cape Cod with shakes (me), white and black exterior (Peter), giant corner lot (Gracie), adorable 1940s charm throughout (humans), plenty of corners in which to sniff (Gracie). We made an offer that day. Peter left for training the next morning. The offer went through about a week later. We were set to close in December!

Our landlords let us break our lease early - and found renters immediately. I packed in two weeks and headed to my parents.

At this point, I have to mention that we have awesome friends and family. All-caps AWESOME. Truly amazing and outstanding. We are so, so blessed.

Our friend Paul and my dad basically moved our entire apartment into a truck, then my family unloaded all of our belongings into their garage for the duration of my stay. I have to reiterate that this meant none of my family got to park in the garage for that time - during winter in Minnesota. Now THAT is love.

In a joint show of their awesomeness, a group of over 20 friends and family helped me and G move into the house just before Peter came home for Christmas. They cleaned my dirty refrigerator and maneuvered our giant sectional into the basement. They assembled bed frames. My friend Sarah and my mom stayed until the wee hours meticulously wiping each and every cabinet of the kitchen out, then helping me fill and organize the cupboards.

I didn’t take a single photo all day.

BUT - when Peter walked through the door two days later, the most important stuff was unpacked (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom) and all he had to do was marvel at the fact that we had significantly upgraded our living conditions since he had left.

The best moment was putting up the tree together in our first home. G refused to participate because we had a fire going in the fireplace (fact: Gracie is afraid of fires of any sort).

First Christmas! The tree was literally the only furniture in the room.

Obviously, we’ve been making a few changes, doing some tweaks, and majorly overhauling a few things since then and since we’re really proud of ourselves, we thought we’d share.

The front door’s open. Come in to the mess!